Believe

One of my favourite all-time movies is Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. If you've seen the film you might recall toward near the end of the movie, Indy has to pass through several tests to reach the Holy Grail. At the start of the third test he rushes through a sculptured doorway called the Lions Head and finds himself standing right on the edge of a bottomless canyon. At this stage Indy's father lies fatally wounded, he desperately shouts out to his son "you must believe boy, you must believe."

With his hand placed on his heart, Indy closes his eyes, takes a deep breath and takes an enormous leap of faith into the ravine; thankfully he discovers an invisible bridge in order to continue his pursuit of the Holy Grail and the chance to save his father’s life.

Many years ago, back in 1987, I had to take a gigantic leap of faith. Admittedly it wasn't on such an epic proportion as Indiana Jones's quest, but none the less for me it was just as scary. My plan was to take a progressive step into becoming a full-time professional Martial Arts Instructor. You might now stop and say - where's the big deal in that then? Well back in those days beginning any kind of business completely from scratch, without any financial backing was an enormous task, let alone starting a new occupation that was hardly even recognised.

It was also a well-known fact and prevalent in many circles, that teaching martial arts for financial gain was often considered 'sacrilege.' I knew of several people that actually thought martial arts should only be taught for the greater good of the 'art' with very little payment needed at all. Initially I didn’t have a problem with this particular way of 'thinking' because it wasn’t my intention to earn a living from teaching martial arts anyway –  I just taught for the love of it, however once my circumstances dramatically changed I was left with no other option but to move into the World of free enterprise.

It was later pointed out to me by a high ranking Master, that many traditional martial artists never taught completely free of charge anyway, in fact there was often a hefty price to pay. Traditionally in the orient if a student really wanted to learn the fighting arts they would have to pay a significant amount of money up front. It was then up to the Headmaster of that School to decide if that that particular person was worthy to have as a student. If the position was declined for whatever reason the expectant trainee would have been turned away without any explanation or chance of recovering their fee.

As I mentioned in my last post, my very own opportunity to teach the martial arts as a professional occupation came about after I found myself unemployed for several months. The way I got started was through a government initiative called the Enterprise Allowance Scheme, which was an arrangement to get lots of people off the dole in the UK, encouraging them to start up their own businesses. When I first considered the option of teaching full-time, I remember telling my mother of my hopeful intentions; her immediate reaction was.... "Oh Martin, why don't you go find yourself a proper job."

This was just one of the many soul-destroying attitudes that I was faced with when presenting my newfound occupation.  Many other professional people never really took me seriously and just considered martial arts as a hobby or sport.  Another aspect, which often used to cheese-me-off, was when I had to explain what I actually did for a living.  I'd generally be met with the same old response, which presented itself something like this.  The individual would often listen to what I had to say, they would then take one step back, raise their hands in the air and say - "hey watch out,  I don't want to upset you."  
This must have literally happened to me hundreds of times and I eventually came to the conclusion it was much easier to inform people that I was a Fitness Instructor than to go through all the rigmarole of trying to convince people that I wasn't actually going to beat them up. 

Gaining professional credibility and acceptance over the last twenty-eight years has always been a bit of a hard slog. Persuading and educating people about the true nature and meaning of the martial arts has never been a straightforward thing. Martial arts has received so much negative publicity in the past; whether this comes from the many aggressive scenes witnessed in martial art movies, or just the public's overall perception - I’m not really sure... All I know is that people often associate martial arts with violence and aggression, which really couldn't be further from the truth.

Over the years it has always been my sincere aim to see my occupation presented and recognised as an honourable profession. Practising traditional martial art teaching methods I've always tirelessly aimed at portraying specific values such as courtesy, respect and self-discipline. I ask you, what other profession nowadays promotes this kind of practice, in conjunction with all the other physical attributes and benefits that martial art training has to offer? 

At this moment in time of writing, I now have several of my own Black Belt's considering opening up their very own Kuk Sool Won School's.  My very simple advice to them would be this: Comparable with Indiana Jones – You really do have to decide to take that gigantic leap forward - Once your foot touches the ground an amazing journey awaits you.  As the old (overused) Chinese proverb goes – A journey of a thousand mile begins with a single step.

I’m not saying that this pathway will always be easy one, nothing worth having usually is; however the rewards are plentiful and I don’t just mean in terms of financial gain. You will witness benefits far greater than money can buy.  Your success lies on the other side of the chasm – just take that one single leap of faith and like the advice Indiana Jones received from his father -  "you must believe." 

