The Skills of Guile

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Hey all.  Sorry for the lack of posts yesterday, here’s yesterday’s post, today!  Also, congrats to @arcolifestyle, who just won The Care and Feeding of You in our Twitter giveaway!  Follow Be a Game Character on Twitter for your chance to win!

Fighting for Old Glory

Guile’s a pretty badass fighter.  He hangs tough with the meanest combatants on the planet, hucking Sonic Booms and Flash Kicks at the like of Akuma, Seth, and Gen.  We can assume his skills are at a pretty elite level then, from a combat perspective.  Now, obviously some of his experience comes from being in the military, but his combat style doesn’t really fit the frame of military combatives.  Instead, Guile’s more of a traditional kickboxer, with a few special tricks thrown in there.

One of those tricks, quite possibly the flashiest (I kill me!) is the Flash Kick.  Unlike the Sonic Boom, which falls into the realm of the supernatural and is pretty damn un-replicatable, the Flash Kick IS a maneuver that’s possible in real life, at least in its most basic form.  Of course, it’s not a very practical combat move, so I wouldn’t recommend using is in an actual fight, but it’s still a lot of fun to learn and perform!

Before you can do a Flash Kick, first you need to be able to perform a back flip.  This is as much a matter of skill as it is fitness.  You need to be able to jump high, and have a solid core to be able to rotate yourself in the air (The Guile Workout is a good start for this), and then you need to practice the actual technique itself.  For a great video walk through, check out The Ginger Ninja’s tutorial here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiWwHhyYcro  Once you have the backflip down, it’s a matter of learning how to work the kick into it!  For this, I again send you to a Ginger Ninja tutorial.  Check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOPUU8YNRbY

Of course, there’s more to Guile’s fighting than just the Flash Kick.  Guile, as I mentioned above, has a style reminiscent of American kickboxing gyms, with a smattering of wrestling thrown in as well.  For a real-life example of his style, you can look at someone like UFC fighter Chris Weidman.  If you’re looking to fight like Guile, I’d recommend looking for local kickboxing, boxing, or MMA gyms.  A note on the MMA gyms:  Guile is definitely more of an American style, so while they’re excellent arts, I wouldn’t recommend Muay Thair or BJJ as possible arts to study.  They’re awesome combat arts, they just don’t really fit Guile’s style all that well.

Your Theme Goes with Everything

Guile’s theme is catchy, addictive, and seems to go with damn well near everything.  Similarly, you can develop your own “theme” as you go through life.  This doesn’t have to be music, necessarily, the idea of having a “theme” is the idea of having a personal identity that you identify with.  Guile’s a pretty recognizable guy beyond just his musical theme.  He’s got a very recognizable image or “motif,” if you will.  Similarly, you can develop your own personal image as well.

Careful, though.  Too often people focus on their own image and focus less on “going with everyone” and more on, “who I am is perfect and un-changeable.”  In developing your own self-image, you need to pull from sources around you, and adapt to situations you find yourself in.  You don’t want to be the guy or gal showing up to a formal dinner wearing jorts and a tuxedo t-shirt.  Remember, your goal is to present a positive and distinctive self-image, not to disrupt the world around you with a “HEY LOOK AT ME!” personal presentation.

Of course, to bring this back to Guile’s theme, music is an important part of self, as well.  Don’t underestimate music’s power to transform, motivate, and move you.  Personally, I’ve got several different MP3 playlists on my phone for moving through life.  Some are geared towards certain workouts, others for writing, or motivating myself to get menial tasks done.  Learn what songs and music fit your own personal soundtrack, and get them in portable form if you can, since we’re looking to utilize them through daily life.

Discipline

Guile is a military man, and a solid basis of his character is the discipline he gains from this background.  He’s stalwart, determined, and stoic in the face of fierce opposition.  He keeps his cool in high pressure situations, and doesn’t allow things to dissuade him from his goals.  How do we build this kind of internal sturdiness?

First off, I advise you get yourself on a solid schedule.  Wake up at the same time every day, try to eat at the same times, follow the same habits.  Of course, you don’t want your whole life to become rote, but the more menial things you can commit to mindless habit, the more mind you’ve got left to focus on other things.  Also, enforcing this schedule upon yourself is helpful for developing discipline in itself.

Other ideas is to intentionally put yourself through small hardships to build your own personal resistances.  Forcing yourself to undergo and endure things outside your comfort zone can build discipline and personal strength.  I’m not talking about hurting yourself, mind you.  These things can be as simple as taking a cold shower instead of a warm one (better for your skin, anyway!), adding an extra exercise to your workout regimen, or trying to learn a completely new skill.

In the end, discipline and perseverance are skills to be learned and practiced.  Continual effort needs to be put into developing them, and this effort, in turn, helps to develop them as well.  Be relentless in your pursuit of a stronger, patient, more determined self.

That’s it for The Skills of Guile!  Are YOU going to give the Flash Kick a shot??  Let me know over on the forums!  See you again on Thursday for The Mind of Guile!  As always, remember to live boldly, change the world, and continue to be awesome!

Dan “DaRatmastah” Wallace