Zen and the Art of Hapkido: The Mauro Kids journey through Martial Arts

September 14, 2022
9:12 am

As we age we often look back at our accomplishments and marvel at how we reached our goals. I played little league as a child for many years and was quite successful. Yet to this day I can not tell you what my best game was, what my batting average was, or even what any of my team’s final records were. We often look back at the journey as one complete package. We remember bits and pieces and certainly how hard we worked, but we often lose sight of the specifics. The actual small steps and stumbles that began and moved our journey along.

Starting Martial Arts Classes in Howell, New Jersey

This year my two youngest children decided to begin their journey into Martial Arts. Max (age 7) started first and Mikayla (age 10) followed soon after. They both decided early one that they loved it and both wanted to make the commitment to continue this journey until they earned black belts. I admired their dedication and commitment from the beginning and have been casually snapping photos and videos of their classes to share with friends and family.

What People Remember Most About Martial Arts Training

As we became more comfortable at our studio we got to know each of the instructors more and more. As we talked to them, we began to learn their personal journeys into Hapkido. What was a constant theme for all is that they all seem to remember what motivated them to start, the details of belt awards, especially earning their Black Belts, but what was a bit more fuzzy were the small details and longer journey to these milestones.

At this point I decided to start uploading Max and Mikayla’s videos to a family Youtube channel. This was initially done to share their training sessions with various family members scattered around the United States.

Realizing that this was creating a permanent record of their journey it was suggested to me by their Hapkido Instructor, Master Brian that it should also be saved for them via a blog. So after one conversation before a Thursday training session, the written record of the Mauros’ journey through Hapkido was born.