Time Control Sports

tcs-22 Self-Control

2012-01-28T17:35:00.001-05:00

Self-Control

You’ll know you’re at Level 2 when...

Level 2 self-control seems deceptively easy. You may feel that you can see your entire environment with a glance. In reality, just knowing your environment is only a small part of it. The true power lies in making the environment work for you.

Start with space:

When sparring, put a little space between you and your opponent, then visualize and take your line of attack as he tries to close that gap.
Learn how to crowd your opponent and force him to have to work to gain more room.

Once these two strategies are mastered, you can move on to more esoteric tactics such as herding your opponent into a corner, or distracting him in some way.

You’ll know you’re at Level 3 when...

Level 3 self-control is manifested when you are the actor not the reactor. You do and your opponent responds. This doesn’t mean what you do will always work, but it does mean that you are moving smoothly from the failed technique to a new one, flowing from one programmed technique to another without giving your opponent a chance to regroup. Once you are fighting, go on the offensive and stay on the offensive, making the other person react to you.

You know you are at level 3 when you can fight your game rather than reacting to your opponent’s game.

Congratulations!

Thank you for enrolling in Time Control Sports and congratulations on completing the course.

As I emphasized throughout the course materials, these principles are applicable to other areas of your life. If you are interested in knowing more about how to apply these principles to revolutionizing your work life, see my book be your own boss at your current job, available from James A. Rock Publishing through Amazon.com.

tcs-21 Tracking Your Progress

2012-01-26T17:32:00.003-05:00

Tracking Your Progress

Time Control

You’ll know you’re at Level 2 when...

As you approach Level 2 Time Control (slowing time down), you may not yet see things in slow motion, but feel as if you have more time to react. Sparring gets less hectic, your reactions tend to be correct — and more certain — more often.

The more you build on this certainty, the closer you get until that moment when— BOOM! — the things around you suddenly slow down. It’s as if you’re moving at normal speed, while everything and everyone around you is moving in slo-mo.

For some, seeing in slow motion will come within days of beginning their practice of Time Control Sports, for others it will take weeks before the first slo-mo experience. Either way, you must continually build on this as a part of your martial arts discipline and not just sit back and wait to get better.

Remember what it was like when you first learned to execute a kick? When you first tried you were probably challenged by your lack of balance and most likely couldn’t kick above your belt. You worked at achieving balance — worked at it until you had it.

Kicking is easier to learn than time control for the simple reason that we can watch others kick and copy them. To succeed at Time Control Sports we must truly look within ourselves to find what is holding us back and to chart our progress.

You’ll know you’re at Level 3 when...

Level 3 of time control (time stop) is unmistakable. You’ll experience sound dilation. Music, ambient noise, voices — all will sound like one long echoing tone. Your sense of sight will also change. What you see will seem unreal — almost as if the people around you (especially your opponent) are statues. All of your senses will be heightened like never before. You will taste the air, smell it, sense it moving around you.

tcs-20 The Daily 8 - 8

2012-01-22T17:30:00.002-05:00

The Daily 8

Here are eight daily exercises that will aid you in your mastery of TCS Combat Mode.

8. Be better tomorrow than you are today

How:

Be sure that every day you improve at least one part of your life. It does not have to do with your martial art, it can be work, family, finances, personal improvement, etc. It will still have an effect on your abilities in competition.

Why:

Only by continually improving our lives and the lives of the people around us can we achieve greatness — in the competitive circle or in life in general.

tcs-20 The Daily 8 - 7

2012-01-20T17:37:00.000-05:00

The Daily 8

Here are eight daily exercises that will aid you in your mastery of TCS Combat Mode.

7. Train like a winner

How:

Train as if your life depended on it (it might just). Do this 100% of the time. At your martial arts classes, be 100% “on” at all times. Slacking, goofing off, and having fun are NOT what you are there for. Always train like a winner.

This is good advice outside the ring as well. With all the things that are truly important in life, it’s good to have that “martial arts” focus.

Why:

Discipline, focus, and orderliness win fights and help you take control of your life in general.

tcs-20 The Daily 8 - 6

2012-01-18T17:09:00.001-05:00

The Daily 8

Here are eight daily exercises that will aid you in your mastery of TCS Combat Mode.

