2009: A Fresh Start or Last Year’s Dead Weight?

Before I start this message, I have to qualify it by saying that it
isn’t for everyone. This message is ONLY for people that wanted to
excel in their lives (personally and professionally) and are
courageous enough to look inside themselves to make tough decisions
that’ll affect the direction of their lives in the upcoming year.

Once again, we’re about to see the ending of another year. And for
those of us lucky enough to see it end, the year was filled with
many experiences (both good and bad) that made us stronger people.

Now that the new year’s upon us, we all have to make some tough
decisions about what comes with you into the new year and what
stays behind in 2008.

If we have the guts to be honest with ourselves, the ability to
perform critical self-analysis, and accept the reality of what we
find, each of us will find that we have people, places, things, and
habits that slowed us down in 2008.

And if we don’t do anything to change it, that same dead weight
will slow us down in 2009.

Sounds simple, right? But here’s the problem.

The toughest thing for most people to be is honest with themselves,
especially when honest assessments and decisions appear to be
“mean-spirited” or hurt someone else’s feelings.

We can love friends, family, teammates, mentors, and even
significant others for what they’ve done for us in the past and
possibly the future. But if those same people have more of a
negative effect on your life NOW than a positive one, why would you
think holding on to them will make next year any better than this
one?

We all MUST have the courage to love those people and behaviors
that work against us either from a distance or by removing them
from our lives completely. To ignore the issue or to act as if
they don’t endanger your future is cowardly on your part and very
likely to ruin the upcoming year and all its promise before you
even have a chance to go after your dreams.

Bottom line: NOW is the time to decide what kind of year 2009 will
be for you: a fresh start… or last year’s dead weight?

4 Reasons Why December is the WORST Time of the Year to Skip Training!

A few weeks ago, I’m sitting around the gym (looking and feeling
very “wise grappler-ly”) when one of my students made a comment
about why the class attendance has been so light lately.

I told him that it was due to the holiday season that occurs every
year and things will pick back up in January. Once I explained it,
he thought that made a lot of sense.

I disagreed with him by saying,

“This is the BEST time to be on the mat!”

And after he asked me why, I gave him what I thought to be the four main reasons why he needed to be here instead of at home waiting
for January like many of his classmates:

1. This is the time to do your year-end inventory on your training
gameplan. Now’s the time to sit down and figure out all the things
that worked for you on the mat, didn’t work for you on the mat, and
to prune “dead weight” from the arsenal.

2. This is also the opportunity to determine the quality of other
items that contribute to your mat success (e.g. training partners,
training schedule, training equipment, etc.) and if they bring more
value or headache. And if you want to make changes, start planning
those changes now.

3. Now’s the time to develop your 2009 mat goals. Why wait until
January to start thinking about what you want to do next year…
you’ll already be behind schedule!

4. Since the mats aren’t packed, now’s the time to get all the
1-on-1 attention that you’ve been griping about not getting because
they’re 20+ grapplers on the mat fighting for one person’s
attention during a 60-90 minutes training session. And since there
are fewer people on the mat, that’s the time for more strategy and
less banging.

And once I explained it to the young gun that it was to his benefit
and how it would give him a big boost for next year, it made sense
to him and he wondered why more people didn’t take advantage of it.

That’s simple: Talkers take end of the year off while Doers take
advantage of it!

And since that discussion, that young gun’s been practically living
at the school since the “Talker’s Holiday Season” started after
Halloween. He’s got a lot of training goals for 2009. With this
new attitude, I have no doubt that he’ll reach them all.

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Paul M. Greenhill, “The Wise Grappler”, is the creator of The Wise Grappler System and author of The Wise Grappler Ezine, a weekly ezine that provides grappling and mental mindset training tips for the older (over 35) and non-traditional/non-competitive martial artists. To learn more about “The Wise Grappler” and to sign up for more FREE tips like these, visit his site at www.thewisegrappler.com or contact The Wise Grappler.

Can Acting Like Spiderman REALLY Help Grapplers on the Mat?

I know, it sounds crazy! But before you call me a kook, hear me out for a minute while I tell my story.

Last week, I was training with a couple of students and while I was rolling with one of them (who I’ll call Grappler X), I was putting a lot of 3PP discomfort on him from the top positions.

The entire time I was doing the pressure game, he was smiling and cracking little jokes about having me in trouble and telling me how what I was trying to do wasn’t working.

One of the guys on the sidelines said to him, "This probably isn’t a good time for you to be cracking jokes.’

Grappler X replied, "Hey, I’m just like Spiderman. He cracks jokes EVEN when he’s getting his azz kicked!"

Of course, I laughed because I thought it was funny and remembered all the times I read ol’ Spidey talking about how fat the Kingpin was before, during, and after their fights.

But then I got to thinking about what the joke-cracking did for Spidey and it occurred to me that the jokes did three things

1. It hid how he really felt about his situation from his opponent

2. It kept his attitude positive when he was in deep chit

3. He always joked his opponents on an area where he knew it would get to them mentally (e.g. the fat jokes with the Kingpin)

And the more I thought about it, I realized that Spidey was actually using mental mindset tactics against his opponents!

Imagine that… Spidey was an OG ahead of his time!

That doesn’t mean that you should make fun of your partner’s weight or their speech disorder while training, but if you can hide how much trouble you’re in, keep your attitude positive while being smashed, or poke fun at one of their positions (e.g. your guard sucks), that would be along the lines of something Spidey would say.

So, as I finished rolling with my joke-cracking student, I realized that he was way ahead of many of his teammates because he had the ability to mentally endure and escape 95% of all tough situations he would encounter on the mat. Once he gets the technique to go with it, he’ll be a wrecking machine.

So, the next time you’re in a tight spot and just about ready to quit, think of something ol’ Spidey would say and see how both you and your opponent responds to it. I think you’ll be surprised at how well it works for you.

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Paul M. Greenhill, “The Wise Grappler”, is the creator of The Wise Grappler System and author of The Wise Grappler Ezine, a weekly ezine that provides grappling and mental mindset training tips for the older (over 35) and non-traditional/non-competitive martial artists. To learn more about “The Wise Grappler” and to sign up for more FREE tips like these, visit his site at www.thewisegrappler.com or contact The Wise Grappler.