The Old Rails

If you look around the Sunbury school, you will see two rails that look very out of place. They are a different color, they look battered and worn with a little blue paint on the back that seems out of place.  Why?  Just like the rails in the current Westerville school, they are from the first Westerville School that was in the Kroger plaza. Why am I using them?  Because EVERY student that has ever gotten on the mats for me have touched those rails and used them to learn their very first kick.  I was staining those rails when Mr. Krinsky first came into the school to get information about classes.  I was installing those rails when Mr. Smith came in to get information. I taught Mr. Morgan and every other instructor that has come since to fix their side kicks on those rails. 

I know it seems silly or sentimental to be lugging those old things around from school to school.  But to me, it is important that all of my current students know that they are on the same path as the people before them.  We would never ask any of our students to do anything that we have not done or will not do ourselves.  That is why we understand what they are going through and how they are feeling.  We have been there too.  Those battered old rails are the physical proof of the continuity of our program over the years.  No matter where we go, they will go with us.

It is said that training in the martial arts isn’t a sport but a lifestyle.  It is a journey of self discovery lead by other people further along the path than you and that we should enjoy the journey itself and not worry about the destination.  I totally agree with that.  But every journey has a starting point.  Those old rails, to me, are the marker that lets every student know, the journey starts here.