Life is conflict, survival, and conquest!

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It is funny, we try so very hard in modern society to condition everyone that conflict and often its resulting violence is a bad, bad, bad thing. We jump straight to the most heinous  types of violence and conflict, get really, really, really scared and then try to lump everything that nature intended under one thing and work very hard to condition everyone, regardless, against this so very terrible thing called conflict and violence. 

I was asked the other day, by one of my neighbors, how I could possibly believe that conflict, violence and both survival and conquest could possibly be about life except in those most odious and wicked ways it is used today by terrorists and very dangerous predators on our streets. Here is how I answered that question:

First, the very nature of the universe is born from a very violent act - the big bang.

Second, the human body is about conflict and violence because the very nature - of nature - is about duality and conflict where that head-butting nature causes violence such as our brains. Our brains are fundamentally two parts. the left side and the right side. Those two aspects of nature in our brain work in a mutually beneficial way but through conflict and a type of psychological violence. One side is more like the emotional side while the other is more logical in nature (not truly how this works but on a very basic non-expert but easily understood way, it works) so lets just say there is this huge wonderful chocalate cake sitting there. One side says to you, “Hey, your favorite, go have a huge piece.” The other side of your brain counters, “Hey, if you do, your body and mind will suffer the consequences such as weight gain, health loss, fitness issues and medical repercussions such as diabetes and its issues and physical and mental problems (this is a type of violence to your body).” 

Your body, by merely moving is in conflict with things like gravity, it pulls down on your body so your body must counter the pull using muscles, skeletal system and so on to remain standing and to walk and run, etc. all forms of conflict or what you could say is friction but since there are two sides pulling against one another it can be seen as both conflict and violence. 

I heard him begin to balk and working in other words to describe what that process is but in a very basic and fundamental way, it is violence. Then I said, “Do you and your wife ever argue?” He, as I expected, said yes and my immediate response was, “Then you are in conflict with your wife.” I then asked, “Do you guys ever shout and yell when the argument gets to a certain point where it is very sensitive to either one of you or both?” He again said, “Well, yeah, that is kind of normal.” I then said, but shouting is violence and I would call it psychological violence used to make your spouse go along with what you want and believe, right?

It took a few more examples similar to this all the way up to the arguments and sometimes social man-to-man fights such as occur at sport events, etc., along with types of attacks that could involve things like robberies, where facing a gun and not getting shot is still violence, and how about those disagreements in business meetings, etc. They all involve some form or type of conflict and violence. 

We are all animals or better yet organisms that have a very basic instinctual need to survive and survival, even in our mostly safe modern times, stull exists and we still use it even if we call it something else and justify it because it doesn’t meet what we think conflict and violence are as in police encounters that escalate to levels of forces that cause harm; the military participation in world events toward social survival; and that self-fense you had to use to protect yourself and family against predatory like actions. Boyd quote to follow:

The goal of organisms, according to Boyd, is:

• To survive, survive on own terms, or improve our capacity for independent action. The competition for limited resources to satisfy these desires may force one to:
• Diminish adversary’s capacity for independent action, or deny him the opportunity to survive on his own terms, or make it impossible for him to survive at all.

Life is conflict, survival, and conquest!

• it may be advantageous to possess a variety of responses that can be applied rapidly to gain sustenance, avoid danger and diminish an adversary’s capacity for independent action.
• Organisms must also cooperate and harmonize their activities in their endeavors to survive as an organic synthesis.
• Furthermore to shape and adapt to change, one cannot be passive, but instead one must take the initiative.
• Thus variety, rapidity, harmony and initiative seem to be the key qualities that permit one to shape and adapt to an ever-changing environment.

These things still exist even tho social conditions work so hard to re-label them to more acceptable and appropriate ways. After all, would you not be able to admit that the recent results of the real estate fall that caused so many to lose so much as a form of violence, i.e., the actions of a few that caused such economical and psychological damage even to some dying by suicide, etc., as violence from the conflicts that arose from their actions to take away your ability to survive? 

I believe to better understand such life we need to admit and embrace our very nature and in lieu of simply burying our heads in the sand because certain subjects make us feel fearful we learn more about it and then through the experiences of those who live with it along with our understandings create ways to not ignore conflict and violence but to create “Coping Skills” appropriate to such things as avoidance and deescalation where we come to create a way to cope with such things through knowledge and understanding making a better survival tool box for socially acceptable ways to handle those very things that make life so scary - call it better survival primal conditioned responses.