Check out the following clip:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFntFdEGgws

The Way Forward

After receiving the wake up call that I needed, I promised myself that I would do everything in my power to provide my family with a reasonable standard of living that they truly deserved.

Back in 1986, Alison and I were in the process of buying our first home. Like many other young married couples repaying the mortgage was a struggle, especially when the interest rates on the payments were around 13% or 14%. Despite this hardship we always felt a considerable amount of pride toward owning our own home and we worked really hard to make it an enjoyable family place to live in. It wasn't all doom and gloom back in those days, I had a very supportive wife that understood my passion for the martial arts and a gorgeous baby daughter that was full of laughter and joy. 

Rachel Aged 18 months

Rachel, I have to say was the perfect baby; she’d sleep all the way through the night without a murmur and would be a bundle of fun upon waking. As a toddler she always had loads of energy, so much so that I nicknamed her “Sparky.”  I first started teaching Rachel martial arts at a very early age, even before she could walk. I had this idea that I wanted my daughter to be able to look after herself in later life.  I always treated her initial training like a game, my hand often being the target for her to strike, however sometimes my training methods did have an adverse side-effect. I remember having to frequently warn many of my friends and family not to put their faces to close into Rachel’s pushchair, as she would often try and palm strike anyone who got too close. I have to admit - I always found that slightly embarrassing - but highly amusing at the same time.

Apart from spending lots of quality time with my family, operating my martial art club took precedence over most other things. It gave me a real sense of purpose and something to strive for each day. The number of students that were actually training at my club hovered around twenty-five. Being unemployed it was very difficult to make any kind of headway as I wasn’t allowed to earn any income from my classes - things did however change. I was thrown a lifeline from a very unlikely source. The support came in the way of Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government, under the Enterprise Allowance Scheme, which was basically a government initiative set up to help reduce mass unemployment in the UK. It was deemed to be an effective incentive for getting the British public off their backsides helping them to start-up their own small businesses. As a matter of fact, it was reported that during the eighties the Enterprise Allowance Scheme actually helped 325,000 individuals to become self-employed.

If you were on the dole back then you got £26 a week and you weren’t allowed to work. If you were on the Enterprise Allowance Scheme you got £40 and you could work. I qualified for the scheme   having been unemployed for a certain amount of months.  Once I had signed on for the project I was also given the opportunity to attend several free business start-up sessions. I immediately thought if I’m to stand any chance of survival I need to take full advantage of any additional help that was being offered. I did  make full use of three business workshops that were presented to me as part of the development package. It was during these meetings that one of the tutors reminded us of a very grim statistic; he said that only one in six people that were using this system would still be in business after their first year. 

These were gloomy figures indeed, however I made a very firm promise to myself that I wasn't going to be on the wrong end of those stats. My positive outlook was definitely going to be the way forward. It was now going to be 'all or nothing.'  I realised that my focus had to shift. I wasn't going to be doing battle against any single adversary anymore - the challenge was much larger - it was now all about business survival. 

Handouts

After sitting down and performing some very basic arithmetic I came to the stark realisation that I was financially broke. The simple problem was this; I had become so single minded about practising and teaching martial arts, that I’d forgotten one simple factor - I still had to earn a living. This was in October 1986, six months after starting my first martial art Club.

Having to sign-on for unemployment benefit didn’t sit well in my mind. I remember as a kid my father finding himself in a similar situation. Working as a builder’s labourer and experiencing a long hard winter, the extreme weather conditions brought his work to a complete standstill. For several months he was left with no other option but to claim benefits to support our family. My mother, obviously protecting the family pride, strictly informed me not to mention this to anyone. In those days it was considered an embarrassment to be claiming social handouts.

For myself, I felt totally ashamed that I’d gotten my family in such a predicament. I can hardly recall a time in my life that I experienced such depression. However I also realised that I was lucky to have an understanding wife and a very supportive family. One other thing that I also discovered, that when the chips-are-down, often someone surprisingly comes along to help fight your cause; a knight-in-shining-armour if you like. In this case it was the owner of the local leisure centre where I rented my martial art room.

One day, we just happened to be talking about how my club was progressing when he suddenly presented me with a proposal. He suggested that together we should organise a special fund-raising session, which might benefit us both. His idea was to hold a disco/dance for my members. The entrance fees collected on the door would assist our club funds, while in return he would make money from the bar receipts. It seemed like a fair arrangement and a win-win situation for the both of us.

We proceeded in making arrangements and the event soon came around. Students invited their friends and family members and the event was extremely well attended. As the night progressed there were lots of people dancing, drinking, laughing, all having such a wonderful time. The leisure centre owner was also having a great time as well, gaining plenty of drink sales. I on the other hand was feeling very insecure about my future, secretly I worried about how I was going to make ends meet.

