10 Reasons for Training Martial Arts

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I put a few things together to remind ourselves how good we have it in the martial arts.  I've also posted this on a new page on the website.

1. Learn Life Skills – One of the greatest aspects of martial arts training is the life skills it instils in students. Focus, courtesy, respect and goal setting are just some of the basic to be gained.
2. Fitness – Martial arts training provides a great opportunity to get in shape and enjoy doing it!
3. Self-Defence – In today’s society, we want to know our children are safe and we can protect our families if necessary. Martial arts curriculum will enable children to understand what to do if dangerous situations occur and give them the confidence to deal with tough issues such as bullies and stranger awareness.
4. Family Bonding – It’s an experience the whole family can enjoy together.  What other activities offer this type of opportunity?  Martial arts is a wonderful and positive activity for the young and the young at heart. The entire amily can go through the process of earning belts and learning something together.
5. Individual Achievement – In the martial arts, nobody sits on the bench!  Unlike some other traditional sports, martial arts training is not a team activity. Martial Artists strive to become better than they were the day before and not be judged by the performance of the person standing next to them.  Individuals are challenged and pushed to achieve their own personal best.
6. Social Network of Positive People – The saying goes, “It takes a community to raise a child.” Martial arts is a great way to surround yourself with positive influences that will have a lasting impact on your family.
7. Achieve Goals – The built-in system of earning belts teaches setting and achieving goals and itinstils the discipline of hard work. The rewards will last a lifetime!
8. Carry on a Tradition – Martial arts training has been around for centuries, so you become a partof something special and to help carry on the tradition and philosophies.
9. Learn about Life Skills – Training is a great way to learn skills which will help or influence life in a positive way.
10. Have Fun – There are many serious sides to training; however, the best part of training is how  much fun it is. 
GA

Take the Challenge

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Martial arts is a pursuit in life teaching many things.  There is also the sporting aspect, as in football, however, everybody in the martial arts is treated equally unlike in ball games ie if you don’t compete or don't do well for the team, then nobody wants to know you.  The Instructor is always there for you, not just during the season. 

People, particularly kids, need to be roughed up a little to experience and be aware of the various elements of the environment.  As parents, we tend to be too overprotective and shield our kids from these elements.  However, nearly all parents want to know if their child can swim in the deep end of the pool.  Martial arts kind of pepare kids for this sort of thing (including adults).

The worse thing anybody can do is to give up the martial arts because it takes a special kind of person to take up that challenge in the first place, but it takes an even more special person to not give it up.  What do we think of someone giving up a uni or TAFE course?  It’s a sign of failure regardless of the excuse.  I have been told by many students, if it wasn’t for their Instructor and parents giving them enouragement, they would not be where they are today. 

My incentive for doing the martial arts is about doing the things I don't think I can do.  What I also really enjoy about the martial arts is the people who have stuck it out with me for a very long time.  Hope to see many more.
GA

The Writing on the Wall

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Most will agree an Instructor’s credibility is largely based on experience and ability to teach. So it is important for an Instructor to maintain focus on what the martial arts are all about and get the best education.   This means stepping out of the circle and picking up new skills, from scratch if necessary.  'Who's got got time to put certificates on the wall, I'm too busy training on the floor (John Will)'. 

To be a good Instructor he or she needs to constantly update and acquire new skills so they can pass onto students.  Some Instructors will also dedicate themselves to other arts and pick up a certificate along the way.  In Brazilian Jiu Jitsu all you get is a belt and handshake (sometimes not even that) but it is the promotion which makes it exciting.  I always say the longer between the grades (in a system), the bigger the excitement when  you get promoted.  I have been given Black Belt certificates in systems I have never trained in.  When asked, by one guy, what did I do with it, I said, 'it's in my wallet'.  I won't give you detail but you can guess the response. A certificate only means something by whom given and what for.

Whilst the world needs specialists most people, today, need to indulge in other areas because of the multi-skilling demands of society.  But that should not detract from anyone wanting to train in the one system, however, the Instructor or their school should be able to provide other opportunities.

Certificates and trophies are our pride and joy, and to everyone around us, but my philosophy is 'the floor is more important than the wall'.
GA

Respect please!

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Respect for the martial arts is about respect for the Instructor, school and the persons you train with.  This is why BJJ have a motto LEAVE YOUR EGO AT THE DOOR.  One of the message this conveys is that the martial arts is not just about the individual, it is about everybody.  We train together and help each other, to get better. 

Many times, there are individuals who forget respect at the expense of others, to feed their ego; this happens in full contact fighting and BJJ.  Professionals don't do that because their motivation is not driven by ego and they have respect with every person in the room regardless of ability, so why isn't it there in amateur groups?  One of the main reasons for this may be the culture settings based on competition.  Competition is good and those who do not compete can at least gauge their ability with those who do.  I get great value paying someone to wrestle because the trainer is there to help me, not themselves.

People and schools have to be aware or reminded that not all people who walk through the school doors are there to make a career out of martial arts or there to be treated as training props.  Schools are for everyone who has interest in the martial arts and wants to do their best.  In a nutshell, for a school to become professional, Instructors need to be professional.
GA

Student or Client?

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Loyalty is a great thing amongst friends, employees and family.  This is a subject which was raised in conversation amonst Martial Arts Instructors recently.  The one I think is also important is the student’s loyalty to his or her teacher and school.  As a Teacher, I admire the friendship, connection and trust built over time with my students but that is not always sustainable with everybody. 

