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By Shihan Mike Bush
Transcript
When you are looking to train in the martial arts, people are going to tell you to try this or that style, this one is the best or this one is the best. There’s no such thing. The only best system is the one that works for you. So, do your research, find out what you want to get out of it, and then use that. Do some research on different schools and systems, and then go and try to meet an instructor.
Then, when you meet an instructor, you find your school, go in and talk to the instructor. They should always make you feel welcome. If they won’t let you do an introductory class or if they won’t let you watch a class, walk away. If they make you feel stupid for ever asking a question, walk away. That’s not an instructor you want to be with. You want your instructor to make you feel welcome.
Ok, third thing: you found your system, found your style that you want to study. You found a great instructor in a good school. You’re gonna walk on the mat. When you walk onto the mat as a white belt, you’re going to see a lot of different ranks; people that have been doing it a lot longer than you. You’re gonna see yellow belts, purple belts, green belts, brown belts, black belts, and you’ll see some masters as well. Don’t be intimidated by that. Everybody in that room at one time or another came into the dojo as a white belt; they wouldn’t be where they are now if they didn’t.
And, in my 30-plus years of doing this, the one thing that I have found is that any martial artist, whether it be a beginner, intermediate, advanced, master, will learn from anybody they train with. So, a master is going to learn from you just as much as you’re going to learn from them.
So, those are the best things to look out for when you’re starting out.