Consistency is Key
I recently attended a seminar given by a very famous martial artist. During the seminar, the participants partnered up and worked on drills that he demonstrated. One of his most impressive skills was his ability to land every kick in the EXACT same spot, consistently. My partner and I, both black belts with multiple years of experience in martial arts, struggled to merely execute the techniques properly, let alone to be concerned with consistency. And yet, isn’t consistency the key to success or failure?
defines “consistent” as:
1. Agreeing or accordant; compatible; not self-contradictory
2. Constantly adhering to the same principles, course, form, etc: a consistent opponent.
3. Holding firmly together; cohering.
4. Archaic. fixed; firm.
I really like the first definition, “not self-contradictory.” Consistency then means that if I am to be successful in martial arts, I must make a commitment to practice. If I fail to practice but still continue attending classes and seminars, then I become a phony. My teachers and I will know that I have failed to practice because my skills will wane. I will fail to be consistent and success will elude me. I will feel stress from the clash of my mental desire to be successful and my failure to practice.
However, if I spend time in practice, my skills will improve and my mental goals will be realized by my physical practice. My mind and body will become partners in seeking my goals and the stress from being contradictory will vanish. Once my mind and body merge, success will surely follow.
For example, when I reached a higher belt level in Tae Kwon Do, the practice time required to attain the next belt increased significantly. The bar was raised much higher from “intermediate” to “advanced” and I struggled during one of my tests. Although I passed, my teacher was disappointed and reiterated that I must understand the difficulty that was before me. I balked for a while and felt like quitting altogether, but I didn’t.
As in definition number four, I held firm. I became resolute in my decision to attain the goal of black belt and I eventually made it. It took three-and-one-half years to earn the belt, and earning it was the hardest task I have ever undertaken. Had I failed to practice consistently, I would have never made the rank of black belt.
However, will I ever achieve the level of success that will propel me to fame and fortune? I doubt it. As with anything, achieving a very high level of proficiency requires many, many years spent in practice and training. I will not achieve that level of technical success because I do not practice daily. I have chosen to move in a different direction and now consider my ultimate goal more of a “dream” that I may or may not realize. My mind and body agree and I am at peace with my decision.
Perhaps, though, you have a goal that is languishing that you have a deep desire to achieve. Do you want to lose weight, stop smoking, complete your degree, find a new job or spend more time with your kids? Consistency will help you realize that goal.…
You could go to self defense classes every week and feel pretty confident about being able to take care of yourself but unless you have a set of effective self defense tactics, you could be in for a nasty surprise one day. Just because you know a few maneuvers doesn’t mean that you are any less likely to get attacked. A thug will not suddenly look at you and say to themselves ‘oh, that person knows self defense, I better run along’. No attacker knows the strengths of their victim, all they see is weakness. And no amount of martial arts techniques you have learned recently will save you from their clutches unless you have some plan of action. This is necessary to ensure that you don’t freeze when it comes to the crunch.
Imagine for just a moment that we developed a system of auditory symbols that also had visual conterparts, and let’s say for example, that there was an auditory symbol that sounded like this: “ahh.” This same symbol had a visual representation associated with it that we could reproduce for our eyes, and it looked like: “A.” Furthermore, we all agreed that we would use this set of symbols according to a set of basic rules, whereby we could use them independently or in various combinations to express concepts and ideas. Finally, we agreed that the sole purpose of these symbols was so that we could share our thoughts with others, and conversely, that they could share their thoughts with us. Well, that is language.
As a Martial Artist I am a big advocate of Seminar training. There are many reasons that attending seminars and workshops will help you quickly develop your training as a Martial Artist. You would be amazed how many instructors discourage you from attending seminars, while others will only encourage you to attend ones at your school or from your discipline. Seminar training can be beneficial to strengthen your training within your discipline as well as add new elements to your game. Here are the reasons I feel that Seminars are essential for an aspiring Mixed Martial Artist.
When you hear the term ‘military self defense’ you automatically think of Green Berets dismantling an attacker with precision moves that an ordinary person could never learn. To be honest, no regular citizen will be able to fight like a marine or soldier because they have years and in some cases decades of training behind them. Yet you have instructors trying teach some of these martial arts techniques in the same way as it would be taught to a military person which is completely wrong. As already stated, these men and women are physically elite so what is taught to them is not applicable to 99% of the population. While this doesn’t mean that the techniques they learn are redundant, it is clear that there are problems with the way they are taught.
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