Building a strong foundation

Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) is a discipline that has no short cuts or secret techniques that makes you better. You must train hard, regardless of the voice in your head persuading you “you’re too tired to train”.  That voice only has as much power as you give it.  The more you ignore it, like Jason Stratham, Jackie Chan or Jet Li, you will transcend it.  Morihei Ueshiba said, “Progress comes to those who train and train; reliance on secret techniques will get you nowhere.”  

Great Technique
Great technique only happens when your basics, meaning your stances, punches and kicks, are strong.  If done correctly, your basics will conserve energy and create more power.  There is no secret to perfecting your technique, it is done through repetition.  Repetition results in two important outcomes, it builds and tones the muscles needed for that technique and second, it ensures muscle memory.  

Muscle Memory
Muscle memory happens when you repeat a technique; your muscle will remember the movement and you will feel the difference between a correct and an incorrect technique.  The same holds true for a stance, which makes it important to always follow through, by returning to the appropriate stance.  Your muscles will learn and re-learn your natural state.  A good example is slouching, take note of a child (6 mths to 3 yrs old) when they sit their back is perfectly straight, it is unnatural to slouch and yet many of us do.  

Kung_Fo_Toa_1981: Flickr

Automatic Reactions
Muscle memory also creates automatic reactions, it is the action in your reaction that happen without you consciously being aware of it, or having to tell yourself.  For example, when you eat, you do not tell your hand to grab the fork or your arm to lift the food off the plate and into your mouth, or tell your jaw to chew.

All of those actions are second nature.  By repeatedly throwing a kick punch combo from a perfect stance, it becomes natural, thus when you’re mentally exhausted you will still throw a perfect kick punch combo.  
To beat the voice in your head, train hard.  To perfect a technique use repetition for two reasons; to strengthen your muscles and create muscle memory.  Remember there are no secret techniques or short cuts to training.  Morihei Ueshiba also said, “A good stance and posture reflect a proper state of mind.”

4 Great reasons to run with a partner

Serious marathon training takes a single-minded approach to running.  Marathon endurance will require many considerations; running a mile in 7 minutes, pace training, cross country endurance, muscle memory, food intake and running times.  All this training requires commitment, as your shape your body into becoming a carriage of your dreams.  The right partner could take your training to the next level.  A partner who is roughly equal to your level of fitness would enhance your training and ultimately bring out your competitive nature, ensure accountability, apply consistency to your training, and motivate you when you need it most. 

Competition pushes our training further

Running alone and beating your own time is helpful but running against a partner will stir in you a desire to win.  Although a marathon requires a black belt of endurance, the beginning and end of a long run needs more of a brawler to separate yourself from the others. 

Busying your mind, in the moment, to winning will benefit you by taking your mind off the conversation in your head.  If you’re an avid runner you may enjoy running alone to work off stress, however, marathon training may cause more chatter as your endurance improves.  Focusing on winning against your partner, especially if you’re feeling competitive, will quiet the chatter in your head.

Accountability for our fitness 

Goal setting is an important component to training and requires benchmarks to ensure you’re on track.  A partner will help you to stay the course and provide feedback conducive to improving your level of fitness. 

It isn’t as easy talk your partner out of a 5:00 am run as it is yourself.  When it is time to train you are not only accountable for your time but for your partner’s time as well.  Ideally when you’re feeling stagnant you can rely on your partner to crack the whip to keep the two of you moving. 

Consistency in our workouts

Running with someone else will help you to run consistently.  When you run with someone else you naturally run together keeping each other even rather than slowing down and speeding up.  Your partner and you will keep each other moving at a consistent pace.   

Your partner can provide an objective perspective about your training.  We are subjective and often blind of our own flaws or overly critical.  A partner will provide you with an objective look at yourself.  You will be able to identify more clearly where you need help and where your strengths lie. 

Motivating our partner and ourselves

Hearing, “you can do it”, will provide a great deal more motivation than, “20 more minutes?  I just can’t, maybe just 10, that’ll do it, think I will stop now”.  Hearing encouragement from your partner and saying it to your partner can provide that extra push you need.  Motivating your partner will motivate you.

Picking a partner who you can inspire will only motivate you to work harder.  The goal is push yourself to the next level to give you a fighting chance at finishing the race.  If you are like most then you are your own worst critic.  You and your partner can celebrate each other’s victories regardless of how small.

