Time and Money

How often do you hear ‘get your money’s worth?’ Why should this be any different with the martial arts. So stop wasting time and money. As a young student, I couldn’t wait to get to the dojo and throw 200 kicks or get a few rounds of sparring in before class. Can you imagine what that extra training adds up to at the end of the year? Sadly, this rarely happens today. Equally important, not wasting your time, is not wasting anybody else’s time. The good news is you can help by responding quickly to instructions in class.

Once too often, I see students who seem to reward themselves by taking time out once they have acquired a new skill. My attitude is, ‘great, I’ve got it, now I am going to keep it.’ How do you do that? Aim for 1,000 repetitions (compliments of John Will); that is what I told the police trainers during a recent knife defence workshop who agreed this is the only way. If you take heed of this advice that will mean the difference between a novice and an expert. What about when you miss out on a kick or two on the Instructor's count. Don’t be grateful you didn’t get caught but think what that means to the person next to you who is going to end up doing 2,000 kicks more than you in a year. You may fool the Instructor but you cannot fool yourself! One last bit of advice, don’t use weather excuses to miss out on your classes. To some of those unfortunate people out there, bad weather presents itself a perfect opportunity to miss out training guilt free. I wouldn't be surprised if some of them would even take up rain dancing lessons.