Untying the Belt

A few weeks ago, I taught my last class at my martial arts school. Truthfully, the notion to walk away had been running through my head for quite some time, but the final decision to do it was relatively sudden. I was pushed over the edge by a few different things which are beyond the purview of this blog. Suffice to say that it was the best thing for everyone involved.

The announcement I made to my Friday class was somewhat spontaneous; I have always believed that the best way to make yourself accountable for a goal is to announce it publicly. I knew that if I announced nothing, that I wouldn’t have the heart to leave, and I would always be telling myself “next week” or “next month”, which would drift into “next year”, with the underlying problems never getting better.

I really do have the bedside manner of an iceberg. I made a very short, blunt, unambiguous statement about it near the end of my class; as I said, it was more to solidify it in my mind than anything else. I regret now not making a statement that was more sensitive and caring, one that communicated how I really felt about the class I taught for going-on-ten years, and the people who have meant so much to me over my 14-year career in Kung-Fu. Part of the purpose of this post is to rectify that.

It was very difficult for me to leave a place where basically grew up, from the ages of 16-30, leaving people who helped define who I am as an adult, and something that was for me a way of life at least as much as it was a martial art. Very difficult indeed. But that didn’t make it any less of a right decision.

Besides the discipline, material, katas, and sparring, the thing that added the most to my life was teaching. Learning how to communicate ideas and physical movements to people of all ages and fitness levels has been invaluable to me. It taught me patience, communication skills, and it honed my own material to a razor’s edge (it really is true that you don’t know much about a particular thing until you’ve tried to teach it!) Seeing the light bulb go off above a students head as they made a breakthrough or figured out a difficult physical problem never got old, no matter how many times I saw it. It was the joy I received through that process that ignited in me the passion for helping others become healthier, and started me on the road to finding the best ways to do that. Ultimately, if I managed to influence a student positively even a fraction as much as teaching them influenced me, I would consider myself a success.

I think that if you asked anyone, they would tell you that my real passion was the Friday conditioning class that I ran from 2000 to just last month. Throughout the years I guided the evolution of the class from a potpourri of sparring, conditioning, and material, to a class focused on specific skill acquisition, to utilizing Crossfit-like protocols to turbocharge the fitness and sparring of the students. I am proud to say that I feel we worked out and sparred longer and harder than any other class in the school, and I am even more proud to say that I worked out with such fine people who put up with me for so long!

I will (and do!) miss all of my friends and colleagues, and if any of you are reading this, you really should know that I haven’t gone anywhere. I’m just an email or phone call away. I’m moving on to different and exciting things, but will always remember everyone fondly.

Finally, I am truly proud knowing that I touched people’s lives in a positive way though a vehicle about which I feel great passion. Really, what more can you ask for out of life?