shaolin news & inspiration

This summer, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Senior Master Lisa and Senior Master Steve for a wide-ranging conversation about training in the martial arts. The topics we covered included maintaining motivation, visualization in training, and cross training. I’m excited to share this conversation with our students across a few blog posts. 

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Part 1: Training and motivation (Master Lisa)

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M. Michele: Training can be different for each of us, and how we train can change throughout our martial arts practice. Can you talk about how you’ve trained?

M. Lisa: So, through most of my martial arts journey, I’ve actually had to train solo. I started when I was 16, and when I went off to college I’d come back on break, take lessons and load up on what I needed to work on, then go back to college and practice. After I graduated, I moved down to Philadelphia, and I would still drive back up to New England to take a lesson, load up, then go back and train on my own. For most of that time there was no one to punch in for me, so it was a lot of focus on forms and a lot of focus on doing things in the air. Then, Steve and I met and I was gone from the Northeast for over 10 years. During that time my training routine was pretty much forms, doing things in the air, and just trying to visualize. I think a really foundational lesson for people who want to make long-term training work for them - particularly high ranks - is to not rely only on coming to class. To be a high ranked martial artist, it’s imperative to spend time on your own doing forms and doing things in the air and visualizing what you’re doing. [More on visualization in our next post from this conversation.]

I was a 2nd degree BB when I moved away for that 10 years. When we moved to Pittsburgh I reconnected with Grandmaster DeMasco and started training again. Even then, I would go to Long Island and get material, come back to Pittsburgh and train. And we didn’t have a dojo in Pittsburgh then. Practice was outside, in a basketball court, at the fitness center where we worked out. Even when we opened the dojo, it was that same model of go to a training session, get material, and train on my own. I guess what I’m getting to with this is that, if this is a Journey that people want to be on for a long time, the commitment needs to be made to train solo, which is sometimes very lonely. I was fortunate that once I started training Steve, I had a training partner, and I’ve had training partners like you, but pretty much it’s been a solo Journey.

M. Michele: How did you maintain your motivation through that? Did it go up and down?

M. Lisa: During that 10 year stretch when we left the Northeast, I really never put a belt on (my 2nd degree Black Belt). So it truly, truly was just for the love of the art. So I would say that if people are doing this with a feeling of “I have to” and it starts to become a grind, they should just take a break if they’re training.  What motivated me was nothing about a rank, nothing about a test; it was just that my body loved training in the martial arts. It loved it from the first time I stepped on the dojo floor. I was like “Oh, this is something I love doing.” And it was something that, while I would never say it came easy, with enough focus I ended up being pretty good at. 

And there have been times when I’ve been really unmotivated, and I have just taken a break. And people should realize that’s not atypical with long-careered martial artists. I wouldn’t say that I’ve ever taken a long break. It’s really just been woven into my workout routine.

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We all practice the martial arts for many different and very personal reasons. The practice is both exceptionally rewarding and extraordinarily challenging. When “I have to” becomes the primary reason to keep going, resting, reflecting, and resetting can be an essential way of restoring motivation.

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