Date: Fri, 02 Jul 2004 12:16:01 -0700 From: the_dojang-request@martialartsresource.net Subject: The_Dojang digest, Vol 11 #302 - 4 msgs X-Mailer: Mailman v2.0.13.cisto1 MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain To: the_dojang@martialartsresource.net Errors-To: the_dojang-admin@martialartsresource.net X-BeenThere: the_dojang@martialartsresource.net X-Mailman-Version: 2.0.13.cisto1 Precedence: bulk Reply-To: the_dojang@martialartsresource.net X-Reply-To: the_dojang@martialartsresource.net X-Subscribed-Address: kma@martialartsresource.com List-Id: The Internet's premier discussion forum on Korean Martial Arts. List-Post: List-Subscribe: , List-Unsubscribe: , List-Help: Status: O X-Status: X-Keywords: Send The_Dojang mailing list submissions to the_dojang@martialartsresource.net To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://martialartsresource.net/mailman/listinfo/the_dojang or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to the_dojang-request@martialartsresource.net You can reach the person managing the list at the_dojang-admin@martialartsresource.net When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of The_Dojang digest..." <<------------------ The_Dojang mailing list ------------------>> Serving the Internet since June 1994. Copyright 1994-2004: Ray Terry and Martial Arts Resource The Internet's premier discussion forum devoted to Korean Martial Arts. 1600 members. See the Korean Martial Arts (KMA) FAQ and the online search engine for back issues of The_Dojang at http://MartialArtsResource.com Pil Seung! Today's Topics: 1. Stances (Charles Richards) 2. History of Stances (Dunn, Danny J GARRISON) 3. From an article....Martial arts (Jye nigma) 4. From an article...10 commandments of street survival (Jye nigma) --__--__-- Message: 1 Date: Thu, 1 Jul 2004 19:29:00 -0700 (PDT) From: Charles Richards To: the_dojang@martialartsresource.net Subject: [The_Dojang] Stances Reply-To: the_dojang@martialartsresource.net I agree with SJN Timmerman. The static beautiful and strong stances in Funakoshi-ha So Rim Kenpo (shotokan/TSD) are great for keeping your center stable and directing a lot of weight in a specific direction. To divide the muscle/tendon or misplace the bone you will need a stance that allows you to generate a lot of rotational energy quickly... Yours in Jung Do, Charles Richards www.mojakwan.com --__--__-- Message: 2 From: "Dunn, Danny J GARRISON" To: "'the_dojang@martialartsresource.net'" Date: Fri, 2 Jul 2004 08:36:30 -0500 Subject: [The_Dojang] History of Stances Reply-To: the_dojang@martialartsresource.net Jeffry, If you are looking for someone to have written down in a book why they used a particular stance, then no you will never know. However I agree with Rick, the fact that the particular stances work well is proof of why they were developed or used. The fact that they are used in some form in almost every eastern art shows 2 things: first, some relationship exists between all the eastern martial arts, and second, that the stances are effective in developing and transmitting power. The fact that we find these these same or very similar stances developed independently in other parts of the world in very different martial arts also demonstrates their effectiveness. After all, there are only so many ways to stand. Danny From: "jeffrey kiral" <<<<<<<<<<<< we will probably never know the truth behind the development of the stance, or why they are so similar amongst all martial arts.>>>>>>>>> --__--__-- Message: 3 Date: Fri, 2 Jul 2004 09:48:03 -0700 (PDT) From: Jye nigma To: the_dojang@martialartsresource.net Subject: [The_Dojang] From an article....Martial arts Reply-To: the_dojang@martialartsresource.net SIFU RUDY THOUGHTS ON MARTIAL ARTS. Properly practiced martial art can only go so far in sparring. I never believed in gear. It is unrealistic and unwise to practice KILLING in class. Even military training has limitations. It's up to the person in the moment of truth. Skill in the internal arts gave me options of discouraging, stopping, injuring, maiming, crippling or killing. Hence INTENT. Every practice sparring or two-man session should have one mind-intent. You're trying to get better with your moves for one purpose. Potential life & death. Even while having fun and learning you'll "separate the Wheat from the chaff" in yourself as you train and be confident that your skills will manifest at will as the fight takes form. At some point sparring becomes obsolete. You don't see Masters sparring but they can take you out easily. Sparring is good to help one clear emotional baggage which is the biggest hindermost in fighting. I’ve seen on many occasions an inexperienced fighter beat a guy with skills on sheer self-preservation instinct with intent. Skill often causes on to underestimate opponents at times. A dangerous thing. All individuals must train differently. I feel a veteran of real fights or full contact equipment bouts can refine their skills without much sparring but check themselves periodically. Big hint. Sparring is more effective when practiced with a variety of opponents