The Martial Arts Attitude

One of my favorite things in my life is to have someone say to me that things cannot be done. For someone to underestimate me and my abilities and then count me out before I even tried or started. Over the years when I started to collaborate with other martial artists, I found we all have the same attitude. You can call it “Never quit” or “Never give up,” but I call it Perseverance.

 

Why do we have the martial arts attitude?

 

In basic terms, when you go through Martial Arts training, the body is challenged, the mind is pushed through tasks, and little by little (we do not notice immediately), we grow. We learn about things that seem impossible and later, they are everyday things.

 

As a disabled kid, recess in school was tough. I remember very early on being counted out ahead of time because of my cerebral palsy. If the kids were playing dodgeball, it was heard in the air, “Well, Nick can’t catch a ball.” You would think, it was the kids saying this, and that was not always the truth. I was counted out before the game started. In the dojo, when we sparred, I was punched many times until I learned how to move my arms in the way. I wasn’t not counted out because everyone just did it. “It’s sparring night! This night, we fight!” I can remember kids saying this 30 years ago like they are shouting this as if they are saying it as I write this article. As time progressed, I was pretty decent at dodgeball directly because of the sparring.

 

When I was laid off from my day job in 2020, I had to go on interviews again after 14 years in a corporate setting. I had to face a very big fear, I was deathly afraid because of my cerebral palsy of shaking hands. Was a person going to think differently of me because of my “weak hand?” or was I going to push my way beyond this? Since you’ve made it this far in the article, you can guess that I did. Meanwhile, back in the dojo during my formidable days, I worked at all kinds of punches with both arms. I had to keep up with others and grow. Recently a student who has the same affliction as me challenged me to a dip exercise contest. I was testing him to be sure he moved his triceps correctly, he tested mine as I showed him how. His response after I beat him was, “Sensei, which arm is your bad one?” I was really happy to hear this; he was now committed to working with me more.

 

Martial artists are odd people we will out work the room and tell stories. We love being underestimated. We make once impossible things mundane and have the attitude to prove it. We have persevered through more than anyone. Come join us and you can too.