I've been teaching Uechi-ryu for over 50 years. During that time I've motivated and retained thousands of students to begin my program and to stick with it until they became black belts. Many of these students continue to train with me and now have dojo or programs of their own. Many are acknowledged experts, not only in the art of Uechi-ryu, but in countless other pursuits. I am indeed very proud of them!

Within the martial art world, most students are children and most of their training borders on "babysitting" and play. Adults seldom make up the primary membership in today's dojo, even though the workouts are excellent and an exciting (or they should be) way to exercise. In a good dojo, people are enjoying the learning and perfecting "experience" so much, they forget that they are exercising. What a fascinating substitute to the "mindless" and endless time spent on a treadmill or lifting weights that many people elect to do!

But even with the best instruction and the most attentive teacher, the student's potential for success or just sustaining his/her participation in any physical program, is slim. If you really want to succeed in your goals, you should astablish realistic goals for yourself, then set up a regular and strictly adhered to schedule of workouts where you will see them and reminded of your goals and schedule.

I've also found that an important part of goal setting and regular and strictly followed workouts is to maintain a detailed diary (private blog) of any program that you wish to maintain. (See section on Private Training Blogs)

Every training workspace included a private calendar that you can use for your personal use. The most important element of this calendar is the repeated logging on recurring events. (Working out every day for 20 minutes at 6am - meeting with GEM at 8pm every month on the 2nd Tuesday)