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Category:
Published: February 2007
How a martial arts background develops leadership.
There are two words that can accurately describe our theme of leadership for this issue...Black Belt! I have witnessed the amazing transformation of hundreds of children, teenagers and adults, who have taken the journey to change their lives for the better. It is one of the most beautiful and profound journeys that many people will take in their lives. The process of becoming a "Black Belt" can make even the shyest and most reserved individual into a confident, respectful and honest leader within our community!
This story is absolutely 100% true. Nothing you are about to read was fabricated or exaggerated in any way. A student that I trained with when I was a child came to our school as many parents do, because they were having difficulty with their child's behavior at home or at school. Well in this case, it was the most extreme that you could imagine. The child was kicked out of school for numerous inappropriate acts including fighting, skipping school, failing multiple classes, etc. At home, he was living with his mother, dad was out of the picture, and the child was physically abusive towards his mother. He would routinely have emotional outbursts where he would trash their entire apartment and throw chairs and other furniture. Today, psychologists would probably diagnosis this child with Bipolar disorder or maybe Antisocial Personality Disorder and of course you cannot forget about the most popular...Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Back then however, there were no magic medications that could sedate this wild child.
From the first day this child set foot into the Do Jang (Tae Kwon Do School), I witnessed first hand as he slowly but surely, day by day, month by month started to change for the better. He was surrounded by young men and women who were cool, calm and collected, who ultimately were leaders. These young men did not act inappropriate or encourage him to get into bad things, but rather were teaching him about respect and courtesy, having self- discipline and being a confident person. He trained harder and harder and took all of his excess energy that he used for negative behaviors and placed that on his training. If he was having a difficult day, he now had an outlet to release his aggressive tendencies in a more appropriate manner. He not only was becoming a phenomenal martial artist but, whether he realized it or not, he was becoming a better person for it.
Today, this child who now is in his late twenties has visited three continents for world martial arts competitions, he had full responsibility for running a martial arts school by the time he was 17 years old, and now he holds a steady job and is engaged to be married. I am completely certain that if it were not for his mom's instinct to bring martial arts into his life, he would either be in prison or dead today. I know so much about this child because he was the best training partner I ever had as well as a close friend. At a very young age, he motivated me to get better. He was a couple of years older than me and I wanted badly to be as good as he was, so I worked harder than I ever thought I could. Because of this story as well as so many others including my own, I take great pride and enjoyment out of watching our students grow as people of our great community and of our planet earth. I learned at a very young age that martial arts can help anyone and everyone and I work hard to make sure that Cutting Edge Tae Kwon Do is open to all that want to benefit from it.
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