Success Stories – Alex receives an award at School

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Last weekend we saw a post on Facebook from the mum of one of our junior students. This is what it said..

I have had a private text from school asking me to attend assembly tomorrow and not to say anything to Alex….. Can’t help thinking whats he done or not done?! 

Sounds ominous, but then the next day’s update:

He got a Gold Star!! For being kind, working hard, making his teacher laugh every day with his sense of humour and growing in confidence daily. Result was I cried but am so very, very proud of him

Excellent, thats great to hear!  Even better when she followed that up with:

I think the Ilyokwan Black Belt Academy has been the greatest thing helping his confidence. Thank you Richard Olpin!!!

Alex S

This is the real power of personal development through the martial arts programmes we teach here at the Academy.

It’s not just about punching and kicking, it’s about developing real life skills.   Here we see a child developing into a kind, hard-working and confident young man and his mum attributes those improvements directly to the positive start he’s gained from his training here at the Academy.

Well done Alex, we’re so pleased, and very proud of you!

Thanks again to our friends at St Joseph’s School in Nympsfield.  We have a number of students in common and I know we share some similar goals to help them develop as well-rounded, confident and positive individuals.

If you’re interested in giving your family a real a Positive Start in life, then get in touch. Try our programmes  free of charge as our guest for 30 days, and you’ll see the rewards for yourself!

Don’t say “Can’t”..

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Don't say can't

Every time you say you ‘can’t’ do something you’ll tend to believe yourself… Your subconscious will interpret it as a definite CAN NOT BE DONE, which is incredibly debilitating as it will stop you from even trying..

Think just how much more powerful it is when you switch that around to ‘how can I?’ instead. When you think that your mind immediately goes to work on looking for solutions, ideas, things to try. Has anyone else ever done it? What did they do? How could I get started? etc.

I know which I’d prefer. How about you?

Tony Robbins Guide to Goal Setting 2013

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It’s January 15th, which is the day that is thought of as the ‘cut off’ day when most people have already given up on their New-Years resolutions, and if like most of those people you’d really like this year to be different, this post is for you!

Below you’ll find a great video from Tony Robbins about setting meaningful goals rather than resolutions which fail..

As you may know, I’m a huge fan of Tony Robbins.  I know that not everyone loves his style but the man gets incredible results and changes lives. I’ve attended five of his seminars now and he has hugely impacted my life for the better.

If that’s your kinda thing, why not take a few miutes to watch this from Tony, then download the workbook below and give yourself a great start to your BEST YEAR EVER.

Below you’ll find a link to a PDF workbook from Tony Robbin’s which is a great guide to goal setting.. This document actually dates back to 2006, but the date is irrelevant as it’s equally valid today.

Download Tony Robbins Goal Setting Workbook

I’ve been through this guide (along side some of the other Tony Robbins programs) several times over the past few years and it has made a massive difference to my life, so I highly recommend you work through it yourself. It will only take about an hour, and trust me, that might well be the best hour’s investment you could possibly make!

If you need any help or advice on goal setting or personal development, please feel free to get in touch. I’m available for personal coaching and happy to work with individuals whatever their background or current personal development goals.

A Question Of Attitude….?

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If you had the opportunity to change in your life for the better, would you take it?

At first that seems like a really simple question, and the answer should be “of course!”, but then we get to the part where people think, “well yes, I suppose, but what will it entail? Will it be hard work? Will it mean I have to give up all the stuff I like?” etc etc…

This is the biggest problem we all face when trying to achieve our true potential is the social con- ditioning that to reach exceptional standards is beyond the reach of ‘normal’ people.

There is a saying which goes: “if you want something to change about your life, then you must first change something about your life.”

Ask yourself this question. Just how much to you need to change in your life to make a significant difference to you?

Most people assume that it is a lot, and that it will require a huge amount of effort on their part. I put it to you that there is something you can do right now, it will take no more time than it takes you to read this newsletter, and this one thing can make a huge difference to the rest of your life.

Have I got your attention now?

What if I made a suggestion that by changing one tiny thing, just by adding one word to your vocabulary you could turn your whole attitude around…

When faced with a challenge in your life, how do you approach it? If your usual response is to think “I can’t do that because…” then immediately you are focused on the negative. This will affect your whole attitude towards the situation in the future and your chances of success are greatly reduced.

So how about we change that one tiny thing… Lets simply change the “I can’t” to “How can I?”, for example, instead of thinking “I can’t kick head height because I’m not flexible enough..”, change it to “how can I increase my flexibility to achieve my goal of kicking head height?”.

The moment you make this important change in your thinking something amazing happens. Your subconcious starts to work on the problem, starts looking for a solution. Even if you are not actually thinking about it at the time your subconcious is...

Immediately you have made a very important distinction, to focus on the solution is a positive step, and this means that you have now categorised this challenge as a positive thing and that gives you a huge advantage from the start.

Never focus on the problem, always on the solution, you will be amazed at the difference it makes!

Feeling a bit out of the loop?

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Sometimes life throws us a curve-ball and we have to miss a few classes.

