This is a blog post I wrote 15 years ago, in Hebrew. It’s outdated in many ways: I don’t teach martial arts anymore, Royce Gracie retired from MMA, Miki isn’t a professional swimmer anymore, and the two other names in the piece (Orbach, a swimmer-turned-model and Bar-Zohar, a professional female model) have dropped out of my consciousness completely. Yet its message still resonates with me, so I decide to translate it.

I was recently asked, again, who I look up to in the martial arts world. It’s a beginner’s question everywhere, I think, especially for teenagers, they want to know who I look up to because the sensei seems like an authority figure, a role out of reach, as though there’s nothing more I can learn. Who do I look up to? Some can name ten masters who won all the tournaments, some look up to Bruce Lee, if you’re into BJJ you probably look up to Royce Gracie, how can you not. I, however, look up to someone else. I look up to Miki Halika.

Miki doesn’t practice martial arts. Miki is a swimmer. He’s a good swimmer but not the best – his record includes some “almosts” and some “nearly’s” and I, put me in a pool and even the retirees on their 5am swim leave me behind, as though they intentionally make an extra effort when they’re around me. What do I know about swimming. The thing is that for me, even more important than who Miki Halika is, is who Miki isn’t. And Miki – Miki isn’t Eytan Orbach. That’s the point.

Look at Eytan Orbach – that’s a swimmer. All sharp, comes to the pool to work out, no joke – everyone knows he means business. Tall, good looking, works out and breaks records. On the other hand Halika – what’s a Halika anyway, definitely not an Orbach, even after he came in second in Europe in 99 his coach Leonid Kaufman said “Miki isn’t Eytan, but Miki,” that’s what he said, “Miki works extra hard.” But Miki will never be Eytan. Miki gets to the facility in the morning, he sees the pool, and he jumps in. He starts swimming, there’s a line painted at the bottom of the pool that he looks at between breaths, and he swims to the wall and flips back. Swims to the other wall, then flips back. Back and forth until practice is over. What’s he got to think about anyway? Home, family, paying rent, simple stuff.

Eytan Orbach, on the other hand, is thinking about Yael Bar Zohar. How can you not think about Bar Zohar after doing a whole photoshoot with her and then a whole campaign for Fox Clothing on top of that? The guy has fan sites – one formal and one informal, ok? Who’s going to set up a fan site for Miki Halika, he barely gets to write a story for the training facility’s blog. So they work out every day, side by side, and Miki knows: even after he gets on the podium, a second after they put the medal on him, he gets a kick in the ass, it’s the coach, he’s pointing at the pool – let’s go Miki, time to swim. It’s a never ending thing, sometimes you get a song stuck in your head that just won’t go for more than two hours. Can’t really think about Yael Bar Zohar, because who’s going to ask Miki Halika to do a photoshoot? What kind of name is Halika anyway? So they keep on swimming.

And then… Then Eytan Orbach gets sick of swimming. Give him a break, it’s Eytan Orbach, why let swimming hold him back? When Eytan Orbach goes for a walk outside, three teenage girls immediately swoon. When Miki Halika goes for a walk – well, nothing happens. Everything’s as usual. So why bother Eytan with swimming right now? He’s got to get his priorities right. Everyone gets it, sure, you have to make the best use of opportunities when they present themselves. Miki also understands, but he doesn’t really have a lot of time to express that understanding. He wakes up in the morning and he hears the pool calling him – come Miki, hop in, the water’s good today. So he puts on his swimming suit and his goggles, sometimes his head is shaved and sometimes it isn’t, and he starts swimming. They have this line at the bottom of the pool that you look at between breaths and Miki, what’s on his mind? As usual, home and the rent and maybe getting groceries. Maybe he’s thinking, time to push hard, I have a competition coming up. Maybe he’s thinking that it’s nice that Eytan decided what he wants to do with his life. And he swims to the wall, and flips back. Swims to the wall, and flips back. And swims, and flips. And swims.

And that’s why I look up to Miki Halika.