Must have been about 30 years ago that I heard the saying, you don't go to a dojo for training. You go to a dojo to perfect your training. I was never able to remember where I first heard that because if I could remember, I would give that person credit certainly and a lot of credit because it is a paradigm shifter for me that happened, and it's something that I continue to fall back on with new students, as well as myself. When I say I find myself saying I'm gonna go train, I'm gonna do some training at the dojo, I really have to sort of recalibrate my own perspective of it.
The average is, you know, here in here in America, at least, people will go to a dojo on average twice a week, and they'll go in for an hour, and they'll go to, quote, unquote, train. I'd like to shift that perspective if this is the way that you approach it. And I'd like you to consider that only 20% of your understanding comes from in the dojo if you're very, very lucky and if you're extremely committed to Keiko or to training. The other 80% is on your own.
It's kind of that 80 20 rule. Now that's not a scientific study. It's just observation of doing this and teaching for 3 decades that the majority of your skill set, your understanding, your comprehension, and how you have made the art part of your way, part of your path That all happens on your own time, in your own space, through your own discipline, in your own commitment to practice.
Going to the dojo is the highest value of that is found in going to the dojo to perfect your training, to be able to bring your victories, your challenges, looking for criticism possibly, looking for review and critique, capturing new lessons, and being able to add to what you already have. But to actually go in and do the repetitions, maybe. Yes. That's okay.
However, if you've never heard this before, then I would invite you this week into considering that the dojo is a place for you to perfect your training and not to go and train. So then that brings us to the question, well, what of that 80%? What does that look like? How do we approach that so that it does have value? And and that's a great question. If you've never even thought of it, if you've just sort of considered solo training or just kinda working out on your own a thing and and maybe you have a workout routine, maybe you follow an app, or maybe you have something that you do at the gym. In this reflection, I wanna go deep on this topic because as a martial artist, as a traditional Japanese martial artist, this is an extremely important part of what I do, and I'd like to just sort of share my approach to it.
It may not be the right approach for you, but if I can get you at least thinking about what is the right approach for you then our time is well served together here, isn't it? So the first thing I wanna share is that I have 6 areas of self commitment that I really wanna zoom in on when it talks to building my own Jishu Geiko. Now this is the term we use in our art. It was a term that I learned from my teacher, and it just means independent practice. There's also hitori geiko, which is a more commonly used word, I think, or a 2 words, but a term. And that's solo training. And it's extremely important in the martial arts, to be able to do this.
In what I study though, It is paramount. It's so important. So anyway, there are like these 6 areas that I wanna share with you, and I'm gonna try to unpack each of them. And, hopefully, that will give you some inspiration to think of what is your path?
What is your path of jishu keiko look like? The first thing is I have a very stable evening and morning routine. Now I began building a morning routine, years years ago, long before it was a popular thing. I have a specific routine in the morning that I do when I wake up early, and my routine is probably different than your routine. But the thing is, is that I have one. And much later on, I realized that in order to have a strong morning routine in order to really start my day the way I want to do the way that I can control it, it means I have to have a strong evening routine. And when I realized that, I began focusing in with balance my evenings and my mornings.
Now what does this have to do with Jishu Keiko or solo practice? It has everything to do with it because it really my morning routine sets the pace for the rest of my day. And if my day is off balance, then I'm not gonna be able to harmonize throughout my day. The things that I want to accomplish are going to be out of tune. So to get the best out of this time that I commit to, I really wanna see and look at and optimize. How do I start my day? How do I finish my day?
And in between that in between that is my quality of sleep. Both of those or all three of those topics, their evening routine, quality sleep, and morning routine are beyond the scope of this conversation. However, I do wanna start it with, in order to have a strong jishu keiko, I start with that. Next is having a consistent meditation routine. Now if this is only 5 minutes, if this is just a a zazen that you do, for 5 or 10 minutes, great. If it's something more than that, great. If it has some type of faith based context to it, wonderful.
