Leaving On A Jet Plane

That's it. They are gone.
It's been a long week, gradually building up to the fatc that my family would be flying back to Japan today.

Now I am on my own until my master's degree is over - nearly two months. I leave on 11 October. I haven't been alone for this long for nearly 10 years...completely at a loss now for how to feel. All of us crying at the airport this morning was the most heartbreaking moment I can remember.

Ray cried, but at 3 years old he does not fully understand what it means to be apart so long.
He mainly cried because George, his older brother, cried. He wasn't sure exactly what was going on or what to do, but since George cried, he cried.

George cried a lot, and has been crying off and on all week.
He is worried about missing his best friend, worried about missing me, worried about starting his new school next week. It will be hard on him, but he will be fine, and we all need to go through these things in order to learn and grow - to be a bit more independent. The time will come when he will be glad to be away from me, but that is not now; not at 7 years old.

Sanae knows very well what it means to be away for so long.
Lately things have been going pretty well for us, and she has been happy. That has meant I get to be happy too. I wish I was going, too.

All that time alone should be good, right?
Plenty of time to think about things and all that.
No distractions.

I am sure I will have time to do things like read and watch DVDs I haven't been able to.
I am sure I will (eventually) be able to sleep more.

My plans are to train as hard as possible. Every spare moment on the mats.
Change my eating habits. Change my sleeping habits. Change my life.

I expect to go back to Japan in October looking very different.
Fitter, stronger, happier, more focused. Ready to hit the ground running.

I want to have a better life back in Japan.

See you there. Yoroshiku.

The Princess Syndrome

She's back. However, nothing really seems to have changed.
Same vaguely desperate, puzzled expression... I suppose she wonders why things "just don't go her way" or why she is "so unlucky". Years will go by while she waits for something to happen...maybe she will end up getting married and giving up her independence just to be sure someone provides for her...how sad.

She is very pretty, and she knows it.
She is well educated, and she knows it.
The world should be laid at her feet...and...sadly, she knows it.
She's a barbie girl in a barbie world, as the song says.

In psychology circles it is referred to as "learned helplessness", a condition where a person becomes conditioned to do nothing since they expect everything to be done FOR THEM. Maybe it is because they are beautiful. Maybe it is because they know it.

Nothing is more infuriating to me than the belief some people have that the world somehow owes them something. This goes hand in hand with the learned helplessness that society impresses upon women to make them believe they cannot do and be at least the equal of their male counterparts, if not far beyond them. This extends to many of the middle eastern countries that still treat women as "possessions" to be bought and sold, and African societies that still believe they need to mutilate women to deny them the pleasure of a healthy and active sexual identity.
This is the crime of cowardly, weak men who are intimidated by the idea of a strong, capable woman.

I am not a feminist per se - I want everyone, man or woman, to be free to achieve their potential, and I reject any prejudice that would prevent that.

There is no one else to blame for failing to achieve your dreams. No one can make you happy but YOU. Waiting for someone to make you happy will only bring false hope and a lifetime of loneliness.

Each one of us controls his/her own destiny, and writes the book of our lives word by word, line by line - moment by moment. It is the worst of lies to believe otherwise. It is the worst of sins to attempt to persuade someone otherwise.

Martial arts is a great way for women to become empowered. I have seen the training transform women who were timid and shy, lacking self confidence or willpower to go and make their dreams come true. They emerge radiant. Aagain and again I have seen this magic, and it never fails to amaze me.

To me, nothing is more attractive than the idea of a warrior princess - proud and strong.
Maybe she needs to take this opportunity to get into the dojo and train. Soon she will see that she can be the one to get what she wants - there is no need to wait and hope someone will simply give it to her.

Very few "princesses" truly deserve rescuing. Far better for them to rescue themselves.

Red Card!

I was reading a friend's blog and found out about a training injury. Damn.

As you know, my primary consideration for training is SAFETY.
Over my life in the martial arts, I have suffered my share of training injuries, but I am happy to say that I have not caused serious harm to any training partner. Yes, we sometimes inadvertently get a bruise or a scrape - I have gotten and given those. However, I have not injured a partner such that they could not train or were otherwise debilitated.

For me this is a point of pride. As a teacher, it is an ABSOLUTE.
There is no excuse for injuring students. EVER. PERIOD.

At the best, this is a result of a lack of control or poor technique on the teacher's part.
At the worst, this is a manifestation of ego, and displays a flawed character.

I know the counter argument very well.
We are not doing new age ballet tai chi warm fuzzy encounter group hug pyschotherapy.
This is martial arts.
To get the full benefit, we need to train hard. To feel healthy and happy, we need to sweat hard. To discover ourselves, we need to push our limits. To be confident in a real fight, we have to come as close to it in training as we can. This is how we control and master stress and fear. This is how we break through to the other side.

