Be The Ball

Cherry Bolognese is the Sensei at our club here in Sechelt. Both she, and her husband Armando have said that they have dreamed of filling that role.

It’s great they get the chance.

I never sought such a role, but had it land on me several times. It is pleasant enough, once one gets used to it.

I enjoyed Cherry taking over out club a couple of months ago. My job is now working on my own Karate, not everybody else’s. Not that I ignore my friends, but I limit my help to the odd pointer. I help individuals more when they ask me, but they only rarely do so.

It’s hard to keep my mouth shut when I see something generally out of whack. I think I’m getting better at it with time. Not my role. Not my job. It all works itself out eventually anyhow.

An example is something that Cherry came up with lately. The club generally had awful roundhouse kicks. They just weren’t getting it. I noticed, but it’s not my role. Not my job. Were they all doomed to ineffective kicking forever?

Not at all. Cherry had the class do a roundhouse kick drill with partners repeatedly for about half an hour. Not a grinding, tiring drill, but one where it was impossible to do the kick wrong. After that much correct kicking everybody really, really understood. Did I need to worry about their roundhouse kicks? Nope. Not my role. Not my job.

Could I have fixed them faster? Nope. It was cool to be part of, and it sure didn’t hurt my kicks any either.

Karate doesn’t have “be the ball”, but we do have “be the punch”.

That’s what I do. I am my punch. My own punch.

Not yours.