But you must have a clear mind to be able to step into training, and we're gonna get into the reasons why in a bit. However, I just wanna say that for my own josh geiko, being able to each day let your body rest, let your mind settle, and that and let your spirit be at ease. To be able to go there each day means you will have agency over the regulation of your physical self, of your emotional self, and the feelings happening within you within you and how your mind wanders or doesn't wander and you have control of it. So even if you're if you have a practice each day for 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 20 minutes of taking complete control of the regulation of that, then this is going to serve your solo practice huge, and we're gonna get into why more in a second. The third point, so my routines morning and evening. 2nd is my meditation routine. The third really teeing up my solo practice is making sure that I consistently journal.
Now the reason for this is because my journaling practice I do a Japanese, journaling practice called Nikon, which is it's a it's its own unique gratitude practice. But my journaling and my note keeping for my training is extremely important, and my practice in the discipline of journaling each day carries into my solo practice, tracking my own performance, writing my notes. How did I feel? How is my mind wandering? How is my visualization practice? How are my muscles feeling? I look at my watch and maybe I look at, you know, some of my health indicators and what does that look like?
What is my heart rate? How am I breathing?
So on and so forth. If you have a consistent journaling practice and it can only be a couple minutes in the morning, you are gonna find that your ability to record, track, and monitor your own solo training is going to increase in quality and enjoyment. Okay? That's it. The next and the 4th one is my own personal fitness routine. Now whether you have you you know, you you're a gym nut and you go to the gym or maybe you just like to run or you're a cyclist or you you have your own thing, you have to have some type of fitness routine. And next, I integrate my solo training, my own Jishu Keiko as a nonnegotiable part of my own fitness routine.
Now what does that look like? I keep my gym work separate. However, when I'm doing my gym work, I'm recording it in the same notebook. I am, focusing on areas that maybe, if something is coming up at the dojo, well, if I can do something at the gym that's gonna help support that, I'm aware of it. I'm cognizant of it, and I'm gonna do that work. Now I'm integrating my solo training into my fitness training, because, it's really going to speak to the in in the individual goals that I have. And there are a couple of sets of different goals.
There's my own personal fitness goals. And then there are also my martial art goals and and how I wanna build myself as a human from both of those, from my health and fitness. And that's the the optimizing. It's the personal hygiene. It is the, emotional hygiene that I do. All of that work in martial arts fits in there. It's fully integrated into that. Okay? I also wanna be able to consider what health restrictions I have and ultimately, where do I want the martial arts training to steer me in life?
Let me say that again. Where do I want this to take me? Why am I doing this? We spoke about this in the previous episode with my friend, Nick Kemp, when we talked about Ikigai and life's purpose and having a meaningful life. And what does that mean? To me, my martial arts is my ikigai. To me, my dojo is my Iba show.
If you haven't listened to that episode, go back and listen to it. There is a very unique purpose for my deep commitment to the study of Kobudo. Yours is different than mine. Everybody's may be a little bit different. Some are very similar, but we all have differences. I want to invite you into considering that this purpose be front and center just like your fitness goals.
Why are you working out? Is it because you wanna get more definition? Is it because you wanna have more of a chiseled body? You wanna be appealing to the opposite sex? You wanna feel you wanna have greater longevity. Possibly, you're getting, on in your years. You wanna have more vitality.
You wanna beat this the illness that almost took your life. You wanna be able to recover from something or you just wanna feel good. Whatever it is, you're doing it for a reason. You should also have your martial arts have a reason and that has to be considered in your solo training. I've had these conversations with my teacher and what he shared with me and others in our art as a good signpost to follow when it comes to solo training and integrating that into your day to day and integrating that into your own personal fitness routine is about 20 minutes each day of just striking, rolling, and some type of weapon if you have a weapon in your art. However, when for me, I'll do a lot of shadow work, a lot of shadow boxing, makiwara work, but a lot of, repetitions of kicking and striking different kicks. I will do stabilization drills where I kick and I'll extend a kick.
I'll hold it. I'll slowly retract it. I'll put it down, and then I'm gonna check-in on my body and see how that feels. From there, I'm gonna do my rolling drills. So my ukemi, I'm gonna do these exercises really slow. I'm gonna do my my, rolling, and, I'm gonna stay inside of the basics. I'm not gonna go hard.
In fact, I'm gonna go really slow. That way, I'm able to get a good stretch in my back. I will do a 3 second back roll. And when I'm doing this, I'm gonna I'm gonna focus in and I'm gonna put my mind's eye into those parts of my body that are getting extended through the role. And I'm gonna try to see, is there anywhere here that feels uncomfortable? Anything that feels painful? Anything that has tension in it?
