#118: How to Get More from Your Martial Arts Practice [Video + Podcast]

Fight for a Happy Life with Sensei Ando: Martial Arts for Everyday Life

Welcome to Episode #118 of the Fight for a Happy Life podcast, “How to Get More from Your Martial Arts Practice.”

You train hard… but are you getting everything you can out of your martial arts practice? Probably not!

Don’t worry—in this episode, I share three practice tips that will pay you back with BIG results. At least they did for me!

No, they’re not magic. No, they’re not quick ‘n’ easy. But if you’ve ever felt stuck in a rut, these might just be what you need to hear… and do!

Especially if you’ve ever felt like QUITTING martial arts completely, this episode is for you!

Before you walk away from all that time and effort you’ve invested in training, give these three tips a try. Heck, try even one!

Yes, I believe even a little martial arts makes life a whole lot better, but sometimes if you give just a little bit more, you can get a LOT more in return!

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How to Get More from Your Martial Arts Practice

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TRANSCRIPT

Hello, hello. Ando here from Happy Life Martial Arts. Welcome to episode #118 of Fight for a Happy Life, the show that believes even a little martial arts makes life a whole lot better.

And I really believe that, you know, what I just said there. A little martial arts makes life a whole lot better. At least that’s how it’s worked for me so far.

And that’s why I’m shocked, shocked at how many people have not gotten that message. How is it possible?

Martial arts is so mainstream now. People see it everywhere. They know it’s a safe activity, relatively speaking. And they must know that it does so much to transform your life in a positive way, which is why I am shocked.

Don’t tell me, well, there are millions of people participating in martial arts. Yeah, but there are billions of people on the planet. Why isn’t everyone signed up for a self-defense course or doing at least a six-month investment somewhere in some type of training? Answer me that.

Anyway, you know what’s more shocking? More shocking than the number of people who don’t look into martial arts at all is the number of people who start martial arts and then quit. That blows my mind.

What? You did the hardest part. You walked through the door. You signed up someplace. You started and then you stopped.

Now, I’m not talking about, well, I couldn’t afford classes or I got a bad knee. Life happens. I get that. But there’s always a way to keep pushing forward a little bit to make some improvements, even if you’re just training on your own, especially in this day and age with the video.

So what’s with all the quitting?

If you had a business opportunity and every time you put in $1, you got $2 out, would you ever stop investing? No, either would I.

So that’s where I get confused because for me, every investment I make in the martial arts definitely pays me back. Well, at least two-fold, five-fold, ten-fold. I have to make up a number there. But I feel it gives me more than I put into it.

Hence, even a little martial arts makes life a whole lot better.

So if you are in a rut right now in your training, or if you are not training at all, or if you feel bored by your training, or you are thinking about quitting your training, that’s what this episode is for.

Today I want to give you three quick tips on how to get more out of your training so that hopefully you don’t quit. Because I do believe if you are training well, you should be getting a lot of benefits out of it.

Okay, tip number one. Go full time. Go pro.

Now I’m not talking about making this a career, being a professional fighter or a professional teacher. That’s not what I mean. I mean in your mindset.

Stop thinking of yourself as a part timer and start thinking of yourself as a full timer. You’re always a martial artist. Make that part of who you are.

I get it. In the beginning, martial arts may just be an activity, something that you try. And it’s interchangeable. It could be a yoga class you went to try or a swimming group or softball team. You just wanted to do something and you tried martial arts.

But if you stay in that part time interchangeable, it’s just another activity, something to do mindset, well then it will get changed out. Eventually, you’ll get bored with it. Eventually, it’s not something that excites you anymore because you never really committed to the idea that I’m all in. I’m a full time professional martial artist.

So we have to make that shift. Make the shift that it’s not just something you do, it’s who you are.

I think of it a little bit like Superman. Bear with me, old school Superman. If you’re a part timer, at least the way I was when I started, I would have my normal life in my normal clothes and then you get to go to class. And when you go to class, you take off your clothes and then you put on your uniform. And there was a little mini transformation there.

You put on that uniform and you start to transform into the person, maybe, that you want to be. I feel stronger, bolder, I’m getting tougher, I’m working.

But then class is over and you put on your normal clothes, you go back to your normal life, and that class just kind of becomes a memory. You don’t necessarily take it with you.

Now, old school Superman is a little different. Old school Superman always had his Superman uniform on underneath his Clark Kent clothes.

Meaning he was always Superman, but he would play different roles and he would put on a different suit to cover that up sometimes. But make no mistake, he’s always Superman. He’s always on the hunt for when can I be of help? When can I be of service? When can I be a hero?

So we should be the same way. A part time martial artist is someone who only feels great when they’re in class wearing their uniform and then goes back to an ordinary life where they don’t feel as wonderful.

