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Personal Statement : Karate Training

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Friends and family who ask me about my karate training often ask, “Alec, what is the appeal in karate that keeps you going?” I usually tell about the great journey it takes from white to black belt, about the years of dedication it took me to get as far as I have today, and how I want to keep that going. In doing this however, I will usually avoid talking about the black belt itself, knowing that they probably expected me to talk about it. Outsiders who don’t have any extensive knowledge of karate often think about the goal of getting black belt, then finally getting it as being the most important part and end goal of karate, and I really don’t blame them. Very early on in my training I was extremely focused on the black belt like …show more content…

Possibly the most important idea I would like to communicate to anyone interested in karate, is that no matter the level you must be ready to be put outside of your comfort zone. To elaborate, you will be constantly expected to learn new and complex concepts, such as forms and weapons, and eventually being expected to teach a class of junior belts. You will not do as good as you planned, and of course we as people don’t like doing it wrong, so the feeling of “why did you not succeed?” changes to motivation to do better the next time, and so you adapt. This cycle can be seen throughout the belt path, from learning to make that front stance just a little deeper, to learning how to better teach a form.
When people continue to be pushed like this, they tend to stay in karate for long amounts of time compared to other activities because they always want to do better than the last time, and this translates to not only learning how to become the best that you can be, but teaching lower belts the best way, so that they might become better. I’m getting ahead of myself though, as all journeys have a beginning, and the beginning of any student’s journey is progressing from white belt. Chinese Philosopher Lao Tzu once said that “a journey of a thousand miles starts with one step”. My first step in karate was my parents looking to sign my sister and I into an after school activity, to increase our confidence and

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