I didn’t forget about the reference to conquest but that also comes down to the survival instincts of humans. When resources become so scarce it puts the tribe in a position where they have to confront and conquer other groups to get access to those resources. After all, much like the movies, it is either them or us. Now, take that and place it in modern society. We run our economy of conquering other businesses to obtain resources. It may not be actually limited in nature but competition in business does get to a level where perceptions say, “Oh, if I don’t conquer that business then their resources will be greater than ours and that is unacceptable (Note: there are other factors from psychological positions that also drive that business model as to status and position, etc. but that is another whole article/story). 

Then there is the modern view of, “Competing with the Joneses!” This is also a perception of humans toward position and status within a tribe where that conflict, be it between neighbors or within ourselves, may end up in violence. Neighbor law and legal actions are known to be the most contentious, chaotic and anger producing aspects of modern society than most realize (I speak from experience on this one, bloody damn process if I do say so myself). It took a couple of years before those neighbors would even nod their heads in passing. 

Bibliography (Click the link)

p.s. ever wonder why action films and movies on the various American wars like Korea, Viet Nam and now the Afghanistan, etc. wars are so popular? Hey, did you watch the movie 300 and did you enjoy it, it must have some connection and must appeal to some subconscious perceptions regarding conflict and violence don’t you think? 

It’s Not Personal

Listen, it truly is not personal. I can’t tell you how many folks read my stuff, especially for the first time, and take immediate offense as if I attacked them and their belief systems in a personal way. In my mind, that is impossible especially if you have the confidence and understanding of what it is you do in martial arts, karate especially since that is my main squeeze martial art practice and study.

My sole goal on my blogs and wherever I find myself writing or talking about my personal understanding of my personal training, practice and applications of karate-martial arts. I often find other articles and extract things that trigger my mind into its meandering and wandering way of learning using Colonel Boyd’s “Analysis and Synthesis” model of study. I have exctracted from many authors and even if my writings and talks stray away from the original intent of that author doesn’t mean I am taking aim at the person themselves or even their intent in the original article. 

I often find things said and then deliberately take them out of the original article and the author’s intent in that article because when the quote or meme or other derived information is extracted like that it is NO LONGER a PART of the original. What I do tho is give credit to that author and their article not to make it personal but to make it known that the inspiration of the article I write comes from that extraction.

After all, analysis often, as you can find in Col. Boyd’s explanation, is taking individualized parts of a whole to study separately and then work toward rebuilding into something else that most often has nothing to do with the origins of the used extracted data. 

If you end up taking anything I write and way personally then that is ALL ON YOU, not me. If you find you become uncomfortable with anything then simply write me or a comment expressing your concerns and beliefs - you may be able to change my mind about what I wrote and guess what, many have done just that over the last decade or so - Whopee, I learnt somethin!

JUST REMEMBER DUDES AND DUDETTE’s, It ain’t personal, was not meant to be personal and ain’t about you, none of you. Your inspired me to write something that may or may not be relevant to what you wrote or said or it might be but IT IS MY PERSONAL idea’s, theories, and understanding of what the subject matter is about - loosley. 

You can’t learn shit by remaining steadfast with what you know because it is what you don’t know or what you don’t know you don’t know you don’t know about that will cause you to not know something. Yes, all that came from someone else who said something about knowing, not knowing something and not knowing what you don’t know you don’t know thingy. Yes, I kinda borrowed it because, I liked it and you can see that in my writing too like recent studies of Colonel Boyd and the OODA, its a learning process for me and … wait for it … It is NOT personal!

Checkers, Chess and 3-D Chess

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It is simply a matter of these three: Most martial arts are a checkers game; a few are able to transcend into the strategically complex game of chess; rarely do you find one who can move their mind, body and spirit into the 3-D like game of Chess where the strategies go into a multi-dimensional way. Finally, much like the chess masters who play multiple strategic games with five boards and challengers simultaneously there is a multi-dimensional multi-verse way of strategic and tactical mastery that maybe one every twenty or thirty generations of martial arts masters will produce. 

