| As karate instructor or high-level practitioners of | | | | down to Earth. For example you're a good golfer |
| the martial arts, it is often useful to remember | | | | and suddenly you hit an "air shot"; or you're |
| where we came from and how we got to where | | | | playing soccer, and faced with an open goal just |
| we are. Our journeys were not always easy and | | | | six yards out you completely miss the ball and fall |
| our students deserve to know about our own | | | | flat on your behind with the grace and poise of a |
| mistakes and experiences to illustrate that we too | | | | 1-year-old just learning how to walk. |
| are human and went through many of the same | | | | Back in the dojo, a senior ranked student |
| struggles that they are faced with in their | | | | performs a front kick and slips and falls over for |
| practices. Here is one such story from my own | | | | no reason. He gets up quickly hoping nobody |
| development as a martial artist. | | | | noticed the flub, and mutters about some |
| During a lesson on a hot and humid summer | | | | undulation in the perfectly flat wooden floor. Trust |
| evening during my stay in Japan, Ichihara-sensei | | | | me, I have seen this kind of thing happen |
| (one of my instructors) was teaching us oizuki | | | | repeatedly and it always reminds me of the |
| (front punch) when it suddenly hit me like a | | | | importance of having a "Beginner's Mind." |
| sledgehammer - not the punch thankfully, but a | | | | If you watch any serious beginner in any activity, |
| realization, an inspiration. | | | | you usually see great concentration, heightened |
| I had been training in karate for 14 years at the | | | | awareness and a real drive to succeed. Although |
| time and I suddenly realized that I had been | | | | they know their techniques are not perfect, their |
| making a basic error in the execution of the very | | | | mistakes are usually due to a lack of knowledge |
| basic front punch. It doesn't really matter | | | | rather than a lack of focus. We "experienced" |
| anymore what the mistake was as I have since | | | | practitioners of karate should learn from this and |
| corrected it, but the real lesson I learned that | | | | try to think back to that special feeling that we |
| night was something much more than a minor | | | | also had as beginners. That exciting feeling of |
| technical adjustment. That night under the | | | | learning something new, of learning the next |
| watchful eye of Ichihara-sensei I was reminded in | | | | sequence in a kata, of successfully blocking an |
| my realization, of the importance of having a | | | | opponent's attack, and of ending a fight against a |
| "Beginner's Mind." | | | | black belt and being able to say you were on the |
| It happens to all of us periodically and usually | | | | floor just five times, instead of the usual ten. |
| when we least expect it - in those moments | | | | Better still that you actually put the black belt on |
| when our confidence along with our egos takes | | | | the floor too! |
| over and suddenly we feel like we are invincible. | | | | A "beginner's mind" means that you realize you |
| We have mastered a particular skill and now, | | | | have a lot to learn; it means that you're open to |
| knowing everything there is to know, we become | | | | criticism, but more importantly, the next time you |
| self-proclaimed experts, willfully demonstrating the | | | | fall flat on your face, you'll get up with a smile |
| infallibility of our technique to others. Right at that | | | | rather than an attitude! |
| moment, something happens to bring us back | | | | |