Classical Thought

You became a martial arts instructor because you believed in a personal philosophy or vision. Your grandfather, aunts, uncles and parents didn’t push you into this career. If your relatives and friends did, then your experience is unique. Most of us believed in “something” that we wanted to pass to a younger generation. Some of ...

Part 5 of a Six-Part Series on Using Kata (or Form) For Martial Arts Development Some years ago, one of my instructors, Koyoshi Nishime Sensei (Cincinnati, Ohio), revealed to me a number of things about kata that I never understood. One of the most important concerned how the development of power was like a two-headed ...

Part 4 of a Six-Part Series on Using Kata (or Form) For Martial Arts Development. Any instructor of my age grew up watching numerous dynamic and powerful boxers (read striking artists) from the 1950’s to the middle of the 1980’s. These men were in the heyday of their sport and, until self-serving and greedy promoters ...

What I have learned during more than 30 years of teaching is the value of paying close attention to my students, with an eye toward learning from them. If you keep your eyes open, then you will invariably have that occasional situation that will cause you to pause and reflect on what you just experienced ...

Last month, I cited our need, as instructors, to help our students discover their weaknesses or failings that we can then help them eliminate. That makes what we do valuable-­and worth whatever we charge for it. Allow me to relate an example, knowing that it might upset a few music fans, but I feel it ...

We work in an industry that continues to change from year to year and decade to decade. Since we teach arts that are supposedly timeless, being ancient in origin, one would think that there would be less change. Of course, the goals that we set for our schools and our­selves drive that change. Many older ...