The Belt System

Having a ranking system in your martial arts training is a subject of some controversy. Many argue that the ranks are irrelevant, while traditionalists maintain that it is necessary to learning. I'm far from a traditionalist, but this system has worked for so long and helped me set and achieve goals in my own training. I also train and teach styles that don't have any kind of rank distinction, so I have a base for comparison. I respect the fact that everyone has their own reasons for their preferences, but the following are a few reasons why I support ranks and belts in my training curriculum.

1. Structure in learning
By establishing a curriculum, a ranking system will help distinguish what techniques and concepts should be emphasized for each student. Obviously students with a strong foundation will be advancing at a different rate than others, so the belt system will also help each student learn according to their needs. The lower ranks should work mostly on the foundations of the style, intermediate level students should be training to learn counters and strategy to execute their techniques and advance level practitioners will focus on advanced techniques and applications. Ranks also help us determine how to properly test certain students in exams to evaluate their progress. It really helps to organize the best way to teach a new student.

2. Setting the standard
When you achieve certain ranks, you will develop a certain standard of performance of yourself. This is a good thing, because with every rank comes more confidence. Belt exams have been some of the hardest accomplishments of my life and when you're putting that new belt on for the first time it feels amazing. Acknowledging your level of expertise will force you to admit that you're getting better, therefore removing all excuses in your training. In certain styles (like Kempo Jujitsu, for example) it is also possible to be demoted a rank. This added stress also helps in staying motivated and focused. Overcoming these challenges has directly improved my ability to deal with stress everywhere in my life. Stay confident and proud of how far you've come.

3. Beating a higher rank
As some of you may have experienced, there are few experiences as satisfying as beating someone of a higher rank. In most styles, your belt level isn't solely based on your ability to compete (there are specific requirements at each level), but their rank does indicate that they've been training longer and been through more exams than you. It is a great achievement and should just fuel the fire to train more. My belt was never a limit to how much I could learn, just a constant reminder of how much further i should push myself. I'll admit now that in my more arrogant days higher belts were a sort of target for me in training. Don't worry, most of the time my ass was promptly handed back to me. That just kept me training and trying harder all the time. My rank always made sure that I was always humbled and always hungry. That should never change.

4. Target on your back
Reaching higher ranks will continue to train you in stress management. As I mentioned, it feels great to tie off that belt for the last time and putting on your new one, but that feeling is quickly bumped aside when you feel the lingering looks of everyone in your dojo. Like it or not, the higher your rank the bigger the target on your back. I admitted earlier that I would deliberately seek out higher ranks in training and I quickly learned that it goes both ways. This constant pressure will also keep making you better. I often sign off with "Fight or Die" and this is because of something my sensei told me on the day that I earned my black belt. He explained to me that most people see black belts as being indestructible, so the challenges won't just increase in numbers but also in intensity. He wasn't lying! I've been fighting my ass off ever since that day and that has allowed me to really improve fast. I'm challenged every time I teach a class or seminar and I take no offence to that at all. I enjoy the challenge and appreciate the people who would like to train with me.

These are just some observations I've made that differ from when I'm training or teaching a non-ranking system. There isn't the same level of pressure or accountability, but these aren't fatal differences in your training. Just some reasons why the belt system is a preference of mine. We each need and look for different experiences in our training so make sure you're clear on what works best for you. Find the methods that bring out the best of what you have to offer and stick to it!

Jordan Bill
Fight or Die

www.ScrapyardFighting.com
www.CombatSystema.com
youtube.com/ScrapyardMartialArts
twitter.com.Scrapyard514

Fighting Angry

Every sport fighting fan loves a good grudge match, myself included. It's always fun to get into a good dramatic story on why two people should throw down. The best fights are often motivated by the need to win something, like a championship or avoiding an elimination in a tournament. A grudge match, however, is totally different. Often the fighters' top priority is to hurt their opponent or make them look bad. The audience usually eats this up because the need to assert dominance is often more entertaining. When there's something like a title on the line, fights are often defensive and highly technical, which doesn't always sell as well. Angry fights, on the other hand, are all about offense. This is not always the most intelligent approach. Good for fans, bad for the fighters.

