"You can only fight the way you practice." -Miyamoto Musashi.
March 31st, 2020 20 Days after WHO declared a pandemic There is a moment that is seared into my memory. I know it is so because while it was happening, I kept repeating to myself “Don’t forget this. Don’t ever forget this moment. Don’t forget how this feels.” It was May 2019, and my daughter, … Continue reading Informed Consent: Returning to Martial Arts After Fighting a Pandemic
I've always hated celebrating New Year's. Maybe it's the hangovers I used to get. Maybe it was the crowded parties and staying up to celebrate something that didn't feel very momentous. But if I had to guess, I'd guess it was the forced introspection: in my younger days, I didn't want to look back on … Continue reading Looking Back, Looking Forward: Establishing Training Goals for 2020
The mats were full, as they always are on promotion day. People from all of our gym's franchises, and their instructors, had gathered for the biannual seminar/promotions. A friend of mine asked if my wife was coming. "Why would she?" I asked. "I'm not getting promoted. I just got my fourth stripe a few weeks … Continue reading Impostor Syndrome and Milestones
She was old, and fat, and slow, moving ponderously throughout the class. After breaking up my partner and I to show all the things I was doing wrong, she said with a dismissive chuckle, "That's such brown belt technique you're showing." I should point out a few things. First, I was, in fact, a black … Continue reading Why Rank Means Everything (and why it means nothing at all)
I was 14 years old, fidgeting nervously in seiza. Sitting at the edges of the mat were maybe forty people, all staring at me. Directly in front of me were not only my instructor, but his instructor, the head of our organization, as well. My parents and brother sat in chairs off the mat. Having trained all day … Continue reading On Testing
If you've been around the Internet at all, you've probably seen them: the "real", "combat" videos of martial arts otherwise derided as ineffective. In them, an instructor, sometimes in camo pants (and sometimes merely with camo pants in his heart) shows you a REAL, NO-NONSENSE way to apply a technique from a compliant martial art. … Continue reading Why Beating Up Your Compliant Training Partner Doesn’t Make You A Badass
I've received, and continue to receive, a lot of great feedback on my Guruism article. Chief among those who have shared their stories are a number of women who have endured abuse in what is still, primarily, a male-dominated hobby. Rather than attempt to place myself in their shoes and speculate as to their experience, … Continue reading Culture Shock, Guest Article: Sexism (and Sexual Predation) against Women in Martial Arts
Thursday "I can't wait for your tournament," an online acquaintance told me, "So I can see a six page blog post about how it's not about winning it's about the experience you get along the way." "What I'm hearing from this," I responded, "Is that you read my blog." But hey-- when you're right you're … Continue reading Mats Don’t Lie: Reflections Before (and After) My First BJJ Comp
I'm at the lake this week, so no article from me this week. I've reached out to May Chan, a Wing Chun instructor in Vancouver, to discuss Wing Chun. Wing Chun has become a broad term with no one definition for what "Wing Chun" is, and that, mixed with a lack of "alive" training practices … Continue reading Guest Article: Wing Chun as a Principles Based Art
I have to admit that when I published my article about Guruism and Cults of Personality , I was a little apprehensive. I don't generally like publishing things that are that personal to me, but as responses and discussion piled up, one thing became clear: My story was personal, yes, but it wasn't just my … Continue reading Culture Shock: Criminality and Unpaid Labor in Martial Arts
