I’ve spent most of the day assessing at a high sash and black belt grading.
It’s a full on day for every body involved, we have an early start at Coombe Abbey to get a couple of hours of physical done before moving on to the combat and martial arts side of things.
Something that was highlighted through the day, is that everybody has had a
different journey to get to where they are now.
Two of my students passed their 1st degree black belts which made me incredibly proud to be part of their journey.
However, the highlight for me was to award somebody their brown sash who was part of my journey starting 36 years ago. He last attended a grading 35 years ago, life got in the way and he had a “little” break.
His grandson training with us inspired
him to start again recently and he’s back on the mat and cracking on again.
Our black belt students are required to write an essay regarding the history of martial arts and their journey so far. The common theme throughout was how much studying and training martial arts improves life way beyond the dojo.
Everyone, from the nearly teens to the adults with a few more years under their belts, mentioned the positive affect on mindset in
every aspect of life.
I truly believe that everybody would benefit from studying a martial art, you might have to shop around to find one where you feel it’s for you but it will be worth it. I didn’t start BJJ until my late 40’s and love it, it forms part of my weekly fitness training and has a big social element within the class. T
he technical aspects don’t flow in my brain as easy as when I was a teen but I’m seeing that as a
positive to keep trying and stimulating the grey matter.
Give it a go, if you need help finding somewhere to start please ask.
Darren “never too late” Checkley