My father, Raymond Eugene Bourelle, or “Gene” to his friends, and “Yes Sir, Father, Sir!” as my brothers and I were forced to call him…I’m joking, of course, only one “sir” was needed. Anyway, he grew up, along with his older sister and younger brother, helping his parents run the family farm on the eastern side of Nebraska. After high school, my father decided he wanted a college education and to get away from the farm and learn to become a mechanic. He went to college in Kansas City, Kansas, which was about a 5 hour drive from the farm at the time. He went to school full time. He picked up a job that he worked when not in class during the week in order to pay for college. Then…he drove that 5 hours back to his family’s farm every Friday evening to help on the farm all weekend before driving the 5 hours back late Sunday evening to be back in class Monday morning. He did that every week until he got his degree in auto mechanics, which got him his first career related job with Chrysler, which then lead him to teaching automotives at the college in the town I grew up in, which lead him to becoming the Dean of Heavy Construction at that same college before retiring at the age of 65…in which he then began work as a claims adjuster, climbing ladders to walk around on roofs part time and constantly remodeling his house (my childhood home) with his own hands on the weekends (in between golfing and fishing trips – deservedly). Clearly, “Lacking Effort” is not something that has ever referenced my father. He half-assed nothing in life. He had a clear vision and goal of what he wanted to obtain, and placed all of his efforts into obtaining that goal.

I’ve participated in all the major sports as a child. I grew up in a very athletic family so it was normal to be playing some sort of sport or athletic activity all year around. I loved playing, but wanted so badly to not only be the best but to win first place in everything I participated in. Unfortunately, I have the world’s largest collection of second place trophies… Winning first place was exceedingly rare for me…and usually involved winning by forfeit by the other team. I had competed in martial arts for years and this too, left me with an unnerving number of second and third place trophies. Then one year, I stopped virtually everything and focused solely on martial arts. I sparred fellow students for an extra hour or two after class, practice constantly at home, and even used my stretching machine every day to get close to being able to do the splits, which allowed me to easily kick to the opponent’s head (who was almost always taller than I). I also spent more time in the gym, stopped drinking soda and cleaned up my nutrition and pre-tournament breakfast. Who knew pop tarts and soda weren’t the breakfast of champions? I began recording my competitions and reviewing them for ways to improve. That year I began taking home 1st Place trophies on a regular basis. This was my first realization that my natural talent, but half-assed effort in training, wasn’t going to cut it. I had to learn that there’s always someone out there that has the same talent, but more drive and effort that will always beat me. So my effort had to change.

I recall, years ago, going to the grocery store and asking the stock boy where an item is and them being able to tell you exactly where it’s located, specials going on, and the difference between two different brands or styles of an item. Try that today and the stock boy or girl, most likely, won’t even take the time to look at you to tell you that they don’t know, or maybe it’s “over yonder” or that it’s not their job.

I hate to sound like the old guy complaining that things were better in my day…but it seems like we’ve lost the pride and effort in our work and are bombarded with so many other things pulling our attention away. It’s tough to blame anyone though as there has been a pretty major shift in our lives over the years. There seems to be no such thing as a stable job or career anymore, which leads us to studying backup skills and not placing all of our focus on any one thing. The recession in 2008 made that very clear. Nearly everyone I know have either multiple jobs or one major job with a side hustle or two…or five. It’s all but needed these days with all the uncertainty. Sadly, because of this, it seems so few place all of their pride and effort into their professions. There are a lot of positive things that may have led to this as well. With the internet and smart phones, we have access to any and all information within minutes. So why hire a professional to install your sink when youtube can teach you how to half ass your way through it for slightly less cost? We’re all becoming a jack of all trades, yet masters of nothing.

While it’s great to have multiple skill sets to save some money, there is an issue with this as it leads us to spreading out our focus to numerous jobs rather than honing our one great skill set. This can lead to mistakes in our professions. For example, a mother came to me years ago wanting to get her daughter some personal training to lose weight. We sat down and discussed her daughter’s background, when she began gaining weight and what her goals were, among other things. “She had been a very happy child up until about a year ago”, she claimed. “She was athletic and in good shape when she competed in sports. Then suddenly she began gaining weight and has since become depressed about her weight gain”, she continued. I dove in a little further, attempting to get to the moment things changed. The mother believed she began gaining weight when she quit her favorite sport and that she eats very clean, good food.

I need to point out, the daughter at this point, had over 50% body fat. The average 14 year old girl has about 15%. That means she gained about 35% body fat in about a year. This doesn’t happen when you simply stop competing in sports. Even adding in a considerable amount of food won’t gain that much weight in that little time, especially at that age. There had to be more to this story…so I continued to dig. Why would the daughter quit her favorite sport suddenly? Finally, I began to get some answers. The mother, in passing, mentioned divorcing the daughters’ father…about a year ago. This is what inevitably led to quitting sports. I then turned my attention to the daughter, asking what her day was like when she stayed with her father. Essentially, the father fed her candy and junk food all day, as he didn’t know how to cook and all he had was junk food. Still, the math just wasn’t adding up, but we were getting closer to the real answer. A lack of exercise and the addition of junk food on the weekends still doesn’t equate to over 100lbs of weight being gained in a year. I then asked a question that provided an answer that has dumbfounded me and upset…nay, angered me, to this very day. I asked about any medications. There were a couple, but one in particular. They had gone to the doctor about the daughter’s depression. The doctor provided an anti-depressant. This particular ant-depressant had a specific side effect…weight gain. That’s right, when the doctor heard that the daughter was depressed about being overweight, he prescribed an anti-depressant that would cause her to gain more weight…but be happy about it….I’ll wait while you finish slapping your hands to your heads and losing faith in our doctors…. This half assed effort in such an important profession leads people to not trusting that profession, then that mistrust spreads to assuming mistrust in other professions.

