Progress at your own pace and don't compare your level of ability to anyone in class or at the school. Compare yourself currently to yourself previously. Martial art training is not an occasional pastime as many believe. Once you have discovered what the arts really have to offer, it is a lifelong learning and growing experience. Rest assured no one will ever grow in the arts in a linear fashion, so don't get discouraged when you feel that you're not making progress in your training as quickly as you would like .
Martial art training is a continuous series of plateaus and you are constantly learning and developing as a martial artist / warrior. With perseverance and patience, you will acquire power and accuracy that you could only dream of when you began your training. I have often seen that it is not the most talented student that makes it to Black Belt but the student that sticks with it, slow and sure, that eventually acquires their goal.
I often tell the members of my staff not to focus on comparing levels of skill but instead focus on obtaining hours on the mat. Seek to put in more intelligent training time/training hours each week than everyone else. I call this training time “magic dust” and the more you can gather up, the better you will be.
As always thank you for your support! Train Hard and Finish Strong!
