Don't Hesitate...Keep the Momentum Going!

When it comes to fighting, living and making change hesitation gets in our way when we need to go with momentum. We hesitate when we are in fear, when we are uncertain, when we don't trust and when we aren't committed to what we started. In the fight game, I began to understand the potential pitfall of hesitation in my last fight. I felt myself holding back as I went to attack, I had this delay in action. I wasn't committed to some of my attacks. I wasn't letting go and using the momentum of my attack. I paused. I realized that I must always finish what I start. I must follow through on my attack, I can't just leave it hanging. As a fighter (and a person), it is essential trust and take action.

When we hesitate, we are holding back. We can find ourselves hesitating when we fight, in life and when we are making changes. We pause. Maybe it's because we don't believe in ourselves or our abilities, maybe it's because we aren't committed to what we started, or maybe we don't trust ourselves, we are uncertain, or simply in fear. When we hesitate, we lose the momentum that will propel us forward and unfortunately it can cause us to move backwards. In a fight if we hesitate we may end up getting back into the corner as we face our opponents momentum. In life if we hesitate we may find ourselves in situations we were trying to avoid. We must trust ourselves and our intuition. We must commit to what we started. We must find the courage and strength within to move forward and take steps, attack and keep the momentum going.

Momentum is a wonderful thing! We are moving forward, we are in motion, taking action, making strides. Whether our action is perfect or not is of little importance. The key is to keep YOUR momentum going. Not to get swept up into the momentum of another or your opponent. Everything in my life that I have accomplished has been a product of keeping my momentum going. All my steps no matter how small kept me moving. I didn't hesitate to take steps, actions, risks. I trusted myself and had patience.

Objects in motion stay in motion! This is true in the ring and in life. I have seen this proven true time and time again. In fact, just recently one of my sparring partners discovered the power of momentum. She discovered her ability to commit to her attack and it was transformative to watch her reach this point. She stopped hesitating and her sparring abilities enhanced! She began to use her own momentum and moved forward.

So where do you hesitate? Where do you hold back? Do you have things in your life that you have left unfinished? Do you hesitate in the ring? Do you allow your opponents momentum to push you back? Answering these questions and understanding where you hesitate will give you the awareness to begin taking action and gaining momentum towards success! At Warrior, we train tough, smart, skillful, successful fighters. We also help people change their lives. The ability to transform internally and externally through fight training is incredible. You see people's "stuff" in the ring and with training and coaching you see them overcome, transform and become the best they can be!

Making Progress, Testing Yourself

A funny thing happens when you compete as a combat athlete...you take big steps forward during your training and then you compete and you take a step back. Some say this is just how it goes, some say its the nerves, ring rust, a lack of ring vision, while some say its a lack of confidence that cause this regression of skill during competition. Well whatever it is, it exists and its frustrating, but it's part of the process.

You make strides forward in your strength, conditioning, endurance and skill throughout your training camp and then you are tested in competition and your performance never seems up to par. Now obviously the more you compete and test yourself the better you get and the more often you can perform at your peak. But in the beginning of your fight career this is a common occurrence I am told and I have experienced this.

It's almost as if this happens on purpose so that you can understand and learn more than you could in training. The hands on experience, exposure to competition stress and accompanying mistakes heighten our understanding of the sport and what we need to work on. Mistakes happen so we can learn and improve which is why it is key not to beat yourself up when you make them. You must acknowledge all your improvement, recognize your mistakes and be realistic with yourself.

We must be patient with ourselves as we train and compete. We must trust that we will develop a sense of ring vision and comfort that we lack early on. We must develop our mental game, improve our ability to relax and trust that our training will carry us through to success.

You never know where you truly are until you test yourself. I train HARD in training camp which is why I'm called "the machine", but in the comfort of my gym, my camp, my routine I know I am tough physically and mentally. Yet I never truly know where I am conditioning wise, skill wise, etc until I test myself in competition. This is one of the reasons I fight. I want to be real with myself, I want to test myself, I want to be the best me, I want to access all of my potential, I always want to be progressing. None of this can happen if I don't test myself, embrace the two steps forward, one step back flow of progress and take risks. Being the best I can be and the best fighter I can be, is all about stepping out of my comfort zone.

