Getting Back Into Training After A Long Layoff.

 

     If you've ever been forced to stop training for any length of time due to personal issues, injury, illness, or even a global pandemic, you understand how challenging it can be just to get started. For most of us just the thought of having lost all the moment we had built up, to take so many steps back in our training, could feel overwhelming. As with so many things in life, our attitude is going to be instrumental in allowing us to successfully transition back into our training.

     I, like most of you out there, spent the better part of a year away from my training, and am just now starting to get back into a normal routine. During any lengthy time away from training I've always made sure to do one thing, stay connected. I had an old professor of mine once tell me how important it was to stay connected to my training even when I couldn't physically participate. At the time I really couldn't understand the importance of his statement. It wasn't until years later when I was having shoulder surgery and facing a significant amount of time away from training that I understood the idea of staying connected.

     Whether it's simply sitting in on a class, watching a competition or training video on Youtube, a phone call, facetime, text, or e-mail to classmates, coaches, or professors, staying connected is the first and most important step. Setting up a network of supportive and like-minded people and utilizing it when in-person training is not an option can have a significant impact on your training. Put simply, it can mean the difference between coming back to train and picking up where you left off or stepping away for good. 

     When you do finally make it back into train it's really important to remember to keep your expectations simple, and reasonable. Don't come in with any preconceived ideas of where you should be mentally or physically. Just allow yourself time to readjust and transition back into training, nothing more Simply appreciate the fact that you're finally able to back to doing what it is you love, surrounded by people who share your passion!.

 Once you've allowed yourself a few weeks adjust time then start to implement good training habits by focusing on re-establishing a routine and training regiment. The idea is to lay down your foundation in incremental steps in which one builds off of the other, don't get too ahead of yourself. Remember, the goal it's not simply to train for the week, that month, or the year. You want to make it a lifelong pursuit and train as long as you are physically able. It's a marathon, not a sprint!     

       

                   

White Belt Wisdom

 

     In this week's blog, I wanted to share with you a collection of expectations that all of our younger students recite at the beginning of each class. We title these expectations "White Belt Wisdom," and they serve as a tangible reminder that class has started, as well as reinforce what is expected of them during class.  

     1. Give your best effort. Develop a solid work ethic and whatever it takes to get the job done right attitude! This will take you far in life! 

     2. Keep a positive attitude. As we often tell the students, attitude is everything! It's impossible to enjoy life or accomplish anything with a bad attitude! My attitude determines my altitude as we say!

     3. Be Courteous. As we teach our students to remember The Golden Rule and to treats others as they would want to be treated. It's always the right time to do the right thing!   

     4. Be consistent in your training and your attitude. There is no improvement, no growth, no personal development without a consistent application of focus, effort, and attitude! 

     5. Be safe. Not to be confused with being fearful. Live life, work hard, have fun but do so safely and responsibly. 

     6. Have fun! Work hard but don't take yourself or life too seriously. Life is to be lived, to be embraced, to be savored! Enjoy the ride!  

     As with all the other practices the students learn here at the academy, they are extremely transferable to other areas of their lives. As such, students are expected to not only apply them while training but outside of it as well.     

      

Taking Your Martial Arts Out Of Your School And Putting Into The World

     When I decided to open my own jiu-jitsu school some years ago I did so with the purpose of creating something unlike anything else out there. I wanted to redefine the conventional definitions of what the martial arts means to its students and families, as well as the communities they serve.

     What I saw was that for the most part, the majority of schools out there were all pretty much the same, with the same marketing and mission statements. What I wanted was to get in there and shake things up, to set new definitions and standards I wanted to put together a program that would truly transform my student's lives in a profound and lasting way and positively impact the community we serve as well.

     I wanted to instill in my students, not just the typical attributes we associate with martial arts training. Things such as resilience, self-confidence, problem-solving, fortitude, mental toughness, and perseverance. Along with these attributes I also wanted to cultivate within my students a personal practice of doing for others and their community. I also wanted to challenge the established and narrow criteria we use to define self-defense. Included under the umbrella of self-defense should be such things as our physical health,  nutrition, and exercise, our mental health, stress management, proper understanding and expression of our emotions, our environment, understanding what constitutes a healthy relationship, setting appropriate personal boundaries. Lastly, I wanted to come up with a way that I could not only document what my school's mission was about but also concretely demonstrate it!

     For me, the catalyst behind starting my own school and my own program came down to this one overriding thought. The martial arts are in a uniques position to profoundly impact lives and make a real and substantial difference not just in the lives of its students but its community, county, state, country, world! It has to be about more!   

     

                 

     

    

  To transform your work as a martial arts teacher, I can think of no better way than to cultivate a desire in your students to serve others, to perform purposeful acts of kindness, and to link these ideas to the very practice of your “art.”