Dan Shi Martial Arts Club

1st Dan Thesis

By Howard Bandy
2006

Tae Kwon Do has offered me many valuable opportunities. It has balanced my life; providing an outlet for helping others, thinking quickly and reactively, and providing a vent for the stress encountered during my daily routine. Tae Kwon Do has also given me a chance to search for many and varied good things that are otherwise hidden.

It is my strongest determination that teachers fill the most important role in society today. Teachers have the unique opportunity to form others in their exact image; one teacher taking in a student, passing on the knowledge that could one day allow that student to become a teacher themselves. Nearly every other profession requires teachers as a catalyst to propagate the wisdom of others. The act of teaching is like to the model of life itself – the unceasing challenge to multiply, each life form creating again in its own image. In order for each aspect of our culture and collective knowledge to be preserved and therefore the image of ourselves, we should all be teachers to others in some way.

I have tried to uphold the value of teaching in my life. At junctures where I would have the opportunity to be a teacher and share insight, I have chosen to do so as freely as possible. Once again, through Tae Kwon Do, I have been given the opportunity to explore the profession of teaching again. I feel myself ever anxious for the ability to more perfectly transfer any technique or gift that I have gained through my own study. Often I wished during my early training to be the instructor and guide an entire class through the rigor of a Tae Kwon Do training session.

Now that I have had more than a few opportunities to share insight and help refine technique, I sometimes wonder if my desire to practice teaching has become almost greedy and that I have not admitted a teaching ineptitude on my part. If this has happened and I have damaged any student’s interest in learning discipline through martial arts, then I hope that some day I will have occasion to undo any harm and bring double the number of students I may have lost. Indeed, as I take the next step in Tae Kwon Do training myself and become a first degree, I find myself wanting more than any physical or competitive goal the goal to be a better instructor.

To teach and learn a martial art is to be able to change one’s environment. By combining precision, speed, and power, a martial artist will break boards, bruise and puncture flesh, and shatter bones. While martial arts may no longer advertise punctured flesh and shattered bone, the original conception of the art was aimed to this effect. The aim to manipulate one’s environment remains through the practice of martial arts, whatever the effects may be.

Furthermore, manipulations not only become a utility of the martial artist, but they become reactionary. I find myself needing the ability to be reactionary when so much of the rest of my non-martial arts life is non-reactionary. The sparring response to attacks is an example of reactionary behavior. When I think about myself moving around the sparring ring, lifting my feet again and again – change my environment – I feel elated to be practicing. I also think of placing my foot with speed and accuracy each time it connects with a target. Breaking a board or kicking down a target is no less a change of one’s environment than providing self-defense from a prospective attacker – without training they are each far more difficult and cannot likely be done reflexively. I wish to continually cultivate this practice into a perfect reactionary ability.

Changing one’s environment also has the secondary effect of subduing otherwise unhealthy levels of stress. It is to be sure that there is stress associated with the practice of Tae Kwon Do itself as there is in any competitive or public event. However, even after three years of training, there is much to be said for the exercise and the adrenaline that come with practicing martial arts. There are higher goals for Tae Kwon Do training, but fitness goals should never be overlooked.

Michelangelo once said that he would see his sculptures in the stone he was working and that he would simply remove the extra stone from the sculpture. I believe this describes many who join Tae Kwon Do. It may be difficult or even impossible to change a life. When someone comes into a class for the first time, their personality may be stone or nearly so. It is almost impossible to mold stone – only intense pressure and much time can achieve that. Indeed, Tae Kwon Do may have the power to mold a person with enough time, but I feel it is more likely that a person chiseled instead of molded. Each class, people come in as unfinished stone or perhaps a different statue entirely. With training, each person displays hidden capability. Their confidence grows through practice of varied techniques. The essence of the person is the same, but a new surface of confidence and self control is revealed. The stone has been worked and chiseled away, uncovering an adherence to the tenants and oath of Tae Kwon Do.

I feel the search for the hidden good is a driving force. Just as when Michelangelo chipped away stone to reveal the artwork inside, we train and reveal hidden potential. I think everyone has it in themselves the ability to do the most difficult of martial arts techniques, the only lack the training to release it. When people release this potential, it is a moment of wonder as they realize what has existed within themselves. Michelangelo also treated nature as the enemy for nature is what hid the beauty of each statue within the stone. In a way, so to is nature the enemy of a martial artist. Nature moves slowly and of its own will. But we learn through precision, power, and speed that we can shape our environment with our own hands and feet.

It seems to me that the reasons for beginning martial arts training are usually straight forward – whether it is for exercise, desire for self sufficiency, or just out of curiosity; people can usually describe their motivations for joining a class easily. However, I think that the reasons that people stay with Tae Kwon Do are far more varied and often hidden, even from ourselves. It is also hard to impart one person’s motivation onto another in favor of keeping that person interested in Tae Kwon Do. However, we can all find interest in learning and exploring each other’s motivations, as well as our own. Through exploring my motivations, I hope others will explore their motivations for continued training and find it valuable.