At least my karategi dries quickly in the AZ sunshine!

"Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree." - Martin Luther

"We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master." --Ernest Hemingway #ErnestHemingway #Craftsmanship #LifelongLearn...

I refer back to my teachers because I didn’t make up any of this.

I have a couple students in my dojo who are notorious, unrepentant thieves. In other words, they have learned the key method used by...

"Martial spirit is hard for outsiders to understand. If it is not for prize money, not for the glory of a trophy, not for a place in...

"If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or...

Intention drives action and results. In order to get what you want out of training, pick your intention carefully.

If someone asked you, could you say with confidence why you train? Are you currently fulfilling that need?

There's a quote from Maya Angelou that I particularly like: "Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do...

If you ever want to get in an argument on a martial arts forum, bring up the question of whether it is proper to call a karate uniform a "gi

When a bunch of the students from the sword class don't have time to change before the karate class, you get some funny looking dogi on...

In the past, I've said to students that we must train to be perfect, even though we know we never will be.  I hear a lot of people say...

When most people wade into the debate about competition in martial arts, they are usually concerned with sparring. I'm going to pass that...

Students sometimes ask me what they need to work on the most, and I always give the same answer: “whatever you like least.” This is my...

Today's post is another one about minimizing the odds stacked up against the “good guy” when dealing with a predatory attacker.  Let's...

If you're half the person your dog thinks you are, you have a self-defense problem: you're not a terrible person, and that puts you at a...

In the modern dojo, I tell my students that reiho is like a not-so-secret handshake that signals good intentions within a communal space.

In the time since I began training in the 80s, there has been an increased focus on the importance of better understanding the native...

When I first read Shunryu Suzuki's work 20+ years ago, it stuck with me. His book Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind felt important, even though...