Most beginners who are looking to walk the path of a warrior are filled with many misconceptions about the martial arts. They read a book or watch a movie and decide that they want to be a warrior. These people have no idea what the martial arts are really about. They may actually believe that martial arts are just punching and kicking. Nothing could be further from the truth.

      One of the first misconceptions is that a beginner knows how to judge a martial art by observing a class. A beginner thinks that he can take a short introductory course and "know" what the martial arts are like. Unfortunately, it takes years of dedication and determination to "know" a martial art. Most beginners do not want to hear this. They want a quick fix and an easy road. Some unscrupulous martial arts instructors prey on those misconceptions in order to manipulate the beginner to train at their school.

      How can you tell if the martial arts school you are considering is right for you? You first must decide if you want to become a warrior or just tell your friends that you do martial arts. What is your level of commitment? The most important qualities a martial artist can exhibit are loyalty and dedication. You must be willing to commit yourself fully to the process of becoming a warrior. You must choose a style, school and teacher and commit, at minimum, to achieving a basic level of competence in that style. In some schools, it will be called a black belt or black sash. In other schools it will have a different name or designation. Either way, it will take between four and ten years of your life, depending on the complexity of your chosen art, to achieve that goal. You must have the commitment in order to become a warrior. If you do not have the commitment, you might as well not even waste your time or money playing at becoming a warrior.

      When visiting a school, many beginners feel that they are deciding whether or not to train at a particular school. However, in traditionally taught schools, it will be the instructor who will be evaluating the prospective student to determine the potential of that prospective student. It takes time, energy, commitment and dedication of the instructor to properly teach a student. A traditional instructor is not likely to take that commitment lightly. While the student is deciding if the school will be right for him, the traditional instructor is deciding if the prospective student will be right for the school. What are the qualities that such an instructor looks for in a prospective student? Loyalty and dedication. Without these qualities, the instructor knows that the student will not be able to successfully complete his warrior training.

      It is no coincidence that the same qualities that a traditional instructor will look for in a prospective student are the exact same qualities that a beginning student should look for in an instructor - loyalty and dedication to one chosen art or style. Watch out for an instructor who offers a laundry list of many different arts to choose from. Ask yourself why is he teaching more than one art? Is there not one art that he believes is complete? Is it for consumer marketing? Has he never found a complete art himself to study? Is he catering to the Western misconception that if knowing one art is good, than knowing two is better? Or is it just plain ignorance? Such an instructor may not know any better. Maybe his teacher did not teach him in a traditional manner. Or maybe he does know the truth but has found it more financially rewarding to give the consumer what they think they want instead of educating them with a traditional martial arts education. Beware of schools who say that you can not properly develop as a martial artist unless you learn different styles. Their illogical premise is like saying you cannot know about marriage unless you are married to many different people at the same time. These schools focus on the student's individuality and encourage the student to sign up for training by inflating and stroking the student's ego.

     A warrior is only a warrior because he believes in a cause greater than himself. A warrior whose cause is himself and his own ego glorification is no warrior at all. He is someone who just plays at being a warrior. Many beginners do not want to be told this. They want to be told martial arts are fun, easy, inexpensive, and in a short time you can become a superman. This is just not the truth. If you study a compete martial arts system seriously under a traditional teacher, then martial arts training will be the most difficult undertaking of your life. You will have to face your worst enemy, yourself. You will have to overcome your negative personality traits. You will have to discipline your mind. You have to allow yourself to be transformed into a warrior despite yourself.

      A warrior has qualities that the average person does not. Two of these qualities are loyalty and dedication to something greater than himself - his chosen art. After he has a basic understanding of his art, and his teacher feels that it is necessary, he may be allowed to study a second art to give him a new perspective on the first. But if his first chosen art is complete, there may be no need for him to ever study a second. And until he masters his first art, there is certainly no need to ever study a second. It is better to be able to make one technique work for real than to know one hundred techniques that you can't make work.

      The transformation of the beginning student into the warrior is made possible only through the loyalty and dedication of both the teacher and the student to their chosen art. Just as many insecure men become womanizers because they are unable to commit themselves to one woman, there are many insecure martial artists who are unable to dedicate themselves to a single style. This is to be expected. Not everyone is cut out to be a warrior. However, you cannot develop as a complete martial artist unless you commit to study one style fully and completely. You must commit your body, mind and spirit to studying your chosen art. You cannot develop as a complete martial artist unless you get rid of your ego and become one with the ancestors, traditions and methods of one complete martial arts system. Traditionally, such progress is measured in decades.

      If you want to walk the path of a warrior, it is important to find a traditional martial art taught in a traditional way by a traditional instructor. The training will not be easy. There will be many obstacles in your path. Most students will fall by the wayside. If, however, you approach the process of seeking to become a warrior by holding the qualities of loyalty and dedication in your heart and mind, then you might just become one of the few who know what it means to be a warrior.