“Concentrate DANIEL-SAN”
How did Daniel LaRusso beat Johnny Lawrence in the All-Valley Under-18 Karate Championship in 1984? Concentration. Mr. Miyagi’s Miyagi-Do karate was famous for teaching concentration through the infamous “crane-kick”. And just like Daniel learned to concentrate all his physical and mental skill into one impactful moment, so can you! Concentration is one of the most common sought after goals from parents who enroll their child in our martial arts program. It’s actually a huge benefit that even most adults testify they’ve gained and used to better their family relationships, work effort, and personal hobbies. Most didn’t even realize they were lacking concentration skills until it improved through consistent martial arts training.
Concentration is the ability to align and maintain your thoughts and physical effort for a period of time in order to achieve a desired result. Stop and think for a moment about how often you need to concentrate daily. Cooking, school, work, athletics, teaching a child a life-lesson, or even communicating with our significant other - “did you even hear what I said just now…”. But it’s not easy for most of us because we are hurried, distracted, or we just simply haven’t learned how to concentrate. Do you remember any point in your life where someone actually taught you how to concentrate versus just commanding you to “…concentrate!”?
Martial arts promotes concentration through physical movement and visualization which is a key component of any student’s, athlete’s or high-level professional’s success in any field. When we’re moving we have to be aware of where we are and what we’re about to do. If our mind is elsewhere we may abruptly fail at our task or even suffer injury depending upon the nature of our task. We can remain engaged for longer periods of time by making the nature of our activity more fun and providing an imagined scenario of our desired goal, thus developing what we call “concentration stamina”.
Concentration is an actual skill-stripe topic in our program that children have to accomplish before moving to the next belt. It’s primarily taught through physical performance of pattern memorization referred to as “Pinan” (pin-yan) which translates to “peaceful mind”. This choreographed set of movements burns excess energy, teaches the mind to think about what is happening at that moment and not before or after. Once the full pattern is memorized and performed with focus and spirit concentration has strengthened.
Today we must battle screen-fatigue, distractions, and flashy loud imagery that is constantly fighting for our attention (not to mention the real-life scenarios we must navigate just to survive). These things will train the brain to think short-term and rely on external stimuli to capture our attention. If said stimuli isn’t “fun” or flashy enough we swipe on through. Concentration is a muscle that takes practice to build and maintain. Once we learn how to initiate concentration no matter how “flashy” is the task at hand, we now have a skill that adds to our success in every aspect of life like relationships, work, and athletics. Here are some quick tips on how to improve concentration:
Create a consistent concentration-stamina building routine: Start practicing with two or three moments per week, or even daily for just a few minutes per day. Maybe start with 3 - 5 minutes per session. After a few weeks add 1 or 2 minutes to your session - it all depends on our personal starting point. Just make sure the routine is manageable and not over whelming.
Start with activities that are of interest to you then explore other topics as your concentration improves: We all love to spend time with what we are good at, familiar with, or interested in. So let’s use that to our advantage, then start exploring things that maybe we’re interested in but view as more challenging or intimidating. In addition to developing concentration this will help us build confidence in learning new skills.
Get physical: A physical routine can have two opposite but equally beneficial effects: It can help us burn excess energy allowing the body to relax and the brain to focus easier. When our body releases the hurried feeling that is easy to suffer from our brain will calm helping us stay focused. The other effect of physicality is it can energize our body and brain to stimulate a “hunger” to want to accomplish more which motivates the brain to stay connected longer to the task at hand.
Get mental: Practice moments of calmness, or as children consider it, “being bored”. A breathing routine, even for just 30 seconds like we do at the beginning and end of every single class our students attend, is scientifically proven to help increase awareness and concentration and reduce blood pressure over time. So start by setting a timer and literally doing nothing. Just sit. At first the brain will wander and the body might fidget. But with short simple and consistently scheduled practice sessions we’ll see that change.
Get creative: Lie down and listen to music, practice reading short stories from a book, magazine or even comics (just nothing electronic). Using external stimulation that is NOT electronic allows us to take the information at our own pace helping us process or revisit something to think about it again. We all know when learning or memorizing something it can take a few times to comprehend and stick with us. Although we can rewind video, it’s not the same. In food terms, eating one bite at a time (non-electronic info) versus having food shoved down our throat from another person (fast-flash video) is always going to be a healthier and more desired option.
Eliminate distractions: Practice building concentration-stamina by putting away the phone or other electronic devices. Use an environment that is free of clutter (clean your room or go to a park), and be sure no major emergencies are awaiting our attention. When you compartmentalize your time and make it just for you it’s much easier to focus on building concentration-stamina.
Check out these quick reads that can help improve concentration:
Practice sitting and breathing just a couple of times per day for just 30 seconds - this is a regular part of our training. Your mind, body, and spirit will reward you.