I remember once long ago at my first school in Charlotte North Carolina at an award ceremony I gave a student a certificate for having past a testing. This student, a young new black belt gave me a weird look, but I didn’t think anything about it at the time. A few minutes later he came up to me after the awards and reminded me that he had not broken his boards and therefore had not past his test. I know you may find this hard to believe, but yes I do make the occasional mistake now and then. I gave this student a stern look and said there was no mistake and that he had indeed broken his boards. Since nothing like this had ever happened to me before at an award ceremony I was sure I could not have made such a mistake. The student held his ground however, stating that he had not broken them and this was further backed up by his peers at the ceremony.

Realizing my mistake, I put it to him, “What should I do then?” I asked. Without hesitation he stated “I get a no change sir!” Now that is a black belt! He could have taken the belt and certificate and walked. But in his heart he knew he had not earned it. He was uncompromising in his desire to get his black belt, but he wanted it the right way. Needless to say I was extremely proud of this student and of the entire student body at that time. It seemed after that, that I was constantly hearing stories of individual students and instructors in the school that were conducting themselves with the same amount of dignity and honor in the face of day to day adversity.

Although many still stumbled on occasion, when it really mattered they did themselves proud. This more than anything else is what we at Strickland’s Martial Arts are all about, developing a sense of self worth that relies less on what others think and more about what you think of yourself. In essence, what you see each time you look in a mirror.