Shin-gi-tai is a model where Shin is learning to play checkers; gi is applying that skill while learning to play chess; and tai is taking it to the mastery level of the proverbial multi-dimensional level of chess symbolized by the 3-D chess of Star Trek Spock fame.

Bibliography (Click the link)

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Are We Stuck to Traditions

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I was introduced to a deeper meaning of the OODA loop, created by Colonel John R. Boyd (USAF ret), that has me thinking through research and analysis. It occurred to me that modern martial arts are stuck in the traditional form of practice to the exclusion of the higher and broader asepcts that make martial arts effective in conflict and violence.

We seem to be, just like certain larger organizations who deal with conflict and violence, stuck in a more traditional attrition type of fighting or what I am going to call, “Fense.” In one of the thesis written to the work of Colonel Boyd the author stated, “The aristocratic tradition, the top-down command and control system, the slavish addiction to the ‘Principle of concentration’ and the drill regulation mind-set, all taken together, reveal an ‘obsession for control’ by high-level superiors over low-level subordinates.”

The reason I find a connection here is because our modern martial arts were and are influenced a great deal by military mind-sets and mind-states. Add in that the commercialization of modern martial arts is and must be tied to such a system to work is evident, to me. 

The aristocratic tradition is about structure and hierarchal control of those who have a lower status than the aristocrats. Military have the rank structure for status and control as well. Add in that modern martial arts also has a status structure, i.e., its senpai to kohai, deshi to sensei, etc. structure, where rank and status puts the system into an aristocratic hierarchal model for control and today economic gain. 

Then the top-down command and control system also speaks as well to the aristocratic hierarchal model for control. When we tie income and aristocratic hierarchal model for control to the dojo we then create a means to enforce that by status, ego and the various testing requirements to move up and in higher status and authority within this model. 

Karate and martial arts are also about drills and that mind-set has placed more control on how the art is trained, practices and most important applied. It meets and exceeds many of the concepts, traits and symbolic aspects of what is already described and it takes modern martial arts far and away from the “Traditional Authenticate and Classical” form of practice and training. 

I believe, originally, that training and practice was about the individual and their self as to how they train and practice on an individual independent way while adhering to the more cultural organic natural social cohesive way that I refer to as the Eastern View vs. the Western View above.  I believe the so referred to aristocratic traditional way of the Western View is the chasm that separates us from the full and complete way of Eastern Martial Arts. 

We are taking the Eastern Way and polluting it with the Western way while leaving only remnants of that Eastern Way to satisfy our need to connect to the Eastern Cultural Way of martial arts of a authenticate traditional and classical model. The Western way seems to truly have a obsession for control between the higher-levels over the lower-level subordinates, the kyu grades and dan-sha levels, etc. 

Truthfully, I firmly believe that we can have the best of both worlds if we can accept and embrace the truth to both. This is actually the true authenticate way of a traditional practice of Eastern Ways of martial arts. It doesn’t have to be exact and unchangeable, it can be useful at the lower levels while allowing for change, creativity, analysis and synthesis into an more diverse, robust and appropriate model for modern society and times. There are a hand full out there that are actually headed in this direction but most are still mired in the past, the past alone and unchanged. The best of both worlds means a blending, mutually beneficial and connected, of the past, the present and the possible future. 

Traditions and traditional are not meant to mire us in past and often inappropriate ways for the present but rather a means to take the past, to which we all must learn from so it cannot be REPEATED in the future or even the present. Repetition has its place but innovation through creative analysis and synthesis as possibly related to the Eastern way of “Cheng-n-Ch’i” can take us places we never imagined when we first entered the dojo.

As a matter of fact, it is this connectivity of the modern present to the ancient past that makes the possibilities of the future possible, creative and most exciting. It is this that makes martial arts something useful and beneficial for an entire lifetime of training, practice and applications.

Honestly, we should NOT be STUCK to traditions. We SHOULD be connected to traditions so they become useful toward appropriate change of now and the future. We should honor and be true to traditions but not the the dogmatic adherence to traditions to the detriment of change, creativity and applicability to modern times and possible futures. One day, the very thing we train in now, even if not connected to traditional ways, will become the traditional ways of our times and that means it should be traditional but not traditional in the sense I present. Something to think about, something to consider and something to analyze.   

