So, there is a lot of talking that happens during a martial arts class. Presenting new material and knowledge plus re-enforcing concepts and principles with a little fun mixed in. Mostly, these are necessary for the transmission of expectations. Good positive interactions. We won’t even mention how much talking happens during socializing events! Here’s where […]

Now that I’m in my 41st year of martial arts training, there have been many burst illusions along the way. Among these have been ranks and titles. Starting out back in 1981, I had learned that the highest rank possible was 10th Dan. It meant that this person was the head of the system (i.e. […]

Recently during an NFL game, the announcers commented on how the new head coach was trying to do some team building during this strange time. Since there was no training camp nor preseason games, there had been very little time to help coaches and players join together in the plan for the team. The coach […]

Watching posts from Facebook and Instagram shows that there are a lot of organizations that promote the idea of a martial arts fellowship. The thought here seems to be that there are many independent instructors and schools who would benefit from being part of a group. Whether this is for curriculum acknowledgement or rank promotion […]

Martial arts training provides an opportunity to practice strategies to prevent three common demons that appear in many areas of life.   Boredom = I’ve done this a million times, so why am I doing it again?   Frustration = I can’t do this! Why is this so hard?   Complacency = I know this […]

I saw this one a T-shirt the other day. It was done for a high school cross country team (I left the school name out of this). It struck as a very cool perspective. Cross country runners are out there training, improving their technique, and running faster because they want to. I’d wager that there […]

One of the hardest things to understand is that you need to “put in the work” to become successful. This is different from “paying your dues”. Putting in the work is the educational side of the equation. While paying your dues is getting out there and working (getting experience from those who came before). Putting […]

What does it take to be “Brother”? ***Just to clarify: This post is using the single term “Brother” to illustrate the interpersonal relationship between those who are very close to each other. This does INCLUDE the females that are within the group, which just sounds wrong calling the “Sis” or “Sister” as I wasn’t raised […]

So, you find yourself spending more time by yourself or with your immediate family. How’s that going? Hopefully you are healthy and safe. That said, how much are you missing people that you didn’t realize you’d miss? This is the whole “don’t know what you have until it’s gone” thing. It does give you an […]

The World is all messed up! Things have changed greatly over the past few weeks. Quite a bit has not been good. This can wreak havoc on the emotions and stability of a person’s temperament. I’ve seen a great number of martial arts schools take to online classes and training workouts. This is a great […]

Last weekend I had the fortune of attending one of the Las Vegas Golden Knights home hockey games. It was an awesome experience. The atmosphere was an energetic party with concentrated observation of the game. No scoring chance happened without roaring cheers. Our host had commented that the city was really taking to having the team […]

It’s official! Just got the completed lease renewal. We’ve got another there years in this location! Now it’s that this is complete, it is time to recruit me students and welcome those returning from an absence. We’ve got plenty of foot space and class times to allow many more students to join us. Please like, […]

What is the average age of the students in the school that you attend? Why is that? This has come up in conversation a few times over the past month. It gave me the recognition that I can only count less than 10 black belts and instructors who started with (or just ahead of) me […]

Pregnant Martial Artist When I became pregnant in December 2018, it never occurred to me to quit martial arts. Why would I quit? I’ve been doing martial arts straight since the summer of 2013 with very few breaks. Pregnancy wasn’t about to change that! But there were times during my pregnancy where I took breaks. […]

How hard are you working toward you goals? Are you still interested in those goals? Are you able to push through the “daily grind” to keep working for your goals? Is it time to change things up? Pursue new goals? Currently, my school doesn’t have “kid’s classes” as I know that I don’t have the […]

I had the fortune to be included in the August 2019 Sword Experience blog. They asked instructors to write up a small piece discussing the events. Musketeer Highlights for August 2019

One of the Haidong Gumdo Masters that I work with posted this thought. It is based on a yoga comment. I think it is very accurate for Haidong Gumdo and all other martial arts as well. A problem that humans fall into is that they want to “be like” the cool people. Well, in this […]

The best laid schemes of mice and men… That line came from somewhere in my childhood education. The irony of it kinda fits right now. Where I am now is not where I planned to be. Starting a major portion of my world over wasn’t even on my radar, let alone in the plans. What […]