We are told that Martial Arts improves discipline, confidence, resilience, focus, control etc… but is this true? And if it is, how does it achieve this? For me it was definitely true, and I’d like to tell you how it happened. I’ve been training in the Martial Arts for almost 30 years. When I first started training, it was because I wanted to be a Ninja Turtle. But as I continued training, something happened, my mindset changed. It didn’t happen during the first 12 months, or even 2 years of training. During this early time my motivation was simple. I wanted to be able to do cool kicks and move like Bruce Lee and Jean Claude Van-Damme (Movie stars of my time). But the longer I trained, the more my motivation began to shift. My understanding of myself and the Martial Arts became deeper and more fulfilling. The only thing I can compare it to is like a life long friendship or relationship. If you are lucky enough to have a close, long term friend or partner, something initially draws you towards each other, and as time goes on, you learn more about each other, and you both grow and develop a deeper appreciation and understanding of each other. Your connection goes beyond your initial attraction and becomes something much stronger. The Martial Arts was like no other sport I had ever played. I had competed at a high level in Junior football and swimming. But gave it all up for karate and the martial arts. As I trained and progressed, And taught my body new skills, I became obsessed with pushing myself to develop strength, speed, endurance, knowledge and to basically be the best version of myself. And initially, that simply meant the best Martial Artist I could be… As I continued training my desire to be my best in karate spread to other aspects of my life. I went from not wanting to attend university, to graduating with honours, topping my class in subjects such as anatomy, physiology, biomechanics, advanced biomechanics and motor learning. Scoring near perfect marks in all subjects. I desired to simply be the best person I could be. Both in the dojo and in the “real” world. I competed in State, National and World Titles in karate with success. I travelled the world competing and training for many years. But still, the real benefit from my training was in the development of my character. It has been the discipline and consistency of my training that has had the biggest impact on my life. When inevitably, tough times occurred in my personal life. The one constant I had, was my training. When everything else was falling apart, I stayed consistent. And the mindset that I had developed from that training made me realise very important lessons. There were many times when I simply wanted to quit. Every year I would go through stages where I just wanted to walk away. But those times would pass. And it was my commitment and dedication to improvement that got me through those times. And always, I would come out the other side more motivated and more resilient than ever before.