Find Your "Authentic Swing"

Steven Pressfield, the author of many great books, has written another terrific article at his blog. He describes a famous golfer who has an ... unusual swing that works for him, and goes on to talk about finding your "authentic swing" in your own life. 

An excerpt is below. The full post may be read here.

The concept of the Authentic Swing is that each of us is endowed from birth with our own gift, our own style, our own unique talent and point of view. Our job is to find it and bring it forth.

“I believe that each of us possesses,” Bagger Vance began, “one true Authentic Swing that is ours alone. It is folly to try to teach us another, or to mold us to some ideal version of the perfect swing. Each player possesses only that one swing that he was born with, the swing that existed within him before he ever picked up a club. Like the statue of David, our Authentic Swing already exists, concealed within the stone … “

Please, take the Foolscap Method (or anything else I propose) with a major grain of salt. Tweak it. Modify it. Chuck it completely if you don’t like it.

Do what works for you.

If you’ll forgive me for quoting myself twice in a single blog post, here are the last few paragraphs from The Authentic Swing. I swear I did not fudge them to comport with Jim Furyk’s incredible round.

Are you a writer or an artist or an entrepreneur? Don’t copy me. Don’t do it my way. Work at four in the morning if that feels right. Work in the shower, work on the subway, work at the wheel of a moving taxi cab. Start at the end, play backward, write your stuff in Urdu and translate it later.

Do it your way.

Don’t swing Rory’s swing, or Bubba’s, or, for heaven’s sake, Jim Furyk’s. Listen to Bagger.

Swing your Authentic Swing.

A Home Dojo

I tend to practice on my own in my basement. It's out of the way. I have space. The berber carpet with padding under it is easy on my joints. I don't disturb the rest of the house and no one disturbs me.

Other people practice in their back yard, on a deck or maybe under a car port off the the garage. Perhaps there is a park nearby. I read an entry on a forum once where the writer said that he had a high school behind his house and he'd practice laps of the Five Elements (I'm not sure I believe that, but it's an interesting idea).

Some people are more ambitious. Maybe convert the garage to a gym/dojo, tack on an addition or erect a pole barn.

... and then there is this guy. I am an amoeba. I simply can't do what he has put together for himself and his students justice. Just follow the link. Enjoy.

The 57 Strategies

We've discussed The 36 Strategies and The 48 Laws of Power, but are you familiar with The 57 Strategies?

My friend over at the Dao of Strategy recently had an article about the 57 Strategies of the legendary coach, Red Auerbach. Below is an excerpt. The full post may be read here. Enjoy.

Many years ago, an associate who is a Boston Celtics basketball fanatic, gave us  this interesting book from the great Arnold "Red" Auerbach.  It is titled "Basketball for the Player, the Fan and the Coach." 


On page 189,  the book lists  "57 Strategic Moves," which Auerbach prefaces with this disclaimer: "How many of these you consider ethical or unethical depends entirely on your organization. I am merely listing them as things that can happen." Among the possible moves are:

• When a player notices an official's indecision as to an out-of-bounds ball, he should run over and pick it up with the full confidence that it is his.
• If the opposing team has a high scorer, keep reminding the other players of their uselessness because the scorer takes all the shots.
• Grabbing or pulling the pants or shirt of the opponent can be very aggravating.
• When the other team is given possession of the ball from an official's decision, don't throw the ball directly to an opponent. The ball should be thrown rather slowly to the official. This will give your men time to get set on defense.
• Place the scorer's and timer's table near your bench.
• Wait until the other team has started warming up and then request their basket. This request must be honored away from home.
• Faking injuries is used for many reasons . . . 
• Some players may agitate their opponents by incessant chatter, refusing to talk to them at all, or even ridicule

From our experience, gaining the subtle advantage of creating strategic momentum is the essence of these tactics.. Maintaining the strategic momentum throughout the game is the tangible key to a imtegral victory.

