Developing yourself to your potential in the martial arts, or athletics is the sum total of many physical attributes, techniques, and training methods. The deciding factor in reaching your potential primarily revolves around one factor– “mental attitude.” This is often the missing piece in many people’s lives, even highly talented athletes and martial artists.

As an athlete for most of my life,I have seen extremely talented individuals fail when they were faced with less talented, but highly motivated and mentally tough adversaries and/or teammates. One of the major themes of training in any program at The Academy is self-defense and developing the mental edge and attitude that can be built through the physical demands of hard training and conditioning. The tough training sessions are not simply to develop strength, endurance, speed, power, flexibility, and overall conditioning, as much as it is to develop a strong mental attitude. Hard physical training over time begins to develop a person’s mental attitude and in time the mental control we have over ourselves.

You will find that the physical aspects of training are relatively temporary. Take time off and see what happens to your endurance, flexibility, and strength. These attributes will stay with you as long as they are maintained through training. Your fitness level rapidly declines when your training stops. Your endurance and strength will drop back to the level of when you started your first class in a matter of weeks when your training stops. However, what does stay with you is the mind set of winning, that “no quit” attitude. This is the reason behind our physically demanding classes and tough testing standards. I read and watch many things that center on success as a teacher, coach, and competitor (all are very different in function). One of the greatest no-nonsense football coaches of all time has to be Vince Lombardi.

Pic from http://www.vincelombardi.com/

During the 1960’s; the Green Bay Packers, under the guidance of Coach Vince Lombardi, were unrivaled in professional football. Lombardi was successful because he understood what the difference was between winners and losers. It wasn’t skill, physical talent, strength, or speed, but rather it was his players’ mental attitude. He built a desire and a will to win. The team’s training developed a positive” attitude that showed in every game. He said, “All the rings and all the money and all the color and all of the display, they linger only in a memory. But the spirit, the will to win, the will to excel. These are the things that endure and these are the qualities, of course, that are so much more important than any of the events that occur. I’d like to say that the quality of any mans life is a full measure of that mans personal commitment to excellence and to victory, regardless of what field he may be in.”

It’s all about a healthy attitude to be the best you can be. One of the main ways to develop the “mental edge” is by the constant reinforcement of succeeding at hard training sessions and tests. Training is not about easy workouts and pampering our students-it’s about physically demanding workouts that tests not only your physical capabilities, but, really your mental toughness and fortitude. The bottom line is that a coach or instructor can guide you by telling you what needs to be done and how often to do it. But you have to want to do it. Only the positive mental attitude to succeed will allow you to go to the Academy when you think you’re too tired to go to class, and help you avoid or bash through the many obstacles and distractions that will get in your way.

Being in shape and fit is about NOT GIVING UP, and this is key to your success in everything worth your time. The winner of any event, be it a self-defense situation, competition, your next rank test, or a personal goal, is not necessarily based on talent and not always the fittest or strongest, but the one with the strongest mind, the mental edge, who is committed to excellence.