A True Martial Artist
Aikido Commitment to the art and dedication
To achieve anything in this life you must have a combination of these things
Luck
Training
Dedication and Commitment
Obviously nothing can be done about luck. Doors will open for some and not for others. Some people have a high degree of “natural” talent.
Training has to be done with 100% effort to achieve maximum benefits.
Dedication, however is a grey area, it needs a certain frame of mind.cirtain requirements need to be established in life otherwise it grinds to a halt.
These include earning a living and looking after your family,(Family being top of the list),harmony is one of the central aspects of Aikido. What could be more in harmony with the world that to continue the species. Many people have children to look after (as I did) and many people work shifts (as I did) On a short time basis exams have to be done or overtime has to be taken when offer or “forced” or there is illness which I have also suffered.
What I am getting at is that all these factors can affect “real life” and consequently training is adversely affected.
This suggests that not everything can be secondary to training in Aikido For some people these important commitments to life mean that they are not able to train 100% when they do For these people , perhaps training once a month requires more dedication than those who have fewer commitments.
Those who lack dedication to Aikido are usually easy to spot. these are the people who miss training sessions because they feel “Not quite right” or they would rather do something else instead, like stop in or go to the pub, or “this is my favourite there’s a big match on”
How can they complain to others that lack of training due to family/work commitments indicate lack of dedication.
I know of many people in Aikido that train in the face of adversity, but also of many (especially High grades) who obviously lack the required dedication to call themselves a true Aikidoka |
