Whenever I talk about Martial Arts, most people
ask me about which Dan and which Belt was I in. And this happens especially
about Karaté. Most of these people unknowing that in Capoeira there’s also different
cords (not a bet, but cords with different colors to show your level), in
KravMaga there´s the school symbol with different colors, and so on. This is to
say, that in each Martial Art there’s a differential between the level of the
student or of the master.
In my life, I never had been interested in achieving
the top of any martial art. Never had the dream of culminating any of the many,
many, many interests I’ve came across. Why? I got bored too soon, I try to live
the most of the things I try, I concentrate in absolving as much as possible
almost in a sick kind of way… I breath, I eat, I dream of that thing, until it
comes repetitive over and over and over again, so I understand there´s nothing
new to give me… just consistency. Doing the same thing someone invented a millennium
ago, was not my objective, though I respect the effort it takes to evolve in
Karate and in other Martial Arts that live that way.
In Martial Arts and in most things in life, if
you want to be THE BEST, or if you aspire, or need to be THE BEST, you need consistency.
You need the have a plan. You need to maintain your objective, your goal and
never back down. The objective must be so powerful in your life, so overwhelming
that will give you strength to continue and to prevail. Personally, I never
found one. Never found something so gigantic inside of me that would erase all
else.
Which was what most of times, happened to me. I
loved Karate, until the day I was in a Karaté match with someone better than
me. He won. I saw my mistakes, and got to the conclusion that there was no way
for me to get better at that point. I got unsecure/unsure with my knowledge about
Self Defence. One touch was one Ippon. I could take that Ippon and continue
fighing… which was strange. It’s very difficult to take down someone, with one touch
like that. So I tried Capoeira (the only Martial Art I got my hands on, in such
short notice…).
Capoeira brought me another difficulty. In my opinion
too much equilibrium was at stake, if you fell down once, you had a problem. And
you had to be physically fit all the time. And training a lot, and having a
group of friend, and so on.
Then came MuayThai and Boxe (same teacher in
both classes), in Gracie Barra Lisbon. This kept my interest for over 2 years,
not because I was learning new things, but because it was fun to hit that hard
and good for letting out steam and stress. Now we had a hard hitting, hard
defending, stable stance style that could make me feel somewhat secure about
how to defense myself without putting me in more harm’s way. But still, it was
made for ring fighting, not street, not everyday problems, but great fun and
great challenge.
That was when Krav Maga came to action. My
favorite for over a year, and made great friends specialized in Krav Maga… It
had it all: hard hitting, hard defending, sometimes simultaneously… great
stance, great equilibrium, great common sense… in MY opinion the BEST way to
feel secure in the streets.
NOW I’m doing my first steps in a newer
style/method of Personal Defence… KEISY. Not a style for military situations,
nor security… I´m not going to talk about it right now, not my objective at the
moment. My idea is to concentrate the effort on having NO SHAPE.
IT’s very difficult to live this philosophy. I’m
having difficulties myself… the shapes of “my kind of professional work” or “the
best type of teacher” or “what is expected”, is a very difficult obstacle to
FLOW with.
I shall try to talk more about the way Martial Arts and Professional Life can conciliate one with another... philosophically speaking.
