Many new students make the mistake of discounting the value of sword training. The common thinking is that training with a weapon that you are highly unlikely to ever face is probably a waste of time. On the surface this logic makes sense. The advanced, or unusually savvy, student will look beyond the surface to […]
Archive | Teacher Insights
A Different Perspective
Many people try to learn kata or techniques by memorizing them. Then they combine that with body strength and speed and believe they have what they need. Unfortunately stength and speed are fleeting and memorized kata are not the art. The art is hidden in perception. The kata are learning tools that transmit the understanding […]
Too Slow? Look Again
I talked with a person who commented that our To-Shin Do looked too slow to him. He felt that for a real fight, we should be practicing with “realistic speed”. I understand how he could feel that way. Once upon a time a long time ago, I too studied a less mature form of martial […]
What Martial Arts was Always Meant to Be
“What you guys do here is what I always thought marital arts was meant to be.” With tears in his eyes, this is what one of my new students (recently made yellow belt) said to me in my office. His name is John. John has a toddler son and had recently realized how out of […]
Another Layer
I had friends come down from Quebec Canada for some private training. They are very devoted practitioners, who every few months, drive over seven hours to train for almost eight hours then turn around and drive back. Each time they come we explore what they know to find what they don’t know. These are never […]
Let It Go
For the past year, An-shu Rumiko has enjoyed a connection to the Japanese concept of Danshari – willfully and deliberately letting go of things that no longer serve you. We are enjoying our progressively “zenified” home and dojo. Want to bring abundance into your life? First let go of no-longer-needed stuff. Get rid of the […]
Perfection is a Direction, Not a Goal
So often as a teacher I see my students beating themselves up because they are not doing things perfectly. It can be so hard to witness. Of course we all want to do well at what ever it is that we have taken on. The problem is that this very desire may turn against us, […]
You Are Changing as a Human Being
Have you noticed how negative and nasty Facebook can be? Sure, some people put up inspiring or hopeful material. But look at how many are there solely to express their anger at life or other people, relate negative experiences in their days, or criticize and pick apart otherwise happy people. Hard to remain positive, isn’t […]
Winning With Words
This year at my annual two day training camp I devoted the first day entirely to developing more effective communication skills. Clearly we will all fight many more verbal battles throughout our lives than physical ones. The key measure of our skills as communicators is our ability to effectively employ our ability to communicate to […]
Teaching Taijutsu
January will be my 25th anniversary teaching taijutsu. My teacher, Mark Davis, had me start a training group for some people, who couldn’t make it to Boston, in New Hampshire in January 1992. I can honestly say I didn’t have a clue what I was doing as a teacher at that time. It was okay […]
Figuring Out Festival Feedback
We just finished Festival 36. 36! That’s a lot of years. There is time for 2 generations of people to become involved, 3 if you include me as the founder back in the 1970s. Reviewing feedback from Festival 36, I was a bit puzzled at first. “What did you like most about Festival 36? What […]
Full Circle
Thirty-four years ago I wandered in to a boy scout camp in Hamilton Ohio with my belongings on my back in an old backpack, and a sense of adventure in my heart. I could not wait to train again with the man who had totally blown my mind at our first meeting a couple of […]
Commitment to the Future – Part 3
At this summer’s private seminar for 15 friends at my personal house dojo, I explored 3 specific open-ended topics the high rankers in To-Shin Do will focus on this year. As a first consideration, we are challenged to translate a late 1500s Japanese martial art into relevance in 2016. I wrote about this challenge two […]
Art Reflecting Life
I was doing an interview on a local television show. I was asked what was so unique about our marital art. I found myself struggling to indentify and communicate the specifics. As I began outlining the key elements, for example, using gravity rather than fighting against it, understanding unified body movement, perfecting balance breaking skills, […]
Commitment to the Future – Part 2
At last month’s private seminar for 15 friends at my personal house dojo, I explored 3 specific open-ended topics the high rankers in To-Shin Do will focus on this year. First, we are challenged to translate a late 1500s Japanese martial art into relevance in 2016 in America and Europe. I wrote about this challenge […]
