The world prefers you’re organized and organizing. The ordering of one’s life, putting your world in place is important but I would argue that it’s essential.
We talk about organization regarding productivity. Productivity and organization are critical to a successful business and a successful life. The price you pay for being disorganized is expensive, and here’s a couple of examples.
Banks Are Not Your Friend
Banks are counting on you not organizing well. Financial institutions like you to be late with your payment, to do an overdraft, to exceed the benefits that they provide.
I’ve seen some statistics that have said that banks make upwards of 40% of their income on fees for their services. Banks set a threshold for your failure and with that keep people continually financially violate.
Society prefers you to be organizing your life. Organizing and staying on top of your world is keeping you from getting fined. You get fined for not filing your business taxes on time. Even if you didn’t owe business taxes you still need to file. You can see the penalties that are built around these types of things cost money.
Cheat Yourself
You show up late to an event and you cheat yourself out of the moment, it’s expensive. Organization, even in its smallest forms changes your world it changes things instantly.
There’s a phrase today we are using, it goes, “Make your bed.” The first thing you do is make your bed. This is the first act of bringing order to your day and it scales up to the world.
Discipline is doing what needs doing even if it’s not enjoyable. Where and how to start? There are one billion different systems out there to choose from. Adopt a system and use it.
Creative Scheduling
It’s what a friend of mine did. I pointed to her appointment book, and I identified her system by name. She said, “Yes, but I changed a little to suit my needs.” Brilliant. You start and then you adapt and change the color, the pages. Do it however you need to do it to organize your world. You can do it on your phone or you can do it on paper. Know it’s about developing a successful method that suits your needs and also your brain type.
Eat The Elephant
You see you can’t eat the elephant in one bite. We know this and to simply start is an understanding. You will acknowledge your bites are going to be small but eventually you’re going to eat the elephant.
Being disorganized is expensive. It is expensive in money and it’s expensive in lost moments. We want to keep as much of those as we can and enjoy our lives. We want to enjoy our money and enjoy our time, our experiences.
The World Prefers You’re Organized, It’s Elemental
If you’re not organized you need to start getting organized. If you’re good at organizing go ahead and start reviewing your system. Review because you change, the world changes, and your system should probably reflect that as well.
Recommending something to do, yes get starting on it today. Even the smallest of steps toward organization count.
Kris Wilder is a martial artist based in Seattle Washington. He has authored many martial art books, including the classic, The Way of Kata. Making no apologies for his obsession of Football he can be found telling any who will listen about the nuances of the Canadian Football League.
Monotony can be confusing. Monotony can often be jumbled randomly with boredom. They can cross-pollinate each other. However, boredom and monotony are two different things. Monotony is a large part of life.
Boredom
As for being in a boring situation. If you claim to be bored it’s because you are lacking. Lacking in creativity. You’re lacking a sense of exploration, or a tinge of adventure.
As for monotony, it’s difficult to endure monotony when it’s without purpose. If it is purposeless monotony it does become horrible. But with those observing monotony, they see the goal or the objective. It doesn’t become purposeless. The losing of purpose disappears, the monotony takes on a new sensation that’s a thing called fruitful monotony.
Fruitful Monotony
We should integrate into our lives the idea of fruitful monotony. You see fruitful monotony is having a target. Then properly moving toward that target. Being ready, willingly engaging in the inevitable monotony that is going to come. Monotony is known. It’s in the observing, and it is expecting it to arrive. Like I said, monotony is a large part of life.
Viktor Frankl
Fruitful monotony is what separates the failures the also-rans, the losers from those that are successful. Knowing the monotony exists and approach it from a mature viewpoint. As long as we have a goal to that monotony then we can endure it, it becomes a fruitful monotony. Viktor Frankl in writing in his book, “Man’s Search For Meaning,” wrote these powerful word, “Those that have a why to live can bear almost any how.”
Kris Wilder is a martial artist based in Seattle Washington. He has authored many martial art books, including the classic, The Way of Kata. Making no apologies for his obsession of Football he can be found telling any who will listen about the nuances of the Canadian Football League.
The Sanchin kata testing was dynamic. After the examination, we gathered around the new Godan. The finger imprints from the teachers slapping the new Godan shoulders resonated red. The fingerprints appeared buried deep in his sweat-covered skin.
Being freshly minted black belts, we worked our way around his torso, calling out, “Look at this one!” We discovered with reverence more marks left on his body from the test. Later I would come to learn, I had bought into the falsehood that these marks indicated good, strong karate.
Sanchin Testing
Shime testing is a two-person drill. Shime testing serves as a way of seeing a practitioner’s ability to apply the strategies and tactics of Sanchin kata.
