Resolution?

Have you chosen a resolution for the new year? I'd like to suggest awareness.

Wake up and look around you. Think about self defense, not necessarily from punches and kicks. Look at the threats around you and decide how you are going to protect yourself.

If you were walking down a street and you noticed that the further you went the more you were in the wrong neighborhood, a neighborhood that would most likely shorten your life, wouldn't you turn around and get out of there?

So take a look at the neighborhood you are walking into now. Do you smoke? Do you have lousy food habits like I did two years ago? Are you sitting on the couch day after day without getting up and being active?

If you are doing those things you are walking into a dangerous neighborhood, you are shortening your time on Earth. You are taking years away from your life, years that your kids could have you and they won't. Trust me, even when they grow up, they will still want you to hang around for a few more years.

Is it worth it to keep walking down that road? Is it worth your life to hang onto those habits? Is a little more nicotine worth the grief of your loved ones? Is taking the easy path, not getting up and getting fit, worth the price?

Wake up, get up, get aware, move towards health and sustainability, change a few habits. You don't have to go insane with it, you don't have to go off the grid and have a sheep farm. Drive a little less, walk a little more, eat a little healthier. Make small changes.

You can't run a race without taking lots of small steps.

www.franklinkungfu.com

http://www.facebook.com/pages/East-West-Kung-Fu/85287569502

Have You Gotten Complacent?

Are you feeling stagnant? Have you hit a plateau? Getting bored with where you are?

Are you doing the same old things and getting the same results?

That's how I was feeling about two years ago. I was doing some pretty good stuff and getting some pretty good results, but I didn't really feel like I was making much progress, in kung fu, in fitness, in life. . .

So I did something about it. Heavily influenced by my wife's F.I.R.S.T. program and Tom Callos' Ultimate Black Belt Test, I put together my own program. I called it the Ten Tigers Program.

It's fairly ambitious, 35,000 pushups and crunches in a year is just the tip of the iceberg. I did the program two years running, and it starts again in March. A few brave folks decided to join me on the journey and change their lives too. For my students, it also included one on one training sessions. It is hard, it is fun, it is life changing.

And it's coming again!

If you want to get up and do something about all that complacency, you have some choices, commit to your own training plan, (feel free to look at the Ten Tigers program as inspiration), commit to doing all the stuff I've already published in Ten Tigers, or come join the fun with us in 2011.

If you are one of my kung fu students, it's easy, come ask me. If you are a martial arts student with someone else, ask them to use my blueprint, if they won't ask them if you can do my program. If you aren't a martial artist at all, you can still do it, it's customizable.

So get off the couch, come join the fun, and change your life.

www.franklinkungfu.com

www.facebook.com/Sifu.Steven

Fail or Win?

They called it a fail, I call it a win.

see more funny videos

Alone at home, he spotted a masked intruder fought him off enough to escape and escaped. Good self defense.

Beware the Headlines!

Lose Weight By Eating Junk Food

Chinese Court Sentences Drunk Driver to Death

Missing Baby Found in Sandwich

All of these are real headlines, but none of them are really what they seem. The story doesn't always match what the headline implies. The goal of these headlines is to get people to read the articles (obviously), but it seems that in many cases the result is that people remember the headlines rather than the actual story.

Go ahead. Click on the first headline. Be sure to read down to the part where the nutrition expert says he does not recommend that you lose weight by eating junk food.

Click on the second one and get "the rest of the story."

Check the third one while you're at it.

Don't automatically believe the headlines, whether they're online, on TV, or coming out of people's mouths.

www.franklinkungfu.com

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Master

In martial arts circles, one hears the word "master" a lot. Most of the time it is used as a title, such as; Master so and so will be here this week; or I learned from Master such and such. . .

In some cases that title is thrown around too easily, and in a few cases (still too many) a martial artist gives him/herself that title.

This is all coming to my mind because someday, my sifu will put that title on a certificate with my name, and I'm not sure how I feel about that. I've been doing a lot of thinking about it, and have found my peace.

I choose not to think of it as a title.

I choose not to think of it as a noun.

I choose to think of it as a verb.

Master Steven O'Nan.

That is one powerful verb, and one powerful call to action don't you think?

Back on Track

I'm getting back on track. I've been feeling overwhelmed and at times defeated, but I'm getting back on track. It is a good feeling, and it is exactly what we have to do when we get off track.

