Hats Off...!

[delta1]

...To a special group of people! That would be anyone that does any martial arts and stays with it. Right now, I'm sitting around waiting for a prospective new student, who's almost an hour late; and experience tells me that from the time he said he'd come there's only a 1 in 10 chance he will. Odds are less than that he'd stay with it if he did. Let me explain:

 

I'm not an instructor of any martial art, but I live in a small town. For Kenpo I have to travel for private instruction, and there is a small group of us who train together and share costs for travel and class. That group varries in size from 2 to a max of 6 (3 at present), and we are allways on the lookout for new prospects. It is unreal how many people express an interest, then don't show. Worse, those that do show find out it is work, and they are gone. So, I'm sitting here thinking that those who do stick it out are a special bunch. Whether they compete, work out for health or self developement, or train for reality and self defense, they are a cut above the rest.

 

So you guys all give yourselves a pat on the back- you deserve it!

 

Edited April 2, 2004 by delta1

[WolverineGuy]

Hehe, sweet. I rule.

[kungfumaster]

thankx

[Beka]

Worse, those that do show find out it is work, and they are gone.

 

What!? You mean this stuff takes WORK!?!? NO WAY!

 

Seriously though, I know what you're talking about. I was thinking about white belt retention recently, since in the classes I usually go to at my dojo, there is (at any given time, usually) one other white belt, 2 green belts, and 3-8 brown or black belts in a class. I'm testing next week for my first stripe (yay!) so I know I've made it over that initial hump. In our style it tends to take a good long while to get to green belt (the second belt) because we want to make sure you're really serious about it.

 

I got all excited when this other girl joined because I wanted another white belt girl with me. She was there for a couple of lessons, then she left. I saw her last week in the drugstore and I asked her what happened. She said "Uh, I'm more of a yoga person". So it's true, we are a special bunch .

 

I think people go into it and expect to automatically turn into super kung fu master after their first lesson. They think they'll be pulling moves from Street Fighter in a matter of minutes, but that is just not the realilty. My mom was shocked to find out that, yes, I do work up a sweat practicing karate. I don't exactly know why doing kata over and over and over is so hard, but my hour-long kata class is just painfully difficult sometimes. I think in a lot of ways people don't respect the martial arts because they think it is easy. But, uh, no, honey, it ain't.[/i]

[equaninimus]

I thought I still practiced because I'm too dumb not too!

[TheDevilAside]

Oh stop, you flatter me

 

I'm glad I've stuck with American Kenpo this far (I'm an orange belt, finally). There were a bunch of times I wanted to quit.. mainly because I could barely do 10 push ups, and yes, I wasn't expecting it to be work But since then, I've started lifting weights and training intensily, now I can over 80 push ups without breaking a sweat and I'm finally considered to be "strong" for my age. Martial Arts is the motivation I needed and the "passion" I was looking for.

[Reklats]

I thought I still practiced because I'm too dumb not too!

 

Inertia is a wonderful thing...

[karatekid1975]

After three and a half years, yes I'm still going. There were times I wanted to quit, but I just took a week off instead. That usually did the trick. Now I'm 6 or so months from black belt. When I look back at all that I had to overcome, I always wondered what kept me going for so long. Now I'm a white belt in Judo (on top of TKD). Go figure LOL.

[Squawman]

Now if only we can get this thinking into some of the parents of martial art students. I don't know how many times that a student quits because the parent says the kid "just doesn't want to come anymore". And I don't mean that the kid puts up big screaming fight when its time to go they just say that they don't feel like going so the parent lets them quit. I read one way that an instructor deals with it is he says if the kid wanted to quit school would you let them? Then why would you let them quit martial arts? There are just as many benifits to martial arts as there are in school.

[equaninimus]

Well, I just finfished week two of no karate, due to a knee injury, and I am gtetting severly antsy to train again! Hitting the makiwara and the heavy bag, and doing individual practice is sooo not the same!