I’m going to be honest with you. When I was younger, I absolutely hated sparring. I think a solid part of that had to do with the fact that I was a 9 year old novice among a class of adult black belts. I was terrified, and Physics certainly was Continue Reading
David Paprocki
Do You Know as Much as You Think? Stay Humble
In Peter Boghossian’s How to Have Impossible Conversations, he talks about a social observation called the “Toilet Effect”. Several people were approached on the street and asked,”Do you know how a toilet works?” (Boghossian 36) I know, what a strange question. Who doesn’t know how a toilet works? Literally every Continue Reading
Reasons: Why Do You Train? Are You Dedicated and Responsible?
In what is widely known as the first Autobiography ever written in Western Literature, Confessions, Augustine of Hippo or St. Augustine, depending on what your religious beliefs are or lack thereof, Asserts, “I did not sin for the sake of sinning or because I had anything to gain from it. Continue Reading
Improving Your Footwork: A Step in the Right Direction
“If you can move efficiently and effectively, your basic techniques will take you the rest of the way!”
Misconceptions About Humility
As a teenage martial artist, I always heard about the importance of staying humble. We all hear about the importance of not thinking we are the greatest. We are told not to be arrogant and not to be cocky about our abilities. For a teenage student these concepts are very Continue Reading
One Kanji, Different Meanings
When we look at this kanji, what does it mean to you? 唐手道 For some, it means the way of the Chinese hand, karate do, Tang Soo Do, or Tang Shou Tao! Yes, all of those translate to the same thing. Depending on where you live though or the art Continue Reading
My Side Kick – Then And Now
Martial arts is, or should be about constant polishing and reflection. In doing so we must make ourselves vulnerable, and if there is one person we must make ourselves vulnerable to, we need be vulnerable to our own self. I will do that just now with you. Let’s take a Continue Reading
If You Don’t Cross Train, You Need to Cross Read
We’ve seen Ana, Anthony and I all comment on the importance of being well rounded and cross training, but some of us don’t have the time to train in and seriously rank in several different martial arts. We should at least though, look to the roots of different arts to Continue Reading
Rooms Have a Purpose, Respect the Office and the Dojang!
The university that I attended was a martial arts melting pot. While I was and still am the Chief Instructor of the Tang Soo Do Club, I had the ability to learn so much from people from outside of my organization and outside the art of Tang Soo Do. One Continue Reading
The Selfish Benefits of Being a Selfless Instructor
I was at work the other day, and I had the opportunity to teach a newer coworker of mine how a certain vehicle system worked. This gave me another perspective for something that I already thought I knew. This helped get my coworker in the right direction while I also Continue Reading