Self Defense (Again)

Simply because I have a friend who disagrees, I feel the need to say this again.

First go peek at this, then let me know which of those you can defend yourself against with a kick, a punch, or a gun.

Self defense ain't what you think.

Why, Why, Why?

Why study kung fu?

To defend oneself? To get fit/healthy? To learn to fight? To build discipline? To build confidence?

All these things can be done without kung fu training, and I have known kung fu artists who had not successfully done any of the above.

So, why study kung fu?

Kung fu and other martial arts have a reputation for being able to instill in their practitioners strength, discipline, confidence, etc., but they do not in and of themselves accomplish anything.

A martial artist can be a great humanitarian or a bully, a wise sage or a con artist, a mentor to children or a convincing illusion of one out to sign them to three year contracts.

The secret is not in the martial arts themselves. The secret is in your approach to the martial arts, and the instructors approach to the martial arts.

At one point, my motivation as a martial artist was to get good at kung fu. At this time I believed in the illusion that being good at kung fu meant I was a good athlete/philosopher/humanitarian/leader/etc.

At one point my motivation was a dedication to "the art" I wanted to perfect the art in myself, then perfect it in others. Again I believed in the illusion that the art itself would do all the work.

If you don't believe there is an illusion out there, go browse some martial arts school websites, most of them will tell you all about the "benefits of training in the martial arts" but if you ask the instructor, "How does martial arts training teach each of these benefits?" will they be able to answer?

So what am I doing to break free from the illusion?

First of all I fight hard to stay off the pedestal. Lots of martial arts students want their teacher to be Yoda. Sorry I guys I am a flawed and fallible human being.

Second, I want to use martial arts training to teach other important things. Training for each belt test with a long term goal of obtaining a black belt can be used to teach goal setting. Repeating a drill over and over again not only improves the drill, but teaches one how to practice for any other achievement. Memorizing a sequence of 200 movements teaches that we can accomplish bigger things than we thought we could. Training for "self defense" teaches us to always practice self defense even in our eating habits.

Third, I must remember that HOW you train your kung fu decides what you get from it. If you train only for fighting, you will learn only fighting. If you train only for fitness you will get only fitness.

If you approach Kung Fu as a holistic analogy for everything you do in life it can be a revolution in your life.

A Present? For Me?

If I did not enjoy my day at work, why do I insist on reliving it all evening in my mind?

I will, instead, focus on the present. Just like in sparring, if I am busy rehashing and reliving mistakes from earlier, I will not see the punch that is coming NOW. If I am too focused on the things that happened that I did not like, it will hinder my ability to enjoy NOW.

Now, I am with my family, my favorite three girls in the world, now I am heating water for tea, now I can still taste the chocolate brownie I just ate.

Also if I am too focused on what may come at work tomorrow, or the rest of the week, I am ripped away from cherishing now.

Now, I can smell the tea, now I have peace in my home, now I am relaxing.

Can't

A little over two years ago, I went with my wife to watch a local triathlon. She had recently gotten serious about running and had some interest in this triathlon thing. After watching, she decided she wanted to do it. Her main problem was, she was afraid of the bike portion.

Some dear friends worked together and got her a bike to ride, she started riding, continued running, and started working on her swimming as well. A year after watching that triathlon, my wife who hadn't swum in years, and was afraid of riding a bike on the road had logged hours upon hours in the pool and miles upon miles on the bike. I went to watch another triathlon, this time she was racing.

I was so excited for her, and inspired, I really wanted to do a triathlon too. I had some problems though, first of all, it hurt to run. I had some pretty intense plantar fasciitis going on as well as recurring bursitis in my left hip. Walking a mile was painful for me, running (I believed) was impossible.

So, instead of triathlon training, I just upped my other training, Kung Fu, kettlebells, pushups, crunches, cardio rounds. . . I got into great shape, but was constantly lamenting the idea that I couldn't run with my wife.

One day while she was on a run, I caught up to her on my bicycle. On some spontaneous kick, I got off the bike and ran about a mile with her. It didn't hurt, so I started thinking about running again.

There was a race she was going to run on Thanksgiving morning, people kept suggesting that I run it with her. On the Wednesday one week before the race, I said to my wife, "If I'm going to run this race with you, I'd better find out if I can actually run 5 kilometers." Then I walked out the door in khaki shorts, a t-shirt, and a pair of beat up cross training shoes. I ran five kilometers. It didn't hurt.

Until the next day anyway.

