Tightrope

“Knowing isn’t enough, you have to be able to apply.” 

A few weeks ago Gene and I attended a seminar given by Mr. Richard “Huk” Planas and the above quote was his very first teaching of the day. The analogy he used was immensely powerful; everyone knows HOW to walk a tightrope. You place one foot in front of the other, you keep your balance and pray you make it to the other side. Now, DOING this is a whole different ballpark.

This is exactly why we chose the name Scholar and Warrior Kenpo Academy; you must be able to do the technique not just run through the motions. In order to make the technique work correctly you must know and understand the principles and basics behind the motion you are performing.

“The Scholar and the Warrior, come together and move forward in the battle. Fighting side by side and back to back…”

By employing only one you will only be able to perform at half of your potential. The Scholar is the wise one, the intelligence that is able to see all three points of view in the situation, the attacker’s point of view, the defender’s point of view and the outside third party’s point of view. *He is able to use these insights to take on the situation as a whole and analyze it before reacting. And this is done in a phenomenally short amount of time. The Scholar has familiarized himself with principles that the motion is founded on. The Scholar comes to you in time, you first have to be able to perform the motion somewhat before you can understand it, however you must be able to understand the principles behind the motion before you will ever be able to utilize it correctly and effectively.

The Warrior represents strength; he has no qualms about diving into the battle head first. The Warrior is obviously the physical aspect of your training and *he is who you will begin training first. In the beginning the Warrior will be clumsy and awkward but as with everything else, dedication and time will hone in his skills and make the foreign movement of before seem natural.

Mr. Planas shared so much knowledge with us that day; this is merely a snippet of what we learned in 4.5 hours. But I found this applicable not only to beginners but to Kenpoists in all stages. I know I found it very useful myself. Time to start walking the tightrope.

*He is interchangeable with she.

It Depends On You

Last Monday I had a White Belt ask me after his first class, "so do you think we have a shot at learning it?"
My response to him was this, "That depends on you. We're only with you for three hours a week. The rest of your time depends on what you're willing to put into it." Practicing outside of the class makes the biggest difference.
You wouldn't only eat three times a week, you'd be miserable, weak and pathetic. The same goes with Kenpo. You won't get very far by just practicing three times a week, you have to feed that fire. Continue to create that muscle memory, build your intensity and most importantly understand the principles and the concepts that lie within what you have learned.
Asking questions is a huge help too, I understand that after a hard class when you're drenched in sweat and all you want to do is collapse that the last thing you want to do is ask questions. That's what a notebook is good for, if you can't ask it right then, write it down and come back with the question later. Again it depends on you, I believe that every student has the potential and the ability to make it to Black Belt. However you will only get out of this Art what you put into it.

Our Scary, Overwhelming, Beautiful Beginning

A month and a half ago Gene and I began this amazing Journey.  On August 20^th in the middle of a Star Trek episode Gene turned to me and said, “I think I want to open a karate school.” We set a goal, to start researching and asking some questions and hopefully have it open by Christmas.  We began discussing a name, several different ones were proposed, my favorite being Gene’s suggestion of Kenpo Fitness Center, (That was shot down once we realized it would be KFC.) At 3:30 one morning I rolled over in bed looked at Gene and said “Scholar and Warrior Kenpo Academy.” Gene’s response was “cool,” and he fell back to sleep.  We now had a name, next was a building.

The next week we went building hunting, we had a page of paper full of addresses and contact information, but there was one building that we had put three stars next to and circled the phone number. That little building on Edmond with the rock garden in the front had stolen our hearts…that was the one we wanted.  We called the realtor the next day and scheduled a walk through. Fifteen minutes into the walk through we knew this was THE place. We signed the papers on September 6^th. We had a key and a dream, and a whole lot of cleaning to do. 

We spent the next three weeks practically living at that dojo. Scrubbing, painting and completely redoing the entire bathroom, and when we weren’t physically working on the school we were creating the curriculum, obtaining credentials, and ordering necessities for the school. It was like having a newborn, every waking second we spent working on the school.

September 26^th, we opened our doors to the public. We had two little boys; a teenage girl and an adult join us. And we were ecstatic. Wednesday night we had the same children but no adults. And the same went for Saturday…we were scared to say the least. Then the second Monday came, and we had ten adult students in class. It was absolutely beautiful. They asked questions, they were excited; they loved every minute of it. It was in that moment that I knew what we were doing was going to work.

It’s never been about making a killing off of this for us, that’s why we both have day jobs. No we do this because it’s what we love to do. And to be able to share what you love with others, is there really anything better?

To be honest there were moments when I thought “are we crazy?” We planned on it taking four months, not five weeks. But I’m glad we dove in headfirst and took that plunge. I’m glad we rolled the dice, because this is the greatest thing we have ever done. We lit another Flame for Mr. Parker, and we have helped instill a hunger for Kenpo into several people already. We’ve created a family, and it’s absolutely beautiful.  I hope we never stop!