But a full time martial artist, a pro, you’re always a martial artist. And when you feel great in class, you take that outside into the world, you still feel great.

When you feel like you’ve got some courage or some toughness, you bring that into the rest of your life because you’re a full time martial artist.

So that would be my challenge to you. Make this mental shift. Don’t be an amateur martial artist. Just start thinking like a professional martial artist. Once you make that shift, meaning that you stop focusing on your martial arts style and start focusing on your lifestyle.

Do you see that little switch there? It’s not the style of martial arts that you do. It’s your style of living that matters. Once you do that, you have that attitude, everything changes.

The way you eat is going to change because there is no on day, off day, I’m going to go to class later, so I’m going to eat a little bit healthier, so I don’t feel sluggish. No, every day you feel like I want to be at my best, so I’m going to eat pretty clean here, I’m going to be healthy.

The way you sleep, you’re not going to say, well, I worked out hard yesterday, so I’ll give myself a little extra sleep, but then tonight I’ll stay up late. No, I want to be at my best all the time, so I want to get to bed, recover, be ready for the next adventure the next day.

And I’ll tell you, even my wardrobe changed, meaning that I used to have a separate part of my dresser that was just for workout clothes. I wasn’t going to class. I was going to go workout in the park or in the garage or whatever. I would have some old t-shirts, old pants, tattered, stained, ripped up, old, because I figured, well, I don’t want to wreck my good clothes.

But then at some point, when I made that shift, that’s exactly the time, when I went from part time to full time in my mind, I said, why am I treating my practice time with so little respect? Why am I wearing clothes that I don’t want anyone to see me in? I wouldn’t wear these clothes anywhere else into the world.

So now I have this separation in my head between, oh, there’s the training version of me, and then there’s my real me back out in the real world. I wanted to break down that barrier.

And once I made that attitude shift, I threw out all the tattered clothes and realized that I wasn’t paying enough respect to the full time martial artist that I want to be, that I am. And yeah, so I got some workout clothes, nicer clothes to work out in.

And that makes me feel a little bit prouder, might seem superficial, but it gets me into the, it keeps me in the mindset of being at my best.

Caught that. It doesn’t change it, it keeps it going.

So that as great as I feel out during my day, I feel just as great training, then I get boosted by my training, I slip right back into the world. So I highly recommend overall, go full time in your head, go pro and see if that has a trickle down effect on everything you do.

Tip number two, assign yourself homework.

This is very important. If you are a full time professional martial artist, and you are now, right? Did you already flip the switch?

You can’t just rely on class time to reap benefits. That’s not the only place where you should be investing yourself, or pushing your limits, challenging yourself, because just do the math. That’s such a small part of your life.

Let’s say you go to class three times a week, and let’s say each of those classes is an hour and a half long. Okay, so what’s that? I’m not a math guy. Is that four and a half hours? Four and a half hours of training time. That’s not much. That’s almost nothing compared to how many hours there are in a week.

So why do you think there’s some magical carryover that four and a half hours of training, that’s if you’re training three times a week for an hour and a half, is going to influence everything else in your life? The scales are off. It’s very little training.

Yes, I believe even a little makes your life better, but I want you to get more, because if you’re thinking about quitting, it means you’re not getting enough. That’s what we’re talking about.

So I need you to start finding more ways to get more out of your class time and then more out of your out of class time. And you know me, I’m going to tell you that the whole world is your dojo.

Everywhere you go is a classroom. Everyone you meet is a teacher. Everything that happens to you is a lesson.

Once you take that bigger view of things, you’ll understand what I’m talking about. You’re always improving. You’re always learning. You can always be getting better.

So, okay, but specifically, in class, even if you decide to ignore everything else I’m saying, at least get more out of your actual class time.

Don’t be the person, if you set up a bag and you’re taking turns with someone else, you’re number three in the line, you’re going through, don’t be the person who goes up, hits the bag, and then strolls back to the end of the line, and then waits for your next turn, and then you hit the bag, and then you stroll back, and you don’t do anything.

What are you doing? That will be one example of time that you can fill with extra practice.

When it’s your turn to hit the bag, you hit the bag, then you shuffle back to the end of the line, you practice that combo in your head until you get to the bag. There’s no reason why you still can’t be practicing.

Or don’t be that person who fills class time with small talk about movies and social events. I’m not saying don’t make friends and don’t be friendly, but if you’re going to rely on your class time as your main time for improvement, you need to be on it because you’re a professional martial artist and you came into that class for a very specific reason.

Or at least by now, I hope you have specific goals for yourself. So get after it. Do a little extra practice. Don’t wait for your teacher to come over and tell you to do that. That’s a mistake.

