One of the many joys of our martial art is there are no limitations on who can join. It doesn't matter if you are male or female, big or small, young or old, hairy or bald; everyone is welcome. One of our members, Iain, joined us in March 2015 and started his Shoto Budo journey after the age of 50. This is his experience so far...
I decided to join Bearsden Martial Arts Club in March 2015. For some time I had harboured a desire to learn a martial art but had always found an excuse not to attend, safe in the knowledge that there was always next week. I had previously participated in other sports and achieved moderate competence in some of these. Was I apprehensive that I might make a complete fool of myself? Did I really want to do this at my age? Would the television not be preferable in winter and the golf course in summer? Finally, aged nearer fifty five than fifty I plucked up the courage to go along to St Joseph's Primary School in Milngavie on a wet Wednesday night and make enquiries about joining BMAC. No commitment, you understand, just a tentative enquiry. I had a quiet, confidential word to those close to me about what I was doing but all were warned not to mention this to anyone else. In no sense was I joining the club. I was just going along to see what it was like. However, from the minute I wandered in and made enquiries of Jackie about prospective membership I was warmly and enthusiastically welcomed. A senior club member took me aside and basically gave me private tuition for half an hour. In so doing he was sacrificing his own training schedule. There was not a suggestion of anything other than encouragement and patience demonstrated and I quickly forgot my earlier misgivings. Eighteen months on and I am still there. I have managed to progress a couple of grades, having attended three national courses with the club. More importantly, and above all, I have discovered a new and compelling interest and broadened my horizons hugely. I now feel that a week is not complete unless I have been at least once to BMAC. The highlights for me have included a young man sporting a very dark coloured belt who announced that I was four years older than his dad. "Well done", he said to me. Not "are you daft??!!" or "are you not a bit old for that??!!" as had been the theme of some of my less broad minded contemporaries upon discovering my new interest. That theme of encouragement and support is prevalent at every practice. The instructors, led by Hugh, Eric and John, have truly remarkable ability, a deep knowledge of the art and apparently an endless supply of good natured patience. No technique is ever too much trouble to explain and further demonstrate, no matter how often it has previously been meticulously and comprehensively shown. The constant support, friendship and encouragement from other members have been like no other I have experienced. There is always present the constant of a strong and underlying recognition that we all want to improve our skills and everyone will help everyone else to achieve this, no matter the level which each member has achieved. The practices are focused and layered learning is a recurrent theme. Smiling is obligatory!! While I suspect that I am certainly one of the oldest novices to have joined the club nobody cares about my age, ability or background. For those concerned with the quality of training, to watch our lead instructor Hugh demonstrate techniques is to watch a true master of his art. At the most recent Adult National course in Larbert, six club members were awarded a black belt. No other club within the wider Shoto Budo organisation achieved this remarkable distinction. Of those earning their black belt, three were female and three were male, with ages ranging from 14 to 60 (sorry Davie!!). Lest, however, you should be under the impression that enjoyment is sacrificed for achievement. I emphasise that the focus is predominantly about enjoyment of the practice, and while the acquisition of the tutored skills is clearly our principle purpose, the shared humour amongst us is always demonstrably present. I am writing this to demonstrate that this club is not simply for teenagers or the young. If you have a notion for martial arts, no matter age, sex or background I can only tell you that I am delighted that I overcame my initial apprehension and decided to join BMAC. I have developed skills I thought were beyond me, I have made deep and enduring friendships and I have had an absolute ball. If you are looking for a new interest, if you want to spend the time between dropping your own child at the club and the later uplift more constructively I urge you to consider joining us. I can guarantee you will not be disappointed and like wine through water it will change the