Lost Focus
For me, the most important thing in a fight is to keep the brain goal-oriented. This enables us to stay cognitive and keep the reptilian brain from taking over. By staying engaged with our thought process, we can focus on ending the fight while taking as little damage as possible. We can control the pace and keep our strategies sharp. Your ability to adapt goes out the window when you decide to just rage out. A fighter who can keep his cool will solve this problem in no time. If you're only goal is to hurt your opponent, then you might be at a loss after you land your first punch. If he's still standing after that and you can't come up with a new plan, you'll inevitably just repeat your plan. You'll be stuck in a loop, so to speak, because you've shut off the intelligent part of your brain and can't adapt. Stay sharp and stay smart.

Tension
Letting yourself indulge in anger when you're fighting won't just make your mind freeze, but your body also. Anger leads to tension, which reduces mobility. This will also increase your heart rate (like it needed to be higher in a fight) and tire you out faster. Your muscles will tense up and you'll feel stiff. Your mobility will be greatly reduced, which will make it challenging to keep up. So now you'll be unable to stick to a smart strategy, run out of breath and not be able to move as much. This is all before your opponent even throws a punch! Fighting is hard enough, don't make it worse.

Taking Damage
There's a common expression in sports: "Defense wins championships". This is a strategy that requires some fore brain activity. You have to be able to think to enforce this concept. The idea for intelligent fighters is to win while taking as little damage as possible. This isn't such a priority when someone loses their temper. I've seen it happen and felt this myself (younger days, thanks to my corner for correcting that). When you're motivated by malice, you stop caring about your well-being. This shortens careers, kills brain cells, will get you killed in a street fight and often cost you the match. Also emotional control is a matter of discipline, which is a reflection of your training.

Getting mad and losing your temper often means that there's an insecurity that has been exposed. In fighting, people are often angry because they might not think they can win. Not every time, but often if someone makes it personal with me, I see it as an act of over-compensation. Losing your temper is losing control. Train hard, stay disciplined and push yourself regularly. Keep cool, stay healthy and keep winning.

Jordan Bill
Fight or Die

www.ScrapyardFighting.com
www.CombatSystema.com

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Visualization: Keep it real

"Visualizing" is a word that gets thrown around a lot, especially in the world of fighting and training. The concept is often encouraged, but rarely elaborated. Guided meditation drills and role playing in your training can help you focus on the context of what and why you're training. Sometimes, however, we get too caught up in the idea of fighting for our lives in an alley somewhere and we get carried away in training. Out of fear, we compete instead of practice, which can hinder us just as much. It's hard to learn anything new or practice your timing when your stress is too high. A careful balance needs to be established in our training and one of the best ways to find this "sweet spot" is to meditate on the two extremes.

Not Enough
If we don't remind ourselves why we're training and take some time to imagine the scenario that would cause us to fight then the greater purpose is lost. Instead, we risk getting caught up with competitive drills and unrealistic techniques. We forgot how/why we'd be fighting. It's like seeing someone with perfect timing on the pad drills, but have never punched someone or been punched. Warning signs of this include getting distracted with irrelevant details, concern with how you "look" when doing the exercise and overly concerned with labels and names of everything. A punch to the nose and suddenly everything is grouped into two piles:  techniques that will make this stop and everything else. Those are the important details. To fix any issue resulting with under-visualization, train harder. And by "train harder", I really mean "hit harder". Any kind of role playing or reality simulations you can add to your training, periodically, will greatly improve your ability to understand the reality of defending yourself.

Over Visualization
Don't over do it. I see people become too competitive in their training (usually beginners) and they stray from the focus of the exercises. A lot of times this comes from a fear and over compensation. When someone is insecure with an aspect of their training or their overall abilities, they often try to avoid confronting this area by being over aggressive in their drills. This is like pretending you didn't hear the question because you don't know the answer. There's only one way to get better and that's by constantly visiting your weak areas and improving them, not hiding behind your comfort zone. When this happens in training, you're not only removing yourself from the exercise, but also depriving your partner of the chance to improve also. Stay focused. Save the fighting for the street.