“The greatest barrier to success is the fear of failure”

When that happens it’s easy to feel a bit ‘out of the loop’ and though it really shouldn’t be a problem, sometimes our subconscious takes over and starts playing silly games with your confidence, and it seems to get harder and harder to get back in the dojang. If you’ve ever been in that position, I bet a few of these thoughts have gone through your head:

“I’ve not been for ages, I’m so unfit it’s going to hurt when I go back”

“I’ve forgotten everything!”

“Everyone else has learned a load of new stuff and I’ll look daft because I can’t do it”

“They’ll all think I’m useless for not training”

Trust me, we’ve all been there, and I’ve heard all these B.S. excuses a hundred times over the years.

The simple fact is thats just our silly subconscious talking. The same one that makes us procrastinate about all sorts of things.  Sure, you may need to take it steady for a couple of classes to ease back into a routine, but other than that you’ve got nothing to worry about.  Worried about what others are thinking?  Think about it, how much do you worry about other people’s training?  The simple fact is, we miss you when you’re not there, and the only thing we’re likely to be thinking is “hey I hope they’re ok and back training soon”.

There’s a very simple solution if you’ve missed some training and want to know how to get going again.  Take a top from Nike and JUST DO IT!  All you need to do is take that first step back into the dojang and you’ll soon realise that you had nothing to worry about.

We’re looking forward to seeing you soon!

The most important thing you’ll ever learn in the martial arts..

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.. that’s a pretty bold title I suppose, but it’s true. If there is one simple secret to success in the Martial Arts it’s this.

Perseverance is the key to Mastery

I’m sure we’ve all heard the saying that goes: “A black belt is a white belt that never quit”.That’s a great way to summarise a major key to success in the martial arts. Perseverance.

We all experience ups and downs in all aspects of our lives, and learning a new skill is no exception. To begin with, when you start training it’s all new and exciting, initially the reward you get far outweighs the effort you need to put in.

After a while the initial excitement will settle down and you reach the stage where you realise that in order to progress you need to actually put some real work in to succeed. In these days where we’re conditioned for instant gratification that can be a challenge to say the least!

Modern society has conditioned us, especially our children, to have an “I want it now” attitude. We are not willing to invest the time to achieve maximum results. Children are growing up with an entitlement mentality. I want it now, it is owed to me, everyone has one so I deserve one too. This is leading people into a dangerous future where they are simply not able to deal with challenges and the default answer is “I quit!”.

The real secret to mastery however is learning to recognise these dips and persevere, because when you push through the flat spot and come out the other side, the rewards are worth it.  You’ll often find your ability, your confidence and your motivation take a huge surge forward.

The-Dip-Curve
In addition to the obvious benefits to your martial arts training, by developing your perseverance like this you’re developing self-discipline which will benefit you in every area of your life..


It’s pretty much a certainty that every one of us will experience such a dip at some points, and it probably won’t be the only one, eventually you’ll find yourself facing another.  The key then is to remember the lessons learned before, and use that experience to build the certainty that you can push through it, onwards and upwards to greater progress.

This is one of the reasons it really helps to keep a journal to log your training progress, and to record the ‘magic moments’ that helped you through the challenges you’ve faced along the way.  If you hit a challenge in the future, you can look back and remind yourself how you worked through it and the rewards you got for doing so.

Learn from the experience of others

If you’re struggling to push yourself forward at times, remember that you’re not the first person to experience this! Talk to some of the senior students and I’m sure they’ll all be able to relate to how you feel. Just about all of the current black belts could give you examples of challenges, setbacks and ‘flat spots’ they’ve had in their own training. But they all share one common trait. They never gave up. They used that key black belt skill of perseverance and it helped shape them into the Black Belt they became.

Share your experiences with others.

For example, use the Academy forum to discuss your training, keep a journal and share motivational tips with your fellow students.

Parents – keep in touch, use our experience!

We know that sometimes you’ll find it tough when your child goes through one of these natural dips, and of course they don’t yet understand the benefit of perseverance that we as adults can appreciate.  It’s really important that we help them to learn this skill, and support and encourage them during those flat spots.

It’s tricky sometimes to stick to your guns, especially when I child says “I don’t want to go tonight” or worse still “I don’t want to go any more!” but the key thing is to remember the reasons you enrolled them in the first place, think of the ‘big picture’ benefits that we can understand.  After all, I’m sure they’ve said they don’t want to go to school a few times by now too, but we understand the benefits to be gained from a formal education.  In the martial arts we add in the many benefits of some really valuable life skills and character development too.

Here are some great examples: 10 reasons Martial Arts benefit kids

If you’re having a challenge with your child’s motivation, please let us know ASAP!  Having taught literally hundreds of children over the years we can almost always help.

Here are a couple of great articles which discuss this further:

Remember:

“A black belt is a white belt that never quit”.

Tough Mudder

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A group of us from the Academy are doing this next year…

Described as “Probably the Toughest Event on the Planet”… Should be fun :-)

40+ and fitter than he was in his twenties..