colour of your mind. Thanks Iain, and congratulations on your recent success in grading for your orange belt at the course! Grading has been a bit of a sporadic event for me. Whilst they are not quite as rare as the 75 years between sightings of Halley's Comet, there certainly have been some lengthy gaps between them. As my First Dan grading approaches, I thought I'd look back on my previous grading experiences. My first one was on 10th February 2008 at the Kelvin Hall in Glasgow. I had joined the club in September 2007 and this was my first course so I was still very new and didn't really know what to expect. Pauline Walmsley took the grading and if memory serves me correctly, I was grading along with another couple of white belts and red belt. It seemed like hard work at the time and I was beyond delighted to jump past red belt and get a yellow belt. I like to think the knee bars we had been working on at the club helped score me bonus points that day. Whether they did or not, it felt so cool being able to apply them in this setting. The journey was underway! It wasn't until 7th June 2009, again at the Kelvin Hall, when I exchanged that yellow belt for an orange one. In between grading, I had several length work trips away, got married and went on honeymoon in September of 2008 and when I returned, I was dropped on my head during a takedown practice. Fortunately the injury wasn't serious but my neck was stiff and sore for months and I was very tentative when I came back to training at the end of the year. I don't remember much about this one, other than there being no mats so I did not get a chance to demonstrate any ground work, takedowns or breakfalls. Green belt followed along in February 2010, with this grading being at Springburn Sports Centre. This was the first time Shoto Budo's technical director Billy Haggerty presided over my grading and that definitely added to my nerves. I was alongside Paul from our club and few others. I remember having to do practical application of the Taikyoku Shodan kata, with attackers from random directions and thinking to myself "have I done all of the moves?" over and over again. Momentum was on my side and on 14th November 2010, I graded for blue belt, with this being the first time I had done so at a national course in Largs so there was a much bigger audience than previous times. A couple of weeks before this course, I had a dose of the flu so my fitness wasn't as good as hoped and I remember feeling like the padwork section went on forever and by the time that was done, I don't think I had energy left for the rest of the session. I also recall trying to do sticky hands with Richard Price and, well getting nowhere with it. It's a skill I still struggle with now. My most recent grading was on 25th March 2013, again at a national course in Largs. I was working for a US company at the time and had spent most of 2011 and 2012 either away from home or working Eastern Standard Time hours so my training had been curtailed. Hugh actually gave me the option of grading at the Springburn course in January 2013 but we agreed to postpone it to March and make sure my fitness was where it needed to be. This proved to be the right decision as I felt this was my best performance in grading. My fitness felt very good and I actually really enjoyed the whole thing. Hugh took this grading and it was quite a varied one. There was kata, pads, parrying and wrestling as would be expected and also some wall defence which was a first for me. It's not something we do often so doing it in a grading setting was quite the rush of adrenalin. After several rounds of parrying, I faced my final opponent and saw the human dynamo that is Pauline Sharp waiting for me. I love training with Pauline but as a 6th Dan she can (and indeed did) kick my ass. I think I was only pretending to cry when I saw her waiting! As I say I really enjoyed this grading and everything clicked. Back at the club, Hugh gave me some good feedback on my performance from the other senior grades and I felt like a million dollars. Three years have zoomed by again and now it's time for my next grading. It doesn't feel like that long since the last time but a series of injuries, work commitments and some motivation issues that I have previously written about have all contributed to the gap. But you know what? That does not matter one bit. It's not a race, it's not a competition, but it is a personal challenge and to be where I am, regardless of the time frame, feels like an achievement to me. I genuinely am looking forward to this next grading and testing myself once again. Let's do this! With our regular venues closed for the October school holidays, several of us descended on Kaizen Shoto Budo's Tuesday night class at Springburn Academy.
