The Worst Time to Stop Training Is When Life Gets Hard
When life gets hard, training is often the first thing to go. Here’s why that’s the worst time to quit, how to scale back without stopping completely, and what to do when stress makes everything harder.
What It Takes to Stay in Third Place
Your Third Place Needs You Too Most of us have a first place and a second place. Home is the first. Work or school is usually the second. Then there is the third place, the one we choose to return to because it has become part of our lives. It might be a coffee shop, […]
False Dilemma Thinking and the Rise of Keyboard Experts
How Do You Know When You’ve Seen Enough to Judge? I’ve noticed a pattern that shows up in training, and once you see it, you start seeing it everywhere. A short video goes online. The attacker moves. The defender responds. The clip lasts a few seconds. Then people who weren’t in the room, didn’t feel […]
Martial Arts Lesson For Parents
The Teacher’s Final Responsibility Is to Step Aside A Good Teacher Prepares You to Continue Alone The job of a real teacher is to give you the skills to keep going without him. His success becomes visible when you no longer need him beside you. A teacher begins by giving instructions. He shows you what […]
What Conor McGregor’s Injury Revealed About The Crowd
What We Forgive Until Someone Stops Performing Conor McGregor came back to the UFC after more than five years away. His last fight had ended with a broken leg. He recovered, trained, and stepped back into the cage against Max Holloway. The fight lasted sixty-nine seconds. McGregor threw a jumping kick, landed badly, and his […]
The Most Honorable Title I Have Been Given
The Most Honorable Title I Have Been Given Father’s Day arrives every year with the same gentle, slightly commercial warmth. Cards, a meal, a gift that gestures at a hobby. I have never objected to any of it, but I have come to suspect we are not entirely sure what the day is for. We […]
Why Do Good People Do Bad Things?
Why Good People Do Bad Things Inside a Crowd Paris Saint-Germain F.C. won the Champions League, defeating Inter Milan 5-0. The fans were happy and proud, and many of them reacted in a strange way. They destroyed parts of the city they were supposed to be celebrating in. That makes me uncomfortable because of what […]
What a Krav Maga Black Belt Test in Really Reveals
Fatigue Has a Way of Telling the Truth Last night we held a Krav Maga black belt test at Krav Maga Experts. By hour three, one of the students was breathing through his mouth, knees slightly bent between rounds, hands on his thighs. I watched him. He wasn’t resting. He was deciding something. Then he […]
The Invisible Curriculum of Martial Arts
The Invisible Curriculum of Martial Arts Nobody joins a gym to be shaped by a person. They join to learn a skill, to get stronger, to understand something about how to handle physical threat or physical demand. The instructor is understood as a delivery mechanism for that knowledge. This is a reasonable way to think […]
Why Your Self-Image Is Often an Illusion
The Mirror in Your Head Is Not Always Telling the Truth You walk into a room and suddenly become aware of yourself. Your shoulders adjust. You reconsider the last sentence you said. A quiet voice in your mind starts asking questions. Did that sound intelligent? Did I speak too much? Did they like what I […]
