“To conquer frustration, one must remain intensely focused on the outcome, not the obstacles.” I still remember this quote from Within I Rise by T.F. Hodge because this specific quote has helped me through my long and winding journey toward the black-belt. It started with my friend in fifth grade showing me what he learned in karate class the day before, and me asking my mother if I could join. My brother and I went to our first class and I instantly fell in love with the sparring, grappling, fighting combinations, self-defense, and of course, learning to use nunchucks. It was not long before I had my eye on the black-belt, but there were many obstacles ahead. Less than one percent of all students at my karate school end up getting to …show more content…
Going to class everyday without fail, reviewing and completely perfecting the five years of curriculum I had so carefully worked through, to the point where everything was completely automatic, and preparing for the fifty push-up requirement, were not enough. The black-belt test requires creativity through my creation of a personal kata and a self-defense to every attack I had learned. Beyond this, physical endurance and stamina are required in order to spar for ten minutes straight at the end of the four hour test, with a fresh opponent every minute. The black-belt test was the most physically grueling challenge I had ever faced and was much more mentally exhausting than any academic …show more content…
I am currently preparing for something much more important to me than my black-belt though, and I am in the midst of that test. Being accepted into a university like Princeton will be the pinnacle academic experience and will represent my years of work academically, physically, and in the community. After receiving my black-belt though, I have realized that it is only the beginning of an exciting journey, not the end, and I anticipate the same will happen with college. From jump-spin-crescent-kicks to two nunchuck katas, and the joy of mentoring the lower belts, my black-belt test led me into a position which I plan on continuing in one of Princeton's many martial arts
At some point in life most people have allowed at least one challenge to defeat them, if not more. Then there are those people who view these challenges as simply that, a challenge. This was the theme throughout Kyle Maynard’s novel, No Excuses, I learned that it is how we go about conquering these challenges that defines us as people. Throughout his novel he notes things will not always come easily; therefore, it is up to us to dig deep and conquer our goals. By finding alternate routes and adjusting your mindset, we are able to achieve any goal we set our minds to. Because it is not the obstacle that holds us back but it is ourselves that keeps us from fulfilling our greatest
Social Services in this particular area include the Department of Human Resources. This resource has agents that protect the vulnerable adult and child from abuse. DHS arranges emergency housing, public housing and administers the Food Stamps or the SNAP program. Also in this particular area there are County Health Departments that because of their extended wait times are a source of contention in our population group.
The class begins with middle punches. This entails bringing the left foot out into a sitting stance where our legs reflect a person riding a horse. The hip is rotated backwards then propelled forwards as the fist on the belt twists towards our imaginary opponent in front of us. Then Master Copper pairs each student with a partner of equal height to practice kicks. When my partner extends his sidekick, the crusty dirt on the sole of his foot brushes past my eyes, and the speed of the kick creates a breeze of stale air. In the middle of class, we incorporate the punching bags into our workout. The low belts use the tall, thin sun colored bag, and the high belts utilize the thick, blood colored bag. However, the black belts utilize “Bob the Bully”, the tan, lifelike bag with dense padding and broad shoulders. After six hours of school and at least four hours of homework, punching and kicking the toned face and rippling abs of Bob brings a substantial amount of satisfaction. As my knuckles make contact with Bob’s rigid jaw, I grit my teeth and each blow connects with more power than the last. Beads of sweat roll down my face as Bob’s head shifts from side to side following each blast of force. The instep of my foot creates indents in the sides of Bob as my half turning kicks
In Flannery O’Connor’s short story, A Good Man is Hard to Find, a family gets in a car accident on a deserted dirt road. Unluckily for them, they are found by a group of three escaped convicts, led by a man who calls himself The Misfit. These convicts systematically execute the family in twos as the Misfit talks with the grandmother. While the catalyst for this execution is the grandmother’s verbal recognition of The Misfit as an escaped criminal, it is clear that he commits his crimes for deeper reasons. The Misfit is angry on a fundamental level, and acting out on this anger is the closest he can come to feeling pleasure in this life.
The workout portion was after all, the most strenuous part. The other forms and kicking combination portion was elementary memorization. Two months into training, I was extremely anxious regarding whether I would be ready for Black Belt test in time. But with Mister Alex's words of assurance I stayed headstrong and determined to pass the test. After working hard with Mister Alex as well as on my own at home for the minimum six months, Mister Alex said I was "definitely ready to take and pass the Black Belt test." When Mister Alex told me this I felt nervous about the veracity of his words. I had been in training for the minimum 6 months only. The average training period at my karate institution was actually 8 months. I felt under prepared for the test, but I was only kidding myself by undermining my
No one wants to be defeated, but sometimes we do have defeats. For example, the United States lost some battles in the Civil War but in the end they won the war. Maya Angelou is known for expressing this idea of perseverance through one of her famous quotes. This quote stood out to me because, like everyone else, I have faced obstacles that have knocked me down once or twice. It is one’s own choice if they want to stand back up and succeed or if they want to allow themselves to be defeated by a difficult situation. In track, there have been many times when I had an off day, and I did not compete to my fullest ability in one event. However, I cannot afford to let that
Children definitely gain more from their realizing their mistakes, than receiving underserved praise through a trophy. She contends that “we must focus on process and progress, not results and rewards.” “The Karate Kid,” a memorable film for generations, features various morals to kids all across the globe. Its story line casts an unskilled child, foreign to China, trying to learn the tedious technique of karate. Although he goes through pain and tremendous failure, he realizes his mistakes and learns through his defeat. With the help of his encouraging mentor, he masters karate with beautiful skill. Through his failure, he acknowledged his faults in order to surpass them. The material rewards were meaningless compared to his feeling of self-triumph. A child doesn’t “need manufactured praise” as a reward if their skill is already mastered. He doesn’t need to be given a trophy to know he succeeded; instead, his learned skill is worth more. The feeling of accomplishing and developing his abilities is far more impactful to a child “than any trophy” has to offer. Mathew, a joyful junior, was on the junior varsity basketball team. After several weeks of practice, he finally developed the skill to communicate with his team mates. He had always received meaningless trophies, but the feeling of mastering the skill himself was truly meaningful. His
Frederick once said “If there is no struggle there is no progress.” What Frederick is saying is that without working for something you will get nothing in return. I know this because when running for track at the 400 meter and the 800 meter runs, which are the one of the hardest races there are in the world, you do not see progress without feeling the pain of struggle of your body working that hard. With that you do not get better by not working out every single day in some way and you do not get better by pushing yourself harder each day when you do run. When people see the 800 meter
These goals were accomplished how, because I learned at every class I attended, also my coaches taught me as soon as I started Taekwondo. The words of support from my instructors, are “to do my best,” “try your hardest.”
