What inspires you?

[Ironbear24]

Everyone hits plateaus - it's part of training..

One thing that inspires me is helping others - especially kids - seeing them struggle..
and then.. little by little - they get it and then, they test and - that smile.. unbelievable!
It keeps me pushing forward.. plus, when you're helping other people - it really forces
you to examine your own technique and work to make it sharper

Fall down 7 times, stand up 8

Yes. Plateauing is inevitable, that means you have a new obstacle to cross. If you never plateau you are probably not being challenged enough.

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

I think it is impossible to train without goals. We do everything for a purpose.

It's not difficult to set up your goal such as:

I'll

- punch a hole on this heavy bag.
- crack a coconut with my hand.
- jump a certain high.
- jump a certain distance.
- run 100 meters with in x second.
- use my technique X to win Y number of rounds in tournament.
- ...

 

[Phobius]

It's not difficult to set up your goal such as:

I'll

- punch a hole on this heavy bag.
- crack a coconut with my hand.
- jump a certain high.
- jump a certain distance.
- run 100 meters with in x second.
- use my technique X to win Y number of rounds in tournament.
- ...

Those are goals though, I think he was saying it seems impossible to train without goals.

 

[hoshin1600]

Really? I don't know about you but I feel that training without goals is pretty pointless. Without something to strive for, what's the point in doing the activity?

And in that statement is your problem. Your training to achieve a goal and when that goal seems out of reach you get discouraged. Some people train only to train with no thoughts on a goal and enjoy the journey day in, day out, year after year.

 

[Tez3]

And in that statement is your problem. Your training to achieve a goal and when that goal seems out of reach you get discouraged. Some people train only to train with no thoughts on a goal and enjoy the journey day in, day out, year after year.

That and Bill's comment has cheered me up a bit, at the moment nothing has inspired me to do anything let alone train. Everything at the moment seems dreary and any faith in human beings is fast running out. It seems to me staying in bed under the duvet is possibly the best bet for the week.

 

[hoshin1600]

here is the problem with goal setting (as i see it). goal setting is a method to get you from point A to point B. it helps guide you and keep you on track. for example..if you were training for competition, goal setting can help to help you make weight. but its not really a good method for learning. if you were to goal set to make journey to cross the country you could set times from point A to point B. you would keep your focus on the time and how much there is to go , how much you have crossed. the whole time would be spent looking at the clock and the miles driven.
but in doing so you would miss the sights, sounds and the experience of new things along the way. setting a goal to "cross the country" would not help you find out that that little corner food stop called "miss macks" that looks like a house has the best apple pie made from scratch that comes from a recipe that her great grandmother taught her and the apples come from her back yard in a special orchard planted 100 years ago.

i compare my approach to training like archaeology. digging in the dirt and then finding that little nugget that everyone else passed over but i recognize it for what it is and THAT little nugget of knowledge and puzzle piece is what excites me and keeps me going.
i train for that moment of "OMG" look at that,,, i know what that is and how it fits into everything else that i do!! wow i never new that before.
the problem with goals is eventually you run out of them or you come to the realization that time has stolen them away.

 

[Blindside]

here is the problem with goal setting (as i see it). goal setting is a method to get you from point A to point B. it helps guide you and keep you on track. for example..if you were training for competition, goal setting can help to help you make weight. but its not really a good method for learning. if you were to goal set to make journey to cross the country you could set times from point A to point B. you would keep your focus on the time and how much there is to go , how much you have crossed. the whole time would be spent looking at the clock and the miles driven.
but in doing so you would miss the sights, sounds and the experience of new things along the way. setting a goal to "cross the country" would not help you find out that that little corner food stop called "miss macks" that looks like a house has the best apple pie made from scratch that comes from a recipe that her great grandmother taught her and the apples come from her back yard in a special orchard planted 100 years ago.

I have always used goal setting as part of my martial arts experience, I tend to be very targeted that way, and in no way do I think it has hurt my martial arts experience. Learning is learning, I may miss some things now, but it doesn't mean I won't find those same things later.

Two examples; first I wasn't real happy with my fitness at the last Dog Brothers Gathering, speed was down though I didn't feel real gassed by the end of matches I suspect my intensity flagged, I would like to be able to keep the pressure up on my opponents, and some of these 25 year olds are freaking energizer bunnies. I would like to drop 10 pounds that I have gained over the last 2 years and work the hell out of my anaerobic fitness. I have 11 months to do this, pretty achievable with a small change in diet and workout routine, this is pretty straightforward and I won't go into details.

Second example, I want to fight with a staff at that same Gathering. This one is more problematic, I have never truly fought staff before, I have had training in it but never really brought it to the sparring floor. So how am I going to do this?
1: Increase personal time training with the staff with existing materials.
2: Research the hell out of what other fighters do in staff fights, this will be lots of video research. This is both looking for techniques to use and to counter. Watch the hell out of the five or so really good staff fights that I saw at this and last year's Gatherings.
3. Find about 10 high percentage techniques/combinations to focus on.
4: Dedicate about a month of the Training Group's time to focusing on the staff so they are good training partners for me.
5. Add staff to the sparring mix on our monthly sparring night, this will probably be light and technical sparring.
6. Revise focus techniques based on experience in monthly sparring.
7. Plan to do staff fights at the Beat the Crap Out of Cancer event in November and the Warrior Tipon-Tipon in March.
8. Get a fight in May against one of the scary guys I saw fight this last year, probably against that 25 year old who broke my finger last month, the jerk.

This isn't a race, I have a goal but I give myself opportunities for detours along the way. And I don't think I will ever run out of goals, I have waaay too much to work on for that.