Mentoring Memory

One time I had a dream student, a 12-year-old kid, teaching him martial arts and being a tutor for him too. His father was a visionary man. He completely entrusted his son in me to train in everything. I wish to have many students like this whom I can train in many aspects of their lives. I believe I gave him good foundation in life skills. He was lacking some foundation in life skills, so as far as progress in martial arts and academics, no student will be possible until they have mastered the basics. The kids have to learn to make their own meals, not to lose their book bag, not to injure in dumb playgrounds activities, not to get sick, how to eat proper medicinal foods to neutralize the bad diets, and etc. Then they can think of becoming master students in martial arts, academics, and higher life skills. That kid had all those problems but being closed to me and had an opportunity to realize his weaknesses and improve was a life-changing experience for him. Later on, his uncle and cousin joined in martial arts training classes. I think about that little Raymond often. He was a big kid with very childish mentality. He thought he could hurt me badly if he could sneak upon me during little sparing sessions. He didn’t know that I had full awareness of him, his body location, and even his limb movements without even looking. He rushed into me one time, bumped into my guarding leg, “elephant Step”, and hurt his mouth. Despite my warning that he should go easy and I would be going easy that day… I ran bare-foot when I jogged around all over. With him, we kept the location limited on the grass field. Jogging bare-foot is training for hardness as well as energy absorbing training from ground… In the beginning, the kid’s feet couldn’t even stand it on grass, stepping on dog poops, and his endurance was bad, but he mastered it in about 10 days. He learned that I was watching out for dog poops, my feet were hard and quick to adjust the stinging objects if I step on them, and that there is energy absorbing benefit from running around bare-foot. One time, a “Krav Maga” black-belt teacher came to talk non-sense while we were discussing our training plans after our session. I took her number and made plans for her to fight my 12-yo kid student, but she finally chickened out and disappeared from my life. My mediocre “beginner” student is in your black-belt teacher levels and your fake classes in case anyone dumb enough not to realize and wants to try out…