Community Concepts (June 2024)

Community Concepts (June 2024)

06/01/2024

Dojo Philosophy for Everyday Life

Often people are drawn to Unity to learn martial arts because they want to foster discipline, control, respect, or are seeking the ability to defend themselves. The catch is that all of these things take a considerable investment in time, transformation, and challenge. The secret sauce that helps people bridge the wide gap is in fostering a sense of community, respect, and unity among students. One of the teaching philosophies focuses on five things to avoid in order to create an environment where every student feels valued, respected, and empowered.

The Five Negatives in Teaching
1. Don’t Ridicule Any Student
2. Don’t Make Discriminatory Remarks
3. Don’t Push Students Excessively
4. Don’t Show Favoritism
5. Don’t Lose Your Composure

While the third negative refers back to the ultra-high intensity of the early days of training in Cuong Nhu which lead to many cases of injury and burnout, and the fifth negative states one of the core principles in leadership, the other three all round out a philosophy of inclusion. At Unity, we believe in uplifting and encouraging every student, regardless of their skill level, background, or status. Ridicule has no place in our dojo; instead, we focus on building each student’s confidence and self-esteem by making them part of a greater whole.

At its core, ridicule is about isolating an individual. This training is hard, and the best chance at success comes from feeling like part of a community bent towards positive growth. When someone is acting against those goals, there’s no hope for success by pushing them farther. If I point at a student and say “look how they’re messing up,” they are driven farther and farther from help. Instead we mold, encourage, and set them up to accentuate some aspect where they can stand out. Then we make a point of saying to the whole class, “do you see how well they did?” Now they want to chase that feeling and excel more, and the rest of the group can visualize their worth!

Discrimination is like taking the concept of ridicule and spreading it over any category of humanity. This can only break a community down and transform its core goals into the pursuit of a discriminatory identity instead of the pursuit of growth. Lastly, favoritism is just ridicule in reverse. Calling someone out repeatedly as the best isolates them and  erodes the community just as much as ridicule does. Instead, we make opportunities for the students to appreciate each other’s accomplishments and the way individuals have stood out to them in class. When the achievements of the hardest working students are called out by their peers, it has a far greater impact on the desire to excel in the rest of the class than for the teacher to lift up a star pupil.

At Unity, we see martial arts as more than just physical training. We strive to create an environment where students are becoming not just a skilled martial artist, but a confident, respectful, and compassionate individual that is part of a powerful and uplifting community.