I always enjoy training with Pauline Walmsley as she breaks down the elements of a practice and then pieces them together so that by the end of the class, I always feel like I have learned something and improved in some way. Tuesday began with some pad work, initially hand techniques only. Pauline asked that the person holding the pad moves and makes the striker work, whilst the striker should aim for as wide a variety of moves as possible (not just punches but elbows, open palms, hammer fists and so on). Training with Emma, I think both of us managed a good range of moves and it was an energetic start. The next step was to add kicks but Pauline added these in stages. First up, we could only use snap kicks, then we could add thrust kicks and then finally swing kicks. Pauline explained that this wasn't to "dumb down" our skills but get us thinking of alternative moves. For example, an axe kick might be the natural reaction to a particular target but what if that wasn't achievable? Would an alternative hand strike work? Initially I found I was hesitating when presented with certain targets but as time progressed, this was reducing. We have been working on response times to pads in our club and I think this was an interesting compliment to that; aiming to respond quickly but not necessarily with the same "reliable" techniques. After several rounds of this, we moved onto parrying with an opponent. I always feel this is my weakest area and on this night I was struggling to parry well and wore a number of kicks. It was good to get some advice on my techniques in that I drop my hands when kicking and thus give my opponent and opening so that is something to work on. On the pleasing side, my stamina wasn't an issue through this high intensity practice. Finally Hugh took some time to look at controlling distance and leading to takedowns. We were asked to look at single leg takedowns and hip throws but Hugh advised not to focus on the takedown and more on getting the position where they might work. We have been working on single leg takedowns in the club and this was an interesting variation. I was maybe 50-50 in judging the distance correctly for the takedown to work so again more practice required here. We finished with some kata and cool down stretch to end a very enjoyable and very tiring practice. Jamie in our club has just started training for his Second Dan and has written a blog with his thoughts on the practice. Check it out here roadtoseconddan.wordpress.com/2016/10/19/18102016-paulines-insights/ and tell him we sent you! Last time I was a few days away from the Great Scottish Run. It's now in the past and having stated that anything under 2:15 would have been awesome, I actually completed the 13.1 miles in 1:59:34. I was delighted.
Two days later, I took my very tired legs to Bearsden Academy to continue preparation for possibly grading in November. It was a fairly intense session, with some pads, grappling, parrying and kata. I wish I could give you more detail but exhaustion kicked in to the point I can barely remember the details of the night. Along with my fellow brown belts Davy and Emma, we finished the night running through katas up to Kwanku Sho and I was shattered by the end. Wednesday night was a bit clearer, albeit one with the lingering after effects of the weekend's exertions. We started with some 1-on-1 pad work to loosen off before moving to groups of three, one person in the middle and two pad holders. Each session was about 1 minute with me having multiple turns. It's amazing how long one minute feels when you are striking pads and trying to move. I feel my hand strikes are good, with a nice variety and decent level of power. I'm conscious that I tend to kick more with my right leg, mostly because those kicks are better so I was trying to mix it up and use my left leg more. My left legs kicks still need work. With the sweat starting to flow, it was onto two rounds of the breakfall kata. Such a tiring exercise and given I was still tired from the weekend, two rounds was about as much as I was going to manage. We moved onto the first six moves of the takedown sequence, with Emma, Davy and I demonstrating the moves and then training together. I find these moves are coming together and pleased to say that after hurting my back about a month ago, there were no ill effects from either taking the moves or performing them (including hip and shoulder throws). I do still struggle a bit with technique on sacrifice throws, sometimes leading to me getting squashed as my opponent lands on me rather than in front of me. Finally it was some ground work, with some variations on a favourite technique of mine in half guard. I find this a good way to defend and Hugh was giving some guidance on alternative ways to move an opponent, including a very grace knee in the backside which proved very effective. I like the half guard so I think these additions will prove useful. By this point, my energy level was pretty much zero but it had been a good training session. Next week I'll only be at Wednesday's session so in the next entry we'll look at that in a bit more detail and try and rank my strengths and weaknesses. A little departure from my usual Shoto Budo ramblings this time as I prepare for the Great Scottish Run half marathon . . .
