A Call to Action

Had my fifth, and hopefully last, knee surgery on Monday. The recovery is going to be somewhat longer than I was anticipating because my surgeon attempted to repair the meniscus rather than just cutting out the tear. This procedure involved some bone drilling with a femoral drill to give him something to suture the damaged cartilage to. I was under the impression that cartilage cannot heal because it has no blood supply. While that impression was accurate to a point, I now realize that some areas of cartilage do receive blood flow. Apparently my tear had some blood flow - hence the repair. While there is a risk that the repair may not take and I will require future surgery, I am grateful that the attempt was made. I would like to avoid a future knee replacement so anything that prolongs further deterioration is okay with me.

I have spent a large part of my recovery contemplating the state of the martial arts and the martial arts business. Anyone who teaches answers to a higher calling. I think that is why the industry in general is rife with failed businesses and dreams. As martial artists our passion for what we do can blind us such that we forget that without our school, our students will have no place to learn and our art will have no way to propagate. It can be difficult to see the forest for the trees and realize that we must take care of our business if we want to take care of our students and our art.

After many years of nurturing your students and ensuring the future of your school, it is easy to become complacent and forget about why you started doing what you do in the first place. As teachers we are responsible for sculpting the values of mankind’s future leaders. What values do we wish to instill within our students - the best way to punch or the proper way to live? We are the past, our white belts are the future. What type of legacy do we want to leave behind? What is our vision for the future of our industry?

While there are many martial arts organizations that help us grow our business with integrity and martial arts organizations that help us foster our art, there are very few that cater to our soul. Tom Callos has created the 100. and leads it as an organization that I believe to be the ultimate evolution of the martial arts industry. The 100. brings us full circle back to why we all got involved in the martial arts in the first place. If we truly believe we can make a difference beyond the walls of our school, this association not only provides the inspiration, it has a call to action. It is time.

"A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops."
- Henry Brooks Adams (1838 - 1918)