How you develop your skills?

[Benoitt]

Hi everyone,

Their is already good books around effective self defense technics. However, my goal is to be more focused toward self-development through martial arts. How to motivate yourself? How to gain confidence? How muscle memories makes your training effective? How to control yourself? All that kind of question that really apply to every martial arts and even sports. However, I am teaching it through Kenpo. I am planning of giving away for free alot of great video (almost every day would be nice ).

I am asking everybody here. What questions do you think will be interesting to answer? I will keep this very open-mided.

Benoit

[honoluludesktop]

You don't need books, and videos. These contain the intellectual material about martial arts. All anyone needs is an experienced teacher, and persistent effort. Your teacher will not be next to you in a fight; if you can't motivate yourself to learn, you can only go so far. But, that's OK too.

[Benoitt]

You missed the point of my question. Well, bascilly because it's badly formuled but I was asking for question outside the technical stuff. It is always interesting to have other ressources. Your teacher is not the only one that can help you.

[KumitePanda]

for me, my focus comes from the type of week i've had.

great week = stunning focus

shi-ite week= equals stunning focus

both for different reasons:

1. if i have a great week i have a great mental mind so i'm prepared for anything thrown at me and i do it with full gusto.

2. if i have a bad week i have so much to focus on like stance, executing my techniques correctly etc that i don't have time to think about how bad my week has been. i go full gusto at it and am 'in the zone' i train with black belts mostly and i have nailed Tekki Shodan perfectly on one of my worst days ever....then i don't remember how to do it because i was so focussed.

after those days i'm so tired when i get home from training i just flop.

so maybe just use the type of week you have.

[GeoGiant]

How to motivate yourself? I'm a motivated person in general but I have 2 ideologies.

First, everything I decide to do carries a certain amount responsibility and I don’t provide myself with excuses or denials for not taking care of my responsibilities. When I say responsibilities I’m talking about personal as well as professional. Professional responsibilities are easier to satisfy because (1) you’re being paid & (2) someone else is there to remind you need to complete “x”. Personal responsibilities are easy to shrug off… I’m tired tonight I’m not going to run (excuse)… I’m home late so I work workout twice as long tomorrow (rationalization). I’ve committed myself to my martial art and I attend class, practice and workout because I must… in the same way I must wake up tomorrow and go to work.

Second, when I reach a low point I remind myself that how you react to a low point is how you define yourself. You can’t call yourself a committed runner when it’s a sunny day and you feel fantastic and can’t wait to get home and run. You’re a committed runner when its cold / rainy outside and you have a cold (low point) but you never consider not running. In the above running example, I would be reminding myself when i was tying my running shoes that I was facing a low point and looking past it.

How to gain confidence? This is tough one. You have to teach yourself confidence if your parents or environment did not instill it in you. Hummm, really I don’t know how to explain it. To use an old saying, the difference between winners and losers is winners do what losers talk about doing.

How muscle memories makes your training effective? Like everything, the more you do something the better you get. Read this post then try to jump as high as you can (measuring the jump). Then for next month perform strength training on your legs and practice jumping. After a month passes, try jumping and measuring the height of the jump again… you will be able to jump better (I chose not to say jump higher even though you should be able to).

How to control yourself? I have nothing to prove and I don’t put myself in situations where I would need prove something. I don’t know how old you are but age has a lot to do with this. I’m a married guy that is 38 years old so I know trouble from a mile away.

[sensei8]

How to motivate yourself?

Never be satisfied...at anything!! I can always do better!!

How to gain confidence?

I'm always looking for the edge, then when I find it, I jump off the edge!!

How muscle memories makes your training effective?

That's a tricky one there. Are my muscle memories good/bad? Bad muscle memories can be very difficult to correct across the board. Whereas, good muscle memories can be improved upon. But, that very thin line between bad or good muscle memories can be a defined line or a fuzzy line either way. The faster one can recognize the bad muscle memories AND THEN correct it, the better one will be off. It takes time and a keen experienced eye to spot the bad muscle memories, and sometimes, it comes from the least expected source.

