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

eastwestkungfu.ning.com

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.

www.franklinkungfu.com
eastwestkungfu.ning.com

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

franklinkungfu.blogspot.com

eastwestkungfu.ning.com

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.

www.franklinkungfu.com

franklinkungfu.blogspot.com

eastwestkungfu.ning.com

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.

www.franklinkungfu.com

eastwestkungfu.ning.com

franklinkungfu.blogspot.com