Episode 991 - Where is Your Time Best Spent
In this episode, Andrew is joined by friend of the show Liz Campese. They sit down and discuss what aspects of your martial arts you should be spending your time on.
Where is Your Time Best Spent - Episode 991
SUMMARY
In this episode of Whistlekick Martial Arts Radio, Andrew is joined by friend of the show Liz Campese and they discuss the critical question of where martial artists should focus their training time. They explore personal experiences, the balance between enjoyment and skill development, and the importance of confidence in training. The conversation emphasizes that the answer to where time is best spent depends on individual goals and circumstances, whether as a student or an instructor.
TAKEAWAYS
The importance of focusing training on areas of struggle.
Personal experiences shape teaching methods in martial arts.
Enjoyment in training can influence skill development.
Confidence plays a crucial role in martial arts training.
Different aspects of martial arts require varying levels of focus.
Instructors should consider working on their weaknesses for better teaching.
Training should align with personal goals and motivations.
Sparring and forms can evoke different emotional responses.
Practice is essential for building confidence in martial arts.
The journey of martial arts is about continuous learning and growth.
CHAPTERS
00:00 Introduction
05:37 Exploring Personal Training Experiences
11:53 Balancing Enjoyment and Skill Development
19:32 The Importance of Confidence in Training
25:22 Concluding Thoughts on Training Focus
After listening to the episode, it would be exciting for us to know your thoughts about it. Don’t forget to drop them in the comment section down below!
SHOW TRANSCRIPT
Andrew (02:27.79)
Welcome, you're listening to the next episode of Whistlekick Martial Arts Radio, and today my friend Liz and I are going to discuss where is your time best spent. Liz, how are you today? I'm doing very well. I'm excited to have this conversation with you, but before we get there, I want to make sure, just in case we have a brand new listener, where today is your first episode of Whistlekick Martial Arts Radio, which if that's the case, welcome. Thanks for joining us.
Liz Campese (03:04.216)
I'm excellent, how are you?
Andrew (03:19.886)
We here at Whistlekick obviously produced this podcast with nearly 1,000 episodes, which are brought to you, the listener, completely for free. That's right. It does not cost you one single solitary penny. I mean, you could make the argument it costs you your time. And time is money. All right, I'm not getting there. We're not going there. But we bring you this show for free. And you can find out all of the things about this episode and other episodes at
www.whistlekickmarshallarchradio.com and there you can find a page for every single episode we've done. You can find show notes, can find photos, can find transcripts, you can find contact information for our guests. All of that stuff is available there for you. But the podcast is one small part of what Whistlekick does. If you go to whistlekick.com, you can find out all of the activities that Whistlekick is involved with, all of the things that we do, whether it's
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Andrew (05:37.814)
Liz, we are here to discuss a topic that you brought to me, actually.
Liz Campese (05:42.766)
Yes. Yup, I did.
Andrew (05:47.63)
And that is, where is your time best spent? So where did you not come up with this episode, but like when you were thinking of this topic and you brought it to me, what were you thinking?
Liz Campese (06:02.19)
So it actually kind of stems from when I put seminars together. So when I am drawing inspiration on what I want to teach, I tend to draw on things that I've struggled with in the past and then try to input some different pathways or paths I went down to teach in different styles.
to kind of help those who probably also struggled with those same things.
Andrew (06:37.164)
Yep. And you have experience in a few different styles, right? Which makes it, I don't want to say more difficult, but like it gives a lot more aspects of different avenues for you to go down.
Liz Campese (06:41.197)
do.
Liz Campese (06:50.016)
It does. It does. Yeah. So my original art, I would say, would be Taekwondo. But I have sort of dabbled in a couple of different things. And then at the end of the day, I really like trying to hone in on body mechanics. I'm sure you all have heard the statement, Jeremy has made. The body can only move in so many different ways, right?
to go one step further, there's only so many ways it really should go. so I try to do it from like almost like little kids building foundations, like when you teach a child language, you know, you start, there's a step one. And I also have experienced a lot of injuries, not necessarily martial art related always. And so,
Andrew (07:22.39)
you
Liz Campese (07:45.548)
I had to kind of take a step back and look at my training and say, okay, I know that this is a struggle. Here is where I am doing really well. Where does it make sense to put my most, you know, the time that I have? so yeah, figured it would be a good topic to dive into.
Andrew (08:05.846)
Yeah, yeah. you know, it got me thinking, you know, there are lots of aspects of, and pick your art, whatever art it is, whether it's taekwondo, karate, kung fu, I can't, one of the, you know, tons of martial arts out there. Within your school, there are lots of things that you likely train in. So I'm going to use myself as an example. In the schools that I've worked with and train in, I've got, obviously I've got forms.
