The Lost Art of Strategy

When i owned the martial arts school we would have a lot of birthday parties. In these parties, kids from our school would invite lots of friends and many of these friends trained in other places. During the party amongst the games and fun birthday activities we would also do a little bit of martial arts training. I would usually hold the focus pads for the kids and they would do kicks and punches and things while trying to avoid getting tagged by me. The kids from other schools would almost always come in and start flailing away and were very easy targets. The kids who trained with us were hard to hit, elusive, capable of defending themselves to some degree. I think that what happens at a lot of places is that people are taught some kicks and some punches and techniques and then they are sent out to spar. There is no strategy, no game plan.

It would be the equivalent of being a carpenter and learning how to use a hammer and nails, screw driver and other tools, but never making blueprints or a plan for putting up a house and then trying to do it. I am so happy that i met my teacher, Craig Stanton in the 90's. He was a full-instructor under Paul Vunak with Progressive Fighting Systems and introduced me to that system of Jeet Kune Do Concepts. The most valuable thing of this whole experience was that it gave me an actual game plan and strategy for fighting. A lot of what was taught was developed by Paul Vunak to teach the navy SEALs how to fight in a short period of time and it is reality based, practical with few bells and whistles. This is what those students that are so easy to hit in the head are missing. They have no idea what they are going to do and just flail around. I find that fighting and sparring with those who are traditionally trained follows this same pattern as well. They have no game plan and sparring with them is typically easy. I do not mean to make a blanket statement here, i have met many fine fighters from all sorts of different styles but the ones that are good have a concept of strategy. Most of those who are good fighters and a challenge come from styles that emphasize practicality as well.

Boxers, wrestlers, judo players, fencers, kendo practioners, etc. who train and actually compete in the class room and can weed out what works from what does not. Your body needs to learn to respond in the high pressure situation of someone trying to actually hit you and defeat you.

Some of the things that i feel are the most neglected areas of training are footwork and defense. Footwork is fundamental and should be trained until it is instinct. You do not have to think about which foot to place next when you walk across the room and you should not have to think about how to move about the ring or the street when you are trying to execute in a fight. It should be natural. You should not have to stop your movement and get flat-footed when you kick or punch or try and do a takedown.

Defense should be trained as well until you are comfortable that you will not be hit. The elusiveness of boxing is a great skill to develop. You have to have someone actually trying to tag you however. Shots that stop short of your face do not teach you how to get out of the way of an actual punch. This does not mean that your training partners should constantly try to beat on you for damage, but if they are not trying to at least tag you and touch you they are doing you a disservice. That touch is the only thing that is going to let you know if you are executing correctly.

We need to train for fighting the way it really is and not the way we hope it would be. Ask yourself the honest question about whether what you are doing would work or not. If your training partners are not making it difficult on you, they are doing you a disservice. A non-compliant attacker who does not have your best interest in mind will be a rude awakening if your training is not a good simulation of an actual fight.

For me, the spiritual quest of the martial journey is not separate from the practical. It is spiritual growth for me to find the truth in simplicity that actually works. It should be an honest quest. We would like to think sometimes that the fancy move will work when in actuality, sometimes the fancy move will only get you knocked out when a non-impressed assailant gives you a large dose of reality.

Happy training everyone and good luck on your own journeys.

Hope and Despair

I just came through a patch of time where it seemed like everything was unraveling. My computer (that i use to make most of my money at this time) got a nasty virus and died. Business opportunities and jobs that seemed like they were set and my main source of income for the year seemed like they were going to fall apart. It was scary couple of weeks. Anyway, all of those things have been resolved but it makes me wonder.

Ultimately i understand on a philosophical level that everything will be OK whether it will or not. It is hard when you are living it though to remember that. I look at how things are now after all the crises have passed and notice that really it is the same as it was last week. All of these things that are back to being secure are really not so certain. They could be taken away at a heart beat. And, when they were taken away, i was still taken care of. Everything will be alright if we sit back and have faith that it will. There is always the air that we breath and a host of elder beings we are always in the company of. Sister Moon and Brother Orion shine in the night sky. The wind, ancient godfather continues to blow and remind us, if we remember to listen, that we are not alone. Even though we do not see the purpose while we are riding through the storms, usually these crisis situations lead to a better place that we are supposed to be in. I feel that way now.

It is easy to look at it that way when things are going well, just have to remember these things during the next period of uncertainty.

Relationships

Living in a campground you get to see a lot of people and how they react with each other. People are really not nice to each other. I don't know whether it is taking someone for granted or what, but people don't even really care about the people that they really care about. I see a lot of people who dominate relationships and talk to their partners as if they were infants and have absolutely no respect for them. On the other end is a person who lets this happen to them. What is it about us that lets us enter these situations.

I think people give up and settle for someone who is not really what they want or who is compatible with them. We are made to believe that the only happiness we are going to get is from some relationship. I had a friend a while ago who used to actually believe and say that if only he could get married then he would be happy. If you are not happy with who you are a relationship is not going to fix it. People are so desperate to not be alone they desperately flee to someone, anyone who will take them.