especially from other styles. Throw in some good street fighters. Agree n rules or limitations. Keep reality in mind. And have fun. I always tell my students the goal is to kick ass with effortless ease. With that in mind you'll develop proper focus on good use of technique and might get a little cocky when whipping on those outer guys. In class respect your seniors or else. Actually there's no such thing as street fighting. A fight is real, practice, or play. If it's real everything in Kung fu is street fighting. The sports and friend versus friend mentality creeps in on people who don't live in ruff environments and unfortunately. These are the ones who dominate public representation of the arts. Due to business propagation through cosmetizing the arts for the public. MARTIAL ART FORMS Most of us studying are/were taught forms and drills of various movements to develop skills and hope to move a certain way in a fight, meaning defend ourselves with stuff resembling what we learned in class. Forms also developed different strengths even within the same styles where there were variances in practice format. One method I was taught by 2 underground Irish teachers who preferred to be unmentioned were called no-form. You just hit the floor and did what you felt. In the beginning being self-conscious it felt funny. I would do stuff similar to what I had learned in the past. The eclectics mixing styles stuff. This wasn't it. After a while of practicing it became more personal and I was surprised at how natural Kung fu could be. I developed many flows and rhythms and was able to combine technique and styles seamlessly as well as come up with new stuff. Needles to say it helped my fighting skills as well. It also helped me learn the way to generate intent. Lots of visualizing various scenarios etc. made it interesting. Sometime I would practice form first, other times I would practice no-form first. In push hands and sparring we freestyle sometimes. Why not in forms. INSPIRATION FROM THE PAST I got into internal martial arts because I had read and heard that these guys developed high skills to the levels where hurting opponent was unnecessary. I sought out and found a few teachers with these skills. Many books tell of the exploits of the "old-timers". Many covet these skills and others claim to have them but don't or won't show them freely and some of us get lucky and run into someone on a much higher level occasionally. All of our teachers will die sooner or later. I think it is good to share info and preserve stories to keep the inspiration and the fires going for newcomers and old-timers alike so we can hold a high standard and purpose to our training. I have experienced being on the receiving end of effortless throws from guys in there 70's & 80's and a few younger guys as well. This was in push hands and in sparring. Luckily in a few fights I was able to be the giver, though not as effortlessly. I have also experienced a few things people would not believe. Focus and intention the physical centerline of the opponent in reference to your position is everything with circular and angular strategy. Structural balance makes the difference in good and bad technique. The triangles (lines) are HIDDEN in the circles. Our forms are the keys but the positioning of postures can only be taught or learned from experience and keen observation or knowledge of biomechanics, kinesiology, math & physics. Though seemingly unrelated they can be like an extra weapon to the fighter who knows them. I place heavy emphasis on this stuff when teaching and it definitely makes a difference in fighting capabilities between those who know and those who don't. I do believe that martial art is a science. An art form that is composed of many sub disciplines that must be blended into one. At the very least it is a study of the basic laws of physics, anatomy, kinesiology, psychology, and applied geometry (kinetic three dimensional). And that is just from the combatative standpoint. Many brothers are MARTIAL DOCTORS as well. Very valuable and necessary element in marinating the Sciences of the Arts. They are the ones letting martial artists know how to preserve and protect the body, and increase the energy. Got to keep the blood clean. True, However the designers of the arts if we could get to the real McCoy’s would have just as much info on staying healthy through correct practice. Case in point, I used to do chi Kung outside in the fall and winter. Generally not beneficial to the lung tissues. Out of ignorance. A Kungfu doctor brother squared me up on that. Running in the winter can be bad to. In my early days I found it out the hard way. Being out of rhythm with the laws of nature will always make you have to work harder, or just straight up fail. The laws of nature are the laws of physics (metaphysics). Not understanding what is going on will cause you to misdirect allot of energy. Knowledge is power. In my teacher Master BP Chan's martial art classes’ set-ups, and 45-degree angles was everything. He would break everything down to triangles and sub angles in relation