Bibliography (Click the link)

The Tao of Physics - Martial Arts

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In my most recent studies I have come across another relevant source that helps explain the current state and affairs of modern martial arts. Actually, two new sources with one about tribes and the other about the Tao of Physics.

In our honest and concerted effort to learn and understand martial arts it is best if we first perceive the duality involved, the yin-yang you might say, where our view is a “Mechanistic Western View” while  the Asian view is more a “Eastern Organic View.” Ok, you say, what the f%$# does that mean? Well, I am going to pass on what I perceive it to mean. 

From the Easter view all things and events are perceived by the senses and are interrelated, connected, and are but different aspects or manifestations of the same ultimate reality. The Wester view is about our tendency to divide the perceived world into individual and separate things and teo experience ourselves as isolated egos in this world to be seen and perceived as an illusion which comes from our measuring and categorizing mentality. 

Think of the Wester view as the old meme, “I think, therefore I exist.” This way of viewing the world led us to equate our identities with our minds, instead of with our whole organism. As such, Westerners, “most individuals, are aware of themselves as isolated egos existing ‘inside’ our bodies. Our minds being separated from our bodies and our minds given the futile task of controlling our bodies, thus causing an apparent conflict between the conscious will and the involuntary instincts.” - The Tao of Physics and Tribe

Our Western fragmentation - in our self, our environment and in society - and belief in the fragmentation creates fragments that are really separate and often found as the source of the present state of things such as a series of socially, ecologically and cultural modern issues. It is believed that our independent separateness has alienated us from our true nature and from our fellow human beings where social cohesive connectedness is our very nature, in our very genes and drives our very survival instincts. 

We have creates an environment and dysfunctional social culture that has led us to social disorder; the ever increasing levels of conflict and violence, both spontaneous and socially triggered where life has or is becoming both physically and mentally unhealthy. Our efforts in martial arts if we truly want to embrace the Asian view, belief and practices at its core speak to the training, practice and application of a mutual beneficial wholehearted oneness of the mind, body and spirit. The very nature of traditional authenticate study and training and practice and application is about learning, understanding, accepting and embracing the Asian view and applying that as “The Way” in our martial arts disciplines. 

The Wester Mechanistic View as described may be a tool for the novice but to achieve a mastery in the Asian Organic View we must stop the segmenting and segregation of our many separate things that make us human, at least after an analysis where breaking it all apart into its separate distinctions is beneficial, and then synthesizing the many into the one wholehearted “One” - The Great Tai Chi so to speak. 

One reason why Buddhist philosophy has become an integrated cultural belief in Asia, i.e., as Buddhist Philosophy states, “When the mind is disturbed, the multiplicity of things is produced, but when the mind is quieted, the multiplicity of things disappears.” The exact bases of analysis and synthesis to achieve change appropriate for the situation and times where the old is learned and the new created and passed down to the generations, call it a cheng-ch’i process. The true goal of Western martial arts through synthesis is not complete until the new has been implemented thus “Quieting the mind to mind-of-no-mind” creating an Asian organic wholehearted one that brings the mind, the body and the spirit from the triad into the one wholehearted way to master and enlightenment. 

Note: This is why Ti became Te then Toudi then karate and then tomari-shuri-naha styles then became shorin-goju-isshin-uechi-etc., of the many mechanistic ways but to achieve master they now have to come full circle and become once again the one wholehearted martial art called, “Ti.” 

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Sho-dan in One Year

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In the past, regarding the U.S. Military’s participation in martial arts and especially during those formative years of the late fifties and sixties practitioners would train diligently for one year and achieve sho-dan, the first level of black belt. This was common and I tend to beleive driven from two aspects of which the first involved the limited tour of duty for most military while the second involves a commercial aspect, i.e., in one case it involved a lucrative contract with the military special services, now referred to as MWR, to teach all military who desire to train in karate - training. 

As to the second, it was not long after the war and economically speaking times were tough and the type and amount of earnings from such a contract put those sensei in a much higher status economically speaking. As to the first, if you wanted a contract and its renewals you needed to provide what the customer wanted and in a lot of cases, if not all, that meant creating a program that would allow them to get a black belt in a typical one-year tour of duty. 

