Last month, I published an article of my answers to commonly asked questions (Link here). Shortly after that, I realized that I left one out, “Can you break a board or a brick?”. The answer is yes, but most people don’t understand why we do this. Outside of the fact Continue Reading
Philosophy
A Fact About Good Leaders
I was reading The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John C Maxwell, and one thing that he mentioned in the course of the book really stuck with me. He mentions that bad to mediocre leaders have followers underneath them while good to excellent leaders have and create other leaders Continue Reading
Does tradition still matter in the 21st century?
We are closing on nearly a century of when Japan began to export its martial arts of karate, judo and aikido to the wider world and much of their customs have become widespread. Whatever art or organization you associate with, it has been several generations since the modern era of Continue Reading
The Necessity of Training with Others and Connection
When we are training in the martial arts, we must appreciate each and every opportunity that we have to train with another person and we must respect that opportunity. We need training partners to get 100% of what we need out of our training. This is very obvious when it Continue Reading
Awareness and Avoiding Conflict
Many of us would go through life and will never experience a violent encounter, and I hope you, dear reader, never have to. However, there is something to be said about being prepared, both physically and mentally, so that, if we were to meet such misfortune, we would be able Continue Reading
“You Have Two Ears, and One Mouth”
I like to think of this literal statement in a couple different ways. The first, is something a lot of little kids have issues with: thinking before they speak. So many times when I’d be teaching a class of 4-6 year olds, one would raise their hand as if they Continue Reading
Sonder: A Key to Empathy and Sympathy in Martial Arts and Life
Sonder: a word that is found in John Koenig’s The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, a dictionary of made-up words for emotions that we feel but can’t quite explain, has a profound connection to the martial arts. Sonder is defined as “The profound feeling of realizing that each random passerby is Continue Reading
Spirituality in Martial Arts
David wrote an article called “Religious Overtones in the Martial Arts”, which you can find here –> https://urbanmartialartists.com/2021/12/09/religious-overtones-in-the-martial-arts/ I find that this is a related but parallel article to what I wrote about. While he discusses the influence of religion and moral codes on the martial arts (and keeping an Continue Reading
Don’t Negotiate Against Yourself: Ask For What You Want!
I remember one Saturday afternoon after finishing class in the city, my students and I had planned to go share a meal together in Chicago’s Chinatown. In the past, going to eat dinner in Chinatown was a relatively easy thing. We would go to one of our favorite restaurants and Continue Reading
Musicality in Martial Arts
From sixth grade through high school, I played the trumpet in my school band. I wasn’t a particularly skilled trumpeter (trumpetist?) but the experience gave me several valuable experiences: a love of classical music, an increased lung capacity, and an understanding of basic musical theory. I can still sight read Continue Reading