Meditate
Keeping your training in context shouldn't be difficult for you. You know why you're training and each drill should be relevant to some kind of fighting context or skill set development. When you see someone stray from the focus, this usually means that they need work in this area, but opted to go to a place that is more comfortable for them. No one is improving anything this way. If you're partnered with someone, frequently take them out of that zone, stop the drill, remind them what the focus of the exercise is and reset. Stop them every time or you're running the risk of getting lost in some competitive battle of egos. Meditate regularly on the two extremes of focus and keep yourself grounded in the middle. You showed up to the dojo to leave a slightly different person. Make sure you get what you're working for.

Jordan Bill
Fight or Die

www.scrapyardfighting.com
www.combatsystema.com
twitter.com/scrapyard514
youtube.com/scrapyardmartialarts

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Fear

"The enemy is fear. We think it is hate; but, it is fear."
Gandhi

We all know that we don't like fear, but often just go through life knowing that and doing little else. Fear is something that should be identified and confronted all the time. We use it as a gauge to see if our weaknesses are occupying too much of our brain. We often fail to overcome our fears because it's easier to just allow it to exist in our consciousness and not have to face them, but as time goes on these fears become stronger and more dominant. Consider fear a harmful bacteria for your spirit. If left unattended, it will multiply and spread, much like a cancer. To achieve our goals and live a life we deserve, we should regularly visit what scares us and try to overcome it or, at least, stop them from growing.

Don't Freeze
So we know that fear is unpleasant, but we don't always realize how damaging it can be in a crisis. We encourage people to confront their fears because in moments of crisis, the fear can take over and stop us from making intelligent decisions that could save our lives or the lives of loved ones. When fear takes over, you'll feel like someone with really cold hands has grabbed your heart and started squeezing. It becomes hard to think, breathe or even move when this happens. This is because our cognitive minds have been turned off and we're regressing into an animal state of flight or fight. Sadly, depending on the level of violence of the crisis, the "fight or flight" response is sometimes forced into a "fight or die" situation. We couldn't ever train to a point where we'd be totally comfortable with an uncontrolled violent scenario forced onto us, but if we are honest about our fears and train ourselves regularly, there are some ways of staying cognitive and, at least, improve our chances. Fighting a situation is hard enough, don't add to it by having to fight yourself also.

Problem Solving
Fear will tense our muscles, therefore causing them to respond slower to the demands of our brain. Fear will create a chaotic environment that could result in hundreds of different outcomes, changing every second, therefore giving the unfocused mind too much to calculate and cause that "mind spinning" feeling.  To make things worse, fear will cause shallow breathing, therefore not using approximately two-thirds of our lung capacity (hyperventilating), therefore not allowing enough oxygen travel to the brain or muscles. Your fear is a double agent, living in your body, but actually working for the enemy. You can't be prepared for every possible scenario, but there are things you can do to keep your brain on your team. Keep the cognitive mind engaged and you can avoid many of these effects of fear. The mind is goal-oriented, so keep thinking. A lack of goals will result in chaos, keep control by speaking and listening. My sensei also advises to start acting. This is a cognitive exercise that will keep your fore-brain engaged and prevent the animal mind from taking over. This of course doesn't guarantee anything, but will help you stay intelligent and increase your ability to solve the present problem. This situation was forced onto you, but you can't take any time to feel sorry for yourself. This is what's happening now and you owe it to yourself and everyone in your life to be smart about it.

SIDE NOTE: As of last year, it was estimated that someone's chances of getting attacked or robbed in North America were 1 in 250. These stats were based on reported crimes, so it might be a little skewed since many crimes go unreported. That being said it is still unlikely that you will be in a violent crisis, but also far from impossible.

