The end of the beginning

have to be hon­est, get­ting my Black Belt in Karate has proven to be the most dif­fi­cult endeavor of my life. It’s not an easy task for any­one but it’s par­tic­u­larly tough for some­one my age who lacks flex­i­bil­ity and phys­i­cal dex­ter­ity. But it’s also not impos­si­ble, and I have no inten­tion of giv­ing up.

As we enter the home stretch, I’ve had to ratchet up the inten­sity. Totally expected, of course. You don’t coast into this, you have to really push your­self hard. I’m tired, ner­vous, excited and a lot more all at once.

Part of what makes this unique is the phys­i­cal aspect of it. I’m used to being able to think my way through things. One of the rea­sons I am as suc­cess­ful as I am is that abil­ity. Over the years a cou­ple of peo­ple have called me a genius, but I’ve never thought of myself as such. Yet I can’t deny I see con­nec­tions and pat­terns in things that oth­ers don’t see. If that’s intel­li­gence, than per­haps I am gifted.

But you can’t think your way through the mar­tial arts. You have to be here, now. Not wor­ry­ing about your last move or your next move but the move you’re mak­ing now. It’s all about how you move your body, and that’s why it’s so dif­fi­cult for me.

Dif­fi­cult, yes. Impos­si­ble, no. And here I am.

The title of this post comes from talks with Sen­sei about get­ting your Black Belt. Some peo­ple say that a Black Belt is sim­ply a White Belt who didn’t quit. In many ways, your Black Belt rep­re­sents the real begin­ning of your mar­tial arts train­ing. So in that sense, my mar­tial arts career is indeed reach­ing the end of the begin­ning; there’s still plenty of road to travel.

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