Bringing martial arts to matric

JORDAN MOSHE

Like many sports, karate demands balance and discipline. Maintaining poise, a clear mind, and focus are all essential to be a successful martial artist. Like karate, matric requires control and stability, and as a karatika, Joffe has learned to apply his martial arts to his studies, bringing everything into perfect balance.

A keen soccer player and the director of children’s services at Chabad of Norwood, this Torah Academy student realised early in his matric year that balance was critical to success – it paid off with five distinctions in his case.

“Karate gives you physical and mental stability,” says Joffe. “Eleven years of training have shown me that not only does it relieve stress, it teaches methods which you can apply to life, even to school, to make sure that everything stays in balance.”

Although he put his karate lessons on hold for the second half of his matric year, Joffe strove to apply the principles of balance and focus to his studies throughout the year. “You take the year as it comes,” he says. “After working hard, you have to disconnect, and balance work with relaxation. But when you’re working, you have to swing in the other direction, and give yourself over to studying – forgetting about your phone entirely.”

It is for this reason that Joffe continued to run children’s services at his shul throughout his matric year, no matter the pressure he faced. Without fail, he’d arrive at shul on Shabbos, and ensure that the youth were engaged.

“Responsibilities don’t just go away when you have matric pressure,” he says. “The things you need to do are still there. I had to just go ahead and do them. It’s especially rewarding because you know you’ve done something in a balanced way.”

A constructive outlet is virtually indispensable, he says, especially when you’re feeling the stress of matric. “I have an older brother who did brilliantly in matric. To some extent, his reputation put pressure on me, especially when people would see me and say that they had no doubt I’d succeed because of how well my brother had done. Although I was stressed, the balance I struck put it into perspective, and evened things out.”

According to Joffe, this mechanism and its application to the work involved in matric is worth more than the end results. “The way you learn to work and grow is worth more than the distinction you get at the end,” he says. “Yes, they are important, but distinctions aren’t necessarily indicators of a good approach. If anything, the pressure they create is the benefit – it fuels you and makes you create a method that works for you and helps you succeed in your own way.”

True to his ethos, Joffe will be pursuing a gap year in Israel at the Ma’ayanot Yeshiva, where he will spend time learning and playing soccer.

Although his school career is over, Joffe seems determined to continue his balanced approach to life. He concludes: “What comes, comes. Everything is about balance and perspective. Get your priorities right, and understand that they are part of a bigger picture.”