Now I'd like think of my coach as a teacher more than anything, at least outside of the ring. While other teachers "classrooms" are full of desks and whiteboards, his classroom is filled with sparring gear and training equipment. Almost every time we came to practice, there would be a moment, usually after warming up or after doing some drills, where he would ask us if we have any questions for him, or where he'd start the conversation himself. As time passed by, I realized a prominent reference in some of the advice he gave to us: Chess. It seems weird right? Chess? What does that have to do with taekwondo in any way? Well lets think about it. Chess in a nutshell is a game of wit. Planning your moves, or thinking ahead of time. How does one move affect you in the long run, and if you move your piece a certain way, will it benefit you or your opponent? Now lets plug that into a sparring situation. If you just run in without checking, that is seeing what kind of reaction your opponent might give you, any number things could happen. You could receive an instant knock out, because as you ran in, BAM, a kick to the face that leaves you seeing tweety birds. Or perhaps your opponent didn't expect it, and you manage to land a kick on him. You get the picture. Long story short, you really don't know what is going to happen. Pretty much, going in blind, without knowing for sure what your next move will be. On the other hand, if you plan ahead, and, like our coach says, "have something in your back pocket" AKA, your back up plan, then you have an idea of what can happen.
After reading all of this, you go back to the title of this post and think, well taekwondo isn't everything. Well, lets dig further shall we? How about something more general, like approaching life? Sure some of you may enjoy the thrill of going at life blindly. Living everyday like there's no tomorrow, unsure of how each day will be. In all aspects, it sounds even exciting to me. But that is beside the point. Sure, we don't know where each day will take us, but perhaps learn something that can lead us teach us a way to approach people, our tasks, etc. First, lets go back to the topic of chess. In chess, each move is significant in its way. If you moved your pawn a certain way or if you moved your queen randomly, how will your opponent react? Thoughts like, "if I move this way, that piece over there can capture my piece", or "if I do this, my opponent will be in check". So where can we relate this? How we approach people, for one, is a start.
I've had my share of getting off on the wrong foot with people throughout my life. I usually would just talk, speak my mind, and not really care how it would affect me the next day, unless it was some superior or elder. Of course, there were a lot of times where that would bite me in the butt and leave me wondering why people would react a certain way with me, or or have a plain dislike for me. You could say, I was just moving my pieces randomly, not really caring about the end result would be. So, if you think about it, the only end results you get are you losing the game of course or, by some dumb luck, winning. Which is what I ended up with at the end of my high school career. I had very few friends, which, trust me isn't a bad thing at all, but quite a few enemies, and several people who just didn't want to be around me. Entering college I decided to play it smart and be careful on how I talk to people. Test the waters, see what type of people I would meet, think about what words I should use so that no ones' feelings get hurt or people get offended in the process.
Now the point of this post isn't to tell you my life's story, nor is it to tell you that you have to change how you act in order to get people like you and make friends in the process. Long story short, play the game smartly. Don't burn bridges, AKA throw away game pieces just cause you feel you won't need them. Think about how you approach people, your goals, life, or whatever it is. Everything is definitely a chess game, and with every game there are wins and losses, but just because you lose once, doesn't mean it ends there. Just reset the pieces and try again. Chess is a game of wit and thinking ahead, but not everything involves those two things specifically. I'm not saying that you shouldn't be spontaneous with what you do, nor am I trying to tell you be super careful with everything. All I am saying is that it can't hurt to think ahead, but like every game, it all depends on who is playing the game.
After reading all of this, you go back to the title of this post and think, well taekwondo isn't everything. Well, lets dig further shall we? How about something more general, like approaching life? Sure some of you may enjoy the thrill of going at life blindly. Living everyday like there's no tomorrow, unsure of how each day will be. In all aspects, it sounds even exciting to me. But that is beside the point. Sure, we don't know where each day will take us, but perhaps learn something that can lead us teach us a way to approach people, our tasks, etc. First, lets go back to the topic of chess. In chess, each move is significant in its way. If you moved your pawn a certain way or if you moved your queen randomly, how will your opponent react? Thoughts like, "if I move this way, that piece over there can capture my piece", or "if I do this, my opponent will be in check". So where can we relate this? How we approach people, for one, is a start.
I've had my share of getting off on the wrong foot with people throughout my life. I usually would just talk, speak my mind, and not really care how it would affect me the next day, unless it was some superior or elder. Of course, there were a lot of times where that would bite me in the butt and leave me wondering why people would react a certain way with me, or or have a plain dislike for me. You could say, I was just moving my pieces randomly, not really caring about the end result would be. So, if you think about it, the only end results you get are you losing the game of course or, by some dumb luck, winning. Which is what I ended up with at the end of my high school career. I had very few friends, which, trust me isn't a bad thing at all, but quite a few enemies, and several people who just didn't want to be around me. Entering college I decided to play it smart and be careful on how I talk to people. Test the waters, see what type of people I would meet, think about what words I should use so that no ones' feelings get hurt or people get offended in the process.
Now the point of this post isn't to tell you my life's story, nor is it to tell you that you have to change how you act in order to get people like you and make friends in the process. Long story short, play the game smartly. Don't burn bridges, AKA throw away game pieces just cause you feel you won't need them. Think about how you approach people, your goals, life, or whatever it is. Everything is definitely a chess game, and with every game there are wins and losses, but just because you lose once, doesn't mean it ends there. Just reset the pieces and try again. Chess is a game of wit and thinking ahead, but not everything involves those two things specifically. I'm not saying that you shouldn't be spontaneous with what you do, nor am I trying to tell you be super careful with everything. All I am saying is that it can't hurt to think ahead, but like every game, it all depends on who is playing the game.
