One of the many things that can stop someone with a heartfelt desire to study authentic martial arts under a qualified teacher is... ...the teacher or program is nowhere near where they live. I can certainly relate to the distance that one must travel to get the training you want. I, for one, have always made it a point that, if I wanted something of value, I was willing to do whatever it took to get THAT thing. In the early days of my training in the martial art of Ninjutsu, I had to travel great distances, especially during my time with the US Army while stationed in such places as North Carolina and the then West Germany. Many people find it difficult to believe that the closest that I ever found myself to my teacher's school was... 9 HOURS! That was, of course, driving one-way. Now that I'm a tenth degree Black Belt, I do most of my training in Japan (which I am required to do once each year as a minimum). That means that I have to... ...drive 1 to 4 hours to an airport... ...fly (if it's non-stop) for 14 hours to Japan, and then... ...ride trains for about 2 hours or so to get to where I'm staying... ...BEFORE I can begin training. And, where many of my students complain about spending hundreds of dollars on training - I spend THOUSANDS - EACH time I go for training!!! Many of the prospective students who contact me for training are only one or two hour's drive from my academy. I have several other students who drive that, and farther - some as far away as Canada - on a regular basis. One of these students does this an average of once a week to do private training or seminars with me. That's not devotion, and it's not loyalty (he has access to other teachers much closer to him). That is, however; a man who is true to his desire to get what he needs to become the person that he wants to be! As I see it, you have three choices (settling for getting "good-enough" training from a local school notwithstanding)... You can... 1) Continue to wait for "someday"... 2) Watch for, and attend events like Camps, Seminars, perhaps augmenting that with videos, books, articles, and the like, deciding that you will at-least train at this level, or... 3) Do whatever you must to live true to yourself and take control of the only life you have. If you truly want the confidence, power, and control that comes from this art and philosophy that is out there... ... you must get the ball rolling. No one else can do it for you. The choice, as always, is yours. |
