You have to PUSH yourself, because, no one else is going to do it for you.

 

Posted by ADAM CARTER on MAR 06, 2023

You have to PUSH yourself, because, no one else is going to do it for you.

 

PUSH Yourself: Karate in Daily Life.

I can no longer separate my advancing years from my almost 50 years of Karate training. Even if I never put on my karate-gi again, I would never be able to separate them.

Those of you who have trained for many years will understand what I’m talking about. Those of you who are fairly new to training and find yourselves questioning why you have to do this or that, why so many pointless repetitions, etc?…… well the answer is….. Just train.

Every punch, every kick, every technique, will ultimately enrich your abilities in many aspects of your life. Your abilities to perform at your job, to deal with life’s upsets, and distractions, will all be enhanced. You will learn to “see through” much of what comes at you, whatever the challenge.

The martial arts aren’t just a simple set of techniques to practice. They can be physically demanding, emotionally uncomfortable, and require discipline to effectively learn and master them. It can push you out of your comfort zone and force you to deal with frustration and disappointment.

When it comes to learning martial arts, one of the biggest obstacles is the time commitment to training. It takes consistent training time to become proficient in anything, and martial arts is no exception.

It can take years of dedicated training to reach a high skill level. Having such a long period of time to become proficient is one of the things that makes the martial arts so difficult. You have to be willing to dedicate yourself to the long-term process.

This means putting in the time and effort day after day, week after week, month after month, and year after year. It’s not easy to maintain that level of dedication without significant self-discipline.

And your uncontrolled mind is your worst enemy. Your mind will always find a way to quit training. Pragmatic martial arts, being based on combat and defense, cannot be concerned with dealing with useless distractions, as they are founded on survival principles: when life puts you to the test, you don’t want your mind to fight against you.

Seasoned practitioners know all too well how hard it is to train their mind, it will do its best to bombard you with negative thoughts and find its own way to bypass solutions. This is why it is so important to train you mind, to become self-disciplined.

You have to PUSH yourself, because, no one else is going to do it for you.

Karate takes commitment, dedication and effort. Lots of effort. Be prepared for a long journey, not a walk around the block.

In every self-defense scenario, there are two types of student. Those who practiced, and those who wish they had practiced.

If you don’t give anything TO karate, then don’t expect anything FROM karate.

 Photo Credit: Tatsuya Naka 7th dan JKA Shotokan.