Should community service be a requirement for belt promotion?

 

     My school curriculum is a bit unorthodox in that I require all of my students to perform some type of community service in order to be considered for promotion. The project a student chooses can be quite simple and does not necessarily have to be either big or complex. The idea is to get out there and doing something that's positive, empowering, and supportive for members of your community.

     I first began to piece together the idea of martial arts and community service when I was training in Karate back in the early 90s. At about the same time I began to study and become interested in Japanese culture. What I found to be of particular interest was the ruling warrior class of feudal Japan known as the Samurai. I was amazed to see the number of diverse roles they played in their society. 

     The men and women, who made up the ranks of the samurai were multifaceted in that they were extremely fierce warriors, but also highly literate and artistic. Unlying all of the samurai actions was the notion of bushido, a moral code of conduct that served to give guidance to samurais behavior, duties, and responsibilities. The thing that intrigued me most about this concept was the idea of loyalty and selfless service to those you served.

     Those sets of principles, loyalty, and selfless service started me thinking about the role of martial arts and service to others and how they relate to one another. I soon started to view my role as a martial artist as someone who not only seeks self-improvement but looks to build up those around me. This notion of helping and supporting others soon extended beyond those with whom I only trained with. 

     When I finally opened my school I saw it as my obligation to not only transform the lives of my students but the lives of the community whose members I serve as well. I felt it my duty to ensure I continued this notion of service through to my students. To be a student of the martial arts is to be a student of life and serve as a role model of moral and ethical behavior for all to follow.      

Consistency is King!

 

     Consistency is the main ingredient needed if we are looking to learn, improve, and grow at anything we do in life. If you're consistent in your attendance, attitude, and effort, improvement in whatever activity you're engaged in will surely follow.

     Consistency is needed whether the discussion is jiu-jitsu, homework, baseball, basket weaving, or self-improvement. There are simply no areas of our lives where consistency's positive impact is not felt. Consistency's influence in our lives can be felt in a number of significant ways.

1. Consistency is the cornerstone of improvement

2. Consistency is the foundation from which all habits are formed

3. Consistency produces forward momentum.

4. Consistency creates opportunities 

5. Consistency opens up possibilities

6. Consistency allows for creativity

Consistency can be viewed as synonymous with improvement, and therefore indispensable if one is looking to make any type of positive, lasting change in their life.  

      

     

How Your Health Affects Your Training!

 

     I just had a conversation the other night with a group of students about the importance of taking care of their bodies. I reiterated the fact that their fitness was vital, not only to the overall enjoyment and performance on the mats but to their quality of life outside of training.

     When I first started out in jiu-jitsu there were little to no discussions on the importance of taking care of yourself, or how one should go about doing that. I don't remember doing any kind of stretching or conditioning really, outside of the requisite push-ups and sit-ups. If you weren't already doing something like that on your own then you were out of luck. In fact, the prevailing attitude at the time, and one that persisted for many years as you weren't really training if you weren't getting the crap beat out of you. I can't recall hearing my instructor, coaches, or other students talking about the importance and benefits of rest and recovery as well. 

     After a number of years of hard training with little to no body maintenance work done, my body began to break down, and the injuries started to accumulate. Accompanying my body's physical breakdown came a sort of mental burnout as well. I became increasingly frustrated with constantly being injured, in pain, and not being able to train as I wanted. At one point I had to step away from training for a couple of years to heal up and mentally recharge my batteries

     It was during my time away from training that I began to see the importance of having some type of program that addressed my strength, conditioning, mobility, and nutrition. As I began incorporating a diet and exercise routine into my life I could immediately see its mental and physical benefits! As I strengthened both body and mind I was soon ready and able to resume training.

     From this experience, I drew the conclusion that there was a definite need to incorporate mobility and strength training, along with stretching exercises into a warm-up routine. These exercises should be simple to use, time-friendly, and most important, help reduce the incidences and severity of injuries. As soon as I open the doors to my own school I began to incorporate just such a program into our curriculum. I can see a definite benefit to my student's overall health, with no serious injuries, and their subsequent enjoyment and performance in their training.

     

     It can not be overstated enough the importance of taking care of yourself with proper diet, excercie, rest, and recovery. One of the primary objectives of your training is to be able to do it for a lifetime. In order to accomplish this, you need to ensure that your taking proper care of yourself by maintaining your health!                                

Building a Martial Arts Community

 

     Providing your students and their families a place where they feel accepted, empowered, valued, and supported is essential for developing a student's fullest potential. A martial arts school, academy, dojo, should be more than merely a place to train. It should be a place where families come together to share in fellowship and community with one another. 

     To affect significantly positive and lasting change in your students they must first feel as though they belong to a community. A community that is positive, reaffirming, and whose members push, encourage, and mentor one another. A place where students hold themselves and each other accountable, and not enablers of each other's dysfunctional behaviors.

     Developing a culture of community within your school and among your students, families, and teaching staff is not just necessary, but an obligation. The true measure of a school's success is not simply in its student's technical prowess. Rather it is the caliber of human being that walks out your door!