Martial Arts and Myself

Being a practitioner of martial arts for over half of my life, I realized how important it is to keep in shape, especially in such a physically demanding sport/discipline. I started out teaching new students basic forms and techniques of Kempo, but after my ninth year as a practitioner, I took my martial arts expertise and made it into a career. Later in my career, I started to worry about my physical shape and appearance. I noticed that many of my students were not only participating in Martial Arts to learn how to defend themselves, but also to lose a weight and/or to get into shape. As time went on, I learned that there are many differences between men and women, in the sense of what their wants or needs. There was an array of desire to participate in Martial Arts that ranged from being in a friendly environment, to acquiring weight loss and improving flexibility. Many times, the weight loss and the friendly environment aspects of Martial Arts went hand-in-hand. In my experience, when a student felt uncomfortable with their body, it helped them to be in a friendly environment because they felt comfortable with the other students and the instructor (myself). This is something that I noticed a much more often than anything else while instructing. My students would agree that a comfortable surrounding helped push them to get into shape better than anything they’ve ever tried before, simply, because they do not feel insecure due to the fact that other students were going through the same thing.