I heard Tony Robbins; the great motivational speaker say, “repetition is the mother of skill” for the first time back in 1991. I really was curious and excited about that statement back then, but it was 20 years before I started to look deeper into those words and what they meant to me and my students, and now I am going to explain all the back-channel communication between your conscious and unconscious mind right now that makes this statement so powerful.

I didn’t fully appreciate back then all that was intended for my students concerning this subtle message by whoever said it first. On the surface it transmits the obvious: “work hard, pay attention and you will be rewarded. Repetitive practice equals having Great Street Fighting skill.

But as it turns out, that thinking alone is just the surface. After thinking about that phrase for quite awhile I came up with something new to me.  And because I am a martial arts instructor, it answered a question that my student’s and demonstration attendees asked all the time. “What if I freeze up when it comes time to defend myself.” When you look at the great boxers and martial artists of times gone by, what is the one thing that the losers did not do enough of? Their faith was weak and they were just going through the motions of training, they did not put their heart and soul into it.  The fighter who is hungry enough   will hunker down and learn what needs to be learned and perfect what needs to be polished.

The truth is men who fight all the time, professional fighter caliber attend 8-week fight camps, prior to a fight where all they do is fight and train day after day in preparation for a big prizefight. Now, I know that prize fighting may not be in your interest, but keep in mind that everybody gets rusty and forgets what they know to some degree. So what I learned from these additional few words and as I look at it now, is something that really stands up to the scrutiny of a professional fighter. You want to win all your street fights/attacks? Take seriously what you are doing with me and these techniques can save your life, but you will have to meet me in the middle of the bridge and do your part and train and repeat them over and over again. The unconscious mind will undoubtedly recall the basics of a technique but it takes timing as well as plenty of training over and over again to win a fight.

Don’t think for a moment that you cannot master what I am offering you, and I tell you this so that you will know what you are getting into and what it takes to master the work.  It is hard work to say the least. It means that when you don’t do the practice such that it becomes automatic in response you don’t make it easy for yourself to win. There is something else at stake that I want you to pay attention to for just a moment, because it will answer your eventual question that you will ask me one day: will I freeze when I get into a street fight?

If you train as if your life depends on learning this work you will master it. Just remember that:  “repetition is the mother of skill, cause’ it will win you street fights.” Think about that for a minute or two, and memorize those few words, because they are very important to you.

You must realize that the self-defense/fight game is predicated first on who is in the better shape, and better trained with all things being equal. But when all things are not equal, a man is bigger and stronger with more fight experience; so the woman in question needs to be on her game 110% to win that street fight! Does that mean that the technique alone is not enough? I believe it is enough, in your particular case, but you can’t go around town thinking that because you know a few of these techniques you don’t have to continue to train and refine them and keep everything you know sharp and ready to go. Your performance cannot be second rate; it must be the best you can do.

Let’s talk about skill and the mastery of that technique. Skill is being able to do something with your body that most women, if they saw you in a street fight would not understand half of what you were doing to the attacker. Truth is, they would only see the highlights and make them curious enough to talk to you if the situation allowed it. What they could no see is all the long hours of training you put into this work nor all the sacrifices you have made to put this work first.

Mastery of the techniques is something that I hop that you want to attain because it will separate you from the rest of the population of planet earth when push comes to shove. You won’t even think about screaming for help because you have been taught to yell when the moment is just right. You will be taught to do things that you can only dream about know, but learn it you most certainly can. Mastery is doing an entire series of movements and not even know until it was completed what you had done. Mastery is walking away from the attack and saying to your self, “that felt great.”

It felt great because you protected yourself from a big angry man and you made minced meat out of him in no uncertain terms.

Get that book by Jessica Amanda Salmonson, The Encyclopedia of Amazons. They don’t cost much and they are great as a pass along book for a girl friend.