30 Day Challenge/Day 30: Ending the Challenge
Well here we are finally through the challenge. I appreciate all of you that have endured this journey with me. For the most part it was an opportunity to define the Universal Martial Arts Sciences (UMAS) Precept. A precept is a general rule intended to regulate behavior or thought. This outline of Core Principles, Situational Controls, Levels of Motivations, Conditions of Comfort and Ultimate Purpose guide and outline for us how we understand and navigate the vast aspects of the Martial Arts and Self Defense applications.
We (The Sr. Ranks of Attitude First and myself) spent over a year laying this out. There were several drafts and even now this draft is a “living” outline ready for improvement and refinement. We conferred with Mr. Hancock about several aspects and applied much of his viewpoints. We discussed, argued, agreed, disagreed, proved, disproved so many aspects of what we do and how we would teach and mentor our members through the outline.
It truly was a valuable experience as often times when training, we take for granted that what we are taught is absolute. In the dynamic aspects of the Martial Arts there are few absolutes outside of what is the “Result” of the ACTION. Things can be added, adjusted, altered, rearranged, and even deleted all refining the motions at that given moment. What is, “Is” and then we make new choices from there. So attempting to define a general outline of concepts intended to establish a set of behaviors and habits was extremely difficult.
For us, it really is an outline of every lesson. Every theory, concept and principle that we train can be directly expressed and related through the outline of the Precept. Usually towards the end of each lesson, I review back through the lesson and how it relates to what we call the 5-4-3-2-1 and ultimately how the lesson, if continued will help to improve the student outside the confinements of the mat.
I can understand that also over the past 30 Articles it may have been somewhat frustrating as I continually kept referring to other articles. I personally find the connections to be the beauty of both the Arts and the Sciences. Sure the ideas and concepts can stand on their own but it’s their interconnections that makes them so significant. “The Whole is Greater than the Sum of its Parts.” First coined by the philosopher Aristotle, this phrase aptly defines the modern concept of synergy. Synergy is what allows the principles to work together creating greater effects in all our ACTIONs. These articles ideally all work together to give a greater understanding of our training process at Attitude First Martial Arts.
If you have questions or comments please feel free to write to info@attitudefirst.com
I will personally respond. Thanks again for reading.
