Before you ever land a strike, control a limb, or break someone’s rhythm, you have to control your mind. Martial arts is more than technique—it’s about mastering your own internal state under pressure. The ability to control your thoughts, reframe your mental state, and stay locked in when chaos hits isn’t just useful—it’s essential. What I’m about to share applies as much to fighting as it does to teaching, parenting, or life itself.
One of the most overlooked skills in high performance—whether in martial arts, teaching, leadership, or life—is the ability to observe your own thoughts in real time. Most people
Mental discipline is as critical as physical technique. True martial artists train both.
never learn this. Some don’t even believe it’s possible. But once you understand that you can step outside your own thinking and watch it happen, you gain access to a level of control most people will never touch.
That’s not some guru-speak nonsense. That’s reality.
We all have the ability to observe our thinking. Most of us just choose not to. Why? Because it’s easier to be a passenger in your own mind. It’s easier to say, “I can’t help what I think,” or “My mind just goes there.” That gets you off the hook. But it also keeps you weak.
The Power of Cognitive Observation
Let’s break this down in practical terms.
Right now, you can literally listen to your own thoughts. You can step back and say, “Hmm, that’s interesting—I keep looping back to that argument I had,” or “I’m running a fear story in my head before I’ve even taken a swing.”
That moment—when you realize you’re thinking—is the crack in the wall. It’s the opening where power begins.
Because once you can observe your thoughts, you can start to direct them. You can say:
- “This isn’t what I want to deal with right now.”
- “This is not useful to me at this moment.”
- “I’ll come back to that later. Right now, I have a job to do.”
And just like that, you flip the switch.
You might use a trigger word, an action cue, or a pattern interrupt like I do—something simple and sharp. “Drop the hammer.” “Clear the channel.” Sometimes, a physical action can help too—a deep breath, a quick shift in posture, or even stepping out of the room for 30 seconds. Or try focusing on a sensory detail—your feet on the ground, the sound of your breath. Anything that snaps your attention back to the present.
This isn’t always easy, and it takes consistent effort. But it works. Over time, it builds into a habit. A powerful one.
It doesn’t mean you’re suppressing emotions or avoiding hard things. It means you’re choosing what gets your mental bandwidth. That’s what adult thinking looks like. That’s what performance under pressure demands.
Discipline Isn’t Just Physical. It’s Mental Navigation.
People think discipline is about getting up at 4 AM, grinding through workouts, or sticking to a meal plan. Sure, that’s part of it. But the deeper form of discipline is this:
The ability to decide what you’re going to think about—and stick to it.
Because guess what? You’ll always have competing thoughts. You’ll always have:
- Personal stress
- Setbacks
- Fear
- Temptation
- Failure
- Disappointment
- Internal noise
You don’t get to graduate from that. Nobody does. The people who win aren’t the ones who eliminate distractions—they’re the ones who learn how to lead themselves through the noise.
And that leadership starts in the brain.
Responsibility: The Reason Most People Don’t Want to Control Their Minds
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: Most people don’t want to control their brains—because that would mean taking full responsibility for their life.
If you can’t hide behind, “I can’t help what I think,” then what’s left? Just you. Your choices. Your direction. Your responsibility.
That’s scary for a lot of people. But it’s also the most freeing thing you’ll ever experience.
Because once you accept that your thoughts are yours to steer, you realize you don’t have to be ruled by anxiety, anger, excuses, or doubt. You don’t have to run old survival patterns just because your nervous system learned them when you were ten.
You can override them. You can install new ones.
It’s not magic. It’s not easy. But it’s possible—and it’s trainable.
This Is a Trainable Skill
Let me say that again: This is a trainable skill.
Just like drilling a punch, throwing a hip toss, or teaching a kid how to write a sentence, cognitive discipline is something you build over time. Through repetition. Through failure. Through real reps.
You start by noticing:
- “I’m getting stuck on this thought.”
