My daughter June started karate lessons last month. She’s enrolled in KinderKarate at Master S.H. Yu, conveniently located two blocks from the preschool she attends. It’s been a great confidence-builder, and of course the dog trainer in me loves the focus on discipline and etiquette. It’s also way cheaper than occupational therapy for improving gross motor skills, and has the advantage of preparing young ladies to deal appropriately with ungallant suitors down the road.
A week ago I also joined, at my daughter’s urging, donning a white belt and the formal, if somewhat uneasy, status of Ninja Mom.
Not to say this was a sacrifice. I’d always wanted to study a martial art, and after two kids and turning forty, I can always use a workout. But the main benefit to me so far turns out to be more professional than personal, and is something I entirely failed to anticipate.
I’ve gained a good deal of empathy for my own dog training students.
Although reasonably fit and coordinated for a forty-one-year-old mother of two, taking up a martial art at middle-age is inescapably humbling. I regularly feel awkward, and occasionally incompetent, confused, or embarrassed. Despite a respectable measure of core strength and a background including riding and yoga, and despite paying close attention, I nonetheless struggle to reliably execute simple instructions, and eat up small praise like a dog taking morsels of food from its handler.
I project it will be a long time before I again allow myself to become frustrated with a client for fumbling an exercise.
The challenge of learning something new, particularly in front of others, is a healthy experience for any instructor. I highly recommend it. I only hope my joints hold up. And I look forward to a day when the six-year-old beside me in line no longer feels compelled to correct my fighting stance.
7 comments
Comments feed for this article
May 15, 2011 at 3:09 pm
SmartDogs
I had the same experience when I first took up stockdog work. Trying to keep track of dog and sheep and crook and rough ground and my own suddenly very clumsy feet was impossibly difficult.
It got easier but think that the memory of those first, very humbling sessions will stick with me and make me a better trainer.
May 15, 2011 at 3:38 pm
ruthcrisler
I’ve long suspected you were in fact a better woman than I. I’m afraid being so humbled within the context of an actual dog sport would likely be more than my fragile ego could bear [submissive grin].
At least karate is sufficiently foreign to my area of supposed expertise as to allow for face-saving. You’ll notice I didn’t take up schutzhund.
May 16, 2011 at 8:31 pm
SmartDogs
Well, I’m pretty sure I’m a bigger woman than you are…
May 15, 2011 at 5:29 pm
shasta08
I COMPLETELY feel for you! I had the very same experience almost and learned the same thing 🙂 I actually had done martial arts as a teenager though I never made it to the rank I wanted, I went back as a 32 year old and made it. Much harder at a later age then when I was a teenager but I found it really did help my dog training! I also felt it gave me lots more empathy for my clients as well as a better sense of balance (something invaluable for a trainer) Good luck! look forward to hearing how it’s going! (Lynne Bell)
May 15, 2011 at 8:06 pm
ruthcrisler
Thanks for the encouragement. I’ll keep you posted.
May 16, 2011 at 7:12 am
H. Houlahan
For me it was riding lessons.
May 16, 2011 at 1:11 pm
ruthcrisler
Luckily, those predated my dog training career. Still humbling.