I was asked recently what actually happens when someone steps away from an organization, goes on their own path. You’re part of something for years. You put time into it, help where you can, stand alongside people, and for the most part you don’t question any of it because it feels normal. It feels like…
Category: Buddhism
The Real Opponent
At some point in training, you begin to look back a little more. Not in a nostalgic way, but simply to make sense of things. You start to notice patterns, not just in what you do, but in how you think and how you react. People often say your body can stand almost anything, it’s…
The Mental Side of Training
Training the Mind Most people think of martial arts training as physical. Techniques. Speed. Power. Conditioning. Those things matter, of course. But over time many practitioners begin to realize that martial arts training involves something more as well. The training of the mind. Anyone who has watched sport long enough has seen how quickly psychology…
Chibariyo
The Ryukyu Kingdom, the historical heart of modern-day Okinawa, fostered a unique culture distinct from mainland Japan. This distinctiveness extends to language, with Okinawan dialects collectively known as Uchinaaguchi. Many karate practitioners, myself included, appreciate using the Japanese terminology that’s part of our practice. While most practitioners utilize it primarily for principles, techniques, drills, and…
The Opponent We Cannot Defeat
Time is the one opponent we cannot defeat, yet it’s the one we often underestimate the most. The reason people say, “the trouble is you think you have time”, is because when we’re younger, it moves so slowly. But as we age, it speeds up. You gain a new perspective. You reach a deeper understanding…
Even Monkeys Fall From Trees – Learning From Mistakes in the Martial Arts
We often learn more from searching for an answer and not finding it than from simply being given the answer itself. It’s not hard to learn more if you are open to it. What is hard is to unlearn something when you discover you may have been doing it wrong all along. I remember over…
More Than One Thing: What Training Was Supposed to Be.
I was fourteen years old when I began practicing karate. At the time, I had no clear idea of what I was looking for. . Behind the repetition, the discipline, and the physical effort, I was told that there was a path concerned with understanding oneself as much as learning technique. . The karate available…
Issho Kenmei: Training as if This Moment Matters.
In karate we often hear ‘ganbaru’ – do your best, keep going, push through. It’s a useful sentiment, but it doesn’t quite reach the depth of what older martial traditions expected from a practitioner. For that, there is a sterner, more honest practice. It’s called ‘Issho Kenmei’. . It’s not about effort in theory. It…
When Avoidance Isn’t Enough and Walking Away Isn’t Always the Answer.
(Approx 1 minute 10 second read) There are always those who want conflict, who want to fight. . We’re told, again and again, that the sensible response is to de-escalate, walk away, disengage, and not react. And most of the time, that is good advice. . But that advice quietly assumes something important. . It…
Seeking Solutions: Progress Only Comes When You Look for It.
(Approx 1 minute 35 second read) There is so much hatred in the martial arts world on social media that I sometimes find myself wondering whether it’s all worth it. . I’ve stepped back from closed minded groups and associations, simply focusing on my own path, staying in touch only with the people who genuinely…
Focus on Your Own Path: The Only Authority You Need Is Over Yourself.
(Approx 2 minute 45 second read) Why do people obsess over things? . People obsess for many reasons, and some are more prone to it than others. . You might try to make sense of a situation but can’t quite understand or accept it, so you keep replaying it. Others want reassurance that they were…
Not Every Argument Is Worth Your Time – Experience Teaches You That.
(Approx 2 minute 20 second read) Something a little different today. . People talk a lot about confirmation bias, Dunning–Kruger, and all the psychological reasons why some can’t see past their own viewpoint. You don’t need the labels. You see the behavior every day, people so stuck in their own little world that anything outside…