What More Could We Ask?
A student and her parents share what earning a black belt looked like from both sides
At KarateBuilt Martial Arts, the final step toward a black belt happens at a desk. Before any student can earn that rank, they write an essay about what karate means to them. It’s one of our favorite traditions. After years of drills, forms, and board breaks, students get the chance to look back and put the whole experience into their own words.
Cici Liu’s essay reads the way a young martial artist thinks. She walks us through the four parts of a front kick, explains why punches are a technique everyone can learn, and even lists which board colors go with which age groups. Her favorite parts of training are the ones that test her: breaking boards to see how powerful her strikes have become, trying new weapons each cycle, and sparring with partners her own size. She closes with the hope that you’ll start karate too.
Her parents, Haley and Bill Dubiel, wrote a letter to go with it. When Cici first asked to try karate, their one condition was that she stick with it for a full year. What they watched unfold reached well past the dojo. Her room stays neat. Homework gets done as soon as she walks in from school. She reads every night without a reminder, and she was recently named Student of the Month. Each section of their letter ends with the same question: what more could we ask?
Read side by side, these two pieces show black belt training from both ends. One comes from the student on the mat. The other comes from the parents who watched her grow from the sidelines.
What Karate Means To Me
By Cici Liu
Karate had meant a lot to me. When I first started karate, I didn’t know if I would really like it or not. I started taking lessons, and now I love karate. Karate is one out of many things that I like. I have learned a lot from karate like forms, techniques, board breaks, weapons, and how to spar with each other.
What I have learned in forms is the form meanings and what the names are. Also it can help me memorize the moves so I look smooth, sharp, and strong when I do them. The next thing I have learned is techniques. There are a lot of techniques to learn as you go through all of the different belt ranks.
One of my favorite feet techniques is front kicks. When you use front kicks, it can be very fast and quick when you are sparring. There are 4 parts to a kick, and those are chamber, execute, re-chamber and then there is return.
My favorite hand technique is punches. The reason I like punches is because like front kicks it can be very fast, strong and powerful when you are sparring someone. Punches is one of the easiest techniques to learn so that everybody can learn how to do it. 
The next thing that I learned is the board breaks. The reason that I like board breaks is because every cycle they would change the board breaks so that everyone can use different technique to break the boards. Another reason why I like board breaks is because I can see how strong and powerful my moves are. There are also certain board colors for different ages. For example, under the age of 6 is white, 7-8 is yellow, 9-10 is the color orange, 11-12 is green, 16 and ages up for females is blue and the age 16 and up for males is brown.
The next thing that I have learned is how to use weapons. For weapons, they would change like the board breaks do. The reason I like weapons is because I can get to experience and get to try out different weapons that I have never seen or used before. All of the weapons are made out of soft cushions and patted foam so they will not hurt anyone as much as they would for the wood one and the metal ones.
The next thing that I have learned in karate is how to spar each other. One reason that I like sparring is that I get to experience what it feels like to spar a bad guy in real life. We have gear on so that when we hit or strike them with an attack it will not really hurt at all. If we just sparred in the air, it would not help us at all, and we would never get to practice and feel what it is like. Another reason why I like sparring is that they give each person their partner the same height so that the smallest person would not spar the biggest person in the class.
Those are the things about what I have learned in karate and hope that you will also be starting karate.
What More Could We Ask?
From Haley and Bill Dubiel
When Cici came to us and asked about doing Karate, my wife and I knew immediately this would be great for her. We intuitively knew that Karate would support critical life lessons that would ground her with discipline, commitment, confidence and achievement, all while providing a foundation of self-defense. The only thing we asked of her was that if she wanted to start on this journey, there is no quitting for at least a year. Here is what we have observed while she has been on her Black Belt journey:
Commitment: From the start, Cici demonstrated commitment to the daily grind of practicing, working out, and improving on her technique. She attended almost every class offered and took advantage of all Accelerated Training Camps. Her commitment to Karate was there from the start and never wavered. What more could we ask?
Discipline: One of the core foundations of Karate is discipline. It’s all about the little things and doing things right, not just doing them. We noticed this spill over into how she does things outside of Karate as well. Her room is always neat and clean; she gets her homework done right when she comes home from school; and she reads every night for thirty minutes. She does this without being asked! What more could we ask?
