The Quest
The Quest Focus On
The martial arts have so much to offer, so you should never sell them short. Even the slightest move within any system has unlimited possibilities of use. Acquiring the highest level of skill and proficiency to the point of creating a masterpiece in yourself is true martial arts mastery. The secrets to achievement upon a quest for mastery are knowledge, love, and endurance from which everything else falls into place.
There is a saying, “Knowledge is power” and this is certainly the truth when it comes to striving for mastery in your training. You must have the appropriate information in order to get anywhere in life. Martial arts mastery calls for the right knowledge first from a technical standpoint so that movement and application for something like escaping from a bear hug from behind is performed effectively. In addition, knowledge from a philosophical standpoint is extremely important because practicing things like respect and loyalty are pertinent to your training.
Many years ago, the singer Tina Turner sang a song entitled “What’s Love Got To Do With It”, and the answer for our purposes is everything. Love that emotion of affection that causes you to act out with strong commitment. Training in the martial arts can be very difficult especially in areas like sparring and breaking, so you need to love what you’re doing to stick with it. Getting up at five in the morning to train or remaining after class to get just a little bit more practice are acts of love for your art which are necessary to achieve mastery.
Do you remember the story of The Little Train That Could that possessed the attitude to say, “I know I can.” With the same kind of attitude you will build the endurance needed to persist through both the simplicity of the basics and the difficulty within advanced techniques. For example working on the basics of straight punches or side kicks might cause you to feel bored overtime and striving to perfect the advanced skill of the five hundred and forty degree roundhouse kick seem extremely hard, but with endurance you can continue with both on the road to mastery.
Imagine the journey toward mastery for many great martial arts masters of the past like Mas Oyama, Ed Parker, and Bruce Lee. Surely they faced the peaks and valleys that any person who is on a quest for mastery faces, but their knowledge, love, and endurance saw them through to the end. In the same way, you must first desire to achieve mastery and then set out on it’s path carrying ever increasing knowledge, love,and endurance toward being the best you can be as a master of the martial arts.