However, this must be done with safety as a primary consideration.
There can be no other way. Fear and guilt have no place in our dojo, except as enemies to be challenged and defeated.

I have made references to martial arts training as a spiritual journey, and likened it even to a religion of its own, with vestments, ceremonies, and heirarchies sometimes very similar to what most of us know from organized mainstream religions. Sadly, this can also include the very same pitfalls that organized religions suffer from: namely, control using fear/guilt, exploitation of the sprititually weak/codependent and blatant commercialism.

In my analogy, teachers injuring students is akin to priests fondling children.
It may happen with alarming frequency. It is most likely under-reported or never reported.
It can have permanent negative consequences for everyone.
It is also completely unjustifiable and unacceptable.

The net result of these kinds of incidents is that students feel fear and apprehension, which instead they should be learning to overcome. Their confidence is weakened. Their trust is broken. They lose faith in the objective of the training. Some of them will stop training or leave martial arts altogether. Some will never come back. Even more horrible is the thought that they will STAY. Like a victim of domestic violence too afraid or weak to leave their abusive partner, the students start to believe that martial arts is about negativity, oppression, and violence, and end up teaching it the same way themselves one day - perpetuating a neverending cycle of misery and ignorance. Nothing could be worse than this.

Many times I meet people who, despite being raised Christian, are now self-professed athiests.
In nearly every case, it was some negative experience they had that turned them away from the church. Their trust was broken. Their faith was shaken. They never came back.

I hope this does not happen. We need good teachers to help build good students. We need teachers who can help us have faith and trust in martial arts as a way of transforming ourselves and growing to become the people we want to be. We need to have some spiritual foundation that we can believe in so that we can explore The Way freely and overcome our limitations.

Absolute Power Absolutely Corrupts.

How Disappointing.

Tight is Right

I wanted to write a bit more as a follow up to the previous post on precision.
It should almost go without saying that being precise in Kali is about keeping tight.
Lately we have been working Ubud, a flowing drill done with hands and sticks.
It is a drill done to develop responsiveness and perpheral-vision response in very short distance (Corto). Sometimes I see students waving their arms like a windmill, or swinging their sticks like they were trying to help an aircraft land on deck. It goes without saying that this is not the desired result.

Not just in corto, but at all times, it is important to keep hands and sticks tight, rather than swing them all around in big, wide circles. Less is more. At any time, we need to be able to recover the center line, recover balance, and remain in contact with the opponent. This is not efficiently done if the arms swing wide.

Try not only to be precise but to keep the motions short and sharp, tight to the body.
This will help you look better and fight better.

Tight is Right.

precision, precision, precision

Guro was on us again yesterday about precision.
As usual, he is absolutely right.

All too often we become preoccupied with going fast or hard during the drills, and we miss one of the most important points of all - precision. Without precision, we look bad and we fight bad. A degree of angle off and we get hit. A degree of angle off, and we miss the target.

Good martial arts is all about precision.
That means that a core element of the training should be attention to detail, and developing precision around footwork, body location, spatial relationship to the opponent, weight shift, breathing.

Kali Majaphit is unique in that we learn precision from so many different points of view.
We study knife, baston, dumog, panantukan, sikaran, kadena. In each of these, precision is critical for the techniques to succeed and for our guard to remain strong. There is little value (other than cardio) in going fast at the expense of precision.

Slow it down. make it exact. You will look better, fight better, and end up understanding far more benefit than you would otherwise.

Off to train. more later.

aikido is for everyone, but not everyone is for aikido

I saw this expression a long time ago.
At the time, since I was studying aikido, it was cool.
It was elitist to think of us as a group of dedicated students that other people couldn't fully understand, and couldn't be a part of. We were different. We were the chosen few.
aikido is for everyone, but everyone is not for aikido. Some just don't have what it takes.
But we did. That's what we thought, anyway.

I was thinking about that expression again today. It made me sad.
If everyone is not for aikido, what can they be for? Do they get ignored? cast aside? forgotten?
I think "MARTIAL ARTS IS FOR EVERYONE, AND EVERYONE IS FOR MARTIAL ARTS"

Regardless of level, or skill, or ability, or intellect.
Especially for those whom we might think martial arts cannot help.
For the weak, the timid, the shy, the infirm. For the people who lack focus, who lack commitment. For people who just can never seem to do anything right. For people who cannot tell right from left. For the losers.
That's right. FOR THE LOSERS.

So many times in my life, my martial arts was all I had to depend on.
One more punch or kick. One more pushup or situp. One more class.
When nothing else in my life was going right, martial arts was.
When nothing else in my life made sense, martial arts did.
I focused on just what was in front of me and tried to get through the class.
Afterward, I always felt better. Inch by sometimes painful inch, my life improved.
It has been improving ever since I started.

