How to Avoid Question Paranoia
There's nothing more valuable to a martial arts teacher than good questions. When someone asks me a great one (and even shows the patience...
QUESTION 5: Are Traditional Styles Too Rigid?
When it comes to traditional martial arts, we often see a lot of posing, costumes, and dramatics. If you go to a modern tournament that's...
QUESTION 4: What Martial Methods/Values Have Been Lost In The Modern Era?
This is a big one. It was extremely difficult to frame a complete answer to all the parts of this question. To understand what I mean,...
Capturing a Moment of Simplicity
Monday was suspiciously nice outside. For those of us in the Northeastern U.S., warm weather has only visited once or twice in the last...
Martial Artist: Work in Progress
During some random internet task I stumbled onto a fairly common image. It's certainly nothing unique or even interesting, and yet I feel...
Tools of the Sensei
One of my instructors, Ann-Marie Heilman, has a rather intense day job. She has to guide children with autism and other special needs in a...
Touring Bonsai, The Little Tree Garden
If you check any tourism guide for Pennsylvania (yes, they exist) one of the 'must-see' stops is Longwood Gardens. Longwood is a beautiful...
Kokoro – The Heart of Things
A few weeks ago my girlfriend and I decided to stop in at a used book store. This, from the start, was not a cost effective idea. We both...