Busy and Responsible When we look at these two words they seem to be pretty much synonymous with each other. In reality, though, there is one key difference between the two that can affect your mentality and your lifestyle. Busy means that you are spending or dedicating time because you Continue Reading
David Paprocki
Never Stagnate! Is It a Journey If You’re Not Moving?
In Semper-Fi, Business Leadership the Marine Corps Way, Dan Carrison points out an effective strategy that the armed forces use in order to keep servicemembers continually focused on progression! On their uniforms, there are markings for both time in the service as well as their pay grade (Carrison and Walsh Continue Reading
Plane Crashes
What do commercial plane crashes between different countries’ airlines have to do with our attitude for how we train in the martial arts? In Malcom Gladwell’s Outliers, he points out that in the 1980’s Korean Air had a crash to flight ratio that was 10 times that of any other Continue Reading
What is Expert?
What is an expert? We were having a review for this blog a couple weeks ago, and something Ana said bothered me. It bothered me not because she said anything against my view of technique, philosophy or values of martial arts. It bothered me because she was selling herself short. Continue Reading
You Can’t Carry Two Watermelons
When Ronda Rousey reached the peak of her fame, she became interested in starting an acting career which she successfully started. Her acting ambitions were met with certain hesitancy from her boxing coach Edmond Taverdyan who said, “You cannot carry two watermelons in your hands!” After Rousey began to join Continue Reading
Religious Overtones in the Martial Arts
When you look at virtually every martial art, there is always some sort of moral code. These moral codes come from different religions. Many different religions are represented in different different martial arts. In a lot of the Eastern Asian martial arts you see a great deal of either Zen Continue Reading
The True Need for Self Motivation
There are a few martial arts practitioners that are not my students, but I have had an impact on their progression and development in the martial arts. They are low ranking Dan students around the rank of 1st or 2nd Dan. One common thing that I hear them say is, Continue Reading
How to Incorporate the Eastern Philosophy of the Martial Arts in a Healthy Way
One of the downfalls of eastern Asian philosophy that does not agree very much with the western philosophy we are acquainted with in civilian life is the point of not asking for things! When we train we are often taught not to ask our instructors to test or for a Continue Reading
How to Find a Good Instructor
This seems like a very opinionated question. What do you look for in an instructor? Really it sounds like it is a subjective question. It can certainly vary from person to person, but when you look at those instructors who have students that continued to train, continued to teach, and Continue Reading
In Discussion There is Always Sense and Honor
Don’t get de escalation wrong! De escalation pertains to physical confrontation and eliminating it. We should, however, make sure we verbally escalate with people when we have a problem or something really just doesn’t feel right. For me, it took some years to understand this and it led me to Continue Reading