Your work determines your results

 

If you're a martial artist, we've all been there. We've been through days where we just weren't "feeling it", not wanting to go to class, not feeling motivated to work hard that day, just feeling tired, needing some recharge time.  It's fine to take some self care time to oneself, in fact, I always recommend it to my students.  However, when its time to come back to training, it's time to work.

Many times, people tend to base their belt ranks on the years they've been at their Dojo, Kwoon, Dojang, etc. However, being a member for 10 years doesn't mean you have 10 active training years.

An average attendance rate for martial arts is between 2 to 4 classes per week (this is just average, although I know many who attend their classes 5 days a week).  Let's say an average class is 1 hour (yes, I know some hardcore schools will have 90 minute classes or up to 3 hours, but let's just say 1 hour). There are 8,760 hours in a year. That means someone would need to attend that many classes just to equal 1 year.  If someone attends class 2 times per week, that's only 104 hours.

Now I'm not writing this to make people feel bad about not training 5 days a week at their martial arts. We all have lives, we all have responsibilities, perhaps injuries we must take care of, kids to take care of, etc. No teacher or coach should make you feel guilty about not coming to their class 5 days a week.

I'm writing this because I want my own students to understand that it is not the number of classes you attend, it is the EFFORT they put in at each class. If you only put in half effort, it is not going to result in half the results and half the progress.  Half effort produces no real results, because you'd be training yourself to only put in minimal effort. Just do your best at each class, and do your best to practice when you're not in class.

Just as in building muscles, muscles need progressive overload and healthy diet and mindset in order to build and grow. The same applies to martial arts. Skills build with progressive challenges, practicing difficult movements as best as our bodies can while still keeping the standards of the art. Its hard work. And part of that hard work is your mindset. Only you can motivate yourself. Only you can make the decision to push yourself toward the standards of your martial art. Sometimes you might feel like you're starting over and need to push beyond the frustration, dealing with the two steps forward then 1 step back, the feelings of inadequacy, self doubt, and sometimes, even thinking that the teacher owes you promotions for showing up to class. The teacher doesn't 'owe' you anything, and the number of years you've been a member of a school doesn't mean you should automatically get a black belt, if you haven't been putting in the work. You earn what you work for. In doing that, you also "earn more work" (i.e. "earn new material to practice").

THAT is part of the Kung Fu Journey.