Author: admin

Do you remember when you were a white belt? How far have you come since then? Remember struggling with side kick? With that strange turn in your first form? What about how you felt the first time you sparred? What happened the last time you sparred?What did you learn?

…Are you reflecting right now?

Last week, I had a bunch of students fill out a self-evaluation. (If you’re an instructor, I uploaded the self-eval .doc at the end of this post. You’re welcome to download it, make changes, & use it!)

Self-reflection is an incredibly valuable tool. Hit that “more” tag to find out why!

Many people join martial arts looking for success. Sometimes they want to succeed at developing character, or at school. Sometimes they want to succeed at tournaments. Sometimes they want to make it to black belt.

But a lot of people quit before they reach their goal. I’ve heard masters say 1 in 100 makes it to black belt. (Side note–let’s change this! Not by making it easier, but by making ourselves better instructors, better leaders, better motivators). 

We instructors spend a lot of time thinking about why people quit. While there’s certainly many answers to that, I’d rather not dwell on it. Instead, I’ve come up with a list of attitudes–ways of thinking–that I think will help martial artists of ANY style.

If you can find these within yourself, then you have the keys to success. So get out there and do it! (and click “more” for the rest of the article!!)

The best teachers in my life have all had something in common:

I could never figure out whether I liked them or not. And most of the time, I disliked them.

But I also realized something: these teachers, the ones I learned the most from, held themselves responsible for making sure I got better.

Regardless of whether or not I liked it.

Who were the best teachers in your life? Click “more” to find out about some of mine.

One of Gichin Funakoshi’s 20 precepts of karate is,

Karate is like boiling water.

I think this has a lot to do with absences from training. Which has a lot to do with our new policy!

I promised everyone a fuller explanation. If you want to read what was going through our heads when we created it, please click “more.”

NO CLASS TONIGHT due to weather. Enjoy~! 🙂 We haven’t yet decided if there will be class tonight. Please check Facebook around noon for our final decision!

If (BIG IF) we do decide to stay open, remember that you are not obligated to come! If you’re concerned about conditions, it’s always better to err on the safe side. In exchange, we promise not to teach ALL the super secret martial arts moves in one night. 😛