I never was to have a martial arts world which excludes anyone from the HOPE that the training can give them. The hope that they can improve and grow and change. We all can. That little thread of hope was all I had to hang onto sometimes.

Bring the losers - they will become winners in martial arts.

IT'S FOR EVERYONE!! IT CAN BE FOR YOU, TOO.

Give The Gift

Someone new starting a new life.
They asked. I explained. They saw. They liked.
Soon they will embark on their voyage in the martial arts.
It is a sacred journey that can truly take you anywhere you want to go.

My own journey in the martial arts started nearly 30 years ago.
I had my first day on the mats like everybody does. Since then my life has changed so much. I cannot begin to count all the great things martial arts training has given me. Where would I even start??

For those of you, my brothers and sisters, you know just what I mean.
Martial arts has changed you. It has made you better. I don't just mean stronger, faster, more flexible. I mean it has given you courage and confidence, helped you overcome your shyness or lack of focus, helped you find out who you really are. It has empowered you to change your life.

This gift is the greatest gift we can give - the gift of life. The gift of change.
It is the gift we give when we introduce someone new into a life in martial arts.
We show them a doorway to a path that they can walk forever, and that will never stop giving them and the people around them a richer, fuller time on Earth.

GIVE THIS GIFT EVERY CHANCE YOU CAN.

It costs you nothing to tell friends, coworkers, family members, classmates, boyfriend/girlfriend.

Tell them, better still, SHOW THEM the difference martial arts training has made in your life.
They will want it, too.

Together we can change the world one new student at a time.

Rhythm

We hear rhythms every day. All around us. There are big rhythms (seasons, lunar cycles), small rhythms (clocks, wingbeats), internal (heartbeats) and external (raindrops, ocean waves) rhythms. Rhythms that are natural and rhythms we create. Fighting has a rhythm as well.

When you watch fighting/boxing on high speed you can see a "flow" between punches, kicks, blocks, counters. There's the rhythm.

When we train, we should learn about our rhythms. Doing kabka and sinawali, doing ubud and panantukan, we should get a feeling of the rhythm of movement between ourselves and our training "opponent". It is important to become able to quickly identify an opponent's rhythm so that it can be used to advantage. At the same time, it is important to learn to move "off rhythm" or "off timing" so that opponents cannot anticipate our actions.

In training, I suggest to start by listening to music all the time. All kinds of music. Listen specifically for bass beats and drum beats, which are the leading tracks of songs, until you can quickly and easily separate them from the rest of the music and focus your attention on them.
Tap your feet to the drum beat and bass beat to match it. Play. See if you can find the "rhythm inside the rhythm" where you can add a beat in between beats occuring in the bass and drum tracks.

Next begin to work your flow to different kinds of music. Although you may have music you like best, try to use as many different types as you can. Work double stick, single stick, espada y daga, boxing. Feel the timing for moving and hitting. Next, try to get inside the beat and add moves in between notes. Use half beats and quarters to add hits to the movements.

When you have gotten comfortable, get a partner. Take turns doing slow and medium level sparring to music (think of Muay Thai, which has music during the matches). Try to use what you have learned to match your partner's rhythm and then get inside it and control it. Have each partner take turns and be careful to avoid injury.

You will become better aware of how rhythms connect movement, and how to get in between these moments to "create time" for your techniques. This will make you a better fighter and help you explore another important aspect of yourself and your world.

How to Look Good in Black

Today I had a rare opportunity - the chance to see my friend and mentor Morgane test for her Kadua Guro, or black shirt, the equivalent of 1st degree black belt instructor in Kali Majapahit.

It was a long test, two hours, and filled to the brim with everything we do - single stick, double stick, knife, empty hand, boxing, and more. She did a fantastic job.

I am no stranger to seeing various gradings, going back to my first black belt test in 1987. This one was not easy. There is a lot to remember, and it is two hours non-stop. A test like this must be appreciated on a lot of levels.

Technique - the KM curriculum is vast and deep. There is far too much material to cover in even a two hour test. Still, just trying to remember everything must be a real challenge. There is solo baston/doble baston, espada y daga, sikaran, dumog, kadena de mano, panantukan. There is no pre-arranged pattern, so no way to know what Guro Fred is going to ask. You have no choice but to remember it all.

Endurance - two hours feels like forever. Certain aspects of the test are particularly exhausting such as Dumog and sparring. Just being in good enough cardio condition to make it through such a long test requires months of hard work. The final was 10 one-minute sparring rounds with 10 different partners. This is at the end, after nearly 2 hours of hard work already. You have to be in peak physical condition. Anything less and you'd better not even think about it.

