Would any of you do anything different in your martial arts?

[lowereastside]

Let me throw this out - Would any of you do anything different in your martial arts Journey?

[mal103]

Started 20 years earlier.....

I would also make more time to go and train with others, i'm now at a stage to start looking at other styles of MA to compliment my Karate but when you look at the great teachers/Sensei who have gone before then it would have been good to train with more of them. Some unfortunately are no longer around, although they have passed on their skills and ethos it would be good to experience their skills first hand.

If anyone is thinking about going to train with other groups, friends, courses, semina's etc, then go!

[mal103]

... and another thing....

Don't worship others, you may think that your Sensei is the best thing since sliced bread but most are only passing on what they have been taught along with their habits and anything else they want to add (or not)

Accept that they may not be god, when you are on youtube criticising a 10th Dan because your Sensei does it different.... maybe they are okay to be just different.

Next is to realise that big names in your styles history shouldn't maybe be treated as gods, were they justified in changing parts of the art, were they good enough to make them better, they may have made your art more popular but is it better? When looking for a point in time to say that is the best, maybe there shouldn't be one. Then if you go back further there may have been other influences.

[Lupin1]

I'm really bad with the "would you do anything differently" questions. I'm the type of person who focuses more on the future. When I look back at my life and the choices I made, I mostly just see the steps I took to get where I am and when I picture taking different steps, I realize I wouldn't be who I am today had I done that and I don't like that idea.

If I hadn't quit martial arts in 5th grade, I wouldn't have joined the traveling basketball team or done Sea Cadets or the other things I did with those Tuesday and Thursday nights. I would have had different friends and maybe missed out on/gained some essential, life-shaping experience. Anything changed would change who I am today-- maybe for the better, but maybe not. Sometimes it's fun to speculate how those things would have changed me and maybe try to integrate some of the positive changes if I think I'm lacking in a certain area due to my choice, but really I like who I am and I wouldn't want to be the different person I would be had I made a different decision.

Idk... I'm just bad at those questions. Probably because I read way too much into them. I much prefer asking myself something more along the lines of "ok-- if you choose to do something differently NOW, what would it be" and then go from there.

[Wastelander]

I would start a couple years earlier--around 15 or 16--and I would have explored cross-training and researching kata application sooner. When I think about this realistically, though, it makes me wonder if that really would have been better than what I did. What if I wasn't mature enough to enjoy training that young? What if it made me more closed minded about practicality? What if it caused me to never meet the great people I have met? What if it caused me to never transition into the style I currently practice?

These "what ifs" worry me quite a bit when I think about this kind of question. I suppose I'm a bit off in the head, though

[maisweh]

taken up bjj, judo, kickboxing or some type of other combat sport as well... 15 years ago.

[sensei8]

I'd do nothing different! Why? I've lived the MA my entire life, and in that, the live in the MA that I've followed has smiled upon me graciously. I'm in my 49th year, and I've been blessed with the best students, the best Soke and Dai-Soke, the best friends both in and out of the MA, and in that, the best MA journey, one that has been very fruitful beyond all I could've ever expected or hoped for.

However, there seems to always be the 'however', doesn't there. It's not a sad story, but it's something that I took granted for, and I should've paid much more attention to the things that are important, like memories. I suppose that I would've taken more accountability for making sure that memories weren't wasted or tossed to the side or forgotten. But I did!! I've no pictures neatly layed back in some album or detailed files or in some tattered old box. NO! No pictures of my own about the most fullfilled life that a MAist could ever have; again, I've been blessed beyond all that I could've ever dreamed about.

I can look at pictures from other Shindokanists, and they do fill a small part, but not like they possibly could if I had them for myself. That way I could look at them whenever I've the desire to replay the gambit of memories. To laugh at or to cry over or to ponder over; nonetheless, pictures of ones past shouldn't be laying on some dusty old book shelf or on a closet shelf, but I strive for that nowadays, moreso now than before.

I'd change or do nothing different!! To become a better guardian of my memories is the only thing that I would change. Now is too late!! Those memories aren't lost from my mind, but only on those small canvases that I took advantages.

I was more concerned about my MA betterment, and not preserving those who have meant the world to me. I take task with myself for not showing more forthright with those precious, now lost forever, memories.

Don't make my same mistake. Cherish those memories forever because what use to be is only a distant memory if one doesn't have them to look back upon in that tattered old box.

[lowereastside]

I would have started my Kung-Fu training at an earlier age - and should have started teaching earlier I was 42 when I started teaching.

[ps1]

Would have started training BJJ much earlier.

[DWx]

I'd have taken my training more seriously from the start. It's not like I didn't put any effort in but I was content to cruise along at an average level rather than push myself to give another 10% more than I did previous session.