Thoughts on Student's Development- by Mike Van Ruth

It is rewarding to see the continued development of students in the dojo. As I teach class, I observe a student practicing a particular technique. I have a flash back to the past when that student was practicing that same technique. I complimented them on the strides they have made, but I have noticed they don't recognize the improvements themselves. Although their technique is improving, they still have the same puzzled and slightly frustrated looks on their faces. It is as though they have forgotten where they started out.

It is then that I remember a comment Furuya Sensei had on the subject. Forgive me for para-phasing too much, but each class is like putting a drop of water into a bucket. It may seem impossible to fill that bucket or even to see any significant increase in it's level. Over time that bucket will eventually fill up one drop at a time.

This is one reason we must all focus on just training. If the focus is on training, everything else will take care of itself. The idea of focusing on filling the bucket or chasing a goal can lead only to disappointment. Many times people set unrealistic expectations for themselves. They may say, "I want to reach black belt in so many years". Furuya Sensei told a story about a student that asked his teacher how many years it would take to master the sword. The teacher responded that it would take 10 years. Then the student asked, if I train twice as hard, how long would it take? The teacher's response was 20 years. The student, not happy with his teacher's answer said, "I will train night and day without rest, then how long would it take? The teacher then said it would take him a life time.

This story has a couple purposes. One is to explain the fact that the goal of mastery is not the purpose of training. The student's eyes are so focused on the prize that he will not find the true understanding of the art. Secondly, the teacher uses this explanation to try to break the student of focusing on something that brings no benefit but only harm to his training. The proper attitude toward our practice is to train with no regard to reward, but only to train for the sake of training.

Failure and obstacles in our practice are part of training in this endeavor we call the martial arts. Don't allow them to frustrate you. All practitioners have dealt, are dealing, and will continue to deal with set backs, obstacles, and failures. The only question is how a person reacts to them. One can become overly frustrate, quit training all together, or just accept it as a normal phase of training and move on, growing with the experience and becoming a better person for it.