Does attending the classes make you an expert?

Few years back, when someone i know very well has completed accounting course on one of Great London universities. We had a small celebration party over that event. Together with some other happy graduate who also completed with fantastic scores on the diploma.

most of them have spent one out of four years studies at the placement in different companies learning practical side of the craft.   

Summarizing and speculating what are they going to do next.They all have been saying that course itself has given them some fundamental knowledge about the subject, professional language, procedures and short cuts that can be used in the profession.

They have been pretty confident that they took most out of it.

But at this same time: as it usually happens at the beginning of new chapter; there was a doubt and questions coming through the conversation.    
As they all have agreed that there is still a lot to learn for them, to become professional accountants.

Diploma in their hands has been opening the door to begin actual practical studying.

It will take them while before they will be able to say that they are professional accountants. 

I remember passing my driving exam.
First time driving on my own,without instructor on the passenger sit, I didn't feel like Luis Hamilton at all!
Took me a bit of time before I started feeling comfortable driving around.

I remember young bricklayers I met when I was working on the building sites.
Just after finishing two years course at the college, being sent on site by the agency. Didn't really have a clue how to; (not even build the wall) rise up the level of manhole cover with the bricks. 

All these examples as many others have a great potential to become professionals at the subjects they have chosen.
However they all need the practise.
Knowing the theory and basics of the subject, can help to speed up practical learning. It gives fundamental knowledge which helps to understand the subject.

But our further success in the chosen art, depends on our ambitions, volume of practise, will of development and achieving the success.

Martial arts  are no different to other professions.

You can attend the classes, complete your exams and go through different levels.

You can wear black belt or get some titles which you can proudly hang on the wall.

But as in all of the professions,to understand better and  to be fluent with it, you need to practise, you need to put yourself in test.

Never rely on talent or abilities, there is always room for improvement.

Always aim to become better.

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Fighting is like a tennis

Sitting in the café,waiting for my Coach to come for a meeting.
Watching tennis match between two probably the greatest female players of these days at Wimbledon tournament 2015. Match between Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova. Both powerful and skilled ladies, both very experienced and focused.
Not giving each other much space, covering whole court with ease.
Looking for each other mistakes playing the ball at every possible angle, speed and distance.
When it comes to manual skills and physical abilities as a tennis players there isn't much they can both improve.
It is more of a mind game.
Bit of a poker or a  chess game, if you like.
Tricking each other and staying focused till the very last ball as anything can happen to the last minute.
Everything depends on how you manage your emotions, how you read the game and your opponent.  How quick you give the correct answer to a very tricky question?
Both players trying to distract and throw out of balance the  opponent.
After playing close ball to the left, throwing fast - long one to the right, then another long to the left again.
Just like in fighting.
Throwing left low kick,to throw opponent off balance, following with straight right hand to the head and continue with the left hook to see what happens next. All of the shots thrown with speed and power appropriate for the occasion. 

It is all about using different variations, adjusting to the situation  ( strengths and weaknesses of your opponent ) and making use of all of the weapon which you store at your arsenal. To not become obvious and predictable. 

I suppose the principals of tennis training as well as in combat sports, is got to be countless repetition of every possible offense and defense.
Making it the second nature,teaching the mind and body to react instantly.

If you train some kind of fighting sports, next time you practice; think of tennis game.

Play smart, hold your nerves and fight right to the end.

www.GMMA.co.uk 

Be positive.

Every day we are having a gift of getting another chance, we can start again or simply continue achieving our goals.
It is our choice what we are going to do with that great gift.
It is our choice how we are going to feel about it, about ourselves and our situation. 
We all get absorbed by everydays life and its difficulties. We all get tired physically and mentally.
Is there any recipe of how to get through those times?
Well I think there is.
I think that first of all we should all understand that life is full of ups and downs.  We should be grateful of what we have, stay focused and positive.
Surround ourselves with positive people who are going to lift us up instead of pulling down.
Great vision of the future created by positive thinking and having good plan can give us so much more power to go through the obstacles.
Just like in the ring: the winner becomes the one who wants it more.
It is a simple math; two trained and skilled fighters facing each other at this same weight category, got equal chances to win, very often it depends on mental strength and never give up attitude.
When we believe in the end result and not being afraid of failure, we are going to get what we want easier and possibly quicker.
As I have mentioned in one of my previous post "Unnecessary stress" , about the power of emotions.
Emotions can give you super strenght or paralyse you. And there is no doubt about it.
You choose which way you wanna go.
You choose to spend your day with complaints and excuses or stay positive, enjoy what you got and use all that to eget better.
Passion, love, sharing with others will give more sense to your everyday life and will help you to go through the hardship.
Just remember your goals.
Do what you believe in.
Be positive, be happy.
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Straight line (the quickest way)

