By Luke Buchanan
Tai Shi Kai Karate has become an essential element to my life. It has become a strong foundation that influences every other part of my existence. 11 years ago at my beginning of my training, the true inspiration and passion of Karate was not always flowing through my. Although it was great participating in the art, I only allowed myself to have a lot of fun without understanding the true Karate Spirit. However, that is before I invested myself into the art and allowed my to unlock the key to gain a greater understand and knowledge of the practice. The most important areas of my life that karate has become a part of are fitness, confidence, self-discipline and adapting Karate to other aspects of my life. It has influenced these areas dramatically and I am glad to have had the opportunity for this to happen.
Fitness was always important to myself, however the definition has changed over time. Ignorantly I believed that it was always constant that required the occasional maintenance. That was however til I lost it. As a child and growing up I obtained a high level of fitness, however this decreased when I hit my teenage years. When I realised this, it sent me searching for an answer to why. It was through Tai Shi Kai that I found the answer that I was looking for. Tai Shi Kai simply means a group of students aspiring to do there best. It is this attitude that I invested myself into and my goal became to achieve better than that the last attempt. This is how I came to realise improvement can always be achieved. However, through this process I reached a stage during the “Karate run” where the improvement of my time seemed unreachable where I could not break 17:10 for my 3.2km. By always focusing beyond the time I held, I was able to lower this time gradually to 14.55. Also during my Shodan training, a requirement is to step up the run to 6.5km and after hearing that it is possible to complete it without stopping at any point, this became my new objective to achieve. By focusing on doing my best each week, I managed to complete this as well as improving my time 7 times within 12 runs. It is possible to reach what was once thought to be unreachable, you just have to open your mind to new possibilities and you will never be unsatisfied with your efforts, no matter what you apply yourself to. It is through this belief that Karate has become and will always be a very important part of my life.
Confidence has not been a strong point of my personality in the past and still wouldn’t be without Tai Shi Kai being part of my life. Confidence is needed in the dojo to perform techniques and exercises, from kata to simply reading the club motto out at the end of the class. This was a daunting process that I greatly feared. Karate teaches a student to always face what they fear and to overcome this at all cost. With the attitude that a person must “Never Give In,” this practice and exploration of confidence can be applied to other aspects of a person’s life. It is by being confident that allows myself to perform tasks to the best of my ability. Experiences have happened in my life already where the confidence obtained during my training, was needed to accomplish certain tasks. Without Tai Shi Kai being part of my life, the level of confidence I have now reached would not have been obtained. It is with this self-assurance that Karate has become a very important part of my life.
To achieve a goal in life, a person must be able to focus on the matter at hand and be ready to take on the challenge to achieve it. The key ingredient to achieving a goal is self-discipline. This also applies to Karate where a student must find a level of commitment and focus in order to reap the benefits of all that can be obtained from studying the art. For myself it has been Karate’s teachings that have been vital in all other areas in my life. To reach a goal or ambition throughout my life, Karate has enabled myself to know that whatever I wish to achieve, through hard work, determination and discipline, I will be able to achieve them. This is why Tai Shi Kai Karate has become an extremely important part of the successes within my life.
Adapting Karate to other aspects of my life has been an eye opening experience. By learning a simple aspect contained within the dojo, a second revision reveals that it can be adapted. The Tai Shi Kai Three Rules Of Self Defence is a great example of this. With the rules of 1-Don’t Be There, 2-Don’t Show You Can Fight, and 3-Don’t Let Anyone Touch You, they can be transformed into 1-Always Be Moving In The Right Direction, 2-Don’t Always Be Confrontational and 3- People Can Only Hurt You If You Let Them. It is this simple method that makes you look at all aspects of your life and realise that there are no boundaries between wisdom. By always remaining willing to investigating the teachings of Karate, this process ensures that Karate become essential in your life and why Karate is a very important part of mine.
Although fitness, confidence, self-discipline and adapting Karate to other aspects of my life are only a few of the ways Tai Shi Kai Karate has been influential, it is clearly evident how important the teachings of Karate is in a persons life. The one important thing I have learnt about Tai Shi Kai Karate is that it doesn’t become a very important part of your life. Over time Karate becomes your life and it is something that I wouldn’t have any other way.