Today is victory over yourself; tomorrow is victory over lesser men—Miyamoto Musashi
After teaching martial arts for nearly 20 years I have seen a lot of things change. Changes and fads in the martial arts (remember the Taebo craze….what about karate on roller skates?…ok, that one was a little before my time thankfully). Arts have evolved and so has the way we have taught them. But perhaps the biggest change is actually in raw materials—the kids we teach and what they are like when they come to us.
And one of the biggest areas of change is the lack of self-discipline and the willingness to settle for mediocrity. It seems like it is increasingly more difficult for kids to stay on task and embrace the repetition in order to improve. And I am not talking about just the squirrely 8 year old.
Within the first two classes of the semester, I had already determined who I liked in my Tai Chi course at DePauw, and who I anticipated was going to be a pain. During the first basic exercises, I gave them a partner drill. Then I sat back, watched, and took a mental note of those who stayed on task and those that did it less than five times and then proceeded to stand around. Mind you these are basic movements that after 20 years of practice, I know I still can do better. And contrast that to our teacher, GM William CC Chen, who wasn’t allowed to move on to the next posture until he had done the previous one 3,000 times. But half my class apparently mastered it in less than 2 minutes. Of course, when I asked them to do it, they couldn’t. Keep in mind, this isn’t calculus or some other mandated course; no one put a gun to their head to make them take it. They took it because (presumably) they wanted to learn tai chi, but when given the opportunity to do just that, they are content to stand around instead. Amazingly, these are some of the same kids who are most delusional about their skill level.
I suspect their delusion is rooted (no tai chi intended) in the fact they have been told that they are great at everything they do by parents, teachers, and whoever else who didn’t want to “hurt their self-esteem.” And they soon learned that no matter how hard they tried, they apparently still did a great job!
South Carolina basketball coach Frank Martin just recently broke the interweb with a relevant and fantastic quote: “Kids haven’t changed. Kids don’t know anything about anything. We’ve changed as adults. We demand less of kids. We expect less of kids. We make their lives easier instead of preparing them for what life is truly about.”
I do believe he is right and that is a big part of it. And if you know anything about our school, then you should know we would view traditional martial arts as the antidote. For example, when doing a martial arts drill, it was always expected you kept going until you were told to stop. If you stopped, it implied you had mastered it, that it was perfect, and there was no need to practice anymore. And by extension, you were implying to the instructor that he was wasting your time with this stuff. In reality, your poor work ethic and insulting attitude was more likely wasting theirs. Kids don’t immediately connect those dots, and have always asked me during class, “Do we keep going?”
My reply is typically, “Is it perfect?”
Back in the day, kids would then get the point, sigh, and get back to work. While it happens with ever increasing frequency, I am dumbfounded when they now reply in the affirmative and still stand there.
Now certainly we have some good kids, and we are not the sole place one learns this. But it certainly seems like more and more kids who come to us do not appear to have learned or made a habit of these principles elsewhere. Some kids simply don’t know how to take ownership for themselves. I watch them in class walk through a conditioning drill and not even breathe heavy, when other kids are doubled over. And don’t think we don’t make note of which kids will cheat on a stance the minute they think we are not looking. It is as if the thought that they are cheating themselves has never crossed their mind. As Dr Yang often says, “If you want to be successful, you must first conquer yourself.” While we are certainly here to help, sometimes you can lead a horse to water….
In my TKD class at IU, I had a student come up to me and explain to me how he found a passion in TKD and wanted to make it a lifestyle. Two weeks later, he didn’t bother to get his yellow belt.
And of course, the most regrettable part is that this type of attitude has an impact in all areas of your life. Retirement expert Chris Hogan points out that the financial crises facing an ever increasing number of American families isn’t a work ethic problem. Americans still work their tails off. It is a discipline problem when they aren’t working.
I realize that as I write this rant, it might sound as though I am getting crotchety in my old age. And that may be true. But maybe I have been this way for a long time, because the martial arts gave me the right attitude about discipline (my grumpiness about others not sharing my attitude is probably still my own). I also realize that (as many rebuttals would point out) old men from Greek philosophers to Samurai to English gentry have all bemoaned the lack of respect and laziness in the younger generations—to the point that the phrase “Kids These Days” has become the comedic tag line for a caricature. While that may true, it also usually came at the end of an epoch. And that is why this concerns me. While this crotchety old man might yell at them to get off my lawn, I also want them to get onto the mats and learn how coach themselves, take ownership for their lives and accountability for their own improvement. The martial arts, adults, and kids have all changed since I started doing this, but the one thing that hasn’t is my belief that martial arts training can change your destiny. – BLS
Gentry Martial Arts--the rants of a martial arts eccentric 