6. Live in the now

How:

Make it a point to notice the tasks you are doing during the day as often as possible. See Level 2 Self-Control for more details on how to train this.

Take more notice of the many mundane little things you do every day. Watch yourself do them; think about what you do.

Why:

This is a key training method to progress you towards seeing in slow motion. By promoting these currently unthinking actions to the level of consciousness, you gain heightened awareness of them and more control, and it is that minute level of control that you’re striving to achieve.

tcs-20 The Daily 8 - 5

2012-01-16T17:09:00.003-05:00

The Daily 8

Here are eight daily exercises that will aid you in your mastery of TCS Combat Mode.

5. Take control of time

How:

Pay more attention to time. When “time flies” try to notice why it flies. When “time crawls” again, notice why.

When you experience time moving more slowly or more swiftly, embrace the feeling this creates. Feel its texture, know it. Then try to duplicate it during training and practice (or at any other time) through the use of your catch-phrase.

Why:

For most people, excitement makes time seem to flow more quickly. If you allow yourself to get overly excited during sparring or combat training — that is, you allow your excitement to control you — you may find your mind is distracted and your thoughts hectic as your heart pumps faster. This is going to detract from your ability to control time.

The key is being in control of your excitement. Let your adrenaline pump, but keep a steady hand on your thinking processes.

tcs-20 The Daily 8 - 4

2012-01-15T17:09:00.004-05:00

The Daily 8

Here are eight daily exercises that will aid you in your mastery of TCS Combat Mode.

4. Take control of your life

How:

Avoid mental chaos; chaos breeds uncertainty and uncertainty undermines control, either in life or in the arena.

Exercise: A simple exercise to take control of your martial arts technique quickly is to learn to practice your forms and fighting in your head (do patterns or Katta start to finish in your imagination). This exercise will help sharpen your technique quickly because your mind knows exactly how it wants you to look while performing these techniques.

The next step is to use a video camera to film yourself fighting then watch it! Do you look like you think you look? If not, adjust your thinking and your fighting stances until they match your ideal.

Why:

I mean the word “take” very literally. If you were in the middle of nowhere and saw $50 bill on the ground you would take it, correct? Life is filled with $50 bills that you fail to pick up on a daily basis. Your work, love life, hobbies, martial arts training, and many other areas present opportunities to seize more control and make your life better.

A warning: There’s a difference between taking control of your own life and being a control freak. Be careful not to over-extend yourself when it comes to other people’s “space”. If you are getting your way by trying to control other people, it will only backfire on you sooner or later.

Learn to exert positive control over life, constantly adjusting the areas of your life that are most important to you. Are there aspects of your life that need changing? One measure of this is how many times a week you say, “I wish I had…”. Stop wishing. Learn to take what is yours from life.

Something we touched on earlier was how lack of control can make you careless. You may allow things to get out of control in your life.

You must acknowledge the things that are out of control and bring them under control.

This is important: Life throws you curves all the time. If your life is already chaotic, this simply adds chaos to chaos. If you are able to keep the elements in your life under control, you will have more energy and focus to bear on new sources of chaos as they arise.

Consider this common scenario: You have three projects going at work. They are in relative states of chaos. You’re not sure where you are with each one or whether you’ll really get them done on time. Enter, the Boss, to hand you another project. “Can you handle it?” she asks. Do you even know? You may say, “Yes,” just to save face, but how realistic is that if you have no clear idea of where any of your other projects are at this moment?

Conversely, if your projects are under control and your boss asks if you can handle another one, the answer to her question is much more likely to be a real, honest “yes”. It may also be “no”, but at least you’ll know which it should be.

tcs-20 The Daily 8 - 3

2012-01-14T17:09:00.003-05:00

The Daily 8

Here are eight daily exercises that will aid you in your mastery of TCS Combat Mode.

3. Become magnificent

How:

Mentally tell yourself every day: “I am magnificent, great, awesome, powerful …” (whatever works). Then act that way.

Why:

Magnificence or greatness is not just being excellent at martial arts. A magnificent person — a great person — is someone other people like, trust, and admire. A magnificent person builds other people up and tries to help them feel magnificent, as well. It is impossible to build up another human being (through help, support, advice, or compliments) without simultaneously building oneself up.

Live your life by a higher standard and expect more from yourself — more honesty, more compassion, more strength of character, etc. Do not take the easy way out unless the easy way is also the best way.

