Training determines success* “The more you sweat in training, the less you will bleed in battle.” – Motto of the US NAVY SEALs We have all heard of an armchair athlete.
Regardless of your task at hand, your career or even your hobbies, if you do not practice your art, as much or more than your adversaries, you will never succeed.
“Every day you are not training, your opponent is. When they find you, they will be bigger than you, stronger than you and faster than you. You will fail.” -Unknown 2.
The tea master, who had no experience with swords, asked the advice of a fellow Zen master who did possess such skill.
“Tomorrow,” the Zen swordsman said, “When you duel the soldier, hold your weapon above your head, as if ready to strike, and face him with the same concentration and tranquility with which you perform the tea ceremony.” The next day, at the appointed time and place for the duel, the tea master followed this advice.
Slow is smooth; smooth is fast* This famous quote from Bruce Lee is applicable in every athletic activity or sport out there! First, lets shoot down a common misconception in the topic of practice in training.
Have you heard the phrase “Practice makes perfect?” You have? Great! You were lied to.
Practice does not make perfect, practice makes permanent.
Every time you perform a task, a repetitive task, for the sake of practice or training, focus all of your attention on the specific movements.
Whatever the task, you’ll find that by completing even 100 reps of the task at hand, slowly, smoothly, with precision, you will be able to perform that action more quickly and accurately than if you were to just practice haphazardly 100 reps for the sake of practice.
Trust your training, only if you have trained* “We do not rise to the level of our expectations. We fall to the level of our training.” -Archilochus A close friend of mine growing up loved to use the phrase “Trust your training” as he always had a way or method of doing something.
He taught me that if you always do something the same way, then in a time of need when you were not able to have complete focus, your training would ‘take over’ and you will prove successful.
This not only was helpful through nights of youthful inebriation knowing which key went to my front door but also proved valuable in martial arts training and awareness techniques I teach in my self-defense classes.
A phrase, martial arts instructors throw out there is that in a fight, “You will fight as you trained.” Remember the SEALs motto at the beginning of this article? Everything comes down to proper training.
The calmest guy in a room is usually the most dangerous* “A man who has attained mastery of an art reveals it in his every action.” – Gogen Yamaguchi In film and on stage, actors must be able to convey emotion through their body language.
Most fights, most real fights only last a few seconds.
Like the Tea Master that was mentioned earlier and the quote at the beginning of this section, again: “A man who has attained mastery of an art reveals it in his every action.” – Gogen Yamaguchi It is a mindset.
You may want to practice and may have a desire to get better, but unless you have action, you stand still.
Through practice and training, the weight for the exercise will increase slowly in direct correlation to training and practice.
Although the points head in different directions, it all boils down to training, repetition and focus.
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