A couple of weeks ago I watched as a student took a water out of the dojo fridge and just walked away without putting a buck in the water can. It is clearly marked that water is a $1 in my dojo and I have witnessed this happen quite often so this time I reacted […]

Read more "Sensei…why isn’t the water free?"

Many people find it impossible to believe that I was once the target of bullies. From my freshman year through my sophomore year I dealt with being harassed, picked on, shoved, hit, spit on and more by some school bullies. The summer before my junior year I earned my brown belt in Karate and my […]

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For the last 25 years I have been teaching Karate. Many things have changed over those years but it seems everyone is in a hurry to get a black belt these days. When I began training 38 years ago the goals of training were much different than today. A black belt was not seen as […]

Read more "Moving forward in your Karate…"

It seems like many people today jump from school to school. Some do it because they moved away from their old dojo. Some do it because they weren’t learning, others because they found out they weren’t learning a real martial art system. Some do it because they learned their teacher was not a legitimate instructor […]

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Like many others I was excited and set in awe during the 1980’s with Ninja craze that was going on. From movies to TV shows like “The Master” I began looking into the training. I bought books and even began going to seminars to discover this entire Ninja thing…but my excitement waned out very quickly […]

Read more "So Glad I Am Not A Ninja!"

Discussing anything that has religion attached to it today is considered politically incorrect or taboo. This article will raise some eyebrows and probably some body temperatures because it deals directly with people who attach Karate to Christ or the Christian religion. First off it is important to know that I am a Christian and I […]

Read more "The problem with Christian Karate"

From the very beginning of my training all the way to the current days I can remember sweeping, dusting, mopping and cleaning the dojo. It was ingrained into Karate as much as any punch, kick or Kata are. The tradition of Soji, cleaning the dojo, is very important in terms of proper character development in […]

Read more "Soji – Cleaning the Dojo"