There are a few martial arts practitioners that are not my students, but I have had an impact on their progression and development in the martial arts. They are low ranking Dan students around the rank of 1st or 2nd Dan. One common thing that I hear them say is, “Gee I just don’t feel like classes have had the same impact on me as they did.” or “I wish the instructor did this or that. I feel like my training is not what it can be.”
These statements really irritate me.
As colored belt students we are really spoiled. Everything is laid out for us. We have our curriculum to learn, goals to meet, and regularly scheduled colored belt test. Our instructors focus 150% of their attention on us and frankly we don’t appreciate it as much as we should in the moment.
When we make it to the Dan ranks, however, we as students really need to take ownership of our own training and this takes an incredible amount of discipline as we aren’t testing as frequently and our goals are more abstract at this point. We need to take more ownership and discipline in our training. We can’t let an instructor’s flavour for the class bother us when we get to this point. The instruction quality isn’t bad. They are just catering their instruction and intention towards the colored belts that really need it.
Here are some things you should keep in mind:
- As a Dan you need to be able to push yourself through the seemingly boring parts, and you need to drive yourself to improve yourself. When you hear people use the cliche Self-Starter during a job interview, this is what they are talking about. Sure there are times when I go to a general class, and it is below my “reading level”. I still take the opportunity to drop a good sweat and still execute each technique as if it were my last.
- Think Ahead. If you have ambitions to be a chief instructor down the line, who is going to make sure you improve? Who is going to make sure your technique remains sharp? It’s lonely to be the chief instructor. You must get yourself to your goals in your own training. In this case you need to evaluate yourself and plan out your own training. This is a high skill. You don’t trust colored belts to do this, but at this point you should be more in love with the idea of training and the continual climb than you are with a new belt or the top of the mountain.
- Create your own brand. Chuck Norris preaches in his philosophy, “The Instructor is the Art”. At the Dan level you need to start thinking not just the art that your instructor conveyed but the art that you yourself want to convey to your students. Is this brand honest and true?
- If you are whining about how class is run, do you really like martial arts, and do you train unconditionally? Are you reaching any self actualization in your training? We all get stuck in a rut. Even Chuck Norris. His martial arts career took a huge hit when his brother died. He lost his sense of purpose before Steve McQueen got him to try acting. This new sense of purpose revived his martial arts career. Are you training with a purpose? Are you training with a selfish purpose? Here being selfish is a good thing. Train for yourself and always have a higher goal to strive for.
- You really should pay attention to the class even if it is not the most interesting. I still get insight when I hop in line and allow a junior Dan to lead the class. You just need to be patient and listen for it.
