Never be Afraid to Quit

We've all heard the adage: "Winners never quit.  Quitters never win."

Nothing could be further from the truth.

The better adage is: "You gotta know when to hold 'em. Know when to fold 'em. Know when to walk away. And know when to run."

Yes, persistence and perseverance can get you far.  You can become very successful by sticking to something for a long time while trying to improve.  It's a skill that can help you in life.

However, knowing when and how to quit something is actually equally important.  At some point, we have to recognize when we're no longer able to improve on a situation despite the amount of resources you've sunk into it.

We all need to recognize the point when, despite any additional effort, failure is inevitable. When that happens, learn from your failure, quit, then divert your remaining resources and energy on other endeavours (or a modified version of the failed one). This is how quitting will lead to future success.

White Belt Mentality

Whenever I teach a new group of white belts, the first thing I tell them is that they'll feel overwhelmed with a lot of new information coming at them.  I say that they'll make tons of mistakes and they'll probably get confused. A lot. Most importantly, I'll tell them they shouldn't worry about it.

I'll tell them that they just need to do their best to follow along, keep their eyes and ears open, and learn as much as they can every time they show up.  With constant, deliberate practice of the basics, they'll eventually make progress.

This is a mentality that we all need to have. Even when we become "experts" at any field, practicing and going back to the basics should never be "beneath you". Sometimes it's good to re-examine the basics, to try and then fail as a learning experience. Remaining humble by having a white belt mentality helps us get even better at the things that we've been doing for years and opening ourselves up to learn something new.

Banning Ring Card Girls is Anti-Feminist and Prevents Women's Empowerment

Anyone who watches professional combat sports will notice that there are always scantily-clad women carrying large cards around a ring or a cage to remind viewers what round in the fight we're in.

Apparently, some very well-meaning, though misguided feminist activists and politicians in Australia have decided that enough is enough.  They want to end the objectification and exploitation of women by banning ring card girls (a.k.a. "round progress managers") at a championship boxing match this past August.  They are now even petitioning the UFC not to have the iconic Octagon girls in between rounds in the upcoming event this coming October.

Are current feminists all of a sudden uncomfortable at the thought of women showing their bodies and getting paid handsomely for it if they want to? I was under the impression that a way to empower women is by giving them choices in the types of work they do.  If a woman wants to show off as much or as little of her body in public as she wants, nobody should be able to tell her otherwise
 
I can see where the "objectification" argument might come from, but as for "exploitation", I tend to disagree. None of these politicians and activists actually asked the women doing the ring girl jobs if they've ever felt exploited or forced to do this.

By banning these jobs, these politicians and activists are effectively taking away these women's right to make a living legally. And yes, I do call this work for the simple reason that it takes commitment and discipline when it comes to exercise and diet to maintain the physical condition that these women have.  Also, if you do any research, you'll learn that many of these women have actually used the platform of combat sports as a launching point for extremely lucrative partnerships, sponsorships and careers in modeling, art, broadcasting, podcasting, and other fields.

Maybe it's a question of representation.  Would there be as many complaints and bans if more "plus-sized" women were represented in the job the same way that we now have an increasing amount of "plus-sized" models?  What if we had more women over the age of 45 doing the job?  Or maybe more women in wheelchairs?

Would there also be as many complaints if in addition to having ring card girls during men's fights, we had ring card guys during women's fights?  The all-women MMA promotion Invicta FC debuted Canadian pro-fighter Elias Theodoru as their ring card boy last year.  He hasn't done it since, but I think it would be more interesting to see dudes doing the same type of job in other organizations.

How many feminists and activists would complain if pro-fighter Elias Theodoru continued working as a Ring Card boy on the side?

 

Personally, I've always thought that it was a bit weird to see ring card girls in between rounds of a women's MMA championship fight.  So it would make more sense to have more ring card guys reminding us what round it is.  It would be somewhat sexist and regressive to consider this job as exclusively "women's work" after all.

The point I'm trying to make is this.  The Australian bans are simply an attack on soft targets that make it look like they're doing something when they're really just trying to show off how much more virtuous they are than the rest of us.  If politicians and feminists were really looking to empower women, stop exploitation and objectification, they would be aiming their outrage at real issues of violence against women and lack of education for girls in other countries outside of the Western world.

Common Misconceptions about Martial Arts

Be it because of Hollywood, semi-false marketing by McDojos, or whatever other reason, most people have the wrong idea of what martial arts are before they even step on a mat, ring or floor.  So to help you future martial artists (and maybe instructors), I thought I'd make a list of common misconceptions that people have about martial arts so you can have a more informed idea of what you're getting into if you decide to sign up at your local dojo.

