Six (6) TYPES OF MARTIAL ART STUDENTS,

Which category are we?

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Let's discuss the kind of students you see in a martial arts school. Many are good, solid, dedicated students, but the following are a variety that we encounter on a regular basis. Most don't fall exactly in one category; it's not that simple. This is a HUGE generalization, but hopefully, you see my point. I use the male gender, but of course this can also be applied to females.

    1: FISHER:   One of the most common is the Fisher. They fish for what they want, but they don’t know what it is. They take a little judo, a little karate, a little this, a little that. Perhaps they’ve taken 7 arts and have dropped them all. This is not cross training. This is fishing. They’ve most likely wasted a lot of time. The Fisher doesn't know what he wants, but whatever it is, it always seems to be just over the horizon. Fishers don't want to commit to anything, because that requires effort, or, they're looking for magic, or that system just over the rainbow.

    2: BALL OF FIRE:   Then there's The Ball of Fire. They come in, they're excited. They love everything about their new school. They buy uniforms, patches, memberships, everything right away. They want to eventually teach. Maybe even open their own school. They stick around after class to train even more. They work hard, and they're often very good. They show up at all the classes, jet through the first couple of belts, then, for one reason or another, they begin to look bored, miss classes, fail to listen to instruction, keep making the same mistakes, and eventually quit. They've burned out. They've done it to themselves. They don't have the patience, the endurance, the pacing, required to stick with anything and really learn it. These students often have true ability and intelligence. They could be good, if they just stuck with it.

    3. DRIFTER:   Then there's the Drifter. After some training, they become content to settle at one level and drift. They never make it over the next plateau. They make the same mistakes, no matter how many times the instructor corrects them. “Show more power,” the instructor tells them, and they nod, but then they never excel. They don’t want to make the effort to change. Perhaps, deep down, they believe their way is better. The Drifter will float at this level for a long time. They stay in their comfort zone, sometimes for years, but never get better.

    4: KNOW-IT-ALL:   The Know-It-All knows it all. They train for a little while, then find fault with the style, the system, the instructor, the teaching methods, the rules. They know better, in fact, they know it all! They voice their opinion to any student who will listen. Left untreated, the Know-It-All can do serious damage to a dojo and spread negativity like wild fire.  He is also known as The Complainer, the Know-It-All is never satisfied and will bring down any student he or she can.

    5: COMPETITOR:   The Competitor is the student who measures himself against others. If you always and only compare yourself to others, eventually, it will poison you. Sure, one way to learn and measure is to look to others, but understand that everyone has strengths and weaknesses, and yours are not theirs. The competitor is in constant competition with others, but never in competition with the most important person of all — themselves.

    6: TOUGH GUY:  The Tough Guy; wants to come in and show how tough he is. He doesn’t need to learn any techniques, and he doesn’t need any training. Sometimes they are natural fighters; you can see it in their sparring. But it never occurs to them that they'd be four times better with technique. It's always easier to quit than to continue. It doesn't take much to break the habit of training, because training requires effort. Showing up is more than 50%, talent is about 10%, and hard work makes up the rest.

    7: Category:  "good, solid, dedicated students"

Article by: Joe R. Lansdale, revised & edited by Amy L. Benevento