I've got one or two step sparring. I've got weapons work. I've got regular sparring. I've got applications. have self-defense stuff. Like there's a ton of different things that we do in the school. And so your question of what of those things, what should we really be focusing on? The things that we're the least good at or the things that we're okay at or the things that we're great at.
Right. And so in your training and your thinking, what is your philosophy in that?
Liz Campese (09:15.002)
So I definitely put forth the question, but I tend to have a blended answer. I don't sit on one side of the fence or the other. I think that...
Liz Campese (09:28.61)
my injuries or the times when I had to pause being able to do specific things happened at different ranks. Okay. And I think that when I was a younger, a younger rank, I felt it necessary to be able to really focus on the things that I wasn't good at. An example, I have blown my knee multiple times.
You know, so, you relearning and rediving into are you just never going to be able to do a spinning kick? Or is that something you're you're going to invest the extra time outside of class to rehab and to focus and build? think as I got older into adulthood and also into into martial arts in rank, I also.
felt more like I maybe couldn't go back. And so I felt torn. When you walk into class and you're in a black belt class, right, there is a different pace and expertise level that you need to show up as sometimes. And when you're struggling in one area, you can kind of feel like as good or as not as it is at this moment, you're going full bore with it, right? And...
Andrew (10:41.667)
Mm-hmm.
Liz Campese (10:54.21)
So trying to balance that, I also got a chance to, through Whistlekick and through the different things that Whistlekick offers, the different events, go and learn things that I have never been experienced or never had in my schools. And that opened up a whole new world to allowing myself to dive into things that I wasn't good at, but in a different frame of mind or a different way. I come from...
Taekwondo style. So flow was not really something like compared to Kung Fu or Tai Chi. Flow wasn't something we, I really got to experience when I was, and so when I talk about, you know, trying to rebuild my knees and that confidence and the structure, right, I got to dive into more of what the flow looks like rather than just like, you go from zero to 60 and hit a target?
Andrew (11:50.51)
Hmm.
Liz Campese (11:53.794)
So that is kind of been, you know, short term my journey of what it looks like going through the different aspects.
Andrew (11:58.254)
You
Andrew (12:04.59)
And I get that. And that makes a lot of sense given where you were in your training at the time. think another aspect to think about, which I talked about in last week's episode with Nick and Mark about where you're at with your body. Like you said, your knee was hurt. You're going to...
That's going to alter what you work on. That doesn't mean those other things aren't important. But, you know, I, you know, I mentioned in last week's episode, like I'm going to have to have surgery on my foot. in the, don't, you know, I will go in at the end of the week and find out when that surgery is going to be, but that's absolutely going to change how I train and what I'm focusing on because of where I'm at in my personal, you know, body and what I can and can't physically do. It doesn't mean those things aren't as important.
But, so I totally get what you're saying. It makes a lot of sense. Let's talk a little bit about, there are, I suspect everybody can relate to this. Like I mentioned in our school, I've got these five, six, seven different aspects of the things that we do in our school that are required for testing and rank progression and things like that. If you were to take all of those things.
and rank them, one of them is gonna be the thing you're the least excited about, right? And I've mentioned on the show multiple times, for me, it's sparring. I just don't enjoy sparring. I recognize that it's valuable. I recognize that it is an important skill to learn, but it's just not the thing that excites me about training. Can you talk a little bit about yours? Like, where do you land?
Liz Campese (13:35.96)
Bye.
Andrew (14:01.589)
with all of those different aspects.
Liz Campese (14:01.934)
I love sparring. I, one of the struggles that I had growing up was the the overthink and stall. Okay. And so I never really got to experience that in sparring because it's it's semi adrenaline, you're just going you're flowing. but where I really struggled with was forms. And so my forms looked beautiful.
when I could get the whole form to come out together. There was a lot of renditions of remixes in those and...
So I think the other part too is when you're struggling in an aspect, sometimes you have to ask yourself why, right? Why do I love sparring? Because it's fun for me. I am one of those crazy people who absolutely love sparring. One of my favorite things is sparring with multiple people, like one verse three. And that's not a lot of people's favorite thing.
Andrew (14:54.83)
Thank
Liz Campese (15:13.966)
is because it's like a quick chess game to me, right? Whereas forms, I feel like there needs to be a certain level of quiet and calm and sort of rhythmic movement to what you're doing. And I really struggled with sort of test anxiety growing up. And so when I would do forms at a testing environment, right,
Andrew (15:17.462)
Mm-hmm.