Scripting this category of plays in your gameplan is easy. Preparing the principals to implement it, is the challenge.

Martial Arts Training Apparatus

Specifically the famous wooden dummy of Wing Chun Kung Fu.

Over at Kung Fu Tea, there is yet another great article. This one has to do with the history and development of the Wing Chun wooden man as we know him today.

As someone who practices on their own an awful lot, my eyes and ears are always open for aids that can help my own training. The wooden dummy is used in many Southern Chinese Martial Arts. 

An excerpt is below. The full article may be read here. Please pay a visit. Enjoy.






I have been shopping for a new wooden dummy (Mook Yan Jong).  Obviously Wing Chun has a long and fruitful association with the wooden dummy, but this training tool is used throughout the southern Chinese martial arts.  Southern Mantis and Hung Gar boxers occasionally use the dummy, as do Choy Li Fut practitioners.  In fact, Choy Li Fut employs a great variety of somewhat more mechanical complex training tools.

...

While Ip Man probably owned a dummy in Foshan, our story does not really begin to get interesting until we reach the 1950s.  In 1949 Ip Man and a daughter fled to Macau and then Hong Kong in anticipation of the Communist conquest of Guangdong.  After a number of years of KMT sponsored anti-Communist campaigns it was probably no longer safe for him given his prior employment as the leader of a local police unit.  After spending a few months in Hong Kong Ip Man decided to take up the title of Sifu and become a professional martial arts teacher.

Of course there were a number of complications.  To begin with, he did not have a dummy.  More to the point he had yet to establish a local reputation, a pool of stable students or a location for a permanent school.  Ip Man would spend the first few years of his teaching career addressing each of these problems.

---

There are any number of ways to mount a dummy, but Fung’s idea was both simple and innovative.  Rather than supporting the dummy at its base (the traditional method) he instead hung the jong on wooden slats that passed directly through the body.  The thin slats acted as springs.  By moving the supporting structure up the body, where most of the form was actually performed, the feel of the dummy was substantially changed.

Most Dai Jongs had a limited rocking motion, if they moved at all.  The new Gua Jong (Live Dummy) was different. It all had to do with the placement and strength of the slats.  When a student engaged the arms or leg of the dummy they were in effect loading a spring which would throw the dummy back forward in a more lifelike way the moment the pressure was released.

In effect a Gua Jong offers a degree of feedback on your movements that you simply could not get from a buried dummy.  Given that this instrument is often used as a sort of “silent training partner” every ounce of feedback you can squeeze out of it is valuable.  For instance, in Wing Chun students want to punch towards the opponent’s “center line.”  If you do that with a dummy, from practically any forward facing angle, you will force the body back onto the slats and then the recoil will return the dummy to its initial position.  But if your lines of attack are off and you are punching across the front of the dummy, or simply pushing at its arm, its body will slide along the rails, retreating from your incomplete strike.  Again, this is critical because it provides instant feedback to the students on the sorts of subtle pressures that must be “felt” to be understood.

Together Ip Man and Fung Shek fine-tuned the new creation.  The basic idea was sound but it took a bit of experimentation to work out exactly what sort of slats and mounting system yielded the best results.  The final product was a truly custom, and innovative, dummy for the young Hong Kong Wing Chun clan.

Fung Shek delivered his prototype to Ip Man in 1956.  While Ip Man worked with a number of different dummies over the years (as he moved from one school to the next) he always kept the Fung Shek creation with him.  It was his preferred dummy to set up in a school, and eventually in his own home.  In fact, this is the same dummy that used in the now famous series of photographs taken by Tang Sang in 1967.  It was always his personal jong.  It can now been seen on display in the Ip Man Tong in Foshan.

Yet by the middle of the 1950s things were looking up.  Ip was building a larger group of more advanced students and it was now time to consider installing a dummy so that their training could progress.  In fact he was already showing some his students sections of the dummy form which they were practicing like any other set.  In Wing Chun parlance this is called “using the air dummy.”  

