Arrowhead Martial Arts Studio Blog

Martial Arts Training Tips, Ideas, and Random Thoughts

About the Author: Ryan Wheaton has been teaching American Kenpo since 1991 and is the chief instructor at Arrowhead Martial Arts Studio in Salt Lake City, Utah. He is an internationally certified 6th degree black belt and personal student of 10th degree black belt Paul Mills. Ryan sits on the Board of Directors for the American Kenpo Karate International (AKKI) and is also a regular seminar presenter at AKKI National & International events.

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5/11/2008

Digging Deep

Filed under: Martial Arts Training — Ryan Wheaton

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If you’ve never experienced the adrenal dump that can happen during an altercation, let me tell you, it can send a quick chill right up your spine.

All of a sudden you get this rush of adrenalin and a surge of energy enters your body. Then, almost as quickly as it arrives, it leaves your body and you’re left staring at your opponent hoping and praying he’s feeling the same thing.

But what if he’s on the front end of the surge and you’re on the back end?

You need to be able to dig deep and push through it. You need to tap into energy you can’t imagine is there when you hit that rock bottom.

But how do you get there short of going out and getting into a fight and experiencing it first hand?

Let me suggest something less aggressive.

Some days in class, you need to push yourself beyond your limits. You need to find where you breaking point… where you’re completely out of breath…out of energy…out everything. You need to push yourself to sheer exhaustion. Then, get over it and push on.

The more you do this in class, the less overwhelmed you’ll be if you’re ever in an altercation.

Believe me, having this happen in a real encounter is the last place you want to experience this. Do it in class, first.

2 Comments »

  1. What a great post. It’s all in the training. You fight the way you train. So, lets train hard so when the time comes we fight hard and live to brag about it.

    Comment by Joe — 5/12/2008 @

  2. This is a very good post. Very inspiring to me personally, I know I need the “dig in” training that we have done in class from time to time. Each time we do it, I think my body suffers less and it seems less hard on me. Diggin in is a hard one, but I do see the benifits. No on wants to run out of energy or air during a confrontation… and no one wants to be dead in the water, especially me.

    Comment by Cory — 5/15/2008 @

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