In October we use both the fall foliage parade and the upcoming black belt testing to teach about perseverance. Perseverance and persistence are certainly qualities that most people ascribe to the black belt rank.* This is one reason that earning the rank looks good on college applications, scholarships, etc.
There are lots of activities that can get put on those applications that don’t require a lot of effort to get listed. Join a club, show up occasionally. Volunteer once in a blue moon but regularly enough to count, etc. One can amass quite the impressively long list of activities doing that. Trust me, my list was as long as my arm, but those lists don’t stand out like the dedication that a black belt does. Simply put, not everyone will persist long enough to earn one, and that says something.
When students don’t persist, we often hear things like “we just wanted to try it out” and “it wasn’t their thing” to “they have just lost interest” and “they wanted to try other things.” While I believe martial arts training can help anyone, I do realize it isn’t right for everyone. And don’t get me wrong, I am certainly for trying out different things, in fact I encourage it. While some people think I am rather singularly focused, at least at some point prior I emphatically embraced the concept of being more of a Renaissance man.** Indeed, the namesake of our school, being Gentry, is born out of the traditional, well rounded ideal of the warrior-scholar.
But there is a difference between being well rounded and simply dabbling, without ever committing to or gaining competency in anything. Trying 20 different diets doesn’t make you well rounded in the weight loss field. I wonder if those kids who were “just trying it out” and have “gone on to other things” are now bored and have lost interest in the new thing, especially when it also required repetition and work? They are collecting a long list of samplings, but do they really have anything to show for it? Will they ever have anything to show for it?
The Personal Qualities Project, administered by the same people who make the SAT and virtually all other standard tests, drew this conclusion about persistence: the single greatest predictor of graduating college with honors was participating in one activity in high school that was done for at least two years and achieved an accomplishment or honor (kind of like taking 2.5-3 years to achieve the honor of black belt!). It was not hopping from activity to activity from year to year in an itinerant fashion. This was also the best predictor of later having a leadership position. Out of 100 personal characteristics measured, perseverance (as defined by that criteria) reigned supreme in predicting success in young adults across all domains—from the arts to entrepreneurs.
Angela Duckworth notes that Harvard admissions also realizes this and admits students based on a person demonstrating a passion in one thing. They note that the given passion doesn’t have to be pursued at Harvard—your passion in high school might be basketball but that doesn’t mean you will play for Harvard. But they are confident that the person will apply the same work ethic and discipline in another field and ultimately succeed in another arena. I can think of no greater validation of why getting your black belt is such a powerful statement.
We talk about DO—the way of life—and about taking what we learn on the mats into the world. Taking that black belt attitude that they learned through persistence and dedication and applying that in other areas of their life. I would be lying to say every one of our black belts have gone on to accomplish great things. Honestly, it is a point of frustration for me, when I see one of our black belt not applying the same effort in other areas of their life. But they can hang their hat on one thing—that they earned their black belt, which is more than can be said for the dabblers. Our students will continue to learn how to BE MORE persistent, in order to, BE MORE likely to succeed, and hopefully even more colleges and scholarships will see them as MORE valuable.
*One might say that standards for black belt have been progressively watered down in the age of commercialization, and in some schools, that is true. So perhaps on a status level, it isn’t as mysterious and as impressive as it was when I got mine 35 years ago. But regardless of technical ability or how hard or easy the journey was, all black belts have still exhibited the ability to stay the course and show persistence.
** except when it comes to music. Anyone who has seen me in demo can tell I never embraced that area of discipline.
Gentry Martial Arts--the rants of a martial arts eccentric 