Rules For Living Part 2

October 5, 2017 by Leave a Comment

Rule #4

All Champions Have To Start Somewhere And Quite Often It Is At The Bottom

My first year of wrestling I was on my back looking up a lot! I counted a lot of gym lights my first year of wrestling in Jr High losing 11 matches and winning only 1. I was a real ‘loser’ all around that school year. I got in a ton of trouble and was eventually expelled in the last 2 weeks of school. Incidentally, that made that summer a turning point in my life. My dad, who was athletic, an eagle scout, a successful manager at one of the first computer companies, grew up poor and worked on a farm, put me to work. My dad gave a list of chores to do everyday, and I was expected to finish it. What wasn’t finished was added to the next day’s list. I started my 7th grade year pretty much on the bottom of every area of my life, sports, school and letting my parents down. However, with my dad’s stern guidance and a summer of continuous work something changed in me. I definitely started on the bottom, but the following year my season record was 12-2. In addition, I stopped getting in anywhere near the same amount of trouble.

It is not where you start, but where you end and how you get there

Rule #5

If You Truly Believe In Yourself, Others Will Too

 

After starting from ground zero and working to change my self image, I started winning. More than that I was pushing myself in ‘most’ areas of my life. I decided to set my alarm for 30 minutes earlier every morning and get up and jog. Training was now a habit and by high school I was excelling in gymnastics, doing well in wrestling and my grades were good, but not great. My teachers saw that I was working harder than ever and taking classes more serious, but I was certainly not one of the most studious in the school. They soon began to realize that I was beginning to believe in my ability to be scholar athlete. I began taking an interest in my classroom work and looking at my school work in the same way as my athletics. A few teachers began to really work with me in areas I did not excel. They saw me not just as a high level gymnast and good wrestler, but as someone that wanted to succeed.

 

There are two types of people who begin to attract help from those in the know: those who try hard, fail, get back up and go hard again, and those who succeed and are always open to suggestions to get even better. I was of the first group and I found that people like to help those who work hard to improve, listen and actually follow their advice. When you go to a coach, mentor or teacher and share your goals and ask for advice, criticism and guidance they are in your corner as you fight to succeed. We should make sure our mentors become part of our successes, let them know how much we appreciate all they do and show your gratitude with every new victory.

Judge your successes by what you had to give up to get them

Filed Under: Coaches Corner, Kickboxing, Martial Arts Minnesota, Mixed Martial Arts, Muay Thai, The Academy Pulse Tagged With: , , , ,

Coaches Corner: Rules For Living: Part 1

August 15, 2017 by Leave a Comment


I threw my first judo throw, kicked my first kicks, and punched my first punches 42 years ago. I found my passion and immediately started to make training a part of my life. I made ad hoc training areas in my garage and laundry room. I started on a path I am still on today. When I think about all the years training Gymnastics, Judo, Wrestling, Boxing, Karate, then Jun Fan Martial Arts, Filipino Kali, Muay Thai, and Shooto, followed by Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and MMA, it all started with a deep seeded passion.

One morning when I was in 8th grade I decided to set my first goal: to get up every morning and run before school. That set in motion the habit of writing down goals I wanted to accomplish and gave me a way to go attain them. I started reading books about great athletes, martial artists and philosophers. I found out what they did to accomplish their dreams and visions. One of the books I read detailed one of the Olympians ‘Rules for Living’ and to this day I still have them hanging at my house.

Rule #1




You Have To Have A Dream To Have A Dream Come True


To start you have to have a clear picture of where you are going. Everything starts with a dream. As the Proverbs 29:18 says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.”, Even though we may not immediately perish, our goals will die without a dream. My dream was pretty simple, I wanted to be the best athlete I could be, and the martial arts, as well as all the other sports I did, were all lumped into that dream. I had dreams, but now I needed a plan….

