how martial arts helps with focus

by Master Luis Auza – Renshi – Shotokan Karate

In this article you will learn:

• How are Martial Arts helps you with focus
• Some useful information on understanding habits
• How the constant practice of martial arts can develop your ability to focus.

The Connection between Martial Arts and Focus

Martial arts connects very well with focusing.  In fact, we know for a fact that if you do not develop your ability to focus, and your capacity to remain focused on a task, you will not go far in the martial arts

Creating the habit of focusing

In a related article, how martial arts develops self control, we spoke at length about how habits are already built into our bodies.  We develop habits whether we like it or not, and unfortunately, unless we develop and work on new habits, the old ones will always show up first.

Let’s look at it this way:

Imagine if you will, that when you learned how to walk, you did it on your hands rather than on your feet.

I know this seems ridiculous and highly impractical, but let’s pretend this is how you were raised.  If I came across you years later and asked you to walk on your feet, you would find it strange.  You would not believe me, you might think my way is wrong.

There would be no reason for you to change, until I showed you what you could accomplish by trying my method.

You would still need to make a realistic attempt at walking on your feet or you will continue to walk on your hands no matter what I said to you.  After all, you walked on your hands your entire life.

What you would need is a real-life motivation to do this differently.

How is that related to Martial Arts?

As human beings in this society we are bombarded with shiny objects and distractions.  TV, music, iphones, youtube, facebook, etc, etc.  We complain our kids can’t focus on homework and spend more time playing Fortnite while we spend 40-60 min a day scrolling on Facebook (go ahead… add how much time you ACTUALLY spend on the site during the day).

The truth is we are constantly losing our focus.  Mainly because there is no real motivation for us to focus on anything else.

What we do in Martial Arts is to create a motivation to connect FOCUSING to get RESULTS

In a practical sense, in martial arts we teach you that remaining focused on your target allows you to develop your skill.  The more your skills grow the better you get and the more results you see.  In fact, we achieve this connection physically first, and then we let your mind and spirit take care of the rest.

How martial arts helps with Focus

Let’s take a look at the nuts and bolts of how martial arts helps with focus:

1) Martial Arts studios set up a training program based on physical requirements.  They set you up with classes and create a lesson plan for you.

2) You start at a baseline level (wherever you are physically).  Your instructor shows you and guides you along the way so you can see how much better can you get.  The plan then begins by having you achieve your first level, for example, yellow belt.  Each level after that will get progressively harder.

3) After months of practice focusing on the plan your body changes, you feel stronger, and you develop higher skill.  

The truth is, it was not the martial arts that changed you, it was following the plan with a professional that achieved this goal.

How do we apply this in every day life

The truth is as you continue to the path of Martial Arts, you will continue to see yourself getting better, you will see better results, and you will overall feel great.  Seeing new belts, new uniforms, new levels validates internally what you hoped for externally.

On the back of your mind, you begin to recognize that martial artists are disciplinied individuals.  They follow the plan, they follow the rules, and they experience results.

This is now a built-in habit that overcomes any others as you continue to derive pleasure from your actions.

How someone’s life changed

This is the story of Nadia.  She is a parent of two, a linguistics major and a beautiful person overall.  Nadia started her kids into martial arts like many other parents.  

She was curious about the class so she would sit on the lobby and watch the kids learn to punch and kick.  After a few sessions she realized that what the kids learned was not necessarily too complex. 

Nadia made a decision to try a class herself.  The sensei had her do a simple trial class, a few jumping jacks, a few push-ups, some punches and kicks and ended the class.

As she finished her trial she decided to do a few more classes with the idea of ending them after a few weeks.

“I only wanted to learn a few self defense moves” she explained once.  

But the Martial arts had so much more in store for her

After a few months, she kept on training and getting better, the more classes, the more she learned and the higher feeling of accomplishment.  

Soon she got a yellow belt much faster than she thought.  Then an orange belt, and finally a purple belt.  So she decided to stop at that point.

Her sensei asked “why do all of this and stop here? why join school only to end at sophomore year?” and she responded “I don’t need to learn more”.  So the sensei explained “the martial arts is not about learning more punches and kicks it is about developing habits.”

Nadia had not realized yet that what she was building was a habit.  Prepare before executing (by stretching and warming up), look at the whole plan, which her Sensei provided for her, and begin executing.

So she became a green belt, a brown belt, and a black belt, even a 2nd degree black belt.  Nadia learned that it ultimately did not matter which color belt she could achieve, she developed the ability to tackle any problem in her life by following the Martial arts way.  She focused . . . on her.

Conclusions

It is considerably easier to talk about how to learn focus, different than learning to do it in every day life.