Confidence: We have witnessed Cici grow with confidence both inside and outside of Karate. Karate is designed to build skills over time, which helps with confidence and self-esteem. A great example is the process of breaking boards that are increasingly more difficult. The confidence that comes from doing what she once thought was impossible is key. We now witness Cici trying new activities/challenges without being prodded or pushed like we used to do. What more could we ask?
Achievement: It’s important to us that Cici understands who she is as a person is a culmination of all of her choices and actions she takes in life. If she puts the time and effort in and makes good decisions, she can achieve great results. Karate absolutely reinforces this with its journey of belt achievement. She understood the effort, commitment of time and sacrifices she would have to do to achieve her black belt. We see that spill over in other areas as she was just named Student of the Month at school for both academic and social achievements. What more could we ask?
She has demonstrated to us that she has the foundation of what it means to be committed to a goal. She understands the discipline required to master skills. She built the confidence to take on new challenges and works hard to achieve the goals that she wants. Knowing she has critical self-defense skills to protect her when we are not around is just the icing on the cake. As parents we of course are proud of Cici earning her blackbelt, however, watching her build these critical life lessons outside of her Karate class has been the real benefit for us as parents. What more could we ask?
Thank you KarateBuilt!
Congratulations to Cici on earning her black belt, and thank you to Haley and Bill for sharing what they saw along the way. Every student who walks through our doors brings something different to the mat, and every one of them leaves with a story worth telling. If your child has been curious about karate, we’d love to meet you. Stop by for a class, watch a few front kicks, and see where the first step leads.
Sincerely,
Chief Master Greg Moody, Ph.D. holds a doctorate in Special Education, is a licensed psychotherapist (LAC), and is an 8th Degree Black Belt with over 30 years of experience teaching children. He’s taught over 18,000 students, over 1,800 of them Black Belts. He has been recognized as the nation’s #1 martial arts school owner eight times, and he’s a four-time #1 Amazon Bestselling Author.
P.S. Get Dr. Moody’s Book on Bullying – Click Here
KarateBuilt.com and KarateBuilt Martial Arts have been selected as the nation’s #1 martial arts schools for EIGHT YEARS IN A ROW!
KarateBuilt L.L.C. was founded in 1995 by Dr. Greg Moody, an 8th-degree Black Belt and Chief Master Instructor, KarateBuilt Martial Arts and Karate for Kids offer lessons for pre-school children ages 3-6 and elementary age kids ages 7 and up are designed to develop critical building blocks kids need – specialized for their age group – for school excellence and later success in life.
KarateBuilt Martial Arts Adult Karate training is a complete adult fitness and conditioning program for adults who want to lose weight, get (and stay in shape), or learn self-defense in a supportive environment.
Instructors can answer questions or be contacted 24 hours of the day, 7 days a week at 866-311-1032 for one of our nationwide locations. You can also visit our website at KarateBuilt.com.
About Dr. Greg Moody: Dr. Moody is an eighth-degree black belt and chief master instructor. He has a Ph.D. in Special Education from Arizona State University (along with a Master’s Degree in Counseling and a Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering – he actually is a rocket scientist). He has been teaching martial arts for over 25 years and has owned eight martial arts schools in Arizona and California. Chief Master Moody is a motivational speaker and educator and teaches seminars in bullying, business, and martial arts training, around the world. See more at DrGregMoody.com.
Dr. Moody is also a licensed psychotherapist and maintains a practice at Integrated Mental Health Associates (IntegratedMHA.com) where he specializes in couples therapy and men’s issues.
The KarateBuilt Martial Arts Headquarters at KarateBuilt LLC is in Cave Creek, Arizona at 29850 N. Tatum Blvd., Suite 105, Cave Creek AZ 85331. You can locate the Chief Instructor, Master Laura Sanborn there directly at (480) 575-8171. KarateBuilt Martial Arts serves Cave Creek, Carefree, Scottsdale, and Paradise Valley Arizona as well as Grand Rapids, MI.
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Here is Dr. Moody’s Amazon Author Page with over 16 of his Amazon Bestselling books: Click HERE
P.P.P.S. From a parent:
“Since joining this program, my son Herman is more disciplined, motivated, and unstoppable in every challenge he faces!” – Emily Green