... because it is hard

JFK: We choose to go to the moon.

Over the years, we've had many people from all walks of life (and some with martial arts experience) try out judo. Their reaction has always been the same: Judo is a lot harder than they expected it to be.

Actually learning judo is relatively easy. Mastering judo is hard. Demonstrating a technique on a cooperative partner is easy. Executing a technique against a fully-resisting opponent who is trying to throw you... that is hard!

Many judo players feel intense frustration after a few months because nothing they do seem to work against a resisting partner. And despite all their training and hard work they can't seem to throw the higher-ranking belts.

As a result, some throw in the towel and give up. Many will give excuses. Oh, grappling is not for me. Oh, punching and kicking is more my kind of thing. Oh, work is getting too busy and I don't have time for training anymore. But a few will be brutally honest and admit: "Judo is too hard."

Yes, judo is hard but that shouldn't be a reason not to do it. On the contrary, it should be a good challenge for us to take up.

Whenever I hear someone say, "Judo is too hard," I am reminded of JFK's iconic speech about the US ambition to go to the moon, delivered on September 12, 1962:

We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win...