I believe Henry Ford was right when he said: “Whether you believe you can or believe you can't, you're probably right". That statement gives you an idea of how important confidence is in all areas of your life.

To illustrate this point, I’m going to describe my experience with two students. These two students were around before we used re-breakable boards, so you either broke the wooden boards or you didn’t break. The first student was in elementary school, probably in first or second grade. He was one of those kids who believed he could do anything. In his mind, he was bulletproof. We had several people who were breaking for the first time and we put him up first. He broke on his first attempt because he expected too. Once he broke successfully, everybody else in the class believed they could do it too and they did. The other student was an adult and even though she had seen several other people break, she didn’t believe she could do it. She stopped at the surface of the board on every strike and she never broke a board, not even with a stomp. Did she have more strength than the elementary school student? Of course she did. The problem was all in her mind. She lacked confidence.

If there is one universal affect of martial arts training, it would be confidence. We have seen tremendous changes in people after only a few weeks. Seeing the look of pride and accomplishment on the faces of students when they get that first belt promotion is priceless.

One of the enemies of confidence can be the interaction between students. When two advanced students are doing grabbing techniques, they basically know what their opponent is going to do. Therefore, they know how to react to neutralize the other person’s technique. This can cause you to doubt the technique and lose confidence. Students need to remember this and realize that they are not likely to face a trained fighter in a self-defense situation. The techniques you are learning will work and you should have confidence in using them. I’ll give you another example. When I was in college, I took a Hapkido course. Hapkido has some throwing techniques and we trained on the mat. Obviously, the students knew what each other was doing and knew how to resist. We were also taught how to fall, so a throw didn’t really do anything to your opponent. It was easy to lose confidence that the techniques were good. However, on one of my trips home, I was wrestling around outside with my brother and threw him flat on his back. He was OK, but hit much harder than I had intended. You need to remember that techniques done with a fellow student and an outsider will have very different results.

Confidence also provides another benefit. One of the reasons people study martial arts is for self-defense. Criminals and thugs are predators. They are looking for easy prey. They develop skills at identifying people who will most likely not fight back. When you learn a martial art, you learn techniques to defend against just about any type of aggression. With the confidence you gain from knowing there are things you can do, regardless of the situation, you will look completely different to a predator. They are looking for absentmindedness, but you are aware of your surroundings. They are looking for fear, but you have minimized it because you know how to handle yourself. They are looking for weakness, but you have strength from constant practice and conditioning. By projecting confidence, you will likely avoid the need to use your training for self-defense.