You can check out pictures of my Kung Fu experience, including me competing in a national martial arts tournament, and my Kung Fu family.

How Martial Arts Have Changed My Life
by Rachel Meyers
July 6, 2002

The summer that I began training at Pioneer Valley Kung Fu & Karate, my life was in disarray. The company that I had worked for four years, and the family of friends that I had built around it, had fallen apart. After years at an all-consuming job, I found myself alienated from my body - sedentary, smoking, and out of touch with my physical self.

Deciding to join PVKF&K was the first step in reclaiming my body, and in building a foundation for my new life. The school gave me the opportunity to address many aspects of my personal development: overcoming lifelong obstacles, embracing self-discipline to reach goals, building confidence and community, teaching and mentoring, and developing a mental game that is applicable to all aspects of my life.

Looking at my PVKF&K experience at the most fundamental level, I have gotten in the best physical shape of my life. I've dramatically improved my flexibility and strength, and developed a new relationship with my body. I've accomplished physical feats of strength that turned out to be tests of spirit more than anything else; and for the first time in my life, I can touch my toes, something I never thought possible.

In my quest to move through the ranks, I've had to overcome many lifelong obstacles. In the early days, as a woman in a class almost entirely of men, it was difficult for me to go back night after night. There were a few tearful nights when I thought I couldn't do it, when the intimidation of training with younger, faster, and stronger teenage boys got to be too much. But Sifu's approach to training through discipline and nurturing encouragement was exactly what I needed to continue.

One of my toughest experiences was preparing for my white sash test, when I needed to learn how to do forward rolls. In order to do this, I had to get over a lifelong mental glitch about closing my eyes and throwing my body into a headfirst motion. I soon realized that my inability to roll was linked to a lifelong challenge: diving. So I decided to take a swimming lesson at the YMCA. In one afternoon, I learned to dive for the first time in my life. Overcoming this fear gave me new momentum to conquer forward rolls. In the days before the test, I took a private lesson with Sifu, and with his patience and my determination, not only did I learn to do forward rolls, but I was able to do them while walking. This turned out to be more than just a physical challenge: closing my eyes and diving in represented a test of faith in myself.

Rising up to these types of challenges has helped me develop a mental game to get through the past two years, the hardest time of my entire life. Last summer I suffered with a mysterious medical condition, and had to take medication that prevented me from training. But even that ordeal led to growth at the school. Unable to train in Kung Fu, I began taking Chi Kung with Sensai Miller, which has not only improved my health, but helped me to be a more grounded person.

Although I wasn't able to train for those five months, Sifu continued to welcome me at the school in every capacity I was able, including acting as the official cheerleader of the PVKF&K demo team. At the school picnic last summer, Sifu made a half-joking suggestion to a certain 12 year old that she could use a big sister like me to look up to. That comment led to one of the most cherished friendships I've ever had. The time I've spent with Elora and her family has completely changed the way I see myself and my relationships with kids and teenagers.

The friendships and community that I've built at PVKF&K have become the cornerstone of my life here in the Valley. Running my businesses out of my home can be very isolating, but having the school to come to every night gets me out of the house and into a world that I love. This was especially crucial earlier this year when my father died. On many days since then, my desire to be at the school has gotten me out of bed in the morning.

And now I'm faced with a whole new set of challenges as an Assistant Instructor. I can already see myself improving in assertiveness, creativity, independence, setting boundaries, working with kids, and acting as a teacher and a mentor.

Even now, after two years of training, there are voices in my head that tell me I don't belong in martial arts and that I don't have what it takes to be a black belt. But the voices are quieter than they were at the beginning, because I've learned to question assumptions about myself, my physical abilities, and what I am capable of.