Overconfidence

Confidence is good. But overconfidence can lead to a disconnect when it comes to real life violence. It is too easy to fall into the trap of thinking aptitude in the dojo means one is automatically safe in the real world.

I've seen this in adults, from time to time, but where I've really noticed it lately is with teenagers who have put in a couple of years, and achieved some level of success when it comes to class. You see the confidence increase, which is good, but sometimes there develops a slight arrogance, and a belief that a high belt colour means you can hold your own with anyone, in any type, of situation. But it's just not true. It's not the way life works.

Unfortunately, sometimes, depending on the student (and to a large degree the teacher), success in the dojo can be comparable to being book smart at school. Good grades don't necessarily mean intelligence outside of the classroom.

Once, for example, I was watching a class where the teenagers were having semi-formal grappling/wrestling matches. A new kid was there, and he, because of his size, was paired up with an experienced brown belt in the class. Everyone was thinking, he's going to get destroyed by the senior student, and the group gathered around in a circle to watch. However, within seconds of the beginning of the match, the new kid pinned the brown belt on the mat and the match was over. And then he did it again.

Luckily, it was just a friendly match in the dojo.

In fairness, most of us who have put in any amount of time training have likely felt increased confidence because of our increased abilities. I get it. But what some students don't yet realize, and it may take many more years of training and real life experience to understand, is that humility needs to be one of the key attributes discovered along the road of training. Use your confidence, but don't waver from caution; don't think yourself invincible, because no one is. After all, if we are to never underestimate an opponent, it means to never overestimate yourself.

Real life violence cannot be duplicated in a dojo for the sake of training. Real violence is ugly and unpredictable. It should be avoided, if possible.

I guess I just worry some of these students, with their new-found confidence, will put themselves in bad situations because of, well, being a bit naive. Because confidence can only take one so far, and some of the book smarts have to be interpreted and/or translated into realistic thinking.

turning the corner...

the past few months has been--as I said before--one of the most challenging periods of my martial arts career to date. doubts lurking around every corner; frustration rearing its ugly head. while I never considered quiting, my heart was clouded and my mind was frayed.
currently, i feel... well... better. while i'm not tooting rainbows and doing back flips for no reason, my mind has reset itself and I have been enjoying my training once again. do i feel further tempered and believe i've had a philosophic expansion as a result of my struggles? time will tell. does it feel nice to be back on track?
indeed.
part of my imbalance, as I mentioned previously, had a lot to do with a lack of harmony between kata and technique. this was perhaps a result of a grading i was undergoing, where my kata was in worse shape than my technique and needed to be improved upon. grading gives me great ambivalence, but i will save those thoughts for another day.
in the mean time, while I cannot say exactly what is around the corner, i know now that at least i am turning one.

Fear Factor...

A myth about self-defense training is that your fear goes away.

I think a truer statement is that you learn to better understand your fears. They don't go anywhere. However, through self-examination, we may gain a good knowledge of our abilities under duress. Confidence is created this way, by knowing you can respond in a situation of fear, rather than being surprised when the nerves kick in.

To become fearless would be to lose one's humanity.

Journeyman talks about this a lot. He always factors in the psychological/physiological aspects to his methods, knowing that fine motor skills will be lost under stress, and an attackers injuries and/or rationality may be dulled by substances or adrenalin. He knows this because he has seen it happen. It is his job to study it.

Because in our training we constantly examine fear--and replicate it as much as is possible--we translate these lessons into our daily existence. Our actions, I believe, are less determined by avoidance of fear, as we accept its presence in the world. Instead we look for effective solutions (even if this require heaps of patience). We analyze why we may be fearful in the first place; and we hesitate to give our power and minds away to others.

These skills make a warrior of life itself. A humble, swift-acting, human being.

Not a fearless, thoughtless thug.

Of Action and Regret....

"That samurai was right who refused to compromise his character by a slight humiliation in his youth; 'because,' he said, 'dishonour is like a scar on a tree, which time, instead of effacing, only helps to enlarge.'"

Ah yes, once again the words of Inazo Nitobe's Bushido.

This paragraph deserves some thought. Although the original context is discussing the role of shame, and how this emotion is the basis of all moral behaviour and honour, the scarred tree analogy goes so much further. We all have such wounds that have increased over time rather than diminished. Some are based in matters of confidence; some are in areas of relationships; and some are based in more tangible and physical injuries that we ignored until they spiralled out of control.

Technically speaking, these imperfections are the result of improper understanding and/or teaching, that start out as tiny bad habits, eventually to become glaring weaknesses. This is why accomplished martial artists still listen to constructive criticism. It is why the best athletes in the world still rely on professional coaching.

In this case, dishonour could be interpreted as a lack of humility among one's peers. Or in the misjudged abilities of an adversary.

It could be rooted in a dishonest self-perception, individually, or as a society that puts humanity on a pedestal separate from the natural world.

This is why all actions are best examined closely, lest regret becomes the growing scar on the tree.

confidence is a game of inches.....

Confidence evolves slowly.

Just as becoming more flexible physically takes time and effort, trust in your technique grows in similar, often imperceptible degrees. Recently, I attended a seminar and found that while half of the material came naturally, the other half took time and I had many questions (any of us who try new things in the MA world know our ego is best left off the mats in order to truly learn--and after all, if you knew the stuff already, why would you be there in the first place?). And while, in the end, I managed to understand the teachings, I would still hesitate to use some of them in any stressful situation.

However, I plan to take the lessons home and think about them and practice them many times. I know from experience that some of the most reliable techniques in my arsenal felt this way at first--unnatural. I know this is how our mind's tend to expand--gradually--in order to really have the lessons sink in.

If I look back, even previous to my formal training, I can pick out things I learned from grade three judo class or grade nine wrestling that are imprinted in my mind. Techniques I would still likely revert to in stress, as I worked them into confidence over the years.

And by degrees, I have added more and more.