What Does it Take to Bring People Together?

Commitment, hard work and a willingness to surrender yourself. The group that is going to be testing for their black belts at our school in three weeks is going down to Niagara on the Lake for a weekend of team building.

While the idea that the black belt test at our school is more than an individual assessment of your performance as a martial artist is long entrenched at DeSantos, the time we take to help the group that is testing together bond has definitely taken on a different quality in the last few years.

Partly this is just the chance brought by opportunity -- our master now has access to a property down in NOTL that works really well as a retreat for the group for the weekend. We do all kinds of fun things to help them get to know each other, and to de-stress them. But still help them to develop the focus and mental strength necessary for what they are about to do.

more on this later...

Simple Things

I often tell my students that what I teach them is simple, but not easy. Often, martial arts is about a quest for simplicity, but this is actually quite hard.

One of the first things a student at our school learns is how to bow, then how to tie their belt, then how to line up for the start of class. Each of these things is simple, but often executing them properly (especially under stress) can be the hardest thing in the world.

Too often I find that the world confuses simple and easy. People want to change their lives, but want it to be easy. Change is hard, but it is actually quite simple. It starts with a decision to change, and follows with a commitment to do the work necessary. And then it often requires the frighteningly simple, yet utterly terrifying step of asking for help.

I try not to proselytize about the effect of martial arts on your life, but identifying the difference between simple and easy is one of the best things I've learned from my years of training.

Lessons from the Mat

An Essay on Impact of the Martial Arts on my Life
(this may be familiar to some folks as it was originally written for my first Journey to Black Belt Poster in Fall, 2007)

I have always been drawn to the martial arts, from the time I was very young and even before I really understood what they were all about. I don’t remember any specific instance of seeing someone do something amazing that made me want to pursue the study of martial arts, but I was the type of kid who always had his nose in a book, and so had read about arms, armour and fighting techniques before I ever conceived of doing it myself.

When I was a child, probably about 8 years old, my mother signed me up for Judo classes. It lasted a week, and I forget now if it was that I didn’t want to go or my mom either couldn’t afford the time or money to take me. I signed up for judo again when I was twelve, and that lasted a couple of months. It was enough time to learn how to fall, roll and do some basic throws, and also long enough to realize no matter what they tell you in judo classes, size does make a difference: it’s very frustrating to try and learn judo techniques when you are the smallest person in class.

But even at that early age, one of the things that struck me about the martial arts was the calmness that you can achieve with them. The few moments at the beginning of class when we would sit and meditate, focusing on our breathing and centering ourselves in preparation for what we were about to do were the high point of the experience. I was a skinny kid with breathing problems, so handling the physical side of class was usually beyond me, but those moments of peace were what would pull me back to the martial arts years later, when I knew that I wanted to train my body to do things I had seen done in the movies, or read about in books.

From age twelve to thirty-eight I’ve traveled a lot, and studied – buffet style – several different styles of martial arts – Tai Chi, Aikido, Tae Kwan Do, and a Jeet Kune Do inspired mix of Tae Kwan Do, Wing Chun, Kali, Boxing and Savate. But before I started training physically, I knew what I hoped to find spiritually: a sense of honour, dedication, and commitment. What I did not know when I started was that I would find a camaraderie amongst martial art students that was fairly unique – people who were training to better themselves, but who were also interested in helping others. It’s this aspect of the martial arts that helps to inspire me when I find roadblocks in my way.

What I re-discovered when I returned to the martial arts after a long break, was that time training on the mat is time away from the world. I have always felt that training halls, dojos, dojangs are all magical places. There is an invisible veil in place across the mats in them. When you step through the veil you leave your outside life behind. Then, for however long you are there, you can focus on something outside your life, and live in one particular moment in time. Some people I know find a similar experience in church, or camping, or running, but I have not found that experience anywhere else, and it is what keeps me coming back to training again and again.

The martial arts have created in me a sense of purpose, lifted me up when I have been depressed, and linked me to people who mean the world to me. It was a shared interest in the martial arts that helped bring my wife and I together. It was the certain knowledge of the positive aspects of character development and ethical behavior that would be taught in great dojos that encouraged my wife and I to seek out a school for our son, and it was the realization that I missed having the martial arts in my life that brought me back to training after a 12 year hiatus.