And I wanna take note of that. So those 20 minutes really consist of a lot of striking. They consist of a lot of movement on the ground, and then they consist of committing to one weapon for a block of time and focusing on thorough blocks of technique. Usually, for me, that is inside of fundamentals. I'm not working in the space of kata. I will sometimes get to get prepared for upcoming, content in the dojo. I will do that.
But usually, I will spend if I'm working on, Rokushaku Bo or the or the Bo staff, then I will work on one area of the basics, and I will usually spend 4 weeks inside that, integrating that into my own solo training routine. I'm taking notes. I'm journaling. I'm drawing stick figures. If I'm doing something wrong, I'm taking notice of my legs, my knees, my depth, the extension of my arms, my body. I suffer from severe scoliosis, so I'm very cognizant of what my spine feels like. Am I leaning too far to the right?
Because that's the direction my back bends. So all of this gets put into my workout journal, and I'm constantly recording this information. Okay. Now the 6th and final thing, just to go back and review, I have my morning and evening routines. I also have a meditation routine that really helps prepare me to have control of my thoughts and my body when I go into solo practice. I journal that helps not only set my day and and and prepare my goals and keep me kind of focused, but it also helps train me to not just blow through a workout and not take notice and record the results. But it also helps me to stay very focused in my workout routine on where I'm going and where what I wanna get out of that routine.
And then I have an integrated workout as my solo routine that consists of 20 minutes daily of usually some type of striking routine, followed by some groundwork and some rolling, and then I will move on to a weapon. And I'll stay inside that weapon in that content for a period of time. The final part is, is very much staying committed to a dedicated space, period. End of story. Now this can be outdoors. It can be into indoors. It doesn't really matter, but this needs to become your dojo.
Now if you've ever practiced, any zen, if you've ever done a zen retreat or possibly you have a very, disciplined practice of zazen, then you know the importance in zen of having a dedicated space for that practice. No different here. No different. Instead of just going into your basement and doing a workout, set aside an area in your basement and have that area specifically for your Budo practice. Have it specifically for and if you choose to integrate in with your meditation or your zazen practice, great. Less is better though. Less stuff, better.
I choose I mean, I have the I I am not gonna say I have the privilege of having a dojo because it's been a lot of work, a lot of sacrifice, but I have my dojo. I also have my space in my home that's set aside only for that. In fact, the tatami mat has never even stepped on unless it is for that practice. I'm gonna encourage you to consider the same. Now finally, is getting the tools for jishu keiko correct? I have my wooden weapons. I have my Iaito, my training sword.
I also have my Subaru To. Also, the reason I'm bringing this up is having those tools set aside in this place. I also have specific training garments. I don't just go in with whatever I'm wearing or throw some shorts on to do my Kobudo training. I put on my uniform because it is part of my mind set.
Look, it's not a it's not cosplay. I'm not that that's not what this is about. It is 100% around the mindset training and very much stripping myself of my daily garments, stripping myself down to nothing, just complete nakedness, and then rebuilding myself with my Keiko gi and entering my training space to do that training that builds me up, which leads me to that goal that I just shared with you.
So this is my process of jishu keiko. There's one important point though, and really this is very much the topic of this episode. Before I get to that point, I wanna sort of digress and step back into something that I spoke about, and that's the notes. That's your notebook. The notebook to me is my gold. If my house is burning down, my notebook goes with me before the photos of my children go. And kids, if you listen to this, I'm sorry, but you know that's the truth.
Don't take it personal. My notebook, it that is the collection of my thoughts. It is my physicality. It is my reference to the lessons my teacher is making me responsible to carry forward. It is everything. But most important in the context of Jishu Keiko and solo training, it allows me the privilege of mental recall. I'm able to go back into my notes and not only review them, but also to after I practice something, I record it, And that is another process of recall.
And it allows me to if I have one technique or one kata or one exercise written down, I can go back into that exercise and I can optimize it over and over again. How many times have you gone back to your own notes? Because maybe, you trained with your teacher and then a couple years later, you train that same technique. And because your skill set advanced over those few years, you're able to look at the technique in a new way. My notes are living documents. They're always being updated. And in fact, I'm also updating them with, did this technique on this date in Japan with Sensei, topic was this, references were that, in red font or in a different color ink.
