There are a lot of ways to think about your martial art - is it a form of physical culture, a means of learning self defense, a cultural/ historical preservation activity, etc. None of these are wrong, and in many ways they aren't exclusive - you can train to get in shape AND to preserve a part of history that you find valuable, for example. The way you think of your art will, however, shape your training in many ways (if you train to preserve a cultural artifact you're less likely to incorporate techniques from other arts, for example), as well as shaping your marketing (sales pitch) and the way you may structure activities around your dojo.
I've already written about how I think we can benefit from regarding our training from a physical culture perspective (and I stand by what I wrote there). I have another perspective to share today.
I tend to do the bulk of my training alone. I go to class when I can, which is often just once a week, but I'll practice kata and kihon or do my conditioning by myself several other times a week (by the way, this is probably a bad idea for any beginner, but I've got many years of supervised training under my belt). There are advantages to this approach. I have less travel time. I can train whenever I want - I'm never late for class! I can focus on the skills I need most and on the exercises that work best for me.
There are also some pretty obvious disadvantages. You can't do partner drills by yourself. It's very difficult to work on many key skills without a partner - you can get clean technique, but how do you develop your timing? It's even harder in grappling arts, I'm sure - how do you even practice throws, holds, and locks without another body to toss around?
I think that many people will also suffer from a motivation gap. I'm not that way personally, but for many people it's easier to show up to a class and train because someone is telling you to train, rather than trying to force yourself to practice alone in an empty room when you could just go have a beer instead and nobody would be any the wiser.
Let's put aside these considerations for now - these points all have to do with the fact that training with other people can be better for your karate. They're valid points, but there is another set of advantages to training with a group that have nothing to do with improving your skill:
The thing is, humans are social animals. We evolved to travel in groups and there are serious biological implications to that fact. There is a substantial body of medical literature showing that human health is enhanced by having strong social connections - friends, family, whatever. We can argue over some of the fine points - do internet friendships count or not (I suspect they do) - but the bottom line is, very clearly, that people are healthier and happier when they have a deep social environment.
You can get friends from a lot of places, but one very interesting social bond is created by shared physical suffering. Anyone who's ever been through a football camp or a hard promotion test can tell you this. In my dojo we often hug or pat each other on the back after tough sparring matches. This is why corporations spend tons of money to take their executives rock climbing or white water rafting and call it "team building." It really does build a sense of togetherness and bonding among people.
The people in your dojo a) share your interests; b) spend time with you regularly; c) share bonding experiences regularly. They're also unlikely to be total douchebags, at least in a good school, because if you have good seniors the douchebags get their asses kicked hard enough that they either straighten up their act or quit before getting very high in rank (usually).
My point? You should be (and probably already are) friends with your senpai and kohai. You should hang out with them outside of class. You should invite them to your Christmas party. You should share birthdays. You should be Facebook friends. You should hang around before or after class and catch up with them.
Furthermore, being friends with your classmates is a key benefit of your training. You might justify watching a football game with your buddies or poker night by saying that you need time with your friends - the same is true, perhaps even more so, about training. If you're thinking about spending money on a martial arts retreat or attending a seminar or having a social function, and you're waffling, don't think of it in terms of just how much karate you'll learn - think of the benefits of that activity as a social occasion. Karate can help fulfill your fundamental human need for interaction!
If you can (this will depend on the culture at your school), organize and participate in social activities outside of class with your peers. Do a martial arts movie night, have parties, go for drinks after class, whatever. And don't resist these activities because they might have limited direct benefit for your karate - that's not the point. The point is to enhance your health and happiness by deepening positive social connections.
If you run a school, encourage your students to socialize outside of class. Get them to do movie nights (or organize them yourself). Be available to grab drinks or snacks after class, at least some of the time. Put up a board in your entrance area for people to advertise get-togethers. You might be teaching self defense, but you're also creating a social network for your students.
Want to convince someone to start training? Yes, they'll learn to defend themselves, and yes, they'll get in better shape. But they might also make a whole bunch of new friends, and that has an added value all its own - not just int he obvious ways, but enhancing health and longevity.
If you think you can be fit and healthy and a loner... you're probably wrong. You can get a social life by going out drinking and partying multiple times per week, but you're probably going to last longer if you hang out with your dojo mates instead!
Osu.
Showing posts with label motivation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label motivation. Show all posts
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Monday, October 10, 2011
An Open Letter to Chubby People
If you are chubby, or fat, (and you are if you're a guy above 15% body fat or a woman above 23% body fat or you have a muffin top or no visible muscle definition) and are someone I care about (and I care about everybody unless you work for Al Qaeda, Fox News, or the FDA) then this letter is for you:
There was a picture and associated story going around my Facebook friends a few days ago that prompted this letter. It was about some gym that had a sign up encouraging people to lose weight by saying, "do you want to be a mermaid or a whale this summer?" In the story one of the gym members went on about how it's better to be a whale because they have friends, are real, get to have sex, etc. It's a cute story, and I understand, I think, where it comes from - it's the same root idea that has people telling plump teenage girls that it's okay to be plump - because you don't want them starving themselves or doing self-destructive things because of low self esteem.
A lot of my female friends "liked" and shared the post, and there were a lot of "that's the spirit!" comments attached to it. And I, being a contrarian, couldn't get into the spirit of it.
You see, I DON'T want fat people to feel bad about themselves. But I DO want them to feel motivated to change. If someone is told over and over again that it's okay to be fat, that it's normal, or average, or not their fault, or even in some way BETTER than being thin, then why would they put in the effort and will to lean out and stay away from the delicious foods that got them that way?
I have a daughter. I hope she always feels great about who she is. I also hope she wakes up one day and decides to start exercising and eating better, because if she doesn't then she'll end up on a pizza and chocolate diet as an adult and never leave the couch - that's her tendency (which I can recognize because she gets it from me). I was motivated to change by a deep sense of insecurity - I felt bad about the way I looked my entire life. Is it possible to work to make those changes if you don't feel bad about it? I'm not really sure... I hope she can be motivated to put down the pizza and get onto a treadmill, or into a weight room, without any shred of negative feelings... but I'm not sure that's really possible.
I think that there has to be a middle ground. Self hatred is never good or productive. Being too self-satisfied is probably also bad for people. Chubby people shouldn't hate themselves, but they shouldn't be too happy with their body fat either.
So if you know any fat people, don't torture them or tease them or pick on them or work to make them feel bad. But don't keep telling them that they're perfect just the way they are either. Find a middle ground - find a way to tell them that you love them so much that you want them to be healthier. Show them that you value them so much that you don't feel the need to eat pizza and ice cream when you're together in order to have a good time, that you want them feeling so good physically that they can share more stuff with you, like hikes or long sparring sessions on the beach... or whatever.
Hopefully you'll do a better job of explaining this than I have!
Osu.
Dear Friend (or whatever you are to me - family member, senpai, acquaintance, random blog reader) who happens to be overfat:
I hope you are able to love yourself despite your weight and/or body composition.
I hope you value yourself for the wonderful person you are, and for the unique and awesome contributions you make to the world that have nothing to do with your physique.
I hope you feel lovable, and sexy, at least to the extent that you want to be.
I hope you never confuse your value as a person with the number of boxes in your sixpack.
I hope that you never look at a model or athlete and feel bad that you don't look more like them.
I hope that you never avoid situations - like wearing a bathing suit in public or talking to someone you're interested in or dancing at a party- because you're ashamed of how you look.
I hope that you never starve yourself to look better for a special event like a wedding or a reunion.
I hope you never have surgery, take medication, make yourself throw up, or go on a liquid diet to lose "weight" and shed unwanted pounds.
I hope you're never ashamed of the joy you take from eating.
I hope you never blame yourself for the weight you've put on over the years.
I hope you never feel bad about who you are.
I hope you never suffer any ill health effects from the excess fat you're carrying around.
I hope you're happy, and that you remain happy for the rest of your life whether or not you lose any weight.BUT...I also hope you learn to eat in a way that makes you leaner and healthier.
I also hope you figure out what makes you eat too much and gain the strength to stay away from it.
I also hope you find a better source for dietary information than Dr. Oz or Oprah.
I also hope you develop a healthier attitude towards both food and exercise.
I also hope you maintain the belief that even if your body fat isn't your fault it is still under your control.
I also hope you learn to celebrate wonderful events without indulging in empty calories.
I also hope you find the joy in being thin and fit and having a six pack.
I also hope you see that while being lean and healthy doesn't make you a better human being, it does improve your energy, your sense of well being, and probably your longevity and basic human capacity (ability to move furniture, carry luggage, stuff like that).
I also hope that you develop advanced fitness goals and work every day to achieve them, such as doing chinups, running a marathon, or kicking a certain somebody's ass in the dojo.
Sincerely and Osu,
Joe
There was a picture and associated story going around my Facebook friends a few days ago that prompted this letter. It was about some gym that had a sign up encouraging people to lose weight by saying, "do you want to be a mermaid or a whale this summer?" In the story one of the gym members went on about how it's better to be a whale because they have friends, are real, get to have sex, etc. It's a cute story, and I understand, I think, where it comes from - it's the same root idea that has people telling plump teenage girls that it's okay to be plump - because you don't want them starving themselves or doing self-destructive things because of low self esteem.
A lot of my female friends "liked" and shared the post, and there were a lot of "that's the spirit!" comments attached to it. And I, being a contrarian, couldn't get into the spirit of it.
You see, I DON'T want fat people to feel bad about themselves. But I DO want them to feel motivated to change. If someone is told over and over again that it's okay to be fat, that it's normal, or average, or not their fault, or even in some way BETTER than being thin, then why would they put in the effort and will to lean out and stay away from the delicious foods that got them that way?
I have a daughter. I hope she always feels great about who she is. I also hope she wakes up one day and decides to start exercising and eating better, because if she doesn't then she'll end up on a pizza and chocolate diet as an adult and never leave the couch - that's her tendency (which I can recognize because she gets it from me). I was motivated to change by a deep sense of insecurity - I felt bad about the way I looked my entire life. Is it possible to work to make those changes if you don't feel bad about it? I'm not really sure... I hope she can be motivated to put down the pizza and get onto a treadmill, or into a weight room, without any shred of negative feelings... but I'm not sure that's really possible.
I think that there has to be a middle ground. Self hatred is never good or productive. Being too self-satisfied is probably also bad for people. Chubby people shouldn't hate themselves, but they shouldn't be too happy with their body fat either.
