Congratulations to Matt Lawton, who was promoted to Judo yellow belt last Friday. It was probably the most grueling yellow belt test, judo or jujitsu, that I’ve seen! (Thank you Sensei Leigh!)
Matt demonstrated a tremendous capacity to thrive when pushed to his physical and mental limits. Matt illustrated the Jigoro Kano maxim “When you fall down 7 times, get up 8 times.”*
It may seem like its been a slow slog to get to this point. Seen from my vantage, his grit and tenacity have served him well, and he is building a solid foundation for the long journey towards martial arts mastery.
It’s been my pleasure to work with him and watch his steady improvement over the past few months.
Thanks Matt!
Sensei Pat
* I still have a hard time with this one. Maybe one of these days I’ll understand. Until then, I’ll continue to use my over-simplified… “Keep getting up”