There is so many different martial arts around the world these days.
All created for different reasons and in different environments.
Most of them have been invented as a development of some other styles, more traditional, like kung fu,karate,judo. With believe of improving their usefulness.
Don't matter what style you are working on, when it comes to striking  ( kicking, punching, knees or elbows ). Sooner or later you will find out that the most accurate, fastest and safest way of executing the strikes comes in the straight line. Within your body line.
Most of the time when teaching others basic techniques like hook punches,turning kicks, knees and elbows.
People tent to swing they limbs and tense their muscle believing that is where the power comes from.
The magic hides behind the right technique of going in and out. It is all about right footwork,  positioning, twist, extension with the hits and coming back same way it came out.
Even those fancy techniques as spinning hook kick,spinning back hand and strikes requiring spinning and turning.
Even those executed correctly should be going out within the body line right after the spin.
To achieve that I have found very useful of practicing right next to the wall.
Standing in the fighting stands with leading leg close to the wall and mastering those jabbing hand punches,all variations including the hooks.
Working on those front leg kicks as well as back leg spinning techniques.
All that without touching the wall.
I remember while ago when Sir (my coach) has explained to me how to make it work.
He said that I should imagine that "I am in body width corridor facing skilled opponent, I have to fight him with all I've got".
It is always good to be able throw shots from different angles but I believe we should all learn the right way of basics first.
Have a great practice everyone.
Take care
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Bad habits

While ago during winter holiday, me and my wife had some beautiful time in Polish mountain skiing and snowboarding.
As Renata ( my wife's name ) already knew very well how to skiing, she has enjoyed herself on two boards all day long.
Myself as I haven't had experience with both sports whatsoever.  I have chosen to learn snowboarding.  It looked cool and more interesting to me.
I would hire all essential gear from the shop downstairs of our hotel, check few tutorials online and go to nearest easy slope to practice art of snowboarding.
I was always confident with my learning skills and physical abilities.
So I was pretty sure that it want take me long to learn how to slide on one board.
I didn't wanna pay for lessons as I thought that I can figure out everything myself,  learning on my own mistakes.
I would watch some guys taking tuitions near by on this same slope, I would pick few techniques and practice it for all day long, going up and down restlessly.
At the end of the day I was quite proud of myself and pretty sure that I am moving in the right direction I would decide to join Renata on much higher and aggressive slope.
The cable lift we were going to use had long stick ( to place between the legs) with little rubber wheel at the end (to rest on )while being pulled up.
It took me three attempts to manage how to use it correctly.
I remember all the little kids watching me falling down while holding the stick and being dragged up with the board on my feet.
At the third time one of those kids has given me some tips which has made it all much easier but still had to use my muscles at the end to hold myself as the technique wasn't 100% correct.
Renata was waiting for me up on the top with big question mark written on her face. As a proud young man I wouldn't want to discuss why it took so long for me to come up. I would just encourage her to slide down and not waste the time.
So she went down. ( very smooth )
My beginnings started pretty smooth too.
Till I realised that there is big drop right in front of me and I wasn't able to avoid it.
All I have done was: faced down to the ground and supporting myself with hands and knees start breaking with the edge of the board. I would slow down, fall down the drop and flip over after hitting some bumps on the snow.
Then I would go back to my training slope and carry on drilling some basics.
This same day, evening we would go to drink some hot tea and have some hot local food in one off traditional polish mountain pubs.
As the place was very busy we have joined some big,long, wooden table where we seen few familiar faces.
Few young people leaving at this same hotel as us.
We would make friends pretty quick and share our experience from few days stay in the area.
Those people were experience skiing and snowboarding users.
And they made me think when they agreed that learning on my own could be risky as I could pick some bad habits and in the moment of danger it could cost me an injury or even more.
As when there is no time to think your brain and body reacts automatically the way it has been taught. Just like in the fighting and martial arts.
They pointed that couple hours of snowboarding lesson could save my time by giving me the basics to work on.
It all made sense to me and first think I did when woke up next day was to rush to the instructors office and book lesson for nearest available gap they had.
Instructor would adjust and explain my mistakes, would give me many tips how to improve step by step.
And finally would teach me how to use cable lift correctly.
It had made me improve quicker and made me enjoy it much more.
That experience has given me some very important lesson which has been saved in my memory very well.
Anything I practice since I do remember that the way I do it in the training is how I am going to react when performing.
Especially when fighting there is no time to think you need to each your brain and body how to react by practicing correct way.
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Skipping rope - great tool