Building a positive self-image is important to your goal. Self-image, self-confidence, and self-esteem will all play major roles in how quickly you will be able to see in slow motion and learn to turn slow motion on and off at will.

tcs-20 The Daily 8 - 2

2012-01-13T17:09:00.001-05:00

The Daily 8

Here are eight daily exercises that will aid you in your mastery of TCS Combat Mode.

2. Let go at bedtime

How:

Put a To Do list next to your bed on which you’ve noted all the things you need to do the following day. Then go to sleep without the stress of “trying to remember something for tomorrow”. When you wake the next morning, try to remember everything before looking at the list. If you forgot something, don’t worry — soon you’ll be able to remember everything on the list.

Affirm this to yourself: “Soon, I’ll remember everything on my To Do list.” Reinforce that affirmation daily.

Why:

While the real life/work applications of this are great, what we are aiming for is to be able to trust our decisions AND to take more control of the subconscious (which is where the key to time manipulation lives).

tcs-20 The Daily 8 - 1

2012-01-12T17:09:00.001-05:00

The Daily 8

Here are eight daily exercises that will aid you in your mastery of TCS Combat Mode.

1. Be instantly awake

How:

No more snooze alarm — set your clock tomorrow for the precise time you need to jump out of bed and start your day. When the alarm goes off, get up and get going without a yawn or stretch.

Why:

Chances are your subconscious controls you. You want to take back that control as quickly as possible. In the morning, most people are fighting a body that does not want to get up. By making the decision to wake instantly and be at full alertness the very second you wake every day, you will gain heightened control of your mind and body.

In the army it is imperative that a soldier can wake and be instantly combat-ready and at full alertness. Army training is a little harsher than TCS/CM, but has the same goal in mind. I do not think I need to go into the self-defense benefits of this should you ever wake to an intruder in your home.

tcs-19 Surprise!

2012-01-11T17:09:00.003-05:00

Surprise!

Most real self-defense situations are complete surprises that give you little or no time to react. The question: “Am I willing to hurt my opponent?” should be answered instantaneously, and the catch-phrase subconsciously “keyed”, putting you in TCS Combat Mode when necessary. Conversely, it should restrain you from doing harm when surprised by a playful friend or spouse. This is because it is intended to sharpen your perception, accelerate your decision-making, and speed up your reaction time.

The two steps above should take less than .0001 second if trained correctly.

tcs-18 Fight Time (2)

2012-01-10T17:09:00.001-05:00

Fight Time

Here are two simple steps that will almost double your ability to win a fight.

Second: Use a catch-phrase.

A catch-phrase is simply some short-but-cool saying that flips your time control switch and gets your blood pumping. “I’m gonna kick your ass,” works for most people, but do try to be original — conformity is boring.

Your catch-phrase needs to do two things:

Get you in an ass-kicking mood.
Sound confident should you accidentally blurt it out during a fight. The key is to fire off an adrenaline rush combined with a sense of urgency (Will I lose this match or get hurt?).

The Key:

Work with your own emotions.

Ever been sick and then had someone give you really good news? Isn’t it amazing how you feel instantly fine ... if only for a few seconds? Well, programming a catch-phrase to trigger your time control mechanism for fighting/sparring can instantly raise your aggressiveness, strength, and tolerance for pain. It can turn you into a fighting machine.

IMPORTANT: You only want to be in this state when actually fighting. Many people train to be in this state 24/7. This does not work because life demands that we be flexible and not physically assault everyone who crosses us. Seriously, someone who stays in this state of heightened aggressiveness is just asking to become an abuser, which rhymes with “loser” and which puts them right back at Level 0 on the self-control scale. It is also incredibly bad for the health. Human beings were not designed to be in fight or flight mode for more than a few moments at a time — the time necessary to get out of harm’s way.

Your catch-phrase is yours to keep. In a self-defense situation it could save your life or someone else’s. It also can be used to help you succeed day-to-day if you use it to turn yourself into a thinking machine. I have used mine in confrontations with the boss at work (said it to myself, NOT out loud) to regain control during heated discussions, etc.

tcs-17 Fight Time

2012-01-08T17:09:00.001-05:00

Fight Time

Here are two simple steps that will almost double your ability to win a fight.

First: Be willing to cause harm.

