Tag Archives: ueshiba

The Effective to Efficient Continuum of Training

Posted on by
Reply

What’s the difference between being effective in your training and becoming efficient?

When you first started to drive a car, you sucked at it, right? You couldn’t turn on the radio and the turn signal at the same time, and I’ll bet when you tried to wave at someone outside on the sidewalk, you turned the wheel in the same direction too. 

In short, you were a disaster.

Gradually, with practice, you got better and better at driving until you became effective. Meaning you could get yourself from point A to point B without crashing or otherwise screwing up.

Now, after years of driving you can effortlessly change lanes, check your mirrors, adjust the air conditioning, change the radio station, and carry on a conversation without even thinking about it. You slowly but surely moved from merely an effective driver (accomplishing the act of driving) to an efficient driver (accomplishing the act of driving with minimum effort AND maximum effectiveness).

Your martial arts training and your strength training are the same.

You cannot hope to progress beyond a basic level if you are just effective at your techniques or exercises. You must move across the continuum from effective to efficient. From mundane to master.

 How can we define efficiency?

Here’s the easiest definition – Efficiency = Useful Work / Total Work

 Look at any martial arts master at the top of his game. He is supremely effective (otherwise he wouldn’t be a master) BUT he’s also extremely efficient in his movement and energy expenditure. The master moves with grace under pressure, with strength and power refined and focused, and an effortlessness that defies belief. His mind and body perfectly integrated, he can do this all day. 

How do you progressively move from effective to efficient? 

Yes, it’s a matter of time and practice of course. But what else?

Throughout the ages, master martial artists have developed specific regimens of solo (and paired) training exercises to hack into the nervous systems software and update the code to bypass years of trial and error. This way they have laid out a clear path of progression for the savvy practitioner to follow step-by-step from effectiveness to efficiency to mastery.

 

Specific Training + Frequent Practice = Massive Results

 

What are the specific practices required?

That, my friends, is the subject of the next article… 🙂

 

“He Opened My Eyes to Budo…”

Posted on by
Reply

Way back in 2009 I started studying this weird, rarely talked about, even more rarely taught aspect of traditional martial arts called internal power.

To say it opened up my worldview when it came to martial arts training would be a huge understatement!

Now, to put it in perspective, I’d been training in martial arts since I was 10, and I’d trained with high level masters all over the world. But I was blown away by this stuff!!!

I’m reminded of what Ueshiba (the founder of Aikido) said of his Daito Ryu teacher, Sokaku Takeda who taught him these internal power exercises – “He opened my eyes to budo”

To me, this training is really the underlying essence of budo. It creates a powerful body for any martial artist, no matter the art. And it gives those who are in the know a tremendous advantage!!

What is Internal Power?

I think it’s best to start with the basics.  What is internal power and how can it useful to the practitioner of any and all martial arts or combat sports?  Let me state this at the outset to hopefully clear up a rather unfortunate misinterpretation of IP.

Internal Power is physical.

It’s not some mystical mumbo jumbo or a throwing chi balls type of nonsense.

It is actually a way of conditioning the body through specific solo training exercises and paired partner training. The training method spans thousands of years and has been handed down through the ages within the warrior traditions of India, China, and Japan.  It is a body technology with a set method and detailed process of instruction that simply cannot be learned by osmosis.  It must be explicitly taught.

 

The basis for the method is what is known as the union of opposites or In Yo Ho, in Japanese.

By creating opposing forces within the body (up/down, left/right, front/back) through the use of intent – your own mental direction using imagery, feeling, and visualization – we begin to increase the mind-body connection to a remarkable degree.

Through the solo training exercises we condition and strengthen the entire fascia network, as well as tendons and ligaments, throughout the body.  This process serves to create a connected body through the center so that when ‘one thing move, everything moves’.

How Can YOU Learn This?

So when I had the opportunity, I put all my knowledge into a program called Integrated Strength back in 2015. This program lays the foundation of combining internal power with the warrior’s system of functional strength.

Thus in the Integrated Strength Program I have combined the two methods to create a fully integrated system of developing human strength potential.

This complete system of Internal Power Development AND Unusual Strength is presented to you for the FIRST TIME EVER inside the Integrated Strength Training Program.

I refined and added to that body of knowledge in the next installment of internal power training called Shadow Strength in 2019.

Shadow Strength contains a unique set of exercises drawn from traditional martial arts designed to utilize breath, posture, and mobility to build superhuman levels of strength and resistance to injury.

 

 

 

 

 

And this year I released the newest program in my internal strength series called The Power Protocol which takes all of the training so far to the next level.

The goal of The Power Protocol program is singular in nature – to cut through the morass of myth and misinformation and give you a practical, proven, results-driven method for building real martial power no matter who you are, what martial art you study, or how you’ve been let down by unknowing or unscrupulous teachers in the past.

This program is your one-stop-shop for developing knock-down, drag out power for any martial art from the inside out and the outside in. After following this program, you will be stronger, tougher, more durable, flexible, and resistant to injury.

Not to mention the ability to hit like a truck out of nowhere and be almost impossible to take down, throw, or joint lock without your express compliance

These 3 programs contain the most powerful training I’ve released publicly to date.