Last weekend i have flew to Poland as we had some  family celebration.
As usually I try to kill two ( or more ) birds with one stone by seeing as many family members and close friends as possible.
I never know when will be next time I am going to see them again.
One very important person I went to see was my younger brother, Pawel.
Pawel is seventeen.
Him and his friends are keeping active and doing all different sorts of sports.
Martial arts,Thaiboxing ,football,weight lifting, running and many others.
They have got a lot of energy,looking for challenge and different way of spending the day.
I was thinking what kind of useful present I could bring with me for Pawel to share with his friends.
Something not too big or too heavy, to fit my hand baggage.
Something practical, universal, sports related and promoting healthy lifestyle.
Couldn't think of nothing better fitting all these criteria  than skipping ropes.
Basic PVC cord ropes, couple of pounds worth, available at any sports shop in UK.
Them basic ones I personally found the best. Light, fast and strong.
Jumping ropes are my every days training equipment. Running, skipping, shadow boxing, stretching, meditating, body weight workouts. All these are essential of mine and I believe many other fighters training.
You don't need much to do all of these activities. Jogging suit and trainers, skipping rope, bit of creative imagination to make your training more interesting and finally bit of strong will power.
You can use skipping rope as a great, full body warm up, you can use it to cool down as well as you can use it as a complete training.
You can put it in between other exercises to boost up your cardiovascular achievements or you can use it as an active rest in between the series.
Skipping can be done with different types of ropes to adjust the weight of that great tool. When using one type you can always put some weights on your wrists,  ankles or even you can wear weighted vests.
You can increase the speed, bring your knees up high or double skip.
It is fantastic cardiovascular workout which develops coordination, arms and legs strength, especially calves muscles.
A lot of skipping ropes beginners, get problems with with their shins.
I suppose it is due to unusual vibration and usage of that part of the legs while skipping.
So I wouldn't recommend to over do it at the beginning.
Increase the time and pressure of rope jumping gradually.
When doing the exercise remember that you wanna do it as a imitation of your fighting movements.
Make sure you keep your chin down, arms and elbows close to your body, use your shoulders rotation to move the rope more than your arms.
Stay loose and enjoy it.
Don't make it hard work .
Cross your arms, change your stands, play around.
Remember that you doing it to get better not to punish yourself.
Have fun.
Good luck.
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Let the action talk.

Last Saturday afternoon instead of taking part in GuruMuayThai class as we usually do.

Me and my great friend and training partner Michael drove to Coventry, where represented our club at kickboxing show.

Going there we didn't know nothing about my opponent apart of that his weight should match my 75kg and that we were going to fight K1 rules.

We got in there with no expectations what so ever.

All we had in our strategy was to use all our strengths and experience the best we can possibly do.

This is one of the things we have learnt over the years of travelling and competing  around.

There is no point of wasting our precious energy on speculating and stressing over what my opponent brings with him.
Obviously I get some thoughts building up in my head going towards possible abilities and skills of my opponent but instead of concentrating  on what he has got in his sleeve, I am trying to turn it into planning how am I going to respond.
What we have always been taught by our coaches is that it doesn't matter what they can do if you don't give them chance to do it.
So the plan is simple: put the work rate very high, double up on each attack from the other side and make sure I do always respond. According to the plan, as long as my kicks and punches are solid, my distance and timing are right and I use the angles right way, I can't go wrong.
Michael has reminded me few facts about my strengths and advantages, what has pushed away any even minor self doubt.
In the ring anything can really happen, but I know for sure that negative thoughts are not going to make it any better. All they can do is; make me not perform to my best and make me regret things I haven't done after the fight. I've been there before.
I have walked into the ring as second, my rival and his team were already there.
Stepping in I could feel his eyes on me at all times. When I looked at him, he looked very angry and determined to hurt me. He definitely wanted to play the eye contact game ( must have watched a lot of UFC I suppose). I haven't fallowed the game, it isn't much of my style. Again I rather to save my energy and show my skills in the fight, not before.
That's how I have always wanted to be. Humble, respectful and calm fighter which talks with the actions at the appropriate time.
I suppose everyone reacts different to the stress and everyone has got different methods of breaking the opponent confidence.
I believe that my fighting experience makes me not only better fighter and instructor but also better human being in general. 
That's why I wanna be able to control my emotions and my life in the ring as well as outside.
I wanna be positive and confident and push the negativity away.
It is great if you have like minded people surrounding you, like my coaches and team Mates.
You can consider yourself a lucky.
I do.

P.S I have won that fight by unanimous decision. 
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