Maybe like Captain Willard, I was looking for a mission, and for my sins they brought me one. Only the messenger in this case was a friend and the particular sin was a failure to commit.<\/p>\n
Ah, a lack of commitment. For the past few years, I’ve bounced around in the study of martial arts, training with different instructors, in both group and private settings. I attended classes with zero thought for either the journey of self-discovery or earning belts or badges. If I learned something new, that was a sufficient milestone–even if I was the only one who recognized the progression.<\/p>\n
One night, something remarkable happened. During an in-class demonstration, a rather frail looking older gentleman knocked a man half his age and twice his weight more than six feet from the point of impact with a strike that appeared to require no more effort than a waiter dropping a bill on a table. After realizing what happened, I took away three things from that night.<\/p>\n
First, size did not dictate the amount of energy a person could channel in the right circumstance. This Grand Master was 130 pounds dripping wet and on the short side. Second, certain skills defied a conventional explanation and therefore later people might doubt what happened, even those people who witnessed it. Unlike a boxer or MMA fighter, this martial artist barely moved, yet caused a tremendous reaction in his target. Last, I wondered if I would ever have the chance to learn to focus energy with such precision.<\/p>\n
Last week the chance appeared. And like Willard, the mission came up to me like room service. Of course I agreed.<\/p>\n
When the universe offers a chance to learn from Yoda, the only answer is yes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Maybe like Captain Willard, I was looking for a mission, and for my sins they brought me one. Only the messenger in this case was a friend and the particular sin was a failure to commit. Ah, a lack of commitment. For the past few years, I’ve bounced around in the study of martial arts, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-introspection"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.samhilliard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.samhilliard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.samhilliard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.samhilliard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.samhilliard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12688"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/www.samhilliard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12688\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12690,"href":"http:\/\/www.samhilliard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12688\/revisions\/12690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.samhilliard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.samhilliard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.samhilliard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}