If it sounds simple it is because it is simple.

I said simple, I didn't say easy.

Lesson Learned the Hard Way

Once the tournament was over, I had lost a legitimate 18 pounds. I feel great at my new weight. I decided to give myself a little treat and indulge in some fast food. I clocked out for my lunch break and drove over to Wendy's.

Spicy chicken sandwich, french fries, sweet tea. Mmmmmmm.

Afterwards, I started feeling sluggish. This had not been happening while I was religiously eating healthy stuff. Actually, sluggish was not a strong enough word. I felt sedated. I honestly felt like someone had slipped something into my meal.

I guess in truth, they had probably slipped a lot of things into my meal.

So, the pre-tournament diet will become my usual diet. Unhealthy foods will be rare, soft drinks will be treated like the CANDY they are and will be consumed extremely rarely. ( A 20 oz. Coca-Cola has as much sugar as 18 Jolly Ranchers.) I will try to focus my shopping on the outside edges of the grocery store (That's where they keep the produce, meat, and dairy the heavily processed foods are in the middle). I'll read labels, look for wholesome foods and just be aware of what I am eating, and why I am eating it.

When I Will Retire From Competition.

Lately, with every tournament I compete in, I wonder afterwards how many more I will do. You see, there just aren't many instructors out there competing. There really aren't many school owners out there competing. It all makes me wonder what it seems like to others for me, a school owner/instructor to still be out there competing.

Some may think I have something to prove to others, that I'm out there to make a point. Some may think I have something to prove to myself. Neither of these is the case, and it really doesn't matter what people think. What matters is what I and my students stand to benefit from me competing.

You see, every time I have competed so far, I have learned something about myself, about competing, about running a competition, about training for competition, about my art, and the list goes on.

So I guess the answer is that I will continue competing for as long as it continues to make me a better martial artist, and a better martial arts instructor.

Knowing When to Let Go.

Once, in sparring, my partner grabbed my arms with his hands. He smiled slightly, considering his advantage. I stepped back into a horse stance pulling him off balance, then kicked him in the gut with a lead leg sidekick. It was light contact, so he squeezed tighter. I shuffle stepped towards him, hooking my lead leg behind his ankle and shifted to a bow and arrow stance. This caused him to fall backwards. Still he held on, pulling me down on top of him. Now that I was on top, I freed my right arm and punched him in the side of the head, then freed my left and punched him in the jaw on the other side.

He didn't know when to let go, and so kept getting himself into more and more of a predicament.

Often life throws challenges, hurts, injuries and insults our way. There is a time to hold tight and fight, but there is also a time to let go.

Several years ago, my mother and father paid me a visit. My then fiancee, and now wife cooked them dinner. The reason they had come was to tell me that my Mom had been diagnosed with cancer. They had a plan for how to fight the cancer, but the odds were against her. The only thing in my power to do was to support her in her battle.

As time went on, the cancer progressed, there came a point when my mother knew the battle was lost. She chose to let go of it.

I got married at her house, three months before my planned wedding. My mom passed away a week later.

Part of me still holds on to the grief and pain. Part of me is still angry at that disease that took my mother from me.

Every time I feel that way, and find myself holding on to the anger, I have to remind myself to let go of it.

Anger won't bring her back, and it won't heal me.

I let go of the negative feelings over and over again. I hold on to the love she showed me throughout my life, to the memories, to all that she gave me. I hold on to all I learned from her, and I share that with my wife and children.

Self Doubt

It's Tuesday morning, 4 days before the national tournament, and self doubt has shown its head.

"What if I don't make weight?" "What if I didn't practice enough?" "What if, what if, what if, what if. . .

So then I exercise the rational part of my brain. First I answer the questions honestly. If I don't make weight, I'll spar the big guys, if I didn't practice enough, I won't perform my best. . . All in all it is really small potatoes.

Then I remind myself that the tournament is the FAKE goal. I've already accomplished the real goals. I'm in great shape, I know what it takes to lose 20 pounds, my forms are looking better, I've gained self esteem. . .

The tournament is just icing now.

Pain and Suffering

Sometimes, as a father, I have to witness my beautiful little girl suffer. Sometimes small things, like when the "new Shrek movie" was sold out and she had her heart set on seeing it. Sometimes bigger things like when I had to pull a splinter from her foot. Eventually there will be some really big pains in her life that I can not prevent, or change for her.