The next day I could barely walk due to sore muscles in my legs, but there was no hip or foot pain. I was pumped. I ran my first 5K 8 days later. I finished in 26:47.6 for an 8:38.6 minute/mile pace in 128th place out of 369 finishers.

I've been running ever since. There have been times when I had some hip pains, and foot pains, but I learned stretches and exercises I can do to alleviate, and prevent them. There were times when I didn't want to get up and go out and run, but I did anyway. There were a couple of times I had to take a break from the running schedule to not aggravate an injury, but I've been doing it ever since. Tomorrow is my "running birthday" as my wife calls it. She inspired me to run, and because of it, I am healthy, fit, dedicated, and strong. I've added running to my list of new things I can do.

Turns out you can teach an old dog new tricks.

Self Defense Technique #3

People who know me well know that I can be very picky about terminology and phrasing.

Today I'm getting picky about the phrase, "self defense technique".

I think the term as I grew up with it is too vague and contributes to an incorrect image of how those techniques work.

You've probably seen the videos, in which the sensei/sifu/teacher/coach has his student standing there with both hands outstretched holding on to simulate a two handed front choke. The instructor goes step by step on how to perform the "self defense technique".

I believe that teaching these as "self defense techniques" rather than "hold releases" gives a lot of people the impression that an attack is a non dynamic situation in which if A happens and I do B I will be OK. I intend to teach them as hold releases, and I need to teach them starting static to learn the technique, then progressing to a "messier" situation to make it more frustrating and challenging.

Focused Energy

I have discovered that I need to refocus my energy. When my energy is unfocused, it just goes wherever it will, the results are sometimes positive, but usually just amount to spinning tires.

Often when I don't have a clearly defined focus for my energy it leads me to obsessing over some topic that was on my mind for a good reason, but really didn't need me to be obsessed about it.

So I think it is time I refocused my energy.

Insurmountable?

Starting off with a big word today.

That's how I felt last night about the triathlon. It felt insurmountable.

I can do the run, I can do the bike ride (my goodness Glen Lily Road is steep though), but I haven't really seriously swum in a long time. I had swim lessons as a kid, (thanks Mom), but I never enjoyed swimming, so I never got good at it (so I never enjoyed it, so I never got good at it. . .) so the swim is a big challenge.

I've always loved to play in the water, and I could swim well enough to get back to the boat if I fell out, or to survive if the boat sank, but that was the extent of the purpose of swimming in my mind.

So now I'm trying to learn to swim 400 yards without a rest, wait, scratch that. So now I'm trying to learn to swim.

. . . and it seemed insurmountable last night as I watched the guy in the lane next to me swim continuously for my 15 minute turn in the lane, then continue swimming while I took my 15 minute turn watching my daughter, then he kept right on through my next 15 minute turn in the lane.

. . .and it seemed insurmountable as my wife and stepdaughter swam back and forth, back and forth, over and over.

. . . and it seemed insurmountable as I couldn't manage to swim the length of the pool without pulling my head up out of the water, and as I couldn't manage more than 50 yards without a rest.

I was feeling discouraged, but then I remembered, 1 1/2 weeks ago I couldn't swim with my face in the water at all, 1 1/2 weeks ago, I couldn't manage 25 yards without a rest.

It still seems like a huge mountain to climb, it still feels insurmountable at times.

but,

Brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want something badly enough. They are there to keep out the other people.

--Randy Pausch

If You Want to Change the World. . .

It sounds overwhelming, "Change the world", so start small.

Change yourself. That can sound overwhelming too, so again, start small.

You don't have to restructure your whole life all at once, pick one

area and start there.

Maybe you choose to live a more sustainable lifestyle, you don't have to turn your yard into a 100% organic farm this year. You might just start a vegetable garden, and make your house more energy efficient. As you get the hang of it, you can keep making improvements.

Maybe you choose to improve your health. You don't have to lose 50 pounds, stop smoking, stop eating fast food, and run a marathon this year. Start small, walk 30 minutes a day and stop smoking. Once you've got a hold on that add something else.

Maybe you choose to be more religious, you don't have to join the monastery/convent, just make a commitment to attend your service of choice once a week. Add more later.

Start small, grow big!

(This is the tree that grows from that seed.)

I Challenge You!!

Easy challenge though, if you have a yard, or a balcony, or a porch, build a square meter garden. Not enough room for a square meter garden, do a square foot or a hanging plant.

Pick whatever food you want to grow. Then grow it. Repeat again next year, and so on and so on.

http://www.uwsp.edu/cnr/gem/Training%20Program%20in%20EnglishWeb.pdf