Excellence

Why do Tang Soo Do Black Belts excel in class and out in the “real world”? I often reflect on the successes that I see Tang Soo Do students have outside of the studio. I have seen the effects Tang Soo Do has had on my personal life outside the studio and I have certainly seen its success in River Valley students. If success was only found in River Valley students then we could say that River Valley was the common denominator. However, look beyond our immediate environment at the successes you see throughout the World Tang Soo Do Association and you will come to realize that the very nature of Tang Soo Do is responsible for the success you see.

How does Tang Soo Do take “average” people and bring them to a level of high success? The process starts with the first class. At the first class we begin to teach kick, punch and block. But more importantly we begin to help students learn how to refine their techniques. The process of refinement is the key. This refinement process is occurring everyday in our studio and in studios across the Association.

The refinement process is quite simple. Watch a technique, try the technique, evaluate your performance, ask how can you do it better, try the technique again, etc.. Using this methodology the student does not strive to just learn the technique, instead they strive to constantly improve the technique. This starts with teaching "choon be" (ready stance) and then front stance and then low block… Everything we learn in Tang Soo Do class goes through this process.

At the earliest stages of development the student needs to be reminded of the process again and again. As a student progresses in rank they begin to adopt this process automatically. Success begins when the student enters into this process without thinking about it. When a student makes this process a part of their personality they will be successful at anything they put their mind to.

Excellence is seen in those students who adopt this process in all aspects of their life. A student who truly understands excellence has the ability to start a task, quickly become skilled at it, give themselves credit for how well they are doing, but is never satisfied with their current level of performance, they always try to do it a little better. Sometimes their attempts produce results that are less desirable than previous trials. A student in search of excellence is not dismayed by substandard results when they try a new approach, they simply use the information gained to improve upon future results. Substandard results in this case simply indicate that previous methodologies were superior to the most recent attempt.

Once this learning methodology takes hold the student begins to naturally apply this in all aspects of their life. This is the true beauty of Tang Soo Do. Kick, punch, block leads a student to excellence in all areas of their life. If you wish to be successful you need to accept that good enough is not good enough, and tell yourself that “I can do better!” then go about figuring out how you can make it better.

I hope that every student who starts Tang Soo Do can enjoy the exhilaration of the quest for personal excellence.

Tang Soo!

Master Scott C. Homschek


Originally published on www.rvtsda.com November 2002