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Monthly Message: April/May 2004
Fellow Karate-ka:
Train hard. Train often. Two short
phrases that you will here me say at least at every class and sometimes
when I close my writings. What do they really mean though.
Training hard doesn't just mean the
obvious. It's not just about the sweat left on the Dojo floor. The
conditioning of the body is only one way to train hard. The mind must
also be worked hard and conditioned appropriately in order to function
in the right way of karate. Gaining knowledge in karate is vitally
important for training hard. Knowing about the art of karate enhances
your training through the understanding of where it comes from, why it
was developed, who developed it, what it really is, and how it is used.
Additionally we must play back and rewind and playback again and again
every technique and kata we know visualizing ourselves doing them in our
mind. It is only then that we can translate our mind's eye to our
physical bodies. This is training hard through the mind of karate.
The spirit of karate can be trained hard
also. When our bodies are exhausted we must train the spirit by doing
one more kick, block, punch, or strike the best that we can. We must
live the motto of "never give up". By doing this often we acquire the
strong spirit needed in karate. Our drive to not only continue but to be
the best that we can be at karate comes from our spirit. To develop the
spirit through hard training exposing ourselves to other martial artists
who are better then we are can help us. Our spirits want to reach up to
their level of training even though they may not be able to. In other
words, we train better when we train with those more proficient then we
are. Our spirits move us to work harder.
Last we consider the physical. The body.
Constant training brings the strength and stamina needed to our bodies
in order to complete the cycle of mind, body. and spirit. We must
consider our bodies to be rough rock that will be polished to a high
gloss shine and smoothness from water running over it for thousands of
years. In this way we can see that it is through repetition that our
bodies train hard. Which brings us to training often.
Training often means exactly what it
says. Do it a lot. However you can now see that you do not have to just
train the physical body. You can develop your mind and spirit as well.
You can combine all of them. You can do each or all many times over and
over.
If we take time off from our training we
soon lose our edge. The more time spent away from training makes it
harder to come back to training. If training is done a little bit every
day with total focus on it then it becomes a routine that will cause
your mind, body and spirit not to feel right if it is skipped for one
day. A little bit goes a long way.
Train hard. Train often.
This is the way.
Sensei Dave
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