“Mental Endurance”
Part 4- Recovery, and submission signals.
I hope it is safe to assume that when things reach their most challenging in “real” life, we don’t lie on our backs, scream and whine, and lose all mental and physical composure.
It is a privilege to watch people’s physical capabilities and capacities grow. In such, their ability to suffer with dignity develops.
Our training is structured to allow us to work hard all the time, push ourselves constantly, and put ourselves in the ground occasionally. It is on those occasions that the most focus and effort need be placed on the aftermath- both short and long term.
The immediate aftermath may be messy, chaotic, and uncomfortable, but in my opinion should not resemble the behavior in the opening line; By no means am I saying scale back intensity or output to avoid it, just that even at the highest levels it is avoidable. It seems unfitting to the effort itself to roll around afterwards as if in need of an exorcism and gasping as if you’ve never known how to breathe.
Instead, focus on what you’re feeling. Learn from it. Pull your breathing in, pick your head up, and good God… stay off your back.
You didn’t give up during, so don’t give up after.
Recovery is just as important as the work- hydration, nutrition, rest, stretching, massage, physical therapy, game planning and strategy… the list goes on as long as you’ll allow it to. The first 4 are mandatory and daily, and just like the training itself, if they aren’t well thought out and executed, progress will be limited.
One thing that recovery, fitness, and martial arts all have in common at the higher levels is deliberateness in execution, and a want of attention to detail.
When the details are understood and put in practice, even the occasionally overwhelming moments at the end of a vicious workout will wp-contentear as useful teachers.