Size and strength don't matter in a fight as long as you've trained in martial arts

One of the biggest myths perpetuated by both Hollywood and certain martial arts schools alike is that "size doesn't matter" if you've been properly trained in their style. Having more knowledge, better technique and being better trained will definitely increase your chances of winning a fight or surviving a self-defense situation against a larger and stronger attacker.

Realistically, if you have two equally-trained and equally-skilled individuals, the larger and stronger person will have an obvious advantage. If you still don't believe me, think about why both professional and Olympic combat sports have weight classes.

Gabi Garcia vs Megumi Yabushita in a Shootboxing match in 2017.

Fight ended in "No Contest" due to an illegal kick, but really, who do you think won this fight?

 

Martial arts will turn kids into "disciplined" people

With the market for most traditional martial arts schools being kids, they will usually try to sell themselves by saying that they will help your kids become more disciplined. Is that true? More or less.

Any type of structured, difficult activity has the potential to build discipline.  This applies to martial arts, but also activities like dance, learning a musical instrument, creative writing and even team sports. If the person practicing the activity ends up liking it and wants to improve their skills at that activity, then yes, they become "disciplined".  That discipline might transfer to everything else they want to succeed in.

However, while martial arts can be that starting point of a disciplined life for some people, it won't be the case for all people.

Martial arts will make kids "bully-proof"

A lot of martial arts schools will market their kids classes as a way to keep kids from being bullied.  Presumably, kids are supposed to learn how to defend themselves against physical attacks on the school yard.  Yes, that can be useful as a last resort for a kid who is getting picked on.  However, a lot of bullying is now happening on a psychological basis, especially with online bullying through social media.  A kid who's being bullied will benefit more from developing social skills that help them deal and de-escalate conflicts before the first punch is even thrown.  If the conflict turns physical because the de-escalation tactics didn't work, only then will the fighting skills come in handy.

Being in a martial arts school might help some kids who are being bullied by allowing them to make more friends with common interests, and thus allow them to develop the necessary social skills.  Yes, being able to overcome adversity in a controlled environment will help develop the self-esteem needed to stand up for themselves.  But that's not something that a kid will learn after a month or two of punching and kicking in a karate class a couple of times a week.  This is a process that can take years not only of training but of interacting with people of different walks of life.

There are "secret techniques" that are "too dangerous" for full contact competition

No, there aren't.  The myth of "secret techniques" are perpetuated by lazy and/or delusional people who want to pretend that they can knock down a gang of attackers using nothing but a wave of their hand.

There are no such things as "no-touch" knockouts and "chi-blasts" that require very little effort to stop a resisting attacker.  If there were, with the ubiquity of the Internet and video technology, we would have seen legitimate practitioners by now.  If someone, somewhere in the world of martial arts was truly able to "summon their inner chi" and shoot fireballs out of their fingers or lightning bolts out of their butt, it would already be on the Internet and they would be making millions of dollars by dominating opponents at the largest MMA promotions in the world.

Effective, but illegal technique done in competition

Sure, certain attacks like eye poking, small joint manipulation, attacking the groin and biting are illegal in rules-based competition. Yes these can be effective, devastating techniques, but there's nothing secret or mysterious about them.  They're just not allowed in competitions because we want to see a bit more of a fair contest and less fights ended by serious injuries.

Martial arts are the same as self-defense

This kind of goes back to using fighting skills against bullies.  Fighting techniques learned in a martial class might be able help if you're being physically attacked.  However, avoiding a situation that can lead to that physical attack is actually more effective as a "self defense" measure.

That means not hanging out too much in bars and night clubs.  That means learning to be more aware of your surroundings when walking to your car at night.  That means avoiding dark alleys alone in the middle of the night.  That also means handing over your wallet and/or car keys to stranger pointing a gun at you.  These are things that most martial arts schools will pay lip service to, but won't really practice.

Again, if you get stuck and you can't avoid a situation, some techniques learned can save you, but you're better off not being in that certain situation in the first place.

You need to register as a "deadly weapon" when you become a black belt

Anybody who tells you that they're registered as some kind of weapon because of their martial arts black belt rank is either a liar or delusional. This kind of person is definitely not the type of person you want to be giving martial arts instruction to you or your kids.

