What I Learned from Martial Arts

What I learned from Shotokan Karate: Perfect one technique by doing it a million times. Attack with one technique and win with that technique - put all of your power and strength and might in it. How long can you stay in horse stance? People in Shotokan can stay in horse stance for an hour. They have to at Special Training. I never went to a Special Training, and I deeply regret it. It would have made me transcend my human limitations, and be better at martial arts. However, it is a USA thing, and I am leaving USA to move to New Zealand, thus, I will never be part of SKA (Shotokan Karate of America) again. Taekwondo is more interesting, it has more interesting techniques, ones that I can perfect with always having a Shotokan (all or nothing) mindset. What I learned from Capoeira: A fight is a dance. A dance is not a fight. Acrobatics are important, because they give you joy and make you look cool. But it's more than that too, it's the warrior's mindset of disguising your FIGHT as a DANCE so your enemies won't see your next attack. A cartwheel can be a kick, but is your enemy going to know that? Maybe not. You move around your opponent with JENGA, the moving of your legs back and forth. You sing and play musical instruments, and the music is the AXE (I love Axe Capoeira and will come back to it), the energy. The music gives life to the fight. It gives the warrior the energy to dance and flip and fight, to be deceptive and sly. What I learned in Kajukenbo: I learned how to fall. I learned how to be tough. I learned Iron Body Training, I did this in Kung Fu as well. It made the bones of my arms stronger, and it also made my mind stronger. What I learned in Kung Fu: How to be quiet, to quietly attack, to move like a cat, to be like a ninja. In SKA, for example, they never let us get water, and training was two hours 3 times a week. It built mental toughness.