Email from an old student

Sorry to take so long in posting another installment. I’ve started a few stories and have been unhappy with each as they are thus far. I will post them as they come together.

But something happened this week that I would like to pass on to you guys. I received the following email from a former student – someone who trained with me in the early ‘70s. I’ll replace his real name with “John Doe” as I haven’t gotten permission from him to post it. (He didn’t turn me down. I just decided to pass it along today and didn’t have time to ask.) His email to me is as follows:

“Dear Sensei Jim, I was one of your students many years ago - 1970-1974. I will always value your teaching. It was an honor to be your student, sir. (John Doe), Lieutenant Colonel, Special Forces, Retired”

I sent him a response, thanking him for remembering me and taking the time to contact me after all these years. I was so proud of him and honored that I may have been instrumental in assisting him in some small way achieve success and survive at such a dangerous and worthy undertaking that there were tears in my eyes as I wrote it.

Over the years, I have received several such messages and treasure them. One was from a student who had been suffering from a secret drug addiction while a student and claimed I had given him the strength to overcome it and become successful in life. Another was failing at school, one report card had all F’s, and credited me with motivating him, and giving him the self-discipline to raise it to all A’s within one school year. (Several had drug related issues that karate helped them defeat.)

Gichin Funakoshi said we must practice our techniques as if our very lives depended upon the effectiveness of every rep. And that has always been my goal, to practice as I wanted to be able to throw something in a real encounter.

But something this week’s email from my former student helped remind me was the need, as instructors, to teach as if our students’ lives depended upon how and what we teach them – as they well may. To name but a few, we need to teach them to throw their techniques with speed, power, penetration, and extension. We need to condition their bodies to throw and receive strong attacks. They need to learn effective tactics and strategies that will enable them to capitalize upon their strengths and prevent their opponents from capitalizing upon their weaknesses. They need to be made mentally strong enough to continue fighting even when injured, as most will be in a real fight. Knowing what to do in a fight and being able to do it are two separate and distinct skills. So it’s critical we teach them both what to do and take them through drills that better prepare them for responding spontaneously to attacks.

I used to say that students learn more with their eyes than their ears. So how we behave, the role models we become or fail to become, effects how our students will behave themselves. Our strength, our ethics, our morality, our work ethic will become theirs. So we must always be some worthy of emulation.

Enough for this time. Thanks again for reading.