This one-year model was considered authentic as well as traditional, we Americans didn’t know any better and with all the excitement of donning the proverbial black belt just before rotating back to the States for duty meant a lot. So, it is evident, on the surface, that many made black belt and those many immediately opened dojo in the States where that tradition continued - for a time. 

I am aware of many who I have trained and practiced with that were one-year wonder black belts. In some, that never changed until commercialism took a stronger hold on the business side of karate and martial arts causing some creative changes to help retain more students, to retain them for longer periods of time and to create materials for testing purposes. Ranks, time in grade requirements, dojo socially driven group dynamics, testing requirements, etc., all justify longer periods of training and practice along with participation in things like seminars, tournaments and other pay-to-learn type programs add to that making black belt a longer and more difficult process (note: not necessarily challenging). 

In another light, one of the many one-year black-belts told me his story and why his one-year black-belt led to more effort, greater discipline and more self-challenging self-imposed criteria to feel like his blackbelt actually would measure up to “meaning something.” 

He first indicated he had dabbled in karate for a few years before arriving on Okinawa and taking up one style on a more regular, diligent and ongoing type of effort. His tour was also one year military and his dojo was military ran on one of the islands military bases. He spent hours a day, every day, for that one year. Originally, he felt and thought that if he achieved brown belt in that time it would be an achievement. He made Ik-kyu about two months before the tour would end and assumed that he would have to seek out his style at the next duty station to work toward sho-dan when just about fifteen days before his departure the sensei lined the students up to begin then before starting pulled a black belt out of his keiko-gi top, tossed it to the guy, said, “Your a sho-dan now,” then started the normal class. (Note: sensei was actually wearing a new black belt and the one tossed was his old, worn out, faded and frayed obi)

He told me that his view on this was sensei merely put a lot of pressure on him to actually continue to train hard just to actually qualify to wear the black belt. He knew he lacked the true knowledge, understanding and ability to be a dansha and after donning the worn belt from sensei felt not just the honor that sensei would allow the belt but created a sense of responsibility to continue on and actually learn what it actually takes to be a black belt. He said recently that it took him about another couple of decades to feel comfortable as a black belt. 

What this article is trying to say is that regardless of the belt, the color or how long or short it takes to earn it, it means you truly have to earn it and that means also earning it is something personal, not what others may or may not think but how you feel inside yourself as to your qualifying to wear a black belt. 

Many of today’s karate and martial artists wear black belts. Many of them are even young adults to even children and in many cases the overall meaning of the black belt has diminished into a commercial endeavor to create and earn money over something more intangible and unable to have a price tag applied. 

It comes down to the intrinsic value of the black belt vs. the extrinsic value. 

Bibliography (Click the link)

You Can’t Speed up the Process

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I have cried wolf so many times trying to convey in my articles that martial arts, karate, is not best practiced and learned by cutting corners and leaving out those things we find boring, uncomfortable and seemingly useless. One spoke in a bike wheel if missing may seem innocuous and unnecessary but over time it will have adverse effects on the wheel, the bike and the rider - you need all the spokes and they must be balanced in the wheel at all points along the outer and inner rims.

If you don’t want to accept that then heed the following facts about people and our genetics, genetics adaptations of people from the effects of our environment is found in the evolution process, i.e., that process that contributes hugely toward human survival. One of the greatest advancements of human existence came from the agriculture era, i.e., apparently that occurred approximately 10,000 years ago. Geneticists find that humans evolve and adapt genetically over a very long period of time, 25,000 years. We are still adjusting and evolving from the effects of the agriculture revolution. 

We have not fully and completely evolved from that beginning and now we also have to deal with other advancements of a very significant nature, i.e., specifically the Industrial revolution and now, today, the Technological revolution or era. According to the article written by Sebastian Junger the following quotes would indicate the effects of people, humans, cutting corners.

Background: “Early humans would most likely have lived in nomadic bands of around fifty people. They would have experienced high levels of accidental injuries and deaths. They would have countered domineering behavior by senior males by forming coalitions within the group. They would have been utterly intolerant of hoarding or selfishness. They would have occasionally endured episodes of hunger, violence, and hardship. They would have practiced extremely close and involved childcare. They would have done almost everything in the company of others and they would have almost never been alone.”

