A simple piece of advice (with a hidden warning). My teacher had a way of dispensing advice and recommendations so that even the simplest ones would end up like a Zen koan. You’d go home thinking about them, wondering and turning them over in your mind, never quite having the right answer or reply. They’d have you … [Read more…]
Sometimes people ask me how I’ve gone over 30 years in the martial arts. There are so many benefits of martial arts, from brain health to weight management, from better moods to less stress, but still people quit all the time. Is there some special attribute that you need to possess? Is it a skill, … [Read more…]
For anyone feeling nervous when you step onto the mat, I want to talk to you about the difference between being accepted and fitting in. You see, everybody’s welcome in our school, whether you’re strong or fragile, male or female, gay or straight, Jewish or Muslim or Catholic. But if you feel like you have to be something you’re not in order to … [Read more…]
Listen to the newest podcast right here! Our overall health determines how much physical energy we have and how sharp our mental focus will be. How we feel determines our attitude toward everything we do; our attitude in turn influences our actions (or our inactions). It’s a tremendous feeling to be energetic, healthy, fit and focused. When our emotions … [Read more…]
Today we’re going right for the jugular, so to speak, to discuss the top three mistakes that I made in Jiu-Jitsu between the ages of 30 and 40. For those of you knee-deep in the martial arts in your 30s, hopefully you’ll be able to pull a few small hints and warnings out of the messes … [Read more…]
We define black belt in all sorts of ways – commitment, courage, humanity. And across the world you’d be hard-pressed to find two people who agree exactly on what it means. Is it a perfect technique? A demonstration of mental toughness? An ideal of perfection? So I’m going to step out on a limb here and … [Read more…]
Some of the best lessons in training are the ones you get when you least expect them. Yesterday, while training with Sifu Vizzio, he hit me with a zinger. At the end of the session he said – without any context, apropos of nothing – “eventually, everybody’s mask comes off”. I was caught way off-guard. … [Read more…]
As students, we often develop very powerful relationships in the dojo. But over time, it’s easy to let something other than the martial arts – like drinking beers or eating pizza (as in, “let’s just grab some peetzer and beerz!”) – become the cornerstone of our connections. The bond goes from being productive to destructive, because we no longer take a stand for … [Read more…]
With Mother’s Day coming, I’d like to reintroduce my mom to everyone. When she was about twenty six, her first husband went crazy, got a gun and shot her three times. My mother walked down the street in Atlanta, Georgia at a time when she was a foreigner and didn’t speak much English, and managed to … [Read more…]
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