Attitude

There's a lot I can write about attitude in martial arts, but it's 2 am, so I'm going to keep this very focused.

One thing I do at the end of every class is have the students do the technique they learned in the air. I give them 3 or so chances to make it as good as they can. This has really helped, I think. In any case, nearly every time I do this, I tell them that they need to impress themself.

It might go something like this:
"Don't worry about me, don't worry about your neighbor. You know how hard you've been working, how well you are doing. You also know how much better you can do, what your potential is. Well, your real potential is even better than what you think it is. Now, I want you to give it your all. I want you to impress yourself. Later on, you can impress me. Right now, impress yourself. Do better than you thought possible. Go!"

Then, at the beginning of the test, I tell them that now is the time when they have to impress me. I remind them that they have more potential than they realize, and that they still need to impress themselves. But today is the day to impress me.

Peace,
SGB