The martial arts have helped make me who I am today. However, I know that I could not have gotten here without the help and support of the teachers and students who were a part of my experience. Whether it was all the hours I spent training at McGill, or the time on the mat at DeSantos, I could not have achieved anything without my teachers, peers, family and friends. They are the real reward of martial arts training – focus, commitment, physical fitness and some awareness of self-defense are just fringe benefits.

How you practice is how you perform

This credo was first shared with me early in my training in taekwando at DeSantos Martial Arts, by one of the instructors whom I admire the most -- mostly because he embodies this sentiment. When you first start applying it to your approach to martial arts you realize how vital it is: you cannot expect to perform at a high level, if you don't practice at that level regularly, and systematically.

I found myself coaching some great kids yesterday at a tournament. They were amazing in how they stepped up to perform in what for many of them was an unfamiliar setting. But my mind kept coming back to this lesson throughout the day. They were all performing really, really well -- but most were unprepared for what they were facing. The kind of tournament they were competing in was of a different quality then they were used to, and it showed in their performance. Which made me come back to Sir Tran's lesson -- if they want to perform differently in this kind of environment, they will have to refine their approach to their training.

And because the best lessons of the martial arts apply outside the confines of the mat, I have come to see how my everyday behaviour ends up determining how I perform. I can't expect to get different results if I keep doing the same things all the time.

It seems a truism -- what you've done in the past is what you'll do in the future (unless you choose to change your behaviour). But first you have to recognize that change is necessary.

Again, more on this later...

6,400,099,180

A really big number. Dogen Zenji, a thirteenth century zen master and founder of the Soto school of Zen Buddhism calculated this as the number of moments in a day.

An important idea connected to this calculation is that life is constantly changing, and these changes happen from moment to moment. I'm still unpacking the meaning of this, but the first thing that comes to mind is that this means there are 6,400,099,180 opportunities for change in a day. How am I going to make use of these opportunities today?

More on this later...

Bodies at rest tend to stay at rest...

Newton's first law of motion has been kicking in big time for me lately, in many ways. Physics as a metaphor for life can be a fun thing, but what I seem to be looking for is the equivalent of an 'outside force' to act on my resting body.

Last year I had all the motivation in the world to push myself to train, and train others. The cold winter has instead pushed me into near hibernation, and the result is I am flabby and feeling blue.

But last Sunday, while coaching students on forms, I realized that everyone feels this way sometimes -- I just don't notice, because many times I'm the 'outside force', changing the body from rest to motion. As my birthday approaches, I'm hoping that I find what I am missing, and get back on track.

This is the Sea

I've been hearing This is the Sea in my head for a while now -- it always speaks to me of journeys, transformations, efforts attempted, triumphs and failures. I think it is due to the journey I am witnessing in the black belt candidates at the moment.

They have come very far, but still have a long way to go. For the last couple of months I've found myself comfortable falling into the role of guide and counsellor to some, mentor to others. This insight has gone alongside the realization of how much this role means to me. Somehow, I have found a vocation through my martial arts training, and it feels good.

There was a psalm/song that was repeated for several weeks at church this year, whose theme was answering a call. For Catholics it refers to a call from God to live in a particular way. Given my sometimes ambivalent perspective on the church, I have found in it a reference to the calling I have found at the martial arts school.

So here I am. I place myself at the service of those who need me. As the song says, 'those who are weary, who have been alone too long, those suffering from a few too many plans that have gone wrong...'

I trust that I will help them find their way.

(Oh, as far as the video goes -- I try not to have regrets, but my one 'disappointment' in my life is that I've never stood up on a long board. If anyone ever asks me what I would want to be, my answer is always a surfer. I believe they live a life of transcendance every day they are on the water, and I would love to experience that. It was fantastic that when I went to find a video of the Waterboys tune, up popped a video that married the song to a big wave documentary. I love Youtube, but BTW, I'm getting a little tired of blogger's anti-intuitive editing functions...)