Before any fight ask yourself, “Am I willing to hurt my opponent?” The answer must be “yes”. If it is not, your energy will be divided and dissipated. To put it simply, you’ll pull your punches. If you’re in a real-life self-defense situation, you’d be better served to put that energy to getting away or defusing the situation rather than trying to defend yourself or another against the assailant.

The Key:

Whether you are in an alley or a point tournament, if you are not willing to hurt your opponent, you will not give 100% to the fight.

Let’s say you really are in an alley and are jumped by someone who reckons you’re wealthier than he is. It’s “go” time. If you’ve been training your mind to give you immediate correct answers, you should be able to calculate moral and legal issues instantly. Once you have determined that the situation warrants hurting the other person DO IT. Most assailants will never see it coming. They are expecting a victim; don’t be one.

If you are in a point tournament, please note: Many point fights are lost for fear of disqualification. You can be willing to hurt your opponent and still maintain control. You must know the rules and work within them — i.e. contact to the body is normally acceptable etc. — but intend to win.

tcs-16 Make your first answer the correct one.

2012-01-06T17:09:00.001-05:00

Make your first answer the correct one.

You may recall I brought up that old saw about us using only 20% of our brains. If this is true, in my opinion, it’s sheer laziness. The fruit falls too easily from the tree and we relax or go on auto-pilot. We can drive without thinking, work without thinking, watch TV without thinking (don’t get me started). Life is just too darned easy.

It’s time to demand more from ourselves. Yes, we should still enjoy the things in life that come easily, but we need to push our minds daily so that they won’t flatline.

Just as you train your body to respond reflexively with the right punch, block, or counter move, you can train your mind to give you the right answer the first time — every time!

Yes, you read that correctly. You are going to learn to program yourself to be right every time.

The Key:

Start by expecting that the answer your mind gives you will be the correct answer: Make the answer that comes first the one you act upon.

Exercise: You may not do this right when you first start out and you may not get the right answer the first time until you’ve made a few blunders. But trust me, eventually, by acting on answer #1 every time, you will quickly force your mind to work harder and faster. This will be a painful process as you act on wrong answers initially, but you will learn from your mistakes. Once you truly learn this form of “reflexive thinking”, the first answer will seldom be wrong.

How does this apply to martial arts? If you are sick of getting blown out in tournaments and thinking, “Wow, if I had only thrown this kick at that point...” then you would do well to get your First Answer training in high gear. If you reach Level 2 in time control, and can see in slow motion, but can’t come up with the correct attack what good is it, I ask you?

CAUTION: Do NOT think this is some metaphysical concept. It is a matter of training your mind to work faster to analyze all the available facts about your environment in a fraction of a second.

tcs-15 I am better than everyone else!

2012-01-04T17:09:00.002-05:00

I am better than everyone else!

Your first reaction is probably: “What happened to humility?” But let’s take a quick look at this affirmation in context with the two main uses for Time Control Sports: Real-world self-defense and tournament combat.

In a true self-defense situation, unless you’ve incited him in some way, you truly are a better person than the attacker, no need to go into more detail. In competition, you must compete as if you believe you are the best athlete. Train and fight like a winner, and if you lose, lose like a winner.

Remember, you are magnificent. You are skilled, powerful, and cunning.

The Key:

As you elevate yourself, remember to elevate those you train with, spar with, and compete against — let them know that they are all those things, as well.

Only by training with truly great people (or competing against them) can we constantly improve our skills. Never let yourself become a black belt who wants to fight inferior opponents just so you can win. You won’t be a true “winner”.

Truly great people believe they are great and show it by treating other people well. People with low self-esteem tend to act like they are better than everyone else out of insecurity. They must build themselves up by cutting others down. That’s a losing attitude, not a winning one.

The most important measure of greatness is the number of other people you have helped achieve greatness.

I started going to tournaments when I was a white belt. In fact, I was obsessed with them. But I could not win first place, no matter how hard I tried. Then one day, one of the instructors at my school said, “Bill, do you think you are the best in your division?” I answered truthfully, and perhaps in the hope that humility was what he was looking for. “No,” I said. The instructor replied, with the sagacity of a Mr. Miaggi (or Yoda, perhaps), “That is why you lose.”

