Who is in charge?

This lovely puppy is owned by one of my students in San Antonio, Texas. He’s a Labra Doodle who loves to play, is mischievous and often gets into trouble. I loved meeting him, and could not stop playing with him. He was awesome.

But, he was clearly in that puppy stage and out of control.

As a result he was very impulsive, yet it was very easy to get him into control. You see the less self control he had, the easier it was to control him. When it comes to martial art, we have a saying. “If you aren’t in control, you are out of control.” The implication being, if you can’t control yourself, someone else will control you.

This has implications at work, at home, in self defense and in sports. In our Kuntao Silat training at Apex Martial Arts, we start with learning to control your body. How you stand, how you sit, how you walk all have profound effects on how efficient and how powerful you can be. It is a conscious choice to relax into efficiency and get yourself out of your own way.

What starts with changing your interaction with your own body also becomes a way to increase your ability to focus. The mind body feedback loop gets you accustomed to managing mental stress very differently. You learn to respond efficiently, rather than reactively both in self defense and in your dealings with others throughout every part of your life.

Think about it. If you can move more freely and in balance, you will be faster and more powerful. These same habits produce a sense of calmness. You are training your parasympathetic nervous system to respond differently. Without fear. Now the next time you are confronted with stress at school or work, the same fear reactivity that existed when you were not in control, is gone. You confront life’s challenges with confidence and control. This is self defense.

Without this, in self defense you will find yourself easily beaten by a skilled opponent, or even an unskilled aggressive opponent. In life you can be a victim to every passing interaction and the seething cauldron of emotions boiling up from unconscious information bubbling up from your subconscious. Fear ingrains itself and becomes a habit. But it does not need to be that way.

Training SG Kuntao Silat becomes a safe venue for you to maximize your mind body.. To take control and choose the kind of life you choose to live. By challenging yourself to be in control, not unconsciously out of control.

What does this mean? Well I can cite dozens examples from both martial arts and personal life where this outcome of training SG Kuntao Silat has freed me to accomplish more, remain calm in the toughest of circumstances and exhibit a flexible, relaxed mind when under stress. Better success, better health, and the confidence to walk like a warrior.

This is how we define self defense at Apex Martial Arts in Chesapeake Virginia.

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