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| Lansdale's Self Defense Systems |
June 09, 1999
Volume 2, Issue 1 |
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"... every repeated mental or physical action, whether positive or negative in nature, begins to build up in the subconscious to form a habit.."- - H.E. Davey (Unlocking The Secrets of Aiki-Jujutsu)
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"STICKING" - MAINTAINING GROWTH |
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| Sticking is one of our principles of self defense. This is also a principle of many of the best martial arts, but there's another kind of sticking. Sticking to task. It's always easier to quit than to continue. Even if it's something you enjoy. It happens all the time. Even missing training now and then can lead to more missing. It doesn't take much to break the habit of training, because training requires effort. Delayed progress can cause a student to quit. They reach a certain level, then feel as if they just can't break out of the box they're in, or fear they may even be slipping backwards, so they become discouraged. I call this Plateau syndrome. All students and instructors experience it. Most students can't overcome it. Many instructors can't. Riding this wave up and over is the key to being a good martial artist. But before we discuss plateaus, let's discuss the kind of students you see in a martial arts school. Many are good, solid dedicated students, but the following are a variety that we encounter on a regular basis. I've been a student and/or taught, or been involved with students of the martial arts all my life. I used to teach privately, or held small classes in semi-privacy, and eventually I began to operate a school. But no matter how I trained or taught, I encountered the same kind of students from year to year. One of the most common is what I call the Fisher. He's fishing for what he wants, but he doesn't know what it is. First off, I'm a big believer in cross training, examination of other systems, but not for the hell of it. You end up dabbling if you take a little Judo, a little karate, a little this, a little that. You talk to someone who is twenty-one and they've taken seven arts for a month or so each and dropped them, this is not cross training. This is fishing. They've most likely wasted a lot of time. The Fisher doesn't know what he or she wants, but whatever it is, it always seems to be just over the horizon. I know of one student we taught for several months in Shen Chuan, who though pretty good, decided to quit, for whatever reason. But I had gotten several hints from him that he didn't want to do the Self-Defense system because it hurt. He wanted sparring. This hurts too, in a different way, but that's not the point here. We're talking about his perceptions. Well, we offer sparring, and he came in, looked over the sparring class, and decided that wasn't what he wanted either. Wrong size gloves. Really? I said he could wear whatever size he wanted. No. He didn't like the rules, and quoted one to me. I told him that was no rule of mine or Sensei Metteauer's. He looked crest fallen. This was a rule he hoped we had because more sport-oriented systems did have it. He thought he had come up with a face-saving way out. I offered him other options. He didn't want Combat Hapkido. Too many locks. He didn't like Aikido. Not practical. He asked if we had ground grappling. When I informed him we have it within the context of Shen Chuan and Combat Hapkido, but not as a separate art, I saw his eyes light up. A way out. He feigned disappointment and left me his phone number. He wanted me to call him when we finally had groundwork. I put the number in the trash. We are working on developing more groundwork now, not for his sake, but what do you want to bet that the moment we have it, he'll want something else. He's like the goat who sticks his head through the fence and chews the grass on the other side, but if he somehow ends up on the other side, this isn't what he wants either. He wants another pasture. Folks like this really don't want to commit to anything, because that requires effort, or, they're looking for magic, or that system over the rainbow. Then there's The Ball of Fire. We've had a number of these. They come in, they're excited, they can't believe what we do is available. They love everything about it. They buy uniforms, patches, memberships, everything right away. They want to eventually teach. Maybe even open their own school. They stick around after class to talk about what they've learned. They work hard, and they're often very good. They show up at all the classes, jet through the first couple of belts, maybe in a couple of systems, then about the time they reach a level where it's harder, where they have to work the techniques over and over, they begin to look bored, miss classes, fail to listen to instruction, keep making the same mistakes, and fall off the plateau and into a trough, and disappear. They've burned out. They've done it to themselves. They don't have the patience, the endurance, the pacing, required to stick with anything and really learn it. They're always of the opinion that their great knowledge is being ignored, or that they're not getting enough personalized instruction. These kind of folks will often come back at a later date, see students they started with wearing high ranks, and say:" If