Focus - This is the part that impressed me the most. These tests require incredible focus, especially the weapons work and the technical drills. Maintaining your energy, concentration, and focus over a two hour test is an incredible challenge. Most "normal" people have no hope to do this. Most martial artists do not either. You must have muscle memory for the key moves on both right and left, but you need something more. You need instinct.

Stress Management - This is the other part that really impressed me. During a test of such length and depth it is natural to make mistakes. That causes stress and you must be able to let it go and continue. Otherwise, one mistake invariably sets of a chain of mistakes that destroy your concentration completely. You have to be in the moment completely, and able to let everything else go. This is the hallmark of any good professional athlete, and even more so for any good professional martial artist. The test is often designed specifically to push you to your breaking point and beyond. How will you handle it? This mental toughness is at the heart of every true warrior.

Desire - At the end of it all, how bad do you want it? After two hours of punishment, what takes you over the line is raw desire. You have to give yourself completely to the task at hand, and think of nothing else. Only then can you break through to the other side, past your own limitations and into a new dimesion of your own awareness of being. That magic is what it is all about. Teaching you what is really inside yourself.

Another element I really like is the fact that so many people showed up to give support and be training partners. Everyone can now bear witness to how hard this test is, and the level of preparation needed to get through it. We become more able to respect her knowledge, her skills, her energy and commitment, her self-control. She must convince not only Guro Fred and Guro Lila, but all of the rest of us as well. All of us are in our own way part of that success, and it binds us together even closer than before.

I was so impressed. She did a magnificent job; truly worthy of her hard work and commitment.
This is an important milestone on the path. There are very few of those black shirts out there, and they don't come easy. The shirt looks great on her.

CONGRATULATIONS MORGANE!!

*** amended *** the test is actually said to be 4 hours total, including a written exam, and an additional 1 hour boxing test (separate from the 2 hour test above). WOW!

The Angry One

Yes, you know who I mean: Steven Seagal. The Angry One.

Yesterday someone asked me what I thought about him, being that I am an aikido guy myself. That was a tougher question than I thought it would be.

On one hand, he is simply amazing. He is legitimately one of the first non-Japanese to go and live and train in Japan. His trained there until he started his own school in Osaka. A true pioneer.

He was the first person to really show dynamic, practical aikido on film, and was called "The Bruce Lee of Aikido" by many. His early films showcase the effectiveness of what he studied and developed in aikido. People were amazed. I watched "Above The Law" again and again and again. Very entertaining stuff.

At the same time, something just didn't make sense.

It's easy to pick people apart if you try; especially public figures whose lives are under constant scrutiny. Seagal sensei has been married and divorced 3 times and has 6 children along the way.
His movie career got relegated to the straight to video market and never quite made it to the level of other contemporaries such as Chuck Norris, Jackie Chan, and Jet Li. Outside of action/martial arts genre, he was not able to make a mark in films.

At some point, his Buddhist views and Eastern philosophy turned from Japan to more esoteric Tibetan philosophy. He met the Dalai Lama, was proclaimed a Tulku, and used his celebrity to further awareness of theirs and other social causes.

I guess what I end up noticing most is that he rarely, if ever, smiles.

After nearly all of my life in martial arts training, I do not want that to be me.
I want to smile, laugh, play, enjoy. I want my life to be full and vibrant, and to be a rich part of the many relationships I have with my friends and family. I want to make a difference in their lives and inspire them. I want to do everything I can to give my family (I have only 1 marriage and 2 children so far) a happy and supportive environment. In my 50s, if I were still trying to be "the tough guy", I would feel I had gone wrong somewhere.

It is the goal of every teacher to give students a moral framework, and help them to explore their spirituality just as they become ready for each new step. This means gently nudging them (or slapping their face if the situation calls for it) to awaken them to their potential as human beings to be happy and healthy - and ultimately to achieve their own unique definition of success. Being "the tough guy" is simply not enough for any of us for very long - surely this is not enough for us as we become teachers and role models ourselves.

What do I think about Seagal-sensei? I admire him for his skill and courage to give himself so completely at such a young age to chase his dreams. I wish his teachers had offered him a deeper and richer platform to find happiness. I wish he could smile more.

I'd love to train with him someday. Maybe afterward we can have a cup of tea and talk about things. It is never to late to learn to smile.

OSU!

(Thanks for the inspiration Shai)

How Do You Feel?

How do you feel when you walk into the school?
How do you get ready for class? What is going through your mind?

For me, every time I suit up into my uniform I feel FIRED UP. I MEAN REALLY FIRED UP.
I am focused on the lesson, and my energy level is at maximum. I feel like a race car on the starting line when we line up.

I work hard. Probably just as hard as you do.
I have a wife and kids that drive me crazy sometimes. Probably almost as crazy as yours do.
At the end of a typical day I am exhausted. The economy sucks; North Korea is scary; oil is too expensive; blah blah blah...you probably feel the same.