Now you can save 50% on all 3 powerful programs here <<==

If you train in martial arts, you owe it to yourself to grab this package and get started – your training will NEVER be the same!

The Process of Becoming Masterful

Posted on by
Reply

“Remember that mastery is not attained once after a lifetime of practice, but earned every day.”

– Jon Haas

Usually when we think of someone who is a master, be it a master martial artist or the master of some other craft, we think of them as attaining mastery at the end of a long lifetime of practice.
But mastery is NOT something that’s attained once after years or decades of training – mastery is something that is EARNED every day!!
You can be masterful in one moment and then a fumbling fool in the next (ask me how I know!).
The goal of becoming masterful isn’t to wait until some distant future when every move you make is perfect and every word that comes out of your mouth is sage advice, it’s to consciously create those moments of mastery every day until you have more of them rather than less of them.

Daily practice is the key.

Do you ever think about what it would be like to be a master martial artist?

Not just to be awarded the title “master” but to really and truly embody all of the sublime skill of martial mastery at the highest level of human achievement…

What would it feel like to know, without a shadow of a doubt, that you could easily control and subdue the most violent opponent with the most minimal effort, like a lion playing with a cub?

What if I told you that mastery is NOT something automatically attained after a lifetime of practice, but is instead conferred only upon those rare few individuals who, through their own efforts, take consistent, specific daily actions to achieve it?

Then mastery would not be just a far away, imagined future state, but instead a real and attainable goal built by taking action every day, right here and right now.

 

Remember This

Remember this – it is critical to your success – EVERY single legendary martial master: Musashi, Ueshiba, Bruce Lee, Kano, Takeda, Takamatsu, Gracie, Hatsumi, etc…

ALL of them began as unskilled, know nothing novices, white belts without a clue.

Their consistent daily training formed them, forged them, into the revered and feared masters that we know today.

“What one man can do, another can do.”

You can choose to follow in their footsteps. You can choose to be masterful, to be legendary.

However, as you follow them, do NOT seek to become them – instead, seek what they sought, the process of mastery.

Find the process of daily mastery <<==

Finally… There is a Researched, Tested, and PROVEN Method for Developing Internal Power and Unusual Strength from Martial Arts…

How Far Can You Go?

Posted on by
4

Mediocrity ain’t in my vocabulary.  It should not be in yours either.  Average is for the weak.  Normal?  Bleh – no thanks.  This ride called life we are all on has but one go around.  No more tickets – you only get 1.  So why not push for outstanding?  Why dare to fulfill all your potential and be great?  Why not see how far you can go?

TS Elliot Quote

Only a small handful of great warrior sages come along every generation.  Why is that?  Is it genetics?  I don’t think so.  Is it the perfect storm of coincidence and circumstance that combine to create these masters?  Probably not.  So why are there so few?  It’s that they, the rare breed, possess the will power, the drive, the inner fire to go farther and climb higher than anyone else around them.

osensei_tree_kokyu1-272x334

sokaku-takeda-osaka-36-08

 

 

Wang pic

takamatsu

Do you have it in you?

Do you want it badly enough?

The means to be on of the elite is in your grasp.  The information and training is readily available, now more than any other time in history, for anyone with the desire to go out and get it.  The only failure is in your personal motivation and drive to go after it!  There are no real limitations on mastery, martial or otherwise – the only true limits are those you place on yourself!

The sad part is we fight for our own limitations.  We fight to be small, to be weak, to be comfortable, to be less than our God given potential.  We cling to our limits like a child clutching a blanket against the approaching darkness.  As if it can really protect us.  We tell ourselves that we can’t when what we really mean is, ‘it’s hard and I’m afraid of trying because I might fail…’

But we must be strong.

We must endure.

We must overcome.

We must fulfill our mission to completely exhaust all our potential and succeed mightily.

We must be great for no other reason than to see how far we can go.

Why not?  The end is the same for each one of us.  The ride will end all too soon. And it’s much better to burn out than to fade away!

Enter At Your Own Risk… 

Bushi1

 

 

 

A Glimpse Into Internal Power Training – The Push Test

Posted on by
7

The push test is a very practical way of testing the quality of one’s solo training for internal power.  As explained in Weakest Direction Theory is BS, the body, when properly trained, acts as an omni-directional structure.  This allows the practitioner of internal power to neutralize any incoming force by diffusing it throughout the structure rather than having to surrender to it or resist against it.  Either you can do it or you can’t.  There’s no way to fake it. Continue reading →

Weakest Direction Theory is BS

Posted on by
10

Warning: The following post is going to conflict with the most basic, fundamental principle you “know” to be true in martial arts.  Chances are you learned this principle on your first day of martial arts class.  Since that day you have repeated it almost every class.  You have taught it as truth to every new person you’ve ever trained with.  It’s so ingrained into your psyche that it’s practically dogma.  Most likely you will read this a instantly brand me a Budo Heretic.  Yup.  It’s that controversial…

Continue reading →

Never Take Ukemi Again

Posted on by
3

What if you never had to take ukemi again?

Not because you stopped training or avoided it or anything negative like that, but simply because no one who came in contact with you was able to throw you.

