Darren Kendall • March 22, 2020
MartialArts Apocalypse Survival Handbook (MASH)
Things are Going to be Tough, Let's Deal With it Together
Intro
Master Vince posted the above picture yesterday, and I really like it. We are all under stressful conditions at the moment, financially, emotionally, physically - the whole lot. We can't control what the Government is imposing on us, so try not to stress about that stuff (I know it's hard), but we can all 'up our
game' regarding the things we can control.
Routine
As Martial Artists, we are used to routine. On set days and times in the week we turn up at the dojo and we train hard. This improves our fitness, self esteem, discipline, strength, coordination, stamina, and many other positive attributes. We can no longer follow that routine, so must create new ones. If we don't, we risk losing all of these things, plus the bi-products of exercise like the release of endorphins which are known to reduce stress.
Let's start some new routines from today onwards.
We'll start simple. Every morning when you get out of bed, get down and do 20 pushups before breakfast. Every morning, without fail! We'll be checking up on you, so don't miss a day. Please post us pictures and videos of you keeping active, this will keep us motivated, and the other Kendojo members.
The Future
Throughout the coming weeks, we will be supporting our students by providing you with fitness and technical activities for you to do, and we'll be setting you challenges to keep you motivated. I know that some people aren't on Facebook for whatever reason, but if you wish to keep in contact with the Kendojo community, we ask that you join Facebook, send a friend request to Mr or Mrs Kendall, or Mr or Mrs Marshall, and we will add you to the Kendojo community group. This way you will have access to the resources that we will be posting there.
We will also keep this blog updated, to keep you up to date with news.
Look after each other, and stay safe.
Mr Kendall
What On Earth Have We Been Doing?
So, we've been locked down for about 3 weeks now, and for me personally, I've made sure this has been a positive experience. For one thing I've been able to spend more time with my family, which is great. I've also made sure that I've started to introduce some good habits, which I've put off in the past due to "lack of time". Now I have no excuse! DIY There are a huge number of jobs that I've been walking past for the last few months, and even years that I've said to myself, "I must get around to doing that". Well, over the last 3 weeks I've been tackling all of those repairs and maintenance jobs, and this has given me great satisfaction. Fitness I have to admit that even though I regularly teach martial arts classes, I've not been as fit as I'd have liked to be. This is gradually changing during the lockdown! I am currently alternating running and weight training every day and am gradually building up the time I am taking to do both activities. I really look forward to doing weight training with my daughter, Maisie, and then the following day I go for a run around the fields near our house and see some amazing wildlife such as dear, and birds of prey. We've also been having a family walk most days, and Mrs. Kendall has been swimming and working hard filming daily training videos for the students. Mr Marshall, Mr Barmby and the Manby crew have also been hard at work filming content for the Facebook page, and coming up with some fantastic ways to keep our students active. Social Media Social media has been a blessing and a curse during the lockdown. It's been great to keep in contact with family and friends, but it's also easy to get caught up with all of the scaremongering and judgemental attitudes that are particulrly rife on Facebook. My advice is, try not to judge others on their actions, everyone is scared and out of their comfort zone at the moment, try to be more understanding of people. We've really enjoyed doing the videos for the Kendojo Facebook group and have had some great feedback from our students. We really love to see your videos and pictures to let us know how you are getting on, keep sending them in. In conclusion, try to form some really positive habits over this lockdown period. These will hopefully keep going when we are all released back into the wild. We are hoping to see you all come back fitter and stronger than ever! So keep doing Sensei Mark's 50 challenge, and make sure you create some challenges of your own. Don't forget to send us pictures and vidoes of you progress! Much love to you all Mr Kendall