 

Rule #2

Champions Set a Series of Intermediate Steps To Achieve Their Goals
I knew what I wanted. Now I had to establish goals: something I could realistically achieve. I had to break down my goals into tangible steps. I did a lot of sports, but I really started to understand how to break down my goals in middle school as a gymnast. I loved gymnastics and wanted to be a champion, but I had to first learn the basics of each piece of equipment. Once I started to get the basics, immediately the task was to string them together, and eventually create routines. Once my routines were set, I had to break them down and work individual series and set a goal to achieve a specific score on each event. I knew what I wanted to do and how I wanted to do it. Once I figured that out, everything was much simpler. Now, I just had to execute.

Every journey begins with a single step

Rule #3

Champions Never Say No To An Opportunity

I learned to set steps in gymnastics, but it was in Wrestling that I had my first opportunity to meet an Olympic Gold Medalist.  In 1980 we had the opportunity to witness college hockey players come together, and through a ton of HARD work and a visionary coach. They beat the ‘unbeatable’ Soviet Union Hockey team enroute to winning the Gold Medal. 

Being totally psyched after seeing that I had the opportunity to go to a wrestling camp with Olympic Gold medalists Ben and John Peterson.  Incidentally, that is where I learned my first submission, which was a neck crushing pin move I dubbed the ‘Peterson Squeeze’.  Without knowing it another piece of my future was put in place waiting to be used.  Later that same year I got the opportunity to train with professional wrestler Ivan “The Polish Hammer’ Putski. What an experience that was! He showed a whole bunch of illegal moves that began to shape my way of thinking. When opportunity knocks, open that door!  I learned that when an opportunity presents itself, jump on it.
If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.


Filed Under: Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Coaches Corner, Martial Arts Minnesota, Mixed Martial Arts, Muay Thai, The Academy Pulse Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Dealing With Life’s Distractions: The External

June 13, 2017 by Leave a Comment

No matter who you are, you will have many distractions in your life. Ultimately, no matter what your goals are in the martial arts, your job, academics, a new skill you want to develop or whatever, everyone will face an array of distractions. One of the number one areas you can develop is your ability to maintain your focus, despite all of the distractions that everyone has to deal with.


One thing I have learned is that no matter how much you prepare, life happens. Even with the best laid plans it is almost certain that something will come up. You must learn to ‘expect the unexpected’ and save an emergency, do what you have set out to do. Unfortunately, many people do not live with this attitude. Research has shown that your ability to keep focus on what you are doing, regardless of distraction, has proven to increase success. In the martial arts, students of equal ability and skill, in most cases, those that can put distractions aside and focus on their training will learn better and advance faster.


Just like training your physical skills, you need to train your mind to focus on the task at hand and set aside the distractions that attempt to train alongside you. Once you start to develop your ability to focus and set aside distractions on the mats, you will start to bring it to the rest of your life. Initially, I learned to totally focus while doing gymnastics. You had to be 100% in the moment, you couldn’t be distracted or you would be tempting fate. Regardless of what you are doing the distractions you will encounter can be categorized into two areas: Internal and External. We will deal with external distractions first.


External distractions are ever growing, and becoming an issue to everyone coming up in this era. There is your cell phone with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, texting, email….However, other stuff like the weather (heat, humidity, cold, rain, snow…), everyday issues and problems with your family, boyfriends, girlfriends, job, school, and work are things that everyone has to deal with are always present. Once you get into the classroom and you have to deal with other students, what they say, how much they know, their intensity level, physical ability, their smell….Your list could continue. Guess what, everyone is dealing with the same things but, some are able to set all of those external distractions aside and get busy.


First, you need to recognize the distractions in your life. You need to see what of the above distractions make you nervous, anxious, or lose focus. You need to see if you have any patterns, specific times or situations which distract you most. Once you know what, when and where you get distracted you can start to make changes.


Your ability to minimize distractions can be developed and refined just like your attributes and technical skills. One of the most effective ways to minimize distractions and increase your focus while training is to develop pre-class routines. Your pre-class routine can be totally individualized and modified as you find what works best for you. It is important to understand that your pre-class routine allows you to relax and prepares you to focus totally on your training.


