I was working in my son's yard (a multi-year project). His grass is so strong that it would grow under any plastic edging I tried. So I eventually decided to excavate a pretty deep trench (at least 1 foot) and make a cement edging about 8 inches thick. It took me a few days to dig a trench about 30 feet long.
Off I went to the hardware store to buy cement. I did not know how much to buy. I thought I might 3 or 4 bags. I asked a worker who made some calculations based on the dimensions I gave above. He said I needed about 25 bags of cement! I thought he was crazy!
So I bought 5 bags (which seemed like a lot) and went to my son's yard, mixed the bags and poured them. The guy was right -- 5 bags was only about 1/5th of what I needed. I had to go back and forth to the store four more times.
That trench required a lot of cement. I guess I thought that the cement would rise like dough.
So here is the point. Learning Karate looks easy but it takes more than a student might think. He might think it will take 5 bags, but the instructor knows it will take 30 (or 100, or 1,000). Experience tells us that learning Karate well takes a great deal of time, effort, dedication, and refinement.
Any good foundation takes a lot of cement!
Respectfully,
Charles C. Goodin