The idea behind the testing is to have the practitioner placed under a load, to see their structure. To do this we use shime testing. The testee will be performing the kata. Then there will be a second person who is testing their body.
The testing involves putting pressure on the testee’s body. Further, the intent is to find the weak spots in the structure. The goal being discovery, so the practitioner can correct a weakness.
What is seen as classical testing, striking the testee with impetus, is a modern affection. As a result this form of testing is incorrect in its application and also its goal.
To gather some perspective around the idea of shime, take a look at the word. Shime translates to mean: to lock, tighten, or shut.
Shime is used to judge the practitioner’s ability to lock the body down. This locking down or tightening shuts off the areas of vulnerability. Further the locking down also provides a strong platform from which to strike. The fact is shime is all about the performer of the kata and conversely little to do with the tester.
Sanchin Striking Force
Percussive striking forces the body and mind into a form of triage. Triage is a medical term. Triage is a means of analysis that determines the priority of treatment. The analysis is ordered by the severity and survivability of the injury.
The body will instinctively use triage to address the force of the strike and not analyze the test. In fact the body wants to figure out what threat gets addressing first? The body takes that threat and using triage puts a threat to number one about importance. Structure, education, exploration, information, go to the bottom of the order.
The goal in Sanchin testing is the betterment of the student and not a display. When betterment is the goal then the method of percussive striking is not helpful. It is difficult to analyze and understand the feedback of a quick strike in a meaningful fashion.
More on this with an example you can apply, but before that here are a couple of quotes to underscore the point:
“Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.”
“To build may have to be the slow and laborious task of years. To destroy can be the thoughtless act of a single day.” – Winston Churchill
“Wisely, and slow. They stumble that run fast.” – William Shakespeare “Somebody asked me – you know, how come it took you so long to win a national championship? And I said, ‘I’m a slow learner; but you notice when I learn something, I have it down pretty good.” – John Wooden
The Slow Pace of Sanchin Kata
The percussive method of testing a person’s Sanchin Kata is of little value. It’s as they used to say. “All show and no go,” or “All hat and no cattle.” Excessive slapping, kicking, punching may only constitute 1% of good testing of Sanchin. It looks great – too childish eyes.
Sanchin kata is performed at a slow pace allowing for an audit of movement. In turn, the tester should honor this pace. The slow pace allows the testee the building of an overarching and unified structure.
Example of Sanchin Kata Testing
During the performance of the Sanchin kata, the tester will often station themselves behind the testee. From this rear position, the tester will place both hands on the Trapezius muscle.
The Trapezius muscles run from the base of the skull to the lower thoracic vertebra on both sides of the body. For our purposes, the Trapezius muscles serve as a shelf to place the tester’s palms.
Testing involves placing the tester’s palms on the testee’s shoulders (Trapezius muscles). Once the hands are in position the tester slaps down hard several times.
Experience and education are poor in this example. The actions are percussive force, and not load. A load is a weight or source of pressure by a person on the testee.
The second, and preferred method, is to place the hands on the shoulders. Then pushing downward trying to drive the person into the ground. One element being tested is the flexibility of the spine.
The spine should have no flexibility. The bones should be stacked allowing for the transfer of energy. The is transfer should go into the ground in this example of testing.
This method of adding load to the practitioner allows them to audit their stance. During this testing, a weakness, for example in the lower spine, can be fixed with realigning the vertebrae.
By striking quickly and hard on the practitioner the experience is less favorable. In response to a strike, the testee will compresses and springs back into place using triage. This method allows no time for subtlety, study, or remediation.
Steady pressure
Similar methodologies are used by IKEA, the home furnishing company. IKEA will test a chair with a machine that slowly and repeatedly sits down on the chair until the chair fails.
These two examples of product testing countermand the popular Sanchin testing method. The explosive and percussive methods of testing Sanchin, are not used by Underwriters Unlimited (UL) or IKEA. UL and IKEA both seek information and not a broken object. Sanchin testing should carry the same reasons and methodologies.
Learn Slow to Learn Sanchin Kata Faster
The percussive striking of modern-day Sanchin testing is an affectation. Dynamic striking of the testee is not a pathway for success. Using percussive striking as a primary means of testing lacks understanding of the goal of shime testing.
Another way to put it is, you want to use the time on the floor well, and get as much information as you can to the student. It’s a form of honoring the moment and all involved.
The old method of testing Sanchin kata is that of a building load and not percussion. The testing is about allowing the student to study their body and the teacher aiding the student.
When you are assisting a student. During the auditing of the testee you will address the cardinal points of the compass. (North, South, East, West) The other four intermediate directions are also used. These points are also known in their classic Japanese terms; Happo Kuzushi. These are the traditional eight directions of imbalance.