So if you know any fat people, don't torture them or tease them or pick on them or work to make them feel bad. But don't keep telling them that they're perfect just the way they are either. Find a middle ground - find a way to tell them that you love them so much that you want them to be healthier. Show them that you value them so much that you don't feel the need to eat pizza and ice cream when you're together in order to have a good time, that you want them feeling so good physically that they can share more stuff with you, like hikes or long sparring sessions on the beach... or whatever.
Hopefully you'll do a better job of explaining this than I have!
Osu.
Saturday, September 24, 2011
A False History of the Shaolin Animal Forms, or The Importance of Visualization
The old master ran calloused fingers through his long, wispy white beard and tried to hide his frustration with the young man who was, sadly, his top student.
"Like this, master?" The boy, who had been sent to the monastery by his family more because he was a bit dim-witted than out of any real religious inclination, didn't try to hide the pride in his voice as he demonstrated the hand techniques he'd been taught.
The old master shook his head. The boy's movements were pitiful. "No, no, that's not it at all."
"Then how, master?" The boy's voice betrayed the emotional wound he was suffering.
The old master, who had once been the most feared fighter in the province, winced at the old pain that flared through his hip as he walked over to his student. For a mad moment he held up a fist as if to demonstrate the technique himself, but the toll taken on his body by dozens of injuries and one longstanding and regretful case of syphilis prevented him from doing more than pointing and talking.
"You must move faster, more... suddenly. Aah, if only we had a way to view moving pictures taken by people from far away and distributed over some worldwide information carrying system!"
"Master?" The boy, whose imagination was as limited as his intellect, did not understand.
"No, wait a minute. How about this... move like a snake. You've seen a rattlesnake strike at a rabbit, haven't you?"
The boy swallowed, remembering a time when he'd witnessed just such an event. He recalled the instant where the snake had exploded from perfect stillness to blinding speed.
"Strike... like the snake?"
"Yes!" The master almost shouted the answer, and had to stop while his fit of coughing subsided. "Strike like the snake. Now, do it again!"
All my personal martial arts experience has been in Japanese systems, so I always find it a little goofy to watch a movie or video where someone is training in an animal system (I'm not saying those arts aren't actually good or effective, just that they look odd). Why on earth would a human want to move like a praying mantis, or a jackrabbit, or whatever other kind of animal shaolin monks were supposedly imitating?
However (and there's usually a "however" in there when I get an idea) there is something to be said for using some kind of visual model of movement in your training.
Think back to the first time you observed anyone doing martial arts - this is assuming you didn't grow up around martial artists. Maybe it was a movie you watched, a street demonstration, something like that. If you were old enough to really think about it, what came into your mind? I remember what I thought - I was thinking "I had no idea people could move like that." The moves I saw (in kung fu movies, in my case) were outside what I had thought people could do. I had never even imagined that someone could throw a sidekick head high, or whip their legs around at those speeds, or have so much calm and command in a fight.
This had two distinct results. First, it inspired me to train (in my case to sign up for karate lessons at my school), which has led to a lifelong love affair with martial arts, one that I've discussed before. But there was a distinct and separate thing going on - when I trained, I had an idea of how I wanted to move that guided my training.
In this context it's easy to imagine martial artists being inspired or guided by animal models. When a snake bites someone the movement is so sudden and explosive. Now keep that image in your head and throw a punch (move away from your computer screen first). Work to get your hand to move the way that the snake head moves. It's easy, I think, to imagine someone actually studying animals and trying to replicate those movement qualities while training.
Now I grew up in Brooklyn, and I've seen a lot more movies than I have seen wild animals. If I want to visualize quality movement I'm not going to try to think of a snake or a bear, and the kind of martial arts you'd get from mimicking houseflies or cockroaches have never appealed to me. Instead, I try to visualize Bruce Lee throwing a kick, or Tony Jaa doing a flying knee, or BJ Penn sidestepping an attack (the lightweight BJ Penn, not the fat one), or GSP jabbing (I'm like the only guy who was thoroughly impressed by his fight against Koscheck).
You think your footwork is good? Watch Dominick Cruz in a fight. Think you hit hard? Catch a re-run of a Shane Carwin match. Think your kata are sharp? Watch Black Belt (Kura Obi - the movie) or a good kata competition (be careful with that!)
Then, when you train, keep that image in mind. Try to punch like Dan Henderson. Close and withdraw like Frankie Edgar. Pick whatever image/ model works for you. If you care about being effective in actual combat you're going to need to pick an image - an archetype - that fits your body. If you're 5'2" and 100 lbs. soaking wet and you want to fight like Andre the Giant you're not going to do well. If you're 6'2" and 280 lbs. and you want aerial skills like Tony Jaa start saving up for your knee replacements.
There is a two movement combination that appears in a number of kata in my system - turn 90 degree, do an inside middle block with the lead hand, then a reverse punch. I gave this movement almost no thought, and I thought I was doing it just fine. Then, a couple of months ago, I saw a particularly talented junior do a kata which contained that move, and his speed was astonishing.
Since then I've been working to do this combination more explosively, and while my performance still isn't great, it's much better than it was before. It's as if I was limited by my own imagination - I didn't even realize the move could be done better. Now that I know it can, I can work to improve and close the gap between my technique and really good stuff.
When you train, visualize how you want your feet to work, how you want your hands to work. Push your body until it comes closer to those models, whether they are human, animal, or CGI!
Osu
"Like this, master?" The boy, who had been sent to the monastery by his family more because he was a bit dim-witted than out of any real religious inclination, didn't try to hide the pride in his voice as he demonstrated the hand techniques he'd been taught.
The old master shook his head. The boy's movements were pitiful. "No, no, that's not it at all."
"Then how, master?" The boy's voice betrayed the emotional wound he was suffering.
The old master, who had once been the most feared fighter in the province, winced at the old pain that flared through his hip as he walked over to his student. For a mad moment he held up a fist as if to demonstrate the technique himself, but the toll taken on his body by dozens of injuries and one longstanding and regretful case of syphilis prevented him from doing more than pointing and talking.
"You must move faster, more... suddenly. Aah, if only we had a way to view moving pictures taken by people from far away and distributed over some worldwide information carrying system!"
"Master?" The boy, whose imagination was as limited as his intellect, did not understand.
"No, wait a minute. How about this... move like a snake. You've seen a rattlesnake strike at a rabbit, haven't you?"
The boy swallowed, remembering a time when he'd witnessed just such an event. He recalled the instant where the snake had exploded from perfect stillness to blinding speed.
"Strike... like the snake?"
"Yes!" The master almost shouted the answer, and had to stop while his fit of coughing subsided. "Strike like the snake. Now, do it again!"
All my personal martial arts experience has been in Japanese systems, so I always find it a little goofy to watch a movie or video where someone is training in an animal system (I'm not saying those arts aren't actually good or effective, just that they look odd). Why on earth would a human want to move like a praying mantis, or a jackrabbit, or whatever other kind of animal shaolin monks were supposedly imitating?
However (and there's usually a "however" in there when I get an idea) there is something to be said for using some kind of visual model of movement in your training.
Think back to the first time you observed anyone doing martial arts - this is assuming you didn't grow up around martial artists. Maybe it was a movie you watched, a street demonstration, something like that. If you were old enough to really think about it, what came into your mind? I remember what I thought - I was thinking "I had no idea people could move like that." The moves I saw (in kung fu movies, in my case) were outside what I had thought people could do. I had never even imagined that someone could throw a sidekick head high, or whip their legs around at those speeds, or have so much calm and command in a fight.
This had two distinct results. First, it inspired me to train (in my case to sign up for karate lessons at my school), which has led to a lifelong love affair with martial arts, one that I've discussed before. But there was a distinct and separate thing going on - when I trained, I had an idea of how I wanted to move that guided my training.
In this context it's easy to imagine martial artists being inspired or guided by animal models. When a snake bites someone the movement is so sudden and explosive. Now keep that image in your head and throw a punch (move away from your computer screen first). Work to get your hand to move the way that the snake head moves. It's easy, I think, to imagine someone actually studying animals and trying to replicate those movement qualities while training.
Now I grew up in Brooklyn, and I've seen a lot more movies than I have seen wild animals. If I want to visualize quality movement I'm not going to try to think of a snake or a bear, and the kind of martial arts you'd get from mimicking houseflies or cockroaches have never appealed to me. Instead, I try to visualize Bruce Lee throwing a kick, or Tony Jaa doing a flying knee, or BJ Penn sidestepping an attack (the lightweight BJ Penn, not the fat one), or GSP jabbing (I'm like the only guy who was thoroughly impressed by his fight against Koscheck).
You think your footwork is good? Watch Dominick Cruz in a fight. Think you hit hard? Catch a re-run of a Shane Carwin match. Think your kata are sharp? Watch Black Belt (Kura Obi - the movie) or a good kata competition (be careful with that!)
Then, when you train, keep that image in mind. Try to punch like Dan Henderson. Close and withdraw like Frankie Edgar. Pick whatever image/ model works for you. If you care about being effective in actual combat you're going to need to pick an image - an archetype - that fits your body. If you're 5'2" and 100 lbs. soaking wet and you want to fight like Andre the Giant you're not going to do well. If you're 6'2" and 280 lbs. and you want aerial skills like Tony Jaa start saving up for your knee replacements.
There is a two movement combination that appears in a number of kata in my system - turn 90 degree, do an inside middle block with the lead hand, then a reverse punch. I gave this movement almost no thought, and I thought I was doing it just fine. Then, a couple of months ago, I saw a particularly talented junior do a kata which contained that move, and his speed was astonishing.
Since then I've been working to do this combination more explosively, and while my performance still isn't great, it's much better than it was before. It's as if I was limited by my own imagination - I didn't even realize the move could be done better. Now that I know it can, I can work to improve and close the gap between my technique and really good stuff.
When you train, visualize how you want your feet to work, how you want your hands to work. Push your body until it comes closer to those models, whether they are human, animal, or CGI!
Osu
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
What is a Black Belt?
[Disclaimer: While I am a proud practitioner of Seido Karate, my views do not necessarily represent the views of that style or its leadership - this blog is about my personal opinions.]
I really dislike telling muggles (my term for people who don't practice martial arts) that I'm a black belt, or even that I practice karate. It's not that I'm ashamed of it - I'm actually quite proud to be a karateka - it's that I find it hard to communicate what my practice or my rank actually means to somebody who doesn't do any martial arts.
How do I know people don't understand? Because no matter how well meaning (and I honestly believe that these conversations all involve absolutely well-meaning people, and if you've said these things don't feel bad!) they are, people almost always make follow-up questions or comments that leave me shaking my head. I bet you've heard the same kind of things:
"Oh, you have a 3rd degree black belt? My niece does too - she's 11 years old and she studies tae kwon do!"
