Month: January 2014

Are you a reflection ?

Your attacker brings his fist to your face and you raise your arm as well.

A loud noise is heard behind you and you turtle your neck and freeze

A person on the street curses you and you answer in kind.

If we are nice only to the people who are nice to use we give them power over our behavior and perception.

The same can be said about a confrontation. If you are answering a question (will this fist impact or a verbal “Are you stupid” ) you will always be late.

Work instead on making choices. Start small on awareness to little things such as breathing and your own body. You will find with daily practice that there will be no big choices when the small ones are self made and not reflections of what is around you. Drills for this will be forthcoming.

OR in different words 🙂

Let’s say an attacker brings his fist to your face and you raise your arm as well. Or you hear a loud noise behind you, and you pull in your neck and freeze. Or a person on the street curses you and you answer in kind. These kinds of things happen quite regularly, but if we react automatically, and are only nice to those who are nice to us, then we give those who are not nice, power over our behavior and perception.

The same can be said about any confrontation. If we ask ourselves “will his guy hit me, or is he going to tell me “you’re stupid,” we will always be late. Instead, we ought to work on making choices. That means we need to start by bringing our awareness to little things, such as breathing and the sensations in our bodies. We will find that with daily practice, there will be no big choices to make, as long as these small ones are clearly made. This way, we stop being only reflections of what is happening around us. Drills for this will be forthcoming.

Why should I bother with the basic drills and not just go straight to combat drills ?

I can give you many merits of doing basics drills but I argue that there are none.
One may choose to do push ups. OR  work to understand sinking within the contact and moving myself instead of pushing another and hence myself as well.
 One may choose to do sit ups. OR work to keep my alignment free and dynamic to avoid injuries and regain my freedom of movement.
 One may choose to roll. OR teach myself to keep my eyesight active all the time and to avoid clinging to a position that might get me punctured.
 One may choose to do breath training and holds. OR work on keeping my awareness and state of mind no matter what is happening.

There are no basic drills. There are no higher drills. There is only perspective and the choices that come with it.
Being good at combat drills means that you are good at performing the drills. Nature and the occasional land mine do not care about your striking power or looks. What does affect the outcome are your choices and how you keep making them no matter how your situation ventures from your perceived level of comfort .

For Philipp.