He went on to explain to me that I was not doing the other competitors any favors through my attitude about myself. They wanted to beat worthy opponents not easy ones. I adjusted my attitude and soon began to win tournament after tournament.

At this point in my competitive career, I’d had some experience with seeing fights happen in slow motion, but I was unable to turn it on and off at will until I embraced the, “I am better than everyone else” affirmation AND practiced it with humility.

tcs-14 Don’t be intimidated.

2012-01-03T17:09:00.001-05:00

Don’t be intimidated.

In point tournaments, many competitors wear flashy uniforms to try to intimidate their opponents. This may work with some opponents, but not the ones who are aware and in control of their environment. These competitors know that fighting skill is all that matters.

In a real life self-defense situation, an assailant uses intimidation to cow a victim. In a point tournament, it has become a “strategy” used to harass and distract. I refer to the practice of slapping oneself and growling before a fight. It’s just that, a strategy (and a stupid one), and may actually indicate a lack of confidence in one’s fighting prowess. It shouldn’t fluster anyone who practices a Level 3 self-control.

The Key:

If you analyze only your adversary’s “core” fighting skills and how you can effectively control him, you will surely prevail.

tcs-13 Programming Correctness

2012-01-02T17:09:00.001-05:00

Programming Correctness

Stop overanalyzing!

Take this quick test:

QUESTION: How do you put a giraffe in the refrigerator?

ANSWER: Open door, place giraffe in refrigerator, close door.

QUESTION: How do you place an elephant in the refrigerator?

ANSWER: Open door, remove giraffe, place elephant in refrigerator, close door.

QUESTION: The lion king is holding a conference with all the animals in the jungle, which animal is not there?

ANSWER: The elephant; he’s in the refrigerator.

QUESTION: You are in the jungle and come to a river where crocodiles live and need to cross what do you do?

ANSWER: Swim across — all the crocodiles are at the lion king’s conference!

Yes, you could have paused to ask if the fridge was big enough to hold the entire giraffe. Would you have to fold it? Chop it up into giraffe steaks?

Irrelevant. There is a point to be learned here: All the information needed to answer correctly was contained in the story itself.

The Keys:

Stop overanalyzing your responses.

Too many times in competition we look for answers from outside the ring — outside the immediate situation.

Start to look inside the situation for the answers.

In other words, live in the now. In a true-life self-defense situation you will ONLY have the information that’s at hand at that moment. The sum total of your knowledge may be that you’re being attacked.

Learn to sort what is relevant / important from what is not, and discard useless information.

tcs-12 Level 3 Self-Control: Controlling other people

2011-12-31T17:09:00.001-05:00

The Three Levels of Self-Control

Level 3 Self-Control: Controlling other people

Oxymoron? Not at all. Think of it as simply extending yourself into a new arena. You make your opponent part of your environment, and therefore something subject to your control.

Controlling Your Opponent

This is where most martial artists or athletes miss. They spend time learning to be calm and sportsmanlike. They learn to lose with dignity. Meanwhile, the true champions learn to control THEM.

Everything you do in competition makes your opponent react a certain way whether you did it by accident or design. The question is: Are they reacting the way you want them to?

Sometimes winning is as simple as being the person who acts and therefore forces their opponent to react.

After twenty five years of teaching martial arts, I am used to hearing “what if”... “What if my opponent does this? What if he does that?” I always respond with, “What if his good buddy is in a window over there with a rocket launcher and decides to blow you up?” After the class laughs I explain that the idea is to become the one who’s controlling his opponent: Make him ask “what if”.

Training for Level 3

Watching the early days of UFC I would cringe when the announcer would say, “Cunning J. Grappler is so good at waiting for an opening for the finishing move.”

This is horse hockey. C.J. is not “waiting for an opening”, he’s moving the fight towards that final move, even if it takes an hour (bo-o-o-ring). He had one purpose from the moment he stepped out on the mat: Move towards winning.

The Keys:

In a fight, never wait for an opening; always move the fight towards winning. Take control and do not give it back.

Controlling your opponent is partly a function of controlling your attitude about your opponent.

Don’t think: “This is what I’ll do if he does X.”

Think: “I will do this to him.”

Always fight your game!

tcs-11 Training for Level 2

2011-12-30T17:09:00.002-05:00

Training for Level 2

The Time Control Sports training method will prepare you to find the self-defense applications of your environment.

