As I look at my life from a martial arts perspective, I also come to the same conclusion, if it was not for my wife, many things in the dojo might not get done, or be a nice as they are. My wife (Amber) is responsible for making the kyu and yudansha training manuals, I wrote them, but she designed and edited them, making them nice enough to be published. She also keeps track of the student record book and makes sure that it is up to date and she designed the menjo that we use, among many other duties she takes care of. As for my son's they are almost always on the dojo floor, training and assisting, they have picked up the slack left by the other yudansha. In fact, this year they have also taken over some of the classes, so that the students would have a more set schedule, with my work schedule, often we had a rotating class schedule. Now we have a fixed schedule. They are also on hand to assist me with seminars and are often on the receiving end, when I m working on something new.
In the dojo this year, we lost two students, that moved away, but we have also gained five new students. This makes the most students in the dojo since I closed the
As for my personal training, I look back over the last year and feel good about it; I managed to train myself personally several hours, five days a week. I also spent a lot of time training with the boys, on our own. I was also able to train with a couple of my teachers. So I had a good year for karate.
As I look back over the last 34 years of martial arts training, I like many others have went through many phases, there have been times, when I thought why am I doing this, why do I abuse myself in this way. Over these many years there have been ups and downs and times, I thought about hanging up my obi and packing everything away, but I persevered, trained harder, and made it through. Over all of this time, I have had the fortune to meet and share the floor with some great karate-ka; I have also met some really bad ones. I have met teachers that freely share with you and others that will charge you an arm and a leg, I have also been a part of some great association and have also found myself sucked into some really bad ones, and left holding the bag. I have had small and large dojos over the years as well. I have had students come and go, in the past, I would take it personal when I spent a lot of time with a student, and later they would quit. Now I realize that life gets in the way and karate is not for everyone. Each person will venture along the path in their own way, sometimes you will be guided and sometimes, you may find yourself alone, other times you may find that you have companions or followers. Budo is a selfish thing; you can only do it for yourself.
What I have come to realize the most, is that it is the journey and not the destination. It is the teacher and student relationship that is important. Rank is arbitrary; it only means something between teacher and student in your own dojo. I have seen Green Belts that have had more skill then 5th Dans, and 1st dans that had more knowledge then 10th dans. I have seen teachers be stingy with rank, holding on to it as if it was the Holy Grail; I have seen others hand it out like Halloween candy. While I have never handed out a rank, I have been guilty of just not testing people. Not for any reason, other then I get caught up in training and forget that someone has worn a belt or been a grade for years. I will do my best from now on, to make sure that if a student is qualified and has earned a grade that they receive it. As I get older, I understand the relationship of the teacher and student more and more, in my dojo, I will endeavor to keep that family type feeling and though I may not be qualified, I will try my best to be a good teacher.
In my personal life, there have been ups and downs as well, the financial state of things, has had its toll on my family, but we are surviving. I lost another grandfather this year, and I regret that I did not get too spent more time with him. All of my children have been hurt in sports related injuries, with some major and life changing injuries, but they are alive and I am grateful for that. My wife and I are in good health and I am grateful for that as well.
As I come to the end another year and approach the beginning of a new one, I will endeavor to be a better father and husband, I will endeavor to train harder and to be a better teacher and student.
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