Quitting...

Hey Tom, glad to hear you were here today, sorry I missed you. My staff told me you weren’t interested in continuing, that Adelle isn’t having as much fun and is considering gymnastics. Just so we know where we stand, I’ve been doing this for 41 years and I’ve heard it all (I say that but still get blindsided sometimes).

Many students, adults or children are going to get bored doing our Basic curriculum, it’s why it’s basic. If we taught the higher level material to every student, many would not be able to handle it. They would fail and it would be destructive to their self esteem, which is the opposite of what we want. When someone shows they are ready, we suggest they move to our Black Belt Club where they learn at an accelerated pace and learn more interesting and mentally engaging techniques. They can choose to spar, do ground fighting, learn weapons, combatives, grappling and more of the gymnastic style martial arts. Imagine a school saying, “Your child is gifted and needs to be in the gifted classes,” and then the parent telling the school “No, keep them where they are.”

We wanted to nominated Adelle a long time ago, but we were told “no.”

Now the scary stuff. 80% of women report an attack in their lifetime and the police estimate that another 10-15% of women just never report it, for fear of retaliation or shame. Gymnastics is great, my kids both did it, but martial arts was not a choice. Being on swim team was an option, choosing not to learn to swim was not.

No one, not child or adult is going to always want to go to class. Everyone, adult and child are going to dread the workout, but no one regrets earning and black belt, and no one regrets being able to defend their life.

If you ask my adult class how many were considering skipping class tonight, many will raise their hands. At the end of class if you ask how many are glad that they came, they will all raise their hands. The frontal lobe of the brain is not fully developed until we are around 25 years old. It’s why car insurance is so expensive up to that age. Kids can’t make that rational leap, but they all smile and love it when they are here, including Adelle. I think she looks to the sidelines for a thumbs up and support when she is in class and longs for praise and admiration after class, but since she comes with the Mittler’s doesn’t always get that.

It’s your choice of course. I’m a dad of 2 successful grownups and have seen a lot of people allow their kids to quit over the years, only to hear about the regrets of quitting from the parents and kids (now grown) years later.

Let me know if you have any questions,

Grandmaster Boon Brown