In the beginning, Henderson, Texas had no real Dojang and our Tang Soo Do class was held at the National Guard Armory, the fire station, a bank building, or outside in the public park depending on what was available. Often we would go to one place expecting instruction only to find that class was being held elsewhere. On many occasions we spent more time looking for our Instructor than we did learning from him. But, we did not care because we had a desire to learn, an unquenchable thirst for knowledge.
We finally got a real Dojang, where class was regular and on time in the same place every week. Our Instructor was always there and we never had to go chasing after him. I am sure most of us are just as fortunate today. but you know, I've long since forgotten hundreds of regular classes where I trained hard but remember nothing in particular while I vividly remember those arduous pursuits all over town in quest of instruction in a classroom that always moved.
Those early experiences have made me realize that to fully appreciate what we are being taught by our Instructors we need to keep alive those feelings we had when training was new, mysterious and exciting to us. We should be thirsty always. We must remember that it is not, nor ever was, our Instructor's responsibility to come to us, rather IT IS OUR RESPONSIBILITY TO GO WHERE HE/SHE DECIDES TO TEACH and respectfully request that we be taught whatever we are capable and worthy of learning.
Today's convenient training schedules and easy access to our Instructors may make us take for granted the relationship between student and Instructor, so we must remember to never raise our hand and say "teacher come here, I have a question" rather we should bow respectfully and request our instructor be patient with us because we cannot learn fast enough to stay up and because we have not trained hard enough to already know the answer.
Recently, Grandmaster Hwang Kee and Sa Bom Nim Hwang have shown great generosity to all Tang Soo Do students world-wide by introducing four of the seven Chil Sung Hyungs. They even came to us to teach, we did not even have to go out of our way to learn from them. Don't you agree that such generosity deserves our gratitude and respect? I can only speak for myself, but I look forward to the day when we have trained hard enough on these Hyungs that they feel we are capable and worthy of learning the others.
QUEST FOR THE BEST, NOTHING LESS,
FOLLOW THOSE WHO'VE PRACTICED LONGEST,
GO WHERE THE SPIRIT IS STRONGEST
With this attitude, we may learn as much from the pursuit as from the lesson.
Phil Duncan
Copyright © 2005 - 2006 U.S. Soo Bahk Do Moo Duk Kwan Federation, Inc.
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