The Secret All Amazing Martial Artists Share

The Secret All Amazing Martial Artists Share?


Go to class. 


Train hard when you're there.

For years, I thought this was a given, and wouldn't mention it to students.  One would think "of course, people would know that the secret to getting good at anything... is to practice it with intensity!"

Not the case.

So many students who show up to class infrequently don't understand that the people they see when they do attend class, are also there on days that they are not.  Which is why they are getting better "faster".
We all tend to assume that other people are just like us; so, it stands to reason that people who attend class infrequently and inconsistently, would assume others were doing the same.

Conversely, people assume that attendance alone will improve their abilities.  If one person is coming ever day, but only giving 20% effort, and another person is coming in three days a week and consistently trying to increase what their 100% is, who would you bet on?  If you practice your 20%, you will get good at giving 20%.  If you practice your 100%, your 100% will get good.


If you practice your 101%...  Your 100% gets better.

People who consistently give 20% in life also assume that others are the same as them.  As a result, they are often heard saying that others are just "naturally better" than them.  If you go back a few years, and look at the 'naturally better" students, often times they were the ones who really struggled at first (even if not in martial arts, in some form of their life previous)

Overcoming challenge is a habit.  A skill.


One of the things that teaching at Shinka Martial Arts has taught me, is that people who exceed their maximum on a consistent basis, always exceed those with any amount of natural skill.  


Always.  


Growth is about momentum.  So is apathy.  Growth is a habit.  So is apathy.

To students who look for the secret to an amazing body, to students who look for the secret to an amazing martial skill, to people who are wondering how to get better at eating poorly, complaining, or watching TV, the answer is the same:  Do it often, and exceed your previous records.

Anything you push yourself to improve in, you will.  The question is, what do you want to improve?


Sensei Ono, Shinka Martial Arts
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