Goal Setting Schmoll Setting

At the end 2007 we set and worked towards some personal goals to finish off the year strong. Since that time I haven’t emailed or talked much about goals for a few reasons. I do hope to incorporate goal setting into our program in the future. It can serve to be a powerful and unique part of our Martial Arts program. While this post may appear to be anti-goal it is not. I am in favor of goals these are simply some of the obstacles that must be avoided when the topic of goals comes up.

The popular media seems to bank heavily off goal setting. Every month it seems a new goal setting guru pops up on the shelves of the nearest book store trying to cash in on societies desperation for success. In most cases these literatures offer very little in real content. The authors are often nothing more than the snake oil sales men of the past offering advise with little credibility or expertise of their own.

Even Disneyland with the “Year of a Million Dreams” campaign (which has been ongoing for almost two years now!) is trying to cash in on it. Somehow by going to Disneyland all your dreams will come true.

Pictured Above; Has my daughters dreams come true or is she scared out of her mind?

It is easy to become so consumed with your goals you are no longer happy or enjoy your life as it is NOW. Instead you are constantly thinking and focused on what you want to accomplish or bring into your life. It becomes a cycle in which you are constantly thinking about accomplishing the next thing rather than enjoying today.

The popular SMART formula for goal setting is laid out as follows; A goal should be Reasonable, Measurable, Action Oriented, Realistic and Time Lined. If one doesn’t accomplish their goal in the time line they specified even if it’s a reasonable time line it is easy to become frustrated and begin thinking about the past, what happened and why. Again you are now no longer in the present but have projected yourself back in time thinking about something you can no longer change.

Traditionally it is taught to announce your goals to everyone you know or to make a public statement about what it is you want to accomplish. The logic behind this thinking is that doing so will cause you to really follow though with it. What happens often is the person announcing their goal to the world gets all the praise, recognition and credit from their friends for setting such a great or inspiring goal without every accomplishing anything. The person then rarely follows through as they already got all their accolades for something they never actually did. I think it was a fortune cookie I read once that said something along the lines of; “He who talks less accomplishes more.”

They say an hour of well planned work is several times more effective than an hour unplanned. In goal setting it is easy to take this too the extreme spending all ones time filling out work sheets, breaking everything down and writing lists rather than just doing it.

I knew a guy who had written out on a piece of paper his schedule. He had sleep 7 hours which he planned to cut down to 5. He had work 9 hours and 8 hours of free time. All of which was scheduled out. Personally I’ve found most of the time such a rigorous schedule often never plays out exactly as planned in addition scheduling to this degree would drive many crazy.

Writing a goal down and creating a plan can be helpful and in some cases necessary. But stay within reason. If you want to improve your flexibility to a certain degree your time may be better spend stretching. The idea that you have to write everything out in order to accomplish anything simply isn’t true.

Many of the popular books, tapes and courses aimed at goal setting devote entire sections to teach you how to eliminate distractions. Books such as “The Four Hour Work Week”by Tim Ferris go into detail about how to get by without answering your phone for days at a time, (I actually did do this and it really pissed a lot of people off) checking or responding to emails and so forth. Too often in these books and course they seem to suggest a person should almost become some kind of machine, a goal working robot that never stops. I picture Arnold Schwarzenegger saying “If it’s a distraction I must terminate it!”




The fundamental problem with the distraction elimination theory is it becomes easy for a person to be so self absorbed they are no longer thinking about helping others or contributing in anyway to the world. Family, friends and loved ones are soon viewed as distractions. The next thing you know you have a person working in almost complete solitude while they pursue their own self interests.

In the introduction of a Jiu-Jitsu book I read once the author writes about how he has cut virtually everything out of his life that could possibly get in the way of his goals. He states that he hasn’t had a girl friend for several years and has cut out anything else that could distract him from accomplishing his goals in martial arts and music.

What good is it to accomplish everything in the world if you don’t have anyone to share it with? How much more fulfilling would it be to achieve your dreams with family, friends or loved ones there with you sharing in your experience?