I might write the questions I asked and the answers he gave. So I'm able to reference all of that. Also, another important thing for me is to actually illustrate so much of this. Whether for you, that might be with stick figures or possibly including backgrounds, or maybe doing, drawings or sketches of your teacher, possibly even sketching out or, or or writing something that gives that reflects the emotion. Again, this all supports mental recall. Or it could be you're writing the kanji, and then you go and research the meaning, the origins of those words, of the names of those techniques, and maybe you even may advance forward even to learning how to brush them. That's completely up to you.
But the notebook is it is that that dent show of mine is an absolute treasure. This is something that every time I walk into the dojo goes with me. Every time I leave the dojo, it leaves with me. Every time I go to the gym, I bring my notebook with me. And every time I leave, obviously, it comes with me. I wake up in the morning, it's one of the first parts of my morning routine, and it's something I reflect on in the evening. I would encourage you to consider this.
Think about what that looks like in your life and in your own solo training. Next and finally, I wanna get to the biggest point of gShakeko. This is something that I don't know if you do do or if you don't do. If you don't, please, I'm asking you to consider this. If you do already do it, I hope some of the things that I'm gonna share with you here bring value. And if you're someone who's very skilled at it, I look forward to hearing back from you. Possibly, there's something here I may have missed or some learning opportunity I can take from you because this is a topic I'm very passionate about.
If you've ever worked with me in any of my programs, you know how important this is. And this is the way to train your brain, visualization. Now, I wanna share something that I used to do with my children's class, and this was one of the very first lessons that a young person learns in my dojo. Jumping is a big part of building leg strength. Right? I think we can all agree on that. Different ways of jumping help with balance, help with coordination.
Also, it's it's fun. Who doesn't like to jump? With the children though, I would have them jump the length that we begin at the length of their body. So if they lay down on the ground from their heel to the top of their foot, we measure it. And then from there, without taking a step into it, they have to bend their knees, load their hips, lean forward onto the balls of their feet, and launch their body like a rocket forward. And they have to land with 2 feet bending their knees, not losing balance as though they're jumping from 1 tree stump onto another and not falling off. So they have to land with balance, and that's the goal.
They begin with a small a a starting point, but the goal is to work up to where they can jump the entire length of their body. Then we go a little bit further, and most of the time, this is one full tatami length. Most of the time, when the young person is about 11, maybe 10 or 11, depending on how fit they are, I try to get them to start with their toes at the edge of 1 tatami and leap so that their heels clear the other edge. And this is really important, and I'll tell you why. Most of them can't do it when they begin. Most. I will say 9 out of 10 can't do it.
However, if they're really physically unable to do it, then I acknowledge that and I change the threshold. For most of them though, we begin with a visualization practice and even try this on your own. I have them close their eyes, and I have them feel the ground with the soles of their feet. Then I have them imagine what their toes look like bumped up against the seams of the 2 tatami against each other where they're standing. How cool do the mats feel under their feet? Then I have them I have them visualize with their eyes closed, lifting their eyes up, and looking at the seam of the mat across from them, looking at that large area that they have to leap. Then I have them visualize slowly bending their knees and then launching forward.
And as they're in the air, they can see the tatami passing underneath their feet, and then suddenly, that line passes under their feet. They land, they exhale, they bend their knees into a full squat in which they hold for just a moment, and then they stand back up proud of what they'd have had accomplished. This type of visualization is a guided imagery that I'm taking them through, but I don't wanna guide them through that and then jump. I then have them repeat that in silence. I have them do it in their own head. I have them give themselves permission, feeling how their legs feel, feeling how the mat feels under the soles of their feet, witnessing the mat pass under them, and then landing with the heels passing the far seam of the tatami. I'm here to tell you that 100% of the children who I've tested this with over 25 years and around somewhere around 3,000 children were successful at doing this.
Now I do wanna say that there are, of course, some children who just physically didn't have the ability to do that. I changed their threshold, and I'm gonna tell you, they did it as well to their own threshold. But the the gold standard in the dojo was really that one tatami length, and they couldn't do it. They couldn't even get their toes to the edge, most of them. They couldn't even get halfway through. But by the time they learned this visualization practice, they were able to successfully do it. Now there are 2 really great examples when we talk about the importance and the power of visualization.