Pulling the splinter from her foot was agonizing for me. She screamed, she cried, but she bravely held still while I worked on it. It was really imbedded in there. It broke my heart to be sitting there causing her so much pain as I poked and prodded and pinched and squeezed. I finally got that little sucker out of there though.

If I had left it in, it would have been worse, infection, doctor's office, antibiotics. . . I know that the best thing her daddy could do at that point was to cause some pain and get that splinter out.

We all have to go through some pain sometimes. A good workout leaves sore muscles. There is some pain when stretching muscles. There is also pain when stretching our boundaries, when stepping out of our comfortable box. It takes courage to get out and try something new. I think it is even harder to watch someone you love do the same, even if you know it is the right thing for them at that time.

Sooner or later, someone will call my daughter a dirty name, some friend of hers will hurt her feelings, some romantic interest will break her heart. As her daddy I will not like seeing her suffer, but I will let her suffer, I will be there to help her through it, but I will let her learn from her suffering. I will not take away the lesson that comes with it.

My Personal Tournament Results

Improved my diet.

Lost 7-8 pounds.

Trained harder.

Had fun.

Reconnected with old friends.

Made new friends.

Saw the results of my hard work.

Watched my friends/students face their own challenges and come out smiling.

Good tournament.

www.franklinkungfu.com

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Start Counting

Just found this, gave it a read and want to pass it on.

http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2010/07/07/a-not-so-random-act-of-kindness/

Watch Out For Snakes

We went camping at Natural Bridge State Resort Park for the 4th of July weekend. The park is great, wonderful trails beautiful campsites, the place is kept very natural which is what we like.

We were camping in bear country, in fact, very near the place where a bear attack happened just a few days before our trip. So we took the first step of self defense: awareness.

We learned about how to not attract black bears, what to do if we saw a black bear, and what to do if approached by a black bear.

We didn't see any bears.

We did see what we thought at first was possibly a copperhead, right near our campsite. As it turns out that one was more likely a northern water snake.

Copperhead

Northern Water Snake

That snake, however, reminded me about awareness, we'd been so focused on bear safety, I hadn't been thinking about snakes. So I started being more careful about where I walked, and where I looked while walking, and spotted this one.

So the lesson that I was reminded of was one I preach a lot. Awareness. Wherever we are, whatever we are doing, we should try to be aware of, not paranoid about, but aware of the threats we are most likely to face. We should be aware of how to minimize those threats and protect ourselves. By the way if you didn't click on that last link, you really should, it will help you be aware of the threats we face in the USA.

www.franklinkungfu.com

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Tournament Training

I've been training for the tournament. Training pretty hard too.

Once upon a time, tournament training for me was practicing my forms.

This year I'm taking it seriously. Not because I'm obsessed with winning. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm going to try to win, but winning isn't all that important to me.

I've simply discovered that by training to win, I'm really, really training. And that is a win.

www.franklinkungfu.com

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Climbing the Ladder

My daughter is 2 and a half. Now that the weather has warmed up, we've been spending more time at the local parks again. The changes in her coordination since last fall are pretty amazing to see.

Last spring, she would only climb up on the playground equipment with help. By last fall, my help was no longer needed, but having me there as a safety net was necessary for her to try climbing.

This year, she has started climbing the obstacles on her own while I watch from a short distance.

She did find one obstacle that was a bit much for her though. She climbed up on the first step, and then back down.

Up again.

Down.

Up one more time.

Down again.

Then she had pulled her courage together and climbed up the ladder, as the arch of the ladder pulled her into a different position, however she was unable to figure out how to continue on. She looked around, then called out, "Daddy help me, Daddy I need help."

I ran over and put my hands around her waist and helped her to the top.

Cute story isn't it? It also struck me as an outline for any time we attempt new challenges.

We start off with help and instruction from someone. It might be a person there with us, or a video or a book, but we start with help. After a while, we can do it on our own, but it is nice to have a safety net, someone to give us corrections. Eventually we gain confidence and try newer and bigger things.

