When things Break

Some times no matter how prepared we are things break!

A small barn on my property was damaged on Thursday by the Snow Hurricane we experienced in New Hampshire.

Storms happen and we move on, but when a friend pitches in when the power's out and shares a generator to bring light into the dark, we have a chance to learn what is important.

The arts which are my passion continue, but it the friends we have which are far more important.

If I've learned any one lesson, it is not the skill or knowledge of a person which is most important, it's how they live their life.

Always pick the best people and you cannot fail, and then work to live up to that yourself.

Old Friends

Wow the past month has been a blast with visits with old friends

Several weeks ago Ron Martin (Pennsylvania) and Rich Bernard (Londonderry NH) spent an afternoon at the coffee shop with me talking over old stories from the day. Especially the great diversity of Karate Tournaments from 30 years ago.

Ron Martin and Richie Bernard

Then today I had lunch with Garry Gerossie from Concord NH. Garry sought my program out around 1994 and made sure I met his instructor Sherman Harrill from Carson Iowa. That became a life changing experience for me.


Victor Smith and Garry Gerossie

The stories I could tell can go on for hours, but back once upon a time they weren't stories but live experience, the best kind.

Embrace your friends they last for eternity.

Frost Heaves

When you're new to New England your first February on a bright sunny day with lots of old snow sitting in the forests at the side of the road, the country road you're cruising down suddenly has a new sign stating "Frost Heaves".

You don't know what that means and keep cruising then you find yourself launched up to almost hit your head on your inside roof. Next the car drops your springs are being stressed, your wheels cracking and if you keep going the road becomes a real roller coaster.

Frost heaves occur because the melting snow saturates the ground, and then freezes thrusting the frozen ground upward. The results are a washboard effect on the roads. By custom the local towns know which roads are more likely to be broken and post the signs as warnings.

To survive the frost heave you have to drive slower, look closer, work for a more even controlled driving experience.

In our lives as a martial artist 'Frost Heaves' are also a guaranteed experience. Whether from illness, work responsibilities, family needs, or any other issue, these events cause our training to become very bumpy, and the bouncing around from each event can cause us to loose our footing.

We need to take a lesson from our driving experience. When frost heaves are upon us we should slow down, observe what's happening closely, and try to find an even road through the travail.

Training for life is not always an even pace. Training goes up, it falls down, turns sideways, goes backwards, and continues to change constantly . You can't deal with those bumps by blasting forward full speed.

You must work to provide. Your family is more important than anything. Illnesses are always a drag but in each case if you slow down, but not stop, your training you can level your ride and wait for smoother roads to then pick up the speed.

We can't control the frost heaves in our lives, but we can work to find a level slower path through them.

ISSHIN in SPACE

Allow me to digress from my normal focus and apply my concentration to Space, the Null, the Void, the fullness of the Universe.

It appears the future of the US Space Program is in jeopardy. We're in a deep recession and there is great need in many areas, why spend the money on a space program when there are so many more needy issues that are more pressing to our populace?

To answer that what is the Space Program, a way to produce expensive toys that are then shot into space for nothing of consequence?

Actually that isn't what the space program really is. Instead it is a way to spend massive amounts of money to develop incredibly talented and skilled individuals to progress science in new areas. The stuff produced is really of little consequence.

All of the money doesn't leave the planet, instead those salaries and fees generate income in our economy, create high paying jobs and multitudes of lower paying jobs in each surrounding community where the programs are instituted.

Money that could be on a scale of War, always a way to conquer a depression, but not one primarily focused on destroying.

The subsidiary benefits of the current space program literally redefined our society, from Tang, Velcro to the entire computer industry, etc.

Certainly as a society we have to find a way to assist the disadvantaged, but isn't creating long term jobs and strong futures just that?

This isn't my area of expertise, just an interest since I was a boy, but with a logic that seems to escape Washington, which is trying to live in the NOW and ignore what is the strongest way to move to the future, create jobs, increase human potential, and of course create toys that are thrown away.

Life is a balancing act, many countries around the world are working to enter the space age, perhaps they get the potential.

Seems to be a shame if we throw what we've accomplished away for a temporary fix that doesn't seem to fix much in the long run.

I guess it's OK after all, ET probably wants to talk to the Russians, Chinese, French, Japanese, Indians and everyone else who is moving out, and creating stronger economies for their country.

We can stay home and sit back and read about their taking control of the planet's future.

From Challenge to Success

The new year always brings new challenges and the opportunity to find new paths to success.

This past weekend I traveled 500 miles to Southern Penna. to visit my father. It was very good to see him and his short stay in the hospital concluded before I arrived. I only hope things continue to go well.

Now that's 18 hours driving round trip, not fun but necessary, still I was able to visit several friends and keep touch with their own lives.

Don Gladfelter (a Shotokan instructor) recently closed his school in York Penna. He lives a stone throw from my father's house and I was able to spend a few hours with him to talk about the reasons. It was a combination of factors mainly the current troubled economy causing students (and families) reconsider their needs, and several other factors. Sad after so many years to hear of his closure, but also to hear some of his students are working with him to start a much smaller program to try and continue their studies. I truly wish them success.


Then on the trip home my wife and I stopped in Dunmore and had breakfast with Tristan Sutrisno. Tristan teaches Shotokan from his father's lineage (beginning in Japan in the 1930's) , Aikido and Siliat. He literally was born in those traditions beginning his training at 4 years of age. He gave me a copy of the new Bushi No Te organization patch, discussed his current work, teaching and his upcoming 2nd book which I understand will be on Siliat. His first book "Becoming a Complete Martial Artist - Error Detection in Self-Defense and the Martial Arts" is now going into it's 2nd printing.