While good for a quick review, it is no substitute for the geometric discipline of the real thing.

Life in Hong Kong was very different from Foshan.  To begin with, people tended to live in tall apartment buildings, rather than in one story dwellings with flagstone floors.  And outdoor space was extremely limited in the city, just as it is today.

Sometime in the mid-1950s Ip Man approached a carpenter and friend named Fung Shek.  He explained his basic problem and talked about what he wanted in a dummy.  He then commissioned Fung to devise some means for constructing a mounting system for a portable dummy (Ip Man moved frequently during this period) that could be used indoors.

What it Takes to Achieve Mastery in Martial Arts

"To Master a martial art, you much have a good teacher, natural ability and perseverance."

We've discussed the 10,000 Hour Rule. We've talked about Deliberate Practice. We've discussed strategies for achieving mastery. We've talked about everything more or less under our control.

I have a couple of links for you today. The first is from a TED Talk, and it's about Grit; or Perseverance.

The person who is the head of your martial arts organization isn't necessarily the best, most gifted of the art that ever walked through the dojo door, but he is the one who stuck around. Below is a short excerpt from some text that accompanied the TED Talk video that I found, followed by the video. The full accompanying text may be found here.

Grit is passion and perseverance for very long-term goals. Grit is having stamina. Grit is sticking with your future, day in, day out, not just for the week, not just for the month, but for years, and working really hard to make that future a reality. Grit is living life like it's a marathon, not a sprint.



Now unfortunately, in our pursuit of Mastery, there are things that are not under our control, like our genes. Just as your genes establishes the baseline from which all of our good health practices must be measured, it is our genes that largely determines the extent of the expertise we can acquire as a martial artist.

Below is an article I found at RealClearScience on what it takes to become an Elite Athlete. Substitute "Martial Artist" for "Athlete." The full article may be read here.

Perhaps this is one of the reasons why pursuing a calm, clear mind is my ultimate goal in my martial arts study. Physically I can get only so far, but I can always make my mind just a little more clear.

Can You Be an Elite Athlete?

Posted by Ross Pomeroy at Fri, 30 Aug 2013 13:31:12

As summer wanes, fall is in the air, and elite athletes are out in force.

In Flushing Meadows, New York, hundreds of the best tennis players in the world are plying their trade, dazzling spectators with crushing serves, pinpoint shots, and split-second reflexes that would make a cat envious.

When the tournament comes to a close, the expert artistry of tennis will give way to the raw, carnal athleticism of football. The NFL's regular season gets underway on Sunday, September 8th. There's simply nothing like watching massive, muscled men, some who can jump over you, batter each other with the force of minor car crashes.

Both sporting spectacles will leave many of us awed, and also wondering, "Why can't I do that?" A brief existential crisis ("What am I doing with my life?!") may also follow suit.

Athleticism is commonly believed to rely on two factors: genetics and practice. Which is most important? Well that depends upon whom you ask. Biologists and physiologists commonly choose genetics, while psychologists may be more apt to go with practice.

It's estimated that genetics determine anywhere from 20 to 80 percent of an athlete's performance. The information inherited from your parents regulates everything from your height and weight to your abilities to maintain muscle and deliver oxygen via red blood cells.

Advent Challenge 2013

Today begins the season of Advent in the Catholic Church. It is a time of waiting and preparation for Christmas. Advent begins four Sundays prior to Chistmas and ends on Christmas Day. Advent lasts for a little over four weeks.

As a warm up for the Lenten Challenge, I would like to issue the Advent Challenge.

Beginning today and through Christmas, in spite of the business and general insanity of the season, find a way to train every day. Do what you have to; move heaven and earth, but train every day. Even if it's just a little. No excuses.

These challenges are a form of Shuugyou Renshuu, or "Austere Training." There is a very good article about Shuugyou Renshuu right here.