There is surely nothing other than the single purpose of the present moment. A person’s life is a succession of moment after moment. When one fully understands the present moment, there will be nothing else to do and nothing else to pursue. – Yamamoto Tsunetomo (Hagakure)

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Coaches Corner: Do or Do not, There is no… not doing what you Need and Want to Do Pt 2

April 12, 2017 by Leave a Comment

I believe most of us want to improve ourselves, becoming better in specific areas, more fit, healthier and experience more in life. I know I do.  If we want to improve ourselves how do we begin, how do we get over the hump, or stop procrastinating?  There are a ton of books and courses on this very subject, and I have read a lot of books and taken courses….still do.  Many methods focus on dealing with your thoughts and feelings.  All you have to do is change your thoughts, think positive, focus on all the good you can do, and become if you start to balance your thoughts and emotions, so you are mentally and emotionally ready to get after it.  To start this way you have to ‘quiet your mind’ and start to create positive and empowering beliefs, this will build your self-esteem, and through positive affirmations and self-talk you can find your focus to affirm your personal power and gain control over your emotions and visualize yourself doing what you want, how you want to do it and see yourself becoming the way you want to be. Once all that is done you can align everything up just right so that you have the confidence to get motivated to want to commit yourself to start what you want to do…..that’s it….holy Hanna what a lot of psychobabble! 

Or you could just decide to Do It and take action!

No one is ever going to be 100% ready and your life will always be happening.  There will never be a perfect time, but there is always a right time: the time you make to do it. So make time, take a deep breath and get started. Once started, keep going.

Over the 41 years that I have been training and 30 years I have been teaching I have found a couple of things to be true. First, doing something, anything, even the smallest amount of training is a million times better than all the ideas and plans to train…but not actually training. Second, I have never felt or said, “I wish I would not have come in and trained.” However, there have been numerous times when I have said, “I wish I would’ve went in and got something done”.  So whether you are already a capable athlete or someone simply interested in a new experience, when starting a new activity, art, technique, training method…be gentle with yourself.  Show yourself the same tolerance and patience you would a beginner or a small child learning something new….the same child you once were!  No one started out knowing how to walk. Everyone fell many, many times, in the process.  Everyone around you encouraged you and never gave up on you…and lo and behold, nearly every single able person walks…just like you.  We all need to be kids again.  Children make errors, that is what they do – learning to crawl, walk, eat with utensils, drink out of a cup, skip rope, ride a bike, swim….everything must be learned and making mistakes is simply part of the process.  The crazy thing is, children learn at a pace far beyond almost every adult. Stop worrying and become like a child again in regards to trying new things and be on your path towards mastery.  Do what you can, with what you have, where you are, and just have fun doing it.

There is no better way to get better at whatever you’re doing.

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Coaches Corner: Do or Do not, There is no… not doing what you Need and Want to Do Pt. 1

February 16, 2017 by Leave a Comment

muay thai minneapolisYoda knows what all successful people know, it is about ACTION! But, so many, including myself, have created barriers and blocked our own paths to getting started and just simply taking care of business….whatever that business is. “​Life was never meant to be a struggle, just a gentle progression from one point to another, much like walking through a valley on a sunny day” ​But, for many they often create their own mountain of doubt and make even the simplest task so much worse than it really is. On the other hand, for others the climb is an adventure, the harder it seems the more they want to do it, the struggle to get from one point to another is how they want to spend their sunny day. No matter what your goals are, the truth is either you get after it or you don’t.

