It takes more than great kicking and punching to make a great martial artist

The first event involved a high-graded adult student who has exceptional technical ability - his kata is awesome and his kumite is good enough to challenge many black belts. At a recent tournament, having already made mistakes during his kata competition, he went into the kumite competition with high expectations. His first fight pitted him against a brown belt, whom he beat convincingly, but in his second fight, he lost to a yellow belt. The fight quickly started to go wrong for him, and he became frustrated. Then, rather than attempting to regain his composure, and using his considerable repertoir of winning techniques, he became annoyed at the refereeing. He lost the bout and quit karate over it - after two years of hard training!

The second event happened today at a grading. There was a 16 year old green belt student present, who's ability is beyond his grade, and who shows tremendous promise in all areas. During the grading, a sensei corrected one of the boy's stances, and under his breath, the boy muttered, "jesus!" - as if the sensei was being unreasonable for correcting him. The sensei naturally verbally chastised him on his language and his attitude. During the break, the boy complained to the regional sensei running the grading that this other sensei had "dared" to correct his stance when it wasn't even wrong! He missed the point that whether his stance was wrong or not, he should be humble enough to accept instruction, and he missed the point that wrong or not, it was disrespectful to the sensei to behave in that way. Now he compounded his mistakes by essentially whining to the sensei's superior about the treatment he'd received. The boy subsequently quit karate, again after about two years of training.

The common theme here, is that although both students were very talented at the physical side of karate - the kumite, the techniques and the kata - neither of them were strong where it really counted - in their heads...

Karate is about so much more than just fighting: it's about self-discipline, respect, dedication and spirit. Although both students were dedicated, they lacked in the other areas, and so were not great martial artists. It saddens me to see them leave, but if, after two years of dedicated and hard training, they still don't get it, then maybe they'll be better of playing soccer or doing an activity that doesn't need these attributes.

You might be wondering why those things are important when you simply want to learn how to fight better. Well, because strength of character is what enables us to have the heart and courage to try to do the right thing, even when it's difficult. It's what gives us the guts to walk away from fights we could win because we know we have nothing to prove, and it's what gives us the courage to stay for fights we might lose in order to stand up for what's right, or to protect someone weaker.

I'll just finish by mentioning a lad who embodies the positive side of karate. He's just turned ten, and although he's only been training a few months, his etiquette is impeccable, he always puts in maximum effort, he disciplines himself not to fidget, he's attentive in class and he doesn't go easy on himself during stretching. Today he received a well-deserved yellow belt. He's not the most talented student ever, and he certainly doesn't get everything right straight away, but in my opinion, he embodies what karate is all about - the strength of character to choose the hard route in order to become a better person and a better martial artist.