SteemSports 2k Giveaway Submission - My sport of choice: Martial Arts are my meditation
A few years ago, I was stuck in a rut. Having gained some extra pounds, my approach to fitness had become rather shallow and mechanical: burn calories, look better. It is no surprise that with such hollow approach, even though I forced myself to work out regularly out of pure will power, I felt unfulfilled and exercising often felt like a chore. But then, one tiny event changed my life forever: watching Bruce Lee’s iconic film Enter the Dragon. I was equally fascinated with Bruce Lee’s philosophical approach to martial arts as well as his superhuman physical prowess. I started learning more and more about his life and training, and finally I read the book that completely changed my outlook on the way I approached physical activity: The Art of Expressing the Human Body. I was no stranger to Martial Arts, having practiced Taekowndo for five years almost to a Black Belt level. I wanted to recover that feeling of marvel at my own physical prowess, that sense of mastery over my own body. This marked my return to my sport of choice: Martial Arts. For over a year now, I have been practicing Muay Thai and Savate –where my Taekowndo kicks proved to be a most valuable weapon– along with Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. I train six days a week, and every time I look forward to it!
The reason why I prefer sports over doing things like running on a treadmill or doing weighted squats at the gym, is because of the mental freedom and instant mindfulness that they provide when you practice them. Whenever I am playing –or in my case, fighting– I am not thinking about “reps”, and my mind doesn’t wander. During my martial arts practice, I have no time to worry about deadlines, missing items in my grocery shopping or that little comment that my boss made during our meeting that annoyed me. When I am in the game, my mind is completely engaged in the present moment: gauging the situation, observing the moves of my opponent, trying to anticipate their possible reactions, coming up with counters and strategies, thinking on my feet to quickly correct mistakes. Sometimes I enter a state of flow, some sort of unconscious mastery where I am completely focused and my body just seems to make use of my acquired skills effortlessly and instinctively.
As an individual prone to anxiety, this form of flowing meditation that martial arts entails provides a priceless mental respite to the never ending tape of worries and doubts playing in my head on repeat most of the day. When I am fighting, I am free. However, when I fight, I am not alone: I am entangled in a match against my opponent. That is something that for me is missing from the solo sports: the feeling of connection that I get from my training partners. I feel their strength, their struggle, their spirit in their breathing as I come in close contact with them. It's like I feel the energy within them, unbridled, that they transfer to me. Something about facing adversity together brings us closer and creates a special bond of brotherhood that is beyond regular friendship. Even though in the surface it might look like we are actively and aggressively trying to hurt each other, we are actually growing together, teaching each other, and pushing one another towards reaching our true potential.
Martial arts and my teammates have shown me to never give up, even if it looks hopeless, you have not lost until you finally stop fighting. As long as you keep fighting, there is a chance you will win!
About Steemsports
I am happy to see @steemsports as part of my feedback now to keep me updated on the latest news on the sports world! The posts that I have read are always well-written, well researched and also formatted in a way that is appealing and easy to read, so the effort that the presenters and managers put into the really shows.
I also enjoy that there is a variety of sports being covered (not only football!), including the biggest MMA fights that many of us are excited about. The commentary of the games is lively and really entertaining. Another aspect that Steemsports got right is that it not only informs, but also opens a dialogue adding opinion pieces and analysis, so readers can chime in and share their opinion or discuss their favorite games or the performance of their favorite athletes. You can see almost every post has lively, friendly discussions about the article.
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Image sources: All photos (except the first one) courtesy of the talented Phil IP X, photographer extraordinaire! The old Taekwondo pics were taken by my father.
Just follow and resteem this post if your steem.power is zero i will upvote your one post
upvote this post then comment your post link which you want should I upvote it
If you not following me you should follow me then do it
https://steemit.com/upvote/@crypto-booster/upvoting-started-followers
@crypto-booster
I won't. Steemit is not meant to be a "get rich quick" scheme, and this kind of behavior should be emphatically discouraged for it contributes nothing to the community and it's in fact detrimental to it because it only dilutes the quality content produced by other Steemians by making it harder to find and less visible. You can get followers and payouts by actually taking part in the community both sharing and interacting, instead of just trying to piggy-ride your way into earning a few cents.
By the way, if you use some basic punctuation, maybe people would be able to decipher what you are trying to say.
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STOPYour an awesome person! Im so impressed.
Now I feel flattered! Thanks for your kind comment.
@errymil can I ask you a favor? Just found out my post was selected as a finalist for the Steemsports giveway, so if you liked it you can go here:
https://steemit.com/steemsports/@steemsports/update-on-the-steemsports-2000-followers-giveaway
And cast your vote on the comments section (you only need to mention my username in your comment). And that's it! :-)
O sure! No problem i got your back
Thanks a lot! Have a great day ;)
That's a very interesting perspective on a sport that to an outsider might appear to be utterly violent.
What do you think made you decide to go for the "burn calories, look better" fitness exercise regime, as you say, in order to fix your shape instead of resorting back to your well-proven Taekwando practice?
I know that my Taekowndo coaches would probably tornado-kick me for saying this, but after almost five years of training 5x a week, I kinda felt like I had learned everything I needed to learn. At that point I had also fallen out of love with TDK a bit due to the heavy sportification of the art and the point-oriented sparring that was pushed into us. In other words, my relationship with TKD had ran its cycle. If I came back to martial arts, I wanted to learn something new.
I am a bit embarrassed to admit that afterwards I fell into that whole shallow fitness train because I was subtly brainwashed by all those "Bikini Body Programs" that suddenly became super popular in social media; I honestly thought that I could get a six pack and look like a fitness model in 12 weeks by doing lots of HIIT and cardio...
Also I think I found the thought of finding and joining a new Martial Arts academy a bit intimidating, so I put it off and started making excuses ("I will join one once I get into shape"). But one day I just called myself out and took the plunge, and now my only regret is not having done it much earlier!