"Does that mean you could beat up (a second degree black belt, a boxer, anybody else, a UFC fighter, a motorcycle gang member)?"
"I guess I shouldn't get into a fight with you!"
"So, you're 3rd degree, and there are 10 degrees, so only 7 more until you're finished!"
"Does that mean you can (break bats with your shins, break slabs of ice, do jumping spinning kicks, break this object that we have lying around the office, do pushups on one fist)?"
"I bet you still can't beat a well place round from a Colt .45."
And so on.
I understand why people make these responses - they're trying to make conversation, they don't really know what martial arts are all about or why grownups would spend hours a week learning them, or they just don't know what else to say. That's part of the reason why I'm writing this post - to clarify things a little.
So what does it mean when someone tells another person (someone outside the style I practice) that (s)he is a Xth degree black belt?
Implied Threat
Every once in a while people hear "I practice karate" or "I have a black belt" and hear it as an implied threat - as if someone said, "I could totally kick your ass." Now when someone tells you that they could kick your ass it isn't just a statement of fact - it's not the same as me saying, "I can type faster than you can" - it's usually a veiled warning (depending on context, of course). So sometimes people get defensive, thinking that the karateka is asserting dominance or threatening to use violence to resolve any conflicts.
In fact, however, more often than not a trained karateka will be less likely to start a fight with an untrained person. We have nothing to gain from it, ego-wise - if I beat up an untrained coworker I won't have proven anything, because after 10 years of training if I couldn't whip the ass of a guy who hasn't thrown a punch since grammar school I'd be super pathetic. Plus, we're less likely to freak out in violent situations - you throw a punch at me, it won't be a completely foreign experience, while if you throw a punch at someone who is completely untrained - or do anything else, even innocently, that might make them feel threatened - they're more likely to overreact. Plus, we know that we're less likely to receive sympathy from judges and juries, simply because we are trained in martial arts. So we have more to lose.
I'm sure you can find examples of martial artists who use their rank/ status as a means of bullying other people - but they're the exception, in my experience. Bullies don't usually last too long in the dojo - there are too many tough people around who won't put up with that kind of attitude.
Cross-Style Comparison
A natural assumption people make is that a black belt is a black belt is a black belt, regardless of style. They think that being an Xth degree black belt is like meeting some objective standard - like being an Olympic qualifier in swimming or something.
In fact different styles have widely varying requirements for promotion to black belt, and they change with different levels. For example, it is typical for a shodan (1st degree black belt) to be granted to a student based on skill/ knowledge of the syllabus, but usually higher rankings (say, 5th degree and up, roughly speaking) take into account a person's contributions to the style - do they teach, how many high ranking people they've trained, etc.
Additionally, the relative skill required differs greatly from style to style. I trained as a kid in a style where it took 10 years of hard training, minimum, to achieve a black belt. I saw my teacher do some kata the day after he got his first degree black belt and he was awesome. His skill level was at least equal to most 3rd or 4th degree black belts in traditional styles.
If you want to know how "good" or skilled someone is at martial arts a much better question than rank is how many years they've been training. Of course, someone who puts in 10+ hours/ week of training for 5 years is probably going to be better than someone who trains 2 hours/week for 6 years, and someone with better teachers and classmates will advance more quickly, but you'll get a rough approximation.
Implied Fighting Ability
Other people hear "I practice karate" and think I mean to say that I could beat up either anyone who doesn't practice, or anyone of lower rank than me. So they sometimes ask if I could beat up a particular person or type of person, to put me in the correct spot in some imagined global pecking order. The answer is always "maybe," because the outcome of a fight depends on so many things. I could lose a fistfight with my seven year old daughter if I get hit by a stray meteor before landing a punch.
Now, we can argue statistics, and my chances would be pretty good against most seven year old children, but if you ask how I'd do against your average 3rd degree black belt in tae kwon do, even if you narrowed it down to a particular school, the answer would have to be - how the hell should I know? How many tae kwon do black belts do you think I've gotten into streetfights with, that I should have a solid grasp of my mathematical chances? (In case you're not sure, the answer is zero.)
In fact it is very difficult to answer the question of "who would beat whom." It depends on circumstances, rules (or lack of rules), relative condition (we all have good days and bad days), and luck. The one thing I feel very comfortable saying is this: I'm better as a 3rd degree black belt than I was when I got my 1st degree. If I could travel back in time, I'd have a very good chance of beating up my old self in a fight (though that seems like an awful waste of the ability to travel in time). And I'd stand a better chance in a fight against anybody with my current skill level than I would have before - though that doesn't mean I'd have a good chance of beating up any particular person.
There is another aspect to this that we have to consider: age. I'm 40. 50 years from now I'll still be at least a 3rd degree black belt - maybe higher. Chances are that despite my best efforts I won't be much of a fighter at that point, despite my rank. There is always, or almost always, a loss in overal ability due to the accumulated injuries and the effects of aging and training on fast twitch muscle fibers.
So what does a black belt mean?
The efforts of marketers and martial arts movie producers have resulted in a somewhat mystical and somewhat, in my opinion, misleading perception of what a black belt is. Not every black belt is a paragon of virtue. Not every black belt is ready to step into an action film or fight off a gang of thugs bare handed. Not every black belt is even capable of feats that would impress an untrained observer.
Pretty much every black belt (depending on their style and school) is someone who has devoted a significant amount of time over several years doing difficult training to perfect their art. They have met some arbitrary standard for promotion - one decided on by their instructors. Tha'ts it.
Does that mean that person deserves your respect? Probably, at least a little bit. I have respect for anybody who works hard to achieve a goal - I respect people who can play musical instruments. My cousin Ed is a hell of a photographer, I respect him for that tremendously. Does it mean you need to tread lightly around a black belt or worry about them beating you up? Only if they're also an asshole - which is possible, but actually not that likely. Violent people don't often last long in martial arts - bullies and hot tempered people don't do well when they have to regularly spend time in rooms filled with people skilled enough to kick the crap out of them.
If you meet someone who trains in karate you can ask them their rank, but if you want to make small talk try these questions instead:
And if you really want to understand what a black belt means, take up karate (or, if you must, some other style of traditional martial arts) and train hard for four or five years. By then you'll probably understand!
Osu.
I really dislike telling muggles (my term for people who don't practice martial arts) that I'm a black belt, or even that I practice karate. It's not that I'm ashamed of it - I'm actually quite proud to be a karateka - it's that I find it hard to communicate what my practice or my rank actually means to somebody who doesn't do any martial arts.
How do I know people don't understand? Because no matter how well meaning (and I honestly believe that these conversations all involve absolutely well-meaning people, and if you've said these things don't feel bad!) they are, people almost always make follow-up questions or comments that leave me shaking my head. I bet you've heard the same kind of things:
"Oh, you have a 3rd degree black belt? My niece does too - she's 11 years old and she studies tae kwon do!"
"Does that mean you could beat up (a second degree black belt, a boxer, anybody else, a UFC fighter, a motorcycle gang member)?"
"I guess I shouldn't get into a fight with you!"
"So, you're 3rd degree, and there are 10 degrees, so only 7 more until you're finished!"
"Does that mean you can (break bats with your shins, break slabs of ice, do jumping spinning kicks, break this object that we have lying around the office, do pushups on one fist)?"
"I bet you still can't beat a well place round from a Colt .45."
And so on.
I understand why people make these responses - they're trying to make conversation, they don't really know what martial arts are all about or why grownups would spend hours a week learning them, or they just don't know what else to say. That's part of the reason why I'm writing this post - to clarify things a little.
So what does it mean when someone tells another person (someone outside the style I practice) that (s)he is a Xth degree black belt?
Implied Threat
Every once in a while people hear "I practice karate" or "I have a black belt" and hear it as an implied threat - as if someone said, "I could totally kick your ass." Now when someone tells you that they could kick your ass it isn't just a statement of fact - it's not the same as me saying, "I can type faster than you can" - it's usually a veiled warning (depending on context, of course). So sometimes people get defensive, thinking that the karateka is asserting dominance or threatening to use violence to resolve any conflicts.
In fact, however, more often than not a trained karateka will be less likely to start a fight with an untrained person. We have nothing to gain from it, ego-wise - if I beat up an untrained coworker I won't have proven anything, because after 10 years of training if I couldn't whip the ass of a guy who hasn't thrown a punch since grammar school I'd be super pathetic. Plus, we're less likely to freak out in violent situations - you throw a punch at me, it won't be a completely foreign experience, while if you throw a punch at someone who is completely untrained - or do anything else, even innocently, that might make them feel threatened - they're more likely to overreact. Plus, we know that we're less likely to receive sympathy from judges and juries, simply because we are trained in martial arts. So we have more to lose.
I'm sure you can find examples of martial artists who use their rank/ status as a means of bullying other people - but they're the exception, in my experience. Bullies don't usually last too long in the dojo - there are too many tough people around who won't put up with that kind of attitude.
Cross-Style Comparison
A natural assumption people make is that a black belt is a black belt is a black belt, regardless of style. They think that being an Xth degree black belt is like meeting some objective standard - like being an Olympic qualifier in swimming or something.
In fact different styles have widely varying requirements for promotion to black belt, and they change with different levels. For example, it is typical for a shodan (1st degree black belt) to be granted to a student based on skill/ knowledge of the syllabus, but usually higher rankings (say, 5th degree and up, roughly speaking) take into account a person's contributions to the style - do they teach, how many high ranking people they've trained, etc.
Additionally, the relative skill required differs greatly from style to style. I trained as a kid in a style where it took 10 years of hard training, minimum, to achieve a black belt. I saw my teacher do some kata the day after he got his first degree black belt and he was awesome. His skill level was at least equal to most 3rd or 4th degree black belts in traditional styles.
If you want to know how "good" or skilled someone is at martial arts a much better question than rank is how many years they've been training. Of course, someone who puts in 10+ hours/ week of training for 5 years is probably going to be better than someone who trains 2 hours/week for 6 years, and someone with better teachers and classmates will advance more quickly, but you'll get a rough approximation.
Implied Fighting Ability
Other people hear "I practice karate" and think I mean to say that I could beat up either anyone who doesn't practice, or anyone of lower rank than me. So they sometimes ask if I could beat up a particular person or type of person, to put me in the correct spot in some imagined global pecking order. The answer is always "maybe," because the outcome of a fight depends on so many things. I could lose a fistfight with my seven year old daughter if I get hit by a stray meteor before landing a punch.
