Martial Arts: The most important & underrated skills I developed.

When I was about 15 years old I…

Martial arts shouldn’t be included in your art and mind series, it’s not an art.

Look, those are my articles and I can write about whatever I want OK? And it says art in the name.

Whatever, carry on. Just don’t expect me to read this.

As I was saYing: When I was about 15 years old I started Kung Fu lessons and did so for two years. 15 years old… A beautiful age. Hormones start acting up… Reputation and your place in the tribe becomes important… Questions of self worth start rising up… A beautiful time, a very beautiful time. In the years before joined the club, I had been mugged about three times.

Wait… Are you serious?

Yeah, but you want to know the funny thing about those muggings? Only one of them was violent, the other ones were just some group of big scary people trYing to instill fear in me. The kind of fear that would make me give them my Nokia 3210 cell phone. You know, the one with Snake on it. I had just seen the movie “The matrix” along with its cool Kung Fu moves and I was trYing to master a character (Siegfried) in a fighting game called Soul Calibur. I was also discovering japense battle anime/mangas like naruto, samurai champloo, …

Yes, yes, It’s a very interesting trip down nostalgia lane, what is your point?

Okay, okay, what I’m getting at is that I loved fighting but from a distance. So when I learned that a friend did Kung Fu classes, I just had to join. If he could do it, why couldn’t I? So I joined.

So what happened? Can you kick people’s asses now?

NO! NO! And NO! That’s not what those classes were about. I’ll paint a picture first. Enter the stuffy basement of a building. You see people from all ages, sexes, body type, etc. And they were all dressed in white. You feel weird having only your adidas pants and a cheap gray t-shirt. They’re all very nice and welcoming and wish you good luck on your first time. The more experienced are in the front and beginners in the back. You start doing a warm-up routine involving stretching & cardio. Simple exercises and movements with punches, kicks, stretching and warming up the whole body. And then… Came… The… Push-ups…

Why the build-up for pushups?

Before the push-ups, everything was easy. You might not have been as flexible as the others, but you could perform the exercises. Let me give you the push-up routine: Warm-up 50 push-ups. 10 seconds Breathing. 5 sets of ten normal push-ups with 10 seconds breathing. 5 set 10 push-ups with the hands close together. Then 5 sets of ten push-ups with hands next to stomach. The 5 sets push-ups with hands shoulder level extended from each other. Finishing with 5 sets of normal push-ups. Now just to take to another level, some of the teachers were doing the push-ups on their knuckles!

WHY WOULD YOU DO SUCH A THING?

Great question, I don’t think I would. But the master of unidentifiable age, (I think he was 50… maybe 40… or 60?) he could do it and he would actually count each push up loud enough for the whole room to hear. For flair, he would count in mandarin. AND HE WOULD DO THE PUSH-UPS AT THE SAME TIME! So why did I do it? Simple, I couldn’t but I wasn’t the only one that couldn’t. Each person was wrestling with trYing to get that one extra push-up. Pushing the limit that one level further. Getting just a little better than last class. Each student was fighting against him or herself to get just that little better. There was this one old very big woman who started at the same time as me. After a few months, she actually succeeded to do the first 50 push-ups. I could do them after the first month. I told her how impressed I was with her. It made her feel good. I’m pretty sure she never missed a class since. She’s probably still there… Doing push-ups… Right now… While you’re reading this…

Why aren’t you doing push-ups then?

After two years of push-ups, I had other stuff going on in my life and couldn’t make the time and hours of the class and- But wait I hadn’t finished on the class.

Oh, come on, get to it, my netflix show is waiting.

Ok, ok. So after the push-ups. There was a pause. Then we worked on what would be called Kata’s in Japanese Martial arts, a set of choreographed moved. I’m pretty sure the master would kill for forgetting the name in Mandarin… And I’m pretty sure he could… Literally… (Let’s just hope he doesn’t read this) The choreographies would be divided by level. One complete year would be spent learning one of these choreographies. At this club, they focused on doing them very slowly and perfectly. We would only continue when the teacher would scream GO. Otherwise we would stay in the position, as low as possible. We would learn to breathe and relax in the position even though the low position would be a strain on the leg muscles. Learning to relax and endure the pain in one position by a kind of controlled relaxed breathing. We learned the differences between Ying moves, always while breathing in, receiving, relaxed, flowing energy. And Yang moves, always while breathing out, forceful, hard, and fire burning energy. While staying in those low positions, the teacher would tell a story about the master who invented the choreography, or give life advice about how sometimes life is going very Yang on you, and that you should adopt a Ying attitude and…

*Snore*

WAKE UP!

