Achieving Black Belt Excellence Through Ten Years of Disciplined Martial Arts Training

Hi, I'm Sandy Wu. I live in Baltimore, Maryland, and I work at Johns Hopkins Medicine. Well, I think Shihan Marc has done a really great job at bringing in other life skills in terms of the importance of discipline, self-respect, confidence, treating others also with that same level of respect regardless of their background. I think Shihan Marc is great at developing positive culture for young men and women. I would say that initially we got introduced to Shihan Marc's from my son's childhood friends and we have stuck around for over 10 years because Shihan Marc has created an amazing community that feels very inclusive and collaborative with a very positive culture that really permeates through all the students as well as all the families. My son first joined Shihan Marc's... he was five years old, entering kindergarten, and very outgoing young boy, but generally smaller than most of his peers. Gradually over the years, as he developed confidence and matured, and also as he developed confidence by learning the skills at the dojo, I really saw him physically develop and be more comfortable and also be more confident in the sense that he's able to advocate for himself to be more disciplined about taking care of his body and how he's projecting himself to others. I think through the confidence, through learning self-defense and martial arts, he's unafraid. I would say the journey for black belt was not just that final stage. I believe the journey, I would say, once he was several years in, he set himself a target and commitment to complete and to achieve his goal by the time he enrolled in high school. Several years leading up to the black belt, I believe that he was even more focused than ever to make sure that he was going to obtain his goal and to continue to kind of pursue and have purposeful practice to obtain this black belt level. and I think earning a black belt made him realize that he's made many sacrifices over the past ten years and has prioritized his training to achieve this I would say level of karate. I think when he looks back, I think that was something that was more moving and more of a life lesson for him than actually having a black belt, because I'm not sure most people understand what a black belt is, and I think it's really an inner self-confidence that he has that he's realized over time. I would say take the first step and come in and watch a class. Whether it's the young kids or the adults competing and fighting with each other in a controlled environment, all of them will show you different perspectives on what a collaborative and positive environment this is.