Finally remember there is no point in setting or trying to accomplish a goal if you don’t enjoy the process. If anything that should be the best part about the entire experience.

New Mats

Our new mats showed up this past week. So far they are awsome we now have wall to wall 2 inch thick seemless mats to train on. No more dealing with folding and unfolding mats, fold lines, velcoro, ect. I hope everyone enjoys training on them.

This is the first improvement too many we will be making at our new Martial Arts Life, San Diego training location. In the future we will be adding several more awsome improvements.

Certified Sports Performance Coach

This past January I sat in to become a Certified Sports Performance Coach through USA Weightlifting. USA Weightlifting is the governing body for Olympic sport of Weightlifting in the United States. The Certification is primarily based upon the applications of the Olympic Lifts, the Power Clean and Snatch, to Sports Performance.

I sat through a two day course of hands on coaching. All participants of the course had to actually perform the Olympic Lifts with trainers from the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs coaching. The course ended on the 2nd day with a written exam (which I passed).

Going through the training I quickly found out how much I suck at the Olympic Lifts. I originally learned how to perform all the Olympic Lifts from my boss back in College where I worked as a Fitness Center Supervisor. My boss was a former competitive Powerlifter and set several national records in his day. He was also trained by Mr. Hawaii in strength training and had an extensive knowledge of Powerlifting and Olympic Lifting. Take note; the two sports are in no way similar!

After having been taught by my former boss I thought I would be able to bring some game to this certification program. To my surprise I am like a baby in the sport of weightlifting compared to the coaches and several attendants in the course. I'm not talking about how much weight I could lift I’m talking about pure technique as it's applied to the Olympic Lifts. There were some serious fundamental mistakes I was making on all the lifts. I quickly learned that in my opinion 99% of the strength coaches, football coaches and personal trainers out there have no idea what the hell they are doing when it comes to the Olympic Lifts (power cleans and snatches) and they actually teach most of it incorrectly.

One exercise I am doing now that I never worked on before is the Front Squat. I originally wrote this lift off years ago. I saw it as a useless body building exercise aimed at developing the quads for the purpose of looking pretty. In Olympic Lifting the Front Squat is an extremely important exercise and one of the six fundamental lifts. The Front Squat develops the catch position for the Power Clean. In fact I my wrists are too tight and I need to Front Squat more just to develop the flexibility I need to improve my catch position for the Power Clean.

Overall it was a fun weekend the written exam was very straight forward but still required about an hour of study a night to get through it with a passing score. I now hold a total of 5 Certifications (all current) related to Strength Training and Conditioning (this is not counting my CPR and First Aid which is mandatory to do anything anyways).

I have already registered to sit for my 6th Certification in May. I am going be trying to become a Certified Life Style and Weight Management Consultant through the American Counsel on Exercise. This Certification will basically consist of a two hour proctored exam.

There are some who criticize people who collect Certifications. For the most part Certifications make money for those bodies that create and administer them. In fact I believe they do more for the entities, persons, bodies, corporations or who ever is giving to Certification to make money than they do for the actual personnel becoming Certified.

The big money in creating a Certification is not just in charging for the test, text book and study materials there is also big money in the continuing education, seminars, membership fees, renewal fees and so forth.

In Martial Arts you have guys who will send you DVDs and a Certificate in exchange for sending them money. Other Martial Arts Certifications are semi-legit but overall the only way to know if a Certification is has any credibility is to look at the body administering or backing the Certification. What is the credibility of that body? In addition there are many certifications accredited by the National Commission for Certifying Agencies. This is supposed to mean when the test is proctored it follows a specific protocol and the Certification meets some type of professional competence. What this actually means is nothing really other than the Certifying body paid some money and went through a bureaucratic process to get their Certification, "Certified."