Interesting idea, eh?

Although for the sake of paired training and being a good training partner, perhaps a better model would be this – what if you only took ukemi from someone when you wanted to, and not when you had to?

What if you had the skill to naturally reflect incoming force so that an attacker was not able to throw you, joint lock you, take you down, or even off balance you? Continue reading →

Create Your Own Adversity!

Posted on by
2

“Let me embrace thee, sour adversity, for wise men say it is the wisest course.”  ~William Shakespeare

Philosophers and sages throughout the ages have consistently extolled the virtues of facing adversity for the purposes of becoming a better, stronger person.

No matter what form this adversity takes, wisdom dictates that it must be faced head-on, weathered through, and successfully beaten by coming out the other side, maybe scarred, but assuredly battle-hardened and spiritually tougher.

Oftentimes, adversity comes to us unbidden simply due to the path we choose to follow, or even for no fathomable reason at all.  It tends to be one of those things life throws at us unexpectedly to “help” us prove our mettle and forge our character.

It has been said that “God comforts the disturbed and disturbs the comfortable”.  If this is so, perhaps creating your own adversity isn’t a bad thing at all.

The goal in creating your own adversity is to design a challenge that will push the limits of your physical strength, mental toughness, and spiritual fortitude in order to propel you forward to the next level in your training.  For the warrior, this process is known as Shugyo.  Shugyo (修行) may be defined as “conducting oneself in a way that inspires mastery”.  These periods of severe training were usually undertaken by warriors to achieve a type of enlightening experience which opened their minds by destroying their concept of previously perceived limits.  It is the same for us today.

Ueshiba Morihei, the founder of Aikido, was well known for taking his students up into the mountains for periods of Shugyo.

“Once a year, Morihei took several of his best disciples to train with him on Mount Kurama, located near Kyoto. The small group lived on rice, pickles, miso soup, and wild herbs. Morihei would rise at five AM to pray. After morning prayers and misogi, they would swing heavy swords five hundred times and then practice footwork. From ten AM to noon they trained in body techniques. Afternoon training ran from three to five PM; the disciples took turns acting as Morihei’s partner as he ran through series after series of techniques. In the evenings the disciples would review the day’s training. Every three days, Morihei would announce at midnight ‘time for night training’…”
Excerpt from “Invincible Warrior”, by John Stevens pg. 125

Now, do you have to seclude yourself in the mountains for several days in order to practice Shugyo?

No.  For most of us, that’s not realistic or practical, but that doesn’t mean we can’t create the same type of experience for ourselves.

So, how do we do it?

Create Your Own Adversity!

Caution:This type of training is not for everyone.  Before you begin, there are a few common sense type precautions you should take.  First, prepare adequately.  For example, you would not go out to run the NY Marathon tomorrow if you’ve never run more than 5 miles.  Second, if you decide to conduct your Shugyo outdoors, let someone know where you’re going, what you’re doing, and how long you’ll be gone, or better yet, take them with you!  Third and most importantly, think before you do and plan accordingly.

1.  Pick a time or day that has personal significance to you – it can be your birthday, New Years Day, or the anniversary of something important in your life.  Is this absolutely necessary?  No.  You can pick next Tuesday if you’d like, but I think tying your Shugyo to a significant day makes it more special.

2.  Decide what form your Shugyo will take.  This must be unique to your goals and capabilities.  Choose something that is currently beyond your reach, but not so far as to make it completely unattainable.  You want to focus and hone your physical, mental, and spiritual abilities, not your imagination.  Some examples are:

  • Run a marathon
  • Run a Spartan Race or Tough Mudder
  • Climb a mountain
  • 1000 cuts with a heavy bokken (wooden sword)
  • 1000 Kettlebell snatches
  • 1000 Kettlebell Swings
  • 1000 reps of any basic techniques or combination of techniques
  • Sparring 20 opponents in a row, nonstop
  • 1000 Push-ups/Squats/Sit-ups

While any of the above would more than qualify as Shugyo, my personal preference is to plan an entire day where the whole becomes greater than the sum of the individual parts.  Some recommendations for the parts are:

Junan Taiso warm-up, run (distance TBD by you), practice the basic strikes, kicks, and footwork of your particular martial art, Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu for me (high reps to push your limits, of course!), weapons practice (sword cuts, spear thrusts, bo swinging, etc.), high repetition bodyweight exercise(s) or workout with weights (dumbbells, kettlebells, clubbells, sandbags), end with an extra long yoga session to wring out all the tension accumulated throughout the day followed by meditation and rest.

3.  Create a training program to get you there.  Let’s face it, most of the above examples are not something most people can decide to do in a day, they take time, preparation, and work to bring the goal within reach.  Remember the “6 P’s”: Proper Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance!

4.  Get to work!!

Creating your own adversity through Shugyo has the effect of focusing not just your mind, but your entire being for the purposes of expanding your potential.  Push yourself harder than you ever thought possible and blow through your preconceived limitations – remember, the only limits that truly exist are those set up in your own mind – there are no limits!

“God brings men into deep waters, not to drown them, but to cleanse them.”  ~John Aughey