tcs-22 Self-Control

Self-Control

You’ll know you’re at Level 2 when...

Level 2 self-control seems deceptively easy. You may feel that you can see your entire environment with a glance. In reality, just knowing your environment is only a small part of it. The true power lies in making the environment work for you.

Start with space:

1. When sparring, put a little space between you and your opponent, then visualize and take your line of attack as he tries to close that gap.
2. Learn how to crowd your opponent and force him to have to work to gain more room.

Once these two strategies are mastered, you can move on to more esoteric tactics such as herding your opponent into a corner, or distracting him in some way.

You’ll know you’re at Level 3 when...

Level 3 self-control is manifested when you are the actor not the reactor. You do and your opponent responds. This doesn’t mean what you do will always work, but it does mean that you are moving smoothly from the failed technique to a new one, flowing from one programmed technique to another without giving your opponent a chance to regroup. Once you are fighting, go on the offensive and stay on the offensive, making the other person react to you.

You know you are at level 3 when you can fight your game rather than reacting to your opponent’s game.

Congratulations!

Thank you for enrolling in Time Control Sports and congratulations on completing the course.

As I emphasized throughout the course materials, these principles are applicable to other areas of your life. If you are interested in knowing more about how to apply these principles to revolutionizing your work life, see my book be your own boss at your current job, available from James A. Rock Publishing through Amazon.com.

tcs-21 Tracking Your Progress

Tracking Your Progress

Time Control

You’ll know you’re at Level 2 when...

As you approach Level 2 Time Control (slowing time down), you may not yet see things in slow motion, but feel as if you have more time to react. Sparring gets less hectic, your reactions tend to be correct — and more certain — more often.

The more you build on this certainty, the closer you get until that moment when— BOOM! — the things around you suddenly slow down. It’s as if you’re moving at normal speed, while everything and everyone around you is moving in slo-mo.

For some, seeing in slow motion will come within days of beginning their practice of Time Control Sports, for others it will take weeks before the first slo-mo experience. Either way, you must continually build on this as a part of your martial arts discipline and not just sit back and wait to get better.

Remember what it was like when you first learned to execute a kick? When you first tried you were probably challenged by your lack of balance and most likely couldn’t kick above your belt. You worked at achieving balance — worked at it until you had it.

Kicking is easier to learn than time control for the simple reason that we can watch others kick and copy them. To succeed at Time Control Sports we must truly look within ourselves to find what is holding us back and to chart our progress.

You’ll know you’re at Level 3 when...

Level 3 of time control (time stop) is unmistakable. You’ll experience sound dilation. Music, ambient noise, voices — all will sound like one long echoing tone. Your sense of sight will also change. What you see will seem unreal — almost as if the people around you (especially your opponent) are statues. All of your senses will be heightened like never before. You will taste the air, smell it, sense it moving around you.

tcs-20 The Daily 8 - 8

The Daily 8

Here are eight daily exercises that will aid you in your mastery of TCS Combat Mode.

8.       Be better tomorrow than you are today

How:

Be sure that every day you improve at least one part of your life. It does not have to do with your martial art, it can be work, family, finances, personal improvement, etc.  It will still have an effect on your abilities in competition.

Why:

Only by continually improving our lives and the lives of the people around us can we achieve greatness — in the competitive circle or in life in general.

tcs-20 The Daily 8 - 7

The Daily 8

Here are eight daily exercises that will aid you in your mastery of TCS Combat Mode.

7.       Train like a winner

How:

Train as if your life depended on it (it might just). Do this 100% of the time. At your martial arts classes, be 100% “on” at all times. Slacking, goofing off, and having fun are NOT what you are there for. Always train like a winner.

This is good advice outside the ring as well. With all the things that are truly important in life, it’s good to have that “martial arts” focus.

Why:

Discipline, focus, and orderliness win fights and help you take control of your life in general.

tcs-20 The Daily 8 - 6

The Daily 8

Here are eight daily exercises that will aid you in your mastery of TCS Combat Mode.

6.       Live in the now

How:

Make it a point to notice the tasks you are doing during the day as often as possible. See Level 2 Self-Control for more details on how to train this.

Take more notice of the many mundane little things you do every day. Watch yourself do them; think about what you do.

Why:

This is a key training method to progress you towards seeing in slow motion. By promoting these currently unthinking actions to the level of consciousness, you gain heightened awareness of them and more control, and it is that minute level of control that you’re striving to achieve.

tcs-20 The Daily 8 - 5

The Daily 8

Here are eight daily exercises that will aid you in your mastery of TCS Combat Mode.

5.       Take control of time

How:

Pay more attention to time. When “time flies” try to notice why it flies. When “time crawls” again, notice why.

