Every six months my family and I make the trek to Breckenridge, Colorado for a three day testing. Everyone in our family of seven is in martial arts, except for the husband, but his contribution is of black belt level.
What does this journey entail? A pre-exam, which points out that you didn't train hard enough during the summer! suddenly muscle memory forms and defenses are all mixed up. This exam is followed by eight weeks of prep work. What does that mean? It means you teach classes, you take lower belt classes, and you are expected to spar. There is community service to be done, books to be read, reports to be written, and self discipline to be had! All of this in addition to your regular schedule of classes etc.
Now it sounds like a lot. Okay, it is a lot. I have done some cycles where the moment was over I was sick in bed for weeks. The lower the belt, sometimes the harder you work. But is it worth it? Oh heck yeah!
Let me tell you what I have seen from my children while in martial arts. My eldest was 5 when he started. Granted we moved to our current school when he was 7 and he started all over. This child didn't start martial arts because he wanted to kick and punch. He started because he wanted the self discipline he knew came with martial arts. Wow! How many of us could say that in adulthood? He still struggles with this, but what he learned was hard work and respect. He was 8 when I got my first parental phone call from a mom who stepped outstide with me after a party at her house to tell me this. "Your son is welcome at my house anytime. I have never come across a more polite child in my life."
Tell me, how can you top that?
My next son was drawn in by brother, and our Grand Master who gave him a uniform and said try it out for a few weeks. Well let me tell you about this kid. At 6 his sense of competitive had already kicked in! Sure, he'd do it. And he'd do it better than his brother. (In time this kiddo did outrank his brother, but hockey became his love. This weekend, with his older brother, they make one step closer to 3rd degree black belt, and they are amazing hockey players...because of karate.)
My twins started the day after they turned 3. Yes the day after. They were in a program called Little Dragons. My thought was, if you could learn self-discipline and respect at the age of 3 where could you go in life?
My littlest joined at 3 1/2. He has been the guy inching his way along. Now a High Red belt some of his friends are going for very significant ranks, but it happens. As some of us test for high ranks some of us are forgotten. When it appeared that one of his friends would pass him up because our testing became so important he didn't get there he said, "It's fine, Mom. I'll get there." This one has learned patience!
As for me. I was a girly girl growing up, but I have to admit, something inside me always wanted to wear a black belt. Oh, I wasn't the kind to want to walk into a Do Jon and my mother wasn't the kind who would have taken me either. That was boy stuff. But six months after my oldest sons started they had a promotion. I got on the floor. I was the mother of five. A chronic entrepreneur who hadn't found exactly the right thing for me, and a horrible self sabotager, I was afraid of everything and everyone! It was no way to live and show your kids they could do anything they wanted to do. Seven years later I will graduate with a second degree black belt. I have opened my own publishing house. I have taken my future of publishing my own books into my own hands and I am among my peers on bestsellers lists. If I touch it it turns to gold because I have the drive, the self-discipline, and the respect of myself and others to get me there.
I am strong! I didn't know I could be, but I am. I can knock a 200lb man to the ground and make him hurt with a twist of his pinkie if I had to. I know what it feels like to be thrown to the floor and punched in the face. All of these things are important. And I'm glad I have these skills. I have traveled by myself. I can walk into a crowded room and make friends, which I enjoy and couldn't have done before. And I have an amazing family of friends making this same journey who are there to support me and my family in everything we do.
So martial arts is so much more than kicking and punching. Today I will go with my family and test for day one. We will review old forms and prove we still remember what we've learned, but in the end...it's what I've already done that make me feel as though I 've passed. This momma doesn't quit anything anymore. She's a black belt and so are her kids!
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