Unfettered

I want to figure out what the limits of my human potential are. Reading Weightlessness by Tom Fazio has really kickstarted my training and brought everything to a new level. I have been wearing ankle and wrist weights throughout my day until about 5 PM. When they come off i feel superhuman. Not only that, it is a giant second wind. The actions and efforts of the day fall off me with the weights that fall to the ground. I have also been working a lot on doing planches. This is an exercise that i used to look at and feel that it was impossible to achieve even as i watched it on video after video. They seem weightless as well. After a month of practice, those things all seem within reach.

With my martial arts training i think the ultimate goal for me is to become completely unfettered. I always talk to my students about the various gears we have in our thoughts and minds. We have a distinct shift when we switch between these and it stops us for a moment and slows us down. I want to break these down and have seamless transition between all of these pairs. Some notable ones are between hands and feet, left and right and the biggest from a martial arts stand point is the great gulf between attack and defense. I can see the look of those shifts on my training partners. I can also feel them in myself when i hit one. Often times if you watch people fight, they will tend to throw some punches , then throw some kicks. When you can transfer seamlessly between your punches and kicks you become a fighter of another level. You force your opponent to fight a war on two fronts. If they have not broken down this division through training, they will have to pause for their brain to catch up as they shift thought between the hands and feet.

Even watching professional fighters you can see the gap between attack and defense, except in cases of the elite. Most often you will see one person attack, then the other. When you can intercept and attack into the attacks that are coming at you, you have achieved another level. When someone is not prepared for this and you make them defend when their mind is in attack mode, they really cannot defend themselves. You cause a hiccup in their thought process and shut their brain down for a split second in which you can steal the attack from them.

I want to be unfettered in my acting as well. Improv theater training is a great way to train this as well and i do believe learning and excelling at improv theater has helped me be a better fighter. To be a master of improv comedy your brain must be free to flow and react to any situation. You say "yes, and" to whatever comes at you as you must in a fight.

This is my quest. I am not about a life of mediocrity or the mundane. I want to always excel and learn and improve myself, that is truly what it means to be a warrior.