‘​Nature’s way is simple and easy, but men prefer what is intricate and artificial’ ​

Why do some people make such a big production out of doing the simplest things and others thrive in the most difficult of environments. Well, I have no clue, but I do know people will make things out to be more difficult and see themselves as less capable before they really know what they will be doing. Creating negative images in you head will dissuade you from doing things that in reality are pretty simple and easy. To take away some of the apprehension it is important to be aware of your potential of being successful at some level, be realistic in your goals and understand that everyone starts somewhere near the same place….at the beginning. I feel many people put an unrealistic expectation on themselves and without having any real idea of who they will be training with and what they will be doing, make imaginary comparisons of themselves and others who will be in the classroom and are self conscience that they do not know what they are doing. The same mental process will take place every time they want to do something knew, and in many cases dissuade them from new experiences. How can we reduce and even eliminate our doubts and fears of new opportunities in our lives and experiencing all that life has to give? Well, that is the million $ question. To Be Continued….

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Patience Is The Companion Of Wisdom

October 26, 2016 by Leave a Comment

“Patience is the companion of wisdom”
-Saint Augustine

We live in a “hurry up” world. Rush hour, coffee, work, and lack of sleep are part of what we think of when we think of our city, our state, or our country. It sometimes feels like we must “get things done.” All of us to some degree are affected by this speedy mentality. Change must come quickly in this lifestyle. The question for me is why? Why does society worry so much about the amount of time it takes someone to do something? If it takes us an extra 20 minutes to cook a balanced meal than to eat fast food, then should we eat fast food to save those 20 minutes, or should we spend 20 minutes on healthy food, and not add the extra calories to our already excessive consumption of food? Americans are, by far, the fattest group on the planet. We live in the most affluent country in the world, yet we sometimes are the least proactive, and most reactive people alive today. Martin Luther King Jr. said,”Rarely do we find people who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.” He’s challenging us to take our time and sort through our thoughts and listen to the many different possibilities that are out there.
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It’s important, for me to say, now that I’ve spent the past few sentences setting up this critique of our exaggerated feelings of urgency, that I’m as guilty as anyone when it comes to going too fast when I do things. I’ve spent a lot of time on the highway speeding past those suckers on my way to our Academy. I can see us feeling that even in training. We want this instant gratification. Sometimes the best thing to do might just be to slow down and think before you act. “Are my hands up?” “Do I have my balance?” Constantly asking questions leads us to find mistakes in our thinking, and thus our actions. I always say to my classes “Take your time, warm up…” I want you to think about and to be mindful about, just where your body is moving. I guess that’s just another way of saying, “be coordinated.” Simple lessons, are sometimes the most complex ones to understand, those of us who have competed know that the “devil is in the details.” It’s just one more reason to practice slowly, yet focused and methodical.

So be patient with yourself and others. Let go of urgency, because it really is only a temporary feeling that won’t permanently motivate. Set big goals, aim high you might just get close to the mark. Have fun being in the flow of working towards your next rank. Keep in mind it never really stops with the next rank test, because you can always get better. Be patient and forgiving to yourself in training, but also don’t let fatigue or stress turn you into a coward. Just take your time and enjoy all your training and experience.

“With time and patience the mulberry leaf becomes a silk gown” -Chinese Proverb

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17 Things Peak Performers Can Say

August 11, 2016 by Leave a Comment

One of the wonderful by-products of high self-esteem is that you become a “Peak Performer.” Every day you become more aware of your abilities and recognize that opportunities to stretch your capabilities are limitless. You desire change, growth, and challenge, and a healthy self-esteem provides the energy. Peak performers have more than goals, they have a vision of what their life will mean to themselves and others. Peak performers do not live in the future. Peak performers make sure each step taken in the present keeps them on the road toward their life goal.