Training with a partner can be the difference between a mile in 7 minutes or a mile in 6 minutes.  Regardless of what happens in the marathon at least training with a partner means you are sure to have more fun.  Ultimately, isn’t that what life is all about?  

Language Revitalization

As an English speaking parent, I have always felt the shame when an outsider asked me what language I spoke, other than English. So when Tsi Tyonnheht Onkwawenna Language and Cultural Centre started Kawenna on:we Primary Mohawk Immersion in September 2011, I immediately registered two of my daughters for the program. If you were to ask me why, I would try to articulate something about identity and self-esteem, but that just does not seem to adequately answer the question.

Mohawk language students Ejijewah and Goniksadoh checking out a map of Kahnawake

Going to school in Six Nations in the ‘70’s meant an afternoon of instruction a week. Ms. Issacs, a very sweet lady, spent the afternoon teaching us numbers, colors, social songs and longhouse dances. Sadly, I do not remember much. When Six Nations started their first immersion program in the late 90’s, I sent my eldest daughter to I.L. Thomas Cayuga Immersion. Back then I responded to “why?” with, because I cannot teach her.

Deciding to move to Tyendinaga, in 2007 was difficult, insomuch that Tyendinaga did not have an immersion program. When my stepson came home from school and said, “Did you know we came across the Bering Strait?” was when I decided to homeschool my children. So then my answer became, I want them to learn our ways. But the answer as to why still does not seem answered.

Tsi Tyonnheht Onkwawenna Language and Cultural Centre was beginning to make headway with viable funding. It could not have been more timely, as I was considering moving back to Six Nations for the children’s education. Soon the applications for Grades 1 to 4 Primary Immersion were circulated. The children began school and before long they could recite a short version of the Thanks Giving Address.

My eldest has long since completed her immersion programming and now attends Western University. The next eldest has completed two years of Mohawk Immersion at Kawenna on:we Primary Mohawk Immersion, my third eldest is going into grade four and my son has completed the Totahne Language Nest and is in grade 1. I may not have had an answer to why but I believe I have one now.

Learning in our language changes how we think especially if started at a very young age.

I cannot speak for everyone, but I know growing up with little to no exposure to Haudensaunee ceremonies, language, and values left me with an unexplainable emptiness. I never understood it, I just knew it was there until my eldest, as a child, came home crying because her cousin was, “throwing paper all over mother earth.” Because she was taught so much more through the language she had what I was missing. And that is the spiritual connection to the environment. To our Mother. She saw “how beautiful Mother Earth” is and that changed how she viewed her world.

Since then I have not looked back, now my children learn Mohawk and after a year in Kawenna on;we Primary Mohawk Immersion School my son chants, rather loudly, “I, u eh, u eh, I, u eh u a eh, u eh ha u eh, hum ba dee mo do, hum ba husha, we ya ne we yane”. It is a medley of stomp dance songs. Clearly a step up from, “I’m sexy and I know it.” Now if asked why I send my children to Kawenna on:we Primary Mohawk School in Tyendinaga my answer is simply, “Because it’s the right thing to do.”

The Importance of Moments

Let’s say you found the perfect lover, so you cheat.  You find a partner who listens, so you scream.  Or you’ve just received a promotion at work, so you “celebrate” for a week and go into work hung over and/or late for the next week. 

It doesn’t have to be as grandiose as ruining your life, it could be something relatively minor.  You’re supposed to study for your mid-terms but you have an unexpected urge to talk to your estranged friend or clean up your suddenly dirty house.  Despite your best intentions it seems like something always goes wrong. 

We don’t consciously sabotage ourselves, at least, we don’t think we do.  But if we are honest with ourselves we know there was a moment when it could have gone a different way.  When you think back to those moments, prior to engaging in some destructive behaviour, just before the action there was a moment, seemingly frozen, when you could make an alternative choice.  That moment is the universe giving you an opportunity to do the right thing. 

It might look the same but it isn't

After doing something the same way so many times it becomes second nature.  Like moving your head or standing up, it just happens.  Someone says, “Hey want to go to the casino?” and without even thinking about it off you go. 

Only you have the power to change the way things go for you.  It’s easy to blame someone else, but ultimately the only person who has control over you, is you.  The next time you are about to embark on an adventure that leads you astray just stop everything you’re doing and think about it.  Think about the consequences, think about what matters to you. 

When you take those moments, you give yourself an opportunity to see you have a choice.  The more times you do it, the longer those moments become.  Those are your moments and no one can take them from you, and by taking those moments you begin to take control of your life.