Still, my time at Kali Majapahit is for me. My time. I don't owe it to anyone else except me. I only share it with my training partners.
I don't go to make anyone else happy, or to fulfill an obligation to somebody who would be disappointed if I didn't go (except maybe Neal).
I earned it, and I want to make the most of it. Bringing my energy and focus to the lesson helps everyone get motivated to train hard, which again helps me get even more motivated - it is a positive spiral. Energy is an amazing thing. The more you give, the more you get back. Money, sadly, is not like that.

Years ago, one of my teachers told me about the importance of taking off your shoes in the genkan (entry hall) of the school.
He told me that when you take of your shoes, you should imagine taking off your life, the life you have outside, and placing it in the rack outside until the lesson is over.
We are all tired and stressed from our workday when we come to class (except maybe for Guro Fred!). It is fundamentally important that we leave that world outside.
Escape into the oasis of your life in the school, which is different from that. Be free. It is important training in achieving work/life balance that we force ourselves not to think of work when we train. Ours is a moving meditation. A study of zen will teach you that the smallest of actions have consequence and are part of our constant and endless journey toward perfection.

The lesson begins when you take off your shoes and put them in the rack. Do it well.

Playtime!

We had a lot of fun playing with sticks and knives tonight at class.
That's right. PLAYING.

Guro went away from the usual cycle structured curriculum and has been giving us playtime lately. Most of us, especially those of us without children, forget how important playtime is.

Playtime is a chance to have unstructured exploration, to imagine and be creative, to express ourselves freely. Our kids learn so much about the world from playing. Some experts say that children actually learn more from playing than they do at school. I would tend to agree, at least through primary school anyway.

Playtime is an important part of mastery. We have to become familiar with the basic concepts and techniques we use in Kali Majapahit if we expect to ever master them and use them to express ourselves in a martial arts way. It is not enough to simply memorize the movements and commit them to muscle memory. That is the limit of most martial arts, especially the Japanese and Korean styles. FMA is so wonderful in that it demands we keep our childlike mentality and truly create and flow with our own flavor and style.

It goes without saying that this can only be done well after the basics are correct and the foundation is strong. However, unlike other systems, Kali Majapahit makes intermediate and above include this flowing and exploring. It is one of the best things about Kali Majapahit, and one of the most important parts of the training in my view. We must actively cultivate what Zen Buddhism refers to as "the child's mind" which is a mind of wonder, innocence, and curiosity. This is especially true for Kali and FMA, since playfulness is an integral part of the Filipino culture - FILIPINOS ARE ALL ABOUT LAUGHING AND HAVING FUN!

As I have said before, the dojo is our laboratory for the real world, and if you want the real world to be fun and enjoyable - YOU'VE GOT TO PLAY! Our dojo is a laboratory, a playground, an amusement park - make the most of it!!

A Lotta Hilot

Yesterday we had a lot of people turn up for Hilot.

Hilot, for those of you who are unfamiliar, is the Filipino natural healing system as taught in Kali Majapahit. It includes alignments, osteopathy, dietetic, breathing and other Asian natural healing sciences.

I think it is very important for students to attend classes in Hilot.

WHY?

It is unique among Chinese and Southeast Asian martial arts to focus on longevity and health.
Perhaps this is due to their cultural closeness to the roots of Indian Ayurvedic, which spread throughout Asia and ended up becoming well-known globally as yoga, tai chi, shaolin, kenpo, and other martial and healing arts.

Much of this knowledge was lost to the Japanese and Koreans who, by contrast, focused their attention almost exclusively on combat practicality, often at the expense of their health and longevity. Japanese martial art lifestyle is particularly characterized by repeatedly punching makiwara pads (which can do permanent damage to the hands), training in extreme heat and cold, heavy drinking and smoking, and other unhealthy practices. Even Ip Man, key exponenent of Wing Chun, was a heavy smoker, and one would have expected him to know better.

I have written in other posts that achieving fighting prowess should not be the principal goal of our training. Rather, we should actively use the martial arts as a way of exploring who we are, and who the people around us are - ultimately yielding more rewarding personal relationships.
The natural progression of this growth is the goal of longevity. Having found rich and fulfilling emotional relationships, it is natural to want to enjoy them in this world as long as possible, and to learn how to keep our bodies maintained in an optimal state for the maximum time we have to live.

Hilot is a great gateway to understanding our bodies and developing habits of good health that promote longevity. Hilot offers some very practical techniques for spinal adjustment, acupressure, and massage that can increase your everyday quality of life significantly.

I hope that such a high turnout is evidence that students are starting to understand this and welcome it. It is rare to have such a complete system as Kali Majapahit, which offers the most practical blend of combat effectiveness, together with lifestyle counseling for better overall health and happiness. Take full advantage of it!! Learn as much as you can!!