It gets better/worse each time...you decide
So whether we confront fear on our own terms or when it's forced on us will greatly determine who will win the war. If you wait for the chance to be victimized, you'll spend a portion of your life avoiding certain things and always a little worried that someone will come along and push fear on you. This will make your fear stronger with time and will start to dictate how you should live your life. I'm claustrophobic and spent about a year and a half avoiding elevators, which was surprisingly difficult. After climbing up 8 flights of stairs and being locked in a stairwell, I decided that it was time to do some research on how to overcome fear. By identifying something that is negatively influencing your life through fear, you can decide where and when you want to confront that. It won't happen over night, but at least you'll be stronger and more confident on a regular basis. Once you make progress against fear, it's hard to fall back. Move forward all the time.

Jordan Bill
Fight or Die

www.ScrapyardFighting.com
www.CombatSystema.com

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6 Simple Weight Loss Habits

Having spent the last few years practicing and experimenting with different diets, I've managed to learn a lot about nutrition and how/what to eat to compliment your level of activity. The body is a complex machine, so an error in dieting can really have long-term effects so it's important to do your homework and consult a nutritionist. There are some simple habits that you can start right away to clean up your diet. These are some quick adjustments that have consistently shown me great results. I still encourage everyone to do a little research and take a deeper interest in your health, but feel free to implement these changes right away.

1. No White Carbs
Regardless of the technical terms, cutting out "white foods" will change what kind of carbs you're putting into your system. This is as simple as literally substituting white foods with their whole grain counter parts. Examples include white bread, white sugar and pasta. Those were my most common source of carbs and all have multi or whole grain alternatives. It takes about a week to adjust to the difference in taste.

2. Don't Drink Carbs
Don't drink your carbs, proteins or nutrients, whenever possible. Stick to water when drinking, even avoiding sports drinks. Despite their design to re-hydrate you, they contain sugars. Not a terrible amount, but for the sake of losing weight it's better to drink just water. Protein shakes are also very popular, but you won't extract as much of the protein as you suspect and they can be fatty. Again, for the purpose of losing weight it's best to avoid these. I now carry a water bottle at all times and no longer but milk, cream or sugar in my coffee or tea.

3. Weight Training
Weight training, no matter how light or intense, will cause your metabolism to go into overdrive. Even light weight training on a regular basis will keep your heart rate slightly elevated and will actually make you lose weight in between sessions. Your body fat percentage will actually be improving when you're not even working out! Train regularly and you'll be burning calories in your sleep.

4. Cardio
Make sure to frequently exercise your cardio. Whether it's a run, elliptical, bike ride or even a long walk, do this on a regular basis and you'll see very fast results. Ideally, aim for 30 minutes of uninterrupted movement. Set a pace you can maintain and around the 30 minute mark you'll be burning your highest amount of fat cells. The longer you go after the half hour mark, the more you burn. As your muscles tire and your heart-rate continues to rise, your calorie-burning ratio will rise exponentially. To start, shoot for 30 minutes and you're all set.

5. Eat Big to Small
Although this is pretty much the opposite of popular habits, start your day with a large breakfast and make each meal after that smaller and smaller. This will kick-start your metabolism and you'll be burning calories all day! Your largest meal has all day to digest and burn up and each meal will be easier for your body to absorb. The tricky part is dinner time. By this procedure, supper should be your smallest meal. The closer you are to your bed time, the less calories you should intake.

6. Cheat Day
Hardly the most important tip, but definitely my favorite is having a cheat day. This is designed to be your guilt-free day of eating everything you miss. I'm sure dietitians and nutritionists would tell you to keep it to one meal or something, but I like to take a full day of indulging. Since starting this, I've seen instant results. For one thing, you won't be craving anything as badly during the rest of your week, knowing that you can indulge later. Aside from the psychological comfort, this also causes a spike in your metabolism. Your body can eventually adapt to any diet and that's when you stop seeing progress or plateau. By having a day of random eating in the midst of your structured diet, your body gets confused and goes into overdrive. So when you start your diet again the following day, you'll actually be burning a little more than usual to compensate. Avoid letting your cheat day spill out into another day. This is why many professionals but limits on this concept, because people can take it as a free pass to making exceptions. You work hard at being healthy, so keep it to one day.