What we have a tendency to forget a lot of the time, is how to call out for help. Too often we realize we are in over our heads and we forget that it is okay to ask for help.

www.franklinkungfu.com

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The Master

There have been two key events in my martial arts career that have been very important in shaping the way I view martial arts training, and martial arts masters.

One was shortly after my red sash test. (For those who don't know, at East West Kung Fu, the red test is one of the "big deal" tests.) A fellow student who started training before me, but had been out of the school for some time when I got my red sash, had just come back to class. He saw me with my red sash on. He came over to me and in a low voice said, "How does it feel like to know you can walk through walls!?!?"

Walk through walls? I was shocked, that hadn't been part of my red sash test. I realized that he had this illusion of graduating into the upper ranks of kung fu. This illusion that if you reached that level, you were somehow more than human. I really still felt human. I really still was human. I couldn't figure out how he had come to believe that my martial arts experience made me more than human, until I caught myself doing the same thing to someone else.

In 2002 I had the opportunity to travel to China and participate in seminars with Chen Yong Fa, the "keeper" of his family lineage of martial arts. (His great, great, grandfather started Choy Lee Fut Kung Fu.) I was in China for a couple of days before I saw Chen Yong Fa, I didn't realize how much I had built him up in my mind until. . .

I was loading on the bus to go from Guangzhou to Xin Hui where we would be training. I got on the bus and started looking around out the window. There he was, the keeper of the style. There was Chen Yong Fa, one of, if not THE most qualified teacher of Choy Lee Fut on the planet. There he was standing on the sidewalk . . . smoking a cigarette?

WHAT?

"Yoda is not supposed to be a smoker," my martial arts fantasy was screaming at me. Then I caught myself, and thought, "Oh yeah, he's just a guy."

Sure he's a guy who is really really good at what he does, but he is just a guy.

Before and since then I've met a lot of kung fu masters, John Ng, Tom Pardue, Don Averitt, Tracy Sawyers, Kenny Vaughn, Lam Chun Fai, Don Hamby, Mike Marshall, Mak Hin Fai. . . Now I have it solid in my head, they are just ordinary people, ordinary people who have acheived extraordinary things, but ordinary people.

I've seen these guys do amazing things, but I've also seen them in less amazing situations, I had a staff meeting with one of them in swim trunks bobbing in the Gulf of Mexico, I've seen one of them tell conflicting stories about his kung fu lineage, one of them shared his dinner with me when mine didn't arrive at the restaurant.

Some day, some one will confer upon me the title "master". Keep in mind, I'm just a guy, sitting here, typing away and drinking the coffee my wife made this morning.

www.franklinkungfu.com

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Act Before the Emergency

Start your self defense now. Don't wait for the emergency. Sure there are things you can do if you are attacked. There are the punches, the kicks, the knees to the groin, and so on, but why wait for the emergency to defend yourself. Develop habits starting now that will prevent the emergency. Develop habits like avoiding known trouble spots, anger management, communication skills, and kindness. Do a good job with these and you may never have to use the emergency measures.

Start your self defense now. Don't wait for the emergency. Sure there are things you can do if you are attacked. There are things like chemotherapy, radiation therapy, surgery, and so on, but why wait for the emergency to defend yourself. Develop habits starting now that will prevent the emergency. Don't smoke, maintain a healthy weight, protect your skin from the sun, eat your fruits and veggies. Do a good job with these and you may never have to use the emergency measures.

www.franklinkungfu.com

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You Would Think. . .

Once, in a conversation with a friend about communication, my friend said, "You'd think he'd have figured that out a long time ago." I responded, "Why would you think that, did you tell him a long time ago?"

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Tournament Training

I've officially started training for the tournament. This is unusual for me. Although I've gone to one or two tournaments a year for the past several years, it has been a long time since I actually decided I was going to play to win. In the recent past, I've picked my competition forms the week of the tournament, sometimes the night before the tournament. Not this time, this time I am preparing my sets starting now, two months ahead of time.

I'm also preparing for the continuous sparring. I have changed my cardio from two minute rounds with a one minute break, to 45 second rounds with a 15 second break. It makes for a different workout. It is more intense action over a shorter period of time. The last time I sparred in a tournament I was doing long cardio sessions, and long sparring sessions, this trained me to pace myself for long periods instead of pushing harder for the two minute rounds in that tournament.