I know only about three couples that i feel are really successful and healthy from amongst my peers. John and Mehndi have been together for a long time now and they both still really like and respect each other. Jamie and Caitlyn still look at each other with such an awe and joy that it is beautiful to watch. The only other one i know is Bethany and i. I am so thankful for her, she really makes me a better person than i am when i am alone. She enhances me. I don't need her for happiness but she makes me want to be better than what i am because i want to be the best man i can be for her. When i first saw her hiking through the mountains i remembered the kind of person that i want to be. I have not felt this good about love in a long time.

My advice, be happy with who you are and do not settle. If something feels like it might not be right, do not do it. Probably a mistake. I never did believe it until i met her, but i think that someone can be perfect for you now. She has done that for me as well.

Age and Time

I gave up age a long time ago. Most of you who know me have heard that before. The more i am around people who have ages the more i feel very happy about that decision. One of the things i notice people saying that i think really has a lot of wear and tear on the human form is talking about some figure from our youth to a younger person and having them not know who it is. For example, "I mentioned Prince to Tom and he had no idea who i was talking about. I felt old." That type of thinking rings out to me as very detrimental. So many thoughts we have will make us feel older than we did seconds before. You can almost hear the creaking of people's backs as the cartilage in their spine responds to those thoughts.

Birthdays do the same thing i think. That running clock and the increasing number takes its toll. Thoughts have power. When we think something we make it real. Our thoughts and ideas create the reality around us. We feel older as people put certain information on us, but really those words should not affect how we were feeling. Let them roll away, a person on a desert island for forty years would not know who Prince is either but that should have no affect on the condition of my body. People's frames of knowledge are different but don't let that alter how you feel. I am in better shape now than i have ever been in and i really think that sticking to the idea of forsaking age has a lot to do with that.

Our ideas affect our reality. There were a group of people trapped in a mine collapse and only one of them had a watch. The one with the watch would tell the others that an hour had passed for every two that actually went by. Everyone survived the cave-in, except for the guy who actually knew how long they had been there. Think about it. Your thoughts have power, don't let them own you or your health.

The Everglades

Went to the Everglades a couple of times in the past week. Beautiful. It is amazing how close the gators are to you with nothing separating. Nature is not really the brutal nasty harsh environment that Hobbes said. Mostly it seems like nature is sleepy. Sometimes things get hungry and full of tooth and fang but for the most part, alligator food forages within inches of the jaws of the top predator around. Most animals don't take more than they need, all of them really except for us. Most of them have faith that food will be around tomorrow. We are the animal that lives in a state of fear. Jesus talked about it too. Look at the sparrow, does not the Lord provide for her. She does not worry day to day where the next meal will come from.

It wasn't all sunshine and roses though. We took my 2000 Plymouth Neon with 170000 miles down a "scenic road." It was about 12 miles long and took us three hours to do. It was one of the worst times i have had in a long while. I hope i didn't do any serious damage and that she can get me back to New Jersey in March. Oh well, ultimately the car is just a thing. Gulp.

Namaste

Lucidity

Dreaming Update. I had my first fully lucid dream last night. I was able to realize i was dreaming, begin to fly and soar out over the world and then change the location of the dream back to my hometown and maintain lucidity throughout. It was amazing. A technique that worked for me last night was one i have been using to test my waking state. When i ask throughout the day whether i am dreaming i will ask where i am and how i got there. I will try and imagine what is behind me and then turn and look to see if the scenery is correct. This allowed me to realize i was dreaming last night and allowed me to have my first fully lucid experience.

I have been training during the daytime to question my state of consciousness and the persistence finally paid off in spades. Good luck to everybody.

Freedom

We are in Florida for the Renaissance Festival. I left a pretty secure business to go on the road and basically join the circus. I find that you have as much money as you need if you walk by faith. Times in my life that i have been making a lot of money, things come up to spend it on. Times that i have been without work and living in a state that some would call abject poverty, you don't find things to spend your money on. Talking to Bill Darr, he call called it living in "poverty comfort." He hasn't had a mortgage or utility bill for twenty years. He is far more free than those who carry houses on their backs and mortgages through their lives. The things we possess wind up possessing us.

I feel free. I am actually able to do things now. We went to the Everglades the other day and i realized that i did not have to be anywhere. In the time since i left my school about four months ago, i have seen more of this country and spent more time with quality people than i had in six years of trying to run a business and be involved in the rat race.

In the past i always shied away from love and relationships too believing that they would fetter me. What i should have been cutting looses were my things and corporate ideas. I have found in Bethany, more freedom than i ever knew when i was on my own. I do not feel that i am in a penal colony, but that i am part of a team. That part of the universe that is kin, that is self, just got bigger. She enhances me and adds to me. There is someone on my side and that is an awesome feeling.

I am going to continue to simplify, like Thoreau, cut out the things that i don't need and get down to the bare bones of what is left. It is amazing how much crap we accumulate. As Tyler Durdan said, "we work jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need." So true. I am much happier living in my tent with no running water than i ever was when i was working 80 hours a week trying to chase after the elusive American dream.