Aug 2004 Thoughts

First of all, let me say how excited I am to be back at the KAT. I’ve had the privilege of training with many different programs while I was back east, and it’s always good to come back to where you started. This Sabumnim’s Corner section of the site is going to be a forum for me to periodically share my thoughts on the school with the rest of the KAT community.

There are so many things happening at the school right now that I had a hard time choosing what to write about. Yet, I finally settled on ATTITUDE, because no matter what you’re doing or what level you’re at, attitude is really the core of martial arts spirit. The attitude you bring to training is what determines how you are going to react when you’re faced with challenges. If you see everything difficult, every loss, every failed board break, as something stopping you, or some ‘sign’ that you’re never going to amount to anything, then you’ll never overcome your obstacles. However, if you see these temporary barriers as what they are, learning experiences, then you’ll truly learn something and end up a better martial artist.

I wanted to point out two examples from class the last couple of weeks that show one facet of this martial arts spirit. The first one was during the double kick contest. Davi and Ri had come in the day before with 90 + doubles in 30 seconds, so I challenged the adult class on it. Peter knew that he had fast doubles and I could see in his eyes how bad he wanted to win it. He gave everything he had to win the day with an even 100. He pushed himself so hard for 30 seconds that he was in visible pain for the entire rest of the practice. The pain that he felt for the rest of the class is forgotten now, but not the fact that no one else could match his doubles.

Another example was during the obstacle course when I gave the adult class the option of jumping over either two or four pads. Spencer was the smallest and he knew that the two pads were mostly meant for him, so he raised his hand and asked if he could try three instead because he thought three would be more of a challenge. It doesn’t matter that when he tried to jump over three he fell down and cried. He got back up and kept going. What mattered was his attitude that made him want to push himself and try difficult things. This six year old is pushing himself harder than some adult competitors. He knows that you will usually learn more losing to a black belt than beating a white belt. So he sets his own bar high and goes for it.