It is a game of inches…. But….

Sometimes, you make huge strides…. Or at least, your martial art growth is recognized as such.

I often write about the benefits of consistency, especially when it relates to martial arts. One of the many lessons that I learned from Sijo is that “by the yard it is hard, but the inch it is a cinch”. As many of you have heard, success comes from doing the right things often enough. For martial arts – that begins with training consistently.

I truly believe that perseverance is one of the many traits, which the martial arts develop and deliver – at least for those that stay with the training. The lessons teach that nothing worth-while is easy, but that success is a reward.  I also believe that persistence is a reward in and of itself – I make sure that I live this principle myself.  Many of you know that I drive a considerable distance every week, sometimes to teach a small class.  If I had a nickel for every time someone told me I was crazy for doing this, I could buy a lot of fancy equipment for the school.

Let me tell you why I do it - 2 promises. One, a promise to Sijo to run a Fang Shen Do school in Toronto. When I committed to being a part of something, especially to someone who I admire and respect, I am not one to cut and run when things get tough.  I am with Fang Shen Do for the long haul and I need my actions (not just my words) to reflect that.

The second was a promise to a friend that invested a considerable amount of money to get things going.  At the time, there were three people involved, but this friend wanted me involved because he knew that my word meant something (this was all done in 2007 and was based solely on a handshake).  That third person has left, and people will come and go at our school, but I am also there for the long haul.

But this writing is not about me – I just mentioned the above to illustrate that I try to live by what Fang Shen Do teaches.  

The topic sentence is about one of our students named Hari. Hari has been with us for years and is one of the students that lives by the constancy principle.   He is not a student that trains one month and then takes the next month off.  We will see him every week in class.  He is a very well-behaved and disciplined student who is always respectful of the instructors and his training partners.

I always knew that Hari was a martial artist, but it took one class to show me how much he has improved over the last year.  This class was late last June. It was a smaller class, as some of the non-martial artist types thought it was too hot to train (joke).  Because of the number of students, I had some time to go one-on-one with Hari.

We were concentrating on power and endurance.  Hard core drill after drill (some of them from the adults class), we took on, with only 30 second breaks between rounds.  

Halfway thought the class, I was amazed.  Not only was Hari not asking for a break, he was completing the rounds without pause.  As an example, one of the drills that we did was on the heavy bag.  It was 20 full power punches, followed by 5 push-ups (3min).  Not only did Hari complete the three minutes without stopping for a rest, he continued throughout the whole round to punch as hard as he could when on the punching bag.

It was warrior training at its best – no break, no complaining - just results.

Our junior classes start up again in September (Registration on September 11th) and I can’t wait to see Hari back on the mats again – Just imagine the progress he will make this year!

Posted in: Personal Development