THE COMFORT ZONE

 by Phillip Starr

Some time ago, I was having a conversation with a good friend of mine who teaches kempo. We were discussing the teaching methods of various martial arts instructors and I made mention of some who hesitate to make their students “uncomfortable” by making them train rigorously. One such instructor reminded me that most of his students hailed from upper middle-class families and had never really broken a good sweat. He feared that they would quit if he pushed them too hard and that would cause of loss of income and perhaps give his school (in that particular area) a bad reputation.

My friend said that part of the (martial arts) teacher's job is to push the students beyond (what they perceive as) their limits. I agree. In doing so, the instructor must necessarily be careful and have a good feel for just how far and how hard to push. But push he must. They must step outside of their comfort zones; those who won't do it on their own sometimes need to be pushed.

I feel that a teacher who won't push his students to go beyond their self-imposed limits is failing to provide training in genuine martial arts; he may be managing a sort of daycare for children or a “fun activity” class for adults, but it ain't martial arts. I know of more than a few so-called martial arts teachers who insist that students, children and adults alike, must always “have fun” in their training. “Having fun” during training – even playing certain games from time to time – is fine as long as the activity is directed towards development of a particular martial skill. But playing games and so forth primarily to amuse the students and ensure that they're all “having fun” should never be a real instructor's primary concern, After all, students are there to learn martial arts and that means they're going to sweat, gasp for air, and even bleed a bit from time to time. Muscles will ache and there'll be bumps, scuffs, and more than a few bruises, but that's the name of the game.

Would you expect to play “fun” games and ensure that everyone is being adequately entertained during football practice? Of course not! And football is a game. Everyone goes home after the game. Martial arts are not about playing games. And in an extreme situation, maybe only one person will go home...Like the adage says, “A comfort zone is a nice place but nothing ever grows there.”