See you at the Hilot seminar!

Sticking It

Just when I thought I had seen it all...

Yesterday we had a mixed class of guests, beginners, intermediates, advanced, and guros. Guro Fred dropped the bomb.


Maybe he felt sorry for our miserable flow.
Maybe he wanted to snap us out of our dream.
Maybe he wanted to show us we could make a quantum leap forward. We did. I think I got years of improvement last night.

He worked us through a drill that can be combined and assembled in so many ways.
It offers countless expression, and even more importantly, shows the framework for us to develop any number of similar drills on our own. My jaw dropped.

Every time I think I have him figured out, and that I get what Kali Majapahit is all about, he comes at me from left field with something like we did last night....the light bulb goes on...and I realize I have a lot deeper to dig. I love it when that happens.

I am not going to explain the specifics here - you should get in there and start your training as soon as you can. There is a lot to learn, and it will take you the rest of your life.

How cool is that? go and get stuck into your Kali...NOW

Let's Fight

"Let's Fight" said my seven year old son to me.
He was not kidding. He was mad. I did not oblige.

It raises an interesting topic, though.
We train in martial arts, which is fighting.
We are surrounded by violence which is all around us on TV, in movies, in books, in music, in sports (but hopefully not in our everyday lives otherwise). Violence is glorified. It's cool.

We have busier and more stressful lives than our parents and grandparents did (except those who went to war). This leads to road rage, air rage, murder/suicides, stabbings, domestic violence and other "anger management" issues.

Is fighting really so glamorous? Is it cool?

The last time I got in a fight, a real fight, was more than twenty years ago. People got hurt. Permanently hurt. Luckily not me. Luckily no one died. Luckily I did not end up in prison. I still think about what happened and will regret it for the rest of my life. If I could take it all back I would without a moment's hesitation. It was not cool.

Fighting is a lot like hunting. It sounded really great until I stood over a dead animal and had to dress it. The blood, the sounds, the smell was so revolting I found out quickly why my friends suggested bringing a bottle of bourbon. Fighting, when your life depends on it (and you should never fight otherwise), is a messy business. It is all over too fast. For those of us with training, the likelihood for someone to be seriously, permanently damaged is very high, and usually "sorry" is not good enough afterward. Once weapons get involved it goes very fast from bad to worse, and people can get very dead very quick. As my original teacher told me "it's actually really hard to keep them alive". Suffice to say, some things when done cannot be undone.
As an example, check this tragic story: http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_402233.html?vgnmr=1

Proper training with a proper teacher should help every student realize that the training is like an insurance policy; not to be taken out until you need it, and when you do you are likely to need it pretty badly.

I have said in other posts, the goal of the training is to learn the truth about yourself.
Fighting has no real place in that. We have to learn to do the harder thing and not give in to the temptation to solve our problems and frustrations with violence. As martial artists we have to be bigger than that.

This is the real lesson I want my son to learn.

Get your Kicks with Sikaran

Sikaran is Filipino kickboxing. In our new cycle, we have some Sikaran drills as part of the boxing and Panatukan. For many of the intermediate class, this is their first taste of it.

It differs from Western boxing and kickboxing in some fundamental ways.
Sikaran is designed to use mostly low line kicks (roundhouse, front, side), but can from time to time include high line kicks as well (esp hook kicks). Sikaran uses kicks to establish distance and add attacking power regardless of where the opponent is. The arsenal ranges from kness with/without step for close in attacks, to crippling leg kicks, and fight ending side kicks and hook kicks.

As with many of the FMA, Sikaran takes the best of the familiar and creates a mix. Some of the elements that influence Sikaran include Muay Thai, Savate, Wing Chun/JKD and Kenpo. Karate does not seem to have given much to Sikaran, and the kicks neither resemble those in Karate, nor get used strategically in a Karate way.

Many of the drills involve changing distance to get into and out of kicking range, especially as a response to opponents' kicks and punches. Sikaran strategy uses intercepting kicks and counter-kicks/cut kicks a lot to either disrupt the opponent's kicks, or to score with the legs when the opponent tries to punch. The concept of guntings ("scissors") is used in Sikaran as well.

Sikaran is a great way to add to the Panantukan cardio workout, and an important part of the total fighting arsenal. It comes as a stark contrast to dumog and silat, which are closer systems.
To be good at Sikaran it is important to develop your flexibility and balance, and learn to shift your weight to open up kicking angles as you move. Sikaran should become a natural, integrated part of your Panantukan.

I am still amazed at the depth of Kali Majapahit and what it has to offer as a complete martial arts system and platform for exploration. There is so much to learn, and so many creative directions to take it.

Enjoy the journey!

4OJ

Fourth of July - 4OJ.