Now, we can argue statistics, and my chances would be pretty good against most seven year old children, but if you ask how I'd do against your average 3rd degree black belt in tae kwon do, even if you narrowed it down to a particular school, the answer would have to be - how the hell should I know? How many tae kwon do black belts do you think I've gotten into streetfights with, that I should have a solid grasp of my mathematical chances? (In case you're not sure, the answer is zero.)
In fact it is very difficult to answer the question of "who would beat whom." It depends on circumstances, rules (or lack of rules), relative condition (we all have good days and bad days), and luck. The one thing I feel very comfortable saying is this: I'm better as a 3rd degree black belt than I was when I got my 1st degree. If I could travel back in time, I'd have a very good chance of beating up my old self in a fight (though that seems like an awful waste of the ability to travel in time). And I'd stand a better chance in a fight against anybody with my current skill level than I would have before - though that doesn't mean I'd have a good chance of beating up any particular person.
There is another aspect to this that we have to consider: age. I'm 40. 50 years from now I'll still be at least a 3rd degree black belt - maybe higher. Chances are that despite my best efforts I won't be much of a fighter at that point, despite my rank. There is always, or almost always, a loss in overal ability due to the accumulated injuries and the effects of aging and training on fast twitch muscle fibers.
So what does a black belt mean?
The efforts of marketers and martial arts movie producers have resulted in a somewhat mystical and somewhat, in my opinion, misleading perception of what a black belt is. Not every black belt is a paragon of virtue. Not every black belt is ready to step into an action film or fight off a gang of thugs bare handed. Not every black belt is even capable of feats that would impress an untrained observer.
Pretty much every black belt (depending on their style and school) is someone who has devoted a significant amount of time over several years doing difficult training to perfect their art. They have met some arbitrary standard for promotion - one decided on by their instructors. Tha'ts it.
Does that mean that person deserves your respect? Probably, at least a little bit. I have respect for anybody who works hard to achieve a goal - I respect people who can play musical instruments. My cousin Ed is a hell of a photographer, I respect him for that tremendously. Does it mean you need to tread lightly around a black belt or worry about them beating you up? Only if they're also an asshole - which is possible, but actually not that likely. Violent people don't often last long in martial arts - bullies and hot tempered people don't do well when they have to regularly spend time in rooms filled with people skilled enough to kick the crap out of them.
If you meet someone who trains in karate you can ask them their rank, but if you want to make small talk try these questions instead:
For how long have you been training?
What style do you practice? (You can follow up by asking where the style is from, etc., especially if you haven't heard of it.)
Do you train with weapons or only bare hands?
How often do you train?
How/why did you get started in your martial art?
Do you do anything outside the dojo to supplement your martial arts training?
Do you think I could learn it as well? (feigning interest in another person's hobbies is a great way to make friends!)
Treat your black belt wearing friends the same way you'd treat someone who has any weird but interesting hobby - an amateur painter, long distance runner, or whatever. Try to avoid talking about violence and dominance issues. We don't practice martial arts so others will fear us, we do it because we love it. And if you really want to understand what a black belt means, take up karate (or, if you must, some other style of traditional martial arts) and train hard for four or five years. By then you'll probably understand!
Osu.
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Mindful Exercise
The other day I ordered a DVD containing over 3 hours of information about performing a single exercise - the kettlebell swing. I'm not plugging the DVD - I haven't gotten it yet, it might suck, all the usual reasons, and it's not a review copy (although if anybody has any materials they want to donate so I can review them, send away!) I'm bringing it up for another reason.
I mentioned this to a friend of mine (a non-karateka), who asked me, more or less, why the hell I would pay for or watch 3 hours of material about an exercise I already know how to do.
If you are involved in martial arts you probably don't think there's anything odd about devoting 3 hours (or 3 days, weeks, months, or years) to a single technique in your art - the subtleties of timing and body positioning that make a great punch different from a good punch are complex and, yes, subtle. But you might not often put as much time or thought into your supporting exercises.
Spending hours learning about, then many more hours refining, the fine points of an exercise are important for a couple of reasons.
Safety: If you are moving heavy loads or doing a lot of repetitions of a movement (think of people either doing near maximum lifts or joggers - opposite but similar problems) then the injury potential for the movement becomes large. Small adjustments to your body mechanics can greatly reduce your risk of getting hurt. Squat with 5 lb. dumbells with your knees caving in? Probably okay. Do it 1000 times a day? You'll mess up your knees, hips, and ankles. Do it for fewer reps, but with 250 lbs. on your back? Again, you're going to be sending your chiropractor/orthopedist/physical therapist's kids through college.
Getting your body alignment perfect won't make movement risk free, but it will greatly enhance your safety.
Performance: You might not realize it, but there are a lot of details that go into doing even simple movements (bench press, deadlift) at a high level. As a beginner you're going to make great gains on these movements no matter how you do them. As you get stronger, though, you'll need to focus more and more on perfecting your technique if you want to continue to make progress. Listen to something like Iron Radio and you can hear guys who can talk about the bench or squat for hours - it's not just "put the weight on your back, sit down, then get back up."
Performance is not just a matter of how much you can lift or how often you can safely do a movement before hitting failure - after all, you might not care if your squat is 200 lbs or 400 lbs as long as your legs get stronger. Performance is also a matter of what the training effect will be. If you squat a certain way you might get all the stress on your quadriceps - which is nice, but not great. Improve your technique and you can shift the stress - and therefore the adaptions - to your hips and glutes, which will have a much bigger impact on your overall fitness, athleticism, and martial ability.
Boredom: We all have different tolerances for going into the gym and mindless cranking away at the treadmill, Hammer machines, elliptical, or whatever. Some people can keep that up for years; others can't. I personally am actually pretty good at doing mind numbingly boring stuff in the gym if I think it will help me improve. BUT we all prefer routines that are less boring. Doing the same set of exercises while only half paying attention, listening to music or watching TV is a completely different experience than working to perfect a complex motor skill. That's why people enjoy golf and videogames and bowling in a way they don't enjoy pedaling away on an exercise bike.
Working on the skill of doing exercises - striving to perfect your technique, adjusting to the daily variances in your body's stability and mobility, fully concentrating on the moment you're in - that's not boring. Pushing away at pads on a machine can be.
Brain Health: You, like many people, may be convinced that doing exercise in an engaged way might be less boring, but you'd still rather just watch TV from your treadmill and reap the health benefits of exercise. Sadly, you'll be missing out on a big chunk of those benefits. Your brain, just like any other of your body's systems, gets crapped out with disuse. If you aren't constantly forcing your nervous system to adapt to new demands it will slowly lose the ability to do so. If you stop learning, you eventually lose (or at least decrease) your ability to learn. If you stop acquiring and refining new motor skills you lose the ability to acquire, and to even maintain, motor skills.
Not worried about it? You're okay with growing old and not being able to improve your golf game? That's fine - but if your motor control declines you won't just lose your ability to sink a putt, you'll slowly lose your ability to run, then walk, then get out of a chair. For fun, go into a nursing home and ask the residents how cool it is that they get wheelchairs so they don't have to move around under their own power anymore.
Will kettlebell swings prevent you from ever being incapacitated? I'm not sure. But mainaining your neural efficiency is a big part of maintaining your ability to move yourself around, put boxes on shelves, walk through an airport, have sex - do any of the things that make life worth living. If you're in your twenties that may seem like a pretty distant concern, but the way to be healthy and have a high quality of life (and a well functioning nervous system) in your old age is to start building up your body - muscles, tendons, bones, ligaments, and nerves - now.
Mindlessly pumping away at machines or cardio equipment is just that - mindless - and it doesn't exercise your mind at all. Now doing machine circuits at Curves is certainly better than nothing, but it's nowhere near as good for you as a mentally engaging workout where you are constantly working on form the way a professional dancer is always working on her basic movements.
Summary: The age old machines vs. free weights debate may not have a clear cut answer about which is better for your muscles, but there is no doubt that free weights are better for your nervous system. Be engaged in all your exercises - really focus on form when you do pushups (pack the shoulders, tighten the core, screw your hands into the ground), not just when you do punches, and keep your nerves responsive and healthy! As an added benefit, you'll get stronger and more resilient as well.
I mentioned this to a friend of mine (a non-karateka), who asked me, more or less, why the hell I would pay for or watch 3 hours of material about an exercise I already know how to do.
If you are involved in martial arts you probably don't think there's anything odd about devoting 3 hours (or 3 days, weeks, months, or years) to a single technique in your art - the subtleties of timing and body positioning that make a great punch different from a good punch are complex and, yes, subtle. But you might not often put as much time or thought into your supporting exercises.
Spending hours learning about, then many more hours refining, the fine points of an exercise are important for a couple of reasons.
Safety: If you are moving heavy loads or doing a lot of repetitions of a movement (think of people either doing near maximum lifts or joggers - opposite but similar problems) then the injury potential for the movement becomes large. Small adjustments to your body mechanics can greatly reduce your risk of getting hurt. Squat with 5 lb. dumbells with your knees caving in? Probably okay. Do it 1000 times a day? You'll mess up your knees, hips, and ankles. Do it for fewer reps, but with 250 lbs. on your back? Again, you're going to be sending your chiropractor/orthopedist/physical therapist's kids through college.
Getting your body alignment perfect won't make movement risk free, but it will greatly enhance your safety.
Performance: You might not realize it, but there are a lot of details that go into doing even simple movements (bench press, deadlift) at a high level. As a beginner you're going to make great gains on these movements no matter how you do them. As you get stronger, though, you'll need to focus more and more on perfecting your technique if you want to continue to make progress. Listen to something like Iron Radio and you can hear guys who can talk about the bench or squat for hours - it's not just "put the weight on your back, sit down, then get back up."
Performance is not just a matter of how much you can lift or how often you can safely do a movement before hitting failure - after all, you might not care if your squat is 200 lbs or 400 lbs as long as your legs get stronger. Performance is also a matter of what the training effect will be. If you squat a certain way you might get all the stress on your quadriceps - which is nice, but not great. Improve your technique and you can shift the stress - and therefore the adaptions - to your hips and glutes, which will have a much bigger impact on your overall fitness, athleticism, and martial ability.
Boredom: We all have different tolerances for going into the gym and mindless cranking away at the treadmill, Hammer machines, elliptical, or whatever. Some people can keep that up for years; others can't. I personally am actually pretty good at doing mind numbingly boring stuff in the gym if I think it will help me improve. BUT we all prefer routines that are less boring. Doing the same set of exercises while only half paying attention, listening to music or watching TV is a completely different experience than working to perfect a complex motor skill. That's why people enjoy golf and videogames and bowling in a way they don't enjoy pedaling away on an exercise bike.
