Forums IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ Genius Code How Get My "Ego (Conscious mind?)" Out Of The Way For Martial Arts Practice?

Will IS help with this? Anything else?

As my instructor is constantly telling me....I have too much "ego" (not arrogance, he means it in another way). It is always ME trying to control the action instead of just allowing IT to do its thing. I'd assume this "it" my instructor is referring to is the subconscious going on auto-pilot without my direct (conscious) intervention in it.

It seems to me the instructor is saying you are too much in the head looking for the right formula without puting any into practice until you got the right one. To say it's the ego getting in the way is a nice way of saying you are procastinating. You think unless you got it right in the head you cannot act. You may go through the motions but in reality you're pulling back.

With martial arts it has to become instinct. So a formula as such becomes quickly redundant. You need to let go of wanting to have it as perfect as the master in your next attempt and and just seek to improve on what you had done before. How can you get better if you don't know how to do it badly?

Yes visualisation will help. How about trying it consistently for a couple of weeks? Watch out for the monkey mind that keeps picking up and dropping each shiny gem it finds without ever settling to put one to work. Or put another way, stick the key into the lock and try it before you collect more keys.

Alex

Hi Alex,

there was a time when I was diligently going to class and the going home to practice....daily. But I wasn't getting any better than before. Every time I would go to class it was very dejecting...it was always "nope...that's not right". My instructor is very black-or-white. Either it's 100% correct or it isn't.

So after a while of training a lot and then going to his house to train to learn more only to find out everything I had been doing, and all that time I had spent training at home...was all wrong.

At this time is when he would say I have too much ego.

Over the last year I have been looking weithin....asking myself why I am not progressing the way I want. I have dropped my training big-time...instead I am reflecting and trying to get my mind right....because, from before, I learned that spending hours training at home simply wasn't getting me anywhere.

As far as what you mentioned on procrastrinating...I don't think that's the case, nor what he means when he says "ego". It's more along the lines of trying to have "me in control"...thinking too much, etc.....something along those lines.

I should add that my martial art is not anything to do with blocks, kicks, katas, etc...it is actually quite simplistic based on physics...simply it is this.....

Take your fist or elbow and......

Go straight to target, go with power (using acceleration), go smoothly (no load up, no telegraphing, etc..) as if wielding a samuari sword......through the target.

That's it. Now why it has taken me years and I still can't do this is beyond me.

For instance, why won't my fist simply go out "through space" as my instructor says? Why are there all these glitches? Why do I try to "punch" instead of just letting the hand go "out into space"?

Extremely frustrating stuff.

quote:

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Originally posted by Anthony001:
Hi Alex,

At this time is when he would say I have too much ego.

I don't think that's the case, nor what he means when he says "ego". It's more along the lines of trying to have "me in control"...thinking too much, etc.....something along those lines.

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Mate you're procastinating in doing it right because you don't think you got it right in the head. I'm not saying you're procastinating in learning but you're delaying the right action because you're too busy looking in the mind to do it right. Instead you have to become aware of your body as it does the action. That means getting out of the mind and flowing with what looks like instinct. Instinct that is trained by the body not the mind.

You've created a paradox you're doing what the master wants you to crease doing " I want. I have dropped my training big-time...instead I am reflecting and trying to get my mind right....because, from before,..."

Stop analysing while you're doing it. If you are analysing the experience while you are doing it you're not in the experience. Do first and learn after the action not during.
You made so many post and so much want to get it right it's it isn't funny.
Get the PhotoReading book and have a look at the diagram on page 125. It is relevant to all learning. One thing not mentioned in the book but relevant finding is that the adult learner gives up too soon. One needs to make 50 attemps at something before one can accurately decide that something does not work.

Alex

For what it's worth, I am a sandan in Kenpo and a sensei. The only way to really get the arts working for you is repitition. One move, one million repititions, as Professor Cerio used to say.

I know when my own instructor works with myself or the other black belts and senseis, he yells at us a lot to not critique ourselves while doing kata - that's his job and we cannot see our own mistakes in any case.

My advice - when you go into the dojo, do what the instructor says over and over again. He/she will make corrections as necessary to your technique. Try to incorporate them, but don't get caught up in trying to overanalyze. You have to build the muscle memory and then work with that.

Ok, excellent advice. Thank you both.

hehe the gap between voluntary and not
do we decide to decide to throw a punch?

the plot thickens.....
the greatest martial artists loose style after time and do what needs to be done

use what is useful and throw the rest away
as Bruce Lee would say

i say be wise enough to know the difference
i myself is very interested in mostly wing chun and jeet kune do aswell as good old aikido

good luck

If you haven't done this already do a borrowed genius with your sensai being the genius in this case.