Surrounded
We generally train using a single-combat model. That is a challenge. Size matters. So do skill, speed, determination and defiance. To engage multiple opponents, to be outnumbered and surrounded, is much harder. We can’t just figure we will know what to do. It is possible to take an advantageous position, moving to stack the opponents, […]
Live Not OnLine
Geoffrey Hinton just resigned from Google, where he was a leader in the development of Artificial Intelligence. He resigned so he could speak freely. One of his concerns is that AI will flood the internet with fake videos, photos, and news, so that people will “not be able to know what is true anymore.” We are already […]
Karate as Life Skill
Our karate is for everyone who wants to do it. Not just for a few competitors, not just for unusual people who are dedicating their lives to the pursuit of a martial arts ideal. We do have some amazing athletes in our style. We have a few who are dedicated practitioners, aspiring at a very […]
Self-Defense in Fading Light
People debate the right to self-defense. In some places people can be charged criminally if they use a gun in self-defense, even in their own home, against an armed home invader or robber. Business owners and employees have been charged with felony violations for using deadly force in self-defense, even after they have been attacked […]
Training In the Shadow of Science
Because of the advances in science and technology more people are able to be more ignorant about more things now than at any time in history. This is a stunning achievement. It is not because of science, which, like guns or butter, has no agency of its own. It is because of what people have […]
Empty Hand vs. Drugs
What we do is the opposite of addiction. We move forward, like a river. We continue, following our course, with purpose. We change. We meet obstacles, we adapt, we move on. Sometimes our course is smooth and clear, and then maybe with no warning, narrows, cascades, cataract, whitewater. We deal with it. We continue. Our […]
Making History
They say the modern world is in an advanced stage of decline. We don’t need to decline with it. We are not helplessly riding an arc of history. History is not a thing. History is what people do. We can think in accord with accepted norms or contrary to them. Or neither: we can make […]
Why They Did It
…the essential inner stream of east Asian martial arts culture… When you make something, you change the material you are working with. And you change too. Anyone can fight. Kids hit. It takes no training, no brains and no skill. Impulsive ones lash out. The other ones learn what to do about it. People cannot […]
The Best Martial Art
We love our training. We know what it is, and what we get from it. Not everyone does. So from time to time, we run into people who criticize karate. They say it is not as aggressive as this martial art, not as esoteric as that martial art, not as practical as this other martial […]
The Momentum of Truth
At first enthusiasm gets you in the door. You imagine yourself as you want to be, with great skill, great confidence, great power. The reality of the first hard steps in training is acceptable. You can overlook not knowing what you are doing, not being able to do as much as you want, lower in […]
The Moment of Truth
If your life is framed by the choice between gain and loss, fame and obscurity, praise and blame, and pleasure and pain then you are done. It is too late. As practitioners we have a better basis for deciding what to do and what to avoid. By practitioners I do not mean all people who […]
Healing Your Body with Your Mind
If you look at people who live under pre modern conditions, embedded in the natural world, doing what they need to do to live, you can see that their bodies are healthy and their faces are calm. They walk, they work, they live together. Maybe they farm, they gather, they hunt. Certainly they protect their […]
Assault
Our training benefits us every day of our lives, in many ways. Health, stamina, strength, flexibility, confidence and focus are ours, continually. The self-defense model of training is very useful because it gives a sense of immediacy and urgency to the way we move and think, which can be more intense than some games or […]
Bugs and Features
Over the course of training people change. Whole new qualities appear. Some start out thinking they are unstoppable. They learn about the limits of talent, and the benefits of training. Some start out feeling that they are behind the curve, because they are learning something new, and don’t know how to do it yet. There […]
How to Rotate
“I move, I lose balance. What do I do?” In the beginning you learn new things. As you speed up, even as a good athlete, you’ll lose balance from time to time. You feel it. It is easy to see what is going wrong. There is some deviation of the central axis of the body […]
What Sakiyama Saw
In these three articles I tried to convey something of what was exchanged between myself and influential Okinawan Zen priest and karate master Sakiyama Sogen, Roshi: True Karate Do His translation into Japanese, and distribution to the karate community on Okinawa, of my vision of the potential of dojo practice… Sakiyama Sogen’s Last Letter His […]
