We always hear about not letting our outside life affect us in class but rarely do we hear the emphasis on not letting class affect us in our outside lives!
In his book, The Secret Power Within: Zen Solutions to Real Problems, Chuck Norris tells a story of Bruce Lee’s one student and friend Pat Strong. Strong sought out to cross train in several different Martial Arts to make sure he was able to adapt to any fighting situation. He was very highly skilled in Jeet Kune Do, but sought out to train in Jiu Jitsu to work on his ground fighting ability or in Tae Kwon Do to improve his ability to kick (Norris 96). Norris uses the analogy of a wheel with spokes to describe his student’s training. If one spoke of the wheel is longer or stronger than another spoke of the wheel, the wheel will not roll smoothly! If his Tae Kwon Do spoke was longer or stronger than his Jiu Jitsu Spoke the wheel would not roll. His ability in each art needed to be balanced.
While Chuck Norris used this analogy to stress keeping a good balance in cross training, it can also be used when analyzing your training in one art and the different aspects of training in that one art. Are your forms just as efficient as your sparring? Is your breaking ability just as good as your basic techniques? We as martial artists need to strive to be well rounded in our own disciplines in order to reach true mastery. Mastery in any art is definitely something to strive for, but just because you have mastered a martial art, it does not mean that you have mastered life!
In Your Best Year Ever: A 5-Step Plan For Achieving Your Most Important Goals, Michael Hyatt uses the same visual of a wheel to calculate a “Life Score”. This wheel uses 10 Life Domains for the user to grade their own lives. They are Financial, Spiritual, Intellectual, Emotional, Physical, Marital, Parental (If you are happily single, you only have to balance eight categories), Social, Vocational, and Avocational. Oftentimes, most people are incredibly successful in one or two of these categories, but lacking in a few other categories. To reach a high “Life Score” and have a high level of happiness, you need to have a balance in the 10 categories to have a well rounded wheel (Hyatt 20). These categories affect each other. Whether these categories affect each other positively or negatively, it is up to us.
Our martial arts lives fall into either the Vocational or Avocational categories, that is to say that it is either our job, or it is a hobby. We have all heard of the positive effects that martial arts have on our lives, but sometimes martial arts can take over and negatively affect other aspects of our lives if we do not have a balance. We always hear about not letting our outside life affect us in class but rarely do we hear the emphasis on not letting class affect us in our outside lives! Do you make sure to keep up with your family? Do you make sure to keep up with your spiritual health? Oddly enough, when you take care of these things, your martial arts will improve with it!
Being well rounded is incredibly important, whether it be within a martial art, between martial arts, or between martial arts and other aspects of our lives. Get your proverbial tires balanced and rotated and see how smooth you ride!
REFERENCES
HYATT, MICHAEL. YOUR BEST YEAR EVER. EMBASSY Books, 2019.
Norris, Chuck. The Secret Power within: Zen Solutions to Real Problems. Broadway Books, 1997.
