You say to someone someone „martial arts” and he imagines sweaty people throwing punches and kicks at one another or clamped together, striving to break or sever something off of the opponent. Sometimes those you speak with picture them in kimonos as martial artists, sometimes just in shirts and shorts. On mats, in rings, octagons, or Japanese dojo. The idea in head of those who do not train is usually similar. We are all dangerous to them, we should be aggressive (why aren’t we?), we suffer for no reason, no one pays us for it – it is even at our own expense, we do not go out to have a beer on Friday night, and having beer with friends is the most important of arts! Okay, it really is, but that’s not the point.
Do you know what I see when I hear „martial arts”?
I see a pot, over which I stand after 9 pm and cook rice for the next day. A tumbling drum of the washing machine, in which the clothes needed for the whole week of training are washed. My wife who makes me coffee in the morning and gives me a warm meal in the evening, when my hands tremble from exertion. My child that says „dad, don’t go!”, standing in the hall with a worry written on the face. All the moments when „life” happens; car breaks down, son or daughter must go to the doctor, wife wants to go out and have fun once a week (she plays with children the escape room game for several years), unscheduled shopping comes up, you have to meet your distant relatives… and many, many others, due to which you skip your training.
I see sacrifice.
Not only in relation to body, spirit, psyche, but above all to what’s around us. Anyone who claims to have achieved everything on his own is talking nonsense. Everything you achieve is due to the people you meet along the way. Both those who help you and those who try to do the opposite. Support and lessons learned are the best capital, thanks to which you can train and develop.
Be grateful.
For the morning coffee morning, for a warm meal, for a place where you can train, for the tenacity of your training partner, for hot water in the club’s bathroom, for the trainer who screams at you, because he cares about you when even though every now and then you don’t anymore, for friends who drive you across the country with their own car, for a beer offered to celebrate your victory, for a piece of metal and poor awards you won, because someone tried hard to at least provide something, for admiration and respect among your relatives, for love and joy at home when you come back.
You will not impress others with medals, titles, belts or fancy early finish of the fight. You will impress them with how you treat other people.
Set an example. This is the right thing to do
