Staying the Course: Commitment, Resilience, Recovery, and No Shortcuts.

 

Posted by ADAM CARTER on SEP 19, 2024

Staying the Course: Commitment, Resilience, Recovery, and No Shortcuts.

(Approx 1 minute 40 second read)

Anyone teaching martial arts knows a student who talks about wanting to train, but can’t manage to show up on time to practice, or may not show up at all.

When someone doesn’t show up, they’ll certainly have an excuse of some sort. What’s that student telling us about their priorities?

Probably that their training just isn’t all that high on their list.

If you really want to learn something, it’s necessary to dedicate yourself and make a commitment. Because this is what commitment means. It doesn’t mean you commit to it as long as it feels good to you.

Injuries can be a reason someone doesn’t come to class. We know injuries are inevitable, and can be really annoying, especially when time is needed off from training. But with every injury is an opportunity, and continuing to show up to class is one way of capitalizing on them.

We learn from watching, everyone is at least somewhat of a visual learner, and attending the dojo when injury prevents you from training also helps you maintain the emotional connection with that training.

It helps reinforce the habit of showing up. This is the most important component of your training, the way you’ve rearranged your life to consistently make time to train – not ‘finding time’ but ‘making time’.

Showing up to watch is a good way of picking things up just as a spectator. Bring a notebook, take notes on things, keep motivated to return. Your instructor might even have drills you can do that won’t aggravate your injury.

It’s also a good opportunity to ask questions or spend a few minutes reading about martial arts history, or philosophy etc. All of those are good options that don’t take a lot of time and, applied consistently, will greatly improve your karate and your overall knowledge.

When watching you may notice small details that you could have missed when training and focussing on other things.

Basically, when you get hurt, don’t adopt the “woe is me” mentality and let the injuries crush you. Accept the situation has occurred, and seek an alternative way.

Overcoming setbacks in the martial arts, and life in general for that matter, is about how you use those setbacks to your advantage.

The dojo awaits. Even if you can’t be on the dojo floor, at least be near it.

Written by AC.

 Photo Credit: BJJ World