A simple Internet search will tell you that there are no laws in Canada, the US, the UK or in Western Europe requiring that martial arts practitioners of a certain rank be registered because they can deal out deadly force with their bare hands.  It is true that some people have the ability to kill with their superior technique (think of a Brazilian jujitsu black belt who can choke out 95% of the population), but no government registration is required.

The closest thing that I can think of are anecdotes from martial artists living in former Eastern Block and USSR countries who were asked by the government to register their martial arts ranks during the Cold War era.  That's about the extent of it but even then I haven't been able to corroborate that.

Conclusion

For people looking to sign their kids or themselves up to a martial arts school, it's important to know these common misconceptions. You're not to blame for not knowing any of these, but hopefully reading this will give you an idea of what it is you're signing up for.  Enjoy and happy training!

We Are NOT Created Equal

This is a follow up on the previous piece on how to get good at anything.

The premise of practicing with full conscious effort will definitely get you as far as you potentially can in any given field. However, there are limitations to how far each individual can get because we are not born with the same genetic potential and predispositions.

Some people have the genetic predisposition to have more fast-twitch muscle. Some are more likely to have certain types of addictions. Other individuals are more likely to get certain kinds of cancer. Some will be born with missing limbs. Some have genes that cause them to have osteoporosis and arthritis before the age of 40. Others will be predisposed to have higher muscular endurance and a higher pain threshold. Some people will be born to be potentially 7 feet tall while others won't grow taller than 4 feet.

I could quit my day job, train for 8 hours a day and try to get faster at sprinting for the next 4 years. Despite the 10,000 hours of dedicated training I will never even come close to catching a retired, "out-of-shape" Usain Bolt in a 100 meter dash. Although I might be able to outdo him in other things (here's hoping any way).

 

Bottom line: constant practice with conscious effort will make you better at any skill. However, there is an upper limit that we can get to for each field, be it sports, intellectual pursuits, martial arts, music, or entrepreneurship.

Guess what! Life isn't fair. Every individual will have certain biological advantages over other people in certain fields while having disadvantages in others. Despite what any idealist with their heart in the right place will tell you, we are not all created equal. What's important is that we give everyone the equal opportunity to find, acquire and develop the skills that best fit with their strengths.

How to Get Good at Anything

It's a very simple formula.  Simple, but not easy.

To gain skills, be it playing a musical instrument, sports, stand-up comedy, acting, martial arts, math, languages, computer programming, public speaking, video editing, or even entrepreneurship, there is a very simple formula if you want to get better at any skill:

1) Practice a lot
2) Put in a lot of conscious effort to what you're practicing

The first point, you've heard before.  The "magic number" of 10,000 hours has been thrown around as the minimum needed to master a skill.  While it's been argued that this magic number is more or less legit, the point is, to get somewhat good at a skill, you need to have a lot of repetitions.  Without the practice, you won't get better.

What's more important though is the second point. You can "practice" something for 16 hours a day. If you are not consciously making the effort to practice whatever you're doing without trying to do it correctly, you're wasting your time. By practicing something without effort or without thinking for long periods of time, you'll just end up making yourself worse at that skill and develop bad habits. Instead, you need to go through the correct progressions, acknowledge that you made mistakes during practice and learn how to avoid them in the future.

Really you're just trying to find ways to be better than you were since the last time you practiced.



That's it.  No special shortcuts, no simple hacks.  Just put in time and conscious effort.

True Body Positivity and Self-Love

The body positivity movement as we know it right now tells us that we shouldn't let society dictate how we should feel about our physical bodies.  According to this movement, we should accept all bodies, no matter the shape, size or appearance.

It's a nice thought.  There's nothing wrong with being happy with ourselves.  And yes, we shouldn't let magazines and social media determine what our bodies should look like.

HOWEVER...

The danger is that people who could be physically and mentally healthier will use this as an excuse.  It makes it easier for people who are unhealthy and obese to say that what their body looks like doesn't matter because they should be accepted while ignoring the negative effects of their bad diet and lack of exercise.

If we really were about loving our bodies, we would do our best to keep them functioning at optimal levels.  We should love our bodies so much that we want to keep our muscles relatively strong throughout our entire lives.  If we really loved our bodies we should want to be able to keep a certain level of mobility and flexibility in our joints and tendons as we get older.  Real body positivity and self-love means trying to prevent future diseases by paying attention to what we put in it.

Truly being "body-positive" and being honest about loving our bodies means that we shouldn't accept an unhealthy, physical status quo.  While our physical bodies will never be "perfect", we should be doing everything we can to keep that body as healthy as possible until we die.