• CSP Home
• About CSP
• CSP Syllabus
• CSP Instructors
  • Al Peasland-Founder
  • Mick Tully
  • Mark Fry-Affiliate
  • Jim Burns-Affiliate
  • Steve Male-Affiliate
• MASTERCLASS-2010
• Training
  • Private Tuition
  • Classes
  • Seminars
  • Women Only Self Defence Days
• Corporate Services
  • Corporate Testimonials
  • Safety Awareness CRASH Course
  • Personal Security - Self Defence Courses
• Life Coaching -NLP
  • What is NLP
  • How NLP Can Help You
• Products
  • Books
  • DVDs
  • T-Shirts
  • Wrist-Bands
• Gallery
  • Rubbing Shoulders
  • General
  • Seminars
  • Video Clips
  • Clubbed
  • Snowman
• Articles
• Calendar
• Contact & Links

If you'd like to receive regular updates on new articles, products and seminars - why not join our mailing list today.

JOIN ME On...

AFFILIATIONS

Terry Barnett's
Integrated Arts

British Combat
Association

If You Can't See It

In my last short article I wrote about Choice. How we all have a choice in pretty much everything we do and feel.

This week, synchronicity has been playing it’s ace card again in the shape of a comment aired at my weekly training session with the amazing Terry Barnet. One thing he said hit home. It reminded me of something I always apply in my training, particularly my ground game and also of a message in one of my favourite films.

More coincidentally, it linked quite nicely to my Choice article, which is why I’ve decided to use this as my topic for this latest short piece.

Terry was explaining that we often chase and continue to hunt for positions or attacks when the opportunity has already passed. This is a very common problem in the ground fighting arts in that we will often keep trying to get the same arm bar or the same pin, even when the opening just simply isn’t there. We get fixated with trying to make the move work and often end up getting caught out ourselves because we become so target focused.

We can see this everywhere we look. From footage of Police officers struggling to get their cuffs on an un-compliant arrestee; continuing in vane when they would be far better off giving up on that course of action and gaining better control over the fugitive instead. I work with people on a daily basis who continue to press the same combination of keys on their computers, getting more and more frustrated that every time they do this, their machine crashes. And the surprise here is what??

Whilst it’s admirable to continue trying and to keep pushing in whatever you strive for, sometimes you have to be prepared to let go and try an alternative route, a different course of action that may still give the result you seek. Being so focused on one path, one way forward, can often mean you’ll miss cavernous opportunities elsewhere if only you could stop and look around a little.

Grappling and ground fighting is a beautiful place to demonstrate this analogy and it is where I have drawn the message for this article. For me, it seems obvious when I’m fighting on the ground to not get fixated with one move, being prepared to let go and try for something else. Accepting the failure of a technique merely as feedback that it didn’t give me the result I was expecting and not that it hasn’t or will never work. When I look in this world of physical combat I understand this message loud and clear and it is from here that I have sought to apply this principal elsewhere in my life, just as anyone else can.

The favourite film of mine that I hinted at above is called Innocent Moves. It is based on a true story about a little boy, Josh, who is an amazing chess player. To cut a long story short, a scene at the end of the film is particularly poignant. He is looking at his chess board in a competition against his main rival and knows that he should be able to win in 20 or 30 moves. The pieces are all familiar and he knows the win is on. The only problem is, he can’t see it. He can’t see where to move next in order to achieve this victory.

He becomes frustrated, just as we all do when we know what we want but aren’t sure how to get it. Or we have a glimpse of a winning arm-bar and now the opportunity has disappeared, but we continue to chase it anyway.

He says to himself “I can’t see it”
The voice of his mentor then comes into his head and reminds him
“Then don’t move”
Again, frustrated, he says to himself
“But I know it’s on – I just can’t see it”
And again, his calming mentor’s voice says to him
“Then just don’t move”

It’s a little out of context here but trust me, it’s a beautiful film and the message here is so perfect.

If you can’t see it, then don’t move. If you can’t see a clear opening on the ground, then don’t go for it. Look for something else. Be patient.
The most important thing however, is to have faith that it will come, that the opening will appear, that the moves will become clear. Forcing it is not the answer, gentle pressure and commitment is, but this requires patience, relaxation and faith not force.

Not moving, doesn’t mean sitting there forever, but it does mean not moving just for the sake of moving.
Being unhappy in your job, for example, isn’t reason enough to jump ship and grab the next passing vacancy you spot in the local paper. Nor does it mean sitting and festering in the job you hate forever. If you don’t know what it is you want to do with your life, then wait, be patient and don’t force it. Have faith that the answers and direction will appear. Then, when you do see it; grab it with both hands.

If you can’t see it, then don’t move, but when you DO see it, go for it; and let nothing stand in your way.
It takes courage to take a leap towards your own dreams and goals, but it also takes self control and discipline to stay where you are when frustration and lack of direction just wants you to move.
Change is only good if it’s for the right reasons and is in the direction you want. Don’t change just because you feel you have to, or, because you are unhappy where you are. Change when the opening presents itself or when you have engineered the clear path ahead.

This article may have rambled on a little, and perhaps digressed from my original message, but I guess what I’m trying to say is this;

If you can’t see what you want to do whether that be as big as a career move or as small as a technique in a round of sparring, then don’t chase it or force it.
Be prepared to let go of things a little, loosen the grip, be that physically or mentally. Be patient and open to new options, allow these ideas to flood in.
Have faith that these knew choices and directions will make themselves known.
Then, once you See It - Go For It, without hesitation.

If I’ve made no sense at all, watch Innocent Moves, it does a far better job of explaining my waffle than I ever could.

Until next time,

Stay Safe and Have Fun

Al

Return to Articles