Here are two rules to apply as you train this:

Learn to take every risk that is acceptable if it can better your life. Don’t let fear hold you back as you learn to live life to your full potential.

Commit to taking more risk (with eyes wide open) where you’ve been over-cautious; pay more attention to areas in which you’ve been careless and inattentive. It’s this balance that will allow you to attain your goal: Complete control of any situation, at any time, anywhere!!!

What this means in practice is that you take more notice of the things you do every day, even the most mundane: walking up stairs, driving a car, talking, breathing etc. This is a key training method to progress you towards seeing in slow motion.

The Key:

By being fully aware of yourself as you perform these automatic activities, you are training yourself to pay more attention to things by focusing your conscious thought on them. This will lead to focusing your subconscious mind on them as well.

Why is this important? Because seeing in slow motion depends upon “thinking in the subconscious”.

tcs-10 Level 2 Self-Control: Controlling your environment

2011-12-29T17:09:00.001-05:00

The Three Levels of Self-Control

Level 2 Self-Control: Controlling your environment

When I was young, I enjoyed riding my bike on sandy roads and locking up the back brake so the rear of the bike would skid 90 degrees. I often bloodied my knees because I was a risk-taker — that is, a normal kid.

When I became an adult, I no longer indulged in this risky behavior. I had a job, a boss, and a paycheck, and — afraid of bloodying myself — I avoided asking for a raise. Too risky. Might be viewed as a squeaky wheel.

What happens to us as we grow to adulthood? When we were kids we took risks; we learned new skills, discovered new talents, strove to control our environment. We looked at assuming control as part of growing up. Adulthood was to be a time in which we lived by our own rules rather than responding like experimental rats to bells ringing and the appearance of the lunch tray. So what if we bloodied our knees?

Welcome to adulthood, in which we think things to death, answer to the ringing of phones and pagers, and the whims of bosses, and rarely act out our dreams.

The Key:

Learn to control your environment, whether in combat or in life.

How do you control your environment? First, look for ways it can be used to your advantage. For example, in a tournament, start by always making sure you get the side you want before the fight. This is important, because most martial artists “lead” with a particular leg. I always began a fight with my right leg out front and kept that leg out front most of the time. When I chose the side I would occupy during the match, I chose the side that had the center judge looking at my back while I was leading with my right leg. This way, the center judge could not see points my opponent scored to my body as effectively because he was looking at my back. This is a simple but effective control of environment.

I also developed the strategy of moving toward my opponent, pushing him toward the edge of the ring. When he got close to the edge, he would invariably glance toward the line. That was my cue to launch a flurry of attacks. I have scored countless points using this environmental distraction.

The Key:

Study the environment in which you spar and compete to look for environmental elements that you can turn to your advantage.

While point fighting is a very controlled and predictable environment, the need for self-defense often crops up in strange places — once I was up on a ladder installing an alarm system when I needed to defend another person from attack.

As part of the Daily 8 training exercises (see the Daily 8 section below), you will look for ways to take control of your environment and make it work for you. This is not just for combat.

Outside tip: You can exert this level of self-control at work, too. Not fond of your work environment? Learn to control your corner of it. Most people who work in an office could make the work environment better just by rearranging their desktops. If you work in construction, something as simple as a bucket bag to make your tools more accessible could save you an hour a week and decrease stress. Let’s say you’re a computer professional — are there tools you could be using that could do part of your work for you, thereby giving you more time and helping to create a more relaxed environment?

We are creatures of habit. We go through our day without pausing to look for ways we can control our environment. Just opening our eyes should reveal endless possibilities.

We are often careless. Carelessness wears a thousand faces, meaning, it can manifest itself in a variety of ways from losing track of how many drinks you’ve had, to being involved in a fender-bender, to failing to win sports contests you have the ability and physical strength to win. Bottom line: Carelessness is a lack of self-control.

The Key:

Take a look at yourself with a keen eye for areas in which you are careless. Think about what adjustments you’d make.

But isn’t carelessness the same as risk-taking? No. It’s not. Carelessness occurs any time you do anything without paying attention. It’s more likely, in fact, to happen during mundane, habitual tasks that we feel are low-risk because we know them so well.