The truth is, I still don't care if I win or not. This time, I am going to enjoy the training a lot more.

www.franklinkungfu.com

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If ADD Were the Norm

If what we call ADD were the norm, and those who didn’t have those attributes were rare, we would likely still call the condition of the few ADD. Those people who had ADD would be the unfortunate ones who were unable to tune out the background noise of life and focus on the task at hand. They would be the ones who were unfortunate enough to have to stop typing, reading, or solving a puzzle to have a conversation. They would be considered unfortunate in that they could not quickly jump from what they were thinking on to a new, more interesting, and probably more important topic. Intolerant people would be frustrated with the inability of those so afflicted to leave a task for later, their inability to jump to another task, then back to the one at hand. They would seem slow, unable to adjust to new situations, unable to start preparing for a task until after they had completed the first one. We would be surprised that they didn’t have the multiple channels of attention, having to get through life only thinking about one thing at a time.

With patience and tolerance for those people, however, we could make the most of their uniqueness. We would need someone to go behind us and turn off the stove, to remind us of the unfinished projects, to organize the wonderful piles of work we created into meaningful and manageable conditions. We would need them for those boring jobs like analyzing data and doing research. Basically, if we could just be patient with their shortcomings, they could serve an important role in our society.

We need to remember in life, that just because someone is different from us, doesn't mean there is something wrong with them. We all have our place and purpose and our uniqueness should be seen as an advantage.

www.franklinkungfu.com

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Earth Day Fair

Don't forget to go check out the Earth Day Fair in Franklin this Saturday.

Don't forget about our Project Based Leadership Training this Saturday.

Don't forget Ten Tigers workout Saturday.

Don't forget I'm not answering my phone on Sunday.

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Kid Escape

Some video samples that I'm checking out. Tell me what you think. Click here.

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A New Mission.

When I first decided I wanted to teach martial arts, I had a mission. I wanted to transfer the martial art Hung Gar in as authentic and traditional a way as possible. My dedication was to the art.

My mission changed.

After a while, I realized that the art was a means and not an end. My mission became to better myself through practice of the martial arts and through applying the skills developed in martial arts to the rest of my life.

My mission changed.

Now I am reaching out to others. I want them to improve themselves through whatever means is available. Since I see martial arts as a powerful means to that end, I teach people through Hung Gar.

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Lunging to Bow and Arrow Stance

I just ran through some of my Hung Gar forms and discovered that In Sup Yin Kuen you shift to bow and arrow stance 60 times, in Fu Hok 55, in Gung Gee 68 and in Warrior Palm 42 times. Warrior Palm has 74 stance changes total, I hadn't thought ahead of time to count the total stance changes in the others.

This high incidence of shifting to that one particular stance shows the importance of that movement in the Hung Gar system. To create a powerful punch or strike, we use the full mass of our bodies, and the muscular strength of our arm, shoulder, latissimus muscles, and our quads and glutes.

Many styles rotate the back foot away from the punch, moving some of the body mass out of the punch, and disconnecting the power of the leg from the power of the strike. In Hung Gar, we root that back heel to the ground and drive forward.

It's obvious to me from the prevalence of that movement in the forms that it is something we are intended to master that one small movement, to do it until it is automatic. So when practicing your Hung Gar forms, root that heel in and drive forward.

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Why I Want to Be an NSDI Instructor

This fall, my stepdaughter goes off to college. She will be living in a dorm room on campus. In large part, she will be on her own. This is a huge step for her, and we are very, very proud. I know that odds are, she won't have any problems, I know that odds are, she will be completely safe. I also know, that if the odds don't keep her safe, if the security measures in place on campus don't keep her safe, that I won't be there to keep her safe either.

If someone breaks into her room while she is here in my home and she screams that someone will have two adrenalized black belts storming after them in very short order. If it happens at her dorm, I don't know who will be there and how they will respond. There is only one person I trust to keep her safe in this situation.

She will have to do it herself.

I want to arm her with the best tools possible to do it.

I want to learn more about personal safety instruction, so that I can share that with her as soon as possible. I also need to share that with my other daughter who is only two years old.

I can't always be there to protect my daughters, but what I teach them will ALWAYS be with them.

What about your sons and daughters, who will be there for them when they are out on their own?

