It’s Not About the Winning
We are just about to release the Martial Arts DVD Ballistic Striking, featuring Val Riazanov. Now this has been an interesting and exciting project for me, not least because I am on the receiving end of Val's fists! Enter Crazy Jack. Jack wanted to get an in-depth understanding of striking to help him market the product in the most effective way, so he took all of the footage home and decided to learn. Literally one week later he excitedly runs into my office telling me that he has 'got it'. Got what, I say…BANG, I am now wearing my left lung on my shoe! So trust me, this stuff works.
Val was a former operative in the KGB and I'm sure that everyone has a little interest in this infamous organization and from my perspective, having seen Val's capabilities not only in the Martial Arts, but in psychology, everyday life and even spirituality, my interest is high. I asked him what makes this organization so special and he says that it is because they are ordinary people, just going about their business. "Come on Val", I say, "they are hardly ordinary". He says that they are; they are taught to survive in any situation and the skills they learn are based on firstly learning this important principle. He says that we must apply this to everyday life and stop this obsession about 'winning', because if you don't try to win, then you cannot lose! Very interesting words.
I further questioned him about all of the elite athletes, especially in the former Soviet Union, where they dominated the world for so long, surely they wanted to win. As a former Olympic judo athlete himself he said "of course", but it is how you go about winning. First, take away the notion of the word 'win' and learn how to survive the situation. For a world champion boxer defending his title, you usually have a situation where the challenger comes out 'all guns blazing' and this is where you have to survive. Val further states that through survival comes opportunity and through opportunity comes success, or your own definition of 'winning'. He says that when you focus on purely winning and you lose, the psychological damage can be irreparable and I'm sure many of us can recall great sporting champions who can never recover from defeat. One last point…Val states that you are never in a 'passive' survival state…you are always searching for those opportunities. Food for thought and I'll post more from Val in the future.
Finally, I am looking forward to the end of the Soccer season in the UK, although I'm more of a Rugby fan (being of Welsh ancestry), I love the pressure of top class Soccer and in most cases have more interest in how the managers deliver results, than the game itself. This battle is between London team Chelsea and Northern side Manchester United…under the leadership of two great coaches. One team however has an owner with seemingly unlimited finances and the other, somewhat less. For me, I always believed that you cannot 'buy' success, you have to nurture it from within.
In a few weeks we will see!
~ Neil
Technorati Tags: Olympic, winning, survival, KGB, Football, Rugby, success, Chelsea, Manchester United, Judo
