Episode 243 - Martial Arts Epiphanies
In this episode, Jeremy talks about the significance of epiphanies in our journey as a martial artist and his own personal experience.
Martial Arts Epiphanies- Episode 243
Have you ever had a “light bulb” moment? A moment when you learn something better than what you are currently doing not only in your martial arts practice but in life as well? Epiphanies in the martial arts are good especially if that improves your art but others see it as a regretful realization of the past. In this episode, Jeremy shares some of his epiphanies and how are they important. Listen to find out more.
Show Transcripts
You can read the transcripts below or download here.Jeremy Lesniak:Hey there, thanks for tuning in this is whistlekick martial arts radio episode 243. Today were talking about martial arts epiphanies, those moments that make you reconsider everything you been doing with your training, have been aha moment. Maybe go through some depression and otherwise, question how to line everything up with what you're going to do in the future. My name is jerry Lesniak, I’m your host for the show, I’m the founder of whistlekick sparring gear and apparel. I'm your guide, your copilot on this podcast because I’m the one in your ear, I’m talking, I am currently talking from my car, you may hear some road noise, were gonna edit it out the best we can. I'm not driving right now, although sometimes I do record on driving because I have good ideas, sometimes. Well, I think they're good ideas you may not, but right now just because of the way my schedule is this week, the best place for me to record is in my vehicle, in a parking cause is it somewhat quiet and recording from inside the coffee shop where I was working prior wasn't going to be a good idea. I get enough people looking at me strangely, I don't need to give the more reasons. If you want to check out the stuff that we do you can find it at whistlekick.com you can sign up for the newsletter, you can check out the other episodes at whistlekick martial arts radio.com and I hope that you do, wave got a lot of stuff there with 243, yes now 243 episodes. We covered a lot of topics, and I’m hearing from some folks that are coming in after, you know the last 20 episodes, you know maybe they joined at episode 200 or 220 and they're not quite sure what to do cause there's so much there. My advice, check out the episode list that we have it whistlekickmartialartsradio.com, it's a quick list of the topics and the people that we've spoken with all in order and you can just go through and see what catches your eye. There of course is a search function, so if there's a topic that you're not sure if we've covered go ahead and search for it. Sometimes we get into things as a sideline on some of the episodes whether being a Monday interview episode or a Thursday topic episode but there's a lot there. Of course, if what you want to hear about isn't there, go-ahead you can email me at no you can email me there, jeremy@whistlekick.com we are @whistlekick on pretty much every social media you can imagine, so feel free to get a hold of us and we we'll talk to you. Maybe we will put together an episode, maybe because this is happened, we'll include you in that episode if you want.Epiphanies. Those moments where the light bulb goes on and you say; ah, I get it now, I get what my instructors' been trying to tell me or I get what I learned at that seminar and how it makes so much more sense than this other thing or these things that I was doing those are great, I love those epiphanies. Those light bulb moments are fantastic, I’ve had a few of them. But inevitably those light bulbs may make you look back on what you have done and feel like you've wasted your time like you not been as productive as you could, like you could be so much further. Well guess what? You were able to have that epiphany because of that prior training. Without that prior training, without all of the context, you would not have had that lightbulb moment. There are plenty of examples, in life and anybody has kids knows this, where you can teach someone something but quite often they have to experience it for themselves. They have to have the contrast of the wrong way in the right way or when we're talking about martial arts, the one way versus the way that is better for you and what you value and what is important. I wanna tell you about the first one that I had. And this came from a long-time training in various karate styles I had started in tae kwon do yet, but the bottom line I was punching and I was keeping my shoulders so square that was impossible for me to properly strike down the centerline you know, at the at the sternum, the solar plexus and then one day somebody pointed out to me; hey, if you let your shoulders come forward a little bit you don't have to bring your hand in quite so far from your shoulder. The specifics of it don't matter so much, some of you might be scratching your head, others might be saying well, obviously you would do that and others may be completely disagreeing. Doesn't matter that's not the point. The point is, I found something that made much more sense to me and it up and did my world, my martial arts world was completely thrown off to say wait a second you've been doing this stuff for years, for well over 10 years, it’s time to change it. So, I have to go back, I have to look at all of my forms and my basics and the way I spar and make adjustments and that takes time, takes a lot of time. What happens when you come to a realization where, something as fundamental as a punch or your basic fighting stance or even the way you block has to change. I say it has to change not because what you were doing was wrong again, but because you've now discovered something that resonates better for you. Now to me, this is one of the beautiful things about the martial arts. That constant growth leads to not just more, because there's only so many ways that we can move our bodies and why so many of them make sense through the lens of combat, I’ve said that on the show. There's not some unending number of punches and kicks that we can learn which means at some point we have to reflect back on our previous material and these light bulb moments are some of the best, they’re some of the best teachers to go back and have the humility to say what I’ve been doing could be better and to spend that time almost as a new white