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Here’s an article written by one of our Black Belts, which was kindly published by Brett Kraiger on his excellent site “Martial Arts over 40” ( https://martialartsover40.com/)

Stewart Davison started martial arts in his late 30s, and now 6 years later says that he feels fitter now than when he was in the military in his 20s. That’s really quite something. He’s got some brilliant observations about being a more mature student, and about being a role-model for his children.

He also introduces his blog, a personal journey of his road to black belt, and now to 2nd Dan.


I fell into the martial arts by accident really, my wife and daughter had been studying at the local TaeKwon Do school, Ilyokwan Black Belt Academy, for a couple of years and I didn’t feel much inclination to get involved.

I was in my late thirties, family guy, thought I was just ‘fit enough’ but when the opportunity arose to take over of my wife’s membership (due to a serious knee injury) I thought ‘I’d give it a go!’ 6 years later and I am a 1st Dan in Ilyo Mu Do Kwan looking to test this year for my 2nd Dan.

Over the years I have been training I have been thinking more about my personal fitness, where my life is going and trying to discover what limitations I have when it comes to my MA training. In my early forties now I so far have seen that by having something to work towards has really enabled me to keep my fitness to a good level, which in turn has helped , in what is obviously a physical discipline, in my MA development.

As I have become older I have come to realise that I can’t always do what the younger guys can do, from a physical and flexibility perspective, but I’m not far off, I believe that actually I am in some ways fitter than I was in my twenties, which is strange to think as I was in the military at the time.

Fitness is relative to the individual and as a senior student I have always tried to set my personal standards higher than the rest of the class. On reflection as a more mature student I have probably greater physical strength than the younger students in class and more importantly also have some ‘real life’ experience when it comes to the self defence aspects of our training.

I do believe that the needs of the older student have to be taken into consideration by instructors and that age shouldn’t be a barrier to being an active and successful practitioner of the Martial Arts.

In fact Instructors and schools ignore the more mature candidate at their peril as it is these students who have tasted something of life, the successes, the failures, who are more likely to commit, long term, to their training than the younger student whose training may just be a ‘phase’ in their personal development.

A lot of my non MA friends, when talking about my training, state that they couldn’t commit the time, aren’t fit enough, are too tired from work etc etc, and they ask why do I do it? For me my MA training has become a part of who I am and I am fortunate that my eldest daughter has continued in her training and recently achieved the rank of 1st Dan as well. Having the motivation of setting a good example to one’s children always helps to drag yourself off the couch on a dark and stormy night to go and hits things, hard!

When it came time for me to enter the testing cycle for 1st Dan I chose, as a goal, the creation of a blog to chart how a fairly ‘ordinary’ guy worked towards achieving that first rung on the ladder in a martial art. When looking to do a goal as part of my black belt candidacy I was finding it really difficult to come up with something worthwhile, I wanted to show to people that a relatively ‘normal’ person, someone who can’t go to a Gym 5 times a week, someone who doesn’t have an abundance of free time, could still be successful on the journey to Black Belt.

Something at the forefront of my mind was also to demystify the whole process, to show that attaining a black belt isn’t some esoteric, rite of passage, that all it takes is some commitment and determination to succeed.

Making sure that other students could benefit from what I was experiencing I thought the best thing to try would be to create a blog. This blog allowed me to put down what I was thinking and feeling as I progressed through the process of black belt training.

The aim of the blog was to show the highs and lows along the way and how really 6 months isn’t a long time to prepare for your black belt grading. Its intention was to show that you don’t need to be superhuman or the most driven person in the world to succeed at something you want, merely that you need to give it the proper care and attention to reap the rewards.

Now 6 years down the line since I first put on the uniform, struggled with forming a low block and marvelling at more senior students who seemed to have mastered the most complex patterns, I have embarked on the testing cycle for my 2nd Dan and so the blog has begun again.

This time older, maybe a little wiser, definitely greyer but still with a spark that will hopefully take me to the next stage in my training, I would relish the opportunity to hear from like minded MA practitioners from around the world and so I put a call out to follow my blog The Road to Black Belt and please get in touch!

What are you going to achieve this week?

So, monday morning again folks. What are you going to achieve this week?

If you’ve not done it already pick at least one thing you’ve been putting off and resolve to complete it before friday, Imagine if you did that every week how much more you’d get done..

What’s your focus in your training this week? What aspect of your training currently needs the most work? What’s one thing you’d really like to try but haven’t yet?

Try this little challenge:

Get a sheet of paper or (subtle hint) USE YOUR TRAINING NOTE BOOK. Each day this week take a moment from your day and write down an answer to the the following questions.

  1. What is one thing I could do right now to improve the quality of my life?
  2. What is one thing I could do to improve my martial arts
  3. What have I been putting off that I could do in the next 24 hours?

That’s just a couple of minutes out of your day over a cuppa. If you do that even for the next 7 days you could end up with 21 good ideas/tasks completed. Imagine if you did that for a month, a quarter, or a year just how much you could achieve.

That, in a nutshell, is the principle of Kaizen.

https://make-that-change.com/spirit/kaizen-–-the-principle-of-cani