Damage control
Emotional control is obviously very important in your training. It's actually very important in all aspects of your life, but even more so when training in martial arts. With a high risk of serious injury, the dojo is the last place to lose your temper. Unfortunately, sometimes the combination of competitive drills and stress training, a person's ego or hidden fears can lead to an outburst. Sometimes they are brief moments of losing control and sometimes it's a case of habitual malice in training. Either way, it's like a ticking time bomb in the gym. Emotional control is also a reflection of the person's level of ability as well. I consider complete control to be the highest level of performance and that's the kind of discipline that can save your life or the life of a loved one. Also, anyone who competes in combat sports understands that a lack of emotional control can lead someone to giving up as soon as things don't go their way. Like in any sport, you can't go far without heart.
Keep it cool
It's important to recognize the signs. Most of the time you know how you're feeling before training and you need to keep that in mind during a session. When you're getting warmed up, make sure to ask yourself what kind of day you're having. If you're tired, stressed, frustrated or under the weather, remind yourself that you might be a bit off and prepare to accept that. When I can honestly admit these things to myself, I feel good about showing up, become aware that I might not perform at my usual standard and look forward to the feeling that i turned my day around by training. It feels good to not let an excuse make you lazy. Remind yourself of that, no matter how hard it feels to train that day and you'll have a more positive experience during your session.
Stay loose
When I'm feeling confident and calm, my body stays loose and responsive during a fight. When I feel stressed and angry, my body tenses up and becomes restricted (among other negative side effects). On the other hand, when my body feels relaxed my mind calms down. The same goes for the negative opposite. One state can, and often does, trigger the other. It's important to understand that we are completely in control of this. Not every day will be a perfect day, where the body is healthy and the mind is calm. A lot of times you'll have more of one than the other. When you're feeling stressed or frustrated or just mentally off for any reason, act like you're not feeling that way physically. Take a second to remember those days where it all synced and act it out. I noticed that as soon as I start moving confidently (even if it is acting), my breathing becomes controlled and my mind finds its focus. It goes the other way too. When I was coming off my last injury, I went into every sparring session with a lot of tension in the body but a confident focus. Because my mind was calm, my body loosened up. When you focus on one, you'll get the other. Make sure you're body and mind are working together as much as you can.
Meditate
When it comes to training in combat, I can't stress the importance of meditation enough! It is often neglected in modern training, for some reason, but it is really important to take the time to reflect on certain goals and motivations for training. I noticed that the sport side to martial arts have lost this important part of being a warrior. Meditation allows us to reflect on our own journey, recent improvements, our next step and goals, why we train, why we started training, where our training will take us and even to remember the people before us who made it possible for some of these styles to exist for so long. As often as you can, find a comfortable position such as kneeling, sitting cross-legged or even lying on your back. Close your eyes, tense and then relax each muscle group until you've removed any unnecessary tension and take long breathes. Inhale through your nose and exhale out of your mouth. Take a few minutes to allow any thought to surface and like a bubble reaching the top, let it pass. Eventually you're mind will be calm and free and you can take the time to reflect on your training. Doing this regularly will keep you level headed and clear in your training.
Others
Unfortunately, sometimes no matter how much you work to improve yourself you might just get stuck with a partner that has no intention of maintaining control. That's just part of the game. In a scenario where the exercises are becoming aggressive, there are only a few places that can go. Some of the options are to allow the drill to keep escalating, let them continue to be the aggressor until you stray from the drill or get hurt or just stop and explain that they're going to hard and no one's actually learning anything. Most of the time that's all it takes. Sadly, sometimes that doesn't seem to register. In those cases I recommend switching partners. I've seen too often someone get injured because they were too shy to just switch. The only thing that can happen is having the drill digress into a fight or just "taking it". Both of these outcomes can lead to injury. There's a time and place for everything in training.
So despite not being able to control another person's emotional control, it is our responsibility to control ours. There's a lot we can do to keep ourselves in check. It's normal to get frustrated or distracted; we can't be perfect all the time. As long as we can identify the symptoms and regularly work to rid ourselves of this kind of tension, this shouldn't be too much of an issue in training. When you feel like you've gained a good sense of control over this, make sure to keep your eye out for those that are struggling with this. Reach out and offer them a hand. If that doesn't work, punch them. Calmly.
Jordan Bill
Fight or Die
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