Michael Angelo spoke about sculpting as stripping away the stone to reveal the statue that is within vs turning a rock into a piece of art. I tend to look at training that way. We have to strip away the excess until we find that fighter within and let it out.
Students need to be the rock and the teacher/system needs to be the sculptor. You have to realize you don’t know anything. Stop trying to do what you want to do and do what the system is teaching. When you are completely lost you need to try and stick to the principles of what we do instead of muscling or just quitting. The system and the teacher will pull this art out of you if you let them.
Everyone wants what they want when they want it. Martial Arts and conditioning are stubborn sons a bitches. They don’t let you have your way. You either chill, and do what they want or you go nowhere good. Keep a healthy attitude about your progress. Don’t slack but also don’t freak out. Find that middle ground where the results are.
I took a chance with my partially torn bicep and rolled the other night. I took a shot at the latest newbie and found myself wrestling an alligator instead of rolling. Everything I did was met by thrashing, yanking, shoving, and a bunch of other colorful movements. So, to break our newbie in I pretty much road him like an alligator trying to pull me under. I got real heavy and maintained good positions until exhaustion set in. Then we shark tank’d him for 15 minutes until the last ounces of muscle bleed off and the jiu jitsu started to come out. Funny thing is that so many people have gone through this that a large group will read this and ask themselves if this is about them?
Painful lesson, but a valuable experience. We don’t crush everyone like this but if you come through trying to roll like you are tearing a telephone book in half you will get a bit of the business. Now that it is lesson learned we are at a great place to start training.
Sometimes we have to accept that we won’t get things the way we want too. You can’t change nature. You have to go with it to benefit from it. Training is a natural thing you have to conform to. Even the non-conformist that has its middle finger held high! has to go with the flow to get results in Martial Arts or Strength & Conditioning.
So after all the above the point is simple; let the system strip away what isn’t needed to let the fighter in you come out!
Brian Wright
Real Elite