Sportsmanship

Last night a few of the students and I went to some MMA fights. All in all the fights were pretty good. There is definitely some talent out there and some of these guys, in a few years, could easily make the big time. I did have one huge disappointment. One of the local schools had a large contingent in the audience to support their fighters. I commend them on their team spirit. Unfortunately, it seems that when a judgment or call from the referee wasn’t to their liking, they had no inhibitions about “booing” very loudly and at times distractingly.
MMA is still in its infancy, and although the sport is becoming more and more mainstream, it still has leaps and bounds to go. As an example, where boxing events sell out; the arena where last nights fights took place was not even half full.
Folks, we need to be better than this. Team spirit is certainly a large part of any sporting event, but it must not overtake sportsmanship. Unless a contender is winning by such a margin there is no doubt left in the judge’s minds, he or she has not completely achieved their goal and therefore needs to accept whatever ruling is made. Discipline, respect, and humility are some of the cornerstones of what most schools try to instill in their students. However, the lack of restraint, the lack of value, and the arrogance portrayed leave many to believe that martial arts is about pride, and ego. As athletes, competitors, and most of all, as martial artists, we need to be, and certainly can be better than that.

Static Stretching

Static Stretching also known as stretch and hold is a great training method to increase overall flexibility and is probably the most used form of flexible exercise. However, there are a few things to be aware of. The first is that although static stretching will increase flexibility, that new found range of motion must be put to use, or it will be lost. The second thing to keep in mind is that immediately following a round of static stretching the muscles are weaker than normal. So if you are going into a competition or another event where you need full speed or strength, you are better off doing some dynamic flexibility exercises.

Practice, practice, practice

I just read a very interesting article. The main purpose of the article was to compare learned response versus innate response. To sum up the conclusion; to become an expert (in anything) it takes time.
The time is used to practice and to learn specific cues made by opponents, and to adapt to specific tasks through repetition. Researchers Simon and Chase developed the ten year rule in 1973. The ten year rule stipulates that a 10-year commitment to high levels of training is the minimum requirement to reach the expert level. This has been documented in a number of areas including music, math and of course athletics. Another researcher, Erikson, conducted a study on skill acquisition in 1996. He concluded that “with few exceptions, level of performance was determined by the amount of time spent performing a ‘well defined task with an appropriate difficulty level for the particular individual, informative feedback, and opportunities for repetition and corrections of errors”.
In another study done by Weiss and Chaumeton in 1992, it was suggested that mastery of a craft was more motivational than the actual outcome of an event and those who focused on learning practiced more than those who focused on wining. Learning is more motivational than winning.