I was listening, I swear.

I’ll move on, the next phase would be actual exercises, sometimes light sparring. We would apply the concepts. Someone would punch in Yang (muscle in tension and breathing out) the other would parry in Ying (breathing in and relaxed muscles). We would apply those Ying Yang concepts to differents types of moves like kicks, armbards, punches, evade, counters, etc. The counter would be in Yang etc. The eternal dance between Ying and Yang. The focus never really was on fighting or winning but on feeling the dynamics of the body and the breath.

*Trying to hide yawn* So what did you learn?

The list is too long but I will focus on the two most important ones that have stuck with me through life. DISCIPLINE! What I mean here is a state of mind or willpower. A kind of swordlike very cutting type of attitude to me, my tasks, passions, reality, relationships and life in general. A concrete example: “I should write the february article, but I don’t know how I should approach it” “JUST DO IT, NO EXCUSES GO FORWARD, ONE EXTRA PUSH-UP” ok I added that last sentence. I didn’t actually think that. But I just went to my laptop and just started writing. Other examples, practicing writing everyday, studying for exams, practicing music, going jogging, meditating, sending manuscripts to editors, etc. Those are things that I don’t really enjoy doing but I know they enhance the quality of my life so I do them, directly, firmly and completely without excuses whenever I can. If it wasn’t clear already, this quality isn’t limited to doing things. It’s also a way of evaluating things, a kind of no bullshit attitude that gets to the core of things without detours. Would dare call it… A Yang attitude?

Sounds like toxic masculinity to me…

I will ignore that comment. Another skill I would add would be openness/patience/alignment. The reason that I use three words is that I’m trying to translate a state of mind to words on a paper. This can be very difficult. What I mean here is a kind of deep connection with myself. Staying in those very difficult poses for a long time did something. By pushing my body to the limit and hearing it scream to stop this suffering, I actually heard my body. I actually connected with my body. Learning to combine breathing with my actions, I connected with states of mind. Anger has a certain quality of breathing and muscle tensions to it. Sadness has another. Tiredness has another. In those two years of Kung Fu, a connection was made with my body. Not only was this great for me, but also for others. Being able to feel a certain position of the body and its effect on energy and the state of mind, allowed me to see it in others. I can easily notice when someone is in Ying or Yang energy just by subtle cues of their body. This kind of alignment made listening and hearing and feeling the world way easier. This has helped me in decision all my life. Whenever faced with something, I can just listen and my body answers. It has helped me enjoy great opportunities while evading bad ones. Concrete example: before the financial crisis, a banker wanted to sell an investment portfolio to my father and presented a lot of great logical arguments. My body was just full of tension from this person, and I said no. My father wanted to invest, but I said no and he saved a lot of money as there was a minimum required buy-in. As weird and crazy as this may sound, I don’t have a need for advice on certain things anymore. I just ask “Body what do you think?”. A kind of attitude akin to… dare I say it… a Ying attitude?

Sounds like new age mumbo jumbo to me…

I will also ignore that comment. The last two skills combined in different ways lead to all kinds of other skills that helped me both realize some dreams and relax when I needed to. The simple act of realizing that with work and pushing my limits that little extra, I can go out in the world and do anything. This is a gift that I think anybody in the world deserves.

Sounds like… A Good Idea. How do we make this happen?

  • Go do a martial art or sport can have the same effect.
  • Start doing pushups and move your limit higher.
  • Start being conscious of your breathing.
  • Think of the very big old lady probably doing push-ups right now while you procrastinate.
  • Take things slow and realize that change takes time and only requires pushing the limit just that little bit every moment you can.
  • Develop your Yang by “masculine” activities.
  • Develop your Ying by “feminine” activities.
  • Balance your Ying and Yang out
  • Enjoy life and be cool to your neighbors, each of us has challenges we have to face. Work on yours and inspire others to work on theirs, like the very big old lady did for me.
  • Share, like, comment and question this article and whether its writer is doing push-ups now.

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