How to control yourself?

Emotional content!! Mizu No Kokoro AND Tsuki No Kokoro!!

[sensei8]

How to motivate yourself? I'm a motivated person in general but I have 2 ideologies.

First, everything I decide to do carries a certain amount responsibility and I don’t provide myself with excuses or denials for not taking care of my responsibilities. When I say responsibilities I’m talking about personal as well as professional. Professional responsibilities are easier to satisfy because (1) you’re being paid & (2) someone else is there to remind you need to complete “x”. Personal responsibilities are easy to shrug off… I’m tired tonight I’m not going to run (excuse)… I’m home late so I work workout twice as long tomorrow (rationalization). I’ve committed myself to my martial art and I attend class, practice and workout because I must… in the same way I must wake up tomorrow and go to work.

Second, when I reach a low point I remind myself that how you react to a low point is how you define yourself. You can’t call yourself a committed runner when it’s a sunny day and you feel fantastic and can’t wait to get home and run. You’re a committed runner when its cold / rainy outside and you have a cold (low point) but you never consider not running. In the above running example, I would be reminding myself when i was tying my running shoes that I was facing a low point and looking past it.

How to gain confidence? This is tough one. You have to teach yourself confidence if your parents or environment did not instill it in you. Hummm, really I don’t know how to explain it. To use an old saying, the difference between winners and losers is winners do what losers talk about doing.

How muscle memories makes your training effective? Like everything, the more you do something the better you get. Read this post then try to jump as high as you can (measuring the jump). Then for next month perform strength training on your legs and practice jumping. After a month passes, try jumping and measuring the height of the jump again… you will be able to jump better (I chose not to say jump higher even though you should be able to).

How to control yourself? I have nothing to prove and I don’t put myself in situations where I would need prove something. I don’t know how old you are but age has a lot to do with this. I’m a married guy that is 38 years old so I know trouble from a mile away.

Very solid post sir!!

[GeoGiant]

How to motivate yourself? I'm a motivated person in general but I have 2 ideologies.

First, everything I decide to do carries a certain amount responsibility and I don’t provide myself with excuses or denials for not taking care of my responsibilities. When I say responsibilities I’m talking about personal as well as professional. Professional responsibilities are easier to satisfy because (1) you’re being paid & (2) someone else is there to remind you need to complete “x”. Personal responsibilities are easy to shrug off… I’m tired tonight I’m not going to run (excuse)… I’m home late so I work workout twice as long tomorrow (rationalization). I’ve committed myself to my martial art and I attend class, practice and workout because I must… in the same way I must wake up tomorrow and go to work.

Second, when I reach a low point I remind myself that how you react to a low point is how you define yourself. You can’t call yourself a committed runner when it’s a sunny day and you feel fantastic and can’t wait to get home and run. You’re a committed runner when its cold / rainy outside and you have a cold (low point) but you never consider not running. In the above running example, I would be reminding myself when i was tying my running shoes that I was facing a low point and looking past it.

How to gain confidence? This is tough one. You have to teach yourself confidence if your parents or environment did not instill it in you. Hummm, really I don’t know how to explain it. To use an old saying, the difference between winners and losers is winners do what losers talk about doing.

How muscle memories makes your training effective? Like everything, the more you do something the better you get. Read this post then try to jump as high as you can (measuring the jump). Then for next month perform strength training on your legs and practice jumping. After a month passes, try jumping and measuring the height of the jump again… you will be able to jump better (I chose not to say jump higher even though you should be able to).

How to control yourself? I have nothing to prove and I don’t put myself in situations where I would need prove something. I don’t know how old you are but age has a lot to do with this. I’m a married guy that is 38 years old so I know trouble from a mile away.

Very solid post sir!!

Thanks!