I am looking for financial help to cover the costs of this program. Once certified I will be offering non profit self defense classes with this system.

www.franklinkungfu.com

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Self Defense

I've been reading a lot on self defense lately. The problem with the martial arts world is that we martial artists who have been doing martial arts our whole lives, practicing techniques, visualizing ourselves in a self defense situation, sparring, etc. don't have a perspective of what it is like to not have done martial arts our whole lives.

Most martial artists when asked about self defense immediately start thinking of techniques and movements, rather than attitude and mindset. Attitude and mindset are so deeply ingrained in some of us that we can't even consciously call those things to mind.

Showing some one what to do if they are grabbed, is kind of like telling people the treatment options available if they get lung cancer someday. We are better off telling people not to smoke, than telling them about treating lung cancer.

Likewise, we are better off teaching/learning what it takes to avoid a confrontation in the first place over what to do when we've messed that part up.

More to come.

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A Kung Fu Parable

The old master walks out onto the modern training floor and sees one of his students practicing one technique from one of his forms over and over again. The student asks the master, "Sifu, will you show me the applications of this technique again, I would like to perfect my understanding as well as my execution of this technique."

The master shows him how the technique should be performed and what its purpose is, then asks the student, "Why are you so intent on perfecting this one technique?"

The student replies, "If I perfect this one technique, I will move on to perfecting the next technique in the form, then the next. Eventually this will enable me to perfect the entire form."

"Why are you so intent on perfecting the entire form?"

"I want my performance on my upcoming black belt test to be flawless so that there will be no doubt in anyone's mind that I deserve the black belt. I want to earn my black belt."

The student repeats the technique a few more times, then asks the master, "Sifu, what was your black belt test like?"

The master smiles and says, "When I trained with my sifu, there were no belt tests, and no belts. I started using belts and tests after I moved to the United States."

The student asks, "Why did you decide to start using belts and tests?"

"I saw that when a student has a goal such as a black belt that he or she must earn at a test, he or she will work very hard to perfect the forms."

"Well, Sifu, why is it so important to perfect the forms."

"Because if one has perfected the form, one has perfected each movement within the form."

The moral of the story is, do not confuse the means with the end. The student saw learning the movements as a means to achieve the end of earning a black belt. The master saw the black belt as a means to achieve the end of motivating students to perfect their performance.

The end should be improvement of the self. The means may include perfection of physical performance of martial arts techniques, or education at a university, or meditation, but one should keep the end in mind.

www.franklinkungfu.com

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Perspective.

I was looking today at some pictures that made my struggles and problems seem so very small. It's all about perspective.

First, General Sherman, the world's largest tree.

Next,

General Sherman from a different perspective.

And finally, General Sherman's home planet, Earth, from a different perspective.

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Awareness

As a member of the National Speleological Society, I receive a magazine entitled, "American Caving Accidents". The purpose of this publication is to bring awareness to the types of caving accidents that occur, what the causes of the accidents are, and how to prevent these sorts of things from happening again.

This got me thinking about what I believe is the key to self defense. Whether it be self defense against an attacker, against pollution, against heart disease, or really just about anything, there is a common key to defending oneself effectively.

Awareness.

My Sifu, Master Tom Pardue often talked about awareness. He would say that if you are walking out of Wal-Mart, and you look around and notice something that gives you a gut feeling that something is wrong, trust that gut feeling, and go back in.

That example hits awareness on several levels. First being aware that a parking lot at night is not always a safe place to be and so looking around. Second, being aware of things that are warning signs such as people behaving suspiciously. Finally, being aware that sometimes there is a reason we have those subconscious feelings and feel the urge to go back inside.

Martial arts training should also bring awareness. Awareness of what ones strengths and weaknesses are. Awareness of how to compensate for, or even remove the weaknesses, awareness of how to best use ones strengths.

Awareness is the key to effective self defense.

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Are You Still a Black Belt?

Recently, my wife and I had a discussion about black belt status which came down to one question, "Are you still a black belt?"

I've decided that to answer that question, (the answer will be different for every person) one must define what it means to still be a black belt.

If earning a black belt, and being a black belt means that once upon a time in my life I met all the requirements to pass my black belt test. Then anyone who ever passed that test is still a black belt. That is kind of like being a high school graduate. Even if you've forgotten the quadratic equation and the location of the first battle in the civil war, they don't take away your high school diploma.