“Good job son, three more wins and you’ll have your black belt”. You don’t know how excited I am dad I’m going to work extra hard so that I can get my black belt. They soon left the karate match with such joy. While Scott was in the car staring at the ethereal stars, Scott’s dad was driving and his mom was in the passenger seat. Scott’s dad had seen a very suspicious car following them, out of nowhere the car swerves in front of them and I big buff guy got out the car with a double barrel shotgun and said “get out the car now!” Scott’s dad got out, “listen to me honey here’s my phone and no matter what you hear or what you see you stay under this seat” soon after that Scott’s mom got out the car. “You can have my wallet you can have whatever
Ever since the previous season I had my standards set high. I had placed fifth, which was all right for the time being, but I knew as time went on I needed to push myself and increase my level of wrestling. I decided that I would do whatever it took, through thick and thin. I traveled to small local tournaments in Colorado, and a couple out-of-state tournaments, I even traveled to Delaware. It didn't really matter how I did at these tournaments because it was just all practice until February. So, I lifted and wrestled just about every chance I got. It was all in preparation for one match, six minutes.
For those who do not know, I am a mixed martial arts fighter. Mixed martial arts fighting is “a sport allowing a wide range of fighting techniques that include striking, kicking, and grappling.” (www.merriam-webster.com) It is a compilation of forms of different martial arts. Two fighters will face each in the rings (known as the octagon due to its shape) for three to five five-minute rounds. I started taking martial arts classes when I was six years old. I wanted to be a mixed martial arts fighter all my life. I loved the thought of stepping into the octagon and pounding somebody senseless as a sport. My mother and father, at first, did not want me to take the Taekwondo classes because of this fact. It took a lot of begging to finally convince them to let me do it. They realized that it is very important for any child to learn some type of martial arts. It is essential to use for defense. Mixed martial arts are the thing that helped me cope with my rough childhood and mold me into who I am today. Over the past twenty years, the sport of MMA has revolutionized and has become very popular throughout the world. Despite this being said, other people very hesitant about accepting mixed martial arts. The sport of MMA is gradually becoming a safer sport. Even though it is considered a dangerous sport, other sports at proven to be more dangerous.
Individuals that choose to join Martial Arts can help relieve stress while at the same time help other individuals choose their actions and life choices cautiously. Martial Arts can help any type of individuals hopefully only good but bad as well in critical situations that unfortunately happens at uncalled wrong or right times. For instance, many individuals join martial arts due to bullying or wanting to learn how to defend and attack against enemies for their own desire or even to learn how to find balance in their lives. There are many types of individuals that want to join Martial Arts because of movies based off actors that end up being the winner of a fight. Others go for winning the female hero’s heart as if something great had just occurred unexpectedly at a staged time and place thanks to the help of Martial Arts. These as well as movies where the individuals that seek vengeance and revenge by Martial Arts or critical injury just to put off what they may think are right at the moment in time. More or less individuals join Ma...
This was the lesson I learnt from my father, an unceasing learner and a person who would never give up no matter how many and how difficult the obstacles may be. Having understood from him that success is a moving target, the years of my life with my family have inculcated in me a desire to achieve perfection.
My opponent’s name was John Doe. There were other competitors at the tournament, but they had never posed any threat to my title. For as long as I had competed in this tournament, I had easily taken the black belt championship in my division. John, however, was the most phenomenal martial artist I had ever had the honor of witnessing at my young age of thirteen. And he was in my division. Although he was the same rank, age, size, and weight as I, he surpassed me in almost every aspect of our training. His feet were lightning, and his hands were virtually invisible in their agile swiftness. He wielded the power of a bear while appearing no larger than I. His form and techniques were executed with near perfection. Although I had never defeated his flawlessness before, victory did not seem unattainable. For even though he was extraordinary, he was not much more talented than I. I am not saying that he was not skilled or even that he was not more skilled than I, for he most certainly was, but just not much more than I. I still had one hope, however little, of vanquishing this incredible adversary, for John had one weakness: he was lazy. He didn’t enjoy practicing long hours or working hard. He didn’t have to. Nevertheless, I had found my passage to triumph.