Working on the skill of doing exercises - striving to perfect your technique, adjusting to the daily variances in your body's stability and mobility, fully concentrating on the moment you're in - that's not boring. Pushing away at pads on a machine can be.
Brain Health: You, like many people, may be convinced that doing exercise in an engaged way might be less boring, but you'd still rather just watch TV from your treadmill and reap the health benefits of exercise. Sadly, you'll be missing out on a big chunk of those benefits. Your brain, just like any other of your body's systems, gets crapped out with disuse. If you aren't constantly forcing your nervous system to adapt to new demands it will slowly lose the ability to do so. If you stop learning, you eventually lose (or at least decrease) your ability to learn. If you stop acquiring and refining new motor skills you lose the ability to acquire, and to even maintain, motor skills.
Not worried about it? You're okay with growing old and not being able to improve your golf game? That's fine - but if your motor control declines you won't just lose your ability to sink a putt, you'll slowly lose your ability to run, then walk, then get out of a chair. For fun, go into a nursing home and ask the residents how cool it is that they get wheelchairs so they don't have to move around under their own power anymore.
Will kettlebell swings prevent you from ever being incapacitated? I'm not sure. But mainaining your neural efficiency is a big part of maintaining your ability to move yourself around, put boxes on shelves, walk through an airport, have sex - do any of the things that make life worth living. If you're in your twenties that may seem like a pretty distant concern, but the way to be healthy and have a high quality of life (and a well functioning nervous system) in your old age is to start building up your body - muscles, tendons, bones, ligaments, and nerves - now.
Mindlessly pumping away at machines or cardio equipment is just that - mindless - and it doesn't exercise your mind at all. Now doing machine circuits at Curves is certainly better than nothing, but it's nowhere near as good for you as a mentally engaging workout where you are constantly working on form the way a professional dancer is always working on her basic movements.
Summary: The age old machines vs. free weights debate may not have a clear cut answer about which is better for your muscles, but there is no doubt that free weights are better for your nervous system. Be engaged in all your exercises - really focus on form when you do pushups (pack the shoulders, tighten the core, screw your hands into the ground), not just when you do punches, and keep your nerves responsive and healthy! As an added benefit, you'll get stronger and more resilient as well.
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Countdown to Promotion: Ultimate Week
For reasons I'll explain in a future post this entry has been delayed. Sorry!
It is normal to want to train very hard in the days leading up to your promotion/ event/ competition/ whatever. You're probably in great shape, you're worried about losing the edge off your skills right before you need them most, and you're psychologically probably very "up" for your chosen field. I have one very general piece of advice:
Resist.
The last few days (and I have no scientifically precise data on the exact number, let's say 3-6) before your peaking event should be mostly restful. This is not when you're going to make gains - this is when you can rest, heal, recover, and make the most of the hard work you've been putting in at the dojo. Here's what you need to do:
Gently increase calories. You need to eat at or even a little bit above maintenance this week. You don't want to get fat, but unless you really pig out you're not going to gain noticeable amounts of weight in 3 or 4 days. You don't want to be depleted at your event. You don't need to eat giant bowls of spaghetti or whatever each night to refill glycogen levels, but you do need to make sure to get a moderate amount of carbs each day while avoiding heavy exercise.
Don't train heavy. No heavy strength work starting at least 3 days before your event, no high intensity intervals in that same time. You're just not going to get de-conditioned or weaker in 3 or 4 days - your body isn't that plastic - but you might hurt yourself or just get sore and depleted. This is not the time to get in shape - the 3 months before this were the time to get in shape. If you did your work then, you'll be fine. If you didn't, nothing you do in the last week is going to be enough to matter.
Meditate and relax. Your mind is very possibly your worst enemy now. You're probably stressing a lot about the competition. If you have to think about it, actively visuallize yourself being successful - acing your kata, winning a trophy, meeting your own personal goals for the event. If you can, avoid thinking about it altogether. Spend time each day meditating. Enough anxiety will ruin your performance just as quickly as a physical injury - maybe more quickly.
Stretch and do light skill work. You don't want to train heavy so your body can heal and regenerate, but you also don't want to let it stiffen. Keep your motor patterns grooved with short, light workouts. You're not going to get any better at anything in this last week, but you can easily avoid backsliding. Go over kata in your head - visualize the moves - which is both good for your technique and very good for remembering the sequences. Do lots of light, dynamic stretching to keep your body limber. If you have to wring your shirt out after a workout you're working too hard.
Don't do anything new. New movements/ techniques lead to soreness, which you don't want to deal with on your event day. This is not the time to take up hill sprints or Olympic lifts.
Sleep lots; do soft tissue work. Get an extra hour or two a night if possible. You're healing and recovering. If you can, get a massage - even an amateur massage - get in as much sex as you can handle, and do extra sessions of foam rolling or whatever myofascial release work you prefer. You're preparing your body for an event, treat it the way a Formula 1 team treats their car the day before a race.
For me, the mental aspect of this week was the toughest. As I mentioned before, I get nervous, and if I let myself I'll run through doomsday scenarios in my head and generally work myself into a nervous frenzy. Then, when the time comes, I forget an astounding percentage of what I used to know. This is bad! You have to do whatever it takes (other than binge drinking) to take your mind off the event or to think positively about it.
If you have to travel a long way to your event, bring clean food to eat and try to arrange the schedule so you get as much sleep as possible (not always possible, I know). Pack early. Stay calm!
Remember, the last week is the time to recover and relax, not to make improvements. As hard as it is to do, focus on recovery and not training for a few days. This works - when I took my nidan promotion (not this one, for reasons I'll explain later) I was in my all time best shape - because I spent 3 months kicking my ass in the dojo, then took a week to recover enough to feel how much I'd improved. You can certainly do the same. Stop the heavy training, sleep and eat, and you'll be fine for your event.
If you're reading this while preparing for some peaking event in your life, good luck!
Osu!
It is normal to want to train very hard in the days leading up to your promotion/ event/ competition/ whatever. You're probably in great shape, you're worried about losing the edge off your skills right before you need them most, and you're psychologically probably very "up" for your chosen field. I have one very general piece of advice:
Resist.
The last few days (and I have no scientifically precise data on the exact number, let's say 3-6) before your peaking event should be mostly restful. This is not when you're going to make gains - this is when you can rest, heal, recover, and make the most of the hard work you've been putting in at the dojo. Here's what you need to do:
Gently increase calories. You need to eat at or even a little bit above maintenance this week. You don't want to get fat, but unless you really pig out you're not going to gain noticeable amounts of weight in 3 or 4 days. You don't want to be depleted at your event. You don't need to eat giant bowls of spaghetti or whatever each night to refill glycogen levels, but you do need to make sure to get a moderate amount of carbs each day while avoiding heavy exercise.
Don't train heavy. No heavy strength work starting at least 3 days before your event, no high intensity intervals in that same time. You're just not going to get de-conditioned or weaker in 3 or 4 days - your body isn't that plastic - but you might hurt yourself or just get sore and depleted. This is not the time to get in shape - the 3 months before this were the time to get in shape. If you did your work then, you'll be fine. If you didn't, nothing you do in the last week is going to be enough to matter.
Meditate and relax. Your mind is very possibly your worst enemy now. You're probably stressing a lot about the competition. If you have to think about it, actively visuallize yourself being successful - acing your kata, winning a trophy, meeting your own personal goals for the event. If you can, avoid thinking about it altogether. Spend time each day meditating. Enough anxiety will ruin your performance just as quickly as a physical injury - maybe more quickly.
Stretch and do light skill work. You don't want to train heavy so your body can heal and regenerate, but you also don't want to let it stiffen. Keep your motor patterns grooved with short, light workouts. You're not going to get any better at anything in this last week, but you can easily avoid backsliding. Go over kata in your head - visualize the moves - which is both good for your technique and very good for remembering the sequences. Do lots of light, dynamic stretching to keep your body limber. If you have to wring your shirt out after a workout you're working too hard.
Don't do anything new. New movements/ techniques lead to soreness, which you don't want to deal with on your event day. This is not the time to take up hill sprints or Olympic lifts.
Sleep lots; do soft tissue work. Get an extra hour or two a night if possible. You're healing and recovering. If you can, get a massage - even an amateur massage - get in as much sex as you can handle, and do extra sessions of foam rolling or whatever myofascial release work you prefer. You're preparing your body for an event, treat it the way a Formula 1 team treats their car the day before a race.
For me, the mental aspect of this week was the toughest. As I mentioned before, I get nervous, and if I let myself I'll run through doomsday scenarios in my head and generally work myself into a nervous frenzy. Then, when the time comes, I forget an astounding percentage of what I used to know. This is bad! You have to do whatever it takes (other than binge drinking) to take your mind off the event or to think positively about it.
If you have to travel a long way to your event, bring clean food to eat and try to arrange the schedule so you get as much sleep as possible (not always possible, I know). Pack early. Stay calm!
Remember, the last week is the time to recover and relax, not to make improvements. As hard as it is to do, focus on recovery and not training for a few days. This works - when I took my nidan promotion (not this one, for reasons I'll explain later) I was in my all time best shape - because I spent 3 months kicking my ass in the dojo, then took a week to recover enough to feel how much I'd improved. You can certainly do the same. Stop the heavy training, sleep and eat, and you'll be fine for your event.
If you're reading this while preparing for some peaking event in your life, good luck!
Osu!
Friday, June 10, 2011
Spirit Training
I"m not sure how common this is (though I suspect it is pretty common) but my style tends to get together for extra - intense workouts every so often in a large group setting. We do it for the new year (Kagami Biraki), an annual beach training, an occasional black belt only training - maybe 2-4 times per year. Not every person attends every workout, but if you're in the area you're expected to make it to most of them.
The workouts are ineveitably preceeded and postceeded by some social interactions, as people are gathering who don't normally train together, and usually some meeting type stuff - announcements, administrative stuff, etc. Then the workout.
These workouts are not very technical - there are usually a lot of people involved with a broad cross-section of skills, and communication is often difficult due to the size of the group. The goal here is not fine tuning anybody's technique. We're also usually packed nearly shoulder to shoulder, so nobody's going to do much in the way of moving - think lots of punches, lots of blocks, lots of squats/ knees, lots of pushups and crunches, and lots of kiais.