Now combat sports aren't for everyone, and competing isn't for everyone either. Many enjoy the training of combat sports and identify as recreational boxers, they test themselves physically in workouts and this training supports them in testing themselves in other areas of their lives. Others enjoy the test of competition and find that it transforms them personally as well. Whether you are a recreational student or competitive fighter the idea of making progress in any area of your life comes with task of testing yourself. So don't fool yourself into thinking you are making progress until you have truly tested yourself. This reality check, step out of your comfort zone, and risk will make all the difference in your physical, personal and professional transformation. It's eye opening, growth producing and clarifying. It keeps you realistic, honest and progressing. No matter how challenging, nauseating or nerve racking an opportunity to test yourself can feel, the more you can find it deep within you to take advantage of the opportunity the more you will grow, change, transform and progress.

Warrior Fighting Sports & Fitness prides itself on giving recreational and competitive students the opportunity to test themselves and progress in & out of the ring!

The Importance of Recovery: Listen to Your Body!

Recovery is an often neglected piece of training. And it's ironically one of THE MOST important parts of training. Training stimulates growth and recovery creates growth. So if we train and train and train and train (you get the idea) and never properly & effectively recover you are doing your body and performance a HUGE disservice. You must recover physically, mentally and emotionally in order to perform at your peak. And one of the keys to recover is listening to your body. This seemingly simple task eludes many of us. And those of us that are proficient at listening to our body's may not always honor what our body is telling us.

Recovery gives your mind and body the time to rejuvenated, recharge, rebuild and repair. It gives you the fuel, calmness and strength you need to endure athletic challenges and succeed. You cannot expect to train effectively without giving yourself ample recovery! If you do not recover you WILL overtrain!

I recently experienced a lack of recover and some overtraining. I realized I was constantly tired, felt lethargic, my mood was low, my energy was low, I felt like I was getting sick and I wasn't enjoying my training. All signs that I was missing something...RECOVERY! Again recovery is 3 fold: physical, mental and emotional. After experiencing this I finally realized what was going on. My body was trying to tell me something...it needed recovery! I just wasn't listening and it got louder and louder as I got more fatigued, more "out of it" and less excited about training. When you don't listen to you body it simply amps up what its trying to tell you until you listen.

So what did I do to recover? I started paying attention! Paying attention is key! What was my body telling me...what did I need physically, mentally and emotionally? As I asked myself these questions it all became clear. I discovered I needed to make sleep and rest a priority, so I made a point to work on getting to bed earlier and getting a better training/rest routine. I discovered my water intake was way too low, so I upped my water intake and added vitamin C to my water because I felt my immune system was down due to the intensity of my training. I discovered I needed something other than training to occasionally focus on, so I started reading more. These and a couple other little things put together over only a few short days made a dramatic impact on my overall well-being. I felt more alert, stronger, excited, and focused. I had been neglecting my needs and my body was not having it!

With all this said learning to listen to and honor what your body needs is not easy task. You must decide you are important enough to take of your needs. You must make yourself and your health a priority. You must want to succeed in the ring (or whatever your sport is) enough to give you body exactly what it needs vs what you want (as needs and wants can conflict with each other). This is such an important part of training that often gets neglected and needs much more of your attention. Coach Bob and I are here to help you understand and incorporate recovery into your training program. Our goal at Warrior is to help you train as effectively as possible and guide you towards success in and out of the ring.

New Year Resolution Time!

Ah yes its that time...new year resolution time! Whether you sit down to truly contemplate the year and set goals or simply decide to make a change the difference between manifesting those goals and not depends on a few simple things. It's easy to just say, "This year I'm going to ____!" and never make strides to achieving what you wanted to achieve. Getting focused, organized and taking control of what you desire are keys to your success!

"Energy flows where attention goes." ~James Arthur Ray

When you set goals for 2010 remember this quote above because where you decide to focus your attention will dictate what you achieve. What you focus on expands! So focus on positives, opportunities, etc you get more of that or focus on negatives, lack, etc and guess what you get more of it! You must be specific with what you want and why you want it! It must align with your values. Internal conflict, confusion, etc keeps us stuck and stagnant, so I invite you to spend some time figuring out specifically what you want and devising a plan.

Here are some tips to manifesting your 2010 resolutions:

1. Figure out what you want! Decide what the top 3 areas of your life are that you need/want to make changes in.

2. Work with a partner or group of friends to brainstorm, and explore possibilities. Sometimes the best way to figure out what you want and what direction to go is to talk with those who know you best.