I plan on tracking my progress each day on Lift, where  I've created an "Advent Challenge" habit.

Won't you join me?

Iaido

When we think of Iaido, we tend to think of a martial art that is on the "fringes." Yes it has a martial history, but the goal is mostly self cultivation and has few applications (like kyudo) in our daily lives. This might be a hasty conclusion.

At Ichijogi, Chris Hellman, the author of The Samurai Mind posted a very good article on the history and background of iaido. An excerpt is below. The full article may be read here. Please pay a visit.

The art of iai seems to be one of the most understood of the Japanese martial arts. It dates from at least the 16^th century, and probably before that, and yet it falls into that uncomfortable ground of not being quite one thing or another. Is it for use in combat, or is it primarily a tool for self-discipline?

Of course, the comparatively modern discipline of iaido has as one of its stated aims the refinement of the character of the practitioner, but there is some contention about the whole discipline, based largely on the fact that the principle form of practice involves starting in a kneeling position known as seiza. Given the importance of this position in most forms of iai, it has always been something of a mystery as to how it developed.

There have been all kinds of explanations, some of them quite dubious, as to the origins of iai. For example, it has been explained as a battlefield art. It has also been claimed that there was no time that samurai would have the opportunity to draw their long swords from the waist when seated on tatami, it is essentially of no practical use.

Although iaido (and some more traditional styles as well) are quite far removed from their ostensible purpose, i.e. drawing the sword, cutting down an opponent and returning the sword to its sheath, the direction in which it has developed – as a tool for polishing the self ­– does, in fact, owe something to elements that were an important part of the practice from the start.

Along with the physical practice of wielding the sword, it has a mental component that is vital – one might even say it is the basis of iai.

The ability to influence the opponent, to control him, before coming to blows, is at its heart, as earlier practitioners were keen to point out:

The founder of the Suio ryu, Mima Yoichizaemon Kagenobu wrote in the early 1600s:

The essence of our tradition, and the attainment of an unassailable position, comes from cutting down our opponents while the sword is still in the scabbard, stifling our opponent’s actions and achieving victory through not drawing the sword.

The Legacy of the White Eyebrow Monk

Before we get to the White Eyebrow Monk, a personal note. According to my reckoning on http://lift.do, as of today I have worked out in some fashion for 365 consecutive days!
 
The White Eyebrow Monk is one of my favorite characters in the Kill Bill movies. That character is based upon a character in Chinese movies and martial arts lore. 

My friend over at Dao of Strategy sent me an article about Bak Mei Kung Fu. An excerpt is below. The full article may be read here.

The Forbidden Fist of Bak Mei Kungfu

by Gene Ching

Grandmaster "Fishmonger" Qiang and his Son, Zhong Luo
The most notorious villain of kungfu is Bak Mei. Blamed for the greatest tragedy of kungfu history, legend tells us that Bak Mei was a Wu Dang priest who betrayed the southern Shaolin Temple to Manchu tyrants during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911.) The temple was destroyed, the library burned and the monks killed. Actually, Bak Mei is a nickname that means "white eyebrow." Due to the legendary Bak Mei's nefarious legacy, white eyebrows are now the hallmark of evildoers in countless kungfu movies.

Despite this stigma, Bak Mei kungfu master Zhong Luo remains passionate about his family's art. The son of Bak Mei Grandmaster Mai Yu Qiang, Luo comments on Bak Mei's infamy. "During the Qing, before the war started, all the Shaolin temples collected people from all the different kungfu circles, and created their own tournaments. Basically they created their own little world. So the government got intimidated by all these different martial artists who stuck together - getting bigger and bigger - hundreds of thousands - getting too big. The truth is that during the Qing dynasty, 90 % of the army, the bodyguards and those who worked for the government and the emperor, were all Bak Mei style.

They don't realize that the reason those guys got hired was because they could really fight."