It's a time to celebrate being an American. I have been away from home on the 4OJ for nearly twenty years...what does it mean to me?

It's tough, since often I don't agree with the things my country does. It was especially hard since Reagan, and somehow feels like it's getting harder.

Despite that, I believe desperately in what America stands for.For example the inscription on the Statue of Liberty:

"give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me..."

America has been a place where you could start over; where you could be reborn in freedom, with a new life, a new name, and a new home - free to be whoever your hard work and determination allow you to become. This is just as my grandfather did from Russia in the early 1900s, and countless others like him. It is comforting to know that such a place exists. It is the hope of many people to start over by coming to America.

Fourth of July is a time to signify other new beginnings. We celebrate our independence from England, won with the blood of our forefathers. This was a country newly formed, different from any nation the world had ever known. A nation destined to leave its mark on history. And it has.

We celebrate heroes today. My brother Tim Akins being one. My brother grew up in Chicago, as I did, and went to serve our country in Vietnam in the 1st and 2nd Marine Divisions. He returned to us and rarely spoke of what happened there or the price he paid for our leaders' decisions. He went on to became and accountant and served the community as an executive member of an elementary school district. He raised 3 daughters, who are all married or soon to be, and with new families of their own who would have been his grandchildren.

He was more than a brother to me; he was like the father I wish I had. He was a man who was humble, and yet never backed away from what was just or right. He kept mostly to himself, but was a gentle and devoted husband and father. He was a man of so many skills and interests that over the years I learned to never be surprised by the "hobby of the week" which he would inevitably master and show me as if to say "have you tried this yet?". He was just as quick with a laugh as he was with a bit of good advice, and he shouldered his responsibilities like a Marine, never failing his duty to anyone and always ready when you needed him.

My brother died getting up and getting ready for work...just had a heart attack and that was that. He was buried with military honors as was fitting for the hero he was. More than 300 people came to his wake, most of whom approached me and told me what a difference Tim had made in their lives. So many peoples' lives changed by this one great man.

My brother was a hero because he stood tall when the time required it, but never made more of that than what it was. His courage was an everyday courage, the kind that makes you do the right thing, even when it isn't always the most convenient. He loved his wife and his family with his whole heart, but never failed to find time to pursue his many interests; never losing his fascination with being alive. His greatest lesson, in dying, reminded me to make every single day count and "get busy living, or get busy dying."

How many peoples' lives are changed by us, every day, often without our knowing it?
What will people say at our funerals when the time comes?
Can all of us really be heroes every day, in what we say and do?

The Fourth of July is one of the many special times I choose to celebrate heroes, and he is my favorite. I miss you, Tim.

I Hope You Fail

Not a phrase you hear every day, but I mean it.

Our lives are focused around "success"...in fact, most of the people I know are obsessed with it, often to the extent that they sacrifice everything else just to achieve it. many of us strive for that success, and cannot even define what it is - so we can never know if/when we reach it.

We are under constant pressure to hit our targets, to make our numbers, to exceed expectations at work, at home, even at play (golf scores, etc). Everything in our lives is measured, and we are taught to feel inadequate if we are not in the top percentile. Children are made to believe they are not worth their parents love if they do not get the best grades, score the most goals, and get into the top schools. We are compared to one another in everything.

The result is that many of us have our priorities mixed up. We need to fail to really succeed.

In my life I have failed at so many of the things I have tried. Time and again I have failed.
I'm proud of it. Actually, proud of it. Let me explain.

Failing was a tremendous motivator. I felt that metaphorical cold slap across my face and worked much harder after every time it happened. I am proud of it, but failing is never fun.
It puts things in perspective and helps you find that next level deep inside. It helps you decide how bad you really want something, and how hard you are willing to fight for it when it matters.
The times it didn't, I just let go and moved on.

By failing, I taught myself that failure is not the end of the world. My life went on, many times even after I convinced myself it would not. My wife and kids still love me. My friends still respect me (as much as they ever did anyway). My co-workers still work with me (as much as they ever did anyway). All this despite the fact that I did not meet my expectations (or someone else's). LIFE WENT ON. And it will keep going on for you, too.

Failing showed me how lucky I really am that most of what really is important in life I already have - my lovely wife and my wonderful boys; my family and friends; my health and my mind (as much as I ever had anyway); my insatiable curiosity. The rest was never as important as society subconciously made me feel it was. The material things I wanted and couldn't afford I really don't need.

Failing also taught me that I have to always be reaching for something new, and to never be complacent. My greatest failures never came from new things I did - they came from failing to adapt to routines I had that were no longer suitable. I failed when I didn't pay attention to what was going on. I learned from this and try hard to remain vigilant to signs that I need to adjust my approach to things.

Failing is a part of what makes us human, and one of our greatest teachers.

I hope you fail...it will be good for you.

