Not long ago, a colleague concluded an email with the words ‘perseverance leads to success’. These words were addressed to students in the middle of an Exam Prep period, but they could not be truer in the world of martial arts.

Mastery comes with practice and practice takes time. Practice itself is fraught with moments of frustration, doubt and questioning.

What makes a black belt a black belt? Innate talent? Rarely. An all-consuming passion for the discipline? It helps if it’s not as intense as it is ephemeral. It’s perseverance on a long martial path strewn with pitfalls that leads to a black belt and, little by little, to mastery.

The ideogram ‘Nin’ (忍) itself, often associated with the discretion so characteristic of the ninja, also refers to the qualities of endurance, patience and perseverance.

There’s also a saying in Japan: Heta na Teppo mo kazu ucha ataru.
‘Even someone who doesn’t know how to shoot well will eventually hit his target if he shoots long enough’.

We all start off poorly in a discipline, but with repetition and perseverance, results will eventually appear. That’s what training is all about. What separates you from your masters and senpai (elders) is that they have been training for longer and have never given up.

Perseverance is really what makes all the difference.

Arnaud (5th dan – Shidoshi)