In my last update, I mentioned injuring my back during our course at the start of the month. Three weeks later and it is still a bit stiff when practising martial arts. The twisting and turning still puts a bit of a strain on it but after three weeks of careful training, I think I am just about ready to up the level next week. First of all is the small matter of 13 miles around the streets of Glasgow at the weekend. I last did a half marathon in 2001 but have been a regular runner since then, albeit in the three to six mile range. Despite my legs being 15 years older, I have really enjoyed training for the increased distance over the summer and am looking forward to the run. The back injury worried me but actually didn't impact my running training too much, other than a few inactive days. I guess the type of movement in running hasn't put the same strain on the back muscles that were injured. A good pair of Asics running shoes probably helps lessen the impact too. Whilst my fitness has improved greatly through my running, does it lend itself to Shoto Budo? My non-scientific opinion is...sort of. My overall cardio is better but it definitely is a different type of fitness compared to doing groundwork, sparring, kata or pads (which in themselves are four different types of fitness). I think it gives me a good base level of cardio fitness and that in turns lends itself to the requirements for Shoto Budo. I also think my general level of endurance has improved by virtue of running continuously for two hours. So everything feels good for the weekend. I don't have a time in mind but based on training, anything under two hours and 15 minutes would be awesome. The weather even looks like it might cooperate to make for a good day. I'm not the only club member running as Emma is also going to pound the pavements. Which one of us talked the other into this is still a matter of some debate. It will be back to Bearsden Academy on Tuesday for training and, hopefully, my legs won't be too sore. As we get into the final month before the National course and, potentially, me grading, I will be taking a look at how I think my skills are developing. The club hosted the Shoto Budo organisation for a course at Bellahouston Sports Centre over the weekend of 10th and 11th September. It was my first course for some time and given my fitness level has been good, I was really looking forward to this.
We had a good turn out on Saturday and rather surprisingly, I was asked to take the warm up. I started with a few runs around the hall, some kicks to loosen off and then went into some sport-inspired moves, such as basketball throws (imagine squatting down to pick up a ball), hurdle jumps and American football stances. I got these from the (aptly named) Insanity workout and always found it gets the body moving. That seemed to be the case here and I choose to take statements like "that was hard" and "I'm knackered" as compliments... It was then on to Eric to take the course and he focused on parrying. We started with some slow paced parrying with a partner and along the way adding some sticky hands and leg parrying. I did feel we could have used some more instruction on the techniques Eric was looking for. In our club, we've been working on leg and close parrying for several months but it was apparent that some others had never seen these moves so I think they would have benefited from a bit more explanation. Somewhere in all of this, I hurt my back. It felt like a pulled muscle so when I went to get my gloves from my bag, I struggled to get back up. Not good. I sat out the next few practices and tried to stretch out. The last hour or so was a change, with each of the third Dans present taking small groups to instruct them. All very different, and I particularly liked Chris Foley's demonstration of looking for space and Alexis Reid's chair based defence. The day finished with each group giving a demonstration of the skills just learned. It was interesting to see that the seven different third Dans had all taken different approaches. Good variety! I was taking part sporadically at this point as my back was getting worse. Unfortunately my back really stiffened up overnight so I was not able to go on Sunday. A few days later and it's still pretty sore but I'm at least moving better. I am absolutely gutted to get injured now after such a good year of training, both in martial arts and running and I really hope this is only a minor setback. The timing is rubbish, with a half marathon only three weeks away and the next national course in eight weeks time so I am worried that my fitness will not be good enough for one or both of these events. I did some light training on Tuesday and Wednesday, mostly doing kata, some locks and hand strikes on pads and felt okay so hopefully I won't lose too much momentum in training. Despite the injury, it was a good course and I enjoyed the different instruction from different black belts. One thing I did miss on Sunday was our very own Diana Flynn's successfully grading to green belt. Congratulations Diana! With both Hugh and Eric unavailable this past week, John Marley took the class on Wednesday night. I love training with John; he is a highly skilled black belt and has an interest in quick, simple, and effective ways to deal with an attacker so I was really looking forward to this one.