Peak Performers Can Say:mma classes minneapolis

  1.  I am motivated and have a mission with realistic and measurable goals.
  2. I accept complete responsibility for everything I think, say, feel, and do.
  3. I look for the window of opportunity in every situation and know that I will learn from every
    experience if I choose.
  4. I always help others to do their best, and I encourage everyone to contribute something.
  5. I correct my course when I reach an obstacle. This way, when things go wrong, I am still
    headed in the right direction.
  6. I expect and appreciate change. It does not overwhelm me because I am prepared.
  7. I stand up for my own opinions and values and respect others.
  8. I am able to manage myself. I do not require instruction every step of the way.
  9. I am not afraid of making mistakes or of taking reasonable risks.
  10. I am my own coach. I engage in positive self-talk and rehearsal.
  11. I am a life-long student. I am always ready to learn, and I know growth takes sustained
    effort.
  12. I know myself well and still expect to find hidden talents, resources, strengths, weaknesses,
    energy, and interests.
  13. I respect reality both pleasant and painful.
  14. I engage in self-confrontation and do not blame others.
  15. I readily forgive others and myself and correct mistakes when possible.
  16. I am patient, kind, gentle, and compassionate with myself.
  17. I have no need to prove I am better or worse
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Plateaus and breaking your Routine

August 11, 2016 by Leave a Comment

DSC_6847At some point you will get good, it’s going to happen if you put in the time. The problem is once that happens you might find you stop getting better. You might find you’re bored with your training. So what can you do to keep advancing? Avoid some simple mistakes.

Have you been training with the same partner during and after class (yes you should be training outside of class).  I’ve seen a lot of great training partners who get comfortable with each other and they stop pushing each other. They do what they always do and thus they repeat the same mistakes, focus too much on their shared strengths and not enough on their weaknesses. The fact is if you and your training partner never work clinch you will always suck at clinch, if they let you skip your conditioning you will never get as strong. Simple Solution, train with more people…if you’re dedicated and hardworking you will find that people who are better than you will be happy to work with you.

Set new goals and research new drills. You’ve been doing pyramids for two years like a metronome and your conditioning is awesome, but could you be faster? How’s your foot work and head movement? It’s easy to work what you’ve been working, it’s easy to work what your good at. Set new training goals. WRITE THEM DOWN.

Go to a seminar. Believe it or not martial arts masters are real and they have real knowledge to share and you should probably go get some of that sweet, sweet brain nectar. Heck they don’t even have to be a master, just another person with a different skill set who has made different discoveries than you about martial arts might send you in a new direction towards improvement.

Get a new set of eyes. Your training partners are so used to seeing you they will miss the obvious and you see yourself through some pretty screwed up rose colored classes. Ask someone you respect to watch and give you feedback and work on it right away.

Even if you’re a black belt you will fall into routines, you will be limited by your comfort zone, limited by your own knowledge. To break your routines and progress you need to be creative, seek new information and methods, set clear goals, be disciplined and work hard.

Filed Under: Coaches Corner, Kickboxing, Martial Arts Minnesota, Mixed Martial Arts, Muay Thai, The Academy Pulse Tagged With: , , , , ,

Student Spotlight: Jason Gulden

February 8, 2016 by Leave a Comment

Martial Arts FitnessJason grew up in circle pines and, like many people experienced bullying and street fights. These early experiences help build a desire to learn self-defense. When he joined the Academy, he was searching for real life self-defense and fighting techniques. What he got was not only a working knowledge of self defense but also tremendous health and energy. When he first started training in the foundations program he weighed185 lbs. Now that he has been training in the Combat Athlete program he has lost over 35 lbs! Way to go Jason!

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Coaches Corner: Never been a horse that can’t be rode, Never been a cowboy can’t be throwed

February 8, 2016 by Leave a Comment

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Bottom line, you are going to have good days and bad.  We have all had times when everything is going great and times when we seem to deal with set back after set back.  The ups and downs we all experience is part of life.  No matter what, at some point or another you will have to deal with events, injuries, illnesses, personal crises, or whatever that is out of your control.  For me the martial arts has been one of the vehicles I have used to develop the ability to deal with life’s struggles, and find a way to work around, over or through them.

