Personal Protection ~ Are we truly training like warriors?

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Since leaving my career in law enforcement I've been struggling with the idea of being a full time private trainer and martial arts instructor. I wasn't quite sure what that should look like. During my first month after quitting the Alberta Sheriffs Dept. I watched a lot of television as I asked myself, “What is it I'm supposed to be doing.” I recently found someone who helped me find the answer.

I found my answer in the most unlikely of places - yoga. FTS has recently partnered with Body Soul Connexions, a wellness company in Okotoks, AB. The owner and primary instructor H.F. shared with me her training regime and schedule. She trains most weeks 7 days a week, minimum 5. When she's not training or teaching in the formal sense she's researching, writing and thinking about training. She promotes healthy living and sets a high standard for herself in terms of diet and exercise. Sometimes when she's at home doing daily chores she'll drop into a pose or use chores and work as extra exercise. She walks, runs and rides her bike regularly. Some days she's up as early as 5am to train. Sometimes she goes away for 6 week intensives where her sleep, training and diet are strictly regulated so that her skills can advance to the next level.

The more she shared with me her training routine the more I questioned how often we, as warriors, or worse as warrior trainers, could keep up with that routine. Often we say that we train in the warrior arts or we train others to be warriors. Yet we eat crap food, don't regulate our sleep or manage our stress appropriately, don't go to the gym, skip training classes and don't really apply ourselves while we are training. We go to training conferences and use it as an excuse to drink to excess and miss classes the next day and we laugh about it. Then when we teach recruits or students we use terms like “live the warrior lifestyle”, “follow the warrior code” and “take care of yourselves 'cuz it's a tough role.” Well I can assure you, we don't train, or act, the way warriors used to.

We look at the sensationalism of warrior cultures, the Spartans, the Samurai, Ninja, Paladins and countless others, yet we fail to realize these warriors trained to the point of exhaustion daily for their entire lives. They would laugh at 99% of us if they saw how we “train.” We create conditions so safe that there's hardly any contact, no chance of a trip, slip or fall; we are afraid to move because we might get hurt or be sore the next day. We skip classes and workouts regularly because “I'm tired, I don't want to, I don't feel like it.” We wonder why most professional warriors, and even a large percentage of warrior trainers, are overweight. We refuse to invest in ourselves, complain when our employer doesn't take care of us or want our instructors to motivate, encourage and push us.

And yet people who do yoga, an activity that doesn't prepare you for life or death conflicts, an activity that for the most part is recreational and therapeutic, are up at 5am training 1, 2, 3 times a day, 5-7days a week. Yet trying to get a martial arts student to commit to 3 - 90 minute classes per week is like pulling teeth. Am I the only one that sees something wrong with this picture?

I didn't tell her I was writing this article so out of respect for her privacy I won't use her name, but thank you H.F. for the inspiration and for showing me what it means to be a professional. I for one am getting off my butt, no more excuses for missing class or workouts, no more eating junk and trying to justify it to myself, no more abusing training and learning opportunities as excuses to destroy my body. For years I've thought of myself as a warrior, but wasn't really applying myself to that standard. I urge all of you to evaluate your training and ask yourself who's more of a warrior? You, for all your talk and lip service, or the H.F.'s of the world who are truly taking their craft seriously?

Stay safe, be well.
Sensei Tom Gillis
www.ftsma.com
tom@ftsma.com