They Did it Again!

This past week at First Choice Martial Arts was an incredible display of commitment and determination from every single student within our school. To give you an update we had over 170 students pass their belt exams. This was a combination of Little Dragons, under Black Belts, Senior Black Belts, Adults and our new Phase 1 and 2 Graduates. Last month when we planned our belt promotions, we had hoped that we may be able to do these outside but with the recent extension of the stay-at-home order it was clear we needed to do our exams virtually. Students were asked to perform individually during their exams and handled the pressure with the utmost ease.

Even going back a few weeks ago we knew it was going to be Virtual our amazing students made the choice to commit and succeed. Attendance was at an all time high and it was clear we were working with a winning group of individuals that had the discipline to tackle this challenge. No, wining, no complaining, no laziness but all execution. Even the youngest child in our program handled the task at hand and succeeded this past week. What this has taught them will stay with them for many years to come.

You may have heard the saying; people don’t plan to fail they often fail to plan and this was the case this in point this past week. It was evident that our students had planned for this day and they were not going to let anything stand in their way of success.

At the beginning of each test we told the students that they and only they know what they were putting into the test. We also spoke about regret and how that is something that we as instructors would never want for any of our students to experience. We would hate for them to go through the process and question whether they gave it their all. After we made our initial motivational speech, it was back to business and each student displayed the character traits that we as martial arts instructors try so hard to instill in our students.

I want you to celebrate your success and accomplishments and take a moment to reflect as you revaluate what your next goal is with your training. Some of you have gotten to that level where you are getting higher in the ranks or maybe perhaps you are getting ready for the older kids’ class. Perhaps you’ve moved into a different class but whatever it is, now is the time to really focus and move forward and challenge yourself once again.

We anticipate that in the next few weeks our outdoor training will hopefully begin, and this will bring a new element to our lessons as we resume in class instruction. Being focused during this virtual phase is going to take you way beyond what has gone on this past week; I have to think as the learning environment gets better students like you are going to be better equipped to succeed than your peers. To be disciplined or should I say self disciplined has been the case when it comes to online learning and virtual karate class, but this is a skill that goes beyond any kick or punch that you could ever learn in the dojo.

We are super proud of you and look forward to this next chapter in our training.

Stay strong!

Sensei Chris