Training for Nerds

I'd like to tell you about my group class. I teach martial arts to a group of brilliant middle-aged men. I'm not exaggerating when I say brilliant. Each is successful enough in his field that he can take a few hours of in the middle of the work day to train. Each is self-employed in a market that is ruthless when it comes to talent. I've written about these guys before. When they started, they were the most uncoordinated and unathletic group I had ever worked with. Not one of them was a fighter and most had never participated in a contact sport. But I have to say: 8 months later, I'm more proud of this group than I am any band of elite warriors I've trained or worked with.

This group has had its ranks thinned since its beginnings. There's nothing like full-contact sparring to separate those who really want to learn and those who simply talk a good game. Our core group is a tough little band of computer nerds and traders. Not what you would traditionally classify as warriors but warriors nonetheless.

That term is thrown around a lot, particularly by those who want to lend some morality to their ass-kicking. I've never used it lightly and I've had major arguments with my mentors and employers about what I thought was their unjustified use of the word. I have some simple rules about warriorhood.
1. Only another warrior can initiate you into the band. It doesn't do any good to have your mother call you a warrior unless she's a warrior too.
2. You actually have to have some physical ability to fight. If not, you're just an athlete, not a warrior.
3. You have to have an ethical code. Without that, you're just a thug.
4. You will have had to overcome some significant obstacle. As George Leonard wrote, "Being a warrior has nothing to do with winning or even succeeding. It has to do with risking and losing and risking again as long as you live.
5. You've got to be willing to put it on the line for something greater than yourself.

My motley crew of nerds have certainly fulfilled all these requirements. In fact, what there were mostly missing was the physical part. That was easy enough to teach them because the core elements were there. The thing that amazes me, though is how much I've learned from them. I don't come from their world. I grew up fighting so I was relatively unfamiliar with the fear and apprehension they felt about training. None of the men I've trained before exhibited any of that fear. If they felt it, they would have had to choke it down for fear of ridicule. But that's a different thing entirely. The closest thing I can relate to was when I got to college. I shouldn't have been there. I was a trouble-maker, a fighter and a world-class martial artist. I had no business being at an institution of higher learning. But I was lucky enough to have some phenomenal professors who took me under their wings (I'm still no sure why) and guide me through my academic life. To my great surprise, I found that I was actually quite good at it.

My nerds, in their approach to training, showed me that I had a lot in common with them. Their apprehension (and mine) was based in a lack of familiarity. If I could be guided through gently (as fearful as I was) hopefully, I could do the same with them. I spent so much time and energy thinking about how to explain things, how to teach certain concepts that were second nature to a fighter but completely foreign to a computer nerd.

When it comes right down to it, I think that these students were all far braver than I've ever been. Fighting, jumping out of an airplane, etc. has always been second nature to me. Sure, I've been scared but it was always mixed with exhilaration. School was terrifying because it made me question my value as a person-- at least in the beginning. My students had far more to be really scared of. None of them, before the started class had ever taken a really good punch before. Now, they are mixing it up like seasoned amateurs.

One of students once said to me that he never used to believe me when I said that there were certain things that could only be learned through physical force and violence. He said that he thought I was just being a macho asshole. It wasn't until after he'd gone through my training that he understood what I was talking about. There aren't words for what I'm trying to say. But I can show you physically. We can talk about it after you understand.

That's the thing with martial arts. You have to trust your teacher because many of the lessons do not make sense until you can do them. I guess that why I favor Spinoza so much more than Descartes. In purely physical terms, a Cartesian mind would never understand the martial arts. You cannot wake up one day and know Kung Fu.

I'm really proud of my nerdy students. I'm also continuing to refine the teaching method. I think, in there somewhere, is a lesson that would benefit nerds of all stripes. This is the greatest gift of my injury. It has forced me to teach a group of men I would have never thought of for a second before. I'm a better man because I know them. I honored to count them as friends.