So these are the most successful habits I've picked up over the years. Although, there's more to dieting and eating healthy than this, these are the no-excuse quick habits you can start right away. If you have a genuine interest in your health, dive right in! Remember, eating well and losing weight are two different things. For example, anything you consume after a workout of at least 30 minutes won't have any effects on you as far as gaining weight, but also won't help you lose any either. Pay attention to these "golden rules" of dieting and make sure they fit your needs. Good luck and please send me pics and info on what you've got lined up for cheat day!

Jordan Bill
Fight or Die


www.ScrapyardFighting.com
www.CombatSystema.com

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Stress of Success

Someone once told me that success can't be easy, otherwise everyone would do it. In fighting terms, not everyone can be the champ at once. Someone has to beat out the rest and rise to the top. This is true everywhere in life. When you're doing well, you can work hard to share that success with others and inspire someone to rise to the occasion and do the same. Obviously there are a lot of obstacles along the way and that's what makes the journey special. However, the path is hard enough, there's no need to make it even worse. Often, our own fear of success can get in the way. Other times, people around you will be reminded that they're not as focused or making as much progress and might resent your efforts. These are obstacles that we should consider not worth our time. That might sound harsh, but there's enough challenges ahead that the ones that can go away by just acknowledging them should be the first to go. The journey to your goals isn't a nice walk in the park, think of yourself charging forward, making your own path, swatting distractions to the side and crashing through the many obstacles ahead.

Outside Pressure
As many studies have confirmed, social support is very important in a person's life and in the case of some athletes can actually affect their performance. Goal setting also becomes more successful when a sense of accountability is achieved by involving a friend or co-worker on their progress. So, in most cases, involving other people in your efforts usually yield good results, but there are exceptions. Usually not malicious, some people in your life might feel a subconscious resentment toward your success. This isn't personal. Your achievements might remind someone of their failures or lack of focus towards their own goals, whether they realize it or not. This makes you exposed to a constant subconscious negative presence that will, with enough time, hinder your future progress. This kind of negative stress from outside influences has been proven to affect an athlete's performance or recovery by up to 20% in the wrong direction! In combat, where often a half a second is the difference between victory and defeat, that has huge implications on just how much our environment can change our results. Identify and eliminate.

Self-Imposed Pressure
People around you aren't the only ones that can add unnecessary stress to your work, you can to. Sometimes we can be our own worst enemies. This is something all too familiar to me. Be careful when setting unrealistic goals for yourself and establishing a standard that you can't possibly keep up with. I'm all for aiming high, but if you set yourself up for failure all the time you're programming your brain to expect failure. All your goals should be broken down into smaller, more achievable goals. This way, your programming success with every step on the way. The further you go, the more you've experienced success. Imagine if you were running toward a goal and found a way to gain speed with every step along the way. Tell a friend or colleague about your goals and how you plan on achieving them. This will hold you to a sense of accountability, but also keep you grounded. Hopefully, your friend will tell you if you're setting impossible standards for yourself.

Guilt of Success
For some, success comes with guilt. This guilt can come from outside factors and/or from somewhere inside yourself. When we start to see progress in worker toward a better life for ourselves, we sometimes wonder if we're being selfish and why others around us might not be as happy. Being focused on what makes us happy isn't selfish, it only becomes selfish when we are happy at the expense of others. When there are people around us working for the same, keep charging forward to help clear the path for them, as others might have done for you. Don't feel guilty that others aren't where you are on the journey, it's not a race. Be available to those who ask for your help and guidance. Some will be inspired, others will be offended. That's normal. Be careful of those who resent you, as mentioned earlier, they will find a way to slow you down. Above, we mentioned how they can add stress, but they can also add guilt. Keep your mind open to catch backhanded compliments and other subtle attempts to make you feel like you're doing something wrong by being happier. It's a fight, both inside and out, with yourself and others.

