Karate Advice to Advance your MMAFiled Under: Instruction, Rantings
Try to see yourself as you truly are and try to adopt what is meritorious in the work of others. As a [martial artist] you will of course often watch others practice. When you do and you see strong points in the performance of others, try to incorporate them into your own technique. At the same time, if the trainee you are watching seems to be doing less than his best, ask yourself whether you too may not be failing [in that same area]. Each of us has good qualities and bad; the wise man seeks to emulate the good he precieves in others and avoid the bad.
- Gichin Funakoshi, founder of Shotokan Karate,
There is a lot of wisdom in this quote. One part in particular has been enlightening for me – when you see a fighter make a mistake it is easy to criticize instead of checking yourself to see if you too have the same malady. I’ve been told that the faults we possess are easy to see when they are exhibited in others, but elusive in ourselves.
Know yourself. See what is being proven effective. Evolve.
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Tags: advice, karate, tips, wisdom
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- BartB
- 25 Feb 2010 5:52 PM
- Comments (3)
February 25th, 2010 at 5:54 pm
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March 2nd, 2010 at 8:52 am
This reminds me of another quote by George Herbert Palmer – “I am defeated, and know it, if I meet any human being from whom I find myself unable to learn anything.”
Both of these quotes pull out the idea that learning and progressing can come through watching the mistakes and perfections of other people. I have always been taught to learn from the mistakes of others so that I personally will not have to make the same mistakes to learn a similar lesson. Adding to that we must also learn from the good traits of others.
Often in fighting we are trained to look at the weaknesses of others so that we might be able to exploit those weaknesses and come out ahead. But it is also important to watch their strengths not only so we can effectively defend ourselves against them but the wise fighter will watch the strength of others, follow their techniques, and let others stregths become their own. This idea is rather basic but few truly put it into practice.
March 2nd, 2010 at 1:21 pm
This reminds me of what Tony Robbins (a guru motivational speaker) says about the importance of modeling our way to success. He says that the poor are not are a disadvantage due to lack of opportunities, instead it is the lack of good role models in their environment. “People are a factor of their environment”. When I came to college I wanted to be the one who figures out everything or I didn’t know there were people who already walked my path and wrote books about it. Then I discovered many books about leadership, finance, relationship, marriage, etc. that all have helped me become a wiser person. I then model people who wrote these books and have seen my relationships enriched and finance increased. I will take this concept to my practice of martial arts. I will watch videos, read books, and speak to people who have already years of experience and wisdom so that I don’t have to start all the way at the bottom, I can just pick good techniques from them and build upon that to a higher level. That is how progress is made – the next generation can just build from the older ones. Martial art is beautiful. Thanks to my karate teacher Bart for teaching us the moves that have built my confidence and strength.