When you are exhausted, what keeps you going?

**syberia** · Posted On: 8/21/2008 7:44pm

Originally Posted by Deadmeat

I imagine I'm in my own corner giving myself advice.

This gave me the most awesome mental image of my Shoulder Angel/ Demon giving me conflicting advice and running comentary while rolling.

if only...

**Higgy5** · Posted On: 8/21/2008 9:14pm

I picture a little kid drowning and I have to keep running to get to him/ her in time to save them. Depressing I know, but who could stop running and watch or listen to a kid drown? I think I need therapy....

**syberia** · Posted On: 8/21/2008 9:16pm

Originally Posted by Higgy5

I picture a little kid drowning and I have to keep running to get to him/ her in time to save them. Depressing I know, but who could stop running and watch or listen to a kid drown? I think I need therapy....

why not just stop running and jump in the water and save him...?

**Higgy5** · Posted On: 8/21/2008 9:24pm

I didn't say I was brilliant, it's just what works for me.

**syberia** · Posted On: 8/21/2008 9:27pm

Originally Posted by Higgy5

I didn't say I was brilliant, it's just what works for me.

Lol. Fair enough.

**Eddie Hardon** · Posted On: 8/22/2008 3:29am

Originally Posted by Jadonblade

In BJJ, I carry on going cause I know my opponent is just as tired if not more than I am. If they are fresh I just go into zombie mode, brain switches off and all I think about is breathing and going purely by reflex. If ive done enough drilling its A-ok!.

You see my point about "lack of imagination"?

Not as crazy as some readers might have thought. When you're in desperate straits, it's fairly natural to think of giving up: this is in part because you're locked into thinking about yourself in the struggle and you're experiencing lactic acid build-up and limits of knowledge leading to self-doubt. Your opponent is absent in the equation.

Ranulph Fiennes, the explorer (and ex-SAS - Reg and TA) once made a point about having to sleep in the Arctic on top of creaking ice and the thought that if it opened under him, he would likely die and quickly - if not altogether pleasantly. He said that such a scenario caused significant Stress in sentient thinking Men, those with little imagination just didn't think of the danger, accepting it as a fairly low Risk and just got on with it.

**hpr** · Posted On: 8/22/2008 5:16am

One word: Sisu

**Eddie Hardon** · Posted On: 8/22/2008 5:55am

Originally Posted by hpr

One word: Sisu

I read of that term many years ago - in "Bike" magazine. Doesn't it translate as something along the lines of "Grit", "Determination" etc..?

I understand it also helps to explain the shock you gave the Russians when they made the mistake of invading during WW2.

Moving on, it's a bit like that advice on Funakoshi's bio, I paraphrase, "think not of winning, rather think of not losing".

"Yeah, **** it, he ain't beating me..." would be the English (vernacular)translation.

**hpr** · Posted On: 8/22/2008 6:23am

Originally Posted by Eddie Hardon

I read of that term many years ago - in "Bike" magazine. Doesn't it translate as something along the lines of "Grit", "Determination" etc..?

I understand it also helps to explain the shock you gave the Russians when they made the mistake of invading during WW2.

Moving on, it's a bit like that advice on Funakoshi's bio, I paraphrase, "think not of winning, rather think of not losing".

"Yeah, **** it, he ain't beating me..." would be the English (vernacular)translation.

To quote Wikipedia

Sisu is a Finnish term that could be roughly translated into English as strength of will, determination, perseverance, and acting rationally in the face of adversity. The equivalent in English is "to have guts", and indeed, the word derives from sisus, which means something inner or interior. However, sisu has a long-term element in it; it is not momentary courage, but the ability to sustain the same.

I'd call it stupid stubbornness and idiotic refusal to quit that keeps on going until you finish or get finished.

I'm actually not a very good example of sisu, since I can leave my ego out of the gym completely. When someone executes good technique that leaves me helpless as a kitten I'm smiling all the way to tapping out. I have no hard feelings on 'losing' in sparring, which might also one of the bigger reasons to why I do not progress that fast.

Only reasons I'm not fit like Greek statues are my laziness to start doing my exercises and my love for food. But when it comes to started physical activities, hell yeah. I'm doing it until I can't do no more and then do some more.

**Eddie Hardon** · Posted On: 8/22/2008 6:33am

HPR

Nice post. Thanks for that. Yes, stubbornness also came to Mind but I left it out. I used "Grit" for Guts - which you will infer. In the right context, the "idiotic refusal to quit that keeps on going until you finish or get finished" is an excellent point. I inferred that anyway.

To draw out that last, during the Peninsular campaign (I keep everything in my Head) a French Marshal was asked by Napoleon why he had lost a battle in which he had enjoyed overwhelming odds. His answer was "The English were beaten and the Day was Mine but they did not know it and would not run".

Fantastic. Of course, by English he means Wellington's Army and its many Irish, Scots, Welsh and English soldiery. "Sisu" in action, methinks.