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It's an ad, but a good one.
It's an ad, but a good one.
No Excuses
- Thread starter Andrew Green
- Start date
Simply, wow!
Bruno@MT
Senior Master
Generally I don't miss practice for anything if I can help it.
The only times I missed practice is when I was abroad, or when my company had its annual maintenance shutdown and I was making 14 hour days. things like that.
My reasoning is that if I start missing class for a good excuse, next time I'll skip class for a bad excuse. And then the next step is only going to class if I feel like it. And then I drop out.
Unless I have a solid reason (genuinely unable to attend or something unforeseen with my family) I go despite any inconveniences I might experience. I had a private lesson with my sensei the day my grandmother was buried (she'd have been the first to tell me to get my butt on the mat
), and I went to class with clogged up nose, headache, sprained toe, tired, etc...
One time I even went to class with a wet keikogi
I had forgotten to take it out of the washing machine and only found out 15 minutes before I had to leave for class. I tried to save what I could with a hair dryer, but to no avail. That was one of the most annoying workouts I've ever had, as the damn thing didn't want to dry or even get warm.
The only times I missed practice is when I was abroad, or when my company had its annual maintenance shutdown and I was making 14 hour days. things like that.
My reasoning is that if I start missing class for a good excuse, next time I'll skip class for a bad excuse. And then the next step is only going to class if I feel like it. And then I drop out.
Unless I have a solid reason (genuinely unable to attend or something unforeseen with my family) I go despite any inconveniences I might experience. I had a private lesson with my sensei the day my grandmother was buried (she'd have been the first to tell me to get my butt on the mat
), and I went to class with clogged up nose, headache, sprained toe, tired, etc...One time I even went to class with a wet keikogi
I had forgotten to take it out of the washing machine and only found out 15 minutes before I had to leave for class. I tried to save what I could with a hair dryer, but to no avail. That was one of the most annoying workouts I've ever had, as the damn thing didn't want to dry or even get warm.
Bruno@MT
Senior Master
Yes. But sometimes you have to go ahead despite feeling that there are good reasons not to. I am trying to learn a back handspring. I learned the forward handstand flip last year. I want to learn these thing for no better reason than that they are in our curriculum (non mandatory) and I want to be able to do them and push my limits.
Fwiw I dedicated some blog posts to this specific topic.
Anyway, I am am building up to the back handspring by first learning to do a bridgefall from standing position. I do this to get more flexible, to ingrain the backward arching motion, and to overcome the huge mental block against doing this.
In all likelihood, you have a similar block: imagine you stand upright. Then imagine raising your arms, arching your back and continue the arch as you fall backwards (assuming that, like me, you are not flexible enough to bend all the way
) until your hands touch the ground.I can now do this with a slightly better than 50/50 chance of success. But every time I try, I have to work up the courage to actually let myself drop beyond the balance point. I've decided to make at least 3 successful bridges every day until the block is gone. It is already easier than when I did it the first time, but despite that, every time I walk into the garden to practice, there is a part of me screaming that it really don't want to do that.
And that part is probably right. There are many good reasons not to learn bridge falls and learn to do the back handspring. But those good reasons will always be there to give me an excuse not to push my limits. At some point you have to decide: do I want to do this or not (for whatever motivation) and if I do, then I have to say '**** all those good excuses and reasons not to do it. I am going to do this'. Sometimes there are good reasons not to pay heed to the other good reasons that keep you from doing something.
