The courageous person finds a balance between foolish recklessness and out of control fear. The person with true courage fears what should be feared and uses the fear for confidence and for the right reasons: self preservation, to protect, honor and respect, to get the job done.
Courage is the ability to recognize our rational fears and not to show fear and still be able to act or react properly. That is a good explanation of courage, but it does not capture what courageous people do or hillbillies.

After judging over 1,000 cage fights. I get to see people all the time who recognize and face their fear, but I would not call them all courageous some have false courage or their heart is bigger than all their skills. For me, courage, I know it when I see it! When I see true courage in action it inspires me to do noble things. Courageous people inspire me to be more courageous and to do more courageous positive things. Courage can apply in your everyday life and you don’t even have to be a fighter! If you are a fighter, you can use the courage you get from fighting and apply it in your everyday life. Every person hopes they have the courage to get through all the tests and trials they will have to go through on earth. I tell my students learn to be humble, because life is going to humble you. Before people can take on big challenges the individual must develop their courage. Courage is like a muscle that can be developed and get stronger. With courage comes confidence! They go hand and hand. One of my young students (18yrs.old) may have shown false courage recently. When a fight broke out, he tried to fight with too many people at a party and was swarmed by gang members and stabbed to death with over 30 stab wounds. There are many different types of courage, every person should seek how to develop a courageous heart and look into other types of courage. Liquid courage mostly develops the false type. There is physical courage, intellectual courage, moral courage and the courage to be great. These are other types of courage you might look into. Like I have mentioned in other my columns, it’s not always about winning a fight (on the street) it’s about survival and getting home to dinner. Try not to show false courage but work on developing your true courage. Let me end with a quote “Tuff is not how you act or look, tuff is how you train”.

To become a great grappler you have to have the mental toughness to overcome many things like being frustrated and disappointed with yourself. You must force yourself to workout when you least feel like doing it (that is when you need it the most) without over training. If you can get through the mental war half of the fight is won. The rest is just the training. The key to become a great grappler is the ability to keep training over a long period of time regardless of what fads come and go. Do your training consistently and correctly. Remember! Perfect practice makes perfect.

You will need dedication, determination and physical and mental toughness as well. You must be willing to train like a machine and like you have never trained before.

One of the greatest grapplers ever, my friend, Judo Gene LeBell, at age 73 is still one of the best technicians in the world. Gene has taught many of the great grapplers of today, including Gokor, Karo Parizyan and Erik Paulson. The list goes on. Not to many people know this story but the Shamrock brothers had an apartment near Gene’s school about 15 years ago for about 6 months but they never mentioned him in the Lion’s Den book. (Go figure). Gene had more than 2,000 judo matches in his life he won every one but one and he later avenged that loss. When he hip threw the guy he landed on the guy’s leg and broke it.

When Gene was competing he had the sickest work out routine. He would train 6 hours a day. He would do a 1,000 push up every other day and do a 1,000 sit ups every other day. He would climb up and down ropes and with one rope in each hand he would climb up and down to. He would run up and down hills with a 20 pound log on his back for part of his training. One of his favorite things to do was take a car tire and throw it with one or two hands and wind sprint to go get it. When you throw the tire you really have to twist and that helps develop your core. He would do this exercise for 45 minutes to an hour.

This will develop your waist, legs, lung capacity and back muscles. Gene believes that 60% is physical conditioning and 40 % is technique. No matter how skillful a fighter is if he gets tired during a fight he becomes a less skillful fighter. I always say, a musician will never go on stage without his or her instrument tuned and same should apply to fighters and grapplers. A lot of fighters will go on stage without their instrument tuned and you can see it in their performance.

To become a great grappler we can follow the examples of the great grapplers that came before us. The Farmer Burns could jump off a 6 foot table with a hangman noose around his neck and his hands tied behind his back and whistle Yankee doodle dandy. That was how strong his neck was. Karl Gotch brought catch wrestling to Japan. Dan Gable won the gold medal in the Olympics and Gene LaBell- well, you know about him. A great grappler will always spend more time grappling and working on his grappling skills than trying to become a body builder or Mr. Olympia. What great grapplers strive for are muscles that are functional for grappling and or fighting.

There are plenty of intricate techniques you COULD learn, but you first have to ask yourself what is possible and what is probable? Some things that look great against a cooperative opponent will quickly go to hell if you try them against a drunken biker outside a bar at night who isn’t feeling any pain (self-defense rule one: stay away from drunken biker bars at night). The best things to focus on are techniques and methods that are simple and repeatable under stress. But the very best thing you can do for yourself in martial arts is to be in good physical condition.

Walk Before You Run

If you’re in good shape, you will learn faster, perform better, and retain more. Start with the basics and then move to learning the high-percentage techniques that work for your body type. There are certain techniques that you see working in grappling tournaments or cage fights week after week and most of those can be adapted for self-defense as well. If you’re learning jiu-jitsu make sure you learn the high-percentage moves like the triangle choke, arm bar, guillotine choke, hammer lock, Kimura, and rear naked choke. Then learn the escapes, variations, counters, and counters to the variations. By then you should start to have a pretty solid ground game. Only then should you start to add some intricate moves. But it’s probably a better idea to learn the counters to the intricate moves. Taking seminars from some of the top black belts is a great way to learn the latest and greatest techniques so you know what to expect. You will usually get caught with something you have never seen before.

Become a jack of all trades and a master of none. Be committed to everything but commit to nothing. In Bruce Lee’s style of Jeet Kune Do (JKD) you first get the essence of a particular style and then move on from there. From my own experience of training and teaching, it can take up to two years to capture the “essence” of a style. In the process you probably find two or three that appeal to you more and that you will focus on. When you do, there are five steps in the process of learning techniques.

The Five Steps of Learning

1. You must learn the technique
2. Practice the technique over and over
3. Master the technique
4. Functionalize the technique so it works on uncooperative opponents
5. Maintain the technique through review and application.

Trying your techniques against uncooperative opponents is the key to martial arts truth. But be careful to not get hurt or hurt your training partners. Be aware of them tapping out or being rocked or stunned if you hit them. If you’re going to be punching or kicking wear protective gear and have an observer who can cool things off if necessary.

The truth of the matter is that too much of one thing is not good anymore. You have to be well-rounded. If you’re on your back in a cage fight, chasing an arm bar that worked for you in a grappling tournament, you’ll probably end up being pounded by punches. Be aware of what works in the cage and what doesn’t. Likewise, if you’re focusing on hitting someone and overextend on a punch you’ll probably be submitted by an arm lock or a triangle choke.

Lester’s Logic

One of the most valuable things I have learned over the years is to not be too quick to throw out a technique that you think doesn’t work for you. I have thrown out techniques and years later looked at them again, thought how great they were, and was left scratching my head wondering why I stopped using it? Give yourself a chance to grow into the moves. Also remember that there are many other reasons to train martial arts other than just competition. Fighting is just the tip of the iceberg. The benefits that you get through learning martial arts techniques will help you develop both physically and spiritually into a better human being. Keep this concept in mind when you want to stop training. Martial arts are really about helping you to become the best person you can possibly be.