The day after the event I met up with the leisure centre owner. After talking about the success of the previous evening, I recognised that he was someone I could confide in and I informed him about my monetary problems. As a knowledgeable businessman he immediately recognised my plight. He informed me that it wasn’t unusual for many young homeowners to go through similar financial difficulties. In fact he said that many years ago he’d also had cash-flow problems himself but somehow managed to get through them.

After our talk, I felt so relieved about sharing my problems. I'd often heard it said that a problem shared is a problem halved and in this case it was absolutely true. The helpful leisure centre owner then proposed to me another solution. He insisted that I should actually keep the money raised from the disco event to help provide support for my family. It was a very kind offer and one that I’d never even thought about. He also pointed out the following fact; that fundamentally I was the heart of the club and my own stability, whether financial or otherwise was paramount to the club's own survival.

Once again I felt really uncomfortable about receiving the handout, however at the same time I was truly grateful for the support. I understood that this was a lifeline that I could ill afford to ignore. Despite much soul-searching I eventually decided to accept the £30 door receipts to help pay the family food bill for the forthcoming week. It was a charitable donation that not only provided me food for my table, but also much needed food for thought. 

I came to the conclusion that what I'd experienced was a very tough lesson indeed. I sat down and thoroughly analysed my situation.  I then solemnly vowed to myself that I would never ever put my family in such financial jeopardy again. This was definitely the wakeup call that I needed and one that would act as a catalyst to drive me forward to achieve greater things... Again this was to be another major turning point along my journey.

Tough Times

I began teaching my martial art classes in a very small dingy, claustrophobic room at the local leisure centre, which was the only available sports facility in the town to hire at the time. It was a long thin and very narrow hall and there was hardly enough space to breathe let alone do anything else. 

Despite the cramped conditions the room served it's purpose, however during the summer months the area became so hot that students would often pass out due to the lack of oxygen. The only air-conditioning available was the twin fire escape doors at the end of the room. It was here that many students were often resuscitated and nurtured back to life. Many injuries did occur within this environment, however I mainly ignored them and considered it to be all part of the training. Student’s that survived really deserved their place in my club, those that didn't …. just quit.

With this prevailing hard-nose attitude I soon began to sort out the weak from the strong. During the process I collected a few “die hard” students along the way. These students I considered to be “serious” practitioners, those that could take a good old beasting and still come back for more. This kind of practice was considered hardcore and not suitable for anyone with a fragile disposition.

At the time I’d just stopped working as a Painter & Decorator and found some casual work labouring for a couple of friends that owned a small landscape gardening business. I wasn’t teaching martial arts full-time - only for the love of it. I didn’t really care too much about earning lots of money, all I was really  interested in was practicing Kuk Sool.

One day, my two friends informed me that they'd just obtained a large contract and asked me if I would like to work for them on a more permanent basis. The only downside was the job would require me  being away from home at least three or four nights a week. My dilemma was this;  to either take the job, which would mean earning a reasonable wage to support my family and closing down my martial art club, or to choose to stay in the very same position without having any employment at all. You've already  guessed... I took the second option. 

At the time it may have felt like a difficult decision for me to make, however looking back, it was a relativity easy one. I certainly didn’t want to be away from my wife and my baby daughter for long periods of time and I definitely had no intention of giving up on my dream of running my own full-time martial art school.

After turning down the job offer, I had no other option but to register for unemployment benefit. I remember feeling really sad and embarrassed asking for social handouts, but there was no other alternative. It wasn’t long after this that another problem soon began to emerge. One night Alison and I sat down and performed some very simple arithmetic, it revealed to us a very basic home truth – we were financially broke.

At this point it would have been easy to revert back to performing any old job that would pay a decent wage, however work was scarce with nothing available. These were really tough times and thoughts of trying to make ends meet are still firmly etched into my mind to this very day.  If it wasn’t for our parents and the support that they gave us, I really don’t know where we would have ended up.

My Way

After informing my wife Alison about my personal ambition to start up my own martial art club, it wasn't too long after this major announcement that my dreams soon started to transform into reality.

A few weeks earlier I’d already started a Ladies self-defence class at the local Leisure Centre in the town where I lived. After the course had finished I was then asked by the operator to teach martial arts on a more regular basis. This opportunity basically came about after another local martial art instructor had failed to turn up to teach his classes and I was invited to take his place.