Significant Changes requiring Adaptation by Humans: “Our human experiences have encountered two major changes of which the first was the “Agriculture Era” and then the “Industrial Era.” During these era’s people were able to accumulate more personal property and to make more individualistic choices about their lives. It is this process that inadvertently and unavoidably diminished group efforts toward a common good. As modern times evolved people found themselves able to live more independently with less reliance on the communal group. There is evidence that this mode of human existence is hard on people and is overwhelming. “

Today: “Modern Society - despite its nearly miraculous advances - is affiliated with some of the highest depression and suicide rates and are going up higher as we progress. It seems to me that our evolutional scale vs. that of modern advancements is leaving humanity far behind and the mental and physical repercussions are mounting. We are afflicted more and more with maladies such as higher rates of depression, schizophrenia, poorer health overall, anxieties, resentments, loss of emotional maturity and control and chronic loneliness. It seems like our increased societal wealth is foster the decline of health in people.”

Lets say, for the sake of this discussion/article, all that is true and found through research and studies then we can extrapolate, synthesize, that if humans require a certain time span to learn, understand and evolve that by creating significant changes requiring human adaptation at a faster rate than nature intended with devastating effects detrimental to human survival why can’t we accept the fact that cutting corners, removing the boring and seemingly useless parts of other disciplines and situations is good? 

If this is true, then isn’t it also possible that our taking shortcuts and leaving out parts of the whole would result in certain changes that would degrade the discipline or adaptations with less beneficial results, i.e., slowly erode the system or discipline causing it to change into something less and losing the authentic traditional foundation of that discipline. Change is good and changing the discipline is beneficial as long as you don’t lose its true authenticate foundational essence that makes it wholehearted and complete. 

It seems like I am countering my beliefs that adhering to an original with no changes is now a good thing but in truth I am saying adhering dogmatically to the superficial outer dressing of that tradition is not a complete system but merely the cover to the entire book and the content of that book is what needs updating, changes and further editions to ensure its viability and validation to the times, etc.

Change is good but let that change come over time and with its entire recipe because although the frosting is delicious and triggers all those brain cells of gratifying pleasure it is not the entire cake. Make sure you bake the entire cake, you can always scrape the bowl and feast on the left over frosting when the cake is finished. 

Bibliography (Click the link)

QA: Quality Assurance

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In many of my professions over the years we always, always, had a QA group whose sole purpose was to ensure the quality of the product and service we provided. I suggest that to have a proper and authenticate martial art study and practice we truly need a QA team to ensure that the end product and service measures up to the standards of that discipline, such as karate for self-fense.

Lets say I build cars and you come to me with an idea of a muscle car you want to get built. I provide you an analysis of that request with all the requirements and the necessary steps along with a time line. Hmmm, you say and then you tell me that your funds won’t fill that funding requirement and you say that the time line is too long, you need it faster. So, I say to you, then you will have to sacrifice some aspects of the car requirements to meet the time line. You say, ok and then add in that the costs are a bit high and your budget is much lower. So, I say, well then we need to make some more adjustments to the requirements in order to fill that need. 

You agree with me at the end and then I say, “Remember, because of the shortcuts and budgetary requirements the quality of the car at delivery will be less than my original estimate and requirements would have achieved. You will have to accept that and you will have to sign an agreement taking any and all responsibilities for the end product to you and leave me not responsible for any issues that arise due to those changes you requested.” 

You agree and sign the document. Well within the agreed upon time line and well within the budget set the car is finished and ready for delivery. I arrive at your garage and back the car off and into the garage where you inspect it according to the agreement and requirements. It is pretty, it sounds awesome when the engine in turned over and the customizations, within the requirements and agreement, on the surface exceeded your expectations. You provide me the final payment, we sign off on the delivery documents and agreements and I leave. 

You call up all your friends who come over and admire the work, the sound of the muscle car and how its appearance is so darn cool. They ask you to take them for a spin around the block. You get in, they get in, you back out and back to the left where you shift into first, pop the clutch and the tires spin and smoke with the roar of the engine vibrates your chest and you cheer like a kid with his first ice cream cone on a hot afternoon. 

