Teaching maai 間合い, the ideas of combative spacing and timing intervals in kenjutsu.
Narrow Minds Walk Narrow Paths
There are a lot of martial arts to enjoy. There are many good teachers out there of varying degrees of knowledge. …
What is compassion? Compassion is a concern for the suffering or problems of others. The Dictionary
Coming from its Latin roots, compassion means to suffer together. You …
Pardon the pun, but the point of iaido is important to keep.
When we practice iaido or iaijutsu alone it is easy to fall into bad …
I wanted to talk about IN-YŌ 陰陽, or more commonly known as yin & yang. The concepts of yielding and solid, soft and strong, dark …
Good Posture = Efficient Movement
A graphic I made for a student talking about the differences between efficiently striking the head in a basic manner and …
Japanese martial arts are usually defined in two groups. Pre-modern and modern. There are no single agreed-upon criteria for the separation. Generally, schools that were …
Studying the arts of fighting leads to peace.
The pursuit of martial arts has one real goal, the betterment of ourselves and society through personal development …
Learning Japanese sword online is possible.
https://player.vimeo.com/video/276710823
I once had an interaction with someone who referred to their school as a genuine samurai school. They insisted their school was authentic and that …
Present and switched on
The method of critically watching practice is commonly referred to as Mitorigeiko. Last week I was having conversations with one of my …
If you study the way and path 道, then you should understand the truth correctly. If you study martial arts 武術, then you must understand …
Budo does not begin and end when you pass through the dojo, or step on and off a mat. Practicing musha shugyo when you have …
Pain & Training
Pain is a universal dilemma. Especially for those in sports or martial arts. Is training with pain a proper thing to do? Should …
Bujutsu Kata
Training in martial arts can be done in different ways. One of the tried and true methods in Japan is the kata 形 (shape) …
After every meditation session my teacher, with his eyes still closed, would softly speak in Pali the words of the Buddha,Sabbe sankara aniccati, yada pannaya …
Bugei translates as Martial art, Military arts, or Arts of war. Bu 武 means warrior or military. Gei 芸 means art, craft or technique. It …
Being righteous and doing the right thing is one of the foundations of body and speech actions, as well as mental formations. Righteous decision making …
「武は戈を止むるの義なれば少しも争心あるべからず」斎藤弥九郎神道無念流練兵館
斎藤弥九郎
Saito Yakuro, Shindō Munen Ryu instructor of the famous Renpeikan in Edo once said that the character for bu in budō 武道 is made …
Learning koryū and classical arts is much different than widespread modern arts like kendo and judo.
Beware The Rabbit Holes.
I want to talk about some pitfalls of martial arts training. Although I focus on classical kenjutsu and iaijutsu training, this advice …