WHERE, WHY, AND WHEN?

Everyday we will be “THINKING” differently, everyday we will be “FEELING” differently.

In a previous posts video I mentioned that, In My Opinion, the Martial Art style, or how well we use it, is not as much of a game changer as we might like it to be.

There is so much more to consider when shit is up and running than Tan Sau and Punch, or ALL of our training put together for that matter.

There is absolutely no doubt that the “HOW’ is important, but before we get there we must navigate the WHERE, WHY, and WHEN?

The best way to frame this conversation is to quote the Greek philosopher HERACLITUS.

“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man”.  

This is not a cliche´, this is genuine wisdom.

Everyday we get out of bed we are a different person, we are older, our thinking has been affected by the events of the previous 24 hours, and how we feel about the events of the past 24 hours could very well be causing stress or excitement that is different to yesterday. 

Everyday we will be “THINKING” differently, everyday we will be “FEELING” differently.

This is a bit of a cliché, but also very true,

How we FEEL changes how we THINK.

How we THINK changes how we FEEL.

They both change how we act.

“NOT STEPPING IN THE SAME RIVER TWICE”, I am going to use my own lived experience to explore this, if possible read it once to get the IDEA  and then use your own lived experience.

I grew up in a gang culture, there was a more than average amount of violence in my life, especially the “Crazy Years”, 15 – 25, on one level there was a great deal of sameness about these events, it was pretty standard gang violence, but they where also completely different. 

Sometimes it was man on man, other times myself against multiples, and other times still multiples against multiples, in the 1970s at football matches it was tribe against tribe.

Use your imagination and put yourself in those situations, they are not the same.

There was a short period that I banged heads with the same person many times, every time different.  Sometimes he started it, sometimes I started it, sometimes I was really up for it and other times it was the last thing I wanted. 

Once again, use your imagination and put yourself in those situations, they are not the same.

From my perspective the difference was always the version of me that took part in that event, the next day I would look back and genuinely not be able to recall what I did in that moment, was it training, was it madness, was it luck?

The only thing I recall is that someone was left standing, and it wasn’t always me.

Because of this experience I can tell you, that if you are the person that kicks it off you are not thinking about style or technique, you are just going for surprise.

And again from my own experience, if you are the person being attacked, you are not thinking about style or technique, you are only thinking about surviving the next few seconds.

During this time I was also competing as a teenage Boxer and a few years later as a young adult Judoka, to many students there is a perceived similarity between competition/organised fighting and random/unorganised fighting.

If there was any similarity I did not notice it, neither the ring nor the mat was anything like the street.

A large part of competition fighting is training to be the same version of yourself on every occasion, the same level of fitness, the same mentality, the same emotional preparedness, in short working hard to be the same man, stepping into the same river.

This is where it becomes your own story.

Do you think you will always step into the same river?

Our training is only intended to be used once we step into the river.

How we got there, and in what condition, will determine if we sink or swim.

The why, the when , and the where all come before the how.