No one can put the knowledge or skill inside your head and in your hands. You basically get out of it what you put into it.
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What amazes me still is how many people I see haven’t taken their training that far. They show up to class, do what they’re told, and then leave. I’m not sure how much they think about their martial arts outside of the dojo walls. It’s as if they hope that just by showing up, they’ll absorb it all like a sponge and be able to do what the masters do someday.
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Now, I also realize that there can be and are various degrees of interest in the martial arts, and that’s okay. If it’s only a “nice way to spend an evening” kind of casual hobby, great, good for you. My only concern is what people expect from that kind of training. Do you think making a few hours of class a week is going to make you some sort of invulnerable bad-ass “on the street”? I spend a lot of time on this stuff, and I still don’t think I’m anything close to being a bad-ass! (Not that I want to be)
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But even if you’re looking for something else outside of self-defense, what are you getting out of it from just showing up? Is it the health aspect? The philosophical aspect? Sorry, but benefitting in those areas takes some homework, some study time and sacrifices too.
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We had a great class on Saturday. Those moments where a student has a lightbulb moment and says; “Oh, I get it now. I get what you’ve been trying to tell me.”
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Those lightbulb moments are fantastic. But inevitably those lightbulb moments may make you look back on what you have been doing, and you may feel like you have been wasting your time, only now getting it right after all this time. Perhaps thinking you could be so much further forward in your understanding.
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Well guess what? You were able to have that epiphany because of that prior training. Without that prior training, without all of the context, you would not have had that lightbulb moment.
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You can teach someone something, but quite often they have to ‘feel’ it for themselves. Sometimes they have to experience it the wrong way before they get the feeling of it being right, or…. “Oh, I get it now.”
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Wherever you are in your training there is always another step. Sometimes it’s a difficult step, sometimes it can just take time. Whatever it is, you now have a better vision of who you are becoming as a martial artist, and it’s simply going to take time.
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It’s a process. It’s not the belt, it’s not the trophy, it’s not rushing, it’s about becoming a better person, through becoming a better martial artist,….. and that’s why I love those moments. 
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