To Know Yourself - - Chief Instructor's Blog December 2010

Martial artists and warriors throughout the centuries have emphasized the importance of knowing yourself.

Sun Tzu, a Chinese military strategist from the 6th BC noted in his book the Art of War [1], “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.“

In Gichin Funakoshi’s, The Twenty Guiding Principles of Karate [2], his fourth principle is “First know yourself, then know others”.

Mr. Kim, our Master and founder of our club, also emphasized this principle. When asked why we study martial arts, Mr. Kim would simply say, “To better ourselves”. A part of bettering ourselves is to know ourselves.

So one may ask why it is so important to know yourself and how does studying martial arts help one to do this?

Why Know Yourself?
From a self-defense perspective, it is critical you know your physical and mental strengths and weaknesses. This way you can fight to your strengths and avoid your weaknesses, as much as possible. If you know yourself, you know what your hot buttons are and how to avoid them or how to handle the situations where your hot buttons or triggers are pushed; whether it is in self-defense or in every day interactions with family, friends, colleagues, etc. Without knowing this, you leave yourself vulnerable.

How Can Martial Arts Help?
This brings us to how can studying martial arts can help you to know yourself. What I like to say is martial arts help us to discover what we are truly capable of physically, mentally, and emotionally.

How many of you can remember saying, I will never be able to do that – when learning a new technique or form (hyung). I recently taught Pyung Ahn 2 to a Green Belt. He said the night I introduced it, he was not sure he would ever learn it. A week later he could go through all the moves and knew them all without prompting. He discovered he was very capable of learning new concepts and physical techniques. He discovered in himself how much he was capable of learning.

When many students are first presented with breaking a board, they discover how much strength and power they are capable of. All of us (or almost all of us) have had similar experiences throughout our study of martial arts. We have learned that we are capable of doing something (like learning a new hyung or board breaking) that, at first, we did not think was possible.

You may also discover in yourself how much patience you are capable of as you struggle to learn a new technique, hyung, concept, etc. You discover more and more what motivates you, and what frustrates you as you are learning new concepts or trying to reach a new rank. You discover how much balance you can have, and how much force you can throw. You discover about yourself how much flexibility you have in mind and body. You discover some of your limitations and learn how to move past them, or compensate for them.

You discover and learn how your attitude affects your physical capability. You learn what events or how your attitude affects your ability to ground. And as you continue to study martial arts you learn other concepts like projecting energy that unlocks other capabilities within yourself. And as you continue to discover more about your capabilities, you realize how strong emotionally, mentally, and physically you truly can be.

I, personally, through the study of martial arts have discovered within myself an immense amount and have grown and continue to grow through discovering who am I and what I am capable of.

I encourage all of you to step back and recount through your martial arts studies what you have discovered about yourself. I also encourage you to continue your studies as you continue to learn “To Know Yourself”.


Regards,
Kelly

"If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle." ~ Sun Tzu (6th Century BC), Chinese General, military strategist, and author of The Art of War

References

1. The Art of War by Sun Tzu
2. The Twenty Guiding Principles of Karate: The Spiritual Legacy of the Master by Gichin Funakoshi