I have had my fair share of ups and downs, but I have made it a habit to be positive and have developed into an eternal optimist. When I was in 9th grade I started to look for positive sayings from wherever I could find them.  I did a lot of reading, digging through books and started writing them down in a notebook.  As an athlete, you learn how to grow from wins and losses.  Dan Gable has been synonymous with victory.  He went 64 – 0 as a high school wrestler and then 118 – 1 in college at the University of Iowa.   Gable says that it was his only loss to Larry Owens that allowed him to become ‘good’.  In fact, after that loss Gable became an even stronger wrestler, even more determined to excel.  Gable stated, “I say that I went undefeated for seven years, lost a match, and then I got good.”  He would go on to become undefeated in international competition and go unsecured upon in route to winning the 1972 Gold Medal in the Olympics.  In addition, Dan Gable believes that without that loss he would have never have become the coach he was. 

“When life gives you lemons make lemonade“, not only that but drink that lemonade down to get more energy to grow even stronger.  When you get thrown off that horse, you have to shake off the dust and get back at it.  Do not stew over losses and mistakes, but rather the some time to see where you can grow from the experience.  The mentality with Muay Thai fighters in Thailand is unique compared to the U.S. In Thailand it is about the experience and not simply a win/loss record.  In Thailand they  don’t ask “what’s your record?”, but rather, “how many fights do you have?” It is the experience gained from fights that will eventually make a great fighter.  The same goes for all of us in life.  It isn’t about dwelling on mistakes, personal problems and whatever else life throws at you, but rather learning from them.  I have made it a habit to write down what I’ve learned from life’s experiences, good, bad and ugly.  It is not what happens to you, but rather how you grow from the experience. 

It is a learned skill to be positive.  One of the sayings I wrote down 35 years ago was, “You can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses”.   The same event can be taken in two different ways.  There are those that seem to find the good in everything.  No matter what we experience it is how we look at it that makes the difference.  Good luck, bad luck it is how we deal with our experiences that will determine how we grow.   There is a Chinese story of a farmer who used an old horse to till his fields.  One day, the horse escaped into the hills and when the farmer’s neighbors sympathized with the old man over his bad luck, the farmer replied, “Good luck? Bad luck? who knows?” A week later, the horse returned with a herd of horses from the hills and this time the neighbors congratulated the farmer on his good luck.  His reply was,  “Good luck? Bad luck? who knows?”  Then, when the farmer’s son was attempting to break in one of the wild horses, he fell off and broke his leg.  Everyone thought this was very bad.  The farmer again said,  “Good luck? Bad luck? who knows?”  A few weeks later, the military came to the village and drafted all able-bodied young men in the area.  When they saw that the farmer’s son had a broken leg, they had no need for him.  Good luck, bad luck?  Who knows?  Things that seem bad on the surface may in fact end up making you a better person. What determines how you will respond to life ups and downs? In simplest terms it will come down to how you habitually respond to them, positively or negatively. It comes down to how you deal with the 1/2 full glasses of lemons surrounded by thorny roses.  I found that using the thorns will make it easier to fill your glass with lemonade. 

Your mind can only focus on one thought at a time, that thought can be positive or negative. You can be actively dealing with or freaking out about what you are going through. I can honestly say I have been through the ringer a couple times. Not only the normal ups and downs of life, but also a little more.  14 years ago I was diagnosed with liver cancer, then sciatic nerve cancer.  In both diagnoses the doctors said that the chances of survival was bleak. There were many times that I had my head full of negative thoughts about dying, not seeing my kids grow up (by far the worst), if the pain was ever going to stop…Now if I would have let those thoughts take over there is a much greater chance that the outcome would have been quite different.  However, I had made a habit out of thinking positive.  It was at times a battle, but knowing that you can only think one thought at a time, I would often repeat a positive affirmation or a Bible verse over and over until I had changed my thought.  I was so happy that starting in 9th grade I had memorized positive statements and later Bible verses.  To this day I repeat positive affirmations daily to both start and end my day.  Being an optimist has in fact been both instrumental and a necessity in my life.  So whether I am able to ride that horse or get tossed on my butt, I know I have the attitude to keep getting better.

Filed Under: Coaches Corner, Martial Arts Minnesota, Mixed Martial Arts, Muay Thai, The Academy Pulse Tagged With: , , , ,
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