Mindset
MARTIAL ARTS
When I first started
teaching kids about
finding flow in life,
I felt conflicted because there was a
disconnect with the
martial arts we were
teaching. While our
program, predominantly Karate, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Boxing, was really good,
it wasn’t grounded
in flow. My body was
trashed and I noticed
that many old time
martial artists had very abused bodies, often
needing knee and hip replacements.
So I was very interested in finding a different
way to train in the martial arts as well as nurture friendships based on cooperation instead
of competition. I still wanted our students to
train hard and have realistic martial arts skills
but I wanted the martial skills and the people
skills to be healthier and more fluid. One of
my friends thankfully introduced me to the
Russian Martial Art of Systema which became
the bridge to incorporating the breath and
flow of our life skill system into a tangible way
to train in the martial arts. We still practice
BJJ, Karate, Boxing, and personal safety skills
but everything is now laid on top of the foundation of flow found in Systema as well as the
internal arts of Tai Chi and Qigong.
In our classes, we run drills that nurture and
establish flow and then we progressively challenge the student’s ability to stay in the flow.
This gives our students a tangible experience
of what flow feels like and the confidence to
carry that flow into all aspects of their lives.
TEACHING
METHODOLGY
Naturally, the flow
has spilled over into
our teaching methodology which takes
quite a different
approach from the
norm. Most martial
arts programs, after
school activities,
academic schools
and parenting take
a behavior modification approach based
on rewards and
punishments. This kind of extrinsic motivation
has been rampant in our industry even though
studies have shown that this is not the best
way for students to learn and internalize the
desired skills. It has been proven to not only
encourage students to take less calculated
risks due to the fear of failure, it actually has
been proven to result in students becoming
less interested in the activity at hand because
they are more concerned with focusing on
getting the teacher’s approval or fear of getting punished for not doing the right thing.
When I studied psychology in college I intuitively felt that something was wrong with the
approach of behavior modification that was
being endorsed by my professors. It wasn’t
until many years later that I learned ways to
teach that were based on intrinsic motivation
- a more nurturing and empowering approach
than behavior modification. In short, our life
skill system and teaching methodology gives
our students a simple, practical and kid-friendly way to connect to the joy and strength that
comes from practicing being ones personal
best moment to moment instead of comparDojo Nation • March 2015
25