Here is some important insight from the heart as to what it feels like to challenge yourself mentally and physically in the martial arts training hall. Man or woman, we can all have these periods of doubt and then make breakthroughs if we are brave enough to ask the disturbing questions.

At one point in the seminar I was working with my sister, Melissa, who I kept over powering when I was her uke. So she hunted down Mrs. Hayes to ask her why this was occurring… what was she doing wrong. We were doing some technique that required the uke to throw a MMA style cross punch.

Mrs. Hayes kindly came over, watched us do the technique, then had me be her uke. At this point all I could think of was “oh man I actually have to try to hit her. I CAN NOT be a bad uke for Mrs Hayes…. this is going to hurt, a lot.”

So I focused on Mrs. Hayes center and threw that punch. And for a brief moment, nothing…. she disappeared. Seconds later, she reappeared and hit me multiple times with some part of her body… not sure what… all I know was it was powerful and if I was a real bad guy it would have really really hurt. It was the most amazing thing of the seminar for me.

My sister’s issue ended up being her alignment. In addition, Mrs. Hayes explained to us about having a triangular base. This base makes you strong by grounding you.

Read the full post by Jess Burleigh and great comments in response here on the New Hampshire blog site.