to postures relative to opponent’s position. Of prime importance was knowing your own internal structural balances with the circles and triangles. Hsing-I specializes in triangulation and so does "Cheng style ba gua" practiced properly. Someone with this type of knowledge who can fight is able to break someone down before the attack if they aren't aware of this stuff. One thing to remember however is the sensitivity training that will keep you in balance to pull this stuff off on a skilled opponent. The point on being off balance is sometimes relative. In my early days I thought it was the end of the world. However, in my advancing years I have found that what seems off balance or weak is not always easy to tell in some situations. I know many masters who look weak but can generate incredible force. I've seen some fighters from SE Asia use a dropping technique that looks like a stumble but turns out to be a reset for a second attack. A lot of Ba gua maneuvers have this essence in the seemingly useless turns however, the turn is the set up for the "Coup de grace" Anybody in a serious fight with someone who's good at this will be sorry rushing in thinking they've got it made. Knowing anatomy or the essence of a posture must be known to see the weak line if the opponent is good. A level thing, sometimes relative. The body's central axis can be easily controlled in someone with low level stance control and bad footwork. Kung fu especially internal styles are very versatile and adaptable. Controlling the body in relation to the density & stability of the object/opponent is definitely a must, hence a variety of ways of hitting and in "Ba gua" from multiple angles and positions "while in motion". In high level internal technique receiving energy must be developed. After all we are sometimes using our opponents force against him. LOL. Keeping the body in rotation can prevent on from loosing balance with proper stepping. Changing directions suddenly can be problematic. Here are a few quotes from tai chi's ancestors by Douglas Wile. These quotes are from Chang Nai Chou's classics, a kung fu writer from a few hundred years ago. Some serious practical stuff. A must read for all. It's the early development of hard-soft, internal-external, chi-no chi etc. Enjoy: "Therefore, when one's approach to fighting is limited to just the hands and the wrist, you will see bending and extending, back and forth, and fast and infinite changes. Fast hands prevail, while slow hands are defeated, but they can never decisively defeat an opponent and are easily toppled with a single strike. If one fixes the mind on the elbow, although it is one level closer to the opponent’s body, there are still opportunities for the opponent to neutralize the attack, and victory is not assured. The only way is to fix our attention on the base of the opponent’s upper arm, for then regardless who strikes first, by paying attention to this point, I am able to immobilize his hands and stick without losing contact. I can then act as I please with perfect ease while my opponent can't escape my control." The last sentence should be a goal for everyone. This second quote I can't pass up. "The 10 errors of combat" 1-inability to concentrate chi before the fight, being empty within without speed or ferocity, 2-bad hand positioning preventing good upper & lower guard. 3-adopting any posture before engaging the opponent, (exposing weakness before the fight starts) 4- advancing with evasive posture fearing to go straight ahead, this is abandoning the near to chase the far and brings toil without ease. 5-advancing side long and changing posture, excessive looseness and inelegance.???? 6-making hand and wrist contact and not knowing how to close with the opponent. 7-not following up after the first blow 8-holding the passive hand to tight to join effectively in the exchange. 9-Attacking decisively only after 3 or 4 attempts. 10-DODGING OUT OF POSITION AND FAILING TO STICK. The book contains allot of pre chi Kung stuff as it was applied to fighting before the modern area. A must read for fighters and "fighting scholars" LOL CONCLUSION Good internal kung fu has a lot of mental work at some point. Exercise the mind by focusing on what is easy to focus on and expand from there to something else and then focus on everything and/or nothing at the same time without losing awareness of yourself; body, mind and spirit. Most of all keep the goal in focus. To be healthy live long and "kick ass when necessary". Sifu Rudy Curry Jr. --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - 50x more storage than other providers! --__--__-- Message: 4 Date: Fri, 2 Jul 2004 11:35:55 -0700 (PDT) From: Jye nigma To: itf-taekwondo@yahoogroups.com Subject: [The_Dojang] From an article...10 commandments of street survival Reply-To: the_dojang@martialartsresource.net I #8209; Thou Shalt Not Not Train. Imagine for a moment losing a real street fight. Imagine the impact on your confidence, dignity and pride. Imagine if you were hurt and couldn’t train or possibly go to work for several weeks. Imagine if when you “physically” recovered you were gun#8209;shy in sparring. Imagine all this. At the time of the attack you took too long to recognize the danger, hesitated and as you started to react you were knocked to the ground and though you put up a valiant effort you were beaten. Upon reflection you realized that you lost this fight for several reasons: Your actual understanding of the theories of “intuitive radar”, “attacker profiles”, “sucker punch psychology” and “fear management” were limited. Actually, you never did “sucker punch” drills. You had never done “threshold and pain tolerance training” or worked on “ballistic ground fighting” and you never analyzed natural stances. This scenario is a fantasy or perhaps a nightmare. But it need not be. “Totality” in your training is simply about being thorough. I always my tell my students, “If I am to lose, let me lose to the superior fighter. Let me lose because he was better than I was. Not because I was worse than him.” How hard do you train in relation to “why” you train? Think on that. Coach Bear Bryant said, “The will to win compares little with the will to prepare to win.” That is one of my favorite quotes and pretty much sums it up. You can’t not train and expect to be your best at a moment’s notice. Boxers agree to fights 3 months in advance so that they may train for the contest. You don’t have that luxury. As my friend Marco Lala said, “You can’t fake endurance." 2 #8209; Thou Shalt Not Defeat Thyself The mental side of combat is so vast and powerful that it quite literally determines your next move. Dan Millman wrote, “When faced with just one opponent and you oppose yourself… you’re outnumbered.” Powerful words. Your mind can be your ally or your most formidable opponent. Your thoughts can motivate you or they can create the Inertia State of psycho -physical paralysis. Psychological fear leads to doubt and hesitation. Unchecked it can devolve into anxiety and panic. Unsolicited, a ‘Victim’s vocabulary' starts: What if I lose? What if it hurts? What if I fail? Thoughts like these must be eliminated from your vocabulary for you to perform at your peak. Your ‘self talk’ or 'internal dialogue’ must be positive, assertive and motivating. Your inner coach must empower you to greater heights, to surpass preconceived limitations, to boldly go where…you get the picture. That is what it means to not defeat yourself. 3 #8209;Thou Shalt Not give Up. The will to survive is probably the most neglected area of our training. It is also the most important. Knowing what to do and knowing which tools to use isimportant but compares little with the ‘will to survive’. If you have great technique, but do not know how to dig deep, I will bet on the opponent with heart. Will beats skill. “Not giving up,” means Not giving up. You must research this. Irrespective of your training, there are situations that can catch us off guard. Sudden violence or specific threats outside our Comfort Zones can overwhelm us emotionally and induce the ubiquitous “victim” mind#8209;set. To off#8209;set this I have my students tap into their “desire” to survive by writing out a list of things they will lose if they do not survive the fight. This list is memorized (ideally, long before any serious altercation) and serves as an unconscious motivating force that triggers the survival mechanisms when our theoretical warrior-self is experiencing technical difficulties. The list should include the most important people, places, and things in your life. And you must remind yourself that if you “give up” in the street #8209; you may be giving up that list as well. In 1987, this concept became the Be Your Own BodyGuardTM principle. This is a powerful metaphor for street survival. Sometimes we feel that we would rush to someone else’s aid quicker than we would defend ourselves…this is a common emotional feeling, however, it is not very practical if you are the intended victim. So ask yourself, “Who (or what) would you fight to the death for?” And if you are that person’s Bodyguard, who is yours? My friend...be your own bodyguard. 4 #8209;Thou Shalt Not Fear Fear. More dangerous than your opponent is your mind. If it doesn’t support you you’re ¾ beaten before you’ve started. There are really only two types of fear: biological and psychological. Fear (biological) has been generally described as the “fight or flight” syndrome for most of our modern history. This definition does not serve us once the physical confrontation is under way and is really not pertinent to your success. Though the adrenaline surge created by your survival signals is a component of success, it is the mind that ultimately determines the action you will take. Psychological fear, on the other hand, is an emotional state. Therefore it can be controlled and used to create action. However, due to the lack of good information on fear management, fear, as we feel it, usually creates emotional inertia: your body’s inability to move. Inertia or panic is created by psychological fear when the mind visualizes failure and pain. Understanding this process is necessary to conquer fear. We use three acronyms, to help us remember that psychological fear is only in our mind. They are: Psychological F.E.A.R. 1. False Evidence Appearing Real (External stimuli that distracts us; physical evidence: weapons, multiple opponents, etc.) 2. False Expectations Appearing Real (Internal stimuli that distracts us; how we visualize, images of pain and failure.) 