Enter flat-Earthers, climate deniers, anti-vaxxers, anti-science, and so on. I may disagree with all of these immensely, but when so many seem to half ass their professions anymore, it’s understandable why people no longer trust authority figures. And then there’s the Martial Arts instructor… This isn’t to say that everyone should stick to one skill and never expand out. These days we need multiple skill sets just to get by. I know very few instructors that their profession is only that of a martial arts instructor. Even myself, I am also a Personal Trainer part time. What I’m getting at is that we need to be honest with ourselves, our knowledge and skills, as well as to have pride in what you do. You’d think a profession where there is an actual rank labelled as, “Master”, would be better known for actually being masters of their profession. Yet, not all are.

Understandably so, however, as it’s insanely difficult to make money running a martial arts studio. I’ve seen far too many martial arts instructors teach that which they don’t fully understand due to this lack of honesty with themselves and lack of training effort. This isn’t just bad, it’s flat out dangerous. Martial arts is teaching self-defense for times when your life is on the line. Acting like a master when you are closer to a novice is immoral and irresponsible. Training a student to defend themselves in a way that may be wrong due to your lack of knowledge can lead to serious injury or death. This is how watered down versions of martial arts get produced. And watered down versions of martial arts are like a cancer on the martial arts world. One bad instructor promotes a less than stellar student in a year or two to their black belt and sends them off to teach, further watering down and misinterpreting the art. I can’t begin to tell you how frustrating this is as an instructor who places a lot of effort into teaching and continuing education as the average person seeking out training doesn’t know the difference between a teacher who received his black belt or teaching certificate by attending a seminar over the weekend and a true martial arts master who has dedicated their life to understanding the art of self-defense.

I’ve trained every day for over 25 years in the same arts and I’m only now starting to feel like I may be deserving of the title, “Master” in the near future. So I continue to train and learn from anyone, and anywhere, I can. With all of that said, I don’t feel every martial arts instructor should only train in martial arts and not hold another job. That would kill most schools as it’s insanely difficult to build a school that pays the bills, unfortunately, as martial arts is HEAVILY under-valued by the public. The issue, when it comes to running a successful full time martial arts studio, is that you must spend a considerable amount of time studying business rather than your art just to keep the doors open. Hence the reason there are so few high quality martial arts schools that are full time. There are some, however, and my hats off to them. I hope to be them someday!

Luckily, most martial arts instructors I know and have met, truly love training and teaching and take considerable pride in what they do, and are honest with themselves and what they are teaching. Why it’s not ALL of them though, I don’t know.

I have had students that train nearly every day and I’ve had students that train once a week. I place zero judgment on any of them as I respect anyone that puts any amount of effort into learning martial arts.

So few do. The amount of times you show up to class is not the biggest indicator of who will make it to black belt or make noticeable improvements. Though it definitely helps if a student can make it to class multiple times a week. It all comes down to effort. We have a saying in our Taekwondo class when it comes to the forms/patterns. Every technique in the form is the THE most important technique in the form. One technique is not more important than the other is the point. So when I ask to see a student’s form, I expect 100% power and effort into each movement. If you’re not breathing heavy and need a brief rest after performing your form, you didn’t place enough effort into the techniques. I know everything I need to know about the student’s mindset and effort just by seeing that form. I’m accepting of mistakes in forms if I see the student is putting all of their effort into it. That shows me that all that stands in the way from the student progressing is effort on my part (which is my pleasure to give) and time. However, if the student shows me a half assed effort, I know they have no interest in improving with hard work and I simply say, “Try harder next time”. It’s among my biggest pet peeves. Lack of effort. Not every student will have great technique. Not every student will have natural physical ability.

Not every student can learn quickly. However, EVERY student can put effort into what they do. So many things these days are easily accessible due to the Internet. We can quickly learn or access most anything instantly. I fear its lead to people assuming they will obtain martial arts adeptness just by showing up or casually going through their material. This couldn’t be further from the truth. There is no fast track to black belt or mastering an art or a technique. Though I yearn for the day we can just download to our brain a new skill. For now though, the only path is through massive amounts of effort. Again, it’s the ONE thing that EVERYONE can do…give effort. If you do that, I’ll keep helping and will love you as a student!

In regards to obtaining a black belt, understand that lallygagging through class won’t cut it. Even those who place everything they have into their training can struggle obtaining that highly sought after rank.

Also, understand that obtaining a black belt doesn’t have to be the ultimate goal. I hope that most students I teach recognize and obtain so much more from their training than just their rank. And I believe most of my students do. However, a slackers approach will never garner anything more than a new color belt around your waist from time to time before halting once getting into the intermediate ranks, if that far. Memorizing technique and regurgitating it may get you through the first few ranks, but after that, it must be applied and understood and performed on a higher level each time you move up in rank.

The ultimate point of this article is to be honest with yourself on your level of effort and the pride you place in your work and training. Whether it be as a student or instructor. As long as you recognize your output and knowledge level, then you’ll be fine. If you want to truly be a martial artist, put all of your effort into it. Take time to practice at home, even if that means just reading through notes from classes or looking over videos you took of your last training session or testing to critique, visualizing punching and choking out your neighbor for being too loud and driving excessively fast where kids are playing and letting their untrained and large dog roam free, crapping on your yard and chasing after you while taking your dog on a walk…uh, anyway, stop reading and go practice right now! …and try and avoid assaulting your neighbors…