I love MMA almost as much as I love holidays. Depending on what your family is like, you can eat a great meal and get punched in the face at the same location.
On the serious side, there is a satisfying juxtaposition of resting and improving, enjoying abundance and giving. I hope you choose to view your holiday celebrations in a way that uplifts you as a person, as well as improves your fighting game. On top of that, I hope you find a way to serve those around you.
I just wanted to throw out a couple of things I’ve been trying to do, and maybe they’ll help you start off the holiday’s right. After reading, give me a holiday shout out – the more guys I train with, the more I realize that everybody has something awesome to teach. I love hearing from you!
Rest and Meditate
If you’re like me, you have a tendency to over-train rather than under-train. This can be a great time to rest from training, heal up from injuries. Physically and mentally, you need to rest in order to rebuild and prevent burn out. I’m reminded of periodization - an idea to construct cycles where loads and workout to get tougher and tougher, but then with a new cycle you back off from your maximums and build up again to new ones.
On a mental note, use the holidays to pause and reflect on life balance, goals and training strategies. Take some time to be a better person. Certainly, train with the “fight to win” mentality some of the time, but now can be a time to “play to learn” (credit SBGi guys). Gain some perspective.
Celebrate
Everything is better with a good attitude. Get in the “I’m celebrating” mood. Loosen up mentally, take yourself less seriously. Chances are, you’ll find different connections between moves and ideas – maybe have a breakthrough.
Also, celebration is about coming together as people. Thank your instructors and teammates. Bury old feuds, forgive your training partner for chipping your tooth (or whatever).
Be Grateful
Giving thanks for something is almost paradoxical: the more you are thankful for what you have (no matter how little it is), the more valuable it becomes. The more you respect and treat your Sensei like gold, the more meaningful his instruction gets. Also, your gratitude will probably facilitate your instructor to be better able to serve your individual martial art needs.
Being grateful helps you understand and take to heart things you might be missing.
Give
Maybe you don’t know how lucky you are by global or historic comparisons. Chances are, if you are reading this, you’re on the abundant side of life.
Take the opportunity to give to a food drive, or serve at a homeless shelter.
In terms of MMA, take some time to share insights and techniques with guys at your gym. The knowledge you don’t teach will die with you. The knowledge you teach becomes immortal. When you improve your training partners, you improve your game.
UFC 102 – solid. All the fights on the card were entertaining. I especially loved the Nog/Couture fight and wished it could have gone 5 rounds. I was surprised how tough Randy was against Nogueira’s chokes. That guy is a stud.
Anyway, the pleasure of viewing 102 was so awesome, I created a few “motivational posters” to commemorate it.
“Aikido is too dangerous, so therefore it isn’t allowed in MMA.”
“Aikido doesn’t work on trained fighters or resisting opponents.”
“Aikido masters are bound to a philosophy of gentleness and non-fighting; therefore no true Aikido master can compete legally anyway.”
“Aikido is sucks in MMA, therefore Aikido sucks.”
“Steven Seagal knows Aikido, and he’s killed like 300 people. It must be awesome.”
I’m sure you can dig up your own “nuggets of wisdom” on a Sherdog or Youtube – these sites being the epitome of truth, balance and logic. ( Personally, I love the way information and error is rolled into one comical thread of flaming, poor grammar and misrepresentation)
Aikido isn’t the only disputed martial art in MMA; I’ve heard similar jaw-jacking about Karate, Judo, Dog Brother’s stick fighting, etc. There are always fanboys and haters, no matter what you choose. I’ve recently had some people ask me about this, so I’ve decided to post my thoughts.
Anyway, there is some sorting out to do.
In the next few pages, I’d like to see if I can shine some light on Aikido and it’s relation to MMA.
Let me just start by saying that I personally think you, (and I) have a legal, innate right as Americans to self defense. True, MMA is an entertainment sport and not a system of self defense per se, but martial arts are fundamentally rooted in the notions of self defense.
In Utah, we more or less have adopted a “Castle Doctrine” which is the idea that my home and my personal space, wherever I’m standing, (so long as its legal to be there) is my castle. If you attack my castle, I have a right to use deadly force to protect it. An officer from a sheriff’s office explained to me like this, “You should never be forced to flee where you are. You can stay and fight.”
When ass needs to be kicked, I think you have a legal right – yea, a moral imperative – to put fist into face. (But don’t take that for legal advice, no matter how awesome it sounds).
That being said, Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor has said some curious things about your right to self defense.
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Granted, the right to self defense relates to gun control and can be a sticky issue. So a senate hearing would be a good time to clear that up. I love how the Senator Tom Coburn asks her, “Do you have a personal opinion, or can you give me your opinion, of whether or not in this county I personally, as an individual citizen, have a right to self defense?” and she says, ” I don’t know.”
Yep. She doesn’t know. And for her opinion – she doesn’t know if she has one? Maybe the question was confusing.
Oh, but if she did have an opinion, it’s abstract and irrelevant. Kind of like how irrelevant it was that John Mccain wanted to ban MMA because it was brutal cockfighting. Or irrelevant that an “all natural cherry soda” with “no preservatives” also contains “no actual fruit juice”.
All I’m saying here is that its relevant.
Plus, she is wrong, because the Supreme court has ruled on the notion of self-defense and how it relates to the second ammendment – in the 2008 ruling, DC vs Heller.
