This week in your daily life, exhale fully. Many of us don’t ever fully exhale and we only breathe with the top of our lungs. Not just in training but in everyday life too. Most of us cannot maintain presence enough to remain aware of the breath at all times and that is fine. As much as you can remember to, empty your lungs completely. Don’t worry about taking a deep breath in. Maybe you only think about this once a day. But if you put your intention on this it will become more and more natural and you will remember more often until it just feels normal. I’d love to see you guys interact with @Andy DeJesus post about accountability. Let’s push each other to get better. Do you think about your breath throughout the day already?

A lone figure in all black with a hood approaches you in a dark alley. He stops 5 feet in front of you. You are unarmed and cornered. Which of these weapons feels the least dangerous to you? Against which weapons would you rather defend yourself.

Tell us about a time you felt awkward on your martial arts journey. For me it was when women suddenly started training at Rickson’s academy after years of men only.

This week in training, imagine your partners might try to access a weapon and pay attention to their hands at all times. Roll like normal but keep your attention partially on imagining what would you do if they started to try to pull a knife from a pocket or reach for a glass bottle nearby. You don’t always have to physically train these pieces, sometimes it enough to build awareness. If you have the tools, tell your partners to surprise you with a hidden training weapon sometime this week. Don’t panic. 😱

We don’t have to stick with sat classes. If you are in premium or are planning to join soon, let me know if you’d prefer a different live class time or day. I cannot do afternoons because I reserve those for Rickson. But we could do one weekend day and one weekday or 2 weekdays for example. Let me know in the comments exactly what works for you. All based on eastern time (NYC) time zone.