Aikido master Endō Seishirō shihan stated: “It is known that, when we learn or train in something, we pass through the stages of shu, ha, and ri. These stages are explained as follows. In shu, we repeat the forms and discipline ourselves so that our bodies absorb the forms that our forebears created. We remain […]

This is the end of an excellent day…weekend (3/17-3/18). I had the pleasure of hosting Grand Master Bill “Superfoot” Wallace while he was here for a seminar. His knowledge and experience makes him a highly valuable resource to supplement anyone’s training. The stories from his training, his fights, his movies, and his travels are entertaining […]

Quite a while ago, Cole Herring asked me to provide some answers for questions he was using to write a book –  Leadership Challenges: A Collection of Candid Experiences – that was published this month. Follow the link to order your copy! What I wrote follows. Sorry, it is long because he asked several questions. […]

Why is it so difficult to do a group form? How difficult can it be to stay together when doing a form? Group form has been part of my Taekwondo from the start. I’ve said several times that group form is our version of marching, after all this is a military art. The class is […]

Tonight was Pine Tree Taekwondo’s first sparring class in about six months. It was a good night. Everyone fought hard and worked on developing techniques, even adding new kicks to their strategy. This was the first night that I’ve sparred since having to add a knee brace. The contraption pictured to the left is the […]

Today was a day of helping the eldest youngling with some driving practice. He’s waited to get his license as he’s not worried about too much riding his “longest of skate board.” We were out for about an hour. I’ll back up just a bit as I have done this before with another pair of […]

My students regularly hear from me that “if you aren’t actively trying to make your techniques better, you’re wasting your time.” I guess that one of Master Justin Koivisto’s students, Kent Olson, may have heard that. He forwarded an article to me – This Coach Improved Every Tiny Thing by 1 Percent and Here’s What Happened […]

Keep Learning and Growing by Bill Hedrick In class the other night, Master F. talked about intelligence and remarked that he was just a “dumb jock.” He talked about his high school years were the coach would run his players through the woods, the ones that ran around the trees would be running backs and […]

It is really unbelievable how an injury can cause thoughts of being completely out of the loop. I’ve been struggling with finding a proper knee brace to continue training and teaching. My eczema apparently like neoprene and has a major reaction to more than an hour in a brace. This creates an imbalance that the […]

The following where taken from the Merriam-Webster online dictionary Definition of gymnasium plural: gymnasiums or -nasia 1a: a large room used for various indoor sports (as basketball or boxing) and usually equipped with gymnastic b: a building (as on a college campus) containing space and equipment for various indoor sports activities and usually including spectator accommodations, locker and […]

The learning process, regardless of the subject matter, has the same potential to find sticking points. Whether it is intellectual problem solving or physical development plateaus. These have only one way to finally develop further – the acceptance of being stuck. Getting stuck should be viewed as a chance to develop your problem solving skills […]

Life changes! Are you keeping up with these changes? Are you following dreams or goals? Do you recognize who you are? Are you ignoring who you are? Yep, pretty deep thoughts recently. It stems from the big changes in my life. The main changes include the opening of a dedicated martial arts school (having a […]

What seems like a lifetime ago now, my Aikido teacher in Duluth, MN challenged me to read Joseph Campbell’s Hero With A Thousand Faces. Sensei Brad Bergeron had the right idea. I have never read well and the book is a textbook, not a novel, so it took a while to get through it. The […]

The following post was written by Bill Hedrick, a 60+ year old 3rd Gup student, who has been an inspiration to many as we watch him work. You can see a bit more about Bill on his Facebook page. BTW, he’s also a Klingon! I thought of calling this the warrior in winter, but I’m […]

The key factors to getting things done and being successful! So many of us look for people or things to motivate us to accomplish goals. Motivational speakers, Business (and Personal) coaches, the latest “How To” book are all examples of this. As these SEALs state “Motivation is a fickle emotion…” It is discipline that gets […]

I’ve been following Randy King’s Rants for about two years now. He along with Kasey Keckeisen have been building upon the personal protection material that started with Rory Miller and Marc MacYoung. One of those rants was “Stop Practicing Dying“. This rant finally gave words to the concept that I’ve been taught since starting my […]

One of the strangest parts of being in my martial arts school is that the less I talk to you, the better that you’re doing. This doesn’t mean that you receive less instruction for your curriculum. What it means is that you are figuring out what I want and developing how you do it best. […]

Sabum Frankovich and Sabum Bartelt got to teach the fight scene for this event. Here’s the event video of Adrian Paul and Sabum Frankovich as the finale. Photos will be added to an album shortly.

“Start with the End in mind.” is a very popular concept for how to build a business. It helps create guidelines for what needs to be accomplished in order to succeed and reach a final goal. That’s tough when there really is no end to achieve. The martial arts is a lifelong journey that doesn’t have […]

The martial arts are often thought of when parents want their children to learn discipline. This is a skewed view of what is actually taught. The martial arts teaches self discipline that the student uses to empower their life. It isn’t the same thing! There are regular calls to martial arts schools, usually from mothers, […]