If you're not a martial artist you might not appreciate how taxing it is to, say, throw a thousand punches into the air, but if you're really executing with full force that's quite a workout. Obviously it's possible to pace yourself and kind of half-ass the whole thing, but we try not to. After all, you're surrounded by your senpai - your seniors - and you don't want to be the guy slacking off in the middle of the group when everybody else is giving 100%.
Now if you're a regular reader of this blog you know I'm not a fan of marathon workouts. Long workouts lead to two results - either you pace yourself, which means spending a lot of time practicing half speed techniques, or you don't pace yourself and wind up exhausted, which means spending a lot of time practicing sloppy techniques. Either way it's the wrong kind of neurological programming.
So why do I go to these events? There are a few reasons. There's a social dimension to them, of course (funny story - I'm lined up, randomly, next to this guy who seems familiar. I vaguely remember him having been around when I went for my nidan promotion four years ago. I talk to him, and he agrees that we saw each other then, but he knows me from elsewhere. Turns out he was a year ahead of me in high school and we were on the football team together!) There's a certain amount of social pressure to show up - the seniors like it when you attend these events. But there's also a useful training aspect to the workouts.
Training to exhaustion, if you do it right (and by "do it right" I mean put real effort into every technique - I mean don't pace yourself) you're going to get a few benefits. First, you're going to practice executing technique while exhausted - there are compensations you have to make, and it's not going to hurt to be familiar with them. Should that be a primary focus of your training? Of course not. But once in a while you should remember what it feels like to throw a knee when you're exhausted, and practice mustering up force in your techniques while gasping for air.
This kind of training has an effect on your spirit - your will. Think about the euphoria people express after finishing their first marathon or climbing a mountain. Some of it is probably endorphins, sure. But you also gain confidence in your ability to push through adversity, to push your own body to extremes, to work at your limit. Most of your training should be done when you're fresh, in short bursts, which is great for developing skill, but it doesn't tell you anything about your ability to push the limits of your endurance.
Making it through these workouts is a bonding experience and a confidence building experience. There might be an endurance training effect, but I wouldn't swear to it - not if you're doing these things infrequently, which is all you should be doing.
Here are the secrets to benefiting from spirit training:
Osu.
The workouts are ineveitably preceeded and postceeded by some social interactions, as people are gathering who don't normally train together, and usually some meeting type stuff - announcements, administrative stuff, etc. Then the workout.
These workouts are not very technical - there are usually a lot of people involved with a broad cross-section of skills, and communication is often difficult due to the size of the group. The goal here is not fine tuning anybody's technique. We're also usually packed nearly shoulder to shoulder, so nobody's going to do much in the way of moving - think lots of punches, lots of blocks, lots of squats/ knees, lots of pushups and crunches, and lots of kiais.
If you're not a martial artist you might not appreciate how taxing it is to, say, throw a thousand punches into the air, but if you're really executing with full force that's quite a workout. Obviously it's possible to pace yourself and kind of half-ass the whole thing, but we try not to. After all, you're surrounded by your senpai - your seniors - and you don't want to be the guy slacking off in the middle of the group when everybody else is giving 100%.
Now if you're a regular reader of this blog you know I'm not a fan of marathon workouts. Long workouts lead to two results - either you pace yourself, which means spending a lot of time practicing half speed techniques, or you don't pace yourself and wind up exhausted, which means spending a lot of time practicing sloppy techniques. Either way it's the wrong kind of neurological programming.
So why do I go to these events? There are a few reasons. There's a social dimension to them, of course (funny story - I'm lined up, randomly, next to this guy who seems familiar. I vaguely remember him having been around when I went for my nidan promotion four years ago. I talk to him, and he agrees that we saw each other then, but he knows me from elsewhere. Turns out he was a year ahead of me in high school and we were on the football team together!) There's a certain amount of social pressure to show up - the seniors like it when you attend these events. But there's also a useful training aspect to the workouts.
Training to exhaustion, if you do it right (and by "do it right" I mean put real effort into every technique - I mean don't pace yourself) you're going to get a few benefits. First, you're going to practice executing technique while exhausted - there are compensations you have to make, and it's not going to hurt to be familiar with them. Should that be a primary focus of your training? Of course not. But once in a while you should remember what it feels like to throw a knee when you're exhausted, and practice mustering up force in your techniques while gasping for air.
This kind of training has an effect on your spirit - your will. Think about the euphoria people express after finishing their first marathon or climbing a mountain. Some of it is probably endorphins, sure. But you also gain confidence in your ability to push through adversity, to push your own body to extremes, to work at your limit. Most of your training should be done when you're fresh, in short bursts, which is great for developing skill, but it doesn't tell you anything about your ability to push the limits of your endurance.
Making it through these workouts is a bonding experience and a confidence building experience. There might be an endurance training effect, but I wouldn't swear to it - not if you're doing these things infrequently, which is all you should be doing.
Here are the secrets to benefiting from spirit training:
- Don't pace yourself. Really work - put everything you have into the first punch, even if you know that you'll pay for it later.
- Focus on technique. Don't get too, too sloppy - you want to be sore afterwards but not injured. You're not going to be crisp on kick #273 - but don't throw your back out either.
- Sleep as much as you can the night before and after.
- Double your protein intake for the two days after the workout. I recommend my magic recovery formula - 12 oz. milk, 2 scoops MetRx chocolate protein powder (not the meal replacement, just the protein), Rice Krispies to taste, once or twice a day. Any animal based protein will do. Probably not a good idea long term, but for a day or two it really helps with recovery. If you normally do intermittent fasting, don't schedule any fasts for the days after the workout. You need to be in full anabolism to recover.
- Double your fish oil for the same two days to control the inflammation.
- A little bit is good; a lot is not. If you run a dojo and you try to do these, for example, every Sunday, you're doing the wrong kind of training. Your students will start to pace themselves, and if they don't, they'll deeply ingrain sloppy karate into their nervous systems. In my style we do these at most maybe 4 times a year - which seems about perfect to me.
Osu.
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Post 100! The First Principle, Hero of the Month
If you're a devoted reader you may have noticed that I haven't posted anything new in about 6 weeks. The reasons are entirely personal - new job, marital separation, moving - and something in my schedule had to give way. I don't know when or if I'll return to a 2-3 posts/week schedule, but I'll try to post as often as I can for now.
Another thing that stopped me from posting was the fact that this is the 100th entry for this blog. I've been thinking about that milestone for a while now, and wanted to do something significant to mark it.
The problem is that I didn't have anything special to say or do. I mean, there are topics I've been wanting to address, but nothing really special - nothing to warrant an anniversary, if you know what I mean. I can't just post something about a recent study about salt and heart disease for my 100th post! Or my current workout (circuits of chinups, one arm pushups, and one legged squats - surprisingly effective). Since I couldn't think of anything momentous to cover, I wound up not writing anything at all.
Driving in this morning I realized that I could write a post about procrastination, as long as I didn't keep putting it off. You see, the exact same psychological factors that have been keeping me from writing this post are the ones that keep many people from exercising or changing their diet. It's all too easy for someone to want to start going to the gym or changing their eating pattern, yet get caught up in the search for the "perfect" workout or meal plan. People read blogs, research articles, and watch videos, all from the comfort of their couch, bag of Doritos on the side table, planning their lifestyle change.
Which brings me to my friend Kathy (because apparently I have to mention Kathy at least once every 5 or so posts). Kathy has never really been out of shape - she's never been fat or anything close to it - but a few years ago she hit a point where her youngest daughter was out of the constant-care stage (I just mean that while infants need almost constant attention, at a certain age kids are in school a lot and you don't need to spend every minute taking care of them) and she hadn't been in a structured exercise program in a while. I'm not sure why, but she decided to take up running.
Now if Kathy were more like me she would have gone to the library and checked out half a dozen books on running, started reading a couple dozen running blogs, and logged 10-20 hours a week on YouTube watching running videos. Instead, because she's not insane like I am, Kathy put on a pair of running shoes and a skirt and started running.
And loving it.
Within a fairly short period of time I was reading Facebook posts about the joys of the endorphin rush that accompany a 10 mile run (I get tired driving that far). A little while later Kathy was running short races locally, and she's been turning her attention to marathons - she finished the Boston Marathon a little while ago.
The point isn't that she's ignored training theory - she's reading a lot about running now, and putting a lot of thought into her training program, for example. The point is that at the beginning she didn't spend six months reading and picking the perfect shoes; she put the shoes on and tried it. Instead of possibly killing half a year prepping for something that she might not have enjoyed she just... ran.
You know I'm no fan of running, and I have qualms about the long term health implications of marathons, but it's hard to be around Kathy and think that it's done anything but good for her health (not that she seemed unhealthy before or anything).
I write about ways to tailor your training to very specific goals, maximizing efficiency, and stuff like that. But designing the ultimate training program will get you far less benefit than actually doing something, even if that something isn't perfect.
The first principle of training isn't specificity of adaption, or recovery, or movement prep - it's getting off the couch. If you're significantly overweight you might want to do something a little less taxing on your joints than jogging, but lots of chubby people have run themselves into shape anyway. If you're out of shape - go sign up for a martial arts class. Will the conditioning you get there be perfect? Probably not. Will it be significantly better than channel surfing with an occasional brushing movement to get the crumbs off your belly? You betcha.
So in honor of Kathy, who embodies the spirit of Nike commercials everywhere, get off your ass and just do something today. And let it be known that Kathy is my Hero of the Month. For May.
Another thing that stopped me from posting was the fact that this is the 100th entry for this blog. I've been thinking about that milestone for a while now, and wanted to do something significant to mark it.
The problem is that I didn't have anything special to say or do. I mean, there are topics I've been wanting to address, but nothing really special - nothing to warrant an anniversary, if you know what I mean. I can't just post something about a recent study about salt and heart disease for my 100th post! Or my current workout (circuits of chinups, one arm pushups, and one legged squats - surprisingly effective). Since I couldn't think of anything momentous to cover, I wound up not writing anything at all.
Driving in this morning I realized that I could write a post about procrastination, as long as I didn't keep putting it off. You see, the exact same psychological factors that have been keeping me from writing this post are the ones that keep many people from exercising or changing their diet. It's all too easy for someone to want to start going to the gym or changing their eating pattern, yet get caught up in the search for the "perfect" workout or meal plan. People read blogs, research articles, and watch videos, all from the comfort of their couch, bag of Doritos on the side table, planning their lifestyle change.