It began with a very energetic warm up, with the first four katas, followed by two rounds of the breakfall kata, and then the next three katas. We then added some rolls with the challenge to bounce up and deliver a high kick. I was certainly warmed up by the end of this. Onto the various locks and moves and as it transpired, I was John's demo partner for the evening. This usually goes something like this. John will say "throw a punch", I oblige, and something fast happens and I end up face first on the mat, upside down or tapping out to some sort of unexpected lock. This pattern repeated itself numerous times. John instructed us in blocks of three moves to try before moving onto a practice where one person would be in the middle of the mats and would be attacked by the other members of the club, either punches, kicks or grabs. I was up first and this was a really fast paced and tiring practiced. What I liked about the moves was their simplicity. In the heat of the moment, a complex move doesn't always work and in trying to apply it, you may actually end up in a comprised position where an opponent could take advantage. In this practice, the focus was on movement and dealing with the attack before it becomes a struggle. Having a fresh opponent ready to attack as soon as you have dealt with the previous one gets very tiring very quickly so part of the learning here was to avoid getting into a prolonged encounter with each opponent. This is where John's favoured moves are so effective, with quick locks or strikes proving an efficient way of avoiding an opponent. Having said that, it was still a tiring experience even though I may have been defending for just a few minutes. We then moved onto some pressure points which can certainly provoke a reflex response when they are struck. John advised that the outer and inner thigh had pressure points that may be a good place to attack if you are in a headlock, with the reflex possibly being enough to allow an escape. So far, so simple...at least until I tried to find them. Practising with Emma, it must have looked very strange as we tried to find the points that John had found with ease. Is it here? No. Here? Nope. How about here? No. Other leg? Aaaargh. Clearly some more practise required. All in all, it was a splendid lesson. It was a warm night and with the intensity, I think my gi was just about see through with sweat by the end, but as so often happens in training with John, I came away having learned some new things. Our two month summer residence at the Allander Leisure Centre is has wrapped up so it’s a good time to review before we return to our regular school venues. One thing that jumps out to me is how spacious the venue feels. We have been using two badminton courts which, in terms of floor space, is comparable to what we have on a Tuesday night at Bearsden Academy, yet the larger hall makes it feel so much more open. I'm not sure what the effect of this is, but it feels like it makes me move better, something noticeable during parrying and movement practices. We have had good numbers attending through the summer this year, something that has not always been the case. Most weeks, we have had at least 20 people training, giving a good variety of training partners to help develop skills. One exception was 19th July when we had our one day of summer with temperatures in the high twenties. A few people (sensibly) found cooler things to do because that may have been the warmest hall I’ve ever trained in and my gi was absolutely drenched in sweat that night. It’s been good to see a few of our higher graded juniors joining us as well, giving them a chance to experience their first adult practices. I would say they have coped with the increased intensity and length of practice very well and are ready to make that step up. We have had some visitors from other clubs which is always fun to get different club perspectives on our practice. We have had a visitor who has previously trained in Tae Kwon Do which again gives a different perspective. I have visited a TKD club a couple of times in the past and whilst it is very different from Shoto Budo, the approach to their striking practice is a compliment to ours. Hugh has worked on a variety of close in techniques, including the sticky hands parrying work we have been looking at over the last few months. We also started using a practical application of the Hangetsu kata, again very much for close in defence. It’s early days with this practice so some of the elements are not quite coming together for me. Most of the practice was based on a standing attack and I need some more work to get the benefit of this. There's definitely a combination of movement and balance to get the full effect so we'll look at this again in future. Interestingly, when we took it to the ground, I was able to execute the techniques more effectively in getting space when defending from underneath an attacker. Eric hosted two weeks of training whilst Hugh was on holiday, with the sessions focusing on