The Weapon Project
Is it odd that the words we repeated in unison at the start and finish of each class still come easily?
"As a dedicated student of the martial arts, I live by the five black belt principles: honesty, courtesy, self-discipline, perseverance and a positive attitude. I promise to use what I learn in class constructively and defensively to help myself and others."
The cognitive stuff is coming back. I still have to remind myself about the proper way to scan a room when I enter it, or how to turn a corner properly. I still have to think too much when I scan a person.
However, I never did lose the habit of being aware of what's going on around me. It's probably part of why people keep describing me as 'calm, cool and collected.' If you let yourself get too excited, you can't be aware of everything that's going on around you.
I find it strange to be thinking in these terms again. I guess the reality is that I'm not doing this just to get back in shape.
There were times in the last month or so when our favourite idiot from the second floor and I would come face to face and I knew he wanted to hit me. He's quite a bit larger than I am. Heavy and obviously strong. But stupid too. So this didn't scare me.
I doubted very much that he would. And even if he did, I wasn't exactly afraid of the pain. Dumb as it sounds, having passed a kidney stone recently had kind of inured me to the idea of pain.
I also knew I still had enough residual fitness and training that so long as I didn't let him surprise me I'd have a shot. That's the key.
People look at someone with martial arts training and think that it's all about when fist meets flesh. It's not. A lot of it is, but not all.
We're trained to think strategically about how we move through space. To minimize the chances that we will be trapped in positions that are difficult to defend from or easy to be surprised in. Failing that, we're trained to respond immediately to attack.
The problem was that I recognized that while the strategic thinking was still there when I called on it, the tactical responses were no longer up to snuff.
"In a life or death scenario, we don't rise to our expectations. We fall to our level of training."
My current level of training is not as high as I'd like it to be. I've been vaguely uncomfortable ever since I realized that.
The reality is that I'm training myself to fight. The fitness benefits are just a means to an end.
"Combat is movement," said Bruce Lee.
So you have to train yourself to move. With as much speed and strength as you can, for as long as you need to. You train to use your mind and body however they need to be used to defend yourself and those you care for.
Let's be honest here. This project, in the simplest terms, is about making myself back into a weapon.
This makes me vaguely uncomfortable since I loathe violence and machismo and this type of thinking appears to reek of it.
"As a dedicated student of the martial arts, I live by the five black belt principles: honesty, courtesy, self-discipline, perseverance and a positive attitude. I promise to use what I learn in class constructively and defensively to help myself and others."
The cognitive stuff is coming back. I still have to remind myself about the proper way to scan a room when I enter it, or how to turn a corner properly. I still have to think too much when I scan a person.
However, I never did lose the habit of being aware of what's going on around me. It's probably part of why people keep describing me as 'calm, cool and collected.' If you let yourself get too excited, you can't be aware of everything that's going on around you.
I find it strange to be thinking in these terms again. I guess the reality is that I'm not doing this just to get back in shape.
There were times in the last month or so when our favourite idiot from the second floor and I would come face to face and I knew he wanted to hit me. He's quite a bit larger than I am. Heavy and obviously strong. But stupid too. So this didn't scare me.
I doubted very much that he would. And even if he did, I wasn't exactly afraid of the pain. Dumb as it sounds, having passed a kidney stone recently had kind of inured me to the idea of pain.
I also knew I still had enough residual fitness and training that so long as I didn't let him surprise me I'd have a shot. That's the key.
People look at someone with martial arts training and think that it's all about when fist meets flesh. It's not. A lot of it is, but not all.
We're trained to think strategically about how we move through space. To minimize the chances that we will be trapped in positions that are difficult to defend from or easy to be surprised in. Failing that, we're trained to respond immediately to attack.
The problem was that I recognized that while the strategic thinking was still there when I called on it, the tactical responses were no longer up to snuff.
"In a life or death scenario, we don't rise to our expectations. We fall to our level of training."
My current level of training is not as high as I'd like it to be. I've been vaguely uncomfortable ever since I realized that.
The reality is that I'm training myself to fight. The fitness benefits are just a means to an end.
"Combat is movement," said Bruce Lee.
So you have to train yourself to move. With as much speed and strength as you can, for as long as you need to. You train to use your mind and body however they need to be used to defend yourself and those you care for.
Let's be honest here. This project, in the simplest terms, is about making myself back into a weapon.
This makes me vaguely uncomfortable since I loathe violence and machismo and this type of thinking appears to reek of it.
