The influence of fellow bloggers

Every now and again someone writes a blog post that just strikes a real chord with me. Michele has managed to do that with a recent post of hers called Instructor as guide. In this post Michele recalls the advice she was given by her instructor and has adopted for herself in her own practice as an instructor:

The instructor teaches us by guiding us down the martial arts path. Students need to take responsibility for their training.

I think this identifies very clearly the roles of instructor and student and I definitely agree that the student should take the responsibility for their own training. I am fortunate enough to have found a karate club in which I receive high level of training from an excellent sensei but I still expect to read and find out things for myself or do some training outside the classes. I am also thinking of taking up kobudo because Shukokai karate does not include any weapons training at all. This is not my sensei's fault, I cannot expect him to teach me things that are not part of his own training- it is up to me to go out and seek these things for myself. My sensei has the same attitude himself and is taking aikido classes and learning some jujitsu to compliment his karate expertise.

I think that if your club does not offer what you are looking for you should not blame your instructor for not teaching what you want but go out and look for it somewhere else - it's your martial arts journey so take the path you want.

One of Michele's commentators Rick posted a really inspiring poem which I have reproduced here:

Marcel Proust (Remembrance of Things Past):

We do not receive wisdom,we must discover it for ourselves,

after a journey through the wilderness

which no one else can make for us,

which no one can spare us,

for our wisdom is the point of view

from which we come at last to regard the world.

The lives that you admire,

the attitudes that seem noble to you,

have not been shaped by a paterfamilias or a schoolmaster,

they have sprung from very different beginnings,

having been influenced

by everything evil or commonplace

that prevailed round about them.

They represent a struggle and a victory.

I just think this sums things up very nicely.

Another blogger also influenced me this week, though in a more fun way. On the Mokuren Dojo blog site, Patrick Parker has been posting about the 'unbendable arm'. I thought I'd give this a try with my husband and to my astonishment (and his) he could not bend my arm for love nor money, despite putting a lot of effort in! I could barely tell he was doing anything, it didn't stress me at all. Amazing!

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