As most of you know I’ve been in martial arts for all of my adult life. Studying and teaching Kung Fu, tinkering in lots of other styles from Muay Thai to Kali and more recently training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.
On Tuesday night, our Professor, a BJJ instructor, awarded the class with upgrades to our belts. A little piece of tape to show your progression.
He said a few words about how we’re doing and what to work on to hit our next stripe or full belt.
Paying attention, drilling / practising the stuff we go through in class and trying to implement the basics when sparring.
The best part for me was one of my Kung Fu students getting her first stripe and him mentioning how she has perfected a Bow and Arrow choke when sparring me and my mate Graham. She basically holds on to my lapel with one hand puts a knee in my back and reverse bends me over her knee like a bow, making it difficult to breathe, leading to me tapping to stop the fight.
Consistency of practice and playing with it has led to that skill.
Consistency is all we need for anything to become a skill or habit.
A little of something every day beats one big effort every now and then.
What would you like to improve?
What could you do each day that would help with that?
Darren “3 is the magic number” Checkley
