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 […]
Close To The Source
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 […]
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, […]
Beyond the Dojo
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 […]
Going Through The Motions
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 […]
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 […]
Self-Development Site
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 […]
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 […]