themes of movement and balance. These were great high energy sessions that, even if one of them was on the aforementioned hosted night of the year. Our final Allander session was a night of no-gi training, instead practising in shorts and t-shirts. Although we evolved from karate, our practice covers a number of other areas so sometimes training like this is helpful. Removing the control points of a gi jacket changes the game, so there has to be a different focus on grip and technique. We practised a few things including arm drags think (think of trying to grab a sweaty arm rather than grabbing a gi jacket), ground work (no jacket to help pin down an opponent) and pad work (less of a change. Is it freer movement without a gi? Possibly). I took a load of photos of these sessions which will be on here soon. On the same night, we also practiced some new triangle techniques on the ground, getting into the choke from on top of, as opposed to from underneath, an opponent. I liked this technique a lot although at the moment it still feels a bit awkward in terms of setup and execution. Given this, it might not work in a free ground work session but maybe once the technique gets smoother, this will change. So overall, it has been a great summer of training. Good energy (fitness is getting better), new techniques to learn and ongoing improvement in others. Next week we're back to our usual slots at Bearsden Academy and St Joseph's Primary school. Looking forward to it! Over the years I have been a part of Bearsden Martial Arts Club, there have been many members who have come and gone. I don't believe there is one reason for this. Life can take us in different directions and further afield. There is so much competition for people's time and money, be that work, entertainment or exercise and as a result, there have been times when the club membership has been rather sparse. However over the last couple of years we have definitely noticed an upturn in interest. Currently we have 27 adult members. Our junior's class is even stronger, with 32 members on a Tuesday night and 30 on a Wednesday. Why they increase? Parents want their children to have an exercise, and often the appeal of martial arts is the discipline, confidence and self defence ability that it helps develop. We have seen many of our junior members rise through the grades, achieving their junior black belt and then going on to train with the adult class. A lot of the kids are fans of WWE wrestling (nothing wrong with that, I used to have a poster of the Road Warriors on my wall when I was growing up!) so they are inspired by the combat they see on television. Occasionally we do have to explain why you can't hit your training partner with a chair. The explosion in popularity of the Ultimate Fighting Championship has no doubt helped to raise the awareness of martial arts to the general public. The UFC has debunked a lot of the mythology around the unbeatable martial art, and now competitors train as genuine mixed martial artists rather than specifically karatekas, judokas or boxers. Whilst we are not a competitive MMA organisation, we share a lot of similar ground so this popularity of the UFC clearly influences our membership. We are also eligible for the Duke of Edinburgh award scheme and have seen many members join us as part of this. Participating in the club can help with the sport, volunteering and leadership elements of the award. The increase in numbers is key to the health of our club. As we all progress in grades, seeing how you compare with someone of a lower grade can be a good barometer of your own development. There's a chance to learn from and coach others. From a public relations perspective, it looks great if further new members come along, they can see they are joining a thriving organisation. Contrast that with training if there are six people in the hall. Regardless of their skill level, it looks a lot less appealing to a new comer. In fact, a small class of all black belts is likely to be very intimidating to potential new members. It would probably still intimidate me. With our current membership, we have a spread from white belt, through all the kyu grades, first, second, third Dan black belts, and Hugh as a ninth Dan so that a new comer can see a progression path and not feel they are entering at a level far below everyone else. Having said all of that, we cannot take the membership for granted. UFC, WWE or the Duke of Edinburgh award could all fall out of fashion and that may impact the number of new members. As mentioned at the start of this piece, there will always be a churn on members but the hope is that we can retain as many as possible, by making the club as welcoming, enjoyable and inclusive as possible. 89 members in total shows our club is in robust health. Now, can we make it to 100? Last time I wrote that continuous improvement was the most important thing to me in training. What about the rest of the club? As always, my club mates shared a lot of valuable thoughts and insight.
