Physique and Spirituality

[Jowan]

If you want to become a good fighter, then you need some basic elements of physique and spirit
first of all spirit, you all know the basic IQ (intelectual quota), but there is SQ (spiritual quota), and EQ (emotional quota) all to do with intelegance of spirit and emotion, and trust me they are real and can be trained, they aren't just mythical.
with physique, there is strength, endurance, flexibility, fat count, bone density, connective tissue strength, neuromuscular coordination (efficiency of muscles), cappilarisation, etc, the list is endless.
My question today, is, IF you are dead set on becoming an amazing martial artist, then why aren't these things already cultivated to their maximum?
do you have 100% muscle contraction? can you run 20 miles in a couple of hours? can you do the splits and not feel any pain? IF not, then WHY not?
it really doesn't take much to train the external body, weight training, endurance, and flexibility, what you have to remember is that all these are simply physical actions that must be undertaken, pain is just a warning, why not just take the pain of exhaustion and train as hard as you can every day?
train your mind aswell!
the mind is more important to train than the body.
i assume some of you here have a normal/low fat count, well look at your body, and ask 'why is that there?' do the same with all physical qualities, and make them better!
I hope some fo you understand wht i am saying!
I admit my body is no where near optimal, but i'm changing that, i've just thrown 600 punches on the heavy bag (as hard as i could, each punch), bikes 10 miles as fast as i could, stretched as much as is healthy in a day, and now i'm gonna train my abs.
why don't you all do the same?
training is not hard, its just getting the motivation to do it, and knowing how to do it.
-Jowan-

[Pencode]

I believe most of us understand what you are saying. However, do not forget to cultivate the mind. Some people are very intelligent total nerds but can't even catch a football. Then, on the other end of the spectrum you have jocks that are dumb as a bag of rocks. An intelligent fighter has the ability to change his tactics according to his opponent and to outsmart him. The dumb fighter just keeps doing the same thing. This is very apparent in a sport for example, such as boxing, where a guy sees the same left hook coming but doesn't take advantage of it or keeps getting tagged by it. No change of tactic. Or he sees a guy can't fight coming forward but is intent on walkng his man down instead of drawing him forward. The mind is what seperates two men of equal ability. One will adapt while the other one will not.

[Kirves]

Many people flock to the martial arts because of some kind of self esteem or self confidence problems. Proper physical training that trains them to fight realistically with physically resisting opponents, gives them confidence because they see themselves doing something against a resisting and aggressive person. But sadly, too often the people who need this the most, the people with the lowest self esteems, are the easiest prey to the McDojo's and other martial systems that lack this very concept of sparring and training against resisting opponents. The thin and weak nerds look for the "magic" way to be able to beat up any large and athletic bully. I know, I was like that in my teens. I went for all the exotic systems and all the pressure points I could find. But it never gave me the feeling of confidence, and now later I have found out why: because I never actually tested myself against a large and aggressive person, so there was constant doubt deep in my heart about wether or not I actually could fight such a person. Now, after only few months of Kyokushin karate training, I have started to value full contact sparring very much. Now I'm looking into some NHB/MMA styles to round up my skill set, but never again will I go for a style that doesn't have good ol' contact sparring. That is some of the best spiritual training a weakling can get. The truth is in the doing. Doing builds confidence and esteem. And they are requirements for good fighting spirit. And you can't fight without proper spirit.

[Tom Yum]

Hey Kirves, tell me about the Finnish concept of Ladies Night at the clubs/bars...

A good brit friend of mine had some interesting things to say.

[Kirves]

Ummm... Whadya mean? I go to clubs, discoes and nightclubs once in a while as well as the next guy, but I haven't seen any common "Ladies Night" phenomena... Sometimes some clubs have nights when they don't charge entrance fees from ladies (usually this will guarantee a large amount of women in the bar, and thus lots of paying men will come in too, thus you get a crowded club easily), and may have some Chippendales-type performances targeted for the ladies, but aside from that I dunno what you're talking about.

Some clubs where the middle-aged and older folk go for some walz and tango, they sometimes have something like "women's hour" which means that women go ask for men to dance, instead of the men asking for women as usually. But I don't frequent such places, as I'm not interested in dancing tango with middle-aged married women, h*ll I'm 28!