Your and your friends roar off fast approaching an intersection stop sign. You roar up and at that last moment press hard on the brakes … ops, your still roaring off toward that intersection where several automobiles are passing back and forth in front of you so you continue to pump the brake pedal and your adrenaline is spiking and your fear is rising but, the car doesn’t stop. 

The sounds of the engine reaching high RPM’s, the sound of screeching tires where the auto’s are trying to get out of the way, then the horrendous crunching of metal, glass and the smell of gasoline flowing on the pavement; the screams of your passengers, your screams and the screams of those in the other automobiles. Finally, the scream of the sirens of police and ambulances, the moans of the injured and your pain reaching a level you gasp form broken bones and the blurring of vision from blood flowing into your eyes and mouth leaving that coppery taste you will remember long after this accident.

Much later, when you healed and the court proceedings end you come to me and ask, “What happened, you guaranteed me a car that would work?” I respond, “Yes, initially and then you said you needed it faster, you needed it for less money and you agreed to the changes in requirements.” I then produce copies of the new requirements that you were supposed to review but you were in a hurry and you were excited to get your new muscle car in such time as to have it ready for your friends enjoyment and some car show. You failed to see that brakes and a spring for the carb throttle were not budgeted along with brake pads and other small items and you failed to read the warning that the car would not be road worthy and that it should not be driven until those requirements were met, needed more time and more money and more patience. You wanted it now, you wanted to drive it now and you wanted it at a cost far below what was required to make it a true, Quality Product. 

Karate, martial arts, are like this car job. We are so anxious to get to the cool stuff, to look cool, to participate in contests and tournaments and to wear the black belt to impress yourself and your friends you forgot that the short cuts, the ignoring of those not so cool requirements and the accolades and trophies you would earn meant you would get an inferior end product. 

QA in karate, martial arts, is not considered even in the most remotest sense and much like it, most martial arts are about taking short cuts, leaving out very important requirements and all in the name of instant gratification and egoistic needs. You get what you PAY for, right?

p.s. you might say, but I do the QA in my dojo; note that QA must be done by a third party not directly associated with the dojo, the sensei, or the students, etc. You cannot truly QA yourself, your dojo or your system/style - one reason why you don’t open a dojo until you reach san-dan trained levels while adhering to the requirement of a third party to QA your efforts, a go-dan or higher not a member of your dojo, etc.

Bibliography (Click the link)

A Typical Day

I was contemplating my daily workout to see if I am doing enough or doing too much. I am sixty-two years old and my wife got wind of my daily stuff and mentioned I may be doing way too much.

• 0501hours: I get up from what is often a good nights sleep, about seven or eight hours.
• 0502hours: I do a variety of calisthenics to include squats, pushups, trunk twists with weights and some dumb bell weight work. 
• 0830hours: I take a break from work to run stairs. I do five flights, up and down, for about five repetitions, sometimes ten for a total of about twenty-five to fifty flights. 
• 0930hours: I take a break from work to run stairs. I do five flights, up and down, for about five repetitions, sometimes ten for a total of about twenty-five to fifty flights. 
• 1030hours: I take a break from work to run stairs. I do five flights, up and down, for about five repetitions, sometimes ten for a total of about twenty-five to fifty flights. 
• 1130hours: I take lunch, an hour, perform chi-gong exercises then a tai chi chuan form. I then do squat jumps, pushups and two visualized kata with focus on different scenarios as well as principles, etc. Then I repeat that with the same routine but the next two kata the same way. Then I repeat until all ten kata are done along with the exercises, etc. I also do lunges before beginning the kata/exercise/visualization, etc. processes.
• 1400hours: I always do ten repetitions of the five flights for a total of fifty flights up and down to finish out the day.

Note: Yes, I am at work but I have the privilege of working at a place with what we call flex hours, i.e., we call it exempt and non-exempt where I am the non-exempt. That means I can flex my hours throughout the day as long as I complete or make up to achieve eight or more hours of actual hands-on work. There are days when I don’t get any exercise because of the work loads or the time requirements or the project time constraints, i.e., end dates coming up fast. 

I also go home and occasionally walk two miles with my wife and we meditate for a minimum of fifteen minutes a day. Then there are the weekends where we walk two or five or eight miles dependent on schedules or how we feel. We do five miles without fail on Sundays and this weekend, being memorial weekend, with a three day weekend we will walk what I call, “The deuce (two miles), the wooden nickel (five miles) and the crazy-eight (eight miles) walks.” That doesn’t include chores or errands or outings with and without friends. 