Perhaps the most surprising thing is that nobody sees belts and grades as the most important goal in their training. Everybody recognises what they are for, and they do represent a tangible, physical sign of progress but at the same time that was not the motivating factor. It's funny because the very first question everybody who does martial arts gets asked is "are you a black belt". To the wider population, the black belt still seems to be viewed as a mystical symbol of "BEING REALLY GOOD AT THIS" when to practitioners it's only a step along the way. It's not that belts are entirely unimportant. David made the point that they help to measure progress and, particularly for our junior members, are an excellent incentive to continue training. At a young age, a new belt is a very tangible thing to focus on and children may see the belt as the goal without recognising the underlying improvement in their skills. However, Jamie contrasted this by pointing out that over the 11 years he has been training, many people have reached first Dan black belt and then stopped, as if getting the black belt was the end of the journey. It could be considered wasting the potential to develop so much more. It may be a cliché but a black belt in itself is not the pinnacle of any martial art but instead the beginning of the journey. So if it's not that £5 length of black cotton that drives people, what does? It was a unanimous statement that ongoing sense of development was the driving force. Paul and Jamie agreed that it is the awareness of your own improvement and the resulting sense of satisfaction when a technique feels better, crisper and stronger than before. Emma enjoys training the most when she feels improvement, whether it is in a particular skill or her fitness. During a recent ground work practice, she felt like she was going backwards in terms of performance (I can relate to that!) when training with Hugh but when mentioning it to him, he said he was just raising the bar. She was getting better, so Hugh increased the intensity of the practice to continue that development. David trains for the continual challenge of improving his posture, his technique and his fitness. David is older than Paul and Jamie but has the same motivation. As we get older, the benefits of the training on our health, fitness and flexibility is obvious. One thing we do not have in Shoto Budo is competitive fighting , something Jamie considers a strength, saying rather than measuring yourself against others, compete with yourself to improve. If competitive fighting is your thing, then our club may not be for you but then again, if we did competition fights it probably wouldn't be for me. IF we were to introduce a competitive, it would very much change the game. Today we can train with all of our club mates, regardless of sizes, age or sex. Introduce competition and all of a sudden that is no longer possible. Training with someone twenty years younger, several centimetres taller and kilos heavier, becomes a lot less appealing if their aim is to take off my head! In a similar vein, Emma has been to clubs and had her "head kicked in", an understandably miserable experience. She prefers the feeling after training that she got at least one thing right / improved / learned something new and it helps that we all get along and have a laugh in the process. I've mentioned the satisfaction of a "light bulb" going on and Emma similarly finds that sometimes training is frustrating when, after demonstration, she can't quite grasp it. This can be frustrating but then all of sudden; something clicks whether it is something simple like a small body movement or a particularly complex technique. Paul pointed out an additional skill, that of coaching. It's not just your own skills development but the ability to pass on what we have learned is popular with everyone. That in itself is a whole new skill which must be improved continually in order to maintain your own progression and that of the club. Paul makes an excellent point here and to quote Einstein (a first for this website), "If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself". Beyond the fitness and on a very personal level, Jamie sent me a lot of thoughts on this. It was such an honest, powerful comment that I want to quote him directly (I did check with him first). "Martial arts have moulded me to be the person that I am today. When I was younger, I was bullied for even showing a shred of my authentic self: from things as bizarre as my height to my campiness. I had problems at home; I didn't have great friends who sometimes were just bullies in sheep's clothing. Shoto Budo was one of the very few places bar my music that didn't care about any of that. It pushed me to look into myself and find my inner strength to fight and push on with my life. Frankly if I didn't have it I don't know where I would be. Nearly 11 years on and I am happier than I've ever been. Martial arts were one of the very few places I could be selfish, having spent my entire childhood and adolescence trying to please others, and mostly people who took my kindness for granted. The other aspect that makes martial arts what it is - family - didn't care that I was an awkward, camp, nerdy weirdo and accepted me as I am. That's what I am. A gay, nerdy, brass playing black belt; and I am kick ass" I can't add much to that other than say it is an awesome statement of what our martial art can mean to somebody's life. Jamie wasn't alone in this view of it as a family with Hugh and Diana making very similar comments. As you can see, the most important things to BMAC members are the development and growth; being better than you were before and improving those around you. The belts are nice but that personal challenge and development is the thing that motivates us all. It's brought a lot of pleasure and development to all of us, hopefully something that would appeal to any new members who would like to join us on this journey. |
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