When you exert Level 2 self-control, you are aware of what you’re doing at all times, whether it is the first or thousandth time you’ve done it.

tcs-9 Level 1 Self-Control: Controlling your reactions

2011-12-28T17:09:00.006-05:00

The Three Levels of Self-Control

To start learning how to apply Time Control Sports we must redefine self-control.

Level 1 Self-Control: Controlling your reactions

The normal paradigm for self-control (Level 1) revolves around a person not losing his composure or getting needlessly angry. Self-control is staying calm in stressful or dangerous situations; not going on lizard-brain auto-pilot when the fight or flight response kicks in.

In Time Control Sports this is merely where self-control starts. You will learn to take it to the next level.

Think about the progression of control you exert as you learn to ride a bike. At first, you lack control of the bike’s apparatus; you fall a lot, even get hurt. But once you learn to master control of the various elements of riding a bike — balance, grip, pedaling, braking — you never forget.

Take a second and compare your mastery of your fighting skills to riding a bike. Think of the different elements of sparring. How much self-control do you exert when you spar? How often do you flail at your opponent just hoping to land a blow or block successfully? Your form may be correct, you know the moves, but you toss them out almost at random.

The Key:

The new paradigm for self-control is the ability to control every aspect of your reactions and behavior.

This allows you to minimize the effects negative situations have upon you, while maximizing the benefits and rewards you receive from positive situations. Though this course is about combat and/or competitive sports, the lessons roll over into all aspects of life.

What can you do with this level of self-control? Well, here’s what I did: I went from never being able to win a tournament to winning consistently.

But my use of TCS/CM went beyond martial arts. Outside the arena, I went from making about $150 a week less than I needed to pay the bills to being debt-free and earning a six-figure income working a real job (with real weekly paychecks) from my home with just a computer and phone. Sound idyllic? It’s all a matter of self-control. (For more details on how I did this, see my book be your own boss at your current job.)

Most people (especially those involved in martial arts) have already achieved a Level 1 control over their own behavior in the tournament ring, but TCS/CM mastery calls for more than that.

LIMITLESS

2011-12-28T15:28:00.000-05:00

Last night I watched the movie LIMITLESS. I was very surprised to see that there was an actual fight scene in the movie that featured Time Control Sports principles. It was somewhat annoying that the guy did not know how to fight and would remember Bruce lee movies so he’d know what to do. The bottom line was he could think so fast and see things in slow motion making him an invincible.

As martial artists we train very hard to get a little better every day, I hope most people that practice this course will not take on the attitude of overnight success. Several years from now I am hoping to see athletes from all over the world taking their sport to the next level with the help of my system.

tcs-8 The Three Levels of Time Control - Level 3: Time Stop

2011-12-27T15:43:00.000-05:00

Level 3: Time Stop

Learn to freeze time.

This is it. The true power we all should be striving for. The ability to freeze our opponent in his tracks while we move effortlessly. This cannot be explained, only experienced!

Time Stop can only be maintained for seconds (maybe ten seconds tops) and you will be mentally exhausted after. Even if you have been able to see in slow motion for months and can turn it on and off at will, Time Stop will be an unmistakably different experience. When you achieve it, you will notice things you never noticed before. It’s like staring at a life-size freeze frame — as if you’ve “paused” real life.

When you experience Time Stop, you will feel each heart beat, feel as if you can count seconds between each pulse. You will feel the air entering and leaving your lungs. And, most critically, the amount of information you can perceive and process will astound you. If you trained Level 2 correctly, you will think your fist to your assailant’s body and it will be there.

The one thing you will NOT feel is the sheer helplessness your opponent experiences!

Be careful not to become mesmerized by this, because time will return to regular speed suddenly and violently and your window of opportunity will have passed. All three life-threatening situations mentioned on my website involved me using this technique to prevail.

The Key:

Think of your mind as a hiker on a long trek. It carries a backpack, canteens, and other baggage. In other words, it hefts a lot of weight on a daily basis, ranging from controlling your breathing and heart rate to problems with work or health or love life.

To achieve Time Stop we must drop ALL this baggage instantly and use every last iota of our metal power at once. And we need to do it at better than 20% capacity.

Maintaining Control

Taking control of time is extremely powerful. With practice it can be controlled 90% of the time. But in order to do this, you must eliminate those things that interfere with your ability to control it at will.