Students want as much as they can from their teacher and school and they in turn usually pledge a long term relationship with the teacher and the school.  Students do not want to be treated as clients, they want to be treated as friends.  Some people go to great lengths to prove their loyalty which is something which is usually built over time.  Those who understand it would find it very hard to break that bond but sadly there are those who don't understand. 

This is not new; every Instructor has a story to tell and this is when I, as a Teacher, have to treat some students as just clients which is sad from a teacher’s point of view to think that way.  The best way for a Teacher to handle this is to think of the many good people and students he or she will spend many years together with.  A school without loyalty is only a school with clients.
GA

Stubborn is Good

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There are many different ways to acquire skills in the martial arts other than from instruction.  To illustrate by example, I was having difficulty, for some time, submitting one of my ‘stubborn’ blue belt grappling students (let’s call him Jim) who always defends himself by laying down as a corpse and clinging onto his lapels.  He can't do much from that position but at least he can survive.  So I gave it a shot at Rob’s BJJ school the other night.  It worked well until my opponent pulled a ‘rabbit out of a hat’ and I ended being choked out by the lapel of his Gi.

So you can guess what happened next when I was wrestling with Jim again.  With a sense of Déjà-Vu, Jim’s on his back again and I pulled the same ‘rabbit out of the hat’.  Now that’s what I call magic!

So learning can also be acquired from what other people do to you.  In this case I have learnt something and so has Jim.  I guess you can say it’s a ‘win, win’ situation.  We become very good at something and then, almost always, somebody finds a way to conquer it, which can be a good thing because it stimulates us to come up with something else. 

I wonder what Jim is going to come up with next.
GA

Win some, Lose some

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Winning is not everything in the martial arts.  Many times losing is the key to success, in the long run anyway.  Win less, to learn more.  Losing is part of anybody’s game, some more, others less.  Losing keeps our minds engaged so we can analyse where we might have gone wrong.  

The trick is to improve your ‘win’ percentages and that can only happen with continued training and perseverance. There will be times when your winning percentages take a llittle dive which usually happens when you move to another level (wrestling or sparring better opponents), but that does not mean you haven't improved, it's just that you needed to move up a notch for the next phase of development. 

To maintain the 'win' percentages, one has to know how much emphasis to place on attack or defence but that should not discourage anyone to try something new.  If you have good defence, there is a good chance you won't get tapped out or knocked down but just remember if you neglect your defence, a better opponent might just capitalise on your mistakes.  Again, that is not a bad thing because you learn from that too.  To quote, ‘I am not sticking my arm out like that again’.

You have to be in it to win it!
GA

Excuses, excuses, excuses!

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After a big weekend with Richard Norton last week and feeling a little worse for wear, I was asked by one of the students on the Monday night why I was not home resting.  I thought 'being tired' is a poor excuse.  The next thing you know, you need to take the night off because you think you’re tired.   We are all susceptible to this syndrome of coming up with excuses to try and justify to ourselves and others of not feeling guilty.

We are in the business of martial arts; we are athletes.  We all work hard and enjoy what we do.  For me it’s truly amazing at the parental support for children, something that I didn’t have growing up (times were different for some of us as kids).  I have noticed this particularly in the last couple of weeks by some parents appealing our decisions for their children lacking hours to qualify for testing.  Whilst there were many reasons for the lack of attendance, most parents wanted to take the fall by blaming themselves.  As an Instructor, I find that inspirational, which shows how genuinely interested parents are in their children.  But everybody has to accept the fact that excuses can be detrimental to progress.

I like to feel tired after a session, not before a session.
GA

Let’s Be Friends

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Some pretty interesting things can be found on Facebook (FB).  This is fast becoming the most preferred technological ways to communicate with the little time we have in the day or just to keep in touch with old friends.  I seem to get a faster reply through FB than from SMSing or emailing.  I must admit this never appealed to me until Richard Norton got me into this.  If this is how we better find out things and learn from each other, then so be it.  So this is what I saw on FB the other day:

'The more I have been involved in Martial arts, I have come to understand it is less important to have volumes of disfunctional back stabbing friends & students and more important to have fewer real and loyal friends and students with good intentions'.

That's a good philosophy to keep in mind for Instructors but this has prompted me to think about the great friendships we have with our students. It's all because we share an interest and passion and, to a certain extent, we put aside time for each other.  This is true friendship.  How many people can readily say, any of the people they know, are a 'friend'.  We all know it takes time to get to know and trust someone and very few can actually make it over the net.  The martial arts has a way of people making friends in the industry, especially in the school, and sometimes life-long.  If this is the only thing martial arts has to offer, then it is all worthwhile.
Your friend,
George Adams 

The Best Medicine

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How many times have we heard this cliche 'early detection is the best protection', particularly in reference to health which it is vital for existence.  Although we all agree this is the best medicine we seldom follow this course of action until it is too late because we let other trivial things get in the way which, at the time, seem more important.

This cliche also means something in Jiu Jitsu; it explains why some techniques work and others don’t.  It is a matter of detection in the early part of the piece that something bad is going to happen if we don’t do something about it  When the martial arts were being taught, during the era of black and white television, self defence was usually based on reacting to situations usually when it was too late.  By this, I mean, eg rear naked choke; most people today know it's impossible to escape once it's put on tight so it is absurd to show a student how to get out of it.  It's a bit like expecting to get out of a stray jacket and handcuffs; or similarly, trying to block a punch when it is 2cm away from your face.

Students should be trained to put their plan immediately into action at the first sign of a threat; that's the best medicine.  Those who stand out in front of the class who think they can do the almost impossible lack reality based experience.  Anything else is pure entertainment.
GA