3. Prioritize your goals.

4. Write down your goals! Just saying them aloud does not keep you focused. Write them down somewhere you can look at them daily! Put them in your phone, on your desktop, anywhere you can be reminded of them daily.

5. Steps! Make small steps EVERY DAY towards your goals. This is key to keeping the ball rolling.

6. Surround yourself with things, people, environments, etc that align with your goals. This is all about getting focused. Let's say your general goal is to improve your fitness level, but you choose to surround yourself with negative, unhealthy people, you spend your time at places that promote unhealthy habits, and you focus your attention on how your goal isn't being achieved fast enough...guess what?! The result of this type of focus is getting more of what you say you don't want.

7. Support, Accountability, Community! You need support from others when you hit bumps in the road, you need a boost, or you need someone to keep you accountable. Reach out to others and create a circle of support, motivation, and accountability for when things are going great and when you need a little help.

Do all these things and I promise you will accomplish all you set out to in 2010! And remember as long as you are making strides forward, don't focus on rigid time lines and put unnecessary pressure on yourself. If I always set hard and fast rules and time lines for my goals I would not leave windows for life's unexpected surprises that take guide me towards my passion and purpose. There is a fine line between giving yourself a break and letting yourself off the hook!

To some of you this blog might seem to new agey and airy fairy...and well maybe it is, but I know that when I have done the things above I have manifested more than I ever could have imagined! For those of you who don't know my story about growing my business, let me take a moment to share with you how doing these simple things changed my life!

Before being co-owner of Warrior with Coach Bob Miller I was operating my much smaller business called ConceptFIT which focused on empowering women with fitness, life coaching and support services. I was actually doing pretty well and my company was just in its infancy. While running ConceptFIT, I was also teaching group fitness classes at a local park district, working with personal training clients 30 miles from my home & business and working part time as a psychotherapist. Needless to say my attention was ALL OVER THE PLACE. I was busy, surviving and doing okay but I wasn't growing or thriving. I realized the one thing I needed was focus!

I worked with my life coaching on goals and prioritizing. I came up with a list of 6 things that where important to me, that needed my attention and ranked them. The number one thing being a feeling of security (financial primarily). I then did an exercise to figure what of my business offerings would most strongly impact my number goal and it was focusing on the boxing classes. This would increase my revenue and directly impact my feeling of security. So I made the conscious choice to immerse myself in everything related to boxing and improving my classes. Effortlessly, without thought boxing was all around me. I ironically would always catch Rocky movies on TV and watch them, I was seeking out ways to improve my own training and learn more about the sport. I began doing more researching on boxing gyms, women only boxing programs, started searching for a new potential spaces to run my business. I had focus!

Then one day in my search for spaces for my expanding business I came across an industrial park with units for lease. I called the property manager and had a conversation with him about what I was looking to do. I told him I was opening a women only boxing/personal training studio. His response, "Hey we have a guy in one of our units who runs a boxing gym, competitive though...". My response, "What? Who?". For some reason he didn't remember the name of the business. So I got in my car went back to the industrial park and found the boxing gym he was talking about. They where closed so I peeked through the windows...wow a fully equipped gym with no one using the space during the day. I thought to myself I should call the owner and meet with him, maybe explore partnering ideas. I put the thought on the back burner but it was still on my mind. One day at work (my psychotherapy job) I was searching the Internet and looking at this gym's website I thought I should really email him about training me (as I was looking to get some boxing training for myself). I sat there for a second and thought about what I might say in this email. Then I called my home office to check my voicemail to see if I had messages, and you will never believe what happened next! I had a message from Coach Bob Miller the owner of this gym. He found me, my website, and wanted to meet about working together! Um...omg are you kidding me?! I called him, we talked for a brief moment and scheduled to meet the next day. The next day we met at this gym, talked for hours and decided to partner. Now a lot of people thought I was crazy, I barely knew this guy and now I was going to partner with him! HELL YEAH I AM! Things like this don't happen everyday and what did I have to lose? Nothing. I trusted myself and started working with him. I always dreamed of owning my own training center and now I do. I truly believe had I not gotten focused, made steps daily toward my goals, prioritized and trusted it would come I would not be where I am today! A gym owner!

Prior to getting focused my life and my attention was too cluttered...I had too much on my plate...there was no room for things to manifest and come into my life. So whether you believe in things like the Law of Attraction or not is up to you...but I can tell you focusing your attention on what you want is key!

Join Warrior this year to get the focus you need to achieve more than you ever thought possible!