PERSERVERANCE - This Too Shall Pass

By now you know that practice is a process to be experienced, not a result to be achieved. It's a journey, not a destination. Sometimes though, it feels a lot like a roller coaster. You always seem to be hitting peaks and falling into valleys. Some days, you feel great about your practice.
You feel strong, powerful, flexible, focused. Your cardio is good and your techniques are crisp and clean. You can't get enough of these days. Other times, you feel overwhelmed, sloppy, distracted. You keep looking up at the clock. You wonder if you're ever going to get any better at this.
Sometimes these peaks and valleys last for awhile -- weeks, maybe months.

Obviously no one loses interest in practice during a peak. You're excited, you feel like you're improving, your life outside the dojo is somehow becoming less stressful, as if your martial arts practice is actually improving your life in general. You can't believe your good fortune in finding something this authentic, this much fun and this useful. But that's the nature of riding the peak. Sad to say, it doesn't last. All the discipline and focus in the world can't stop your practice from periodically dropping into a valley.

The point is to be careful that these low points don't steal your practice from you. Don't lose sight of the fact that a valley is simply a lull between two peaks. These valleys don't reflect a sudden breakdown in physical ability, but a shift in how you feel about practice. It's not your physical execution of technique that's slipping, you still know how to do all the things you were doing last week -- but your mood, your attitude has changed. In practice as in life, many people's true potential goes unrealized for one reason: they do not follow through when things gets difficult. They forget that, given enough time, change is certain. Most people have a tendency to give up when the tables turn, instead of sticking it out until the tables turn again. They rationalize, "Oh, I've got no will power," but this is a self-perpetuating rationalization. Will power, like a muscle, needs to be exercised. You need to take control. Undisciplined will is a lazy, spoiled child; every time a situation becomes difficult, it seeks the path of least resistance - to give up. Each time you give in to the spoiled child, each time you shrug and give up, you increase the chance that that same spoiled brat will show up when things get tough in the future. Each difficult period you ride out builds a stronger will, as you take charge of your life, and begin to become someone who follows through on commitments.

You're Not Really Stuck!
More dangerous to your practice than these alternating peaks and valleys is the plateau. A plateau is a significant period of time when you feel that you are not getting any better. It differs from a peak or valley in that these ups and downs continue even when you are on a plateau. You have good days and you have bad days but, over the longer run, you don't really seem to be getting any better or any worse. Your practice seems to have just flattened out. A plateau can last several months or even a year. You may test for a new rank, learn a new form, even be introduced to different parts of the curriculum. Regardless of these external benchmarks, you still feel like you're on a plateau and that you're not making any real progress. Let's analyze this phenomenon. In the first nine months of your practice, you learned more over one short stretch than you ever will again. This is only logical. When you came into this practice, you knew nothing of this art. You were a complete novice and everything was new and exciting. There was, literally, everything to learn. In each class, you tried as hard as you could to perform the physical technique and to understand the philosophy behind it. You might go home a little confused, sore and tired, but you knew you were learning, you were getting it, and maybe, just maybe, someday you would be as good as some of the senior students. Even when this initial period seemed to slow down, you were still progressing remarkably quickly - learning terminology, technique, philosophy and principles. Your practice became something very special to you, and soon you couldn't imagine yourself not going to the dojo. You wondered many times how you ever made it through life without this special place, and quietly committed to yourself to practice forever.

Overcoming Frustration Through Understanding
Now, let's fast forward to the present day. You have practiced for at least one year, and if you haven't already hit a plateau, you are very close. You're expected to keep improving your basics, but the techniques you already know aren't really getting any better and the new techniques are even more difficult. It's not just your physical practice either. The newness of it all has worn off. You're discovering that Christmas morning is more exciting than Christmas afternoon, and why, three weeks later, you're not entirely sure what you wanted these presents for in the first place. This is a very different phase of practice than your first year.

If you expect to continue to learn as quickly as you did in the beginning, you will become frustrated. Look at it this way. You began your practice at zero (not even knowing how to do the techniques) and hoped to someday achieve ten (mastery of the art). You may go from zero to four or five relatively quickly but, from five on up, all growth is incremental and is increasingly more difficult. In other words, learning how to perform the gross motor skills involved in the technique and forms of your art may only take a year or two (zero to five on the scale), but complete physical mastery and deep understanding of these same techniques (six to ten on the scale) can take twenty or thirty more years. You cannot hope to make progress at the same rate year after year. Eventually, when you have practiced martial arts for many years, well over 90% of your time will be spent on plateaus.

