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CHAPTER 2

DEVELOPING AND MAINTAINING MOTIVATION

My primary motivation for training so hard and developing new and innovative training devices is that practically every week I get out in the middle of the boxing ring and test my martial arts skills against other practitioners in a full-contact setting.

My training philosophy is simple: “If I don’t train hard, I will get hit. If I train hard, I won’t.” My training motivation is even simpler: “I don’t like to get hit.”

I love the ring because it is in the ring that you can put to the test all the skills that you have been training in for days, weeks, months, or years! The ring also doesn’t lie and lull the martial artist into a false sense of security. One will immediately know whether a technique or conditioning routine is working, thanks to the immediate feedback from one’s opponent.

I’ve loved martial arts ever since I can remember and have always been fascinated by how a smaller person could physically overcome a larger person.

Over the years, I’ve found the age-old philosophy of “practice makes perfect” still holds true to a certain extent, but more important, “correct practice makes perfect.” Oftentimes, hardcore martial artists will practice one technique over and over in the air, without practicing it against the flesh and developing the proper “feel” of the technique. Without the proper “feel” or “contact” of the practiced technique, a martial artist cannot develop the true feeling of the technique. Consequently, when the incorrectly practiced technique is used in actual full-contact combat, many times it falls short of the martial artist’s expectation.

With this m mind, I have developed much of my own personal home training equipment, along with specific drills to enhance the quality and develop the elusive “feel” of the technique. Many of my home training devices are certainly unique, some never before seen or used in the martial arts world.

From the ring I develop many of my training ideas, always trying to improve on a specific technique, especially when I get hit by a student, or when I cannot land a technique on another martial artist.

From these two primary motivations come all of my ideas for home training equipment and training methods.

Another quirk of my personality is that, because I’m always looking for ways to improve my martial arts technique, I probe many different disciplines that may help me better develop my martial arts abilities—from modern dance to home construction; I try not to restrict my ideas to any specific discipline. Many times when I look at an everyday home item, I wonder how I could use this device in training.

I firmly believe that one can never stop improving unless one chooses not to improve.

I choose to improve forever!