On the Stereo today- Elliot Smith
I am still off the mat. This sucks. I have lots of time for study. This is good.
Monday
Rehab work.
Tuesday
Rehab work
Wednesday
Rehab work… are you seeing a pattern?
Thursday
Physio. I’m improving. I need to get moving again soon before I go insane, so got a good bit of news that essentially means that if I’m able to hit some markers, I can get back on the mat.
Friday and Saturday
No training, just setting up an event and then running it. Very hard on the back to be honest.
Training Thoughts of the Week
Training takes patience. Lots of patience. To develop a technique takes time. To get stronger takes time. To improve any metric takes time. Trust the process, stay on track. Be patient.
It’s in extra focus when you’re injured. With all of the above, you’re having fun while you’re doing it. When you’re injured, you’re like a kid looking in a window at a play centre. Everyone inside is having so much fun!
Non-Training Thoughts of the Week
Someone said to me last night- “The old ways are dying”. We were talking about his old martial arts school- which was old school in terms of respect, bowing etc. etc. Now of course you can argue the toss as to whether bowing makes a difference, or saying “Sensei” or coach makes a difference. But there are certain aspects of martial culture which have a place in the modern world, now more than ever, I’d argue.
People think much of martial arts etiquette comes out of a feudal system of government- warrior castes and so on. But that’s not actually true. A lot of it is quite Eastern of course- that’s the root- but look at top athletc and Olympic programmes in the land of the free, the USA. You’ll find a sense of respect given to the coach in the room that is akin to the notion of “Sensei”. Yes coach, no coach- is it that different? It’s a fact that most martial arts were codified in the middle of the 20th Century, not in Feudal Japan or China. Your Dad or your grandad is probably older than Taekwondo, for example.
It strikes me that someone spotted that when young men become dangerous- that is, able to harm someone using physical skills that they learned in a dojo or wreslting mat- that someone needed to give them a code to stop them from abusing those skills, or becoming terribly arrogant. It’s easy to be a prick when you’re 20 and able to do cool things to others with your limbs. I should know, I thought I was the second coming of Van Damme for a while.
Unchecked, the ego runs riot. Regretably, it seems to do it most when the young man previously had low confidence. The over-correction is a real phenomenon.
So the old ways might be dying, but as I say to people all of the time- that’s not our culture, it’s theirs. Hold the line.
See you on the mat,
Barry
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