Developing Courage and Community through Martial Arts
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 […]
Austin is on the floor working on material 30 minutes before every class. He has been around the martial arts since the late 1960s and, at 70+ years old, still trains harder than most people that I’ve seen. He’ll deny it but he’s got better thoughts and explanations for how to improve technique than I […]
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, […]
The true method of personal development! Over Labor Day weekend, I got to spend time with Supreme Grand Master Joon Pyo Choi at the grave side memorial that he hosted for the founder of Song Moo Kwan, Supreme Grand Master Byung Jick Ro, who had passed a year earlier. It fulfilled SGM Ro’s wishes that […]
How much time and effort are you willing to put into your martial arts (or any other activity for that matter)? Are you willing to travel? Are you willing to pay the fees? If you answered “Yes” to those questions, you have probably traveled (or will travel) more than 50k miles and have (or will […]
I’ve had discussions about life over the past few years with people close to me and this phrase has come from them. It may seem as this is only a variation of To Take No Action Is An Action but it’s not. This one ties more closely to the question – How many times should you be […]
After a recent Pine Tree Taekwondo promotion test, one of the young (11 year old) students commented that the newly promoted 3rd Dan knows half as much as the 6th Dan teacher. It was a cute comment…but is it accurate? I know many of you are already going “not even close” but play along for […]
Why do we have test fees? The first reason that we use test fees is that we recognize that people learn and develop according to their schedule, not ours. It is most important the the student understands what they are trying to accomplish as they work toward promotions. Since the physical techniques are only 10% of […]
JRD Tata had a friend who used to say that he misplaces and loses his pen very often. He will use only very cheap pens so that he need not worry about losing them. He was worried about carelessness habit. JRD suggested to him to buy the costliest pen he could afford and see what […]
Your development and education should never wait nor end! They are the only thing that will permit you to survive and benefit others. If you have been training with the likes of Kasey Keckeisen or Randy King, then you’ve already seen how quick bad things can happen. The need to develop skills and educate yourself […]
Discipline is one of the most difficult words that I know. No, it isn’t a spelling thing! The difficulty comes from all the aspects that it encompasses. All of the little things that are required to truly have discipline. The importance of goals will not be included here beyond the point that you NEED goals […]
Take a peek at Jesse Encamp’s video about the 2020 Olympic Karate inclusion. Now, it has been quite a while since Taekwondo was changed from a demonstration sport to a full medal winning event. This was good for Taekwondo in the same way. I think that the inclusion of Karate will benefit Taekwondo schools again, […]
Captain America (Steve Rogers) tells The Avengers in Age of Ultron “You get hurt, hurt ’em back. You get killed… walk it off.” In their situation, they couldn’t even let failure stop them from completing the mission – Save the World! How can they accomplish such a thing against an opponent that they’ve never seen […]
“Because life is so brief and time is a thief when you’re undecided. And like a fistful of sand, it can slip right through your hands.” (Rod Stewart – “Young Turks”) Being “undecided” is the same as choosing to not do something. At some point the decision MUST be made to take action. This is […]
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.