One of the reasons that people become a jack of all trades and never master anything is because they get excited about the initial pace at which they learn a new subject. Whether it is mountain biking, rock climbing, golf or any new activity, there is a rapid learning curve in the beginning which invariably tapers off. Once they hit their first plateau, most people start looking for a new way to spend their time. They've got the basic moves, and they're not learning as quickly, so they rationalize that they've learned most of what there is to learn. The activity is no longer instantly, quantifiably exciting, and so it's on to a new activity, a new thrill, maybe a new style of martial arts. This may or may not be a conscious decision, but people, especially in the West, have short attention spans. As progress wanes, so does motivation. Sometimes you feel stuck at a plateau for so long that it appears that you are as good as you are ever going to get. Take care not to build a nest, turning the plateau into a comfort zone. A plateau can feel frustrating and confining and, sometimes, all you want is to reach that next level.
That's fine; you can find motivation in that attitude. It's when you become too comfortable, when you become resigned to where you are, that a plateau becomes a comfort zone.
Double your efforts and keep practicing. Talk to your teacher. Everyone has been through this. This is the meaning of the saying, "Learn to love the practice and not just the progress."

Dedicate Your Life to Something!
It's ironic that we show such respect and honor to people that have dedicated their lives to their art, sport, discipline or craft. Deep down, we all admire perseverance. We recognize that no one gets as good as they can possibly be at anything without struggling, without pushing through their limitations and overcoming plateaus. When you're on a plateau for a extended period of time, you may actually feel that you are going backwards; you start to see your technique as declining. This is actually a very good sign, and here's why. Progress alternates continually in two Ways:
1. An understanding of what you should be doing, and
2. The physical execution of technique.
When you see yourself as declining, what is really happening is that your awareness has been elevated, you understand what you should be doing in a much deeper way. The next step is to learn how to physically execute what you now understand.

An Advanced Technique is a Basic Technique that's been Mastered

Be a Great Parent- Coach

Have you considered pre-framing your child about going to karate class? Pre-framing means setting the stage in your child's mind about what's going to happen and what's expected. Pre-framing is developing a pattern for success as a prerequisite to achieving it. You may not realize it, but you have been pre-framing your children since before they were born. Mothers who take prenatal vitamins, get regular check- ups, and do not smoke or drink during pregnancy do so because they want their child to be healthy. You are pre-framing your child for a healthy life.

Every step of a child's development-from the first word and step, to preschool, to elementary school to high school to college-is pre-framing for the next stage of their life. You teach them good manners and habits early in life so that they can apply them later. They build upon the skills they have learned in school with each progressing grade to improve their intelligence. You lay the framework for the next step. You take advantage of the present to ensure that your child has a successful future.
Think about the choices you have made in raising your children. Have you set up a college fund? Did you make sure they went to the best school available? Have you taught them basic skills that they will build on as they grow? These are all examples of how parents are pre-framing their children for success in life.
Proper pre-framing ensures that your child will be more open to attending karate class.
If your child wanted to quit academic school, what would your response be? Well, if your child wants to quit karate school, why should your response be any different?
There are bound to be peaks and valleys in your child's interest in martial arts. You, as a parent-coach, must help your child through the valleys. Martial Arts teaches perseverance, and it is this perseverance that will help your child achieve the goal of mastering martial arts.

Perseverance is one of the greatest principles to success in life and a foundation of the Martial Arts. Pre- framing can be applied to almost any aspect of your child's life. The earlier you start, the easier it will be for your child to build on what you have given them. Pre- framing your children makes practicing a habit. Whether it is martial arts, a musical instrument, a sport or an academic subject, constant practice can only improve your child's skill.

You must decide if you will teach your child to succeed by perseverance or to fail by giving up.
Today the lesson is finish or quit karate, tomorrow it may to graduate or drop out of high school or college.

You must encourage your child to be resolute.

Drugs, Alcohol, and Smoking

Everyone has their own reasons why they do or don't, consume drugs or alcohol. Here are the Gracie's Reasons:

Health: The Gracie lifestyle is a very physical one. With the amount of fighting and teaching that is conducted on a regular basis, we try to minimize the amount of stress we impose on our internal organs, plus we don't want hangovers or lung cancer.

State of Mind: While under the influence of illegal drugs or alcohol, you are not in your right state of mind which means that you have limited control over your behavior. Fights can take place at any time without notice and with the amount of knowledge we have about fighting we cannot afford to forget any moves at any time or else we may lose a fight that we might otherwise win.

Influence: Leading by example is not the best way to teach, it's the only way. If we plan on influencing the lives of students or members of future generations we must walk our talk.

Discipline: The discipline required for us to resist these and other temptations is same discipline that we rely upon to face all of life's challenges.

We'd like to remind everyone
that Friday ---27 APR 2007
We will be holding our next belt exam.
Please review the testing schedule, exam roster, and upcoming events to see how it may affect you by visiting our website
@ http://www.athensmartialarts.net and clicking on the "Student Corner" icon.

April's password is --- spring.