Motivational Tools

[JR 137]

Sooo many "tough guys" came and went during my tenure. Usually the amount of conditioning we did got them. The remaining 10% of them or so couldn't handle all that work for no instant success.

Unless you have some judo or jujitsu experience, or are only wrestling against other beginners, there's zero instant success. And judo/jujitsu experience only carries you so far. We used to say it takes at least a year to get competitive if you're a good athlete. Closer to two years. Very few people can handle all that work for "nothing."

[Spartacus Maximus]

What JR has said is one of the single most defining part of modern culture. People in general crave instant gratification and quick results with little effort other than just "showing up". Everything must be quick, easy and cheap. This attitude is so common that it makes people forget the value of dedicated hard work and patience.

When people don't get instant results, they give up and move to the next hot item. They see experts doing something and foolishly believe that they can do the same because it looks easy. They forget that it looks easy because the person is an expert who has trained often decades through pain, frustration and countless failures before being able to do what they do.

Karate is NOT easy and it cannot be mastered in just a few short years twice a week. It is hard, it is boring and repetitive and painful. Progress is sometimes so subtle as to be practically unnoticeable to the one training.

[JR 137]

What JR has said is one of the single most defining part of modern culture. People in general crave instant gratification and quick results with little effort other than just "showing up". Everything must be quick, easy and cheap. This attitude is so common that it makes people forget the value of dedicated hard work and patience.

When people don't get instant results, they give up and move to the next hot item. They see experts doing something and foolishly believe that they can do the same because it looks easy. They forget that it looks easy because the person is an expert who has trained often decades through pain, frustration and countless failures before being able to do what they do.

Karate is NOT easy and it cannot be mastered in just a few short years twice a week. It is hard, it is boring and repetitive and painful. Progress is sometimes so subtle as to be practically unnoticeable to the one training.

Completely agreed. It's not just the MA. Substitute weight loss or physical fitness for MA in your post, and it really smacks you in the face of how bad it really is. How many people have collections of exercise equipment in their basement or thd latest (at the time) workout craze DVDs in a closet somewhere?

I've got a total gym in my closet. In all fairness, I don't have space to use it properly since I moved. Once the clown downstairs leaves and takes his stuff in the basement with him (including a treadmill, elliptical runner, and rowing machine covered with boxes of junk), I'll set it up along side a heavy bag that's in my shopping cart waiting for the day he leaves. He's also got an exercise bike and that ab wheel thing in the shed. I guess him and his family didn't realize working out every single day isn't as fun as the commercials make it out to be. Sorry for the rant, I'm just fed up with the guy and all his stuff EVERYWHERE.