Create your ‘new normal’ ...

Work hard. Train hard. Until that becomes ‘normal’. The dial it up a bit until that becomes your new normal. Rinse and repeat. This is how you move away from the ordinary.

I’ve had a lot of martial arts instructors ask me how to improve their training, get better results, live better lives, etc. The answer is as easy as I have already stated. Just teach four private classes and four regular classes a week - plus do your own training. When this becomes ‘normal’ - double it. And again. By then, your ‘normal’ is well out of the ordinary. Do the same with other aspects of our lives.

Create your ‘new normal’.

Pic: with pals Craig Moorfoot and Andrew Bews.

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We are ‘pattern spotters’ …

We are hardwired to seek and out and recognise patterns … in all facets of life. Some people see the virgin Mary’s face in a loaf of bread or in a slice for toast - there is nothing divine about this of course, it is just that ‘facial recognition’ is crucial to human/infant survival - and so we grow up very, very sensitive to finding ‘faces’ of all kinds, in nature, even in hot cross buns and clouds. It naturally follows that we spot patterns in things/areas/landscapes that we are interested in. I like seeking out the patterns that exist in BJJ. Without such patterns, BJJ can seem like a huge pile of unrelated techniques - very messy, very, very confusing - particularly for the novice (but actually for many black belts as well). In fact very often, the more people learn, the greater their confusion becomes. Once we identify certain patterns, certain concepts, a lot of the confusion goes away and things ‘fall’ into place. For example: Take knee-slice passing - there are many,

Martial Artists as Role Models? Not necessarily!

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The Torrent ...

We are living in the age of information ... our ancestors didn't have enough information, but today we may sometimes come up against the problem of being bombarded with too much information. A torrent of info is the 'new norm' for the youth of today ... but how to sort the fact from fiction, the useful from the useless? Different challenges. But hey ... I'll not say 'no' to information ... we just need to develop the skill of being able to 'make distinctions'.

BJJ

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