Which brings me to my friend Kathy (because apparently I have to mention Kathy at least once every 5 or so posts). Kathy has never really been out of shape - she's never been fat or anything close to it - but a few years ago she hit a point where her youngest daughter was out of the constant-care stage (I just mean that while infants need almost constant attention, at a certain age kids are in school a lot and you don't need to spend every minute taking care of them) and she hadn't been in a structured exercise program in a while. I'm not sure why, but she decided to take up running.
Now if Kathy were more like me she would have gone to the library and checked out half a dozen books on running, started reading a couple dozen running blogs, and logged 10-20 hours a week on YouTube watching running videos. Instead, because she's not insane like I am, Kathy put on a pair of running shoes and a skirt and started running.
And loving it.
Within a fairly short period of time I was reading Facebook posts about the joys of the endorphin rush that accompany a 10 mile run (I get tired driving that far). A little while later Kathy was running short races locally, and she's been turning her attention to marathons - she finished the Boston Marathon a little while ago.
The point isn't that she's ignored training theory - she's reading a lot about running now, and putting a lot of thought into her training program, for example. The point is that at the beginning she didn't spend six months reading and picking the perfect shoes; she put the shoes on and tried it. Instead of possibly killing half a year prepping for something that she might not have enjoyed she just... ran.
You know I'm no fan of running, and I have qualms about the long term health implications of marathons, but it's hard to be around Kathy and think that it's done anything but good for her health (not that she seemed unhealthy before or anything).
I write about ways to tailor your training to very specific goals, maximizing efficiency, and stuff like that. But designing the ultimate training program will get you far less benefit than actually doing something, even if that something isn't perfect.
The first principle of training isn't specificity of adaption, or recovery, or movement prep - it's getting off the couch. If you're significantly overweight you might want to do something a little less taxing on your joints than jogging, but lots of chubby people have run themselves into shape anyway. If you're out of shape - go sign up for a martial arts class. Will the conditioning you get there be perfect? Probably not. Will it be significantly better than channel surfing with an occasional brushing movement to get the crumbs off your belly? You betcha.
So in honor of Kathy, who embodies the spirit of Nike commercials everywhere, get off your ass and just do something today. And let it be known that Kathy is my Hero of the Month. For May.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Is The Training Lifestyle Selfish?
If you're reading this blog and you're interested in improving, or even excelling, as a martial artist, or any kind of athlete, I bet the thought has crossed your mind that your lifestyle is selfish. Maybe you thought it yourself, or maybe someone close to you said you were being selfish. Why would this thought occur?
You're probably spending time exercising that you could be spending doing something for other people (like caring for children or doing household chores). You might be spending time, effort, and money investing in paleo friendly food to eat instead of cheap junk that's more filling. You might be eating differently from the rest of your family to be healthy, which is increasing the work put into cooking, dishes to be washed, etc. You might insist on getting eight or more solid hours of sleep instead of staying up late socializing. You might be spending time and energy reading about nutrition and training instead of spending it with friends or family.
Is this behavior, this lifestyle, selfish? We could certainly argue that it is somewhat self-centered - that is, you're spending time and attention on yourself. But you're not the only one who benefits from your lifestyle - there are plenty of indirect benefits that your loved ones can enjoy.
First, being in good shape will undoubtedly increase your functional lifespan. We can argue all day long about whether lean, athletic people actually live longer, but there is no doubt you'll have more years of being alive and capable of doing stuff - like playing with your grandkids and having good sex, as oppposed to spending your days institutionalized, sitting in a wheelchair and staring at the wall.
Being fit and healthy makes you more patient. Karate is moving meditation - it clears your head, calms the spirit, and makes you a better friend and a better relative (spouse, parent, whatever). Exercise in general makes you feel good, and when people feel good they tend to be less irritable, less violent, and better to be around.
Being fit and healthy makes you better in bed. One or more people close to you can benefit from your improved sexual abilities.
Being fit and healthy makes you a good role model for others close to you. You might be spending less time with your kids, but the fact that your kids see you make exercise an integral part of your daily routine is sure to help inspire them to do the same, which will continually enrich their lives. This doesn't always work - I know of situations where family members reject everything about the fitness lifestyle, as if to spite the person who is in shape - but that's usually a sign of a dysfunctional relationship.
Being fit and healthy may wind up giving you more energy than it takes away. In many cases you're feeling better, and accomplishing more good with your limited time spent with family members than you would feeling lethargic and having plenty of time. For example, if you're taking care of your kids, being an engaged, attentive parent for two hours at night might do them more good than being an irritated, inattentive parent for three hours.
Let's imagine for a minute that you're not swayed by my "indirect benefits" argument. Let's think of this another way. Suppose you had a bad stomachache and told your spouse/ friend that you were going to see the doctor to get checked out. Do you think that person would call you selfish for spending that time and money on yourself, or would they be glad you were taking care of yourself? Do people think you are selfish for brushing your teeth? Sleeping? Drinking and eating adequately? Of course not. All those activities are directed at yourself - you brush your own teeth - but aren't therefore selfish. Every capable adult needs to take care of themselves in order to be a functional member of society. It's like the oxygen mask in an airplane - you put it on yourself first, not to be selfish, but to make sure you stay conscious long enough to take care of the kid sitting next to you.
The reality is that an hour a day of exercise and some time spent shopping for, preparing, and cooking nutritious food and some time spent learning about nutrition and exercise should be considered just as normal a part of life as brushing your teeth or seeing a doctor when you're sick. A hundred years ago people didn't need to do this - they did manual labor on their farm or whatever to stay in shape and they didn't have to fight to stay away from Doritos and Diet Coke because those things weren't widely available - all their food was fairly high quality. In our society we have to put work into maintaining ourselves the way our ancestors didn't.
For another analogy, imagine you moved to a colony on Mars. You'd have to spend time every day ensuring your air supply was functioning properly. That woudn't be a selfish investment of time; it would be a necessary part of what you'd have to do to stay healthy in an unusual environment. We live in an unusual environment (from an biological/ evolutionary perspective) and deliberate exercise and food prep are part of what we need to maintain ourselves within it.
Now I am quite certain that there are people who can take this lifestyle to an extreme that is, in fact, selfish. If you train, cook, and read books and blogs to the point where you refuse to do any household chores or spend time with your wife and/or kids, then you're being selfish. If you train an hour a day but expect your partner to skip training so he/she can cook for you and clean the house, you're being selfish.
But don't ever feel bad for taking a reasonable amount of time out of your day and using it to keep yourself healthy. You deserve it, and your friends and family deserve to have a healthy, happy, and sane version of you in their lives.
Osu.
You're probably spending time exercising that you could be spending doing something for other people (like caring for children or doing household chores). You might be spending time, effort, and money investing in paleo friendly food to eat instead of cheap junk that's more filling. You might be eating differently from the rest of your family to be healthy, which is increasing the work put into cooking, dishes to be washed, etc. You might insist on getting eight or more solid hours of sleep instead of staying up late socializing. You might be spending time and energy reading about nutrition and training instead of spending it with friends or family.
Is this behavior, this lifestyle, selfish? We could certainly argue that it is somewhat self-centered - that is, you're spending time and attention on yourself. But you're not the only one who benefits from your lifestyle - there are plenty of indirect benefits that your loved ones can enjoy.
First, being in good shape will undoubtedly increase your functional lifespan. We can argue all day long about whether lean, athletic people actually live longer, but there is no doubt you'll have more years of being alive and capable of doing stuff - like playing with your grandkids and having good sex, as oppposed to spending your days institutionalized, sitting in a wheelchair and staring at the wall.
Being fit and healthy makes you more patient. Karate is moving meditation - it clears your head, calms the spirit, and makes you a better friend and a better relative (spouse, parent, whatever). Exercise in general makes you feel good, and when people feel good they tend to be less irritable, less violent, and better to be around.
Being fit and healthy makes you better in bed. One or more people close to you can benefit from your improved sexual abilities.
Being fit and healthy makes you a good role model for others close to you. You might be spending less time with your kids, but the fact that your kids see you make exercise an integral part of your daily routine is sure to help inspire them to do the same, which will continually enrich their lives. This doesn't always work - I know of situations where family members reject everything about the fitness lifestyle, as if to spite the person who is in shape - but that's usually a sign of a dysfunctional relationship.
Being fit and healthy may wind up giving you more energy than it takes away. In many cases you're feeling better, and accomplishing more good with your limited time spent with family members than you would feeling lethargic and having plenty of time. For example, if you're taking care of your kids, being an engaged, attentive parent for two hours at night might do them more good than being an irritated, inattentive parent for three hours.
Let's imagine for a minute that you're not swayed by my "indirect benefits" argument. Let's think of this another way. Suppose you had a bad stomachache and told your spouse/ friend that you were going to see the doctor to get checked out. Do you think that person would call you selfish for spending that time and money on yourself, or would they be glad you were taking care of yourself? Do people think you are selfish for brushing your teeth? Sleeping? Drinking and eating adequately? Of course not. All those activities are directed at yourself - you brush your own teeth - but aren't therefore selfish. Every capable adult needs to take care of themselves in order to be a functional member of society. It's like the oxygen mask in an airplane - you put it on yourself first, not to be selfish, but to make sure you stay conscious long enough to take care of the kid sitting next to you.
The reality is that an hour a day of exercise and some time spent shopping for, preparing, and cooking nutritious food and some time spent learning about nutrition and exercise should be considered just as normal a part of life as brushing your teeth or seeing a doctor when you're sick. A hundred years ago people didn't need to do this - they did manual labor on their farm or whatever to stay in shape and they didn't have to fight to stay away from Doritos and Diet Coke because those things weren't widely available - all their food was fairly high quality. In our society we have to put work into maintaining ourselves the way our ancestors didn't.
For another analogy, imagine you moved to a colony on Mars. You'd have to spend time every day ensuring your air supply was functioning properly. That woudn't be a selfish investment of time; it would be a necessary part of what you'd have to do to stay healthy in an unusual environment. We live in an unusual environment (from an biological/ evolutionary perspective) and deliberate exercise and food prep are part of what we need to maintain ourselves within it.
Now I am quite certain that there are people who can take this lifestyle to an extreme that is, in fact, selfish. If you train, cook, and read books and blogs to the point where you refuse to do any household chores or spend time with your wife and/or kids, then you're being selfish. If you train an hour a day but expect your partner to skip training so he/she can cook for you and clean the house, you're being selfish.
But don't ever feel bad for taking a reasonable amount of time out of your day and using it to keep yourself healthy. You deserve it, and your friends and family deserve to have a healthy, happy, and sane version of you in their lives.
