Friday, May 25, 2007

The Karate Hobby

I was speaking to a group of senseis and we were talking about all the amazing things we'd seen from the masters. Sensei Tim described a story down in Phoenix of one of Funakoshi's students who is now a master in his own right.

The master was sparring a black belt student, dove between his legs and wound up behind him. Normally, this would be an insane move, but it was done so fluidly, that no one watching was quite sure how it happened.

Astounded, the student said, "that was awesome - how did you do that?" The answer was, "for you, karate is just a hobby."

We talked some more about that, figuring that this master was dedicated each day to karate, perhaps for the entire day. We then asked ourselves, are we willing to pay the price it would take to get that good at something? Is that what separates the masters from the rest of us hobbyists?

We all agreed to be amazed, and also that we were indeed, just hobbyists.

2 comments:

All Blog Spots said...

Great blog, keep the good work going :)

GDZ said...

Thanks. I appreciate the encouragement!