3. Failure Expected Action Required (A trigger to DO SOMETHING!) Cus D’Amato, a famous boxing coach, said, “The difference between the hero and the coward is what they do with their fear.” The next time you feel it #8209; fight it. Challenge your fear. Attack your fear. Do not fear fear. We all feel it. Fight your fear first then fight your physical foe. This is one of the true ways of growth. 5 #8209;Thou Shalt Not Telegraph Your Intentions. When it’s time to fight, most fighters telegraph their intentions. This “faux pas” is committed at times by everyone and every type of fighter, including you and me. From street fighters to professional boxers, from military generals to serial killers. We all telegraph. Telegraphing for most is considered to be a physical gesture, but really, the physical telegraph is usually the third stage of the telegraph ‘Domino effect’. In my seminars I always remind participants that you can only beat the opponent when the opponent makes a mistake. Think about that. The “real” opportunity occurs at the moment of the telegraph, when the intention is revealed, when there is hesitation or a momentary lapse in attention. Start thinking about the various ways we reveal ourselves, signals that create the telegraph: anger, erratic breathing. Adopting a specific stance, going for the knockout, verbal threat. These are some of the most common telegraphs that would afford an experienced opponent some mental preparedness. Remember that your opponent should be the last person to see your attack. This subject is so vast that I can’t do justice to it here. Just remember that fighting is like tennis, the player who makes the most unforced errors, generally loses. But don’t look at the obvious. Be sure to study our Sucker Punch Psychology and Non-Violent Postures theory. 6 #8209; Thou Shalt Not Lose The Street Fight. You must know in advance that you will survive the authentic street fight. By ‘authentic’ I mean a true situation where you have a moral and ethical reason totake action. Only then can you be resolute in your conviction and only then will you have the support of good and the force of the universe behind you. This may sound corny to some, but when you use your skills for ”life” (for preservation), rather than “death”, (abuse of your skill) the emotional power that is available to you is exponential. You must also appreciate the relationship to the pejorative ego in combat. You don’t “win” a real fight. You survive one. Win & lose are labels our ego uses. Think survival. Think about your life and why you’ll survive. This is true power. Remember this: Never fight when your opponent wants to fight. Never fight where your opponent wants to fight. And never fight how youropponent wants to fight. Take care of those three factors, I’ll bet on you. Sun Tzu wrote: “The height of strategy is to attack your opponent’s strategy.” Study this. *On purely a strategic level you can study the Samurai treatises about the mind and the ego and death. They reveal much about the appropriate mind#8209;set for lethal combat. If you catch a glimpse of the power of this mind#8209;set you will recognize true power and you will be sure not to abuse this power. 7 #8209; Thou Shalt Not Invite Disaster. You’ve heard the expression “An accident waiting to happen”. So many victims of violence failed to use simple skills like awareness and avoidance. No one deserves to be a victim, but many street tragedies result from “planning for failure through failure to plan." Though the world is an incredible and wonderful place, it does have its dangers. If you respect this simple truth and spend a little time developing your Survival Toolbox, you can get back to the real task at hand: enjoying your life. For simplicity sake consider there are two types of victims. Those who deny and ignore (apathy will usually help seal your fate) and those who manufacture danger at every turn. If you haven’t had the opportunity to read Gavin De Becker’s excellent book The Gift of Fear, get yourself a copy. It is the first time, in my opinion; anyone has effectively explained the fear signal in a positive, useful light as it relates to danger and violence. His examples and theories are welcome additions to the pre-contact arsenal necessary to try to avoid violence. It would be nice if simply ‘trusting’ survival signals were all we needed to detect and avoid danger. Unfortunately, there may be situations where we do everything right, but still find ourselves in the thick of things and must take physical action. Preparation is paramount. Learn to evaluate a stimulus in advance. This mind#8209;setwill spare you a lot of trouble if you do a little research. In the end, most situations are easily avoided