My instructing role soon became more permanent. On 1st July 1986 I officially opened my very first martial art club in Halesworth Suffolk. After the initial opening I slowly began to attract more and more students, however it didn’t take me too long recognise that although my ambitions and desires were strong, my actual ability to operate a successful club was an entirely different matter.

I’d had very little experience dealing with any aspect of business. My wife was unable to assist me because she was busy attending to our newborn baby. I struggled with certain things, such as keeping accurate bookwork, memberships applications and other forms of paperwork. Most of this just didn’t interest me. All I wanted to do was just practice and teach martial arts and do nothing else.

My first group of students quickly discovered my intense training methods. In fact I actually felt proud if someone decided to quit. I often referred to this as an act of “culling,” basically a method of sorting the weak out from the strong. I didn’t understand the meaning of the word ‘retention’. Students were basically given a choice, “ It was either my way - or the highway."

Today, I refer to this type of approach as “Old School" training. Most people who taught martial arts back then didn't know any different, we just followed certain methods that had been handed down from our own Instructor's. It must have seemed very regimental and militaristic back then and good customer service never existed. Looking back, following these specific methods I now realise that I lost many promising students along the way.

In the late eighties there were only a few other martial art clubs around in my area.  Martial arts had not reached its peak like it has today. Instructor’s from different clubs rarely spoke to each other or had any connection outside of their own organisations. Personally I didn't really care about mixing with anyone else, I just kept my head down and concentrated on teaching and training.

It wasn’t long before I started to feel slightly out of my comfort zone, which I now recognise as a sign of growth. Everything that I did back in those early days was done via trial and error and I understand now that I made many, many mistakes. 

To summarise; I basically didn’t care about anything except training. I didn't know how to treat people properly. I wasn’t willing to communicate. I wasn’t interested in discovering about the operational side of things. In short; it was a complete recipe for disaster! 

It wasn’t to far down the road that I would soon discover the complete error of my ways. 

Birth

Rachel, one-hour old

I believe that it was the French author; novelist and poet, Victor Hugo that once said, "nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come." For myself an idea had already been firmly planted in my head; May 18th 1986 was the day I would deliver. Please allow me  to tell you all about it.

It was a glorious spring afternoon and I'd arranged to visit my lovely wife Alison who was recuperating at our local hospital. It wasn’t because she was suffering with any specific ailment or affliction, but because she had recently given birth to our first child, a gorgeous 8lb 2oz baby girl named Rachel.

It was a warm hazy afternoon with a gentle wind blowing as we leisurely strolled around the grounds of the hospital. We talked and laughed about how fortunate Alison was to only endure a three-hour labour. The other funny-story was how I almost passed-out just moments before the birth, the midwife quietly informing me, "if you leave us now Mr. Ducker you'll miss it."

As we walked around the beautiful organised garden, I wanted to inform Alison about an idea that I'd recently been orchestrating in my mind. I had originally been planning to tell her long before this moment, but decided it might be best to wait a while. My thinking was that any sudden surprise or shock before the baby's birth date might cause undue stress to mother and child.

The moment felt right. I stopped, turned and looked at Alison. The sun was shining directly onto our faces. It felt like a magic moment, similar to scene out of an epic movie. I slowly turned into the sunlight and looked into my wife’s eyes. My words slowly immersed as I gradually spelt out my intentions. I told her….. "I'm going to open up my own Martial Art School."

After delivering the news I stood back and awaited Alison's response. I smiled nervously and eagerly awaited her reaction. I could see that she had a blank look on her face; my words were gradually filtering into the depths of her mind. It was only a matter of a few seconds before I received her reply.  "You can't we've just had a baby." she protested.

Despite her best efforts to make me see sense, Alison quietly knew, deep down inside that nothing or no one could hold me back from fulfilling my dream. It was certainly an idea whose time had come. From that moment onwards we both recognised that our first Martial Art School had just been born. 

It was a decision that would not only change our own lives forever, but inadvertently many other peoples lives as well. 

Daydreamer

I have to admit I’ve always been a bit of a daydreamer. My teacher at school would often yell out  “hey you boy...bring your attention back to the room.” It was here that my imagination would often run wild; planning, thinking, scheming, and visualising the many things that I’d rather be doing.

As a school-kid I was always interested in learning about the famous British explorers, like Sir Walter Raleigh and Captain James Cook.  I also loved reading about fascinating destinations and trying to understand about different cultures around the world; hence the reason I always enjoyed my history and geography lessons at school.

I left formal education behind at the age of fifteen, without any real major qualifications to talk about. At the time I didn't really care about exam results etc, even though I recognised that I had potential to do greater things. All I wanted was to venture out and earn myself some money.

Finding suitable work was relatively tough to start off with. Thanks to a close friend I did manage to find myself a job working at a local clothing factory, cutting out material for the female machinists. The job was relatively monotonous and boring, however on the plus-side, it was very close to home and also paid reasonably good wages for unqualified labour.

I continued to work here for about five-years, until one-day quite unexpectedly my boss called me into his office. He explained, that because the company was experiencing financial difficulties, they had no option but to make me  redundant. 

At the time this was a massive blow. My dismissal made me feel rejected and unwanted, it also did very little to boost my already wilting self-esteem. However, looking back it was probably the best kick-up-the-backside anyone could have wanted. This negative situation made me completely step-out of my comfort zone.

I searched through the newspapers for work, as well as visiting the local job centre. There was nothing available. My next plan was to venture out into the local High Street. I was going to make it my mission to visit every business and workplace in the town where I lived. I focused at starting at one end of the High Street and walking my through to the other end.

Making my passageway  through the town’s thoroughfare, I was rejected many times over. Despite these constant setbacks I somehow remained optimistic. I never allowed my head or spirit to drop, I just had total faith and confidence in myself. Intuitively I knew that if I kept on going something positive would materialise.

Thankfully my persistence paid off, about halfway along the street the manager of a local hardware store must have liked the look of my face. He informed me of a vacant position that had just arisen. There-and-then he hired me on the spot as his next sales assistant.

Initially I really liked my occupation as a shop sales assistant. It taught me a lot about selling household goods and how to deal with people, however after a while it all became a bit tiresome, I felt subservient trying to satisfy each and every customers individual needs  and I was often treated harshly, which I really disliked.

I carried on working at the shop for nearly two years, before one-day deciding to call it a day. I made a significant decision to become self-employed, working alongside my dad as painter & decorator. He'd done this line of work for much of his life and had plenty of experience in the trade; however starting our own business was something completely new for the both of us.

This venture progressed nicely for a couple of years, until my father finally announced that he was going to retire. I couldn’t blame him for this decision as he’d worked hard for most of his life, including serving in the British Army during the Second World War. At the age of sixty-seven years old and suffering poorly with arthritis, he fully deserved to take life a little easier.

  

Not long afterwards I found myself sub-contracting with another painter & decorator. He was a nice gentleman and a devote Jehovah’s Witness. Despite his stalwart religious beliefs he seemed a pretty decent chap and an excellent tradesman. My work was virtually the same as before, however there was something missing. I came to the conclusion that as far as my occupation was concerned I didn't really feel that I was achieving any major goals or ambitions.

Several months into my new job I noticed my 'daydreaming' journeys started to return. I remember being given a simple task of painting a large external wall. It was an extremely hot day and I wasn’t looking forward to standing against the wall being roasted for few hours. The job was very straightforward and required very little thought or attention.

I gathered my brushes and stood their gazing at the blank surface. I pondered to myself - not another dreary task to perform. It wasn’t until I started the job that I began to realise that this blank wall had become like a movie screen - right in front of my very eyes I could see the mental images from my mind being played out.

A week or so beforehand I'd just been awarded my 1^st degree black belt; my thoughts concerning this accomplishment were still fresh in my mind. I loved the martial arts and could virtually see myself having my very own full-time martial art school. I witnessed myself teaching hundreds of students, I smelt the aroma of the training hall, I could even hear applauding parents and a full class of students yelling really loud.

As I progressed further along the wall, my thoughts continued to flow. I saw myself teaching the martial arts at a variety of different locations. I was training people privately, travelling the length and breadth of the UK and eventually practising in other countries as well. It all seemed so real.

After what appeared to be like only a few minutes, I'd completed the task of painting the brick wall. Afterwards, I felt this strange sensation bubbling up inside of me. I had stimulated some kind of energy coming from the depth of my soul, an emotion, an excitement like I’d never experienced before. It was a feeling, which just wouldn’t go away.

Several weeks later, I thought that I should try and have a chat with my boss. He always seemed a compassionate and understanding type of person. During one particular mid-morning tea-break I managed to find a moment to sit down and discuss my thoughts and feelings with him.

I courageously informed him that I was really fed with my current circumstances and I told him that I had other ideas. I said that I felt unfulfilled, I also explained that I had ambitions of becoming a "Professional Martial Arts Instructor.” I then suddenly blurted out everything that I’d pictured while I'd been painting the wall.

After this sudden outburst of emotion, I remember my boss sitting there with his mouth open wide, his expression seemed to depict exactly what was going on his mind. I suddenly realised what he was thinking.......... this young man is crazy and in desperate need of psychiatric help.