So if you have two hits might as well go for the third. This afternoon Charles Murray was able to drop in for a few hours. Charlie personally completed my training for my Sho-dan in Isshinryu back in the 1970's. (Charles obtained his sho-dan from my original instructor Tom Lewis) then as an airman studied in Okinawa with Shimabuku Tatsuo in 1971-1972. Today retired from the Air Force he works for Northrop Grumman Corporation. For the past 30 years fate keeps combining to make all of our visits short, but we spent a very production time reviewing Isshinryu issues, my students progress and other personal issues.


I am fortunate my fathers feeling better and my friends and instructors can share with me.

A Line in the Sand

We live in the Now, always. Yesterday a memory. Tomorrow a hope.

We also draw a line and stop and start a new year (whether calendar year or birth year or other event). The new year a mnemonic device to give some meaning to the endless progression of Now.

One year ends and we take stock in new life and death, accomplishments and delays, success and failures. Then the new year begins and once past we're back in the ever present Now.

Teaching a free program, the economic times leave almost nothing available for excess (whatever that was I haven't seen it in a decade). They have an impact on students though as it takes money t drive to attend even free training, but we've been pretty stable on that level.

One friend in another area of the country had to close his program after at least several decades of training. There wasn't one cause but the unsettled economic times greatly contributed to his student decline.

The death of a dojo I find as saddening as any thought. I've been fortunate not having any family losses this year, but friends haven't been so lucky.

In fact I've reached the age where I pay attention to news stories about younger individuals deaths too.

The year's been good for my karate. Fighting age's deterioration I find my decades in tai chi very much the way I MUST warm up for training. When I can't do so injury frequently occurs, small nagging pulls and strains, but I fight the fight as best I can.

My ongoing study into the application potential of karate technique continues with many new training ideas.

I was also privileged to train once again with John Kerker and his in depth knowledge of Isshinryu application. A few short hours once a year, but always driving into my studies.

My programs, youth and adult, have moved forward this year too. People come and go, but we're working towards a new approach to sharing the youth program and I look forward to seeing how it takes.

Likewise the adult program has moved from a brown belt level into sho-dan level training. The group is so small, everyone having to shoulder adult responsibilities training occurs when possible, but they don't stop and progression remains constant. In fact two new Ni-Dans this year, their moving into personal adult focus at a Dan level for life.

The instructors continue to make solid progress too.

So as the year ends, YouTube tells me I've viewed about 40,000 videos the past several years, absolutely nothing martial has escaped my view.

Translations such as Mario McKenna's new translation of Nakasone's "Karate-do Taikan" are more impressive becuause it actually fits our studies too.

So the line in the sand is drawn (or will be) and then the sand shifts, the wind blows, the rains come, the tide moves in and out and line or not remaining it continues to be NOW.

May all enjoy the Now of their New Year with great sucess for 2010.

The Art of Attack - an Inquriry

Last evening I saw in the news the Pope had been attacked and knocked down as he was going to deliver Christmas Eve Mass. Recently a couple attended a White House dinner without invitations. Ex-President Regan was attacked in 1992 while receiving an award. It is likely very few people in the world have security as that of the President of the United States, or the Pope in the Vatican. But these few instances show that even effective security can be breached.

There are underlying principles behind those occurrences that can work be used to craft a more effective attack as well as be used for a more effective defense. A consideration in our martial studies should be the study of strategy and tactics in both offensive and defensive situations. They’re really flip sides of the same coin.

Article 13: The Eight Precepts of ChaunFa from the Okinawan Bubishi (1) states: 7. See what is unseeable and 8. Expect what is unexpected. I would restate it for this discussion as: what you don’t see or expect can get you. Offensively you want to find a way to be unseen, to set up your attack so it can’t be countered, Defensively you want to extend your awareness to see the attack coming and drive through it to end the threat.

Considering the assault on ex-President Regan April 13, 1992 when an anti-nuclear weapons protester accosted the former president

 

               

I remember reading about this when it occurred. It was discussed that the attacker moved through the auditorium and across the stage to first grab the award from it’s perch and throw it to the floor and then step forward to dislodge the President as the video shows.

I think what happened is he never paid any attention to the President, such focus would have drawn the attention of the President’s guards. If he was just keeping his focus on the award, nobody was guarding it and slow measured movement would have been unconsciously ignored. Then reaching the award the rest comes into play.

The couple slipping into an un-invited White House event is another example. They were known, some plausibility for their presence must be assumed, as they looked the part of attendees, and in the end they got close enough to shake the President’s hand.

Take a look at last night’s assault on the Pope where A woman jumped the barriers in St. Peter's Basilica and knocked down Pope Benedict XVI as he walked down the main aisle to begin Christmas Eve Mass on Thursday.

 

               

Surely everyone in attendance was reviewed as to their carrying obvious weapons, and of course her being a woman was probably a threat discount in some of their eyes too.

On the plus side none of the above carried out serious violence in those incidents. But the potential was clearly there.

Now it’s time to go to work, what are the underlying reasons their entry into each situation worked, how could it have been stopped, how was it unavoidable?

When facing an attacker if we assume they’ve been properly trained and prepared, it is likely we will be unable to respond. If they are improperly trained and prepared, that doesn’t make them less dangerous, but they’ve entered our event horizon so that we can choose to respond. Can we turn the table and not raise our hands to begin ‘fighting’ but find a way to be a target and use that opening when they attack to in turn make our response below their perception horizon?

So how do we use this?

More to come.....

Notes:

(1) Bubishi – the Classical Manual of Combat – translated by Patrick McCarthy page 187

This also became the Isshinryu Code of Karate adopted by Shimabuku Tatsuo.