Stress and fear are killers of the body, mind and spirit. If your soul could get cancer, it would be from too much exposure to fear and stress. Think of all your proudest moments and chances are fear and stress came along at some point to try and ruin it for you. We've been engaged in this battle since we were infants, but we've accumulated all the tools we need to win this war as we grew up. Through years of training, I've managed to convince myself that as soon as I feel fear or stress, chances are I'm about to do something I'm going to be proud of. Make whatever association you need to notice fear and stress and charge right into it and meet it head on. As you continue to move forward and break through walls, don't feel bad. You owe it to everyone who could potentially be inspired to better themselves to keep going forward. No one's getting left behind, we're just not all at the same place. The first rule of First Aid training applies everywhere: you can't save anyone if you can't save yourself. Acknowledge and eliminate. Be confident in yourself, aware of others slowing you down and make no apologies for improving your life. For all we know, this might be your only one. Make it count.

Jordan Bill
Fight or Die


www.ScrapyardFighting.com
www.CombatSystema.com
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NYE Resolutions: Only 64% Still Going Strong by Now

Progress
So, by now about half of the people who have made new year's resolutions have either failed or gave up already. Technically, both of those outcomes are the same, since you have to decide to stop trying if your first attempt didn't work. One of my resolutions this year was to talk less; more specifically to say what I want with fewer words. I can honestly say that I'm failing miserably. In fact, I'm pretty sure that I'm more long-winded than ever. I haven't given up on that, though, and have made a list of things I can do to practice using less words to express myself (discussed below). It's a work in progress. Another resolution of mine (I wrote a list this year) was to make my monday to friday training schedule non-negotiable. So far so good. A few exceptions included teaching classes and minor injuries, but overall my momentum is going strong and training couldn't be better.
 An interesting side note: although not formally a resolution, I read about a psychological experiment about people giving up their right to complain for a set period of time. I'm about two weeks into a forty day attempt at this and although it can be challenging I'm getting great results. I highly recommend that you all try this, even if it's only for a week!

Stats
According to the University of Scranton's Journal of Clinical Psychology, we're not alone. In fact, of all the people you know that made resolutions, it's only expected that 8% of them will achieve their goal how they said they would! I plan on being in that group and then we can make it bigger each year. It's easy to feel strong right after you make your resolution, 75% of us can breeze through the first two weeks, but only 64% will make it through the first month and that drops down to a sad 46% after six months. By have way through the year, have of us have already given up! Most of this can be fixed with some clear and organized goal setting and an action plan. Step by step we can get there, we have all year!

Accountability and Action Plan
Since the last time I've written about being accountable to your goals and making an action plan, even more studies have been done (or at least discovered by me) to support these claims. Achievements need to be planned and defined. So make sure you keep your resolutions specific and if they're vague, create smaller goals to organize exactly what it is you want and how to get there. Also you should own your goals. Claim your resolutions by telling someone about them and keep them informed on your progress, the good and the bad. This has been studied and proven to increase your chances of success by over 20% (I'm currently researching and compiling studies in this field for an upcoming book. Keep checking ScrapyardFiighting.com for updates on this.). <-------------Me holding myself accountable for the completion of this project.
For my resolution of using fewer words, I've created an action plan. I realized that I wasn't succeeding at this because it was too vague. It wasn't a resolution in that state it was more of a wish. So, I've started using all forms of written social interactions (Facebook, Twitter, Social E-Mails, Text Messages) like they have a character limit. Twitter is a social media site that enforces a 140 character limit on every update, keeping interaction short and sweet. I've recently started doing this everywhere I could think of and I'm starting to get the hang of it. It's still a bit of a challenge, but soon it will become the norm and, hopefully, become a habit even when speaking. I will, of course, continue to ramble and rant here on the blog though.

Hopefully you haven't given up yet. If you've already achieved your goal for the year, feel free to make a new one. Don't brag and don't get lazy, I'm in the business of punching people. If you've failed or are losing momentum remember that the solution might be as simple as just telling someone or writing down some steps to getting started. Make them as immediate at possible. Nothing you can't start doing within the week; the next three days are even better. Whatever your resolution was, it's clearly something that was important to you at some point so keep going for it! I sincerely hope this helps. I'll be bringing this up again in a few months and hopefully you won't be one of the 22% of people who will give up between now and then! In the meantime, train safe and train hard.

Jordan Bill
Fight or Die

www.ScrapyardFighting.com
twitter.com/scrapyard514
twitter.com/jordanbill
www.CombatSystema.com