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There is a study by Microsoft Corporation that has been around for a few years now, and many news sites like to reference it. Several big news sites as well as some popular science sites have all mentioned this study and written about how we as humans now have a shorter attention span than goldfish. […]

To get good at something, you need to practice. To get really good, you need to practice a lot. It’s common knowledge that with a lot of practice, there is a lot of repetition, and one of the theories for keeping students engaged in a classroom (especially in martial arts) is disguised repetition. The idea […]

I saw an advertisement online offering comedy lessons with Steve Martin. In the opening of the promotional video he says he was talking to students and they were asking him things like how do I get an agent, where can I get my headshots and he thought to himself, shouldn’t the first thing to be […]

There is an exit off the highway that I take almost every day going back to my house. I have to make a right turn at the intersection at the end of the off-ramp. The shoulder there is unusually wide, and frequently as I’m trying to make my turn I find there is someone to […]

I’m excited about this year. Not only do I have a lot of personal adventures ahead of me this year, but I’m excited about the growth of To-Shin Do and the access everyone will have to it in the coming year and beyond. Having access to the source of To-Shin Do (in other words to […]

In last month’s post I talked about how great it was to have a dojo where we can try things out and failure doesn’t have real world consequences. We can train and grow, and only then take our new skills into the world. It is easy to forget how special such a place is in […]

Last week we spent alot of time at our dojo working on being a good attacker and throwing real punches at our training partners. Although this doesn’t sound like it would be difficult, from beginning student to highest ranked practitioner, all had a difficult time with this. From my perspective they were all just going […]

Many professional websites have a duplicate website that is used for testing and development. New plugins are tested to be sure they work with the rest of the site and are compatible with other plugins. Graphics are examined to be sure they have the look desired for the site. Any problem that arises, anything that […]

One of my favorite parts of Festival is getting to see friends from all over the world, many of whom I may not have seen since the previous year’s Festival. And an aspect of seeing all these friends and training with them that I especially enjoy is recognizing and celebrating their growth. Sometimes that celebration […]

It’s always interesting to watch people at festival, new and experienced, while watching a lesson on stage have that moment of what just happened up there. They see something done by An-shu Stephen or An-shu Rumiko and stare in amazement. You hear them ask how did they do that and say it looks like magic. […]

I had a conversation last weekend with some of my students about a pet peeve of mine: Fear based advertising. The conversation went on to cover the extremes of being fearful versus reckless when it comes to self-protection. For me, I try to stay away from extremes, and from a self-defense perspective think both ends […]

If I were to ask you how much do you think your life will change in the next 10 years, would it be a lot or a little? Most people think that they will change very little. However if I were to ask you how much has your life changed in the past 10 years […]

There are stages of learning. Whether you are studying To-Shin Do, oil painting, or guitar playing, there is a natural progression to how skills develop. An-Shu Hayes and others have talked about stages in personal growth before, but it’s always worth revisiting the process for how to effectively gain skills. There are ways to grow […]

At a recent private seminar for 15 special friends at my personal house dojo, I explored 3 specific open-ended topics that 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. This is a […]

A few months ago I was walking into a local Panera for lunch. There were several police cars parked out front, and I was a little concerned as to what I would be walking into. Hunger, however, got the better of me and I went in anyway. Inside people were talking about a guy in […]