Daily blog #24

Gold is in the heart

Over the course of the weekend some of the core members and I went shooting. We had a blast, no pun intended, getting outside for some sun seemed to be the perfect follow up to our morning Jiu Jitsu training. Later that day we watched my good friend Victor Hugo demolish the competition in 3rd Coast Grappling’s event for the cash prize. The night before we had watched Rafael Lovato Jr, who needs no introduction, fight valiantly against the new champ Lucas ‘The Hulk” Barbosa in Fight 2 Win. All of this got me thinking, is there a better, more empowering way to live than being surrounded by people who train to be their best every day? And more than that to share a connection with many of these great souls across the globe. Such is the life of a Martial Artist, I watch young kids every day who are growing up in the Martial Arts environment training hard with their friends while learning to represent our academy’s values (6 Blades). On the other hand, through our company’s Sports Performance division, I am exposed to athletes all the way up to the professional level who never learned many of the fundamental values in Martial Arts such as discipline, respect and work ethic.

Imagine a future where Martial Arts was promoted in all schools, especially at the lower schools. Would we not see more behaved, disciplined kids who were comfortable with physical training, regardless of what they chose as a lifestyle later on? Is sports failing our youth by teaching them only about winning and not the character that it can produce or the fun it can be with good people? I suspect if a cop and the person getting pulled over were both Martial Artists there would likely be relatively little conflict relative to if they were both football players who feel they have something to prove. If your goal is to get a million dollar contract, I can see why you would have your athlete’s life be about sports, but time has shown the million dollar person comes from Martial Arts.