Halastana Web

In some areas of life, tension can be a good thing…at least in the short term. Tension can motivate us to complete a task. From my experience, this isn’t true for sportsman and woman. In martial arts, increased tension can slow your movements, can dull your brain and make you a soft target.

Is your heart racing even before you have started your exercise and you feel rushed and panicked?

Are the weeks leading up to a grading, demonstration or competition characterised by a disrupted sleep pattern and a stomach full of knots? If so, it is likely that you are tense and the resultant tiredness and lack of energy simply feedsback to your mind and you tell yourself that you are not going to succeed.

This negativity will stop you from performing well on the day even if at every training session your flying around the dojo and nailing each move at every attempt. Unfortunately, turning off the tension is not like switching off a light bulb; its not easy but it can and should be done.
There are two areas of your body that need to relax; firstly, the mind and secondly, everything else! I dont believe the two can be seperated.

To help relax the mind, start by ditching all stressful thinking and replace it with more pleasurable thoughts. Completely switch of the stress inducing thoughts; put them in a mental bucket as you go through the day and then empty your bucket before you start training. Okay, your bucket might fill up again during the next day due to the pressures of work and modern life but you can empty the bucket as many times as you like and as often as you like.

If you find the visualisation technique described above a little too ‘out there’, then try this instead…day dream. Imagine yourself somewhere nice, doing something fun and relaxing with people that keep you calm. This should lead to you feeling good and happy about life. When you bring yourself back to reality, keep a grasp of those good feelings you have just generated.

The most useful tip for keeping yourself mentally relaxed may come across as a little harsh, but here goes… do not surround yourself with people or situations that get you stressed. You might know someone with the kind of personallity that generally brings people down, if so, have as little to do with them as possible. Life is far too short to let other people drive a wedge between you and your deserved peace of mind.

In the Martial Arts, physical relaxation is heavily influenced by the exercises and stretching that you do with your instructor. But I believe that you can practice total body relaxation at any point during the day which, in the long term, will help you become a relaxed individual. One simple exercise is to tense your muscles and then relax them, making sure you can clearly differentiate between the two sensations. Relaxing from an enforced muscle tension can force your body to relax.

Obviously, for many Martial Arts regular stretching is required to help reach your potential.
I’m not a doctor or physician and have only my experience to support this, but I do believe that through simple exercises such as the ones above, we can become more relaxed and de-stressed. This can only help us with our martial arts training.

David S Evans, co-founder of UK-MartialArtist.co.uk, Martial Arts Resource and BigRedBall website design, Birmingham (UK).

Everyday, hundreds and perhaps thousands of men and women think about taking martial arts lessons. I know because I hear from them constantly, either by way of email, phone, or in letters mailed to the academy.

The vast majority are, more-often-than not, trapped in this “thinking about it” stage and will never take that next, most important step to making it happen. And, it’s sad really.

While the reasons vary as to why each person wants to involve themselves in the martial arts…

1. Self-defense…

3. An affinity for the East or the concept of Warriorship, and…

4. Many more too numerous to list here

…the point is that each sees what he or she needs to feel more confident, powerful, or in-control of his or her life through the study and practice of the martial arts.

Why then, are these well-meaning individuals stuck in, what Dr. Seuss called, “The Waiting Place?”

Perhaps one of the reasons is that each believes that he or she must have certain skills or abilities before they can begin.

Perhaps they believe that their situation, with work schedules, a limited budget, or their physical fitness and level of health, is unique to themselves.

Maybe they believe that they should already possess certain life-skills like discipline, focus, and anything else besides their apparent heart-felt desire to begin.

And maybe, just maybe, they’re afraid that others with more experience in the academy will make fun of them, or look down on them in some way because they’re a beginner and don’t know very much.

As a senior practitioner who has been involved in the study and practice of the martial arts for self-defense and every other reason listed here for over two-thirds of my life, I’d like to quite possibly be the first to say that…

You don’t need any skills and abilities, life or other BEFORE beginning your training. You don’t need to be in any sort of “perfect shape” or have rock-solid discipline, commitment, or focus, either. That would be like putting the cart before the horse for these are the things that you will be learning…

…as a part of your martial arts study!

No. The only thing that you need to match, what apparently is a heartfelt desire to begin your martial arts training, is a willingness to take that first step. And, where else, but as a “beginner” would you start? We were all beginners once and I think the best of us stay that way, in heart, mind, and spirit – forever.

I do know this, however. If you wait for the “right time.” If you wait to be properly “motivated,” or for your schedule to “free up,” or to have more money…

If you… (fill in the blank for you)…

… It will quite-likely never happen for you and you will live out one of the fears that keeps me and many other successful people moving…

… the fear that, on my death-bed, I will regret NOT following my dreams – not living the life I always wanted.

You see, where most people are stopped by the fear of failure, the fear of fear, all the “things” that become the “reason” for NOT doing…

I am driven by the knowledge that I will forever regret NOT taking action.

So… It’s time to decide.

Take action, or…

…live with yourself for not doing so.

The choice is yours.

Jeffrey M. Miller is the founder and master instructor of Warrior Concepts International. A senior teacher in the Japanese warrior art of Ninjutsu, he specializes in teaching the ancient ways of self-protection and personal development lessons in a way that is easily understood and put to use by modern Western students and corporate clients. Through their martial arts training, his students and clients learn proven, time-tested lessons designed to help them create the life they’ve always dreamed of living, and the skills necessary for protecting that life from anything that might threaten it. To learn more about his seminars, camps and other subjects related to the martial arts, self-defense, personal development & self-improvement, visit his website at http://www.warrior-concepts-online.com To subscribe to his online newsletter, go to http://www.warrior-concepts-online.com/newsletter-subscribe-self-defense.html

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