Dealing with mortality.

[bushido_man96]

I think it is important to realize that this can happen. By knowing this can happen, its make us realize that once a fight is on, we must drive through all the pain and agony of what is happening to us in order to survive and go on. Its not good to think to yourself, "I could die here, I could die here," but its important to realize you could, and therefore think, "I'm going to get through this, I'm going to live through this, I'm going to survive." In essence, you can't really have one thought without the other.

More to come on this, to be sure. I'm not quite finished here, so I apologize if my thoughts seem a bit incomplete. A great idea for a topic.

[Groinstrike]

I once read on a plaque in our shop class the following:

There In life, there are only two things to worry about: Either you are well or you are sick.

If you are well, then there is nothing to worry about. But if you are sick, then there are two things to worry about: Either you will get well, or you will die.

If you get well, there is nothing to worry about. But if you die, then there are only two things to worry about: Either you will go to heaven or hell.

If you go to heaven, there is nothing to worry about. But if you go to hell, you'll be so busy shaking hands with your friends, you won't have time to worry.

I think I'm on board with that. I wouldn't say that I'm reckless, but at this point I don't really concern myself with death. It just doesn't matter - if I do what I'm supposed to do in life, if I make the right decisions and choices and still end up dead...then there wasn't much I could do about it.

As for the best way to die, I'd go for slow and painful: it gives you an opportunity to come to terms with it, and have a great deal of feeling before you never feel anything again. Anyhow, I hate surprises - slowly cut me into pieces with a dull chainsaw.

Was that plaque in Tharp or Zerrusens class???

Very interesting view on death, had not thought of that before.

[Liver Punch]

That's was a Joe Z plaque...along with a whole lot of other ones with too much profanity to post here.

[sensei8]

How I deal with mortality is by not talking about it or worrying about it because the end, imho, well, it's just not good.

Year after year, there's more and more empty chairs around the dinner table than the year before.

[MasterPain]

How I deal with mortality is by not talking about it or worrying about it because the end, imho, well, it's just not good.

Year after year, there's more and more empty chairs around the dinner table than the year before.

I mean no disrespect, but you are the age of LP, GS and my parents.

How would your answer have differed 20 years ago?

I know my view is different than it was 10 years ago. I'm seeing things your way more and more. I lost a nephew a couple years ago, and some of my friends, so the holidays are hard.

[sensei8]

How I deal with mortality is by not talking about it or worrying about it because the end, imho, well, it's just not good.

Year after year, there's more and more empty chairs around the dinner table than the year before.

I mean no disrespect, but you are the age of LP, GS and my parents.

How would your answer have differed 20 years ago?

I know my view is different than it was 10 years ago. I'm seeing things your way more and more. I lost a nephew a couple years ago, and some of my friends, so the holidays are hard.

20 years ago...same answer...the end is not good!!

[bushido_man96]

If you want to win, you can't worry about losing. If you've never considered death, even an early and untimely end, then you are mentally allowing a road bump to creep into your self defense efforts. Acceptance of this possibility is a must for anyone studying martial arts for combative purposes.

I think you make a good point here. At some point, it needs to be addressed, and I think most people don't either assume others address it to themselves in some brief way, just by accepting their own mortality, or don't know how, or want, to address it in their classes.

I think once an instructor starts talking about self-defense, he/she needs to discuss why we defend ourselves. Most likely, its because someone wants to hurt us, maybe bad enough to kill us. Then start the addressing from there.

I've heard and seen written many times from Martial Artists the thoughts or ideas that they would kill if they had to. I think to myself, "Really?" I want to break that discussion down with them at times. Say to them, "Imagine yourself killing someone in self-defense. Don't just say it. See that scenario play out in you head. See yourself crushing someone's throat, and imagine the sound it makes. Grab some fruit and squish it with your two hands, and imagine that is your hand on someone's throat, because they were trying to kill you. Now flip it, and imagine those things happening to you. Because that is what a killer wants to do to you, either with his hands, or a weapon." Now at that point, we've got a much more interesting conversation going on.

Maybe I got a bit off track there, but I think it meshes with the overall concept of the thread here. I think to maximize training effiency, we have to get to this point.

Now, once you get to training, you don't want your students to "lose" in training. We have to have them keep fighting until the criteria of the scenario is met in which they "win," which would equate to "living." But that's another thread, I guess.

[Groinstrike]

If you want to win, you can't worry about losing. If you've never considered death, even an early and untimely end, then you are mentally allowing a road bump to creep into your self defense efforts. Acceptance of this possibility is a must for anyone studying martial arts for combative purposes.

I think you make a good point here. At some point, it needs to be addressed, and I think most people don't either assume others address it to themselves in some brief way, just by accepting their own mortality, or don't know how, or want, to address it in their classes.

I think once an instructor starts talking about self-defense, he/she needs to discuss why we defend ourselves. Most likely, its because someone wants to hurt us, maybe bad enough to kill us. Then start the addressing from there.

I've heard and seen written many times from Martial Artists the thoughts or ideas that they would kill if they had to. I think to myself, "Really?" I want to break that discussion down with them at times. Say to them, "Imagine yourself killing someone in self-defense. Don't just say it. See that scenario play out in you head. See yourself crushing someone's throat, and imagine the sound it makes. Grab some fruit and squish it with your two hands, and imagine that is your hand on someone's throat, because they were trying to kill you. Now flip it, and imagine those things happening to you. Because that is what a killer wants to do to you, either with his hands, or a weapon." Now at that point, we've got a much more interesting conversation going on.

Maybe I got a bit off track there, but I think it meshes with the overall concept of the thread here. I think to maximize training effiency, we have to get to this point.

Now, once you get to training, you don't want your students to "lose" in training. We have to have them keep fighting until the criteria of the scenario is met in which they "win," which would equate to "living." But that's another thread, I guess.

Great Post Brian!!!!

[bushido_man96]

Thanks, GS. I was hoping I wasn't getting too graphic with it.