As a white belt many years ago, our instructor related this story to us. He explained it much like this:
There was once two pearl farmers in Korea. They both lived in the same small village on the coast of Korea. The first farmer was a meager farmer with only but a limited number of strings from which hung his oysters with developing pearls in them. The total number of potential pearls amounted between 100-200. The second farmer had hundreds of strings of oysters amounting to a potential of thousands of pearls. Now after a time the pearls were ready to be harvested. The first farmer harvested all the oysters he owned and collected 100 or so pearls of quality to sell at market. The second farmer though he had such a large potential of pearls only harvested a very small number of his oysters resulting in 50 pearls. After the harvest they both went off to market and sold their bounty. The first farmer with his money paid off any outstanding debts he had and with the rest of his money he was able to live the rest of his life not extravagantly but comfortably until he passed a number of years later. The second farmer, with the little amount of money he made, lived out the rest of his days very poorly never bothering to ever harvest anymore pearls but rather save them for the future (which never came).
Which farmer was richer?
The first farmer, though with technically fewer pearls, used his potential and benefited fully from it. The second farmer though potentially much richer, did not use anywhere close to his potential and suffered greatly from this choice!
If we look at the word pearl and substitute it with the word talent, it is much like many in martial arts. Some have so much potential talent but never really use it. Others have very little potential talent yet use every little bit of talent they have! The choice is yours! Use every bit of your talents no matter how great or how small. It is what you do with what you have which truly counts!.
Here is another video with various students of our kids/youth class “Just Kickin’ It!”
Are classes are located at the North Oshawa Community Clubhouse, 1139 Mary St. N in Oshawa.
For more information about our classes please contact us at: whitesmartialarts@yahoo.ca
Here is a video from our school featuring clips of the kids/youths class.
Are classes are located at the North Oshawa Community Clubhouse, 1139 Mary St. N in Oshawa.
For more information about our classes please contact us at: whitesmartialarts@yahoo.ca
How do we train for excellence? And what is average? Excellence in context of martial arts is the quest to be your personal best! While average is settling for something that anyone else could do. Training excellence dictates we must challenge ourselves and exceed beyond our past accomplishments and others expectations. We must be in a state of constantly “doing our best” and settling for only the best of and in ourselves! The first key to training excellence is your mindset. Another key, although related to mindset, is you contribution to class. The third key is striving for technical and personal perfection. Understanding the keys to training excellence will help unlock the secrets of the martial arts and all they have to offer you the student.
Mindset is the way we percieve ourselves and the way we train. We must see ourselves as being able to accomplish any tasks we set out to perform. We must see ourselves not as limited, but limitless! Don’t train to be ‘good enough’, but rather train to be the best you can be every time! Improvement should be a daily occurrence, you might not improve in leaps and bounds everyday (nor should we expect to) but you should try to do better today better than you did yesterday. That is to say the way you train today should exceed your last performance. If you do see each class as a chance to improve from yesterday’s performance, over time you will see great results in your abilities and class will continue to be much more fun as well. Make every class count! - seek to improve daily!
It must be recognized that class is not a contest with others but a contest with oneself! Through all the series of various drills and exercises our interaction with others in class is paramount. We are not there to compete with others but to compete with our-self using the mindset of being a little better than the class before. If you compete with others you will lose the value of the class for not only yourself but also for the others students. There is no win in class and there is no lose in class, just results. A positive contribution to the class helps everyone to practice safely and effectively while giving the opportunity to develop and to improve oneself in the martial arts. Being together and helping each other grow in the martial arts is a key factor. Though the right type of training we can learn that improvement comes with effort and contribution to the class and school, creating comaraderie and a positive learning environment.
Your goal is to perform technique surely, flawlessly and seemingly effortlessly with precision. Your worst performance in training is the best you could hope for in the street or the ring! It doesn’t matter what you can do with speed, strength or surprise in class because in the street or in the ring all of that is usually lost. Strength, speed or surprise can many times be overcome by technical ability. To achieve technical perfection proper body alignment and a complete understanding of body mechanics is of the utmost importance. If you understand the way in which the human body moves and reacts you will enhance your training 100 fold. Proper form will give you the edge with little effort. Form aligns the body properly and uses mechanics to it’s advantage. Train to be technically perfect. Train slowly and surely at first. Work on form first then speed and strength will follow.
These keys to training are just an outline to help you achieve training excellence. Nothing good in life comes without hard work and sacrifice, so stick with it! I promise if you try to improve daily, if you contribute to class (and the school) and train towards perfecting your form you will excel in the martial arts and truly be Excellent and not average!
99% of personal protection is using ones brain! So many confrontations, attacks and fights could be and can be avoided or altered by using simple methods utilizing the brain instead of brawn! Probably the most important mental aspect of self protection is Awareness! Although it sounds simple for one to be aware so few people actually are. To explain awareness we may use Color Code model based on one first devised by the pistol shooting coach Jeff Cooper. The model is as follows:
Although the chart gives four Code levels awareness could be simplified even further into the fact that either; ‘one is aware on what is going on around themselves’ or ‘they are not!’. A sad factor working against awareness is apathy. “That would never happen to me!” or “Assault is illegal so I should be able to go where I want and not worry about being attacked!” Sure, these and similar ideas are great but far from realistic! One should never have to worry about violence or being assaulted but apathy to reality could get you hurt or killed! Sorry! it’s not a perfect world! Conflicts, confrontations, attacks, assaults and murders do happen. Be safe and be aware! There is no need to be paranoid, just be aware. Know that you are in control when you take action. If you are apathetic you are a victim! If you are aware you are in Control!
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