A Protector That Does Krav Maga




I was thinking about one of the stories Jack Hoban told this past weekend when he was here teaching a seminar at our Grand Rapids Krav academy...

If you were there you might remember him telling the story where 20 or so years ago he and his teacher Dr. Hatsumi, were eating w/Jack's wife and (then) young son talking and Hatsumi yells at Jack...

 "Idiot! You don't know who you are... You must choose..."


"...Who Are You?!"

He went on to say, 

"You do a lot of things, you're a..."

Husband
Father
Son
Brother
Marine
Businessman
Musician
Martial artist
Landlord
Etc..

"Are you a Businessman doing martial arts?"

"A martial artist who works a day job?"

"A musician who practices martial arts?"

"A martial artist who plays music?!"

"WHO ARE YOU?!?"


What's Your Deepest Identity?!?


Let's Clarify...

I don't know for sure, but I believe the root of the conversation could be translated about being a "Warrior" and thus embracing the identity of that path...

...In our language we'd say...

"Protector"

If you replace the word Protector w/"Martial Artist" in the story it will make more sense...

I could just be projecting though...

Maybe Hatsumi DID mean 'just' Martial Artist!?!

I doubt it, but who knows!?

I do know that even though Hatsumi was an exceptional martial artist, his teacher Takamatsu chose him to carry on as "Soke" (one who is the leader of the lineage of that particular ryu [a school, or in this case 9] that he represented), more on his merit of his being a good human being and having the ability to share the heart of true Budo (the art of warriorship) than his abilities as a martial artist.

So, I can only surmise that this was the underlying sentiment of Jack's story as well.


"I'm a PROTECTOR Who Does Martial Arts..."


After the seminar I had correspondence w/a number of people who attended...

One of the people, Joe, who is a great guy and has a tremendous amount of experience in his own right, said...

"Craig I was thinking about it and...

"...I'm a PROTECTOR Who Does Martial Arts..."

"Joe," I said, "I couldn't agree more with you!!"

Being a protector is a deeper identity than that of being a martial artist...

AND as we both know, we don't need to be a martial artist (or anything else for that matter) in order to be a Protector!

We talk about that all the time at the academy!


We are Already Protector's...


We just have to Protect the Right Things!

We may never be the 'best' martial artists, shooters, or whatever...

We don't have to, to be a protector!

Nor do we have to be a police officer, special ops, counter terrorist, Krav Maga expert, cage fighter or Jason Borne, to stand up for yourself or someone else!

Yes, it helps to have some skill...

But it'll help more to be CLEAR and have a bit of COURAGE...


Keep Going,
~Craig


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