Reflections 4/22

I woke up with a cold this morning. I feel very groggy right now.

Other than that, well I shall continue with reflections and insight to things. (Not ranked in importance, just written as I remember.)

1. In order to be a good sensei, you  have to be good with children. I am not good with children. I guess I have to learn and live. 
2. It's amazing how many new people you can meet along your journey of martial arts. Along the way, you also meet people that you previously knew, but never knew that they did martial arts. It can be a humbling and enriching experience. It's amazing how many people in the world do martial arts.
3. Every time that you meet and talk to people, it increases your people skills. Same applies to teaching someone about what you know in martial arts.
4. A lot of the younger children will mirror your actions. So, if you make a mistake, they will make a mistake. Or, if you have a bad characteristic/habit, they will emulate you. That forces you to change to become a better role model.
5. Of course, karate (martial arts in general) makes you more sensitive and observant.
6. At some point in your training, the art gives you this attitude or this mindset that makes you seem a bit arrogant or proud. Not quite sure what it is, but it exists in most practitioners.
7. With martial arts, your personality can be curbed in a sense. It becomes more proper and less wild.
8. Martial arts gives you a deeper insight to people's character and habits. It helps you judge character.
9. It sharpens your "sixth sense".
10. Back to the judgement of character, that can help you judge whether or not this master/sensei/sifu/etc. is worthy of training under. I have been to a few dojos in my life and seen the different styles of each teacher. I've had a sifu who sat on a chair all class long and just chewed gum or was eating the whole time. (Isn't there a rule of some sort that we can't eat or drink in the dojo/dojang/hall/etc.?) He'd have his high ranking students teach the class. They were two girls, maybe 14 or 15 years old who were purple belts. In that system, a purple belt is four ranks away from a black belt. So, they weren't suitable for teaching. This man did not know how to teach. He never showed us proper stances or technique. He even threatened us to give him five stars on the survey that we had to fill about how his teaching was. If we didn't ,he would kick us out. This is an example of a McDojo.
11. This isn't a solid statistic, but it generallly goes like this:  Ten people enter the dojo on their first day. By the third class, about seven/eight are left. By the time that the first promotion comes around four or five are left. And the ones that are left that become a black belt? Often one student. Occassionally two. Kind of a sad statistic, but it's what generally happens.