When you experience time moving more slowly or more swiftly, embrace the feeling this creates. Feel its texture, know it. Then try to duplicate it during training and practice (or at any other time) through the use of your catch-phrase.

Why:

For most people, excitement makes time seem to flow more quickly. If you allow yourself to get overly excited during sparring or combat training — that is, you allow your excitement to control you — you may find your mind is distracted and your thoughts hectic as your heart pumps faster. This is going to detract from your ability to control time.

The key is being in control of your excitement. Let your adrenaline pump, but keep a steady hand on your thinking processes.

tcs-20 The Daily 8 - 4

The Daily 8

Here are eight daily exercises that will aid you in your mastery of TCS Combat Mode.

4.       Take control of your life

How:

Avoid mental chaos; chaos breeds uncertainty and uncertainty undermines control, either in life or in the arena.

Exercise: A simple exercise to take control of your martial arts technique quickly is to learn to practice your forms and fighting in your head (do patterns or Katta start to finish in your imagination). This exercise will help sharpen your technique quickly because your mind knows exactly how it wants you to look while performing these techniques.

The next step is to use a video camera to film yourself fighting then watch it! Do you look like you think you look? If not, adjust your thinking and your fighting stances until they match your ideal.

Why:

I mean the word “take” very literally. If you were in the middle of nowhere and saw $50 bill on the ground you would take it, correct? Life is filled with $50 bills that you fail to pick up on a daily basis. Your work, love life, hobbies, martial arts training, and many other areas present opportunities to seize more control and make your life better.

A warning: There’s a difference between taking control of your own life and being a control freak. Be careful not to over-extend yourself when it comes to other people’s “space”. If you are getting your way by trying to control other people, it will only backfire on you sooner or later.

Learn to exert positive control over life, constantly adjusting the areas of your life that are most important to you. Are there aspects of your life that need changing? One measure of this is how many times a week you say, “I wish I had…”. Stop wishing. Learn to take what is yours from life.

         

Something we touched on earlier was how lack of control can make you careless. You may allow things to get out of control in your life.

You must acknowledge the things that are out of control and bring them under control.

This is important: Life throws you curves all the time. If your life is already chaotic, this simply adds chaos to chaos. If you are able to keep the elements in your life under control, you will have more energy and focus to bear on new sources of chaos as they arise.

Consider this common scenario: You have three projects going at work. They are in relative states of chaos. You’re not sure where you are with each one or whether you’ll really get them done on time. Enter, the Boss, to hand you another project. “Can you handle it?” she asks. Do you even know? You may say, “Yes,” just to save face, but how realistic is that if you have no clear idea of where any of your other projects are at this moment?

Conversely, if your projects are under control and your boss asks if you can handle another one, the answer to her question is much more likely to be a real, honest “yes”. It may also be “no”, but at least you’ll know which it should be.

tcs-20 The Daily 8 - 3

The Daily 8

Here are eight daily exercises that will aid you in your mastery of TCS Combat Mode.

3.       Become magnificent

How:

Mentally tell yourself every day: “I am magnificent, great, awesome, powerful …” (whatever works). Then act that way.

Why:

Magnificence or greatness is not just being excellent at martial arts. A magnificent person — a great person — is someone other people like, trust, and admire. A magnificent person builds other people up and tries to help them feel magnificent, as well. It is impossible to build up another human being (through help, support, advice, or compliments) without simultaneously building oneself up.

Live your life by a higher standard and expect more from yourself — more honesty, more compassion, more strength of character, etc. Do not take the easy way out unless the easy way is also the best way.

Building a positive self-image is important to your goal.  Self-image, self-confidence, and self-esteem will all play major roles in how quickly you will be able to see in slow motion and learn to turn slow motion on and off at will.

tcs-20 The Daily 8 - 2

The Daily 8

Here are eight daily exercises that will aid you in your mastery of TCS Combat Mode.

2.       Let go at bedtime

How:

Put a To Do list next to your bed on which you’ve noted all the things you need to do the following day. Then go to sleep without the stress of “trying to remember something for tomorrow”. When you wake the next morning, try to remember everything before looking at the list. If you forgot something, don’t worry — soon you’ll be able to remember everything on the list.

Affirm this to yourself: “Soon, I’ll remember everything on my To Do list.”  Reinforce that affirmation daily.

Why:

While the real life/work applications of this are great, what we are aiming for is to be able to trust our decisions AND to take more control of the subconscious (which is where the key to time manipulation lives).

tcs-20 The Daily 8 - 1

The Daily 8

Here are eight daily exercises that will aid you in your mastery of TCS Combat Mode.

1.       Be instantly awake

How:

No more snooze alarm — set your clock tomorrow for the precise time you need to jump out of bed and start your day. When the alarm goes off, get up and get going without a yawn or stretch.

