Learn how to operate your video recorder

Is that TV program really so important that you have to miss valuable training?

Every so often, I turn up to a class and the number of people training is drastically lower than usual.

Of course, numbers always drop off during school breaks as families take trips and holidays together, but when the numbers are significantly down during school term, the first thing I always do, is check what was on TV that night: it's almost always a football match, or once in a while another sporting event.

I find it incomprehensible to see that people are so desperate to watch a sport that they'd sooner stay in for the match instead of attending to their training. But what really peeves me, is when I ask, "Well, why didn't you just record it and watch it later?". The answer is always, "Well, it's not the same." I've heard some some lame excuses in my time, but this one makes me seeth. Are people really saying that a time difference of one and a half or even two hours affects the way that they perceive the match? Is the outcome less exciting two hours later? Do the players play differently? Is the score changed? No! In fact, if anything, it's better to watch on video because you can take tea breaks whenever you like!

Another common excuse is, "I don't know how to work the VCR." Fair enough. I don't know how to work my VCR either, so you know what I do? I put in a 4 hour tape and record the whole night's TV. That has the added benefit that if the match changes start and end times, you still catch the whole thing.

I think the thing that most irritates me when students miss a class to watch footie or whatever, is the implication that footie is more important than training. Let me tell you; it isn't. Not unless you have a large bet, or you're direcly connected to the team. There's a lot to learn in karate, and some of the stuff you might only get told once in a year, or it might never be repeated. I've attended innumerable classes where I've been taught a thing that changed my view of karate forever. Will the football match have such a long-reaching affect on your future? It would be a real shame if you found yourself in a self-defence situation, and you lacked a vital escape principle because Chelsea was playing on that night.

Last but not least, all senseis give up their time to train you free of charge. Branch senseis don't get paid, and it always seems to me rather ungrateful to miss a class for a football game. It's like saying that the game is more important than the sensei's time.

So sort your priorities out; learn to work your VCR or buy some long tapes, and get to class.

And if you really must, must, must miss a class for a dumb football match that you won't even remember in two months, make the training up by attending another class elsewhere during the week.