Mastering Yourself
The story goes as follows:
A youth approaches a master of the marital arts hoping to become one of his students. While discussing his admission into the school, the student tells the teacher that his desire is to be one of the best martial artists the school has ever produced, and wants to know how long it will take him to achieve his goal.
The teacher responds by saying “at least ten years.”
The student then asks how long it would take if he studied twice as hard as every one else.
The teacher responds, “twenty years.”
Puzzled the student then asks what would happen if he practices night and day, and cuts his sleeping time in half?
The teacher responds, “thirty years.”
Totally perplexed the student finally asks the teacher why every time he offers to work harder and longer the teacher says it will take more time.
The old teacher smiles at the youth and says the answer is clear: when one eye is fixed upon your destination, there is only one eye left with which to find the way.
I am often asked how long it will take for a student to achieve some level of effectiveness in the art I teach. My response has always been that I don’t know.
This is especially true when the question is asked over the phone and I have never met the person and have no first hand knowledge of their fitness level, physical coordination, ability to learn, or their work ethic.
Even after a student has been training with me for several months I’m hesitant to make such predications. The honest truth is I just don’t know.
No one can answer that question. Until it’s time to defend oneself in the real world, when the situation involves life or death, even the best tournament fighter has been untested. There are no rules and no referees in the real world. No one brings weapons to a UFC fight or other “reality based” martial arts contests.
If students are successful at protecting themselves during an altercation then some level of effectiveness has been achieved, even if they have only been studying for a month. Or they were simply very lucky. Maybe a little of both.
If they were unsuccessful, then I guess they have a ways to go. Though any fight relies on more than just skill, and even a world champion can have a bad day.
I know most of the techniques I teach have the potential to be effective if and when done correctly. I also know that requires skill, and in order to obtain this skill it takes patience and repetitious practice. Like I said in the previous essay, I also know not every technique is suited for everybody.
When taking time to discuss how long it takes to learn techniques and obtain a level of effectiveness in my art I have come up with a timetable. Though this time table is sort of an inside joke to my students I’ll share it.
No one technique I teach should take more than a minute to learn, and two to five minutes to learn to use effectively.
However, I’m talking biblical time. Yes, biblical time. Let’s assume that God created the heavens and earth in seven days as chronicled in biblical texts. Now if you understand that each twenty-four hour period for God equaled one thousand years, you’ll start to understand my timetable.
1 minute in biblical time equals roughly .695 months
2 minutes equals 1.39 years
5 minutes equals 3.47 years
10 minutes equals 6.95 years
30 minutes equals 20.8 years
1 hour equals 41.7 years
24 hours equal 1000 years
Like I said it’s sort of a joke, but it’s also very true. There are no short cuts to learning proper martial art techniques. Practice, practice, and more practice, day in and day out, repetition after repetition is what it takes.
So, if you ever have a few minutes and want to study at my school, please feel free to stop in. But at my age I can only promise you an hour of my time.
(Editor’s Note: “with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day” – 2 Peter 3:8 A handy conversion chart is available at www.yachigusaryu.com/yachitime.htm.)
A youth approaches a master of the marital arts hoping to become one of his students. While discussing his admission into the school, the student tells the teacher that his desire is to be one of the best martial artists the school has ever produced, and wants to know how long it will take him to achieve his goal.
The teacher responds by saying “at least ten years.”
The student then asks how long it would take if he studied twice as hard as every one else.
The teacher responds, “twenty years.”
Puzzled the student then asks what would happen if he practices night and day, and cuts his sleeping time in half?
The teacher responds, “thirty years.”
Totally perplexed the student finally asks the teacher why every time he offers to work harder and longer the teacher says it will take more time.
The old teacher smiles at the youth and says the answer is clear: when one eye is fixed upon your destination, there is only one eye left with which to find the way.
I am often asked how long it will take for a student to achieve some level of effectiveness in the art I teach. My response has always been that I don’t know.
This is especially true when the question is asked over the phone and I have never met the person and have no first hand knowledge of their fitness level, physical coordination, ability to learn, or their work ethic.
Even after a student has been training with me for several months I’m hesitant to make such predications. The honest truth is I just don’t know.
No one can answer that question. Until it’s time to defend oneself in the real world, when the situation involves life or death, even the best tournament fighter has been untested. There are no rules and no referees in the real world. No one brings weapons to a UFC fight or other “reality based” martial arts contests.
If students are successful at protecting themselves during an altercation then some level of effectiveness has been achieved, even if they have only been studying for a month. Or they were simply very lucky. Maybe a little of both.
If they were unsuccessful, then I guess they have a ways to go. Though any fight relies on more than just skill, and even a world champion can have a bad day.
I know most of the techniques I teach have the potential to be effective if and when done correctly. I also know that requires skill, and in order to obtain this skill it takes patience and repetitious practice. Like I said in the previous essay, I also know not every technique is suited for everybody.
When taking time to discuss how long it takes to learn techniques and obtain a level of effectiveness in my art I have come up with a timetable. Though this time table is sort of an inside joke to my students I’ll share it.
No one technique I teach should take more than a minute to learn, and two to five minutes to learn to use effectively.
However, I’m talking biblical time. Yes, biblical time. Let’s assume that God created the heavens and earth in seven days as chronicled in biblical texts. Now if you understand that each twenty-four hour period for God equaled one thousand years, you’ll start to understand my timetable.
1 minute in biblical time equals roughly .695 months
2 minutes equals 1.39 years
5 minutes equals 3.47 years
10 minutes equals 6.95 years
30 minutes equals 20.8 years
1 hour equals 41.7 years
24 hours equal 1000 years
Like I said it’s sort of a joke, but it’s also very true. There are no short cuts to learning proper martial art techniques. Practice, practice, and more practice, day in and day out, repetition after repetition is what it takes.
So, if you ever have a few minutes and want to study at my school, please feel free to stop in. But at my age I can only promise you an hour of my time.
(Editor’s Note: “with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day” – 2 Peter 3:8 A handy conversion chart is available at www.yachigusaryu.com/yachitime.htm.)
<< Home