White Belt Mentality

Last night I had the pleasure of attending a Krav Maga class as a student. It was the first time in a while. Ordinarily I'm either teaching Krav Maga or I'm training with one or two other people in Krav Maga or various other combatives systems. Ocassionally though, I get the opportunity just to attend a public group class. It was the class of one of my instructors here at Krav Maga Nottingham, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Not only do I feel very lucky to have two other extremely talented instructors working with me, but I just enjoyed being a student again. I didn't know many of the people in the group so it was like stepping through the front door of a club for the first time again and having to adapt to what I saw before me.

From an instructor's perspective it's good to be reminded how difficult that step is for students. Often the most difficult thing to do is to walk through the door. Many people get defeated before they even turn up. Nerves get the better of them, and they rationalise it post hoc as not being for them, not what they wanted or what they're about.

From a personal perspective however I got to train as a beginner again, to do what the beginners do. T be a white belt. This is so important. Many people see being an instructor as the holy grail. Once you're there, you've "made it." That couldn't be further from the truth. Often being an instructor is a distraction from what brings us to training - the training itself. Most instructors don't train as much as when they were students themselves. Many also see it as the end in terms of learning. It's not. You have to grow. As an instructor or long-term student, you can't sit back on your acquired knowledge; you have to push on. It's why I've studied so mant martial arts. The need to go back to the beginning. Not only to learn what others are doing - which is vital as an instructor (we need to study what is useful and what we might face in an adversary) - but to challenge ourselves to be better, and to remind ourselves that we don't know everything and that there's always someone who either knows more or knows different.

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