Breath and internal stories, are at the root of everything.
If you look at any motivational speaker or any motivational speech and it’s some type of internal story that they’re trying to get you to say to yourself.
Breathing. Physically, physiologically, neurologically, from an emotional standpoint. It’s at the root of every phenomenal program.
I’m going to teach somebody how to throw a combination. Breathing rhythm and cadence when throwing combinations is a big part of executing that skill at a high level. Often times in the Self Defense World we miss out on the fact that breathing is also how we get ourselves through stress. Awareness of breathing is how we walk ourselves down, from an internal story in the middle of that situation.
In my opinion breathing should be part of what you teach day one. And it should be taught in correlation with both physical and psychological so we breathe to hit better and we also breathe to calm ourselves.
Our whole entire objective as self defense instructors is to walk people through what is going to be an adrenaline filled, terrifying moment in their life. So teaching them how to control stress, through breath is massively important. And it’s something that I wish a lot of people did a lot more of, even on a rudimentary level.
I understand why it’s not taught this way often, because it’s perceived as not sexy. It’s not what everybody wants. It’s definitely not found in most self defense programs and things like that. However, if you want to set yourself apart. If you want to be the group that steps out and says I am this instructor I am this person that is going to lead my community. Breathing is going to be an absolutely crucial part of it.
This is why before you can do any certification level with me for anything like active shooter response or knife control concepts and the programs I run, you have to go through the instructor elevation project. We talk about language and breathing and internal stories a lot. Because if you own that, the rest of it can be done on such an elevated level.
Interested in elevating your impact as a self defense instructor or gym owner? Get in touch.
Aaron Jannetti 