My Backyard

Now, go train.

A Little Parable

Once upon a time Mr. Rock wandered into a bad neighborhood, where he was attacked by members of the Paper Gang and beaten badly. As a result, he decided to study martial arts. He visited a nearby school, which offered classes in rock-jitsu. As he began training, he found that rock-jitsu fit him beautifully, and he threw himself into practice. However, when he once again found himself facing members of the Paper Gang, he lost again. This was very difficult to accept, because rock-jitsu seemed so right for his body and personality. But, having experienced defeat again, he could only conclude that there must be a "real" martial art out there somewhere. So...

Mr. Rock went in search of a suitable dojo. First, he visited the school of sensei Scissors, but he was not impressed. Sensei Scissors' techniques seemed completely useless to him. In fact, though he was too polite to say so, he was pretty sure that, with his prior training in rock-jitsu, he could easily defeat sensei Scissors' scissor-jitsu style. So, he left and never returned.

The next school he visited was led by sifu Paper who taught paper-gar-chuan style. Rock was stunned by the ease with which sifu Paper handled him. Every one of sifu's techniques overwhelmed him. Clearly this was the school, for he had discovered the ultimate martial art.  Training was quite difficult for him, not natural, not comfortable, but the techniques were so effective, it seemed the obvious choice.


And, one day he found himself in the wrong part of town – again – facing the paper gang – again.  Gamely, Mr. Rock tried out his entire repertoire of paper-gar-chuan, but all that happened was that he briefly held off the gang, soon, he grew exhausted and began to fall back on the rock-jitsu he learned first, but he was as ineffective ever.  But, just as he was about to succumb to another humiliating beating, Sensei Scissor happened by.  Seeing Mr. Rock's peril, Sensei Scissor sprung into action and shredded the paper gang with ease.


Grateful, but confused, looked at Sensei Scissor, and said, "Thank you.  But, I visited your school, and your techniques didn't work on me at all.  Yet, you have easily defeated the paper gang.  I don't understand."


Sensei Scissor just smiled.  "Roshambo," he said.  "Roshambo."  And with that he walked away.

Upcoming Trainings and Seminars

Life can be crazy. I am just days from a weekend seminar here in Madison, WI. But I wanted to post some info of up-coming trainings.

On April 28, my sensei, George Dillman, will be teaching a seminar in Illinois. I hope you can attend (but don't look for me, I'll be performing a wedding that day).

In June, I will be teaching in Germany. On June 2 & 3, I will be teaching with Gaby Roloff in Hamburg.

The next weekend, June 9 & 10, I will be teaching in Oberkirch (hosted by Manfred Zink).

I have met so many great martial artists in Europe. I hope to see many of them when I am there again. So, please,

thanks for reading, now come and train.

2012 Annual Gathering

For some years now, we have held an annual training event in Madison, WI, which we call the Annual Gathering. Our 2012 event is coming in March. Click on this link to read the flier. On the link page, there is a button to register and pay.

We also conduct our annual Sandan Board Exam on Friday during the day (before the Gathering begins). Interested/qualified candidates for this year's test should fill out the test registration (ignore the fact that it still reads last year's dates, and remember, there is a one-time cost for the testing is $300). If you are curious about our testing process, you can read this previous blog post on the subject.

Thanks for reading,

Now, come train.

CT

Video from France (Thanks for Postng This)

Stage Chris Thomas Kyusho-jitsu Serge ko by playbic

Seminars: Milwaukee, Paris, Bousse, Romeoville

DKI is everywhere. These are fliers for my upcoming seminars. My sensei, George Dillman, has his annual October Camp in Deer Lake, then he is doing a camp in England which will have many senior DKI instructors. My friend, Ken Smith is teaching in Wisconsin October 1. My friend Dustin Seale has seminars scheduled in Illinois and Italy, and I can't keep track of Will Higginbotham's schedule.

I guess the point is this, if you've always wanted to train in kyusho-jitsu...

speaking of training,

thanks for reading,

now go train.

CT

Rooting

A new video blog about the concepts of rooting and double weighting, includes how-to do a horse stance.