I realize that holding a Certification in no way guarantees competence in anything and should never replace or supplement actual performance, results and experience. I think it was in the Movie "Tommy Boy" Chris Farley said something like; "You want certified brake pads? Well I can take a crap in a box and stamp it certified for you but all you'll have is a certified box of crap!" Unfortunately most of the world doesn't seem to get this.

I have a friend who has a Bachelors of Science Degree in Exercise Science plus four years in the Coast Guard and all the major fitness clubs in L.A. have turned him down because he doesn't hold a Certification. I don't believe it's because the job market has become so competitive you have to have Certification to get hired but that people have become so brain washed they now think Certifications actually mean something more than you paid some money studied for an exam and passed it.

Personally I just enjoy the process of looking at an exam, studying the material and challenging myself with taking the test. Every time I do it I seem to learn and retain at least a couple more things. But even more improtant I can boost up my ego by putting all my certification on a wall or shrine where I can admire myself everyday as I seek to have the most certifications in the world!

Liam Robert Kressin

How it Went Down

October 14th my wife began having contractions around 6 pm. By 7 pm her contractions were strong and a consistent 2-3 minutes apart. We waited until 8:30 pm to go to the hospital. The pain and intensity of her contractions where good and we knew this might be the real deal. We got to the hospital at 9:00 pm. My wife's water broke as soon as we got to triage. They admitted us and we had the baby at 10:30pm. Liam was eight pounds ten ounces. He did really well and we left the hospital at exactly 24 hrs after his birth.

Liam Robert

We chose to name our son Liam Robert. The name Liam is the Irish name for William. It means great protector! Which he will be once he learns Jiu-Jitsu and the Crazy Monkey. My wifes grandmother was the first generation to come here from Ireland in her family so an Irish name is well fitting. Robert is the name of my wife's father who froze to death when she was thirteen years old.

Liam likes to eat. He nurses for an hour at a time and sleeps a lot. He is a happy baby very calm. Our daughter Hannah is really sweet with him and loves him very much. It is wonderful to see my wife so happy. She is an amazing mother to both my children. I can't believe how well she takes care of them. She is selfless and giving encouraging me to sleep longer hours than her when she is the one who needs the rest and still taking time to help everyone. I know for a fact if my wife's father were here today he would be so proud of her and his two grandchildren.

My wife and I want to give special thanks to all our family and freinds everyone from Jiu-Jitsu and anyone who has been there as a positive support and encouragement to us.

Brian B. Gets His Blue Belt

Chris Haueter 2007

I have been bringing 3rd Degree Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Black Belt Chris Haueter down to San Diego every year to coach us for several years. This past weekend we were able to enjoy an awesome Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu seminar with Chris.

The seminar began discussing some of the primary differences between the Art, Sport and Fighting aspects of Jiu-Jitsu. Chris specifically emphasized the importance of sport. Haueter who in addition to coaching his private students is an instructor at Rigan Machado's Academy where he recently had been rolling with several world class black belts. Chris Haueter had some keen insight on the benefits of competitive sport oriented Jiu-Jitsu.

"When you are in competition with someone you don't know who is trying to choke your neck its not the same as rolling with someone you know in class every week playing a friendly game," Haueter said.

For the first two hours we worked on our technical game. Covering a guard passing series Chris has put together specifically for competition. Often you will only be able to control one leg with a single grip when faced with a highly competitive opponent. Chris went into great detail covering numerous ways to gain hip control and pass against an active aggressive opponent from nothing more than a single grip. After an hour of guard passing Chris showed us the defense and counters to all the guard passing techniques he had just taught us.

Pictured Above; Chris Haueter showing us how to go straight to an attack after defending the pass.

Following two hours of instruction on passing and defending the guard for tournament oriented situations we began rolling. Chris rolled with me first which was a lot of fun. After rolling with me Haueter went onto roll with everyone of my blue belts spending ample time rolling with each one of them. These are some very tough blue belts Chris had to roll with. Chris Cichy recently went 1-1 in the purple belt division loosing his 2nd match by a very controversial disqualification against a purple belt from Rickson’s camp.

