"I can always do better? - Than I think I can!"
“I like it I love it - I want some more of it!” can be heard in our gym every Tuesday and Thursday morning during sit-ups at Mustard Seed School. Our warm-up sets are based upon the warm-up model at Edgewater Kung Fu Academy, under the direction of Sifu Karl Romain. There, like Mustard Seed, when we train our bodies - we are training ourselves physically and mentally in the way we undertake each task. The prose we lead in call and response during sit-ups are meant to be life slogans, preparing us for how we train in every discipline: with regularity, discipline, patience, commitment, perseverance and respect for ourselves as well as those around us.
Training is a life skill. Whether one trains for an audition, a standardized test, a high school exam, or for a sporting event, people who understand how to train and study regularly and with perseverance (“I will persist - until I succeed!”) are more successful in life. This does require regular discipline and a structure that works through repetition (“Repetition is? - The mother of all skills, ma’am!”). We learn that just because we cannot achieve that goal today, it doesn't mean it is out of reach. We also find that training with the long term in mind, a strong core and increased flexibility causes less drastic impulsive pushing and therefore a lower chance of injuries.
Now if I am completely honest, these slogans can be a bit sarcastic here and there when we speak them - however when they come out in the day to day, they do cause a bit of joy and humor. The fact that as an adult I may sometime step in dog feces and mutter, “how’d I get so lucky?” does snap me out of my moment of frustration with a giggle that my thinking has been changed by my training. What I mean to say is, how we approach the small challenges in life changes how we see things in the day to day - and with that I rest assured that we also change our thinking in the bigger picture. It also shows how directly the words that come out of our mouths affect our mindset.
In our first PE unit, we have been completing two sets of core conditioning in class community followed by running independently in the park. Running can also feel like a mind-game: unable to be distracted by other goals or intercepting a pass, you simply have the task to run for twenty minutes. Unlike our day-to-day lives with technology and every other distraction, we have nothing to distract us from the task at hand. So this unit becomes about challenging students that run well to strive for a better time, and those who struggle to strive toward jogging the entire duration without distraction. Students have been reflecting on their progress, whether it be a sixth grader who is no longer the first one caught in every park tag game or an eighth grader achieving the fastest mile since I’ve taught MSS PE (5 minutes, 35 seconds!). Students start to own their achievement and see their progress building self-esteem and pride in their work. Other students achieving the presidential time for the mile have started running along-side a friend to help them pace their mile more effectively (“Teamwork - makes the dream work!”).
Words that may have started as a sarcastic moment or a muttered reply become truths in our work and our lives. While the power of words is hardly a new idea at Mustard Seed School, our students become richer members of our community from the experience.
Training is a life skill. Whether one trains for an audition, a standardized test, a high school exam, or for a sporting event, people who understand how to train and study regularly and with perseverance (“I will persist - until I succeed!”) are more successful in life. This does require regular discipline and a structure that works through repetition (“Repetition is? - The mother of all skills, ma’am!”). We learn that just because we cannot achieve that goal today, it doesn't mean it is out of reach. We also find that training with the long term in mind, a strong core and increased flexibility causes less drastic impulsive pushing and therefore a lower chance of injuries.
Now if I am completely honest, these slogans can be a bit sarcastic here and there when we speak them - however when they come out in the day to day, they do cause a bit of joy and humor. The fact that as an adult I may sometime step in dog feces and mutter, “how’d I get so lucky?” does snap me out of my moment of frustration with a giggle that my thinking has been changed by my training. What I mean to say is, how we approach the small challenges in life changes how we see things in the day to day - and with that I rest assured that we also change our thinking in the bigger picture. It also shows how directly the words that come out of our mouths affect our mindset.
In our first PE unit, we have been completing two sets of core conditioning in class community followed by running independently in the park. Running can also feel like a mind-game: unable to be distracted by other goals or intercepting a pass, you simply have the task to run for twenty minutes. Unlike our day-to-day lives with technology and every other distraction, we have nothing to distract us from the task at hand. So this unit becomes about challenging students that run well to strive for a better time, and those who struggle to strive toward jogging the entire duration without distraction. Students have been reflecting on their progress, whether it be a sixth grader who is no longer the first one caught in every park tag game or an eighth grader achieving the fastest mile since I’ve taught MSS PE (5 minutes, 35 seconds!). Students start to own their achievement and see their progress building self-esteem and pride in their work. Other students achieving the presidential time for the mile have started running along-side a friend to help them pace their mile more effectively (“Teamwork - makes the dream work!”).
Words that may have started as a sarcastic moment or a muttered reply become truths in our work and our lives. While the power of words is hardly a new idea at Mustard Seed School, our students become richer members of our community from the experience.