Now, outside of class, of course, I still want more. So absolutely, I would keep a journal. Keep some type of diary, some type of notebook. I’ve recommended this before, and I’m saying it again, because that’s such an easy thing to do.

Before you drive home after class, or first thing you think of in the morning, or after a practice session, anytime something occurs to you, you see something on video, a crime being committed, and someone fighting, and you have a thought about it, journal it. Write it down.

That’s another way to learn. It’s another way to enforce your beliefs. So it’s just a great idea to kind of keep this little running diary. And even if you have nothing to say, go back. Flip through where you’ve been in your life.

Go back through some of your old thoughts. See if they still ring true. See if you have new ideas. You are in development. So keep a record of that development.

I think it’s very encouraging when you may feel a little blue or feel a little unmotivated. It’s great to go back and say, Wow, I used to think that or whoa, I’ve come so far from this note. I’m a big fan of keeping the journal.

I would also recommend in this idea of assigning yourself homework, don’t wait for a teacher to give you a goal. Yeah, you’re a part of a school perhaps, and so they have a curriculum and maybe there’s testing requirements. And if you’re a good student, you follow those.

But don’t rely on those. You should always have a small project that you are working on, on your own. You have to take some responsibility for your development. You are your own teacher.

If you think your class is unchallenging, that’s not the class’s fault. You should be adding challenges to your own practice to make it more challenging. Whatever value you’re getting from the class, great, get that. But that’s not the end of it. That doesn’t define your entire martial arts journey. It’s still up to you to figure out what do you want to get better at?

What do you need to get better at? And write that down. And for me, I think the smaller and more specific goal you can craft for yourself, the better.

If you just say, I want to get better at sparring, I don’t know what that means. How?

I’m talking about very small goals that you can put in that journal or make a separate notebook for just for goals. Things that you can measure and check off when you’ve achieved it.

If you think, you know what, from now on, I’m just going to pay attention and make sure my wrist is a little straighter. Perfect. That’s a very small thing that you can fix.

I’m going to work on that alignment between my knee and my ankle so I don’t keep getting into these wonky positions with my stances and footwork. Wonderful. There are so many things you can do.

I won’t go on with a hundred of them, but think about it. The smaller the better, what is something you can give yourself as a homework assignment that you can measure and monitor and check off and say, I did that.

The reason you want to do that is because that gives you that little boost of happy hormones where you feel, I did that. I accomplished something. I’m getting better. There’s proof that I got better.

That’s the addiction, I think, that keeps me going because I’ve figured out how to give myself assignments that I can achieve, that I feel great about that. I can celebrate that. And then I’m excited to get to the next one. That becomes my drug of choice, improvement.

So give yourself homework. Don’t wait for someone else to do it for you. That’s kindergarten first grade thinking. You’re a professional. You’re a full time martial artist. It’s who you are, which means you are your own teacher. So give yourself homework.

Tip number three, how to get more out of your martial arts training. This one might sound a little odd, but stay with me.

Tip number three: Measure your afterglow.

So afterglow meaning that great feeling you have when you work out.

Have you ever finished a great workout, finished a great class, been proud of yourself, and felt, boy, I wish I could feel like this all the time. This is great. This is what I signed up for. I love this feeling right now.

I’m in my body. I feel centered. I feel balanced. I feel like I know who I am. I like who I am. I like who I’m becoming. Boy, this feels great. That little buzz, that glow.

Well, what happens after, though? After the workout.

When I was younger and I still compartmentalized my training life over here and my other life over there, I was constantly going up and down that satisfaction scale or that glow.

I would work out, feel great, feel like, yes, this is wonderful. I got everything I want, wanted out of this training. And then you take a shower, you change your clothes, go back to your job, back to your relationships, back to your business, whatever.

And your neck starts getting stiffer and your legs are cooling down now. And you forgot what you were working on earlier. And now there’s other stress coming in. You’re starting to not feel as good about yourself and life happens. And your training is nowhere to be found.

And the longer you go, maybe you had this great workout, you peaked optimal state, feeling great. And then maybe you haven’t trained for a day. You’ve just been free falling.

And maybe two days have gone by and you haven’t really worked out. Now you’re feeling bad about yourself. All that feeling in your body and balance and blah, blah, blah. It’s all gone. It’s just, pew, evaporating.

We don’t want that to happen. As full time martial artists, the goal, and this is it, this is what self defense is all about as far as I’m concerned, is first defining our optimal state. Figuring out the exercises, the styles, the whatever you need to do, the workouts to get you into that state where you feel almost invincible at your best.

First figure out what that is. What’s your baseline? What does it take to get you to feel your best? Once you’ve gotten that feeling, now the challenge is to hold on to it.