I I wanna share with you, and then we're gonna get into how you incorporate this into your own g shu Keiko, into your own solo practice. The first example is one that is is quite popular. If you haven't heard the story, I wanna share it with you. If you have heard it, you're gonna hear it again. In 1996, there was an Israeli politician and a human rights activist, and his name was Natan Sharansky. If I if I if I pronounce that wrong, I'm I'm sorry, but Natan Sharansky, I'm trying to pronounce it correctly. But, anyway, he beat he, beat the world champion in chess, Garry Kasparov.
And really what's amazing about this is that, Kasparov was, at the time defeating everyone in the world, and Sharansky had been in prison. Now Sharansky was in prison, for 9 years in Russia, and it was learned later that he was wrongfully imprisoned, and he was in a 4 foot by 3 foot cell. He had zero access to a chess set, but in order to pass time in prison, he played move over move, game over game from game, game after game against Gary Kosparov. And every single game he played, he defeated him. Every single game. At this entire time, he had no access to a chess set. Every day, he defeated the world's greatest.
He visualized it. When he had been let out of prison and he was, in living in Israel, the world champion chess player visited Israel, and Sharansky asked to have a match with the world champion. And if you haven't figured it out by now, he beat the world champion because he had visualized it in his mind, and he had played it out over and over and over again. Incredible story. And by the way, if you haven't done so already, please read Sharansky's book Fear No Evil. Incredible. The second example is in a study, a scientific study that was published where researchers found that, practicing any task by visualizing it is, is extremely beneficial, to the outcome of that task.
But even further than that, the benefits of visualizing, they aren't just mental, but they can actually transform into the physical. And this is really an interesting study. The per the per people, the participants in the study, there were 2 groups. The first group visualize lifting weights, and doing the physical exercises in a gym, while the second group did no exercises. However, they visualized the same repetitions with the same weights in the same environment. Now, of course, the first group gained an increase in muscle mass, but the second group gained one half of the muscle mass as the first group simply through the visualization process. I'm gonna go ahead and provide the links to both of these examples if you wanna have some further, reference to these or learn more about them.
However, I really wanna spotlight the importance of visualization in your training. And now let's talk about how that is done in Jishu Keiko and why it's so important and how it can transform your own solo training. In Kobudo, we have Kasoteki, which is the sort of the, I don't wanna say, like, the pretend enemy or, like, that potential enemy or, like, a hypothetical opponent. But Caso is, like, imaginary, and the techie, of course, is, if you don't know it already, it's sort of the opponent. Right? And without the opponent, it can be said very easily without the visualization of an opponent being there. When you're doing a technique, you're pretty much just swinging your body around in the air, and and maybe you're getting some exercise, of course, but you're really not doing anything more than than throwing your arms around in the air.
You could be doing some muscle memory training. However, a whole another topic for a different episode and my feelings about muscle memory. But, you're not fully engaging the mind. You're only really engaging the body because you are kind of maybe having to recall the technique. Maybe the kata was like this or you're just swinging the sword around. You're going through your movements. However, without that opponent in place and without a number of different variables that we're gonna talk about, you're leaving a lot of money on the table here, for the time that you're investing in this training.
However, I do wanna say that when we talk about solo training and visualizing that kasoteki or visualizing that imaginary opponent. One thing that is important, this type of a lot of the techniques, it can't come from solo training alone. I'm a firm I I hear this all the time. I've been teaching students online since 2007. And I can't tell you how many times I've heard people say, oh, you can't study this stuff, without a good teacher. Yes. Yes. That goes without saying.
You have to have a teacher. You cannot learn a martial art. No matter how good you are, no matter how gifted you are off of YouTube, you have to have critique. You have to have a qualified understanding and strict teacher who treats you with compassion, holds you accountable, and wants to elevate you, but doesn't put up with your bullshit. That is very important. You also must have in order to develop feeling in a technique, you must have a real training partner from time to time. If you're someone who's restricted, you need to travel.