(thanks for the inspiration DP)

New Cycle

Fresh from a one week integration break, and dying to get back into it. Last night was great training. We had an intermediate class (with a few new joiners) and a great session of Panantukan after.

I really believe that the week off helps. It gives your body a chance to heal up and rest, and you get to missing the mat so much that you come back with a lot of energy and focus, ready to train hard hard hard! I also find that after a break, you pick things up much faster...one look and you are ready for the drill. 10 minutes into the new drill and we all had it down.

Our new cycle is cool, and involves some new stickwork, knifework, and kickboxing. Plenty to master over the next 9 weeks or so. This may be my last full cycle before I go back to Japan, and I want to make the most of it.

I am a bit tired today, and my body hurts from the training, but it feels so good to have been working out that I really don't notice that much.

See you Thursday!

That Big Small Business

Growing Pains...the sweetest pains there are. This is a sure sign that things are going in the right direction. For any business, having growing pains is an inevitable part of expansion. It sure beats going bankrupt.

At the same time, businesses, especially service-driven businesses, must never lose sight of the reason why they have expanded in the first place: service.

What does this mean? A basic marketing primer will tell you the 4ps (product, placement, price, promotion). How does this apply to a martial arts school?

1. Product - the quality of the lessons must be first and foremost. That means the best instructors with the best curriculum taught in the best facilities. The product and delivery must be professional. It must meet the needs of the students.

2. Placement - the location must be accessible to students. Only people in movies train on mountaintops.

3. Price - affordability, hopefully on several levels according to a student's desire/ability to commit.

4. Promotions - family plans, friend campaigns, special seminars, etc. to encourage repeater business

But...isn't there something more? YES...PERSONALIZED SERVICE.

The modern scientific world of marketing and business has become a dehumanizing place.
Most of us no longer know the people we do business with for our most important purchases - the grocer/butcher, the car dealer, the realtor, the travel agent, etcetera. The internet especially has made it more convenient to not talk to people or get to know them.
This is dehumanizing and subconciously most of us want something more personal.
Even a generation ago, we did business face to face. Our parents knew these people in their neighborhood. We must be extra-careful not to hide behind blackberry, email, mobile phones, and the like. Real people do Real Business in a Real Way. Face to face. Old school.

Abraham Maslow did important work understanding our human needs and our inherent desire to have these met. Once we go beyond the basics of survival, that is, food, shelter and warmth, we must deal with our needs as a human being. That means addressing our need to belong, our need for self-esteem/respect, and our need to fulfill our potential and be creative.

A martial arts school is in a unique position to deliver many of these needs in a way that makes the students happier and healthier. In fact, all successful businesses appeal to as many of these needs as they can. How do you do this? And how do you do this when you are going through growing pains?

Belonging - mentoring is a great way to make sure new joiners are part of the family. Senior students can be paired with newer students to help them in class. Assistants can be assigned a group of beginners to mentor, which helps the students connect, and helps the assistants develop the foundations of customer service and interpersonal skills that will make them good teachers later on. In many companies these people are called "account managers". Simply telling people to reach out will not be enough. It has to be a direct and purposeful focus activity. Even simply, this means everyone knowing each other's names. There is no excuse not to.

Self-Esteem/Respect - This is done through the testing and curriculum, whch gives students concrete goals to focus on. The next level is understanding the strengths and weaknesses of each student, and helping them get the additional support they need to build up those areas. This can be done through keeping class sizes limited, and also by having one-on-one trainings, small group seminars, personal assessments, and the like. Of course, knowing each sudent personally is part of it. All students must participate in the lessons actively, rather than passively. All students must be treated fairly.

Self-Actualization - Once all the other needs are met, at the apex is self-actualization. This means we have an innate desire to reach our true potential and use our creativity. Many times this needs is self-consious, but will manifest over time under the right teachers. Students often start with one goal in mind (ie. combat training), and later find other goals appear (personal health, longevity, spirituality). Good teachers encourage these transitions as part of the students' growth and maturity. I would argue that the unique nature of Filipino Martial Arts, with the emphasis on concepts rather than rote techniques, allows a level of creative expression that few other styles can match.

make no mistake, most students are aware of the atmosphere and what is going on in their school. You may only watch them 5% of the time, but they watch you 100% of the time. It is critically important to LISTEN to the students and get their feedback. They will tell you what they want.

At the other end of the spectrum from this are martial art lessons run in community centers and health clubs. These cookie-cutter dojos leech the spirit away from legitimate schools, and promote an "MTV" culture of martial arts being cheap, shallow, faceless, instant gratification - not so different from a cable TV cooking show.

As we grow and expand, we must be vigilant not to lose sight of the fact that schools are built on individuals, and individuals are what make it a success.

Nobody should have to train at "McDojo"