The Concept Of A "Black Belt Attitude" Is (Mostly) Bulls--t, Entry #2.1

 

At the end of Monday night Taekwondo this week, our teacher sat us down while he played a video on his Facebook feed, of a woman who was testing for her 9th Dan.  The test was conducted at World Taekwondo (WT) headquarters in Seoul, South Korea (the birthplace of Taekwondo).  One part of a Dan test involves smashing bricks with your hand or your foot.  

I had to smash one block when I tested for my 1st Dan and then I had to smash two blocks when I tested for my 2nd Dan.  I will be testing for my 3rd Dan in February 2023 and I know I will have to smash three blocks.  

The woman had to break 9-block stacks, one after another, as part of her test.

Our teacher said that hitting the blocks will hurt, but he said that it’s part of the process and that we’re supposed to embrace the pain.  I do agree with that logic because all things worth achieving in life involve going through pain.  The pain will affect one person differently from another person.

Embracing and powering through the pain is a necessary part of having a “black belt attitude.”

I have to interject, though, by adding that there are two kinds of pain.  I was taught that concept by watching the opening scene of the first episode of House of Cards.  The scene begins when a car hits a dog that belongs to a couple who lives on the same street as Senator Francis Underwood (D-SC), portrayed by Kevin Spacey, who leaves his house to investigate the hit-and-run.

The dog is still alive but Underwood says that it’s not going to make it.

Underwood breaks the fourth wall when he talks about two kinds of pain, “the sort of pain that makes you strong” and “useless pain, the sort of pain that’s only suffering.”  There is a lot of pain in the world and it’s mainly the latter, though there are people who will argue that suffering will make you stronger.

I like to extend that further by adding two other kinds of pain, “the pain that you know” and “the pain that you don’t know, the pain that you have yet to feel.”

The pain that you have yet to feel will hurt like a motherf–ker because it’s the kind of pain that you were never prepared for.  There is no amount of training that will ever prepare you for that kind of pain, especially when that pain hits you in places that you would least expect.

My first article on Simily centered on my first martial arts training injury, a fractured humeral shaft in Judo class, which happened in December 2021.  I sustained the injury during randori when my opponent, a person who stood at roughly 6’2 and weighed roughly 300 pounds, botched an “uchi makikomi” and rolled on my arm.

My arm was fractured in three places but only one fracture, the humeral shaft, required surgery.

I wasn’t screaming, crying, or agonizing in pain.  The one thing that came to my mind was “what the f–k” because this had never happened to me before.  I did have to deal with the pain before and after the surgery but it wasn’t that big of a deal to me because it was the “pain that I already knew.”

When you’re training in martial arts, especially in multiple styles, you learn to take and embrace the pain.

The doctors, nurses, and other medical specialists were shocked at my composure and low blood pressure when I was in the ER that same night.  On the day of the surgery, which was January 2022, I was given an injection in my nerve to numb the pain.  The specialist who gave me the injection was surprised that I only winced and told me that he would’ve been crying in pain.

He said to me afterward “you are one tough guy.”

The pain paled in comparison to the pain I felt after I passed my 2nd Dan exam.  I was turning back and forth all night because my body was completely sore from poomses, sparring, kicking demonstration, board breaking, and concrete smashing.

The pains I felt in those two occurrences were the pains that made me stronger and that I already knew.

I do have to call bulls–t on the “black belt attitude” because it indoctrinates us into also accepting that “unnecessary and suffering pain.”  This is the pain that nobody should ever suffer in their lives as it leads to more suffering.  Nobody, not even the masters or grandmasters, should be telling victims to look positively at their own suffering.

Rhetorical question, why embrace the pain that you shouldn’t have experienced in the first place?

Why embrace the pain that is only going to make you suffer?

Why embrace the pain that is only going to traumatize you?

Why embrace the pain that is only going to make you weaker?  There’s a difference between being strong and being a survivor.  

One example of that pain can be linked to the topic of Roe v. Wade, which the United States Supreme Court had recently voted to repeal.  I wrote a three-part segment on Medium on how having a “black belt attitude” is (mostly) bulls–t when we have to deal with the political and legal fallout that affects girls and women across the country.

Conventional martial arts philosophy, the foundation of having a “BBA,” gets blasted out of the water because it doesn’t prepare us on how to navigate this complex world that is one mass of gray and full of nuance.

If you’re a pro-choice girl or woman, this is a pain that you may never have felt before in your life because it affects your life choices.  You can get knocked down as many times on the mat or the ring, whether it’s class sparring or competing in a tournament, it’s not going to compare to the pain of Roe v. Wade being repealed.

It’s the pain that you’re unprepared for, and probably never will be prepared for, regardless of all the pain, you have sustained in martial arts class.  I’ve said something similar in my Medium article on why martial artists should watch The Greatest Beer Run Ever which is on Apple TV+.

Even though repealing Roe v Wade meant that the issue has been left to the individual states, that’s definitely NOT a positive.  GOP lawmakers in the heavily red states are finding ways to ban access to abortion and are trying to find ways to punish people for leaving their states to get an abortion.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis(R), who got reelected on November 8th, had already attempted an abortion ban, which got repealed by a judge.  There are states, like Idaho for example, that have “trigger laws” that come into effect.  In the case of Washington D.C, there are legal circumstances in which the city’s affairs are dictated by the United States Congress.

The business world has taken action, though likely not out of altruism, to assist employees who plan on getting an abortion.  Major businesses like to operate in red states because of the low tax rates, but anti-abortion figures can find ways to punish those very businesses.

Given how the GOP has regained a slim majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, we can expect the GOP to crack down on abortion rights.  We have no idea how the upcoming 2024 could turn out.

The GOP could end up retaking the U.S. Senate and the White House while maintaining its control over the U.S. House.