"Unfortunately, a lot of people think Bak Mei is a traitor because they killed all the monks and burned all the temples - thousands dead. After that, the Bak Mei style disappeared for almost a whole century. The people were saying 'Anybody who does Bak Mei, deserves to die.' Their houses got burned down, their wives got killed, their children disappeared. People got revenge almost the whole century." Bak Mei practitioners who fought to preserve their kungfu faced bitter hardships until very recently.<

The Fighting Fishmonger

Today, Bak Mei Grandmaster Mai Yu Qiang is one of the most respected kungfu names in China. But like Bak Mei, Mai Yu Qiang is only a nickname. His real name is Luo Rong Qiang, born in 1938 in Futshan (Buddha Mountain,) Canton. His father, a Hung Gar master, passed away when he was only six, so Grandmaster Luo studied Hung Gar, Praying Mantis and other assorted styles with his eight uncles, each a kungfu master in his own right. In 1957, he began studying Long Ying (dragon form) the first of the two styles that he would eventually master, under Master Jun Gen. Then in 1960, he began his tutelage in Bak Mei, which his great grandfather had brought into his family fighting arts, under Master Lao Siu Leung.

During that time, the Luos were very poor like most of China. Grandmaster Luo cut fish at the wholesale market while his wife cooked for the employees of a big factory. Earning only a few dollars a month made raising two sons and a daughter very difficult, especially since Zhong Luo's brother was a sickly child and required expensive treatments. So in order to make ends meet, Luo resorted to illegal no-holds-barred fights.

Luo organized underground open challenge matches at the market. What's more, he jumped into the ring whenever he could. His son, Zhong Luo, remembers the stories. "If you win, all those wholesale store owners gave a 100 lbs. of rice or a couple chickens or a couple fish, whatever. Those markets were huge, bigger then three Home Depots! All these people from different cities came to pick up fish or rice wholesale, driving little 3-wheel bicycles to market, then to their shops to sell. Every morning, my dad went to market to pick up fish to sell. On and off, he was fighting there about 2 years - sometimes every weekend, sometimes every month, depending on how much injury he got. After that he would teach people to go fight too, and he had a lot of students."

It was there that Grandmaster Luo earned his nickname Mai Yu Qiang (Fishmonger Qiang.) Selling fish for over half a century, he even won competitions for cutting fish. He is so skilled with a filet knife that he can gut a fish in six seconds flat. His son still keeps some of his father's fish cutting awards. Even today, the Chinese press always calls him Mai Yu Qiang, seldom his real name.

But reputation can be double-edged. During the Cultural Revolution of the 60's, the kungfu world suffered as did all of China. By 1972, the Red Guard caught Grandmaster Luo and threw him in prison for disturbing the peace, teaching people how to fight, and having connections to organized crime through his fight organizing. Many of his friends and fellow masters committed suicide in jail.

Master Luo remembers being a little boy and visiting his father in prison in 1973. But incarceration did not break their spirit. In fact, Grandmaster Luo covertly taught his fellow prisoners so that when he was released in 1974, he had even more students - ex-cons - to help him teach.

In 1976, the next political event to influence today's kungfu, China's Open Door Policy, occurred. All across the nation, public kungfu schools opened their doors. Grandmaster Luo's school began in his hometown in Canton, the nucleus of southern kungfu. It was a traditional kungfu school with no fees, just lucky red envelopes for the master during the holidays and the commitment to help out when necessary. Eventually, the school became well equipped with 30 sandbags for striking and dozens of rock buckets for finger jabbing training. Over 100 students were attending each night. By 1980, it was the biggest school in Futshan.

Recently, Grandmaster Luo received two of the highest honors for a kungfu master. During the celebrations for 50th anniversary of China last year, he was invited to Beijing to organize a phenomenal 80 lion performance. Luo is one of China's top martial drummers with over 20 years experience. His drum was amplified to lead all 80 lions in one of the grandest lion dance performances ever held. Furthermore, in Hong Kong, he was invited to play at the opening ceremony for the new airport and the longest bridge in the world. On that historic occasion, there were no lions, just the grandmaster and his drum.

