the rum soaked fist: internal martial arts forum

Bhassler wrote:As far as I know Dan John is the only one who uses the specific term "arousal", but the concept is well understood in the competitive sports world. So, I wouldn't say that has anything to do with "internal", specifically. Moreover, I think most "external" athletes (like competitive MMA or BJJ guys) have a much better understanding of what it is and how to train with it than your typical IMA expert. This may be a significant factor on why IMA guys keep losing fights...

The next post in this Triad is the “Arousal” continuum. Of all the things I teach and preach, this is the most delicate. Now, I hadn’t put a name on this until recently, but my training certainly had the basics in it. Quick example: when in college, I had a meet against another school where it was painfully obvious that I was going to win and win big. I won’t mention the school because possibly my daughter goes there.

These guys were so bad, so poorly trained and coached, that it was hurting me as a thrower to watch them warm up and compete. These guys were not at the level of most high school kids I train. Coach Ralph Maughan came over to me and explained to me that I would spend the afternoon “Honoring them with my best performance.” As a thrower, it’s always about the individual, but I dialed up my intensity, my arousal, to somewhere around eight or nine on the scale. And, since a bunch of my readers are thinking this any way…the scale goes to “Eleven.”
Here…Nigel on “Eleven.”
Now, flip this to the Nationals or any other big event. Watch people get introduced and then walk around in a daze. Their arousal meter is on zero. To throw the discus far, or do whatever you do, you need to actively find the right place on the arousal scale. The Olympic trials might be as low as two or three for some. A massive deadlift is going to be all the way to eleven.

I use many tools to teach this. In “The Contrarian Book for the Discus Throw,” available free on my site, I have the “One Throw Competition.” The idea is to actually mess with the athlete’s head so that they learn to dial up and down the intensity needed to compete.

I hate that crap they do before NFL games where you get a guy yelling and woofing and screaming. Go to the games: it’s a set piece. Often, the guys yelling the most are not starters. Often? Probably always. Sure, sometimes you see a Quarterback there, but I would tell you that this is just either showboating or stupid. A QB needs to control his arousal. Any sport that demands “touch” is going to be important for arousal control. Sure, you can scream out as loud as you like before a 100 mile race, but I doubt it will do much for you at the 80 mile mark.

Glide Shot putters need more arousal than discus throwers. I know that when I played football, too much arousal made me lose my ability to focus on jobs I had to do. I usually had three tasks on defense and the opponent’s job is to get me off my task. Against El Camino, the wide receivers kept chopping me (legal at the time, but it was still considered poor play), so I went on a vengeful warpath. It didn’t help. My arousal to get revenge, played with my brain…I should have just lined up wider and took the angles away. So, you can get killed with poor arousal control.

It is possible to be too excited. In track, especially the throws and horizontal jumps, it is not uncommon to see the best marks happen in warm ups. But, long warm ups are poison as they tend to make the athlete just deflate like a balloon with a bad knot. PHHHHHHHHHHHHHH…and you are all done.

It’s been interesting to watch how some throwers always look for the new shiny penny when it comes to strength training. Their success or failure is rarely based on performance in the weight room. Of course, I always joke about strength coaches: “Last hired, first fired.”

A much better assessment for throwers is arousal levels. “I had nothing” indicates that we perhaps needed more meets where we actively worked on excitement or dullness up and down. I had an interesting experience a few weeks ago when a thrower told me the “I had nothing” story. It was the first meet of the year. The event started at eight in the morning. The athlete hadn’t had a bowel movement in a few days. Yes, that is a factor and if you think I am joking, it’s obvious you haven’t been around long enough.

My questions: How many times have you trained at eight? “Never.”

All further questions were worthless. If you have never trained in the morning, it’s really hard to compete. I like to get up on competition day really early to insure I take care of nature’s calls. I also preload myself with a lot of Sugar Free Orange Flavored Metamucil. If you think I am joking, go to a big track meet and compete. You will learn. You will learn.

So, how do you control arousal at eight in the morning? First, you have to practice then and see how much extra time you need to feel normal. I noticed this late in my career in the Stone Put at Highland Games. It is almost always the first event and some guys are barely out of bed, rubbing sleepies from their eyes, and looking for coffee. I felt that this was the reason my record at winning the Stone Put was so good: I got up early and spent a good amount of time drinking coffee, eating, relaxing and warming up. Folks, this stuff adds up!

The University of Hawaii has a wonderful home football field advantage called “Hawaii.” To get them back, so to speak, Air Force schedules their home games with Hawaii in cold and high Colorado at ten in the morning local time which is not the same as Hawaiian standard time in terms of sleep and warmth.

Strength coaches teach arousal every minute of every session. It’s so natural to rev the engine up a little more as we add load. A concentration curl is going to need less fierceness than a max deadlift. We all know this. My point is simple: carry it over into the technical and tactical work, too.

"What makes SERE school so unique is the stress tailored to the individual Soldier. Regardless of a Soldier's background, the SERE-C training approach exploits his or her weakness in order to induce the most amount of stress safely and effectively," said Maj. Anthony Hanson, commander, U.S. Army SERE School at Fort Rucker.

Therefore, one who is good at being a warrior doesn't make a show of his might;
One who is good in battle doesn't get angry;
One who is good at defeating the enemy doesn't engage him.
And one who is good at using men places himself below them.
This is called the virtue of not competing;
This is called [correctly] using men;
This is called matching Heaven.
It's the high point of the past.

everything wrote:The Chinese phrase for get angry, 生 氣, sheng qi, we could literally translate as "give birth to qi".

everything wrote: I got angry (playing a video game), felt strong, swung a KB a bit harder than normal,