This quarantine is a tough time for martial artists. Gyms and dojos are closed, and if you’re lucky enough to still have classes to attend, they’re virtual. Definitely better than nothing, but a poor substitute for the real thing. Ultimately though, COVID has reinforced a lesson that my sensei has been teaching since I first joined his dojo seven years ago: your karate training is up to you.

This post is the fourth entry in my Karate Life Lessons Series, a collection of posts that examines how lessons learned training in the martial arts translate into other areas of life as well. You can read the previous entry here.

I noticed something while I was training the other day. I realized I can do something that I’m not sure I could do before I began my training. See, I train with a good group of people in my dojo, and I like to have fun and laugh a bit while I train.

But the dojo’s a place of training first, and socializing takes second stage to that goal. What I found interesting though, is that I could go from laughing one moment, to completely serious and full intensity the next, and then back again, like flipping a switch.

Great. Who cares? (more…)