"A Strong Basement is Essential for a Strong Life"

Traditional Martial Arts = Strong Basement

Would you start building your upper floors of your house before you ensure a strong basement foundation? Of course not, as your upper floors would surely crumble. Your house may not collapse the first few years if your basement is not strong, but it will in due time as you intended to build your house for the long-term. Therefore, how do you ensure a solid long-term foundation, one which is continuously monitored and improved for life? This brief point of view is shared to drive others to build and maintain a strong foundation through traditional martial arts for themselves and their children which will yield a prosperous life.

While family and faith are also critical for a good foundation, I will focus my discussion on building a hard work ethic. By work ethic I mean, diligent effort to improve your mind and body from a professional and personal perspective. Too often we forget about our basement when we are living on the upper floors of our house, and the basement is either not laid correctly or not maintained appropriately.

Often at a young age activities (i.e. athletics and the arts) are utilized to develop worth ethic skills such as, focus, determination and adaptation. The intent is for these skills to positively impact academics and prepare one for life. The challenges often are, 1) the individual may not excel quick enough to remain in the activity, 2) the activity lacks needed discipline components in mind or body, and 3) there is limited opportunity to continue after becoming an adult.

Related to the first challenge above, "doing" is more important than excelling at a predetermined pace. Just because you excel at a different pace, does not mean you should not "do". For example, not swimming or running fast enough or not becoming proficient in a certain skill (i.e. playing an instrument or ice skating) before others, is not a reason to stop doing. A specific example is when a child does not make the cut for an athletic team. Doing and constantly improving at your own pace continues to develop the important life skills presented above. If the turtle was told he could not race the hare, he would not have been able to beat him. As a society, are we telling ourselves and our children not to be in the race if you are not the hare? I believe it is more important to be in the race than always having to win at someone's predetermined pace.

Secondly, often activities lack the discipline needed, especially for adults beyond college as they are less organized. But even the more organized youth activities often do not provide the mental and physical discipline needed but to only the top 10-15% elite practitioners. Traditional martial arts provide discipline to all. This is why we say we study / practice / do the martial arts, rather than play martial arts.

Lastly, most of adults are lost after high school or college as the activities they were involved in are not as available. This often leads to the absence of maintaining ones "basement" or foundation and often causes complacency resulting in poor mental and physical health. Traditional martial arts are a life long endeavor designed to support longevity and a strong basement foundation for your "upper floors".

In conclusion, build and maintain a strong foundation for you and your children through traditional martial arts. A foundation that will last a lifetime and allow you to construct "sky scrappers" for yourself and empower your children to do the same.