15 November 2019
A passion pursued with discipline and a discipline pursued with passion; both an art and a science. It is from Mars, the God of war, that we derive the terms ‘Martial’ and ‘Martial Arts.’ So long as humans have felt (or indeed been) threatened by others they have developed skills to defend and/or attack. Many […]
15 November 2019
Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will. Ghandi Over the years, the martial arts have developed traditions of their own as well as picking up those of the cultures they developed in. There are many martial arts from several countries and each art has many styles. BOWING People outside of […]
15 November 2019
When the rhinoceros was first seen by Europeans it was almost certainly sailors who returned with stories of the animal. Even so they probably first saw only dead examples at trading stations and ports. What did they report? Stories of an animal as big as a horse, but stronger, with a single horn in the […]
15 November 2019
Without getting too much into brain anatomy, it is worth understanding that different parts of the brain deal with movements. We move most of the time and most of these movements are controlled by an area of the brain with sub/un-conscious function; it is below our level of awareness. It has to be this way […]
15 November 2019
I was talking the other day to someone who said that they practiced Chi Kung, but they didn’t do any formal movements or set breathing. They did it intuitively, they said. They also allowed their body’s needs for nutrition to guide their eating and their own instincts would be a better guide to martial arts […]
15 November 2019
When I learned to type I practiced the sentence “the quick red fox jumps over the lazy brown dog” because it uses every letter and if you can type it without looking you have the alphabet cracked. When my kids learned to play musical instruments I remember them going up and down the scales and […]
15 November 2019
Each new belt rank is a milestone on your journey. This is a well-mapped path from Novice to Kung Fu Master, but it is always a unique challenge for each person who travels it. While others may walk it with you, no one can walk it for you. Others can and, I’m sure, will congratulate […]
15 November 2019
In a grading we test very particular skills; those that are testable. However, take a moment at each grading to evaluate the progress you are making in your own personal development. I spent a lot of years as director of Religious Education or Philosophy and Ethics. A constant frustration of the post was that we […]
15 November 2019
A grading affects people very differently. For some it is a positive reinforcement of their personal achievements. For some it is a frustrating comparison; they look at others and think that they just aren’t very good and wonder why they bother. I want to address the latter group. There are so many activities that we […]
15 November 2019
This seminar will be in the form of a guided discussion, with suggestions of various ways of making decisions about ethical issues and expert comments about the practicalities of using force. This is the opportunity to have an in-depth consideration of when it is or is not morally appropriate to use specific levels of force […]