Do you think I am overextending myself physically? I don’t feel it mentally at all except every now and then I get to thinking, I can stop now on these stairs I have done enough only to tell myself, I don’t think so, can’t quit and can’t turn back, gotta get it done mentality ;-) I am sixty-two years old after all and I am semi-retired, i.e., I don’t actively teach in a dojo, I don’t actively participate with others in the dojo now and I do spend considerable time self-individually-training in karate and martial arts with lots of research, study and other learning things ergo all the articles I write on my blogs. 

What do you think, too much or not enough?  (Note: I do spend an exorbitant amount of time contemplating, analyzing, studying, dissecting, and synthesizing things about writing, creating and developing things of martial arts disciplines and defense/offense, etc. Marc MacYoung has another writing on violence for defense out and it is awesome!

The “Art” in Martial Art

Blog Article/Post Caveat (Read First Please: Click the Link)

As I was practicing today a “Oh crap moment” occurred, it came right smack dab in the middle of an intense practice of a method or methodology with visualization. It finally occurred to me the true meaning of the term art used in martial arts. 

To apply a martial art for combat, fighting, defense/offense and sport you have to acquire, develop and increase your ability to apply the discipline using patterns randomly and appropriately in a rapid changing dynamic way to surprise and dominate your adversary. The uniqueness of each moment and situation often from the chaos of the unknown you have to traverse the OODA in a manner that is artistic in nature. It is the creative process of applying a discipline in a manner that assures winning, attaining the goals of defense/offense in a dangerous and often deadly encounter. 

It cannot be done by memorizing set patterned combinations of techniques often specific in application but a dynamic creative application of principles and methodologies synthesized on the fly under duress, the adrenal chemical dump with its effects while remaining within the self-defense square and while limiting the bodily harm and possible death. 

Look at it like the sculpture who looks upon a large chunk of marble then who chips away at it seemingly random and without intent or purpose to expose the art hidden within the chunk of marble. Every situation, like every chunk of marble, will have some unique, different and new hidden art that when chipped at with chisel and hammer, the principles and methodologies of defense/offense, to expose that one of a kind and unique piece of art underneath. 

In defense/offense you create from practice and training a scheme that changes constantly to the moment and situation by pulling things apart (analysis) and them putting them back together again (synthesis) in new combinations of seemingly unrelated actions and ideas that are related to one another in finding how they would work in real-time, that is art and the artistic endeavor and discipline. It is about acquiring knowledge and understanding from experience, training and practice both direct and indirect to create a piece of art, an art piece that gets the job done. 

It takes insight, it takes imagination and it takes initiative to learn, comprehend, shape, discover, innovate, relearn and adapt to each unique and often changing moment for each situation much like seeing the art in a chunk of stone and then bringing that piece of art out and expose it to the light. When you use the term art in martial art, you apply this belief and discipline of artistic creativity to the martial or the military art of war. 

Karate is also an art and even tho not derived from the art of war it is a prerequisite to those arts, weapons, that are used in war. It is therefore a new concept to accept that arts be they martial or karate or even others from other cultures, etc., they all fall under being an art! 

Understand, the way to reach such concepts with accuracy and validation means to take ideas and theories and explore them, discover as much about them as you can. To think, comprehend and adapt them to the possibilities through the connections discovered from study that are insightful, full of your imaginations and derived from your initiative to think out side the box so you can shape them, learn from them, do them, achieve goals by their use and adopt them to your discipline, this is art at its very best. 

Bibliography (Click the link)

p.s. “Analysis and Synthesis (artistic endeavors) is thinking that consists of pulling ideas apart (analysis) and while intuitively looking for connections that form a more general elaboration (synthesis) of what is taking place. The process not only creates the discourse but also represents the key to evolve the tactics, strategies, goals, and unifying themes that permit us to shape and adapt to the world around us.” - Colonel John R. Boyd, USAF Deceased

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“We will use this scheme of pulling things apart (analysis) and putting them back again (synthesis) in new combinations to find how apparently unrelated ideas and actions can be related to one another.”  - Colonel John R. Boyd, USAF Deceased