25/06: Blackbelt and beyond
Blackbelt and beyond
We had another blackbelt session on Friday night with Sensei. These sessions are awesome and a lot of fun. Boxing, countless throws, kick sets, headlock defence, defence against a lapel grab, blimey you have no idea how many defences there are. Take your pick. Just like walking down the cereal aisle in Woolworth's. And my favourite, defence against a left jab. Don’t worry, its not the one you’re thinking of, this is the blackbelt version. For two hours Sensei drilled us and drilled us on this and of course, yes, you guessed it, we were all incredibly brilliant. Brilliant at trying and not giving up when it got hard. Brilliant at looking after our partner’s and performing challenging techniques without maiming each other. Brilliant at just being there on a Friday night after a long week at work and teaching……
However brilliant at our techniques? I can’t speak for the others but personally I came away exasperated at my inadequacy. Hugely disappointed at my lack of ability to make the techniques work. This is my own ego putting expectations on myself. This is the real training in martial arts. Not the techniques, they are a means to an end. I spent two hours battling myself, not my partner! Sensei often says blackbelt is only the beginning and as usual he is right. Yes it takes an incredible amount of training to make a technique work. It takes 5-7 years to get to a level where you can even begin to implement these techniques let alone make them work. Obviously these sessions are very challenging for all the blackbelts and what an eclectic bunch we are. Different backgrounds, totally different body types, attributes, temperaments, but one thing in common. We are all blackbelts.
Having achieved blackbelt we are all still training and working hard. Hard to what end? We are already blackbelts….
Most people who do not ‘do’ martial arts perceive blackbelt as the pinnacle. Beginner students think the same, they do not yet understand.
First degree blackbelt is like any other degree or apprenticeship. You continue learning. Its not a destination. Its the beginning of the real work. You really only start understanding when you have got the grounding and the basics reasonably sorted. Growth is never ending. It only stops whey you stop; stop trying, stop learning, stop wondering....
So with this in mind and Sensei’s continued guidance we continue, continue on the path. For me it is never-ending and continual practice of becoming master of myself. Of course it would be nice to get ‘good’ at the techniques one day….
We had another blackbelt session on Friday night with Sensei. These sessions are awesome and a lot of fun. Boxing, countless throws, kick sets, headlock defence, defence against a lapel grab, blimey you have no idea how many defences there are. Take your pick. Just like walking down the cereal aisle in Woolworth's. And my favourite, defence against a left jab. Don’t worry, its not the one you’re thinking of, this is the blackbelt version. For two hours Sensei drilled us and drilled us on this and of course, yes, you guessed it, we were all incredibly brilliant. Brilliant at trying and not giving up when it got hard. Brilliant at looking after our partner’s and performing challenging techniques without maiming each other. Brilliant at just being there on a Friday night after a long week at work and teaching……
However brilliant at our techniques? I can’t speak for the others but personally I came away exasperated at my inadequacy. Hugely disappointed at my lack of ability to make the techniques work. This is my own ego putting expectations on myself. This is the real training in martial arts. Not the techniques, they are a means to an end. I spent two hours battling myself, not my partner! Sensei often says blackbelt is only the beginning and as usual he is right. Yes it takes an incredible amount of training to make a technique work. It takes 5-7 years to get to a level where you can even begin to implement these techniques let alone make them work. Obviously these sessions are very challenging for all the blackbelts and what an eclectic bunch we are. Different backgrounds, totally different body types, attributes, temperaments, but one thing in common. We are all blackbelts.
Having achieved blackbelt we are all still training and working hard. Hard to what end? We are already blackbelts….
Most people who do not ‘do’ martial arts perceive blackbelt as the pinnacle. Beginner students think the same, they do not yet understand.
First degree blackbelt is like any other degree or apprenticeship. You continue learning. Its not a destination. Its the beginning of the real work. You really only start understanding when you have got the grounding and the basics reasonably sorted. Growth is never ending. It only stops whey you stop; stop trying, stop learning, stop wondering....
So with this in mind and Sensei’s continued guidance we continue, continue on the path. For me it is never-ending and continual practice of becoming master of myself. Of course it would be nice to get ‘good’ at the techniques one day….
