Quite often in Martial Arts a student is confronted with fear. On many occasions it is fear of injury.
Last week I chose a student to do a shoulder throw on. His first reaction was "Oh no". After a few repetitions, and a few other students also took part, the class was lining up eager to be the next to be thrown. What was initially a source of fear, became excitement, after knowledge and understanding took place. This is one of the key areas of learning in the martial arts - to act logically and not be driven by emotion. To do this the students train every week and after many experiences, realise that they can do anything they put their mind to.
And another observation and a pat on the back:
Seamless Transitions
Recently Josh made a huge leap in his martial arts skill by joining two techniques together. This combination of techniques was untaught in our class. He was attempting one technique, saw another and switched to defeat his opponent. This has nothing to do with physical skill and everything to do with awareness. Not only did Josh learn by this but so did the onlookers who were standing next to me and were very impressed. ("That was fully pro" was the comment)
From Kyoshi Sean - "It is situations like this that I enjoy the most in teaching martial arts. After the above situations took place, I sat the students down and made them aware of what happened. Now they are aware of how difficult situations often bring about the best results"
