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
Philosophy
When Your Passion Turns Into a Chore
When we start a new activity or hobby, we get a rush of excitement and usually are eager to absorb everything you can learn about it. The adrenaline of finding something new and pursuing it, along with sheer fascination of the subject, is really useful in helping you learn and Continue Reading
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
Stomp the Groin, Re-stomp the Groin, and Do It Again!
My YouTube homepage recommends me the perfect weird mix of martial arts, drag queens, music, and building things (constant search: real-life web swingers). Often times, I’ll get recommended videos of “Women’s Self Defense Techniques” or “5 Essential defense skills for Women” and others of the sort. Automatically when I see Continue Reading
Wu Chi
I am by no means an expert in tai chi, or any martial art for that matter, but one stance that always intrigued me was the Wu Chi (or Wuji). It’s a very basic posture, and it is by no means strenuous to perform. You stand with your feet shoulder Continue Reading
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
Women in Martial Arts: What Still Needs to Be Fixed
Even though martial arts does have a lot more aspects of equality than other physical activities, there’s still work that needs to be done to progress. If you watch any compilation videos of female martial artists, most will display ladies with incredible flexibility and extremely high kicks. While this is 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