I was pleased to hear stories this week from students who had defended themselves against would-be bullies with a shift of their body or a flick of their wrist; with body language & words which display confidence. The key words for use of force are : 'reasonable, under the circumstances'.
Part of this week’s lessons were spent reviewing ‘signs': what does someone do before they grab, push, punch? How do we recognize that a situation is ‘going south’? How do we engage people in conversation so they’re concentrating on the conversation & not their possible assault? How much space do I need to be safe?
We had a discussion the other night about earning a black belt, which is really another way of saying ‘I achieved black belt level in my sport/field…’ We know that not everyone who begins a quest will get to black belt level: we need to ask ‘why?’, since most, if not all have the ability to achieve exactly that.
Our impressions/ideas about something or someone influences our actions. How many times have we said ‘when I got to know someone/about something, I realized I had been way off’. When you think ‘martial arts training’, what do you think? what picture do you have in your head?
Reacting instinctively ‘the way we are programmed’ can be a good thing if the programming is useful. In dangerous or stressful situations, martial artists are trained to react differently than most others: to become calm, focused, and centered, in order to process & deliver the sharpest & quickest (& most effective) options.
As stated in my book: Tigers & Tornados (available on Amazon) & by sending your request to info@greaterdurhamjiu-jitsu.com, there is a ‘Black Belt’ level in every field of endeavour, & the process to ‘get to the top’ is virtually the same. My keynote talk 'Awareness-Self-Defense-Growth-Success' explains this in detail.
For information on how to join our dojo, please use our contact form or by phone/message at (905) 431-3538 to reach Sensei Bob.
