Martial arts as a second family

[skullsplitter]

This probably isn't news to anyone here, but this past weekend reminded of how much our karate experience has provided us with more family.

My teenage son's team trials for the USA team for our org were this past weekend. We had some family drama going on and unfortunately it came to a head during the trials. I had to leave to attend to it and my son was shaken and in tears. My wife stayed behind to watch him. One of the girls went to the locker room and tried to console him. His first division was a disaster. He told mom that he just wanted to go home. Then sensei got involved. She put his hands on his face and talked to him. His friends from his school and others schools surrounded him with support while sensei talked. He ended up making the team in his next 2 divisions.

I just wanted to put this here to remind us all that martial arts can go beyond self defense, competition, and what is "real" karate. It can provide a wonderful support system. This isn't the first time our dojo has had to do something like this.

[The Pred]

Very true ! Martial Arts can form great relationships !

[sensei8]

Whether they be close or distant in relationship, family they are, nonetheless. Both valued...both important. Neither is more important than the other, even though, immediate families, such as my wife and our children, are my most important family.

The MA begets others to become a family; the camaraderie, at times, can't be denied, nor can it be rushed. As in anything, time reveals everything, and as in anything of value, it must be nourished before it can take roots.

I've my immediate family!

I've my distant and close family!

I've my second family!

Fellow MAists are my second family, and without them, I'm nothing, yet with them, I'm everything in and out of the MA. As in any family, there is still the hierarchy within it, and where one sits, imho, doesn't matter much because the fact that that family exists, is what's important to me.

[bushido_man96]

I see this so much in Wrestling. And it isn't just within the club here in town. At various tournaments, we will see folks that my kids have wreslted in the past, like when Kendall was 6, and they will stop and chat, ask how things are going, and we talk to them about how their kids are doing as well. And we congratulate each other on victories, and console each other in defeats. Its truly a great thing.

[sensei8]

I think that pretty everything that we're part of, whether it be sports, business, and what-have-you, has a way of it to beget those second families. We're at home or we're at work or we're involved in what-have-you, in which we're more with one or the other more often than we care to be.

I spent time at home, yet, I spent, at times, more at the dojo or at the baseball field or what-have-you. Whatever struck me, that's where I'd be, and at times, I was drawn to the people than the event.

During my baseball days, those I played with or against, were my second family; there's no where on the face of earth that I'd rather be, than there, with them by just enjoying the nearness of them all. The smells, the sounds, the familiarity, and so on and so forth.

At the dojo, there was the smells, the sounds, the familiarity of it all, and so on and so forth. My fellow MAists who endured the very same things I endured as far as the tangible things within the dojo. Things within the dojo drew me to it for a countless sense of security. The dojo welcomed me, and I welcomed it, as well.