Sanchin Training Tips
As the practitioner performs Sanchin kata, use your fist to give pressure in a direction. For example, from front to back, (North to South) on the practitioner’s chest. Increase the pressure until you feel the practitioner losing their structure. Then hold that position allowing them to adjust their body to meet the load you are placing on them. Above all this is subtle and cooperative.
This is where wisdom and instruction come in. It is the tester’s responsibility to aid the testee. By adding corrections, and pointing to discoveries the testee is gaining better performance.
As you can see, the entire process of shime for Sanchin kata is about cooperation and study, and not brute force.
Sanchin is practiced in a dojo, “The hall of the way.” The testing should be seen as co-education, not a competition. Study and learn. Adopt methods, sometimes old methods, study, learn, and improve.
Stay with it until you get what you want, and then exit. I trust it is to your liking.
Here is a little extra.
A brief selection from The Back Channel Podcast, the topic Consistency. Consistency is an element of good karate practice and is a corner stone to Sanchin kata practice. Sometimes we all need a boost and here it is.
Here are 8 simple karate tips to a better experience that take place between the ears. These 8 items will make your karate experience better, more productive, and set you on a path of consistently spiraling upward in karate skills and abilities.
1. Learn To Listen
Martial Arts is about self-actualization, physical safety, and the common good. Listening is an important skill. Listening is not only a thoughtful act but listening allows you to avoid the land mines of life.
Listening allows you to heed the warnings that the more experienced have. The probability you are taking to heart the idea of developing listening skills is unlikely. But you should consider it.
Here is a link for you to see just how important this life skill truly is.
2. Don’t Blame
Martial Arts is also about personal responsibility. Bringing order to yourself and then you are valuable to others. Placing blame is a non-productive path. Take responsibility – even when you believe it is not your fault. (because if you are involved in what is happening you likely have some level of culpability.)
As for day-to-day on the martial arts path, embrace the grind, it is a grind at times, but the rewards are deep and profound.
The bottom line, it’s on you and the path is not easy.
3. Don’t Waste Time, Don’t Be Rash
If your art is not working for you, change. I tried three arts before I settled on one, well two. Many seasoned readers are nodding knowingly, with this caveat; don’t bail too soon, stick with it, don’t be a style hunter.
You will know if it is time to leave if you have landed in three schools in the last eighteen months, not through eternal factors, e.g. moving, then you likely are not putting in the effort.
Don’t waste your time and don’t waste other’s time.
4. Expectations
Your expectations of what the martial arts are will change. Like how your tastes change from childhood to now. SpongeBob SquarePants may still be funny, but it isn’t high art like it was when you were a little tike.
Allow for the change, allow for growth, and welcome it. Nothing stays the same forever, and if it did wouldn’t the world and your martial arts be boring?
5. Learning Never Stops
The greatest gift Martial Arts will give you is you can never stop learning. Learning and physical activity, two elements for long life.
It is that simple. Be consistent.
6. If It Were Easy
It’s an old saying, “If it were easy everybody would do it.” The second older saying is, “If it is worth having it is worth working for.” Martial Arts are not easy, but the rewards are great.
Listen to Denzel Washington as he tells you that ease is a greater threat to progress than hardship. And ask any advance Martial Artist about hardship and they will likely acknowledge it, but hold no resentment.
7. It’s Group Training But It Is A Solo Endeavor
You are responsible for yourself when it comes to martial arts. It is a group atmosphere and it is great to have comradery, however it’s on you. The choices you make, the training you choose to do, or not do. The way you carry yourself all are factors. And those acts, those choices are seen by those ahead of you in the ranks.
Those upper ranks are assessing you. It sounds harsh, but they are eyeballing you to see if you are worth the hand-up, the effort, if you are ready and willing.
The simple formula is to be responsible to yourself and the plan, both internal and external will open for you.
8. The Martial Arts Will Change Your Life
It may appear as a casual choice, to take up martial arts, but your life will change from that day forward.
If you take up fencing, your friends will expand and you will learn about the international subculture of the épée, the largest and heaviest of the three swords used in the sport.
You will become picky about the density of the weave of your Judo Gi. And many profound changes will occur. To speak to those changes is presumptuous as we are all unique with our own needs and desires. Know that change is coming, and the longer you train the deeper that river runs.
Go No Sen is a worthless strategy. Go No Sen bubbled up to the top of the training list the other day. Recently in an interview, Sensei Ando of, Fight for A Happy Life, asked me a great question. The question sort of slips by in the conversation – but the question stuck with me.
The question was about the wisdom gained by research for a new book. He asked, and I paraphrase, “Don’t you learn a lot researching for a book.”