Personally, and this only counts for me, still being a black belt means that today, I could still pass the test I took to get mine, it means that not only have I maintained my knowledge and abilities, I have increased them. For me, to keep calling myself a black belt, I have to earn it every day.

MMA, RBSD, TMA What's the Answer?

So if you ask most of the Mixed Martial Arts guys they will say that Traditional Martial Artists spend too much time on technique and not enough time fighting, and Reality Based Self Defense guys spend not enough time on technique and fitness with too much emphasis on adrenal response.

If you ask the Reality Based Self Defense guys, they will say the Traditional Martial Artists and the MMA guys spend too much time in controlled scenarios and not enough time with adrenal response.

If you ask the Traditional Martial Artists they will say that the MMA guys are too focused on sport, and the RBSD guys don't spend enough time practicing the basics and building new techniques.

So who has it right? Who has the answer for how to learn to make martial arts real, viable self defense techniques.

I think they all do. I think that, like the 5 blind men who argued over what an elephant is like, they each have a piece of the puzzle.

If you spend all your time on technique in a sterilized situation with a compliant partner you miss a piece of the puzzle.

If you spend all your time sparring within the confines of the rules of a sport, you miss a piece of the puzzle.

If you only do an intensive two day course and never train again, you miss a piece of the puzzle.

While I'm at it, if you don't work to improve your relationship with the world around you, or your leadership skills, or acts of kindness. . . you miss a piece of the puzzle.

Honor Thy Body

Your body, that thing you move around in. That collection of bone and muscle and organs and sinews that contains you. How important is it to you.

I believe that we are all here for a reason, that we have something to do here, a job or a mission or whatever you want to call it.

I also believe that part of that mission is to honor our bodies. Our bodies are the vehicles that allow us to do whatever it is we are meant to do.

Imagine if you gave someone the gift of a classic car, or a new car, or whatever kind of car you like and they absolutely trashed it. They never changed the oil, they left cigarette burns in the upholstery, never changed the air filter. They decided to see what would happen if they put sugar water in the gas tank.

The car would be ruined they wouldn't be able to travel in it, and neither would anyone else. They would have destroyed a very useful machine and would be in need of a replacement.

We have each been given one body, one vehicle to get through life in. It is a wonderful gift, and we should honor that gift. We should avoid filling it with empty calories, we should avoid cigarettes and other drugs that will destroy our bodies, we should eat our veggies, we should exercise.

My body is important, is sacred. I need it to get through my life. I am certain my daughter would like me to make it last as long as I can.

Finding Time Versus Making Time.

I caught myself thinking, "I just can't find time to. . .". So I started thinking about that phrase again. "Find time", what exactly had I done to try to find time? It turned out in this instance I had done nothing to try to find time. I was just passively hoping to find time. That's kind of like hoping to find a check in the mailbox, or hoping that without practice I'll just get good at my kung fu (or whatever other endeavor I'm taking on).

So I started thinking about actively finding time, maybe that would work. So I start looking at my daily schedule and realize that there were lots of spot where I might have time to do something. I hadn't found it because I hadn't been looking for it. So hooray I found time.

I still didn't follow through with what I had found time for. Something else always got in the way.

To meet a new commitment/goal/whatever, I have to MAKE time. I have to set aside time in my day that is dedicated to whatever thing I couldn't FIND time for. Sometimes the schedule can be very exact (12:30 to 1:30 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday and Friday). Sometimes I need it to be more flexible (as soon as my daughter goes down for her nap at least three days per week).

The Ten Tigers Program last year really taught me how to do this.

Give What You've Got

I believe that a person who has, should give to a person who has not. A recent example in my life: I have a willingness and ability to crawl into small, inhospitable, natural openings in the bedrock. A man whose dog chased a raccoon into one of these spaces did not. So a friend and I tried our best to get in there to get that dog out. This particular cave quickly became too small for us to get far enough to get the dog, but we tried our best.

A friend of mine who has enough money offered to give gas money and buy supplies for people who would be willing to try to get in.

There are lots of ways to help out in the world around you. Think about what you have that you can give, and chip in. Maybe you don't have money, but you have time to volunteer, or maybe you have money but no time. Find a way to use the gifts you've been given. You've been given them for a reason.

If anyone out there has been given the gift of amazing shrinking powers, there is a coon dog that could use your help.