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Barbara McCoy, MS

Owner at McCoy's Action Karate

Barbara Washburn McCoy owns McCoy’s Action Karate (M.A.K) in Auburn, MA. In this role, Ms. McCoy provides an environment to learn martial arts and life skills through experiential learning for her students, their families, and her team. Ms. McCoy is a lifelong student (academically and physically), so she can continue offering the best of herself to those she empowers to live their best lives.

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Latest posts by Barbara McCoy, MS (see all)

• What is Worth Fighting For? - February 25, 2024
• Living with gratitude and grief in the martial arts… - December 7, 2023
• Competition…? - November 2, 2023

The Seed.

There is a quote in Hamilton that Alexander Hamilton, in the scene where Burr shoots him, sings, “Legacy. What is a legacy?
It is planting seeds in a garden you never get to see.”

Sometimes teaching and training feel like that.
A garden that is yet to bloom and feels like it might never happen.
Despite that, the martial art athlete presses on.

Resilience.

How often does one plant a flower hoping to see it bloom the following season, yet it is a few more seasons for it to germinate?

Or how about how daffodils and tulips make an underground network and repopulate and take over, providing more color and flowers to bring joy simply because they were planted and provided for?

Intentionally or unintentionally, like water making its path, plants, and for this article’s purpose, flowers tend to grow despite their surroundings when tenacity kicks in.

Martial arts come at resilience from a perspective that only comes from training.
Promoting the relationships between an individual’s subjective well-being and physical activity takes more than spending time in a garden.

The dedication to learning new skills to applying them to situations is not an overnight sensation.

However, when that state of mind occurs, and the skill is instinctual, the ability to transfer it into other avenues of life occurs.

The exposure to ranks and the legend of the progression representing the seed blooming and dying to feed another may hit you differently than it hits others.

Despite your experience with this tradition, the hardiness of the flower is an important image to let influences the human experience.

Related to training in martial arts, the achievements experienced lead to the continuation of more tasks being completed compared to turning to isolation when facing stressors (Nezhad & Besharat, 2010).

The factors influencing thriving under pressure and increasing positive affectivity depend on the athletes’ competence and personal tenacity.

Like a succulent that welcomes the heat, the harsh conditions, not out of ego but intrinsic knowledge of how the other side of the struggle makes the plot twist of severe sandstorms as impressive as sunshine after a tornado.

Tenacity.

Interconnected and intertwined are resilience and tenacity.
Against the external forces that often pull an individual down, like thorns and weeds to the flower garden.
The human condition wants relationships to be seen and valued.
Humans want to grow and thrive, not plateau.
Today choose against yourself.
Do the next right thing with resilience despite the natural desire to take the path that provides instant satisfaction.
That is tenacity.

Very few activities and experiences force individuals to face themselves and external forces and choose to shine, grow, and inspire others.

Like a plant, an athlete cannot simply exist to be exceptional in their craft.

Some plants, when intently placed, are ground coverings, and others repopulate themselves as part of their existence.

How does all this relate to tenacity and training in martial arts?

There must be an appropriate growing and empowering environment for individuals to grow for themselves and impact those around them.

In addition, they must be doing their due diligence to feed their body the proper nourishment physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
Focusing on serotonin and the complications of when it is lacking often overlooks the individual’s gut concerns. Metabolic conditions and the blaming of fault tend to forget the exposure to nature that benefits the quality of life and the narrative the individual is telling themselves (Corely et al., 2021).
That is a conversation for a different day.
It may be worth considering how the flower can serve as a metaphor for the successful athlete during the investigation.

The Garden.

Be the flower in the garden that grows because of another and be that kind of influence on those around you.

We are human BE-ings, not human DO-ings, yet often, that is forgotten.

How many martial art legends speak of being the gardener and the warrior?
The truth of learning to be human.
As a result of the roots you have planted, the seeds you are growing, and the training environment you feed with the appropriate forms of water and sunshine…do not be shocked by the garden that blooms.

Corley, J., Okely, J. A., Taylor, A. M., Page, D., Welstead, M., Skarabela, B., … & Russ, T. C. (2021). Home garden use during COVID-19: Associations with physical and mental wellbeing in older adults. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 73, 101545. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2020.101545

Nezhad, M. A. S., & Besharat, M. A. (2010). Relations of resilience and hardiness with sport achievement and mental health in a sample of athletes. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 5, 757–763.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2010.07.180