Respect

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Good afternoon, my fellow Americans and martial arts listeners throughout the world. Welcome to another edition of martialartsbusinessmagazine.com. This is Dr. Ric Black.

Today I want to talk to you about something near and dear to my heart—respect. I’m going to talk about respect in the martial arts. One of the things that I, as a martial arts instructor, really strive to do is teach my students respect for themselves, respect for their fellow martial artist, respect for their instructors. As you will notice I don’t use the term ‘sensei’, or ‘shifu’ because it is not wanted to specify one delineation or country practice in the martial arts.

Respect is very inherent. As an instructor, when you are first teaching your students, one of the things that you do is you teach them courtesy which is respect, by lining up in a group. Seniors in the front row, beginners in the back row, its just what it is. It is a hierarchy that has been handed down very much like military by expected. Most of the martial arts did come from any ways. Martial, fighting arts, and military arts. One of the first levels of respect taught in the martial arts school is about baling. Paying respect for your kind. Something that is irreplaceable. It is a tongue. It is not something that you can give in library and many martial arts instructors fail to remember that the students are their clients first. That they are paying money to be taught and this must be respected also, so that they are given something for the money that they spend.

Learning is teaching students how to bow and explain it to them as one of the most difficult things that you can do, because American kind of go, ‘Yeah, I don’t really like it so much. I’m uncomfortable with it’ but they are balanced. Not “I’m your master”, a lot of martial artists tap that in their head, “I’m your master”. You are a teacher, it is like a school teacher, you are conveying your knowledge to these people by the student bowing to you, it is an acknowledgment, a sign of respect. And by you bowing to your students, in in-turn conveying a sign of respect that you are there and you are going to share with them your knowledge.  It is also something that is inherited in sparring. One of the things that you try to tell your students especially your higher rank students sparring at lower rank students is take it easy. This is not for necessary prepare of injury that you want to keep these students into school and you want them to learn and you want them to progress and you want them to like what they do so that they stay with you for years. Because that is how long it takes to learn what you are teaching-years. This is done through, again, through respect. Teaching the students to be diligent and gentle into practice of the martial arts that you are teaching especially in sparring so no one gets hurt.

I think that one of the things that my grandfather passed on to me when I was a boy was the idea about respect. Respect for one’s parents, respect for one’s country, respect for one’s beliefs, respect for the philosophy that is being conveyed to you through your martial arts practice, through your school, through your friends and this all has to do with respect and most certainly respect for yourself.

I want to thank you for your time. I hope this gave you a little bit of insight to some of the things that I have been taught. Thank you for your time and we welcome you back to another edition in martialartsbusinessmagazine.com in the future. Good day!