with the right attitude, awareness and advance analysis. Here are the critical areas you must examine: · Evaluate your routine. Are there any obvious places you could be attacked? Is there something about your schedule, behavior, residence, etc. that sends a‘come and get me' message to an opportunist criminal? When would you attack you and why? · Evaluate your mind. What type of person are you? Do you find yourself in many confrontations? (Of any nature) How do you deal with them? Do youlose your temper quickly? Do you accept abuse (verbal, mental, etc.) too readily? Both reactions could create serious problems in a violent confrontation. · Evaluate your arsenal. You may take care of the routine and have yourself in total control and still be faced with a threat. What specialized skills do you bring to the confrontation? Many of us become fairly proficient with our empty hands in a ready stance in the dojo where we know the rules, we know our opponent, the level of contact is agreed to and we’re wearing equipment and…I think you get my point. Do you really understand the nut on the street? Are you confident on the ground? Against a weapon? In a survival scenario? Total confidence results when you ask pertinent questions and research, to satisfaction, the answers. That’s being proactive. After all, this is your life. Apathy and denial will seal your fate in a confrontation. Other personality aberrations like an inflated ego, misguided inferiority complex, and overconfidence all contribute to the issue of safety. These attributes will create problems during confrontations of any nature. Be proactive about the things that can cause you grief. I have a simple belief that keeps me honest and introspective: I believe we experience confrontations every day of our lives, (“Confrontation” defined as any situation that affects our enjoyment of the moment - I know people who take traffic personally!). Therefore, the degree of calmness and clarity with which we deal with our confrontations will directly determine the quality of our day and therefore, the quality of our life. 8 #8209; Thou Shalt Not Kill, Unless It Is Absolutely Necessary. Bruce Lee wrote in his Tao of Jeet Kune Do, “Forget about winning and losing; forget about pride and pain. Let your opponent graze your skin and you smash into his flesh; let him smash into your flesh and you fracture his bones; let him fracture your bones and you take his life’ Do not be concerned with your escaping safely #8209; lay your life before him!” Hmmm? What do you think of this? Pretty powerful, huh? Note how it triggered a visual and how it affected your mind#8209;set: power or fear? Though Bruce Lee’s quote has much value, it sends a dangerous message if not analyzed correctly. Many people who come to the martial arts for self#8209;defense buy into the mythological image of cool nerves, impenetrable defense and total control. Unfortunately, the sociopath’s intensity on the street bears little relation to the energy in the dojo and so those martial artists who have not done diligent homework for the street situation are predisposed to fail. This doesn’t mean they will. But, it means they survive in spite of the way they trained. What would you do if...? Have you really visualized different scenarios and analyzed what would be necessary to escape the confrontation safely? It takes courage to walk away. Is avoidance a component of your self#8209;defense system? How far would you go to avoid bodily harm? Would you kill? What moral and ethical issues do your responses raise? Do you possess a directive, one that would support you in a court of Law or when you looked in the mirror? When you train with integrity, and respect all humanity, you will grasp the deepest message in Bruce’s words. As a last resort I endorse his message. 9 #8209; Thou Shalt Not Settle For Mediocrity. There are three key areas of concern for this commandment. Human beings are designed for improvement. Our brains and bodies are built for success. We use only a small percentage of our brain’s capacity. Our bodies are capable of massive muscular and cardiovascular development and we have only just begun to explore the power of spiritual development. Remember earlier I wrote that the mind navigates the body? I believe that there are three fundamental rules we all break from time to time that prevent us from maximizing our performance and development in many areas. AVOID COMPARISON: Compete with yourself. Use other people for inspiration only. If someone is better than you are, use his or her “skill level” as a reference point. Find out how they train and what their beliefs are. Many people miss this point and experience frustration in their training. The pejorative ego is duplicitous and works overtime on comparison. It’s your job to defuse this emotional time bomb and get focused on your path. DON’T JUDGE: Don’t judge others. Don’t even judge yourself. Learn to evaluate, diagnose, weigh, and consider. When you change the “judgment filter” to one of “analysis”, you will gain so much more. Like comparison, judgment is a detour away from our goals. Many times we enter some arena (relationship, job, fight) worrying about what the other person is bringing to the table. How can you be yourself and work on you when you are fixating on them? True education takes place when we start to notice our tendency to compare and judge. LIMITING BELIEFS: Many of us have been fed negative programs during our life and these ‘ideas’ eventually become our very own erroneous beliefs. And they severely handicap our growth. How often do we say or hear statements like, “You can’t”, “That’ll take too long.”, I’ll never be able to do that”, “What’s the point?”