Liz Campese (15:40.426)
all of that would come up and I'm like, I don't remember. I could have just shown you the form 30 seconds ago and you're like, okay, now's the test, ready, go. And I'm like, I got two moves, that's it. And so it took me a while to understand that actually through Craig, who's been on numerous episodes, that one of the easiest ways to kind of get through some of the mental blocks or mental struggles is are you having fun?
So one of the tricks that I did growing up was I would use the same song. So my memory with music is very awesome. There was this show growing up called like The Singing Bee and it was like karaoke, but they'd stop and you'd have to sing the rest of the words and that I can do. And so I would use the same song for this, for, know, Toki, I would use the same song for Chung-G, not so much Chung-G, because that was first one.
Andrew (16:08.27)
Mm-hmm.
Liz Campese (16:37.234)
And so in my head when it was go time, I would just play that song, right? And it was fun for me and it changed the stressor from, my gosh, can you remember to, let me play this song in my head. But still to this day, I would still rank Sparring Ahead of Forms just because it was my original joy, right? And...
Maybe as I get older it would change, but now in my brain I couldn't imagine forms surpassing sparring, but I'm also fairly young still.
Andrew (17:13.144)
Well, and I'm not suggesting that it should. Just every single person listening to this episode or watching, if you're watching on YouTube, then you can see my cool dragon honey custom. But I'm not suggesting that what is your favorite thing should change, but every single aspect of the things you work on, one of them is going to be the least. You might love everything that you do in your school.
Liz Campese (17:24.952)
I didn't wear one today, I should have.
Andrew (17:42.434)
But one of, mean, statistic, just the way it is, one of those things is going to be something that you're not as excited about. I think for me, all of the aspects, think if your school, and I'm talking to people that are not running their own school right now, if you're just a student in school, all of those things are important because your instructor has said they are, right? If your school doesn't do XYZ,
That's between the instructor and the curriculum and whatever. But if the instructor has said, these are the things that we work on in the school, then those things are important in the instructor's mind and you should learn those things. We're not going to get into whether those things are valid or not because everyone can train in the way that they choose. But the next question is the things that you are least comfortable, not comfortable, the things you don't enjoy the most.
Should you work on those things more? So for me, I don't enjoy sparring as much. It's my least favorite thing. In fact, I would almost go so far as to say I don't really enjoy it at all. And for you, it's forms. So should I work on my sparring more than I do my forms, which I love? It's interesting, we are diametrically opposed on this, right?
Liz Campese (19:06.743)
Yeah.
Andrew (19:07.87)
Or should you work on your forms more and you're sparring less because the forms are the thing that you recognize you're least comfortable and I don't want to say you said you're the least good at them, but the thing that you enjoy the least. So what are your thoughts there? Should you work on your forms more than you're sparring?
Liz Campese (19:32.139)
I like I have, right? So because I know that they tend to be, I would say my least favorite, I feel like I have put a lot more work into them.
Andrew (19:44.13)
Mm-hmm.
Liz Campese (19:52.566)
I like.
Liz Campese (19:57.784)
To almost better answer that question, I have to go with something that's not on the opposite ends of the polar spectrum, right? So.
Andrew (20:03.79)
Okay, sure.
Liz Campese (20:08.75)
So let's take weapons, for instance. I've always loved doing weapons. I am not very good at them. I did not have a lot of environments where I got to grow up and practice in them. And so when I get the opportunity, yes, I feel like because I'm not very confident in them, it's not something that I think about and go, my gosh, I need to practice more in that.
Whereas self-defense, I feel less confident than sparring, but I definitely practice it way more. And I definitely have invested, I think, a lot more practice time in it. And that's one of those moments for me where weapons tends to be a lot more joyous, but I definitely don't invest the time than self-defense.
Andrew (20:46.935)
Mm-hmm.
Liz Campese (21:07.062)
So.
I feel like...
Liz Campese (21:15.222)
I put the time in to what I feel less confident in, not necessarily what I have more joy or least joy in, if that makes sense. So it turns, yeah, it's a little bit, before we had this conversation, I would have told you that I practice more in what I have least joy in, but that's not true. We've talked it out. I think it comes from least confidence, you know, like I,
Andrew (21:24.942)
Yeah.
Andrew (21:36.88)
You
Liz Campese (21:44.354)
We've sort of equated in our society that practice is, know, we'll say practice makes perfect, even though that's not necessarily what I believe. But I think practice gives you, you know, more confidence in something. And I've sort of learned that throughout my martial art journey. And so I naturally gravitate towards least confident in certain more practice and it will come.
