Dear Students, Teachers and Parents,

For those of you coming to the main dojo this week, please drive
careful as the City of Colorado Springs is laying a pipe line through
our property and they will have the pavement dug up on the east side
of the building. This trench may be 6-8 feet deep and we don't want
any of our kids falling in, or their parents trying to park below
ground.

Next Saturday we are having Paintball wars between the schools and
clubs. If you are interested in playing, please see Sensei Scott
Richardson. We are also performing for the Chinese New Years
celebration on Sunday at the City Auditorium. Master Gu Ping and a
few of our students will be demonstrating Tai Chi and Kung Fu.
Tickets are available at the main school if you want to attend and
support this event. Please see Mary if you are interested.

Lesson of the Week


Attitude Determines Success


Most martial arts instructors recognize that when a student trains in
a classical martial art many positive benefits are experienced
including improved grades, higher self-esteem, an increase in self-
confidence and a more positive attitude on life in general. Up until
now, many people have not understood how this occurs; only that it
does.

A lot of study has gone into sport psychology in the last few years
in an effort to determine how obtain peak performance from our
athletes. The great thing about the knowledge acquired from these
studies, is that it can have a tremendous impact on each of our lives
as we try and become more successful in our personal goals. What is
truly remarkable is that every time they come up with a new idea, it
can be linked to what has been taught in the martial arts for over
1000 years.

One modern way of looking at human performance is outlined in the
following formula:
IA + AA x A = IHP
IA stands for inborn attributes and AA stands for acquired
attributes, while A stands for attitude and IHP stands for individual
human performance. From this formula we can see that while inborn
attributes and acquired attributes are important, it is the attitude
of the person that has the most overall impact. This means that an
average person with average abilities can be very successful if they
possess the right attitude.

Attitude is sometimes defined as how one reacts when things go wrong
or how one reacts to adversity. While the person with a negative
attitude always sees the bad in a situation and the final outcome as
being negative, the person with high self-esteem and perceived
abilities has a positive outlook on the situation and the final
outcome.

In the martial arts, strategy and tactics of how to overcome
adversity is a daily activity. Within a short time, losing or
experiencing defeat is no longer tolerated in the students mind, only
which technique is best suited to respond to a specific attack.
Constant repetition of successful defenses against a variety of
situations creates the belief of being able to handle adversity. This
belief increases self-confidence, which in turn, actually increases
the ability to respond to adversity. When faced with a crisis, the
warrior sees many options from which to respond with confidence,
while the civilian many times freezes, focusing instead on the
negative situation at the time.

I once heard that having a college degree doesn't mean that you know
everything, only that you now know where to find the answers. I think
the same can be said about black belt excellence. Earning a black
belt may not mean that you can defeat all opponents all the time,
only that you understand the proper attitude necessary for victory in
any particular situation.

Respectfully,

Terry Bryan