I Am Project - An Institution

Over the past twenty two years that I have been teaching, I have promoted sixty six people to black belt and out of that number forty two are still active students. It is always difficult to keep people engaged in their training after they endure the ordeal of their black belt grading. It seems that the final six month push where they eat and sleep kung fu twenty four hours a day almost always induces a self imposed sabbatical where the newly promoted black belts wish to reclaim some spare time. It’s unfortunate because it can be very difficult to get back into the swing of things after any length of disengagement from training. So I guess forty two out of sixty six after twenty two years isn’t such a bad number.

A lesson, or philosophical outlook, I give every black belt candidate on the day of their grading is the hierarchical priority of the student, the school, and the art. I try to instill a perspective within them that stresses the importance of the school over the student and the art. For without the school we would not have the student and without the student the art will become extinct.

It is always a risk when I send one of my black belts off to train in another art. You hope you have established yourself and your school as an institution of such importance that their perspective for the significance of their original school is never questioned. It can be so easy to take your old art and training mates for granted when the new art you are studying is providing new stimulus every class that you share with a whole new batch of training mates who have the same infective enthusiasm of beginners. This is why most schools I know do not permit their black belts to cross train despite the benefits this extra training would provide.

I have worked hard to establish my school and myself as an institution of excellence with a reputation of community activism and compassion. In my school we consider each other as family, and as Master Dave says: “family comes first”, so my students should never forget their loyalty to their original school, no matter where they are currently training. I trust them completely to continue to make decisions that reflect a passion for what their family stands for.

“When you leave here, don’t forget why you came” - Adlai E. Stevenson (1900 - 1965)