Why:

Chances are your subconscious controls you. You want to take back that control as quickly as possible. In the morning, most people are fighting a body that does not want to get up. By making the decision to wake instantly and be at full alertness the very second you wake every day, you will gain heightened control of your mind and body. 

In the army it is imperative that a soldier can wake and be instantly combat-ready and at full alertness. Army training is a little harsher than TCS/CM, but has the same goal in mind. I do not think I need to go into the self-defense benefits of this should you ever wake to an intruder in your home.

tcs-19 Surprise!

Surprise!

Most real self-defense situations are complete surprises that give you little or no time to react. The question: “Am I willing to hurt my opponent?” should be answered instantaneously, and the catch-phrase subconsciously “keyed”, putting you in TCS Combat Mode when necessary. Conversely, it should restrain you from doing harm when surprised by a playful friend or spouse. This is because it is intended to sharpen your perception, accelerate your decision-making, and speed up your reaction time.

The two steps above should take less than .0001 second if trained correctly.

tcs-18 Fight Time (2)

Fight Time

Here are two simple steps that will almost double your ability to win a fight.

Second: Use a catch-phrase.

A catch-phrase is simply some short-but-cool saying that flips your time control switch and gets your blood pumping. “I’m gonna kick your ass,” works for most people, but do try to be original — conformity is boring.

Your catch-phrase needs to do two things:

1. Get you in an ass-kicking mood.
2. Sound confident should you accidentally blurt it out during a fight. The key is to fire off an adrenaline rush combined with a sense of urgency (Will I lose this match or get hurt?).

The Key:

Work with your own emotions.

Ever been sick and then had someone give you really good news? Isn’t it amazing how you feel instantly fine ... if only for a few seconds? Well, programming a catch-phrase to trigger your time control mechanism for fighting/sparring can instantly raise your aggressiveness, strength, and tolerance for pain. It can turn you into a fighting machine.

IMPORTANT: You only want to be in this state when actually fighting. Many people train to be in this state 24/7. This does not work because life demands that we be flexible and not physically assault everyone who crosses us. Seriously, someone who stays in this state of heightened aggressiveness is just asking to become an abuser, which rhymes with “loser” and which puts them right back at Level 0 on the self-control scale. It is also incredibly bad for the health. Human beings were not designed to be in fight or flight mode for more than a few moments at a time — the time necessary to get out of harm’s way.

Your catch-phrase is yours to keep. In a self-defense situation it could save your life or someone else’s. It also can be used to help you succeed day-to-day if you use it to turn yourself into a thinking machine. I have used mine in confrontations with the boss at work (said it to myself, NOT out loud) to regain control during heated discussions, etc.

tcs-17 Fight Time

Fight Time

Here are two simple steps that will almost double your ability to win a fight.

First: Be willing to cause harm.

Before any fight ask yourself, “Am I willing to hurt my opponent?” The answer must be “yes”.  If it is not, your energy will be divided and dissipated. To put it simply, you’ll pull your punches. If you’re in a real-life self-defense situation, you’d be better served to put that energy to getting away or defusing the situation rather than trying to defend yourself or another against the assailant.

 The Key:

Whether you are in an alley or a point tournament, if you are not willing to hurt your opponent, you will not give 100% to the fight.

Let’s say you really are in an alley and are jumped by someone who reckons you’re wealthier than he is. It’s “go” time. If you’ve been training your mind to give you immediate correct answers, you should be able to calculate moral and legal issues instantly. Once you have determined that the situation warrants hurting the other person DO IT. Most assailants will never see it coming. They are expecting a victim; don’t be one.

If you are in a point tournament, please note: Many point fights are lost for fear of disqualification. You can be willing to hurt your opponent and still maintain control. You must know the rules and work within them — i.e. contact to the body is normally acceptable etc. — but intend to win.

tcs-16 Make your first answer the correct one.

Make your first answer the correct one.

You may recall I brought up that old saw about us using only 20% of our brains. If this is true, in my opinion, it’s sheer laziness. The fruit falls too easily from the tree and we relax or go on auto-pilot. We can drive without thinking, work without thinking, watch TV without thinking (don’t get me started). Life is just too darned easy.

It’s time to demand more from ourselves. Yes, we should still enjoy the things in life that come easily, but we need to push our minds daily so that they won’t flatline.

Just as you train your body to respond reflexively with the right punch, block, or counter move, you can train your mind to give you the right answer the first time — every time!

Yes, you read that correctly. You are going to learn to program yourself to be right every time.

The Key:

Start by expecting that the answer your mind gives you will be the correct answer: Make the answer that comes first the one you act upon.

