Ramblings about the martial arts, training, life and other subjects. That’s why its called “rambling”.
Everyday you make decisions that affect your life. Most are trivial, like what to have for dinner, but some, like changing lanes while driving, can affect you tomorrow and for the rest of your life. These decisions shape everything that you are today and will be tomorrow. Yes, all those little decisions helped make you […]
All to often in our society your success is labeling winning, as if it were a competition. Now, I won’t dismiss or argue how much work in necessary to win a competition. There are many excellent traits developed by pursuing excellence in competition. The training and desire to win is not something that comes automatically. […]
Rory Miller wrote the following as the lead-in to the Monkey Dance. “What you lookin’ at?” barks a young man. He’s about your size, about your age. You don’t think you were looking at anything in particular. You also know the smart thing to do is to give a little apology and go back to […]
I had a student ask if he could learn the next section of a pattern that he had for his next test. I asked him if his other four patterns were test ready. He replied that they were, so I told him to use them as a warm-up before going further on the current pattern. […]
“Be equipped, be prepared, be ready I despise MacGyver. He inspired a whole generation of people to believe there was something noble about choosing to be poorly equipped. If you refuse to carry the equipment to do the job, you aren’t a hero. You are an idiot who is willing to sacrifice innocent people (and […]
I am willing to say that there is just as much knowledge to be found under kicking techniques as there is for striking techniques and for all of the dozen other aspects within martial arts training. A student can spend decades studying just one portion. Those who choose to compete (in any version available) probably […]
Are you tired of being where you are? Has it started to hurt? You know, in all those parts of your life that you thought would be better by now or in those places where you thought you’d already earned your place. Here’s a secret…nothing is ever finished. People don’t usually consider that the jobs […]
Do you know the differences? Which are you? The following definitions were taken from the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Yes, I know that these will be picky but that is part of what our language allows and promotes. I’ve been know to repeat the phrase “say what you mean, mean what you say” and preface some of […]
While working with Supreme Grand Master Choi, Joon Pyo (Songmookwan 10th Dan), I have had the opportunity to hear a few of the stories about our lineage’s history. The reverence that people had for Supreme Grand Master Ro, Byung Jick (Songmookwan founder) can be seen throughout the stories. They regularly comment on his integrity and […]
I’ve been a LONG time fan of the show NCIS. I’ve appreciated Mark Harmon’s work ever since seeing him in “The Presidio” along with Sean Connery. One standard of NCIS, though, is that Gibbs’ rules are awesome. The show has done a good job of handing out these rules over the whole series. Many are […]
In class, do you put a lot of energy into what you do? Do you follow the lesson plan as assigned? So you follow the commands given? Now, all of this work done by a serious student will help lead to developing discipline. The student should begin to understand that discipline within etiquette, techniques, patterns […]
I recently had the fortune to test for and be promoted to 4th Dan (Sadan) in Haidong Gumdo, a Korean sword martial art. It was a tough road. As I am the senior student of all Haidong Gumdo in Minnesota, training has been difficult as frustrating. When you get to train with your teacher (as […]
Last week was one full of training and testing. We had the semi-annual visit from the World Haidong Gumdo Federation’s Head Master, Kwanjangnim Jeong-Woo Kim, who continues to help us grow and develop in sword skills and life success. It was a challenging week. We worked really hard and gained more knowledge in our curriculum. […]
Back on November 7th & 8th, our regional group of USA Haidong Gumdo masters brought our schools together for the first time….kinda. Many of us in the group have spent the past few years training with USA Senior Chief Master Marshall Parnell. His leadership and teaching has helped us develop greatly and create an outstanding […]
I hope that you enjoyed What is Success, part 1 and part 2 and part 3. This week examines the last two portions of the chart, which can be reviewed in part 1. These side panels of the chart refer to qualities (the mortar) rather than characteristics (the building blocks). These qualities, when recognized and […]
I hope that you enjoyed What is Success, part 1 and part 2. This week examines the next two levels of the chart, which can be reviewed in part 1. Quite often the phrase “Being comfortable in my own skin” is used when people actually recognize who they are…for themselves. Poise is where this fits. […]
I hope that you enjoyed What is Success, part 1. This week examines the next two levels of the chart, which can be reviewed in part 1. This level starts to make the process more specific and has applications in many more areas. The martial arts will always promote the self-control of a student, the […]
The following set of posts are based upon the chart below. I hope that you find some benefit from them. Part One starts here. While this is from John Wooden, who I know about because my high school alma mater here in Minnesota has a coach with one of best careers in the nation, it […]
I don’t remember where I heard this, whether it was a really cool philosophical martial arts book or a television show but it something that keeps coming back to me. All too often people pause, hesitate, flinch and think…even tell others…that they didn’t choose what happened to them. In some cases, like the starter I […]
Do you practice the most important part of your martial art(s) daily? Do you know what that part is? Over my 35 years of martial arts training, I’ve had several teachers from several martial arts tell me that the physical techniques are only 10% of the art. So what is in the other 90%? We […]
Understanding that not every person or body is the same and helping to work through that. The love and passion you and your students have. The geekiness we can all be. You allow your students to be their own person.