When life comes after you now, how can you maintain it as long as possible? Don’t get me wrong, life is tricky. So you’re going to take some hits, you’re going to take some falls, but how deep do you go? How deep is that dive off of your optimal platform? And how quickly can you regain it and come back?

That, to me, is what self-defense is all about. You might feel great about yourself and someone slaps you in the face, and if that completely changes you, that’s a problem.

If someone insults you, betrays you, rips you off, and that immediately puts you into a worse version of yourself, they’re winning.

Self-defense means no, I’m going to defend myself, my best self. So to do that, measure how great you feel when you are at your best.

Then second, pay attention to what takes that feeling away. Where are you when you don’t feel great? Who are you with when you don’t feel great? What are you doing when you don’t feel great? And all of your confidence is being chipped away, all of your joy is being chipped away.

What’s happening? Because those are the things you need to change. Get away from those people, move out of that place, change what you’re doing.

Sometimes you can’t, sometimes you’re stuck with this relationship, you’re stuck with this location, or at least for now you are. Okay, so then what can we do? That’s where to me micro workouts come in.

If we presume that you feel great when you have a full workout, it’s time to yourself, time with your partner, boom, boom, and you’re in that zone, you’re feeling good. You’re getting the benefits that you hoped for out of martial arts.

Now, as a full-time martial artist, you leave that workout, something starts to chip away at your happiness. That’s the time to have a micro workout, something that gets you back into that state as quickly as possible.

Maybe it’s 10 squats. I don’t know what it’s going to be for you. Maybe it’s a minute of shadow boxing. Maybe it’s a breathing exercise. Maybe it’s a mantra.

But you have to start experimenting once you realize that your glow is fading to find these little ways to perk it back up, to brighten it back up. And it’s up to you to do that.

No one can tell you how to do that. I wish I could. I could say, hey, all you got to do is say, hokum pokum and you’re done. You’re going to feel great.

No. If that does work, by the way, feel free to try hokum pokum. I don’t know. Probably not.

But the idea is to keep your momentum going. You train hard. You challenge yourself. You reach that high. You’re proud of yourself.

You start to dip. Nope, micro workout. You pull it back up.

You start to dip. Life is hard. Oh, you pull it back up. And you’re just trying to stay up there as long as you can.

And I believe what happens is all that hard work that you’re doing, instead of always trying to come out of the valley and come back up to the peak, the less you dip and then they add on more work, the higher you start to go. So your peak starts to rise. And that’s ultimately what we want.

I don’t want to just gain an optimal state and then just hope to maintain it. I want to keep gaining. That’s idealistic, so be it. I want to keep gaining.

So the only way to do that is to hold on to what you’ve got. You got to take ground, hold that ground, and then move forward. We can’t keep getting pushed back to where we started.

Just as an aside, I’ll tell you, my favorite afterglow test is in the middle of the night. You ever wake up to use the bathroom or get a quick drink of water, and sometimes I’ve trained whatever I did during the day, and I wake up, and I can’t make a fist, and my back hurts, and I just feel wonky, and I bump into the wall.

I have no awareness of anything. And that to me is a big clue that whatever you did during the day, here you are in this night state, and something is not carrying through. My goal is to have the best parts of me carry through all the time as a full-time martial artist, even when I’m sleeping.

And yes, I sleep in clothes. I don’t even sleep in sleepwear. I always want to be at my best, ready for presentation and go.

Or sometimes, when I train, I wake up in the middle of the night and I feel in my body. I feel balanced. I feel I know my place in the universe. I have no problem getting into the bathroom and back. I don’t bump into anything.

It’s a very strange experience to have one great night, one bad night. But it makes me think like, well, what did I do today? Why am I so out of it sometimes and so in it other times?

So, take the wake up challenge. See where your mind is at. What state are you in when you wake up in the middle of the night? It might be a big clue.

All right. I hope that helps. That was three tips. Those were three tips to help you get more out of your training. I really hope that if you’re bored or you feel like you’re in a rut, you feel like you’re stuck, that you’ll heed my words.

Don’t quit. Not yet. Try a couple of these things. Try one of them even. Because martial arts, I still believe, is a great investment.

That dollar in will give you $10 out if you just keep believing in it. It just takes a little work. It’s not magic. So, don’t give up on this. Put a little more in, and I bet you get a whole lot more out.

Okay, hope that helps. I really do believe if more good people are training in the martial arts, the better this world’s gonna be.

So, go pro, give yourself homework, and measure your afterglow. That’s the formula for a successful happy life.

Until next time, smiles up, my friend. Let that smile be your shield and your sword. Keep fighting for a happy life.

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