Exercise: You may not do this right when you first start out and you may not get the right answer the first time until you’ve made a few blunders. But trust me, eventually, by acting on answer #1 every time, you will quickly force your mind to work harder and faster. This will be a painful process as you act on wrong answers initially, but you will learn from your mistakes. Once you truly learn this form of “reflexive thinking”, the first answer will seldom be wrong.

How does this apply to martial arts? If you are sick of getting blown out in tournaments and thinking, “Wow, if I had only thrown this kick at that point...” then you would do well to get your First Answer training in high gear. If you reach Level 2 in time control, and can see in slow motion, but can’t come up with the correct attack what good is it, I ask you?

CAUTION: Do NOT think this is some metaphysical concept. It is a matter of training your mind to work faster to analyze all the available facts about your environment in a fraction of a second.

tcs-15 I am better than everyone else!

I am better than everyone else!

Your first reaction is probably: “What happened to humility?” But let’s take a quick look at this affirmation in context with the two main uses for Time Control Sports: Real-world self-defense and tournament combat.

In a true self-defense situation, unless you’ve incited him in some way, you truly are a better person than the attacker, no need to go into more detail. In competition, you must compete as if you believe you are the best athlete. Train and fight like a winner, and if you lose, lose like a winner.

Remember, you are magnificent. You are skilled, powerful, and cunning.

The Key:

As you elevate yourself, remember to elevate those you train with, spar with, and compete against — let them know that they are all those things, as well.

Only by training with truly great people (or competing against them) can we constantly improve our skills. Never let yourself become a black belt who wants to fight inferior opponents just so you can win. You won’t be a true “winner”.

Truly great people believe they are great and show it by treating other people well. People with low self-esteem tend to act like they are better than everyone else out of insecurity. They must build themselves up by cutting others down. That’s a losing attitude, not a winning one. 

The most important measure of greatness is the number of other people you have helped achieve greatness.

I started going to tournaments when I was a white belt. In fact, I was obsessed with them. But I could not win first place, no matter how hard I tried. Then one day, one of the instructors at my school said, “Bill, do you think you are the best in your division?” I answered truthfully, and perhaps in the hope that humility was what he was looking for.  “No,” I said.  The instructor replied, with the sagacity of a Mr. Miaggi (or Yoda, perhaps), “That is why you lose.”

He went on to explain to me that I was not doing the other competitors any favors through my attitude about myself. They wanted to beat worthy opponents not easy ones. I adjusted my attitude and soon began to win tournament after tournament.

At this point in my competitive career, I’d had some experience with seeing fights happen in slow motion, but I was unable to turn it on and off at will until I embraced the, “I am better than everyone else” affirmation AND practiced it with humility.

tcs-14 Don’t be intimidated.

Don’t be intimidated.

In point tournaments, many competitors wear flashy uniforms to try to intimidate their opponents. This may work with some opponents, but not the ones who are aware and in control of their environment. These competitors know that fighting skill is all that matters.

In a real life self-defense situation, an assailant uses intimidation to cow a victim. In a point tournament, it has become a “strategy” used to harass and distract. I refer to the practice of slapping oneself and growling before a fight. It’s just that, a strategy (and a stupid one), and may actually indicate a lack of confidence in one’s fighting prowess. It shouldn’t fluster anyone who practices a Level 3 self-control.

The Key:

If you analyze only your adversary’s “core” fighting skills and how you can effectively control him, you will surely prevail. 

tcs-13 Programming Correctness

Programming Correctness

Stop overanalyzing!

Take this quick test:

QUESTION:    How do you put a giraffe in the refrigerator?

ANSWER:       Open door, place giraffe in refrigerator, close door.

QUESTION:    How do you place an elephant in the refrigerator?

ANSWER:       Open door, remove giraffe, place elephant in refrigerator, close door.

QUESTION:    The lion king is holding a conference with all the animals in the jungle, which animal is not there?

ANSWER:       The elephant; he’s in the refrigerator.

QUESTION:    You are in the jungle and come to a river where crocodiles live and need to cross what do you do?

ANSWER:       Swim across — all the crocodiles are at the lion king’s conference!

Yes, you could have paused to ask if the fridge was big enough to hold the entire giraffe. Would you have to fold it? Chop it up into giraffe steaks?

Irrelevant. There is a point to be learned here: All the information needed to answer correctly was contained in the story itself.

The Keys:

Stop overanalyzing your responses.

Too many times in competition we look for answers from outside the ring — outside the immediate situation.

Start to look inside the situation for the answers.

In other words, live in the now. In a true-life self-defense situation you will ONLY have the information that’s at hand at that moment. The sum total of your knowledge may be that you’re being attacked.

Learn to sort what is relevant / important from what is not, and discard useless information.