When you look at two karate pioneers, Anko Itosu and Gichin Funakoshi, there is one thing in their pedagogy that sticks out to me. Unlike today’s martial arts culture where at most schools (The good schools are the exception here) you will be admitted to the class if you pay Continue Reading
De-Escalate the Situation
When we start training in martial arts it is easy for us to believe that the main goal of any self defense situation is to dominate your attacker making them regret that they attacked you! After all, why do we learn how to block, punch, choke, or throw? What we Continue Reading
Don’t Let People Hold You Back
As an outcast throughout my life in middle and high school, I actually surprisingly found it to be quite fortunate looking back on it. At the time it wasn’t great, I was really shy, didn’t have too many friends, and a lot of kids thought I was weird and tried Continue Reading
Anybody Can Train
When you look at the history of Anko Itosu, one thing that stuck out to me was that his instructors doubted his ability to succeed based on his sickly appearance. Itosu was born very small and did not have a good prognosis for life let alone for martial arts. Itosu Continue Reading
What You Think Becomes Reality: Think Well!
The power of words are very impactful, both to the person saying them and the person being said to. They’re an expression of emotion and knowledge, but sometimes the words we say can begin to dictate how we think, without knowing. Especially our own self-talk and thoughts. I am 25 Continue Reading
The Important Difference Between Being “Busy” and “Responsible”
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
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
Little by Little
A little goes a long way; whether it be saving your money, practicing a hobby, or just generally making steps towards your goals. In our fast-paced society, we feel as if we are always pressed for time. Most of our days are consumed by work, and then you get to 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
All Out Effort
One of our regional masters has a saying for training, and everyday life: habits you train are habits you gain. When you run into something you find boring, too repetitive, or seemingly unimportant, don’t be so quick to dismiss it. More than likely it has great benefits if you give Continue Reading