Andrew (22:09.71)
For me, I think the answer is it depends. It depends on what your, and we've talked about this on the show a lot, what your why is. If you are a school owner, and a second ago I talked about if you're just a student, if you're a school owner and you recognize that all these aspects are important, you probably, if you don't work on the thing you don't, like take me for example. If I
Liz Campese (22:14.99)
Mm.
Liz Campese (22:21.486)
Mmm.
Andrew (22:39.266)
don't work at my sparring to get my sparring better than all of my, which I recognize is important, then all of my students are not going to enjoy or get much out of and get better at sparring. If you teach, if you don't enjoy forms at all and they're the thing you dislike the most or you like the least, I don't want to say you dislike them, but if you don't work on your forms,
that will be, if you're teaching students, that will be handed down to them. And so I think as an instructor, I tend to think you should probably consider working on those things a little bit more so that you get better at them so that your students can also progress at that. As a student, I think it depends on what you're looking to get out of the art. If obviously,
Liz Campese (23:34.766)
Mm.
Andrew (23:38.262)
Instructor said these things are important then work on those things enough so that you can progress and if rank is what you're striving for then you have to be good enough to at least progress in rank. So for me, if I was a student, if my instructor was like, you can't test yet because you're not good enough at sparring, well then I'm going to work harder at sparring because I'm going to want to take the next rank. But if I'm good enough at sparring and I have the option to work on things,
Well, I am going to work on the things that I enjoy more because I'm good quote enough at the aspect that I don't like. And so I'm going to work on the things that I like. But again, it depends on what your why is, you know, on why you're training and what you're going for. Does that make sense?
Liz Campese (24:26.254)
Absolutely. I would say that I have a recently transition. I'm always a student, right? But I recently have made that transition into, okay, well now I spend a good amount of time an instructor role now. And because of that, you know, through the journey of growing up and doing that transition, that is true. You know, for me, I got to a point where I was like, here are the things that I'm least confident in and I'm going to teach from a place of where I'm confident.
Andrew (24:39.15)
Mm-hmm.
Liz Campese (24:55.15)
And so I need to elevate those next pieces so that I feel like I am able to teach because you're right, my students deserve all of the options to be able to make their choice and be able to really build a good foundation of why. And if I've skewed the picture a little bit, it's hard for them to be able to develop that.
Andrew (25:07.982)
See?
Andrew (25:22.134)
Yeah, exactly. So I think the question we posed at the beginning of the episode was, where is your time best spent? The answer is it depends, I think. What you're looking to get out of it and what your goal is. And I think a student versus an instructor, I think those goals will clearly be different, right? Not that an instructor can't be a student. I mean, obviously, you're...
you can constantly be learning. But I think it's important to keep that sort of aspect in mind when you're thinking about this question is, you know, what are you looking to get out of it? anything else?
Liz Campese (26:05.312)
I so. think what I love about talking with you in general, whether it's through this or is I always end the conversation a little bit deeper in a topic than what I started, what I originally thought. And that's my favorite aspect of all of these conversations and topics. And so thank you. I appreciate being on and having this conversation with you.
Andrew (26:28.984)
So we'll have to have you on again, because if the listeners didn't know, this is your first time.
Liz Campese (26:34.446)
It is my first time, yep.
Andrew (26:37.646)
You have been mentioned in the past because you and Jeremy have known each other for long time. We've known each other for a while. So you've been mentioned on the show, but it's great to have you actually here and we'll have to have you back.
Liz Campese (26:49.336)
Absolutely.
Andrew (26:51.042)
So is there an aspect for the listeners and people watching, is there an aspect that we didn't talk about? If so, please let me know. You can contact me, andrewatwhistlekick.com. If you have any thoughts or questions for Liz, you can send them to me. I'm certainly happy to pass them along to her. And one of the things I didn't mention at the beginning, this show is available on YouTube. So you can always go and listen there or watch there. And if you do, please, please, please, please, please.
Hit the like button on this episode. Subscribe, get notifications. All of those things help. If you are a strong listener to the show, you listen to all these episodes on your podcast player, that's awesome. But go to YouTube, like and subscribe to our page because to our channel, because it does make a difference. We certainly appreciate it. As just a reminder, whistlekick.com is where you can go to find out.
everything about what we do here at Whistlekick. Whistlekick martial arts radio is where you can go for the podcast itself. And until next time, train hard and have a great day.
Liz Campese (28:00.408)
Smile.