The answer is, “Yes.” Sometimes the research is a rabbit hole that leads no place. However. other times the research in combination with life experience becomes a game-changer.
There is an argument made the research for a good book is as deep as that needed for a University doctoral paper.
What do you do when you find something that validates an assumption? What do you do when something you had a misgiving about turns out to be – less than you had even suspected?
You must call it for what it is.
A couple of award-winning books on strategy. 4 decades on the floor and I have some answers to the classic three, “Sen” pieces of strategy.
Go No Sen, Sen No Sen, and Sen, Sen, No Sen cast a large shadow over the world of martial arts. You needn’t be an adherent to a Japanese style or system to have experienced these three elements of strategy. These strategic ideas tend to show up in different words and forms of expression in combative situations. You ever heard of a counter puncher in boxing?
I’m taking a jeweler’s loop to one aspect of these three, Go No Sen. The result is the examination is coalescing of discoveries made over time.
The underlying discoveries of the research are from two award-winning books. One book on Musashi and one about Sun-Tzu, I did with Lawrence Kane. Throw in a few years on the mat, stir it up and a new clarity arose. Go No Sen isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
I’m putting together the final touches on a video for subscribers that addresses:
· The lost power curve
· What is Go No Sen, even if it looks like something else
· How punches are like buses
So, I’m putting the finishing touches on the video and writing a few last words.
You’re going to enjoy this.
If you’re new to my newsletter, you can get free bonuses at Kriswilder.com – it’s the entry point to all the good stuff.
And heck, forward this to a friend that might enjoy this session. It’s always their choice as to whether to access the material.
The idea of this section is to lay bare a training strategy. To pull it into the light and see that it is a training strategy.
Go No Sen is not a viable combative strategy and it is often discussed in the context of combative strategies. The reason for this inclusion in conversation on strategy is because somebody at some time lumped Go No Sen into the conversation.
We know these three as, Go No Sen, Sen No Sen, and Sen, Sen No Sen but if you are engaging in Go No Sen as a combative strategy you are losing.
Standing in the falling October rain watching a college football game the pain of the rain and my team falling behind on the scoreboard was raw. The guy next giving a dismissive wave announced he was leaving the game early.
With half of the final quarter still to play, he stated, “These kids are playing on their heels, the game is over.”
He was right, you can’t win on your heels.
Go No Sen puts you on your heels. This strategy is about responding, it is about being behind, fighting from behind always responding never dictating.
You are losing you are on your heels, metaphorically or literally. In using Go No Sen you are at the will of the opponent and you are not on your toes.
Teaching Karate – 1 great move. For years I used the technique of, “Leaving the students on a high note,” in my martial arts classes. I thought I had high training awareness. I thought I had the 1 great move, however there was more to know.
The principal was simple, help the students recall the positive that happened during training and then head on home. A simple act that was lacking a little something. I thought I was engaged in training awareness; but the tail end of class was lacking.
I ran into Sue Enqust on a podcast and was, honestly a little upset I had not paid attention to this outstanding woman and coach in the past. Once she was on my radar I reached out and she responded. In a brief direct message conversation over twitter, subsequently Sue Enquist gave me the next level of success.
The briefest and important tip
Who is Sue Enquist? Coach Enquist won 11 National Championships coaching the University of California Los Angeles, (UCLA) softball team. That is an insane win record! She was doing something right. (Her coaching record was 887-175-1)
What she told me was so counter to Martial Arts instruction as I have known it. I had a hard time getting my head around the idea. I’m supposed to be in control, directing the learning, not wasting a moment, keep ‘em moving. In short I was leaving, the 1 great move on the table.
Her suggestion was the opposite, almost.
What Coach Enquist recommended was a fun flex.
She went on to guarantee this would send the class out on the highest of tones. “Give the last 5 minutes of class over to the students, let them choose what they want to do, and then do it.” It went against my years of experience yet did what she recommended.
The results were so powerful the 5-minute Fun Flex, is in the Conquest Martial Arts Class Method. (Yes, you can click on this link and learn more about the class method)
I trusted a coach with 11 national championships and who won almost 9 out of every 10 games she coached.
Now I pass it on to you. Let the students have the last 5 minutes of class. As Coach Enquist told me, “Watch the enthusiasm go through the roof Woo Hoo!” It’s the 1 Great Move.
She didn’t lie.
P.S. If you are not watching Women’s College Softball you’re missing out on a fast paced, top shelf sport. The championship rounds are insanely great!
You may enjoy The Back Channel Podcast a weekly podcast that last about 3 minutes. The podcast is designed to give you some grist for the mental mill. You can access every episode here.