belt in your own body. Reminding yourself how things should be done based on your current understanding, your newer understanding. To put in that time and to realize I here's a better way of doing this. I've gone through that as I mentioned with the punch, I’m dealing with some of it now with my fighting. I'm also dealing with some of it now with the way that I generate power because while I’m certainly not old, I’m 38, I don't generate power in the way that I did when I was 16. There's a finite supply now, seems like before there wasn't. But I know that I’m stronger and I know that I am able to better generate power because a much more efficient and in each of these aha lightbulb moments, they've allowed me to become a better martial artist because now, the lens the glasses that I’m looking at the world from are that much clear. If you’ve ever worn glasses, regular glasses, prescription or sunglasses and they were dirty but you didn't know that they were dirty and then you clean them and you look out and you say, oh I didn't even realize that I was looking through such grime. That's kinda what this is, you look upon the world and you say hey I’m able to see things better now. Often times, these aha moments don't require exclusively physical training, sometimes it's mental training, sometimes it's sitting down and considering, contemplating everything that you do and have been doing and trying to understand how it all pieces together especially if you've trained in multiple martial arts where maybe a good chunk of it is similar or the same, but yet you have some parts that aren’t only not the same, they contradict, they conflict with each other, that can be tough. This mental component is massive and honestly this show, has become my outlet for dealing with a lot of this mental stuff. I have a list of topics that I may approach at some point and quite often I choose them but looking down through and saying what am I ready to talk about? Sometimes those topics it's four months or well over a year before I’m ready to share my thoughts. Honestly, this is 243. 243 was about to be a different episode until the last minute when I said I’m not ready this episode needs to be something different the lightbulb moment has happened but I haven't fully integrated it into who I am in my martial arts training.So, what you do when you have one of these? First thing is to let yourself off the hook, you didn't do anything wrong. There was no should have, would've, could've stuff that matters, forget about it, is pointless. You are where you are because of where you've been and if you've had that epiphany, it was an accident it was by design. The training that you've put in, it mattered don't discount it. Next, take some time to reflect. What does this new understanding mean to the way you train and how you train, why you train? Maybe even where your training and when. Maybe there are people in your own training school or your network of friends that you can reach out to and say; hey I’m having some trouble digesting this or can I bounce some of this stuff off you. If you don't, there are plenty of great Facebook groups, you're welcome to come into the whistlekick martial arts radio behind-the-scenes group, we have some incredibly passionate martial artist in there, feel free to post, vent, talk, if you're not comfortable with that go ahead and email me jeremy@whistlekick.com I’ll write you back, I’ll listen. I'm happy to hear about the growth that our listeners have and the knowledge that I sometimes have an impact on that, there are days I can handle that, it's incredibly... It's an honor, I love it. And then I think the last piece, once you've reflected, once you've given yourself permission to be where you're at, it's a start integrating it. What has to change? What has changed in what you do and how you do it to become the martial artist that you now see within your sights. Wherever you're at you can always see the next step sometimes it's difficult step, sometimes just take some time, whatever it is you now have a better vision of who you are becoming as a martial artist and it's going to take the hours to slog through, to unlearn, to revise, to become that martial artist that you now want to become and really that's fine it's a process. It's not the belt, it's not the trophy, it's about becoming the better person through becoming the better martial artist. And that's why I love these moments, once in a while something will share them with me, quite often some of you know I am fortunate enough to train with Bill Wallace at times and attend seminars and work with people that attend his seminars on his system, on the Superfoot system and we've got a number of folks that have been and will be on the show that are tied in to that organization. Wonderful group of people, but it's a great time for me to see those aha moments come on. And this past weekend I attended a couple seminars, worked with a few wonderful people and in one of those people I saw a number of light bulbs come on, it was so much fun. Especially because this person did it in what I would call the right way, they weren’t hard on themselves, they didn't say; I stink, oh I should've known better, I can’t believe it I’ve been doing it wrong all this time. They just said, oh here's another way of doing it and one that works better for me, I’m gonna work on that and they smiled. And that made it more fun for me as someone who was working with them, sort of instructing them and it certainly made it more fun for them and for the people around them. I don't know that we can look for those lightbulb moments those epiphanies but I know that the more you train and the more you train differently and with different people and you train with a good heart and for the right reasons, whatever those are you, the more likely they're going to show up.Have you had any martial arts epiphanies? I hope you have and if you haven't keep plugging because you will and I want to hear about them. The place I would love to hear about them is on the show notes for this episode, episode 243 whistlekickmartialartsradio.com. If you're not comfortable sharing them there, go ahead and email them to me or post on social media and tag me, tag us. Let's get more of a conversation about this stuff going, because martial arts is so much more than punching and kicking. That's all for today until next time, train hard, smile and have a great day.