I'd kept at it, this is where I'd be." Sometimes this doesn't mean anything, but it's almost like the call of The Ball of Fire. When they rejoin, if they rejoin, and don't catch up with these people over night, guess what, they're gone again. And this time for good. I think it's interesting that these students often have true ability and intelligence. They could be good. But their over inflated opinion of their self worth, measuring themselves against others, outruns their efforts. Then there's the Drifter. They train hard at first, like the Ball of Fire, but pretty soon become content to settle at one level and drift. He or she is almost determined to make the same mistakes. No matter how many times you explain them, correct them, they don't want to make the effort to change. Perhaps, deep down, they believe their way is better. My opinion is this. It might be. But most likely, without training, your method is not better. It's just what you like to do. In time, after you've learned what's offered, then you may have the Judgement to make changes. But not before. Anyway, this Drifter will float at this level for a long time. They will often attempt to teach what they don't know, (sometimes they'll take it on themselves to teach a partner they're working with, even if the partner obviously has more experience) or play at something other than what they're supposed to be practicing right then. Finally, they quit, come back months later, float back to this level again, and drift. They may in fact do this two or three times over a couple years, quitting, coming back, drifting, and finally, realizing they aren't getting better, and aren't likely to get better, and will not be given rank for just hanging around, (some schools will give rank for showing up year in, year out, but we won't) they disappear. Showing up is fifty percent, talent about ten percent, and hard work make up the rest. The Burrower is the sort of student who may in fact reach black belt, but he or she begins to measure himself against others. They always see themselves as deserving, but they get all the bad breaks. Life is against them. They see students getting better, reaching or surpassing their level. And instead of wanting to push to be better, they feel the progress of others alone should push them into a higher rank. They are in constant competition with others, but never in competition with the most important person of all; Themselves. They take another tact. They worked hard to get to where they are, and by golly, they aren't about to learn anything knew. Punch and kick is good enough for them, or lock and throw. They burrow in where it's safe and stay there. They like to say, "I'd just kick him and it would be over." Or "I'd just lock him and throw him and it would be over." Whatever their particular area of knowledge, that's where they wish to remain. They often don't lock, throw, or kick as well as they could either, because they've quit learning. They may even secretly suspect or know this themselves, therefore, the excuses. Of course, the students surpassing them are doing so because they are expanding their knowledge. The Burrower, instead of admitting there are things he or she doesn't know, digs in deeper, becomes more determined to not learn anything new, least they fail at it. They want the tried and true, or at least what they perceive as the tried and true, because this way they never have to take the chance of failing. They may stay on this plateau for a long time, years even, but eventually they start finding excuses. The instructor just won't promote me. He doesn't like me. He likes the others better. He's jealous of me. My work keeps me from coming in. My family life. My age. My income. Boredom (no wonder they're bored). Some excuse or another. And finally, they quit. The Tough Guy, always a male, usually big or strong, or both, maybe someone who views himself as a brawler, wants to come in and show how tough they are. They want to fight against learning the technique, slam their partner when it's their turn, and they want to make sure you know they don't need training. More often than not these are the guys wouldn't last thirty seconds with a good martial artist, and we've had to discourage a few of them. Sometimes they are natural fighters, and you can see it in their sparring, or the way they attack a self-defense technique. But they feel so successful with their strength, their power, it never occurs to them that they'd be three times better with technique. It never occurs to them that there's always someone stronger, younger, and they are aging every day. Concepts and principles applied to technique are more important as far as martial arts go, and are ultimately better than brute strength in the long run. This is not to dismiss strength. Strength can often override technique, but most of the time, technique is better. And if you're powerful with technique, well, the results are obvious. All else equal, a good strong man can beat a good weak man any day. However, a good, maybe not so strong man, can often beat a stronger man who has no knowledge of strategy or method. Also, there's a difference in being able to defend yourself quickly and escape instead of trying to consciously square off and show who's the toughest. That's not the same thing, but we'll save that discussion for another time. PLATEAUS: |
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