There’s a big push in the feelings department these days.

“How does that make you feel?” and “How’s that feel to you?” are the buzz questions that many so-called coaches ask. 

Taking into account how something feels can be useful information; it can also be horribly misleading.

Reminds me of the time I watched a Pete Rose video on hitting. “Get into a stance you’re comfortable in,” he advised. “You can’t hit unless you’re comfortable.”

Sounds good, doesn’t it? But as simple as this advice is, you’d be amazed how many people don’t understand what Rose didn’t say. He did NOT tell you to get into a stance that makes you feel 100 percent comfortable.

Since when is getting into an athletic stance comfortable? It isn’t. But there are degrees of comfort in those stances. Some positions cause you to exert too much energy while others allow you to maximize your performance. 

Similar misunderstandings happen in the practice of martial arts.

“Relax,” says the teacher.

You do your best to relax. You are then advised to relax even more. You relax more than ever before. And what’s the next round of advice? “Relax more. You’re still too tense.”

When many athletes and martial artists hear the word “relax,” they think they need to get into a position where they are 100 percent relaxed. This is wrong think. This is why I coined the phrase, “Let there be tension in your relaxation.” You need some tension otherwise you have no structure. 

When doing Hindu squats and pushups, for example, there is a balance of opposites going on. Without sufficient relaxation, the technique looks bad and is bad, no matter how you FEEL about it. The same goes with the level of tension. Your movements must have a degree of tension, otherwise there’s no power. But if there’s too much tension, you run out of steam much too fast. 

How an exercise feels when you do it is one factor to be analyzed, but it’s not necessarily better than looking at the results you can verify with your other senses. 

One of my hobbies is playing around with a variety of whips. I have some standard stock whips and a pair of Indiana Jones style bullwhips. I also have a 10-foot bullwhip that was made in Siberia. Let me tell ya, when that puppy cracks, it sounds as though a .357 Magnum went off. 

Anyway, cracking a whip involves a certain feel, but you also verify your performance by sight and sound (especially sound). I might feel that I cracked the whip correctly, but if the sound barrier isn’t broken, I need to disregard those feelings. I need to LOOK at my technique and make an adjustment. When I make an adjustment, I take note of whether the sweet sound of success rings through the air. If not, I make yet another tweak. 

This is how it works, my friend. 

Look at the exercises you want to do. See them in your mind’s eye. Start doing them. Get the feel for what you’re doing, then use your other senses (or a coach such as myself), to verify whether you are spot on or way off.  

By the way, before I sign off today, I wanted to make sure you’re aware that I now have a spiral-bound edition of Combat Conditioning available, and although it should cost much more than it is currently listed for, you can currently get it for the same low amount as the previous perfect-bound edition. 

Additionally, as a special marketing test, I’m going to give everyone who orders the spiral-bound edition today a free copy of my book, Kick Ass-Take Names. 

In fact, I’m going to send a copy of KATN to everyone who also orders a copy of Farmer Burns Lessons in Wrestling and Physical Culture today as well. 

Best,

Matt Furey