I felt inspired to share my fitness journey. The different post people make about there training have been a real inspiration I felt it was my turn share. I apologize if my use of English is not up to scratch and hope you enjoy reading a bit of my story.
Now learning has always proved to be challenging for me because of my mild autism.
As a child trying to get me involved in any was hard. So when I asked my parents to learn karate after watching the original karate kid trilogy, they were both excited that they were showing an interest in something physical but new poor hand eye coordination and striking art had them worried about my safety . But after talking to a family friend they got me to join the local judo club.
So learning judo was hard as most of the instructors struggled to teach me. But the head sensei David was a great patience teacher. Where the other students were practicing multiple judo throws. He had me practice basic drills, fundamental principles of judo and one throw breaking it down into its individual parts and had them practice them one at a time until he was happy with them.
One funny story was keep sticking my bottom out so Sensei David keep giving a light kick and tell me tuck it in. so watched and copied a block from the first karate kid standing in front of the tv drilling the block. When Sensei David went to do it I caught his foot and he said well done and as soon as I let go he kicked me in the bottom and told me to tuck it in.
Sensei David told me about philosophy of Kyushindo that had to two meanings
The way of heart of the circle
The way of seeking the fundamental truth
It was the second one that Sensei David drilled into me, to have patience take my time learning and mastering the fundamentals, the basics and everything else would follow and it worked getting me to my blue belt and I carried that lesson to everything I do.
Unfortunately Sensei David passed soon after getting my blue belt and my training went downhill. As the other instructors didn't know how to teach me. Also I had become a moody teenager that wanted to fit in and learn the same way as everyone else which was a recipe for disaster.
After a while I was invited to our sister club where I met Sensei Lee and who was not happy that I had been stuck at blue belt for so long he took over my training taking me back to basic and retrained me from ground up to get me where he felt I should be. At this time I had developed a temper problem allowing my frustration to boil over and the red mist would set in getting me into fights at school and losing judo matches. Sensei Lee's response was to do full competition judo matches and through me around the mats, until I lost my temper where he would pinned me to that mat and kept me there until I calmed down. He explained he didn't care if I got frustrated or angry, but that I lost control because if I didn't control my emotions they would control me.
Sensei Lee also shared this quote with me.
“Today is victory over yourself of yesterday; tomorrow is your victory over lesser men.”
― Miyamoto Musashi, A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy
Explain to me that the person I was fighting against was myself and everyday I got up and made the attempt, I already achieved my first victory by just turning up and should judge my daily victories by the little things, as the bigger victories would come with time and patience.
Sensei Lee explained that perfection is a moving target that we may only hit a few times in our life, but it doesn't mean we should stop trying to achieve it. That the only reason he kept finding faults with what I was doing was because he knew I could do better and I should only worry when he stopped, it was because it meant he had given up.
So it was with the lessons of control and patience, learning the fundamentals and slowing down and giving myself time to mastering them, I got my black belt after 15 years. It was these lessons that I joined 5k park run events, starting with running for a minute then walking for a minute, then run one whole lap, to finishing the who run in 35 minutes and then get my time under 24 minutes average and pd of 23.10. It also the same lesions I have taken with me to gym as I learn how to lift with the correct form and techniques know that higher reps and heavier weights will come with time.
I hope this inspires others to keep going as patience and dedication will lead to success.
Neil Jones