These things include:

§ A cluttered or chaotic mind

§ Lack of self-control

§ Poor physical health

§ Lack of sleep

The next section on redefining control discusses how to train in TCS Combat Mode and take more control of your life.

tcs-7 The Three Levels of Time Control - Level 2: Time Manipulation

2011-12-27T10:48:00.000-05:00

Level 2: Time Manipulation

Learn to see in slow motion.

I understand that many people will buy this course just for self-defense or to compete in local tournaments as I did. BUT you must push yourself beyond the skill level required for simple self-defense or tournament play to obtain the ability to see in slow motion — that is, while you seem to be moving at normal speed, everything and everyone around you appears to slow down.

Warning: It is addictive, and you will most likely want to pursue it until you can turn it on at will. Your first experience with it will most likely be within weeks of beginning this training. If you go months without seeing in slow motion you are not training correctly. Review this manual and consult with your instructor several times a week to stay on the correct training path.

The good news is, once you have pushed that far, the knowledge will always stay with you.

The Key:

Fear is the key to activating “seeing in slow motion” at will.

Yes, fear. There has to be “something at stake”, so to speak. In the section entitled Fight Time you are taught how to develop a catch-phrase. This phrase will switch you into TCS Combat Mode. The catch-phrase is intended to induce a combined adrenaline/testosterone rush and a sense of urgency through fear: Will I lose this match?/Will I get hurt?

By training with the information in the Fight Time section you will learn to turn on slow motion when you want to. More importantly, it will also turn on automatically when you need it to if you have been trained correctly.

Once you get to the point at which you can turn slow motion on and off at will 50% of the time or more, it is time to strive for the final level … stopping time!

tcs-6 The Three Levels of Time Control - Level 1: Reflex and Reaction

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Now that we have a better understanding the power we gain by learning to control time, lets break Time Control Sports down into its three skill levels. Think of these as ranks/belts in a traditional martial art.

Level 1: Reflex and Reaction

Your mind can think fast even if you can’t.

I remember seeing a film in school that showed what happened when you touched your hand to a hot stove. The film claimed that the nerves only needed to send the signal (It’s hot!) as far as the spine to get an answer. Had to be, right? Because it couldn’t possibly get to the brain and back in that short a time. Now we realize the message (Then don’t touch it, stupid!) travels all the way to the brain and is answered in a fraction of a second, making you react reflexively to pull your hand away.

The fact is, your mind is capable of processing information faster subconsciously than consciously. Did you actually have to think about slapping that mosquito as it landed on your neck?

Let’s look at what this Level 1 response looks like in context with Time Control Sports.

Training the reflexes is very important. From block punch drills all the way to preset counter attacks and programmed submission holds, all are great examples of training the reflexes. But this will only take you so far in the martial arts.

The Key:

You must learn to program three to four techniques to be truly reflexive.

In the same way that stepping on the brakes of your car to avoid a sudden obstacle in the road is instantaneous, these techniques must be programmed to be instantaneous. Take, for example, the need to be able to plant your fist on your opponent no matter where it is when you’re attacked. Once you get to the point where you can pull your hand out of your pocket and connect it with someone’s nose (for example), you start training to be able to do that with speed and power.

If you’ve fought in tournaments you know that your opponent will inevitably do something annoying like blocking or moving out of the way when you attack (how rude). In the time it takes you to think of the right technique to use, they can be ready with a counter-attack. But if you can train yourself to reflexively use three or four solid basic techniques, you will have more of an edge than you would if you learned a fancy advanced technique. Realistically, how many times have you scored in a point tournament with a flying side kick?

Exercise: To achieve a Level 1 mastery of TCS/CM, choose three or four simple, basic techniques. Then, practice these three or four techniques every chance you get until they are a part of you — weapons you carry with you everywhere you go.

This way, if you are ever attacked you can call upon these ingrained reflexes to smash your assailant silly.

At some point in your training, as you work at making a broader range of techniques reflexive, you will notice that your reactions become correct more often. You block correctly and strike with precision most of the time.

Beginning mastery of Time Control Sports will almost always manifest itself first as a noticeable increase in athletic performance.

You can reach this level (Level 1) of increased performance without Time Control Sports and become a great athlete or fighter. But Time Control Sports takes reflexes to the next level: time manipulation — the level you will have to achieve to become a world class athlete.