. The list goes on... you get my point. Beliefs that do not serve your goals, success, happiness, or dreams must be purged from your mind. This is an easy process...unless you believe it is too hard. Just remember that starting off positive is every bit as important as actually starting. Here’s another key concept in the performance enhancement formula my company has developed: You’ll often hear motivators state: “Your potential is unlimited”. Nothing could be further from the truth. Actually ‘potential’ is quite finite, whereas ‘capacity’ is unlimited. Think about it [and yes I know this is completely backwards from conventional thinking]. Your ability is limited by your capacity. But you can work on your ‘capacity’ daily. And therefore ‘capacity’ is continually evolving. However, ‘potential’ is fixed. In other words, your potential is limited by the fact that you are human, or of a specific gender, age, size and so forth. Potential is also something we ‘can’t do’ yet. The trick in maximizing performance therefore, will be our ability to reframe, to create a personal paradigm shift and really direct our energy into our ‘current abilities’ and forget about where we could be if… Confused? Read the next two paragraphs and then reflect a little. I have done a number of motivational seminars on this very important paradigm shift, an empowerment process I call The Myth of Peak Performance. To consider, evaluate, plan and proceed, you must understand the difference between “capacity” and “potential”. What you can do is your capacity. What you would like to be able to do is your ‘potential’. But, at the end of the day, you can only do as much as you can do. Reflect on this expression: “You’ll never know how much you can do until you try to do more than you can.” In training, assess your capacity, recognize your potential as greater, and create realistic goals so that you experience success regularly and you will be on your way to self#8209;mastery. But do not fixate on your potential. In the self-defense and martial art world many practitioners severely handicap their capacity by not sharing information, not investigating other options and ideas, not asking questions. Etc. To go beyond the limitations of style’, you must challenge all ideas so that your training results in unshakable faith in your skill. 10 #8209; Thou Shalt Not Rebuke Other Systems. Bruce Lee said “Man, the living creature, the creating individual, is always more important than any established style or system.” This commandment is important on two levels. Firstly, on an emotional level it is so important to make peace with everyone we contact. This attitude is contagious and if we all adopted a more loving and compassionate view of life and of our fellow human beings, we would all experience a significant increase in happiness and peace of mind. In the martial arts world there exists so much comparison, pejorative competitiveness and politics, that our industry is simply a microcosm of the warring nations and rival gangs that pollute our cities and countries. Please reflect on this. We are on the same team. We train to better our selves. We choose different schools and styles for a variety of reasons. But we all want the same thing. Peace. Inner peace. Confidence. Self#8209;control. So keep an open mind. Maintain a “Beginners Mind”. A beginner loves to learn. He is intent and intense. Learn to communicate, listen to the words, and listen to the voice of body language. When someone shows you a different way or explains a different approach, listen keenly. Savor, digest and absorb. And secondly, as a martial artist and self#8209;defense specialist, you cannot afford to limit your training. The more you understand any and all strategies, approaches, attitudes and methods, the greater your confidence. So remember, training must be holistic: Mind, Body, Spirit (*Note how each commandment interconnects and a flaw in one of the areas could very well throw the equation into flux.) --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Address AutoComplete - You start. We finish. --__--__-- _______________________________________________ The_Dojang mailing list The_Dojang@martialartsresource.net http://martialartsresource.net/mailman/listinfo/the_dojang http://the-dojang.net Old digest issues @ ftp://ftp.martialartsresource.com/pub/the_dojang Copyright 1994-2004: Ray Terry and http://MartialArtsResource.com Standard disclaimers apply. Remember September 11. End of The_Dojang Digest