1 – Exercise helps children pay attention You don’t even need me to explain this one. When your son is bouncing off the walls and full of energy, you can’t get him to pay attention to anything. Send him outside to run around a bit first, though, and you’ll find that it’s much easier to capture […]
What does [Renshi/Kyoshi/Hanshi/Shihan] mean? In addition to the kyu/dan (underbelt/black belt) ranking system used by most Japanese martial arts, there is a parallel system called shogo (称号). The word loosely translates into English as title or rank. In this context, title is a bit more accurate. These titles are awarded only to dan (black belt) […]
We’ve now hit on two very different myths about where karate belts came from. They didn’t come from not washing belts, and they weren’t invented for lazy Americans. So where did they come from? We must recognize that what came first wasn’t the belts, it was the kyu/dan ranking system that the belts represent. This […]
Last week we discussed a popular myth about the origin of karate belt colors. Another, even more popular, myth is that karate belts were invented for “lazy Americans.” According to the story, the “ancient and true” martial arts masters of yore never needed belt colors. They trained because of a love of the art, and didn’t […]
There’s a legend surrounding karate belt colors. I’ve heard variants of it in many dojos, but the core of the legend goes something like this: In the beginning, the only two belt colors were white and black. Since ancient tradition dictates that washing your belt washes all your knowledge away, over time, a student’s belt […]
Friends, We’ve been through some wonderful times together as a dojo. Unfortunately, sometimes the times aren’t so great. Last weekend, tragedy struck close to home for one of our youngest students. Ethan LaPietra came out on Saturday to perform wonderfully at his belt test and earn a well deserved blue belt. Sadly, the next day […]
There’s a reason that martial arts are called “arts.” There are a lot of myths, half truths, gray areas, and outright lies in our field. And even when we can demonstrate with practical experience that something works, martial artists all too often have a terrible understanding of the science behind why it works. In that […]
The 2015 American Budo Society annual seminar was last Saturday. I was asked to teach a session for the first time this year. Although that was a lot of fun – and a great privilege – it also meant that I didn’t get to participate directly in any sessions other than the ones I taught personally. […]
Yesterday, a student answered a question with the words, “Yes, master.” I told him point blank that I don’t like the term and asked him to please not do that again in my dojo. To be fair to the poor kid, a young boy of six, I was trying to get the class to respond […]
The martial arts world is home to an awful lot of myths, misconceptions, half truths and sometimes even outright lies. Most of this comes from well meaning individuals – including well trained martial arts instructors – who are merely repeating what they’ve been told. Only a small portion of it is malicious, coming from hucksters […]