MONDAY MINDSET: REVOLUTIONS

WEEK OF 8/19/24

 

Training is cyclical.  Be revolutionary.

Not in the 1776 American Revolutionary way, with black powder rifles and wool coats.

But revolutionary in the sense of revolving back around to the beginning.

In anything, you always learn the most important skills first.  Stance, positioning, breathing.  The basics.

As beginners we don’t really have the capacity to understand these concepts in any deep, meaningful sort of way.  We can acknowledge their importance, but we can’t really express why they are important.

Eventually, as a newer student, you are going to hit a plateau – whether this plateau is based on your skill advancement, or on a creeping sense of boredom (the “honeymoon phase” coming to an end), you will hit it.

It is at this time that we must redirect our focus back to the beginning, to the fundamentals.

What additional context or experience do we have, as we pass through this part of the route, that can help me understand these concepts in a deeper way?

How can I identify the small imperfections in my fundamentals game and improve them, thus improving all skills over a broad range?

In the martial arts we don’t always want to be looking forward, to acquiring new additional skills or new concepts, but rather be a revolutionary: establish a cycle that propels us upwards, not forwards.