We’ve talked before in this blog about the obligation of the senior student in the martial arts. It boils down to making sure that we’re taking care of the newer, junior student. I think you’ll agree with me when I say that there are a lot of reasons to do that, but the main one is to … [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…]
I have a very clear memory of Sensei telling the class, “Life is like watching the wake from the bow of a boat. We live it going forward but only understand it looking back.” Last night I was revisiting one of the many tiny ways that I really screwed things up in my marriage. It’s … [Read more…]
Last night I reminded the class that we are practicing Japanese Karate. It’s not American-style Wal-Mart karate in a box. It’s not there to be “consumed”, and you are not a consumer. Moreover, we have a relationship. My job is to show up and give you my very, very best. Sometimes it takes a lot, and sometimes it’s oppressive, and sometimes it’s … [Read more…]
The martial arts are filled with paradoxes. And recently I’ve been considering how paradoxical life is, as an older, more mature person – or a person who’s working on maturing well. It seems that many of life’s “gray areas” have now become the norm. What I once was very dogmatic about, I now see that there’s another side … [Read more…]
[Please note that this post includes some explicit language.] My Thai boxing instructor told me that when he recently went back home for the holidays, he trained at a friend’s dojo. After working out, his friend said that one of their former classmates had gone to Japan to train. And my teacher said, “I really dislike that … [Read more…]
Recently I got a message on Facebook from someone I’ve known from Jiu-Jitsu for decades. The message said, “Hey, I don’t know if you remember me but you had said a couple of things to me years ago that I never forgot. I’m going through a crisis now and I need some help.” And I said sure, give me a call. So … [Read more…]
Jiu-Jitsu training is designed to raise your thermostat, to help you to overcome your limitations. Your temperature may rise in the classroom, but will your overall understanding of your personal capabilites also increase? The objective of the martial arts is to expand the range of your “self” – not only your self-confidence but your whole self-concept. … [Read more…]
Where is Mr. Miyagi? If you can remember growing up in 1970s, you probably remember Bruce Lee being the pinnacle of what martial arts training was about. And then came the Karate Kid, and to anyone from a divorced family and growing up in the streets (like myself), it offered a compelling vision of a … [Read more…]
Last night and we were discussing my friend’s trip to Japan. He had been a martial arts practitioner and I had asked him what the best part of the trip was. He said, “I can’t really say what my favorite part was, but I’ll tell you what surprised me the most. Back when I was training in … [Read more…]