Archive for the ‘advice’ Category

Never Limit What You Think You Can Do

Know Your Limits…

bleh. Reach beyond them

Due to changes in her school schedule, travel and time constraints our previous and wonderful yoga instructor sadly said goodbye to Community Martial Arts. Of course this left me in a conundrum. The Yoga class isn’t a huge class but has a few dedicated individuals who truly love being in the Yoga class.

I didn’t have a replacement.

But…I have done yoga for a few years personally and for several years it was a part of our training regimen for warm up before class in the adult program.

I could have said… well, this isn’t going well so we can just cut the class. But I know that there are genuine benefits to Yoga. It is extremely beneficial for so many things.

If you have never tried it before, you would be amazed at what Yoga can do for your body. Not only will you strengthen and tone your body, you will also lose weight and feel great.

A typical Yoga class involves slow gentle movements, holding postures, and finishing with a few minutes of relaxed meditation. All of which take the body gently step by step into a gradual progression of intensity and cool down. I always feel great afterwards.

As of late, I have had lots of digestive trouble. I have had to change my diet over to Vegetarianism which has seemed to do the trick. I also needed to add more exercise into my regimen. I could say that I am too busy. I could say that I don’t look like your average spunky supermodel-esque yoga instructor. It doesn’t matter. I am going to exceed my own limits and teach Yoga. You never know what you can achieve until you reach beyond yourself!

Yoga is hugely beneficial for martial artists as well! The Yoga program is a scientific sequence designed to improve martial arts and self defense movements with an emphasis on defeating the ego, your first opponent in any fight.

That is why I am giving away a HUGE SPECIAL to all my students…

Yoga is FREE FOR ONE MONTH

Just show up to classes on Monday or Wednesday at 5:30 PM

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It is time to up the intensity

Testing is around the corner…

Are you ready?

One of the biggest things I have noticed and has been commented by the other instructors is the lack of intensity we see when students do their forms.

It isn’t that the students do not understand what we are saying or haven’t observed us putting our all in our forms, it comes down to just not doing it.

When we practice, it is important to put our heart and soul into it. It has often been said that the way you practice is the way you will respond in real life.

So if you were ever faced with the situation where you actually had to use your self defense skills, how would you fare?

If the old addage is true and you practice like a slug on sleeping pills you might not come out of the confrontation the way you invisioned. You might come out much worse!

Upping the intensity is the key. When you practice striking or kicking, do it with power and intensity. Do it with the mindest that if someone was attacking you, you could defend yourself. Practice as if your survival was at stake.

Here are some key indicators as if you are practicing in class with the right intensity:

• Are you sweating?
• Do you feel like you got a workout at the end of class?
• Do you feel confident with your abilities?
• Do you feel know deep down you can defend yourself?
• When you leave class to you feel you left your all on the mat?

Take this into consideration as it will dramatically improve your performance in class. If you are discouraged that you are not advancing as quickly as you would like (a key indicator), take some time and really put yourself to the test. Push yourself in class and get the absolute most out of it.

While it is the instructor’s job to teach you, it is your job to put it to use in your own way.

– Master Jeff Barnes

[youtube ug0ZZiLV1XY Martial Arts and Self Defense Evansville Indiana]

Tonight we focused on eye-hand coordination drills for the kids and followed up with some great sparring drills. The adults warmed up to a great workout and finished with more sparring drills and actual sparring. Fun was had by all.

First and foremost it is a New Year. With the launch of this new site, I want to wish everyone a very prosperous new year. 2009 already looks like it is going to be fun filled and very successful.

With all the television commercials we see out there about weight loss and changing habits, we sometimes become numb to the reevaluation of our habits. Keeping a eye on our processes is important to our business. I get tired and worn out. I sometimes get stuck doing the same things over and over because they seem to be driving results to my door. Why Change? It is always a good process to reevaluate your marketing to see if it really is driving the results you are looking for. Being a small business owner, we want to make sure we are getting the most bang for each dollar spent. Often marketing returns diminish with time.

With our current economic situation it is very important that when we spend money we are going to get the absolute best return on our investment. Here are a few things I am doing to clean to ensure that I am getting the best return:

• Clean up my direct mail list - Am I targeting the right customers?
• Evaluate my marketing mix - Do I get the number of new leads or business each month?
• Website clean up - Does my website reflect what business I am trying to attract or sell?
• Trends - What trends do I see with my marketing efforts as they reflect sales
• Customers - Does my target marketing efforts match who is actually buying my product?

These are just a simple list of things that I am doing to spruce up my New Year. Take time out this week to evaluate your marketing efforts and clean things up, reevaluate your marketing efforts and prepare for a prosperous New Year.