Words have Power

The family and I took the above picture today at the downtown Reno River and Sculpture Festival. People were flocking to the sculpture to take a picture and touch the large letters. This reminds me that a single word can have power.

I was once told that a parent said, “My son lives to hear John say, “NICE!” when he’s teaching.”

That one word conveyed my approval of the technique, my acknowledgment of the student’s hard work, and my satisfaction with the student’s progress. It’s also a word that leaves room for improvement. A technique can be nice, but not perfect. I rarely use the word perfect on the mat because there is so much to do in any technique to make it better, faster, or stronger. However, the word Nice can convey a lot, and it can mean a lot to a student as I have found out.

There are a bunch of words that can mean a lot on the mat. For example, the word “STOP”. The other instructors and I rarely use this word on the mat during instruction. We’ll yell “Break” if we want someone to stop a drill or to stop sparring. We don’t need a student to stop defending themselves if a bad guy yells STOP!, and a bad guy will probably not yell, “Break!” However, you can watch countless videos online of assaulting bad guys yelling at the good guys to stop, acquiesce, and lie down and die nicely. I don't think so!

Also, the word “Can’t” is a word we don’t want to hear on the mat. This negative word can ruin a training session, martial artists, or athlete. We should all try to change I can’t to I can or to I will or I did. We should all believe we can do something and attempt it. If we fall short, we will still be closer to it then if we never tried at all.

Anyways, I did the following last week: