Blog Martial Arts

What is excellence?

December 1, 2020 by KMMA

Today is the start of Excellence month at KMMA.

Excellence is one of the Qualities of A Champion that we produce through our Blackbelt Leadership Program at KMMA.

But what is Excellence?

It’s a very interesting and important question.

While we know it when we see it, and find ourselves compelled to associate with and follow those who display it, it’s kind of hard to define;

but one of the first steps towards becoming excellent is to understand what excellence looks like, so let’s spend a little time on that together here.

Definition of excellence

1: the quality of being excellent

2: an excellent or valuable quality : VIRTUE

3: EXCELLENCY sense 2

Well that wasn’t that useful, was it. Though I do like #2.

It reminds me of the definition that Aristotle gives in his Nicomachean Ethics:

Excellence [of character], then, is a state concerned with choice, lying in a mean relative to us, this being determined by reason and in the way in which the man of practical wisdom (phronimos) would determine it. Now it is a mean between two vices, that which depends on excess and that which depends on defect.

Ok I know that isn’t easy to understand nor probably even interesting to one other than a philosophy major (which I was) but Aristotle’s definition is very useful to us when we are speaking to moral excellence- one of the two types of excellence we produce in Blakcbelts along the way.

The other is of course physical excellence- this is where Aristotle’s ideas about virtua are relevant. He said that “the virtue of a knife is to cut”.

One of the virtues of a Blackbelt is the ability to defend his or her self and others from harm at the hands of evil. In producing speed, focus, power, accurracy and intensity in students on their way to Blackbelt, and copling these with the most useful self defense system in the world, we develop this Excellence in Blackbelts.

But we develop the moral one that Aristotle speaks of too. Aristotle defines Excellence of character as the mean between the extremes.

This is to say that Courage is the mean between cowardice and foolhardiness, for example.

All moral decisions and actions of Excellence are the mean between the two extremes (the one of excess and the one of deficiency).

It is the ability to make these choices when it matters that reveals our Excellence or lack thereof.

This is why we train it in advance.

In the same way it’s “a good thing to get stabbed with a rubber knife all day long”, in the dojo under the expert tutelage of our Sensei to help you turn these make believe attacks into preparation should a student ever have to use the skill in real life………

It’s the same with moral decisions and other examples of Blackbelt Leadership Excellence.

We practice in the dojo so we can be ready in the real world.

Grand Master Stephen J. Del Castillo

TampaKravMaga.com

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Founded in 2000 by Grandmaster Stephen J. Del Castillo, a 7th degree Black Belt and Sr. Master Instructor, Krav Maga Martial Arts and Karate lessons for pre-school children ages 3-6 and elementary age kids ages 7 and up are designed to develop the critical building blocks kids need – specialized for their age group – for school excellence and later success in life.

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About Grandmaster Stephen J. Del Castillo: Grandmaster Del Castillo is the founding Master Instructor of Krav Maga Martial Arts and has been empowering lives in Pasco and Hillsborough Counties since October of 2000. He is a 7th degree Blackbelt, MBA, author, mentor and success coach, a US Army Veteran and a proud father and grandfather. He is married to Ms. Barbara Del Castillo who helps him run the school. Grand Master Del Castillo began his training in the early 80’s and has high level blackbelts in Tae Kwon Do, Karate, Premier Martial Arts and Krav Maga Martial Arts as well as experience in kickboxing, Jeet Kune Do and Jiujitsu. He has high level instructor certifications from BBSI, IKMF, and KMG and has been featured in numerous Martial Arts publications and also Success magazine. He was a competitive sport karate and American Kickboxing instructor until he enlisted in the US Army where he served in the 82nd Airborne Division, where he won an Army Green to Gold scholarship and proceeded to ROTC and the University of Tampa. He was commisioned in 1992 and went on to serve in Germany with the 3rd Infantry Division and then in several other posts in the US until he left military service to pursue his dream of creating KMMA in 2000.

The Krav MagaMartial Arts Headquarters is in Lutz, FL at 1900 Land O’ Lakes Blvd., 33549. Krav Maga Martial Arts serves Lutz, Land O’ Lakes, Wesley Chapel, and surrounding areas.

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