"DISCIPLINE" Rule #6 of Chivalry
"DISCIPLINE" Rule #6 of Knights Code of Chivalry
"In the field of battle, as in all things, you will perform as you practice. With practice, you build the road to accomplish your goals. Excellence lives in attention to detail. Give your all, all the time. Don’t save anything for the walk home. The better a knight prepares, the less willing he will be to surrender."
DISCIPLINE! There is that word again that many confuse as SELF-CONTROL. Before I speak on this code of Chivalry I have must clarify the true definition of "discipline".
DISCIPLINE - "the practice of training people to obey rules or a code of behavior, using punishment to correct disobedience."
So, before we start to cheer and stand as a supporter of discipline we have to understand that it's core is PUNISHMENT which is the heartbeat that makes discipline work. There has to be punishment for disobeying.
But the important thing that the Chivalry's code of Discipline tells us is that the more punishment we are willing to take in training, the more that we can take in the real fight before surrendering. I can not express to you how true this is.
I have learned through my Martial Arts experience that we all can be conditioned to accept more punishment than we initially can. I have also witnessed that the ones who are willing to accept the most punishment usually dominate the ones who aren't. In Muay Thai Kick Boxing we beat our shins so that we constantly give ourselves hairline fractures in them. These are the same type of fractures that people go to the hospital and get placed in a cast for. However, in Muay Thai, we instead continue to punish ourselves by beating them more and more. This causes them to heal back STRONGER in an abnormal almost inhuman fashion, which allows us to weaponize our shins like baseball bats. When I fought my shins were conditioned so strongly to this point that I purposely kicked my opponents in their shins, knees and even elbows to hurt them.
Of course combat is punishment and in fact, everyday life also can be. This idea translates over to studying and even working. The Chivalry code of Discipline teaches us to toughen up if we want to be the best that we can be and not have to surrender so easily. If we identify the things that can make us want to quit and punish ourselves constantly with them, they are no longer a threat that can cause us to quit. And we could be surprised at how we may reverse the effect of that punishment to favor us just as we Muay Thai Kick Boxers do with our shins.
Understanding the strength behind using punishment to correct disobedience is a delicate mention since punishment can come in physical forms of assaulting another. As cruel as this can be for parenting and/or enforcing laws, it is not cruel for the training of warriors and here's why.
When I train my students I make them pay for their mistakes with calisthenics or the acceptance of painful leg kicks. The message that I am sending is that mistakes are not free in combat. A mistake will cause you pain and in real combat can cost you your life. This teaches them to expect to be hurt for screwing up and more importantly, to keep pressing forward without complaint or self pity. This "conditions" them to be stronger and tougher for the person that they may meet in the ring, cage, or streets.
To discipline our self is to make our self stronger than those who don't discipline themselves. It gives us an advantage in combat and everyday living. There must be a sensible punishment for our screw ups or our WE will become a total screw up. Discipline counters the screw up within. It is a tool for greatness.
And THIS, ...is a "way" of the "Warrior's Edge"! -Jermaine Andre'
