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 […]
Humble Path to Excellence
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. […]
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, […]
Between Fearful and Reckless
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 […]
The Illusion of You
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 […]
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 […]
Straight Talk
As we continue to move forward with the development of To-Shin Do as the best self-defense martial art available anywhere, I couldn’t agree more with An-shu’s directive that we must focus on what is practical, relevant, and reliably effective. I have long held that when we are practicing defenses against various forms of strikes we […]
Anchors In Your Training
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 […]
Celebrate Mistakes
Our society has moved toward an educational system that promotes test prep and regurgitation of information. Teachers prepare students to take tests by showing only the material that is on the test so that the students get it right and score well. This creates students who only want to be shown what they need to […]
Commitment To The Future
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 […]
Fluid Connectedness
In my many decades as an instructor one of the most difficult essential To-Shin Do concepts to get students to assimilate is the idea of moving with your opponent. For many students this is incredibly difficult to grasp. This is the principal of fluid connectedness. This is the understanding that once the conflict has begun […]
Raising Threat Levels
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 […]
Thank You
This weekend as you have already read there was a special training seminar at the home of An-shu Stephen and Rumiko Hayes. It was an amazing event and I wanted to thank everyone who assisted in making it all possible. First and foremost An-shu Stephen and Ruiko Hayes for opening their home, hearts, and heads […]
Float Like a Butterfly…
With the recent death of Muhammad Ali, I have been seeing clips of his historical fights on social media. Something caught my attention. As Ali matured and gained experience in fighting formidable foes, he developed an increasing reliance on what we call “water strategic placement”. Watch and see if you do not agree. No, he […]