Best Apps to Follow Mixed Martial Arts

We have another guest post from Virginia Cunningham. This time she's letting us know about which apps to use to best follow mixed martial arts. Enjoy.

Best Apps to Have For MMA Fans

In the last decade, mixed martial arts (MMA), mostly under the banner of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), has seen a rapid increase in popularity.

What began as an unfettered, overly-violent escapade has evolved into a structured and well-regulated athletic sporting event, even giving rise to a completely new wave of fitness and exercise programs.

Throughout its lifespan, the UFC has been one of the most popular items available on pay-per-view; however, viewing these fights can be quite costly (unless a local sports bar offers them free of charge for their guests). And if you want to see the entire fight card live in the ring, it’s probably going to cost you even more, though the experience is usually well worth the price for most fans.

In today’s economy, many are hesitant of dropping upwards of $40 to view an event like the UFC. That means a high volume of the MMA fan base will get their information from the internet, free of charge.

In 2013 as well as for the foreseeable future, that means smartphone apps.

If you’re a UFC fan looking for a way to keep up with your favorite fighter(s), events and exclusives, here are some of the apps you will definitely want to check out:

1. MMA Torch

MMA Torch brings you stats, highlights and news from all the major fight promotion companies, including UFC and Bellator. It also has the distinction of being one of the first MMA apps on the market. In fact, no other MMA-dedicated app can say that they’ve been truly covering UFC since Day One. 

 

The app itself uses columns to cover each standout fight and fighting organization-- it’s the conventional solution for keeping up with your favorite fighters, reviews and analysis, all in the palm of your hand.

2. MMA Underground

The upfront cost of the app is $1.99, but it gives you access to a forum where other fans (and sometimes, even fighters) will post and comment on their sport. It has a highly active community, so if you’re looking to get involved in the more social aspect of MMA, this app is the way to go.

Brought to you by the leader in MMA information, MixedMartialArts.com, users will have access to hourly updates, photo galleries, details for upcoming events and UnderGround and OtherGround forums.

3. Bleacher Report Team Stream

Bleacher Report has quickly become one of the biggest names in sports news and information, with an entire section devoted to MMA. Their app, dubbed “team stream,” will automatically update you on news, articles and notable information about your beloved fighters and fight organizations.

Simply tell Team Stream who you’re interested in hearing about, and they’ll take care of the rest.

4. MMA Junkie

This app is an offshoot of their website, MMAJunkie.com. Describes as the Associated Press, MMA Style by Bleacher Report, you’ll get tons of information, including major news, rumors and even onsite event reporting.

This one might be a toss-up if you’re comparing it with something like MMA Torch or even Team Stream, but for most, it’s just a matter of preference. If you already frequent the MMA Junkie website, this is probably your better bet, if for only the familiarity factor.

5. UFC TV

UFC’s own video app has a lot for the MMA fan. Not only can you watch certain live fights, but you’ll also get video highlights, weigh-in reports, press conferences, as well as a library of past fights that you can watch at your leisure.

If you don’t mind watching it on the smaller screen, it’s a great option, especially if you’re not a TV person.

Keeping Your Up-to-Date

While these apps don’t necessarily replace watching the real-deal fight on pay-per-view, they do excel when it comes to giving you the scoop and helping you to stay informed about what’s going on in the world of MMA and the UFC.

It’s true that a lot of them do the same thing, but they all do it well and there is some variation to consider. Try a few out and see which one works for you.

Today’s guest writer is Virginia Cunningham, a freelance writer and MMA enthusiast in Southern California.  With a background in social media marketing and as a writer for HostPapa, she understands the relevance between mobile technology and online marketing. What apps do you use to keep up with MMA? Share your comments below!