You need to find a training partner and be able to work with that partner as much as you can. And if that means once a month, if it means once every 3 months, if it even means once a year, it still has to happen. And once, you know, once this is initiated, once you've done this, what it's gonna do is it's gonna really expand the ability for proper and powerful visual visual visual visualization, through those new pressures, and through exposure of the actual physical training. I'm gonna give you an example of, like, in our martial art, we have an uke nagashi, which is a movement that is fundamentally where, one parries an oncoming attack, meanwhile, initiating a counter attack. You really kinda need to experience that with a live opponent in order to be able to do it in, visualization. But once you do have the feeling, once you understand it, and you've had someone coming at you with a strike or a cut, and you're able to train that that uke nagashi with under the watchful eye of a teacher and with an a training partner who has good solid commitment of executing an attack, well, then you're like, okay. I get how this is supposed to feel.
Now you can apply that feeling into your visualization, and you can begin to, with your Kasoteki, begin to have variation in, what it is that you're visualizing your opponent doing. Now what are the steps that I've been able to, really sort of distill down? What are the 3 most important steps when it comes to building visualization in your solo training? Whether you're doing, you know, whether you're doing forms or whether you're doing solo, like, weapons or whether you're doing, jujitsu, whatever it is. What what are the ways to visualize? And I've ripped it down to 3 m's of visualization. Mindset, mechanics, and matching.
And here's what I mean. First of all, mindset. Mindset visualization is when you are pushing past your own limits. The example of that was the children jumping the tatami length. That is pushing their mindset, giving them self permission to go beyond their own threshold, to go beyond their own beliefs. This is accomplished through exposure. It's accomplished through leadership.
It's accomplished through also through repetition and being able to write down and record where you were failing, what you think you need to do different, that way you can add that reflection into your own visualization. So pushing yourself past your own limitations and having and being able to have the mindset for this is the first visualization. The second is mechanics is and this is proficiency in form. Solo repetition with a focus on form and accuracy within your own body. So for example, if I'm doing a kata, and I'm having problems distributing the weight of my body, and I know each time I'm doing this wrong and for some reason, I keep lurching my spine forward or my knees buckling inward, like, I see it. I can feel it. Okay. That means I need to stop.
I need to visualize myself doing it correctly. I need to even step out of my body and look at myself, possibly, maybe even as if I'm looking at myself in the mirror doing it correctly. I need to visualize looking down at my knee and seeing a track over the foot. I need to have my mind programmed to what it should look like, what it should feel like, and then execute. So we have mindset, we have the mechanical, the biomechanics of visualization, and then we have the actual visual match. And this is where we apply pressure, against an opponent, and an opponent is applying pressure against us. And this is where the study of timing, space, and distance come in to visualization.
Now you wanna be able to randomize these techniques with kasoteki. However, you also wanna be able to visualize with simplicity one opponent many times over and over and then change it. Don't just change it every single time. So you're not going to 5 foot 3 Karen, who's a £120 to all all of a sudden, Markov, who's 6 foot 7 and £300. You're not going from a white belt to a black belt. You're not going from a champion to someone who's a beginner, every single time. You wanna train inside that one, that one set of variables, and you wanna make them very simple.
So let me go back and and say these 3 m's of visualization again. You wanna do visualization training for mindset to move yourself forward, your own personal thresholds, the own narratives that are holding you back, whatever they may be, give yourself permission to move forward. Then the next is your body, the biomechanics of your body, checking yourself, programming your mind to execute them correctly, and then match, being able to visualize against various opponents, various body types, and skill levels. Extremely important. Now, what does this look like when you're actually doing these 3 m's? When you're actually visualizing in your solo training, possibly you are working with Kasoteki. You are working with that sort of that imaginary opponent in front of you.
Well, the first thing is is don't slack on your kamae. Don't slack on your posture because nobody's looking because you're doing this in your dojo in your basement or in your dojo in your garage or your dojo in your in the woods. Don't slack. Hold your kamae 3 seconds. Muster up the intention within that kamae. Don't just strike a pose. Don't just stand in some awkward stance because, hey, whatever.
This is what the has written, so I'm just gonna start off from this position. That's cheating yourself. 2nd, kasoteki.
Keep it minimal. Keep it simple. Use one unique feature at a time and drill, drill, drill that one unique feature. If it's that student that that Kasoteki has long, legs and a a much deeper range than you, train it, review it, look at it from different angles. This is important. And then 3rd, commit all the ways through. Don't ever drop the guard even when you screw up, even when you make a mistake.
