Monday, July 22, 2013

A Martial Artists Knows...



1)                  Self esteem is not gained by meeting lowered standards.
2)                  Reality is not graded on a curve.
3)                  Confidence is the difference between knowing and wanting.
4)                  Winners look for solutions; losers look to assign blame.
5)                  There are no mediocre techniques; only mediocre effort.
6)                  There is no substitute for personal responsibility.
7)                  If you are not willing to step up you should step out of the way.
8)                  Inability is not disgraceful; lack of effort is.
9)                  If you expect to succeed embrace hard work.
10)               A true winner neither gloats in victory nor complains in failure

I like to put thoughts on the marker board for my students to contemplate.  The list above represents original thoughts that occurred to me over the last few years.  There were a number of additional ones that I neglected to write down and they are lost to history; or at the very least lost until they resurface in my memory.   As I started to accumulate the individual thoughts it came to me that combining them into a single list would be an excellent way to concisely communicate the ideals of our martial arts training that I would like my students to strive for. In essence the list represents the guiding principles for River Valley Tang Soo Do Academy.

After showing the list to a few of my high ranking students they convinced me it would make a great T-shirt for the studio.  This led me to copyright the work and then begin putting together the graphics for the T-shirt design. The shirts were a tremendous hit at the studio and well received when presented to my martial arts friends as gifts. 

I will be using future blog postings to elaborate on each of the statements; explaining why it is important to martial artist in their training and more importantly why it is important to being a healthy member of society at large.  Truth is not the purview of the martial arts – truth is universal and should be faced boldly whenever and wherever it is met. Shying away from the truth is the beginning of self deceit and ultimately personal and societal deconstruction.
I hope you enjoy the series and welcome your comments and thoughts.

Tang Soo!

Master Homschek

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