Growth of To-Shin Do in clubs and dojos is always a good thing. More people have more of an opportunity to study our martial art in person in their own city. Here’s something that should be mentioned as we grow. You need to be sure that your teaching staff is up to date and teaching […]
Verbal Taijutsu – Wind
Recently I have had a number of students ask me how we apply our martial art outside the dojo to everyday life. Well, that is a huge question that could be answered by way of a book. This is, in fact, a life art. The training, given time and proper guidance, will work its way […]
Natural Movement
We talk a lot about having ‘natural movement’ in our martial art. As important as it is, it can be just as hard to describe what that means. Sure, we want natural speed, relying less on fast ‘muscle’ speed. We want to use gravity and not rely solely on strength. We want to take away […]
Focus
The ability to stay focussed in a violent situation on the presesent moment is often the determining factor in surviving. The development of this focus is the main point of all of our training. The problem is that we have three attention/focus systems in us that are constantly vying for control of our focus. The […]
Order and Chaos
What if martial arts training is really an interactive experience of order and chaos? When there is an imbalance, there is less than effective training. You need to have order — the discipline, respect, and intelligently paced learning. You also need the chaos — free testing, the “try it outs”, and “what ifs”. When you […]
Verbal Taijutsu – Fire
In this third article on verbal taijutsu I will focus on the energy of the fire element. First let’s start with energy itself. The fire element is about connection, but also energy. An intense level of positive energy is always contagious. Enthusiasm is inspiring. This is what a lot of motivational speakers survive on. By […]
Exploring Kuji No Ho
A few advanced black belts are taking private Skype lessons with me, studying aspects of kuji no ho “nine syllables of aspects of power”. I warned them that we can explore kuji, but it will feel different from studying taijutsu together. With taijutsu instruction, I tell you what to change, you do it, and you […]
Mindful Action and Self-Defense
The To-Shin Do Mindful Action Code is a powerful self-defense tool and one I’ve grown to appreciate more and more over the years. I’ve seen as a teacher how many youth and adults find it such a meaningful part of their lives. That, by itself, is enough for me to make sure it is a […]
May I Have Your Attention Please?
Have you noticed how difficult it can be at times to maintain your focus and attention while training? Your thoughts wander and you seem to have no control over them. Well it turns out there is an actual battle going on in your head for your attention. The primary criterion our minds use to decide […]
Above the Fray
I am 70, and have seen so many cultural fads come and go over the decades. WWII vets got parades; Viet Nam vets got spat on; Iraq vets got applauded in airports. Black and white were segregated in the 1930s; black and white were integrated in the 1970s; blacks demanded black-only spaces on college campuses […]
Verbal Taijutsu – Water
As I mentioned last month a number of people have asked me to cite applications of our martial arts system to activities in daily life. I very much enjoy these questions. Our art is so rich. For example, I know of a currently popular martial art that stresses the strategy – dominate, dominate, dominate; it […]
Because I Love It!
“So you’ve been doing this for a very long time, why do you keep doing it? I mean, when do you think you’ll give it up?” This question came from an acquaintance that I have been bumping into for many years at my local Starbucks (those of you who know me are aware that I […]
Mindful Training
One thing to watch out for in your training is repetition without awareness. The more mindful you can make each movement of your training the better. Mindful in this case doesn’t mean up in your word brain. But rather, avoid doing lots of repetitions of something just for the sake of doing repetitions. Years ago […]
Unleash Your Potential…Energy
Let’s go geek and talk about energy. Now I’m not talking about blue lightening coming out of my fingers (although that would be cool) or new age, can you feel the energy all around us type thing, I’m talking science. Kinetic energy and potential energy. Now before we get started the reason I’m doing this […]
A Strange and Surprising Opportunity to Learn and Grow
On our final Saturday of our Vajrakilaya retreat at Pema Ts’al Monastery in the Nepalese Himalayas, Eric Gadol, Lauren Garst, and Geoff Garst went with Rigzin Wangdu and me into Pokhara city to do a guest teaching for my friend Fatta Gurung. Fatta is a karate teacher who teaches Nepalese police officers hand-to-hand survival, so […]