What do I mean by this? How many times have you seen someone halfway through a technique make a mistake and their arms just go limp? Maybe they smirk, they turn around, they walk away. No. No. Even if you make a mistake all the ways through to zanshin at the end, Even where you make those errors, this is this is the discipline of the training. Just half assing it, half baking it in your own jishu keiko.
You're only cheating yourself. There's nobody watching you and even if there was, nobody cares. In order for you to progress, you must have confidence in your body's language. You must have the correct intention of the form or the exercise that you're doing. You must use proper visualization wherever that's if it's mindset, if it's your biomechanics, if it's the person that you're about to compete with, or the person that's attacking you. Keep it minimal, but do it, and don't bail out at the end. Okay. So this brings me to the end.
I wanna just quickly go through this again. I wanna sort of just summarize everything. In order to really have a strong solo practice routine as a martial artist, you wanna make sure that you have your own routines, your daily routines in place, and that at all costs, nonnegotiable, you have the time set based on your own unique goals as a martial artist, based on the goals that you have with your physical self and how you're integrating this training into your fitness and your day to day, you commit to it. You don't find excuses because one excuse, as you know as well as I do, will quickly lead to the second. Well, I didn't show up yesterday yesterday, so I'm not gonna show up today. You know that that happens. So therefore, as a martial artist, acknowledge that one of the most important things is simply showing up.
You need to show up for yourself. That's gonna that's gonna happen. The probability of that happening is much higher if you have a morning routine, which is built upon an evening routine. Then you're gonna be able to control your mind when your mind is saying, no, dude. I don't wanna do this right now. Well, having a meditation practice in place means you will be able to regulate those decisions, not having emotional nonsense regulate those decisions, but you will have self control. Next is being able to record this stuff in a journal.
And you know what? If you miss, write it down. If you miss, take some accountability for that. If you miss your own solo training, take accountability. Put it in your journal. Also, have your own journaling practice, whether that's your goals, whether that's your even if it's your, like, your dreams, man. Just get in the practice of doing it. And then from there, figure out what works for you and commit to that in a dedicated space.
Have the tools present for correct training so that it's always there. Don't put it in a bag and bring it to the dojo because you're gonna forget it in your car, and then that's gonna give you a reason to not show up and train or to change up your routine and slack off somewhere. Have a committed space with all of your tools in there and go in with the correct mindset, correct uniform, just as you would the regular dojo.
This is mindset training. And don't forget, in that notebook, mental recall. That's what it's about. This is an evergreen living document.
You're drawing in it. You're using different forms of media. Even if you wanna tape articles in there that you cut out of a magazine, whatever you wanna do, this becomes your living dent show. When everything is all done, you really want to practice and make one of the most important areas of your training. Once you have all of this stuff in place, you want to make sure your Kasoteki is your number one training partner. That you're visualizing and you're studying. You're studying the power of visualization to help support your jishu keiko.
Now if you're able to put all of this in place and if you're able to really understand and utilize strong visualization so that you can increase your own personal thresholds. Your you can decrease your defeating self narratives, that you can get better body mechanics as a result of visual visualization, and your sparring numbers go up in the dojo because your Kasoteki is one badass dude, then you're gonna find amazingly that in other areas of your life, things are going to change. This isn't a promise. This isn't some woo woo crap.
This is experience. You will find that you will be able to control things with your mind better. You will be able to have, ownership and be able to shift your emotions. You're not gonna be as easily triggered. You're gonna be able to man, I really feel crazy saying this, but you're going to be able to manifest situations that are meaningful and valuable to you. And again, beyond the scope of this conversation, but this is training for that stuff. It's training for living a more expanded, and more sort of illuminated, like, on that path to satori.
This is that stuff. This is important and this is why we study Budo like we do. This is also just my opinion. And as I said, I would love to hear your feedback on this. I would love to hear what could help me. Maybe there's something that I missed in this. And don't forget, when you're doing this training, have confidence in your posture.
Have confidence in who you are. Show up correctly. Keep the kasoteki minimal, and commit all the ways through not dropping your guard, and don't ever give up.