Osu.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Martial Arts Comics: Intro
There's certainly no mandate for karateka to be interested in fictional accounts of martial arts, but some of us are. I would venture to say that a significant number of practitioners got hooked originally by some fictional portrayal of the arts - more often movies, I'd bet, but still.
I happen to be a huge fan of martial arts in movies, books, comic books, and manga or manwha (Japanese or Korean comics). If you're not, that's fine - I certainly wouldn't say that reading comics about martial arts will enhance your art, unless you happen to find it motivational. But if you are interested in these topics I thought I'd put out a few reviews.
First of all understand that these reviews will be far from comprehensive. There is simply no way I can read every martial arts themed comic in any particular category. I will also be using my own rating system.
I'm going to rate every piece of media in three different categories. The first is realism - basically, how realistic is the title? By "realistic" I'm going to mean specificially in terms of the physical abilities demonstrated. For example, in All-Rounder Meguru the main character is a semi-professional mixed martial artist. He uses real moves, he loses some matches, he doesn't ever get into fights outside the ring. The action is super accurate - no crazy moves, no huge jumps, nobody even taking huge punishment, then coming back to win miraculous victories. On the other end of the spectrum is, say, Dragonball. In one of my favorite scenes in Dragonball, maybe in all of comics, one character wants to prevent another from transforming into a rampaging, gigantic monster, which his species does every full moon. To prevent the change he uses a blast of ki energy to destroy the moon. I happen to enjoy stories with a wide variety of realism scores - I'm perfectly happy to appreciate Dragonball for what it is. Other people have a harder time suspending disbelief enough to enjoy titles where characters can catch bullets in their teeth, destroy objects at a distance, cast spells, etc.
My second category will be fun. Some strips are fun without being good. This is probably the most subjective rating of all, so beware, I have a weird sense of humor.
My third category will be quality. Well developed characters, authentic emotional reactions (even if the situations aren't authentic), complex and believable storylines, all contribute to quality. Also subjective.
I'll use a 1-10 rating scale for each. I hope to make this sort of an ongoing series, but we'll see how much time I have. I'll use "MAC" in the titles. If you find yourself enjoying these reviews, let me know.
I happen to be a huge fan of martial arts in movies, books, comic books, and manga or manwha (Japanese or Korean comics). If you're not, that's fine - I certainly wouldn't say that reading comics about martial arts will enhance your art, unless you happen to find it motivational. But if you are interested in these topics I thought I'd put out a few reviews.
First of all understand that these reviews will be far from comprehensive. There is simply no way I can read every martial arts themed comic in any particular category. I will also be using my own rating system.
I'm going to rate every piece of media in three different categories. The first is realism - basically, how realistic is the title? By "realistic" I'm going to mean specificially in terms of the physical abilities demonstrated. For example, in All-Rounder Meguru the main character is a semi-professional mixed martial artist. He uses real moves, he loses some matches, he doesn't ever get into fights outside the ring. The action is super accurate - no crazy moves, no huge jumps, nobody even taking huge punishment, then coming back to win miraculous victories. On the other end of the spectrum is, say, Dragonball. In one of my favorite scenes in Dragonball, maybe in all of comics, one character wants to prevent another from transforming into a rampaging, gigantic monster, which his species does every full moon. To prevent the change he uses a blast of ki energy to destroy the moon. I happen to enjoy stories with a wide variety of realism scores - I'm perfectly happy to appreciate Dragonball for what it is. Other people have a harder time suspending disbelief enough to enjoy titles where characters can catch bullets in their teeth, destroy objects at a distance, cast spells, etc.
My second category will be fun. Some strips are fun without being good. This is probably the most subjective rating of all, so beware, I have a weird sense of humor.
My third category will be quality. Well developed characters, authentic emotional reactions (even if the situations aren't authentic), complex and believable storylines, all contribute to quality. Also subjective.
I'll use a 1-10 rating scale for each. I hope to make this sort of an ongoing series, but we'll see how much time I have. I'll use "MAC" in the titles. If you find yourself enjoying these reviews, let me know.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Adopting a Faux Contest Cycle
I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts, Iron Radio. It's a group of high level strength athletes - a powerlifter, a strongman competitor, a bodybuilder - talking about some aspect of training, often with a fairly interesting guest. As I read this description to myself I have to say that the show is a lot more entertaining than it sounds.
On a number of episodes the guys talk about competing, whether it be in bodybuilding contests or powerlifting or Highland Games meets or whatever is appropriate for their sport. I started thinking about competitions and their effect on training, and the way competition is often viewed by traditional martial artists.
Competing on a regular basis (which can mean doing so every few months or even every few years) serves a couple of purposes.
One is to gauge one's progress. If you're a powerlifter I think the value is pretty clear - a competition gives you a chance to see if your lifts have gone up or down, and by how much, under judged conditions. In other words, you can't cheat your way into apparent progress by modifying your lifts. If you're a bodybuilder you can see how you're placing - but that's a little harder to interpret, given that your placings will depend on the competition, and if the quality of competition changes your placings will change. In martial arts you have the same problem - even if you find a contest and judging criterion that you think are appropriate (which is a whole other topic) you might get better yet fall in the rankings simply because more very good competitors enter the contests in question.
So the value of competition to a karateka is mixed. If you come in 2nd in sparring in 2008, then come in 4th in 2009, did you get worse as a fighter? Maybe - but maybe you got better and a few great fighters entered the contest in 2009 that weren't there in 2008. Even if the competition is the same, perhaps the judges were different. And the ability to point-fight well might not really be your goal as a karateka, in which case the value of competition is mixed. Maybe you got more powerful - which is great, but wouldn't help you much in a point fighting tournament. What if you're interested in self defense? A competition that could accurately measure your ability in that area would be... odd, and very hard to find.
There are, however, (at least) other reasons to schedule competitions or similar events for yourself on a regular basis:
You can also do an informal event. For example, Clarence Bass (a fairly famous author in the area of fitness and fat loss) used to schedule an annual photo shoot for himself. Everyone knew when it was going to be, and he had to be in tip-top shape for that day. Weight Watchers weekly weigh-ins serve the same purpose, as do weddings, Memorial Day (the first day of the season you hit the beach), and others. You can replicate this in karate. Give yourself a date - maybe every 6 months or every year. On that date have your classmates (or wife or mom or whatever) take a cheap digital camera and film you doing your 5 best kata (or spar everybody in class or do as many pushups in 3 minute as you can). Tell everyone when the date is. Put the video on YouTube - no matter how badly (or well) you perform.
If you're not using a belt test or an actual tournament you have to do a few things:
On a number of episodes the guys talk about competing, whether it be in bodybuilding contests or powerlifting or Highland Games meets or whatever is appropriate for their sport. I started thinking about competitions and their effect on training, and the way competition is often viewed by traditional martial artists.
Competing on a regular basis (which can mean doing so every few months or even every few years) serves a couple of purposes.
One is to gauge one's progress. If you're a powerlifter I think the value is pretty clear - a competition gives you a chance to see if your lifts have gone up or down, and by how much, under judged conditions. In other words, you can't cheat your way into apparent progress by modifying your lifts. If you're a bodybuilder you can see how you're placing - but that's a little harder to interpret, given that your placings will depend on the competition, and if the quality of competition changes your placings will change. In martial arts you have the same problem - even if you find a contest and judging criterion that you think are appropriate (which is a whole other topic) you might get better yet fall in the rankings simply because more very good competitors enter the contests in question.
So the value of competition to a karateka is mixed. If you come in 2nd in sparring in 2008, then come in 4th in 2009, did you get worse as a fighter? Maybe - but maybe you got better and a few great fighters entered the contest in 2009 that weren't there in 2008. Even if the competition is the same, perhaps the judges were different. And the ability to point-fight well might not really be your goal as a karateka, in which case the value of competition is mixed. Maybe you got more powerful - which is great, but wouldn't help you much in a point fighting tournament. What if you're interested in self defense? A competition that could accurately measure your ability in that area would be... odd, and very hard to find.
There are, however, (at least) other reasons to schedule competitions or similar events for yourself on a regular basis:
- Having a contest/ peaking event will help you periodize your training. It is impossible to maintain the same elite level of fitness all year - to be very fit you have to cycle a little bit, hitting high targets, then backing off before overtraining sets in, etc. If you have an event - a target date - to train for, you can plan your schedule with rest breaks and so forth more efficiently.
- Having a contest will help you stay motivated. Nothing works as well for motivation as a target date. You can always put down the ice cream, but if you're scheduled to be in a grinding fight or on stage in a bikini in 2 weeks it's remarkably easier.
You can also do an informal event. For example, Clarence Bass (a fairly famous author in the area of fitness and fat loss) used to schedule an annual photo shoot for himself. Everyone knew when it was going to be, and he had to be in tip-top shape for that day. Weight Watchers weekly weigh-ins serve the same purpose, as do weddings, Memorial Day (the first day of the season you hit the beach), and others. You can replicate this in karate. Give yourself a date - maybe every 6 months or every year. On that date have your classmates (or wife or mom or whatever) take a cheap digital camera and film you doing your 5 best kata (or spar everybody in class or do as many pushups in 3 minute as you can). Tell everyone when the date is. Put the video on YouTube - no matter how badly (or well) you perform.
If you're not using a belt test or an actual tournament you have to do a few things:
- Make your peaking event (video shoot, photo shoot, just a test like doing a certain number of pushups or burpees in a certain time) public. Tell your friends and classmates when and where it will be, then publish the results - on your web page, blog, YouTube, whatever.
- Make the date a hard date. If you get the flu the week before, do it anyway - your performance will suck, but that's part of the process. The danger of having a "soft date" - where you give yourself permission to postpone the event - is that it becomes too easy to slack off on training and just push the date back. The whole thing won't work if you allow yourself to do that. On the other hand, if you break your leg, don't try to film yourself doing kata.
Now you organize your training around that "contest" date - even if it isn't a real contest. Ramp up your training in the time leading up to the contest - make sacrifices to sharpen your skills as well as you can. After it's over, ease off for a while. Work on your more basic skills, strength development, whatever. Take a little rest. If you need to gain lean body mass, bulk up a little away from the "competition," then lean out as you approach it.
If you care about these things, you can time it so you're leanest during the summer, when you're more likely to be shirtless. And make sure your schedule doesn't interfere with anything important. If certain times of year are especially busy at your job, peak right before the busy season so you have extra free time when work is busiest. You get the idea.
If you're just trying to get "in shape," photo shoots on or around special dates are always good. Peak around a family reunion, anniversary, holiday, or birthday. Pick something that works for you, and remember - make it public and stick to it no matter what!
Osu.
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