Putting In 100%

 
If you’re a fan of the TV series The Apprentice you’ll be very familiar with a certain, popular phrase. No, not "you're fired!". The other one:

“I need everyone to put in 150% on this task”.

(Normally said by the project manager to inspire their team members before a task. This is ensure victory and avoid one of the team being later told by Alan Sugar, "you're fired!").

While I understand the sentiment, essentially "I want everyone to work really hard", the phrase always makes me smile; surely, if you put in 100% effort, commitment or concentration to a given task, you’ve already put in all you have. 100% is everything, or so I always thought. So where are you going find an additional 50% of yourself?

To put in 100% simply isn’t enough anymore. In fact, nowadays it seems that if you were to say that you were “putting in 150%”, your level of commitment may well be questioned. Why are you not putting in 200%?

Which is why I’m often intrigued when I notice students in class giving what appears to be far less than 100%.

Time is priceless.

We all know that if we were not at class, there are at least 10 other things that we could be doing, eg.

Homework or assignments
Watching TV
Still at work
Working at home
Playing games or other sports and hobbies
Chatting on the phone
Spending time with family/friends/partners/children etc.
Cooking dinner
Clearing up the house

The list is endless and you get the idea: if you’ve made the decision to come to class, then why not try and make it worthwhile and put in the effort?

Yes...you’ll have to force yourself, but that’s the basis for developing self discipline: to force yourself to do things whether you want to or not.

Yes...we all have those days in class when our minds are distracted by a variety of things (see list above for starters), but sometimes the class creates a positive distraction to help take your mind away from the items in the list for an hour. Adult students often say that the class gives them a chance to ‘focus on themselves’, which I completely understand.

Similarly, yes...you can only get out what you put in. If you’re putting in 100% only then can you begin to really gain and appreciate the host of benefits that Choi Kwang-Do martial art training provides. You might even perspire - your own evidence of hard work!

For the record, I’m happy if you’re striving to give ‘just’ 100% effort, commitment or concentration in each and every class, as the majority of you do. Moveover, your efforts help to motivate others to do the same by making high levels of effort the class norm. If you haven't already, make the decision now to become a member of the '100 club' - martial arts students who strive to give 100% each and every class. Or maybe the '150 club' if you're applying for next series of The Apprentice...

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Jason Wright is a 5th Degree Black Belt and Master Instructor in the martial art Choi Kwang-Do. For further information on Choi Kwang-Do classes in Ealing, West London visit www.TheMartialArtForLife.com

Throw Yourself Into It!

Roughly a year ago I had our adult students working on sliding kicks.

The technical aspect of what these are isn't really that important but just to provide some context, as the name implies sliding kicks involves performing a kick whilst sliding forwards towards the target. It's a way of covering distance dynamically to reach an out of range target while simultaneously attacking. It's faster than taking a separate step forward towards the target and then kicking. Plus, it can also result in a more powerful kick as the whole body weight is being thrust forwards with the kick.

Officially, sliding kicks occur in the Choi Kwang-Do curriculum at 2nd Degree Black Belt but this wasn't a Black Belt Class. In fact, there were only three black belts in the entire class of 16 that evening...one of them being me!

So why was I getting the students to do this?

The first reason was that it was a fun challenge for many, without straying too far outside of what they would normally be working on, eg. basic kicks with the target in a comfortable range whereby a slide is not required. However, the main lesson behind the lesson (if you see what I mean) was that to perform a sliding kick you have to throw yourself into it.

Physically speaking, you really do have you launch your body weight towards the target but in a controlled manner. If you don't, you simply won't cover the distance and reach the target. If you do, your balance (and subsequent power) will be negatively affected. This is quite a radical change for most students because they would have been initially taught to kick from a stationary position without sliding.

Emotionally speaking there can be even more to learn. Once you have practised and realised the need to launch your body weight towards the target, you're less likely to hesitate when approaching similar techniques in the future.
You will have already demonstrated to yourself that to complete particular tasks, you sometimes have to overcome self-induced obstacles.

Of course, among the more junior students there was lots of hesitation at first. Perfectly natural given the circumstances, but that was that whole point; to enable the students to recognise when this is happening, when they may be deliberating over a task that has little or no damaging outcomes.

Make a decision.
Affirm commitment.
Throw yourself into it!

There are many areas of life whereby unless we make a commitment and throw ourselves into something, before starting we've already limited the experience we could potentially receive. A valuable and useful lesson for me, the students...and maybe for you too?

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Jason Wright is a 5th Degree Black Belt and Master Instructor in the martial art Choi Kwang-Do. For further information on Choi Kwang-Do classes in Ealing, West London visit www.TheMartialArtForLife.com