- “I’m ruminating.”
- “I’m playing out worst-case scenarios.”
Then you pause. Then you interrupt it. Then you choose a new focus.
And you repeat that process dozens, then hundreds, then thousands of times.
Eventually, it becomes second nature. Not perfect. Not robotic. Just trained.
A Story I’ll Never Forget
I first learned this lesson the hard way when I was teaching in the Philadelphia Public Schools at Morris E. Leeds Middle School. I was about a month in and completely shell-shocked. I must’ve been wearing it all over my face without realizing it.
I was a kid from rural Western Pennsylvania, and suddenly I was in a very different world—an urban school with kids who had real problems. Kids who walked past drug dealers and prostitutes on their way to school. Kids who were being recruited into gangs at 12 years old. Kids who had seen more violence by middle school than most adults will see in a lifetime.
One afternoon, I was walking out of the building and our Dean of Students stopped me. He asked how I was doing, and I gave the standard answer: “I’m all right.”
He looked me dead in the eyes and said, “No you’re not.”
That caught me off guard. Even at 23, I was good at controlling how I appeared on the outside. But somehow, he saw right through me. He asked how much I was sleeping, and I admitted I couldn’t remember the last time I slept through the night.
He said, “You’ve got to learn how to let this stuff go. When you walk out of here, you’ve got to flip the switch. The problems will still be here tomorrow. But you’ve got to leave them here. They’re not yours to carry home.”
He reminded me: “You didn’t give these kids their problems. You’re here to help them get out of those problems. But you can’t do that if you’re drowning with them.”
It hit me like a ton of bricks. He was right. As long as I was mentally drowning, I had nothing to offer. I wasn’t free to help anyone.
And just like they tell you on the airplane: secure your own oxygen mask first.
I wasn’t doing that. I was suffocating with them. There’s no power in that. There’s no leadership in that. I had to learn how to flip the switch.
So I built a ritual. Every day, I walked out of that building and said to myself, “This part of my day is over. The rest of the day is mine.”
It was a simple line. Sometimes I said it out loud, sometimes I whispered it, sometimes I just thought it. But I said it. And over time, it became a real habit.
That line saved me.
The Results? Everything Changes.
When you learn how to guide your thoughts instead of being a hostage to them, everything else follows.
- Your emotional regulation improves.
- Your focus under pressure sharpens.
- Your relationships get less reactive.
- Your training gets more consistent.
- Your execution improves in business, teaching, fighting, and leadership.
This is the deep work. This is what separates high-performers from high-potential underachievers.
Final Word: You Can’t Outsource This
Nobody can do this for you.
Yes, you can have a coach. Yes, you can read books and take courses and learn from mentors. But the moment-to-moment practice of owning your thoughts?
That’s yours alone.
And it will be the greatest source of power you ever develop.
Because if you can control your brain, you can control your thinking. If you can control your thinking, you can control your actions. If you can control your actions, you can control your results.
Own your brain—or it will own you.
About the Author
Dale Steigerwald is a seasoned educator, martial arts instructor, and mindset strategist with over two decades of experience teaching, leading, and developing others. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Education and has completed master’s-level graduate work in both Educational Leadership and Curriculum & Instruction.
Known for his direct, no-nonsense approach, Dale blends his background as a public school teacher and martial arts coach to train not just bodies—but minds. His work centers on helping people build mental resilience, emotional control, and performance clarity—in the classroom, on the training floor, and in life.
He is currently earning his Mental Skills Mastery certification, furthering his mission to equip students and professionals with the cognitive tools they need to perform under pressure and live with intention.
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This is the mindset we train at the Academy. This is the reason Wing Chun isn’t just a fighting system—it’s a system for living. Your thoughts shape your positioning. Your positioning shapes your power. And if you can’t command your thoughts, your opponent already has the upper hand. Flip the switch. Lead your brain. Or be led by everything else.
Get your first class free at iLoveWingChun.com