Health & Fitness
- Acetaminophin
- Cardio and Cancer
- Conditioning Principles, Part I
- Conditioning Principles, Part II
- Cup o' Tea
- Ephedra
- Ginseng
- Glucosamine
- Good Cholesterol and Carbs
- Herbal Recipes
- Issues of Fitness for the Martial Artist
- Of Love Handles, Saddle Bags and Doughboy Lifestyles
- Pain and Management
- SAMe
- Spark Plug in your Training
- The Stinking Rose
- Vitamins
Issues of Fitness for the Martial Artist
by Stephen LaBounty (2007-10-21)I wish to post these thoughts for consideration on why a Martial Artist must be more than "dojo" fit, he/she should be "incident" fit.
Dojo Fit:
- Able to pick and choose opponents. Even when testing, the constant stopping and starting does not always lead to fitness.
- Absence of stress. Teacher, coach, moderator present, situation is a learning one, and corrections must be made.
- Ability to modify situation. This is isolating certain weak points and working solely on them, once again picking and choosing time, pace, opponent, etc.
Incident Fit:
- Opponent chooses you and possibly has de-humanized you already, which means he will resort to anything to win.
- As the "incident" gap closes, a tremendous amount of stress is put on the defender. There will be no "time outs" or any other saving things until the attack has concluded and the results are in.
- You may be able to modify the situation, especially if you've done the mental prep as well as the physical prep in your mind. The confidence is heightened if you've done some battle practice with a partner or partners who think as you.
There will be pain. It might be yours.
There will be blood. It probably will be yours.
There will be anger, hatred even. It will be directed towards you.
Here are some other things to ponder:
- Actually, we all are built to be athletes.
- We've become a Nation of spectators, with short attention spans.
- We are burying more people who die from diseases of choice.
- We've pretty much wiped out diseases of chance.
- Close to 60% of us die from lifestyle choices.
- The way we visualize ourselves, our imagery of us as persons is important. Most of us can't resolve crises, we are the crisis.
- Most of us lack discipline, but another word for discipline is love.
- The first line of defense in an attack is YOU!
- Being unprepared for an attack/battle is unforgivable, losing can be forgiven however.
- Discipline is the first fruits of self-respect. (A. Hessel)
- I, and other Martial Artists that I respect want heroes, not Kings.
- If your physical fitness is so bad, and during a confrontation you become spent quickly, you will resort to anything to survive including those things that will cause deadly force. Called the "Continuum of Deadly Force" it is well proven in Law Enforcement and Military communities throughout the world.
- You can control your destiny and you can do it now. You are in charge of your well being. Your teachers, friends and family all depend on you to listen and stay safe and healthy. They will be with you during the most stressful of times. Don't let them down?
"All men are essentially the same. He is greatest who is trained in the severest school" - (Socrates)