Melanie
17-Dec-2002, 02:02 AM
Hardly an unheard of term…at one stage or another you or someone you know has said this. What does it mean though? Is it positive or negative?
Its an expression that can mean both in my opinion. Its just down to the outlook of the person saying it at the time. The mental attitude.
I bring this up now, because today (Monday 16th December) I received my latest injury. It seems I have pulled a hamstring. Always the same isn’t it? My training has been going through a fairly rough patch up until recently, I start to get on top of my game and ‘bang’ I am back to square one. Is this necessarily a bad thing? Yes and No. Yes: because all the hard work I had been putting into my practical and physical training will be lost. The muscle memory will get rusty and a decline in my general fitness. No: because everything else I have been ignoring in order to do the above is something I can now concentrate on. I can explore and look deeper into my training with the time I have on my hands. I was told by my former Sensei, you didn’t need to physically train daily to learn your kata, kumite, etc. This could all be explored with your imagination, your mind. Different scenarios could be added, people, weapons, locations and no one got hurt! I especially found this helpful when learning new kata. I would write down the moves and try and pick up the beat of the movements in my head and then complete the kata in ‘my minds eye’. Once I could understand what I was doing, had some idea of why I was doing and roughly how quickly to do it, it made the practical side easier for me. That works for me though…not everyone.
One thing that martial arts has taught me in an extremely short space of time, is patience. I have only ever had one injury related to my training. That was a Bursa earlier on this year. I got it because I didn’t listen to my body and ended up not training for 3 months. It was agony, but worth the wait. I came back more powerful and determined than ever and have spent the most incredible spring/summer in my training. I will not let this ‘small’ setback beat me! I know I will now have to be a lot more careful and warm up thoroughly as I now have a weakness in the hamstring, but proper care and listening to my bodies limits in the future will help. Believe it or not – my hamstring snapped changing gear in my car driving to work. Apparently it was the straw that broke the camels back. I don’t remember my hamstring complaining previously…but I guess I never thought to listen?
What I am trying to say basically, is MA isn’t all about belts, competition and striving against others. I train for myself and only for myself. Sure, its nice when others say you’re doing well, but personally my opinion is I can never do enough. I have let other things in the past cloud my judgement in my training and it has taken away the enjoyment of it from me. I train not only for the physical fitness side, but also for the small and brief glimpses of when I have actually achieved a technique, hopefully a little bit better than the week before. I train with people I respect and enjoy their company (and hopefully they like mine??) and I train because there is nothing about it which makes me feel inconsequential, ridiculous, small or pathetic. Its been a wonderful confidence builder for me. I consider myself fairly fortunate in that I have had two extremely good Sensei and had the opportunity to train with many other styles and Instructors as well. What is even nicer, is they even want me to come back.
Everyone gets doled out some lousy times in their training every now and then. Life, responsibilities (work/partner/familly) have their piece of you when they need you, but your training is always there. If you respect yourself, the people you train with and your style (s) there is no reason in the world that although you may need to miss that lesson to attend your Great Great Aunts High Tea once every four years or have to spend 3 months not training (physically) so be it. Your training will be waiting for you when you return.
I suppose you might be wandering what I am going to be doing now for at least the next 3-4 weeks. Well, frankly I will be doing nothing physically for a week, apart from a bit of steady walking, in short and gentle spurts! Then I will see how I get on. If it takes me two months to get back to full fitness..no problem. I can wait...my martial arts is worth waiting for…
Its an expression that can mean both in my opinion. Its just down to the outlook of the person saying it at the time. The mental attitude.
I bring this up now, because today (Monday 16th December) I received my latest injury. It seems I have pulled a hamstring. Always the same isn’t it? My training has been going through a fairly rough patch up until recently, I start to get on top of my game and ‘bang’ I am back to square one. Is this necessarily a bad thing? Yes and No. Yes: because all the hard work I had been putting into my practical and physical training will be lost. The muscle memory will get rusty and a decline in my general fitness. No: because everything else I have been ignoring in order to do the above is something I can now concentrate on. I can explore and look deeper into my training with the time I have on my hands. I was told by my former Sensei, you didn’t need to physically train daily to learn your kata, kumite, etc. This could all be explored with your imagination, your mind. Different scenarios could be added, people, weapons, locations and no one got hurt! I especially found this helpful when learning new kata. I would write down the moves and try and pick up the beat of the movements in my head and then complete the kata in ‘my minds eye’. Once I could understand what I was doing, had some idea of why I was doing and roughly how quickly to do it, it made the practical side easier for me. That works for me though…not everyone.
One thing that martial arts has taught me in an extremely short space of time, is patience. I have only ever had one injury related to my training. That was a Bursa earlier on this year. I got it because I didn’t listen to my body and ended up not training for 3 months. It was agony, but worth the wait. I came back more powerful and determined than ever and have spent the most incredible spring/summer in my training. I will not let this ‘small’ setback beat me! I know I will now have to be a lot more careful and warm up thoroughly as I now have a weakness in the hamstring, but proper care and listening to my bodies limits in the future will help. Believe it or not – my hamstring snapped changing gear in my car driving to work. Apparently it was the straw that broke the camels back. I don’t remember my hamstring complaining previously…but I guess I never thought to listen?
What I am trying to say basically, is MA isn’t all about belts, competition and striving against others. I train for myself and only for myself. Sure, its nice when others say you’re doing well, but personally my opinion is I can never do enough. I have let other things in the past cloud my judgement in my training and it has taken away the enjoyment of it from me. I train not only for the physical fitness side, but also for the small and brief glimpses of when I have actually achieved a technique, hopefully a little bit better than the week before. I train with people I respect and enjoy their company (and hopefully they like mine??) and I train because there is nothing about it which makes me feel inconsequential, ridiculous, small or pathetic. Its been a wonderful confidence builder for me. I consider myself fairly fortunate in that I have had two extremely good Sensei and had the opportunity to train with many other styles and Instructors as well. What is even nicer, is they even want me to come back.
Everyone gets doled out some lousy times in their training every now and then. Life, responsibilities (work/partner/familly) have their piece of you when they need you, but your training is always there. If you respect yourself, the people you train with and your style (s) there is no reason in the world that although you may need to miss that lesson to attend your Great Great Aunts High Tea once every four years or have to spend 3 months not training (physically) so be it. Your training will be waiting for you when you return.
I suppose you might be wandering what I am going to be doing now for at least the next 3-4 weeks. Well, frankly I will be doing nothing physically for a week, apart from a bit of steady walking, in short and gentle spurts! Then I will see how I get on. If it takes me two months to get back to full fitness..no problem. I can wait...my martial arts is worth waiting for…