Are We All MAists Crazy Or What!?

[sensei8]

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. ~ Unknown

We MAists, from day one of our MA journey, learn our core style and the like, whatever that might be, without any ambiguity at all.

We drill a quite vastly varied amount, as well as narrowly as necessary, of required floor work, that a MA practitioner might cautiously consider it to be an almost unmanageable, and oftentimes, redundant exercise of futility.

And for what purpose??

To perfect that which we've been taught, and are being taught, ever since the very first day that we shadowed the door of some MA school, for whatever that reason(s) might or might not be.

So are we crazy or what??

Over and over and over and over and over and over...[breathing in very deeply]...and over and over and over and over again...well...you get the point.

That's what we MAist do, without expectations...without notification...without aspirations beyond the desire to improve across the horizon of knowledge and experience; to be complete in ones MA totality, no matter how long that takes, if it takes at all.

Our insanity is not insane!? While we do the same thing over and over, with an unprecedented resolve of determination, expecting our repetitiveness to yield different results, if and when this/these/those results are possible.

We oftentimes wonder if every morsel of training that we gladly do, is worth it all. To have a CI inform us, many years later, that we've still not greatly, if at all, improved in this and that. We believe that our whatever it is pretty darn great...feels great...looks great...to only have the CI dash our hopes and dreams of thinking that I'm showing a modicum of improvement.

Still, I return, more determined than before to improve my MA betterment. This means...and you guessed it...doing even much more of the same things over and over and over and over again, and then some.

Well, I suppose I'm certifiably insane because I've been doing the MA for over 5 decades. Yeah, I must be crazy!!

BUT I WOULDN'T WANT IT ANY OTHER WAY!!

How about you??

[JR 137]

I think you need OCD tendencies to last any length of time in MA. How many times have I done Taikyoku I? How is it I still haven't come close to perfecting it? How is it I haven't given up trying to perfect it? How is it that I keep trying to perfect it, knowing I never will? I've done that kata every class since I first learned it.

We do what we call the 4 block drill - high block, opposite hand high punch; punching hand then does inside-out block, opposite hand middle punch; punching hand low block, opposite hand low punch; punching hand outside-in block, opposite hand middle punch, then other hand middle punch. I learned that one my 3rd month of karate. We did that one at my previous dojo and my current dojo. We do it up and down the dojo floor (the entire sequence is one count) during kihon. Every single class. I honestly can't remember a single class where we didn't do it. Still haven't perfected it yet. Never will. But I'll keep trying

Insanity? Well... I keep doing the same thing over and over, expecting a different result every time And my teacher keeps saying the same things every time, expecting a different result

If you don't have OCD tendencies, karate probably isn't for you.

[Nidan Melbourne]

I like to say that i'm crazy for continuing something whilst others have quit many years ago.

I always get asked how many times i've done certain things in Karate, like certain kata and my response is that i've lost count.

My general response if they ask if i'd done Kata 'A' the same number as Kata 'B'. My response is always "Maybe, I have no clue".

Why do I not know? because that will stop me from progress.

[singularity6]

My instructors thought I'd quit between all the issues I have with my shoulders and hip. Instead I've been using a combination of physical therapy, chiropractic visits and lots of hard work to get things in proper working order so I can continue.

I love this stuff, and I'm committed to continue training for as long as I can!

[bushido_man96]

I don't think we're crazy. We are a determined bunch, though, and probably stubborn to boot. But never crazy...

We do things that by their nature are repetitious, and thus the training is such. To practice your punch, you need to do punches. To practice your front kick, you need to do front kicks. But, we have a plethora of ways to practice these techniques: in the air, on heavy bags or makiwara, we can do speed drills, we can do timing drills, etc. We have good options to train these techniques to change things up and not be quite so repetitious.

[Trailer_Ape]

There is a rap artist (might be Hopsin, not sure) whose lyrics included "I'm not crazy, I'm just not like you" and that is how I see the situation - crazy? Nah. Outside the current social definition of "normal"? Oh yea, by a long shot

[Alan Armstrong]

Martial artists have a reason or method to their madness which is called "self defense" usually against crazy people.

[JazzKicker]

I think it would be crazy to keep doing it in the face of discovering there was a different way, you were wasting your time and even doing more harm than good.

Cognitive dissonance is probably the more accurate psychological term.

Martial arts can be like that, doing things repetitively without question because "it's traditional" or "my instructor said so", and creating a self-reinforcing culture that validates it as right.

I trained hard for 15 years in traditional karate styles, and the time came to branch out. When I got into JKD, it was profoundly liberating.

[Alan Armstrong]

It is crazy not having any self defense skills, knowledge or experience; compounding the craziness by becoming weak and frail due to inactivity and a unhealthy lifestyle, all the while, obliviously traveling on a path paved for victims.

[sensei8]

10,000 punches, kicks, blocks, and strikes later; we're still forging forward to...1,000,000 punches, kicks, blocks, and strikes much later because that's become so engraved in me, what else do I know!!