| My Sensei, Richard Behrens, said "Learning is fun, | | | | is most people have a major misconception about |
| training is boring." This is very true. Many people | | | | what martial arts are. They think it is some kind |
| enter into the martial arts hoping to learn a few | | | | of "magic" that turns weaklings into tough guys. |
| techniques that will turn them into "Jet Li" over | | | | This is so far from the truth. Others believe what |
| night. They learn very quickly that is not the case. | | | | they see in the movies like "The Karate Kid". |
| Martial arts takes years to learn properly. | | | | They believe they have to find an old Asian |
| You cannot learn from a video or DVD, you must | | | | master who works as a plumber or dry cleaner |
| study under a teacher and train with other people. | | | | but also holds the secrets of the martial arts, and |
| You must learn a technique and then do that | | | | just happens to want to divulge the secrets to |
| technique over and over again. You must learn | | | | them. More than likely this is not going to happen. |
| through painful trial and error. There is an old | | | | What they do find is a regular martial art school |
| saying, "you must perform a technique 10,000 | | | | with a teacher who has no secrets but a solid |
| times to learn it". That is a lot practice. | | | | system to teach. The training begins one |
| Most people will "burnout" long before they | | | | technique at a time. But are they willing to take |
| achieve any kind of proficiency. One main reason | | | | the time necessary to become proficient? |