How Full Is Your Cup?

When I trained in taekwondo at America's Best Karate in Chandler, Arizona in the late 1990s, one of my instructors was the late Tony Williams.  Mr. Williams was a black belt in kajukenbo, was well-known in competition circles, and preferred to go by his nickname, "Satch."  Satch taught sparring (though he'd call it "fighting") and our classes invariably included a significant amount of conditioning.  Any of my fellow students reading this probably scoffed at my use of the word "significant" as that is probably a significant understatement.  Satch could often be heard yelling "THE MIND GIVES UP BEFORE THE BODY DOES!" and "EMPTY YOUR CUP!!"  I knew what he meant by the first one, but had to ask him to explain the second.  What did "Empty your cup!" mean?

If you've got a cup and you want a drink, you're going to want to fill that cup.  But if your cup is already full of something else, then you won't be able to use it.  Makes sense.  Your brain is the cup and the "something else" is your preconceived notions and/or past experiences that are getting in the way of your learning something new (the drink you want).  If you "empty your cup" before training then you're setting aside what you already know (or think you know) and making yourself ready to learn something new.  This, of course, doesn't apply just to martial arts training.  In any potential learning situation, the less you have in your cup, the more ready you are to learn.  Bruce Lee said it best:

It doesn't matter what's in your cup!  At the risk of being immodest, I've been trained pretty well so what's in my cup is pretty good.  After decades of training in karate and taekwondo, I know how to do certain things.  If someone throws a punch at me, there are several ways I might react to protect myself and I'm pretty confident that the one I choose will work with devastating effect.  The same is true if someone were to try to grab me and take me down.  I don't know much about Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, though, so if I show up to BJJ class and my cup is full of karate and taekwondo, there won't be any room for something new.  Sure, I might seem more successful in the short term, but in the future I'll look back on what I've done and realize that I didn't really learn anything...because I'll still be trying to apply my previous training to new situations.

Before each class, I focus on emptying my cup so it's ready to receive something new.  So, the next time you're struggling to learn something new, ask yourself, "How full is my cup?"  If you find that it's full, then empty it and try again...