Adulting, Fit, Confident

OK, so you've reached that part of your life where you should be adulting all over the place.

This isn't easy, and you can lose track of what's important. You've got to take care of yourself.

So, being out of school, you'd better learn be a confident person, and to be keeping fit.

If you like ball-related activities, the fitness thing is pretty easy to sort out.

Team sports are a bit tricky. It's hard to get large groups of folks together to play, for example, volleyball. It only gets harder with time. Small groups just work out better.

There's tennis, and golf, and stuff like pickleball. Lots of things like that. My good friend Bernie plays pickleball and badminton.

The only issue, is that you still need to join some kind of league, or group, or just to know a few people who share your interest to go play the front nine. Bernie's groups always want him to join their executive committee.

Or maybe you just might be like me and despise anything to do with team sports, or things played with balls, or birds, or pucks.

Running can work, or biking, or something less traditional. Our area has fencing. En garde!

Find your thing, get fit, and have fun.

But wouldn't it be cool to do something that increases your level of confidence at the exact same time.

Nothing I've listed so far are a-list activities in this regard. I think learning to speak Japanese or Spanish would do more for me in that regard than playing tennis. The only problem is, taking academic courses does nothing for the old bod'.

Here comes the sales pitch; consider martial arts.

Although a Karate guy for decades, I'm currently training in Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, so will come at it from that angle.

You go to a class, receive instruction, and practise the material with some other people.

Before you get all worried and think somebody is going to beat you up, relax. There is nothing even remotely similar to fighting in the beginner class.

You get shown two techniques per evening; one while standing, and one on the ground. The ground one usually has a few variations.

The instructor demonstrates things one bit at a time, from several angles, and in great detail. Then you work on it with another new person. The instructor and a bunch of helpers cruise around and assist. After a few minutes it's time for the next demo of the next bit. Then you work on that.

Before you know it the hour is over. Nobody grabbed you and threw you about, making you feel stupid, or hurting you. You do this twice a week, for about a year.

Towards the end of that period, you will experience having an advanced student sort of attacking you, but only with a series of exactly the aggressive moves that you've been learning how to handle. They do it exactly the way you expect, and you will find that the “correct” response comes naturally to you. Don't worry about being unable. I've been training for four years, and every single person to have joined in that time has been able to handle this.

If you've made it through the program for that long, you will find yourself surrounded by people far less experienced than yourself. The only ones with more training are the teacher assistants, and other members of the advanced class.

Maybe you choose to do the exam to become one of them. If you do, you will be introduced to the intimidating world of free sparring. The cool thing is that your partners really want you to succeed, and will offer pointers, and go at a speed and intensity appropriate to your newby-hood. Soon, this too will become second nature.

So what do you get if you don't join the advanced class? For one thing, you'll be more fit. If you didn't increase your eating, your weight will have been dropping about 1/4 pound a week. You'll also have gained muscle. You will be stronger.

You'll also have participated in a year-long course focused totally on self-defence. You will have worked with folks of every size and strength, cooperatively. You will be quite used to handling big folks pretending to be aggressive and out to take your head off.

Perhaps you visit a pub with a few friends one evening. You look around and think, “I bet I could handle anybody here.”

That's a pretty cool feeling, especially if you're a smallish dude. It's even better if you are a 5', hundred-pound chick.

Keep coming and it gets even better. So you take the test, and earn a fancy schmancy Blue Belt. You'll be training even more, and your body will become even stronger, and if you so choose, thinner. You will learn infinitely more complicated material, but it will be introduced in a progressive manner.

You'll get even more confident visiting that pub, or in the mall, or everywhere. It's nice, and you don't get that from golf, tennis, or jogging.

So what else do you get that goes along having a better life? I had a friend in Karate who maintained almost perfect attendance. He was single, and had a decent job. One day at coffee, various people explained why they trained. His contribution was that if he wasn't at Karate, he'd be at the bar, which would be bad for him, and would cost a fortune over time. His conclusion was that he didn't care what it cost, martial arts were saving him a big bucks.

The downside is that you might miss out on some TV watching, or Facebooking, or Pinteresting, or even reading my blog.