After rolling for close to an hour straight Chris called Peter out onto the mat for a roll. Peter is a lean 230lb blue belt who is very close to the purple. Peter gave Chris a battle and had a very impressive roll. Afterwards Chris commented on Peter’s game saying, "Peter is feeling more like a purple belt it’s hard to tell because of his size however it does feel like he's really using skill and not just his weight." This was a very nice complement not just to Peter but to everyone Peter has been training with for the past several years.

After rolling with Chris Haueter we went into some Iron Man Games. The Iron Man game we played went as follows; two of us would take center mat, the Iron Man would start on his back with the opponent in his guard. Whoever scores first wins. The Winner stays on the mat. Four wins in a row makes you a champion.

Spencer and Brian B. started off the Iron Man games first with everyone else following. All the white belts looked really good many of them being very close to the blue belt level. During Brian B. and Jeremy’s roll Brian passed the guard to side control and then allowed Jeremy to escape to an arm lock. “That was so white belt of you!” Chris shouted out as Brian gave up side control. For the majority of our white belts it’s simply a matter of eliminating those white belt mistakes in order to make a blue belt level game.

I stepped on the mat last and began blasting through all my students until I met up with Peter who passed my Guard! Overall the everyone showed a lot of improvement by the end of the night we had been training for close to 4 hours!

I remember the first time we had Chris Haueter down Joe Celona was there along with about 5 others all white belts. This past weekend we had close to 20 of us there including Joe! The group has come a long way. While no belt comes easy in Jiu-Jitsu it’s a lot of fun to see everyone’s game progress.

Pictured Top; Jeremy fully attentive to Haueter's Jits instruction.

The best part of the entire experience was just getting everyone together to train and have a good time. Chris joked around with our protégées Patrick (12yrs, yellow belt) and Mc Crae (13yrs) hitting Mc Crae with a stick several times and calling Dan the No gi Bastard! Afterwards a large group of us went to Wahoo’s for dinner. We are looking forward to brining Chris Haueter back soon. For right now we need some time to digested and integrate all the material and coaching he gave us into our games.

Pictured Below; Chris Haueter a truely seasoned black belt!

Where can you find the best coaching?

The best coaching in the entire world should come from those who you regularly train with day in and day out. When everyone in your training group is actively trying to teach, coach and help one another you’ve got the best coaching in the world. Period.

Here is another way to put it;

A good martial arts coach should be able to teach their students to become skilled. A phenomenal martial arts coach should be able to teach their students to teach each other to become skilled.

I was totally stoked when I received this email from one of the students in our Martial Arts Life Program the other day.

“Peter and Bruce came over tonight and we rolled and drilled for about 2 1/2 hours! It was killer. We worked different escapes (mount, side, and a little knee-on-belly), and then put them into a drill round robin style. We made sure to switch it up so the same person wouldn't be rolling with the same opponent the whole time. Then we rolled, Iron Man style. I started, leap frogging Bruce and then rolling for 5 minutes immediately followed by repeating it with Peter. We did more conditioning, then moved onto Iron Man for Peter. By the end of I thought I was going to puke/pass out.

I did my best to remove the rubber stuff as much as possible and both Peter and Bruce noticed a difference and I fared much better than the other night. I also used to some great pointers that Peter gave me for some escapes. All in all, I was way hyped on the session and just wanted to let you know. Also, Peter, Bruce and I made a pact to keep up conditioning and helping each other...TEAMWORK STYLE.”

When everyone in the group begins to work together like this miracles happen. When everyone begins making pacts with one another to help each other out and elevate the skill level of the entire group that’s when the extra ordinary is accomplished.

Unfortunately in most martial arts programs especially Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu the majority of the class members compete with one another. They actively battle to beat each other rarely ever stopping to try and elevate the ability of one of their class members or piers. The focus is too often on who you can beat and who you want to beat next.

Our Martial Arts Life Program has moved in the opposite direction. For this I am grateful!