Effective, Adaptive Martial Arts
If you want to get really good at something, and you don’t have 10,000 hours to do it, you may be in luck. In his book The First 20 Hours – How to Learn Anything… Fast, Josh Kaufman explains how you can get good – really good – at any new skill, in as little … Read more
We all want to win in life. Well, most of us, anyway, but that’s a different topic. How we go about winning is the important thing. There are at least two ways to win. The first is to work really hard, practice, get better, overcome your obstacles, etc., and reach or surpass your target. Boom. … Read more
As a part of our martial arts training, we should try to imagine black swan events that we might experience and then train for those possible situations. To begin with, let’s define a black swan event. The black swan theory or theory of black swan events is a metaphor that describes an event that comes … Read more
I saw a video a while back of a kid in school who was being picked on by another kid. After a bunch of verbal abuse and then some actual punches thrown by the bully, the victim had enough and picked the bully up and slammed him to the ground. I thought “yes, justice is … Read more
So, the other day I was watching a video of a martial arts master. He was a Shoalin monk doing kung fu. It was beautiful and powerful. But I noticed something that I thought was off. Some of his stances had him on only one foot. I’ve been teaching for over twenty years that to … Read more
When people talk about meditation, I often hear some talk about emptying your mind. They say that the goal of meditation is to clear your mind of everything and allow your mind to be empty. I see it a bit differently than that. Now, just to let you know, for a few years, I tried … Read more
As you practice and plan for any potential conflicts, one of the most important things you can do it break it down into steps. If you’ve ever seen the movie The Last Samurai, you’ll remember a couple scenes where Tom Cruise goes over the upcoming battle in his head, move by move. Once the actual … Read more
Expect the expected. You’ve probably heard the phrase “expect the unexpected”. Well, to be a better prepared martial artist, learn to expect the expected. One of the best things you can do to be prepared for the unexpected is to think about what could possibly happen and then practice what to say and what to … Read more