{"id":318,"date":"2015-10-09T20:32:05","date_gmt":"2015-10-10T00:32:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mainetraditionalkarate.com.stem.arvixe.com\/blog\/?p=26"},"modified":"2018-10-02T15:06:48","modified_gmt":"2018-10-02T19:06:48","slug":"a-double-doggie-dare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mainetraditionalkarate.com\/?p=318","title":{"rendered":"A Double Doggie Dare – Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"doubledog2\"<\/a>I had to open my mouth.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t help myself.\u00a0 I should know better.\u00a0 \u201cStick fighting, Sensei,\u201d I responded when our Sensei asked for ideas that his teacher could discuss when he came for his annual visit.\u00a0 Our Sensei\u2019s teacher is 8th Degree Black Belt and co-director of the United States Branch of the Okinawa Shorin-Ryu Matsumura Seito Karate and Kobudo Federation, Hanshi John Shipes.\u00a0 Hanshi Shipes also happens to be an expert in the non-traditional martial art of Kali, which includes knife and stick fighting.<\/p>\n

As a new Brown Belt in our system, I am now allowed to attend certain advanced training seminars that get offered. \u00a0Hanshi Shipes provided such a seminar last Friday night.\u00a0 I had come home sick from work and slept most of the afternoon, but I was not going to miss the once a year opportunity.\u00a0 Hanshi Shipes taught a basic stick fighting exercise and then we practiced with our partner.\u00a0 I paired up with my son, now a 2nd degree black belt, and we went to work. \u00a0Well \u2026 work may not be quite the right term.\u00a0 My son did great \u2013 he picks things up pretty easily.\u00a0 I, on the other hand, would now be in the unemployment line if what I was attempting to do was work.\u00a0 At one point, I finished an attempt and thought \u201cugh, it can\u2019t get much worse than that.\u201d<\/p>\n

As comedian George Carlin once said, \u201cyou should never challenge worse.\u00a0 Never say, it can\u2019t POSSIBLY get worse.\u201d\u00a0 It almost always can.\u00a0 It did.\u00a0 I turned around to find myself face-to-face with the highest ranking US karateka in our federation.\u00a0 \u201cHow\u2019s it going over here,\u201d Hanshi Shipes inquired.\u00a0 \u201cAhem \u2026 having a little trouble, Hanshi\u201d \u2013 a massive understatement.\u00a0 Despite his rank, Hanshi did what any good teacher does, he invited me to try the technique once or twice \u2026 or several dozen \u2026 times with him.\u00a0 How did it go?\u00a0 Let me put it this way.\u00a0 If it had been possible to have a level of technique more basic than basic, I would have failed miserably on that one too.\u00a0 \u201cBut Shawn,\u201d you say, \u201cyou weren\u2019t feeling well\u201d \u2026 Thanks for trying to throw me a bone, but, nope, my dismal performance had nothing to do with illness.<\/p>\n

Part of the issue for me involves my learning style for new physical techniques.\u00a0 It\u2019s kind of like when you get behind someone on the highway who is not only driving slowly, but is driving so slow that if they went any slower they would be going backwards.\u00a0 Seemingly oblivious to your growing desire to offer greetings via the social finger or offer multiple four letter words of encouragement for them to go faster, the driver putts along at his or her own pace. \u00a0I am the slow driver.\u00a0 I\u2019ll get there eventually, but I need the time along the way to think about things very intensely before I will even come close to getting it right.<\/p>\n

Despite knowing this about myself, I still felt\u00a0frustration when not performing up to my own expectations or my perceived expectations of others.\u00a0 Self-doubt crept\u00a0in.\u00a0 I enviously watched the 10 year olds who could\u00a0perform the technique almost flawlessly the first go round.\u00a0 I began\u00a0to wonder if I deserve to be wearing the belt around my waist.\u00a0 I began to drown in a well of self-pity \u2026 Okay, it didn\u2019t get quite that bad, but the other feelings were definitely there last Friday night.<\/p>\n

\u2026 That\u2019s it.<\/p>\n

What do you mean that\u2019s it?!\u00a0 That\u2019s depressing.\u00a0 Why did I just waste 5\u00a0minutes of my life reading\u00a0this trash?!<\/p>\n

Fine.\u00a0 It\u2019s not quite it.\u00a0 I challenge everyone who has read this far to think about how or why you continue with martial arts (or any endeavor for that matter) if you have had a particularly bad night, week, month, or year in or outside the dojo. How do you cope? \u00a0What do you do? \u00a0How do you feel? \u00a0I dare you to then take a risk and share your story in the comments below.\u00a0 In fact, I double doggie dare you!\u00a0 You never know when you may offer a strategy that will be helpful to others.\u00a0 Put a false name if you wish. \u00a0Change all names to protect the innocent and not so innocent. \u00a0I do not share or use your e-mail other than to respond if requested. \u00a0 I have, however, double doggie dared you. \u00a0As all true karateka know –\u00a0\u00a0you are morally, spiritually, and possibly legally bound to do a double dog dare. Deny it, and you screw up your karma for a month. \u00a0(I read this on the internet so it must be true.)<\/p>\n

As for me, I plan to answer this call to action in part 2 of this blog.\u00a0 Here\u2019s a hint: it has to do with petrology. (let the googling begin).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had to open my mouth.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t help myself.\u00a0 I should know better.\u00a0 \u201cStick fighting, Sensei,\u201d I responded when our Sensei asked for ideas that his teacher could discuss when he came for his annual visit.\u00a0 Our Sensei\u2019s teacher is 8th Degree Black Belt and co-director of the United States Branch of the Okinawa … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “A Double Doggie Dare – Part 1”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-shawn-roberts"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainetraditionalkarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainetraditionalkarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainetraditionalkarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainetraditionalkarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainetraditionalkarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=318"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mainetraditionalkarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":463,"href":"https:\/\/mainetraditionalkarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318\/revisions\/463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainetraditionalkarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainetraditionalkarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainetraditionalkarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}