DECISIONS PRECEDE ACTION

WEEK OF 9/22/25

Short one for you this week.  This is more of a practical reminder than anything else.

Decisions precede action.  That is to say, before you move you must choose how to move — whether you are doing this consciously or not.

Therefore, in training, it is important to spend time working at a pace where your actions are subject to your decisions instead of falling back on “survival skills” that do not guide you towards the best outcomes.

The human body, like a sports car, is a powerful machine.  It’s capable of creating deadly force through both leverage as well as explosive movement.  We, as athletes, are the drivers of that car.  It is easy to conflate our ability to generate these forces (i.e. a focus on power output) with some form of competency in the martial arts.

Force generation is an integral part to both striking and grappling arts, but not nearly the most important.  Generating force in the wrong direction, or at the expense of maintaining vigilance in other areas, can be a fatal mistake.  Therefore the ability to read situations, determine the best course of action, and implement that action effectively are far greater skills than the raw force generation.

Chase knowledge, wisdom, and experience first.  The physical transformations are the easiest to achieve — these are emergent.  The physical demands of the training will inevitably create adaptation in the body.  The tactical transformations, however, require diligent study and focus and do not necessarily “come in time.”  They come with time, but they also only come with attention.