5 years ago a new student entered my dojo along with his wife and his two daughters. He said he had high goals. I didn’t exactly encourage him. In fact, I made it sound difficult if not impossible to get there. ( His wife had said they had to continue to stay after me for a long period of time to get in the club.) I didn’t make it easy on him. I never do.

A couple of years later I told him it was going to take an uncommon commitment to get where he wanted to go. I took the cookie away and told him that he would never get there, at his current rate of training. As a result, he and his wife began to come to the dojo and train every night Monday through Friday, 2 hours a night for about 2 years. I call that uncommon commitment. Don’t you?

I saw that he had a tremendous organizational mind. So I gave him my suitcases of unfiled karate notes and said: Here see what you can do to organize these!?

The accomplishments and streamlined training exercises and clearly defined training guidelines are mind-boggling.

Then We took on the project to help form an organization to join with other schools in the area regarding tournaments, and he spearheaded the website and accurate recording of the points for the whole organization. Many of my Sensei friends have accused me of being ridiculously over-demanding for not making this presentation a long time ago. His knowledge of Shotokan and our system is profound.

I told him I had to see him in some tournament fights and that he had to do well. Done. Mission accomplished.

Then, here came covid. We were no longer allowed to continue to train where we had trained for the last several years. We trained in backyards and Fields for a while. And the Sensei [me] mentioned that he would probably just quit teaching. No way! In steps Craig Daves. Singlehandedly, he rented and rebuilt a facility directly downtown on the main corner in Thomasville. And he renovated it completely, from top to bottom. So that now we have one of the nicest training facilities anywhere in this area. (( above and beyond the Call of Duty??? To say the least )).

Still, I made his advancement training-related and only training-related. And he gladly took the challenge.

And while we were working on some fine-tuning on this overdue announcement, because he is a perfectionist & wanted it that way. A series of plaguing and hindering injuries began to beset him. Every time when we get through one. Here would come another, only worse.

We were training literally every morning of the week for two months, to finalize this envisioned accomplishment, when an injury that will hinder him for some time to come, seemed to shut the door on his intense training schedule with me. But by now, I had already seen what I wanted to see.

So I gave him another avenue to pursue and finish this goal since the current limitation was unavoidable & not possible to train through. So, I assigned him privately, a difficult option to help me develop reusable demonstrations for the club. Therefore, We now have two spot on demonstration plans and have trained the club accordingly. To say he succeeded would be an understatement.

It is my great honor to have recently awarded Shodan-Ho provisional black belt to a terrific Christian man & awesome karate student: Craig Daves! Congratulations Craig! Rock-N-Roll Dave’s, You deserve this in every way! Sensei Tim-“