She Set Her Own Goal

White Belt student Marcella Hutnick immediately responded to my declaration that 2025 is the year of CHALLENGE by telling me that she had a goal for the year.

As we began warming up at the beginning of class she told me that her goal was to be able to do a full push-up with proper form.

I was happy to hear that she already had a goal and was intent on reaching it, so I made it my goal to help her reach her goal.

She Couldn’t Do Full Push-Ups

As I counted out push-ups for the class I noticed that Marcella could not push herself up from the floor BUT she could lower herself down from her hands and feet.

So, I showed her how she could go down on her feet slowly and then push-up from her knees.

This way she would begin developing strength on the negative, lowering, part of the push up and still get her full range of pushing motion as she pushed up on her knees.

She immediately took my advice and began training this way.

Now She Had a Plan

Marcella saw her own success as she began doing full range of motion push ups, which gave her the increased motivation to keep working on it.

Later, I dismissed class and promptly forgot about what I told her, thinking we’d go over it again in subsequent classes.

Little did I know, she didn’t forget my coaching.

Then She Went to Work

When Marcella came back to class she once again said, “I want to do push-ups.”

Mind you, it’s not too often I hear students request to do push-ups.

We bowed in and prepared for some push-up training Marcella got down…

and DID 1 FULL PUSH-UP FROM HER FEET.

I Was Shocked!

I was surprised and elated; this young girl had the desire and determination to do something she could not do only days before.

Now, there’s nothing special about doing a push-up, it’s not a technical skill like doing a back-flip kick.

In fact, almost everyone’s body is able to do one.

What we lack in the will and the discipline to train ourselves.

Marcella just demonstrated to the boys in class what it took to succeed and I could see them instantly trying harder in class; they had to keep up now. 🙂

One Wasn’t Enough

I told Marcella now that she could do one push-up I was going to show her how to build up to being able to do as many as she would like to do.

After she did one push-up I told her to rest while I did one push-up.

Then I told her to do two push-ups.

She rested while I did two.

Now she had done a total of three push-ups when before she could not do one.

“I Want To Do More”

She couldn’t do three in a row, so I had her start over.

We went back to one push-up, rest, then two, push-ups, then…

THREE Push-ups In a Row!

Success Breeds Success

Still Marcella wanted to keep going.

We eventually finished the day with 4 Push-Ups in a row.

But it was actually more than that, as I told her.

1+2 = 3 Push-Ups

1+2+3+4= 10 Push-ups

And we did these LADDERS several times, each time she couldn’t do another push-up, she rested and started at 1 again.

“How Many Push-Ups in a Ladder of 10?”

As we finished up, I explained that if Marcella would do a ladder up to 10, then she would have performed 55 Push-Ups in Total.

Again, I said it off-handedly, thinking nothing more of it.

Marcella had reached her goal of being able to perform a correct push-up, and I was so happy for her.

She Wasn’t Done Yet

The next week, Marcella walked into the school and the first thing she said to me was…

“I did 55 Push-Ups! I did a ladder up to 10 with my dad at home.”

THIS is what makes a Black Belt, and this is what changes lives; Marcella’s well on her way to being WarriorFit.

And, I am as proud as a martial arts teacher could be.

PARENTS: If you would like your child to learn these invaluable LifeSkills like Marcella CLICK HERE to try a FREE CLASS.