Taking Your Questions

I've been getting questions. Folks have been shooting me questions through my Facebook Fan Page. But, everyone doesn't get to share in the answers. So, during the month of August, I'm taking your questions, and starting the first week of September, I'll be answering them in video clips on my blog. Please send your questions to my email address, christhomasmartialarts@gmail.com, and then watch the answers.

Thanks in advance for your questions.

Now, go train.

CT

Cool & Interesting

My son and I were talking about folks who like cosplay. Someone who had a booth at a scifi/comic convention invited him to visit. My son told me about the amazing costumes. There were Klingons, and Ironman(s) and characters I had never heard of. And these weren't vendors, these were attendees. "I was dressed in kaki's and a henley, and was completely out of place," he said.

As we talked about the colorful characters at that convention, it did not escape our notice (O, the irony) that we were wearing our karate costumes and spending the weekend in the practice of pain. As my friend Steve Cooper observed, "We're a bunch of sick puppies."

When people talk about the practice of martial arts they speak of many purposes and values. Some talk about the health benefits, and this is abundantly true. Martial movements (especially when done properly) move the body in ways that are great for maintaining health well into old age (just check out Hohan Soken doing kata as a very old man with a lot of energy). Other people talk about the spiritual and personal values of martial arts training. Discipline, self-control, courtesy, perseverance, and more, come with years of practice and training.

Self-defense is always a big reason for training. As a classical martial artist, I believe the movements of the old kata are for practical fighting (which looks almost nothing like the way in which those same movements are used by most modern martial artists). This even crosses over to my practice of old Okinawan weapons. When I do a sai kata, it looks the same as someone else's sai kata. But, when I use the movements of that kata, it looks like I am using an entirely different weapon. Yet, I will never be attacked when I am armed with sai. Nor will I ever be attacked by someone wielding the type of weapon sai was designed to deal with (except in the dojo, of course). So why would I practice sai-jitsu.

For that matter, why do I practice martial arts at all? Why do I spend so much time training in preparation for an attack which probably will never occur? The answer is simple. I think martial arts are really interesting and really cool. The first time I took a lesson, at age 12, and I was told, "Stand like this, bend your knee like this," I was hooked, fascinated by the complexity and intricacy, by the body of knowledge to learn, the specialized vocabulary, the unique methods. And for all the values I have received from my years of training, I train today because, 40 years later, I still find it really interesting.

So, I am like those die-hard fans at the scifi/comic conventions – the ones whose costumes don't look like costumes at all, the ones who have really invested time and energy into what they are doing, the ones who actually can speak Klingon, the ones who think it is really interesting and cool. I train, I speak the language, I wear the cool costume. In fact, when I practice weapons, I don't use the cheap crap sold by Ce•••ry. Noooo. I have the really good quality weapons. And I even wear a special costume for weapons work, a special blue hakama in the working style called nobakama, because, I think weapons training (kobujitsu) is really interesting and cool, and I want to look cool when I'm doing it.

Thanks for reading.

No, go train!

CT

The Taller You Would Build the Tower

Sensei George Dillman demonstrating an impressive knock out.

I was in Indianapolis, at an annual 3 day training with my sensei George Dillman (okay, I was only there 2 days, because someone had to work Sunday morning). The weekend is organized and sponsored by Will Higginbotham, one of my colleagues in DKI. Another of my colleagues, Matt Brown, was teaching some advanced work on manipulating internal energy (qi). One of the up-and-coming instructors, Shane Lear, was teaching material he has learned in China, which also focused on energy work. I got a chance to teach and experiment with the use of primary and secondary elemental stances (an extension of elemental stance theory worked out by Dustin Seale and myself). And sensei Dillman showed some quality technique and methodology (along with a stunning and unexpected leg knockout). All in all, the training was at a very high level, appropriate to the number of long-time and high-ranking students attending (as my daughter put it, "There was a lot of red in the room" referring, of course, to the red on the belts of the seniors).

Today (Sunday) was a work day for me, with church services and a burial. But, here and there I found myself with a few moments to play around and do what I call "restroom karate". I should explain that. The name refers to my habit of doing a few techniques anytime I find myself alone in a lavatory – right after I wash my hands, when I can still check my technique in the mirror. So, "restroom karate" is when you steal a few seconds of training here and there throughout the day. So, today, as I stole time here and there for a few seconds of training, I noticed that, following all that advanced work in Indianapolis, I was training basic stances and basic movements.

This might seem odd to others, who might assume that I would be practicing qi-gung and working on advanced material. But it doesn't seem odd to me for a very simple reason – the taller you would build the tower, the stronger you must build the foundation. When martial artists become excited about advanced material and turn their art and training into nothing but advanced stuff, they can appear impressive (even astonishing) and knowledgeable, but without a proportionately strong grounding in fundamentals of movement and posture and stance and alignment, their towering knowledge cannot survive the disturbances of combat.

So, it seems to me, that the more advanced material I learn, study and practice, the more I have to return again and again to fundamentals. In fact, I have come to believe that a master is just someone who fell in love with the basics.

Thanks for reading,

Now go train!

CT

I will be teaching in France in September. Here is a truly beautiful flier for Sept 25 seminar. Click on the image to download.

I was at a karate demo, and saw what contemporary martial arts looks like. Mmmm. At times, the demonstrators would use weapons. Their weapons sure were sparkly.

As I watched, I found myself thinking, What is that? Their movements occasionally mimicked traditional actions, but more often than not, didn't look like anything. For these players, weapons are fun props for their performances, and nothing more.

Just like empty hand practice, I find that most people who train with weapons have no idea how to hold them, much less, use them. So, it seems as if I am adopting another mission – to introduce the correct usage of traditional weapons to people who think they are "fun" rather than scary.

So, I will be conducted a Master Class on the correct use of sai on the last Friday of June, in Madison, WI. Just click on the image to download the flier. Hope to see you then. In the meantime

Go train!

CT

I'm offering a special and very limited bargain – my new Self-defense Rescripted DVD & the book Effortless Self-Defense for Women (co-authored with Kimberly Dillman Foreman). This is a $69.90 value for only 49.95. But, I have only 25 sets to sell (limited bargain). This should appear in the store shortly.

CT

I will be teaching a Friday evening seminar in the Milwaukee area. Just click on the image to download the flier.