How Things Get To Be The Way They Are
The first day of after-school karate at the elementary school was, in the beginning, not quite chaos, but it was not the orderly, focused, respectful atmosphere of the dojo either. The kids there for the first time lined up when I told them to, but they wiggled and talked and did what they do after […]
You and Me
People sometimes feel afraid. But it passes. They may get complacent. Both are dangerous. In training we learn to protect our bodies from assault. Our bodies get strong, fast, flexible, skillful and under our control. As this happens, we get the ability to protect others – family, friends, neighbors or strangers who may be in […]
Penetrating the Truth
When you begin training you get advice. You try to understand. Sometimes the advice is easy to use, like “Close your fist.” Often, even though the words are familiar and the grammar makes sense, what to do with the advice remains obscure. As a result of practice, the meaning becomes clear. By returning to the […]
Why We Train
Each person has their own reasons to start. Some join to get in shape. Some to stay healthy and strong. Some want a calm, clear mind after a hard day’s work. Some want confidence, to know they can take care of themselves. Some have a had a bad experience which they will never allow to […]
Action as Medicine
He sat alone on the wooden floor of a little cabin, miles from town. Deep in the night the clouds parted. Moonlight came in and made its way softly across the floor. From time to time the sound of voices far away, talking, maybe singing, were carried in on the breeze. Someone strange jumped in […]
Self-defense vs. Protection Rackets
Kids need love and protection. They may wander off. They may get frightened or hurt. They want someone who can do protect them. Families do that. Part of growing up is the transition from wanting protection to providing it. As a teenager you learn to look out for yourself. You take care of your body, your dignity, […]
Karate Koan from 把握不能心
We practice karate, 空手, empty hands. Hands empty of what? “A weapon,” people say. A hand can take many forms. It can punch or grab. It can release or withdraw. It can tear flesh from bone, build a house, play the piano, caress a loved one. A hand has no fixed form. We can learn to use […]
Training at Sunset
As civilization sheds its skin, or drops its mask, our karate training is a treasure that we need to protect. Unlock the door. Open the windows. People enter and bow. We create a zone of order and beauty. My teacher began the day by lighting a stick of incense in the alcove at the front […]
True Karate Do
Written by Jeffrey Brooks Translated into Japanese by Sakiyama Sogen, Roshi, Shuri, Okinawa, Goju Ryu karate practitioner, and Zen teacher of Shoshin Nagamine, founder of Matsubayshi Ryu. In the translation Sakiyama Roshi named this essay True Karate Do. Many people feel they are missing their lives, that real life is going on somewhere out there. To […]
Threats and Miracles II
Most of our training time is spent getting the skills we need to deal with a possible assault. We get stronger, faster, more agile and more skillful in the use of our body and mind. We train in threat awareness to alert us to the presence of a threat, before an assault can begin. We […]
Stable Equilibrium
As we train, without quite realizing it, our lives take on the character of a stable equilibrium. That does not happen automatically. But if you practice well it will happen. It is essential for every able person. A stable equilibrium system tends to return to stability when it is disturbed. Imagine a ball at the […]
Look Out
It is easy to hurt people. It is difficult to protect them It is easy to burn. It is hard to build. It is easy to trick people, bother people, seduce people, frighten people. It is easy to weaken and humiliate people. Intoxication is easy. Slander is easy. It is easy to fall. It is […]
The Other World
Dojo life is different. For some it is ideal. Dojo life is dignified, collaborative, strong and devoted to freedom. Different from a world of coercion, deception, isolation and dependence. In some places, where our friends have trained for many years, dojo life is over. Classes banished to cyberia. No more daily renewal through training with groups […]
Mind Training in Kata
Mind training begins as soon as physical training begins. If you make an error, you notice it, fix it and move on. We cannot get stuck on the error, regret it, announce it, or have an emotion about it. We learn to instantly fix it and forget it. Continue In a combative situation we may […]
Sweet Dreams
Sugar is an addictive drug. It makes you fat, sick and depressed. It has many forms and names. It is in most manufactured food. It is easy to get addicted to it. It is difficult to quit. But once you do quit it is easy to do without. And when you do without it you can […]
Moral Kata
Martial artists develop powerful concentration in training. In bursts, under pressure, and for sustained periods of endurance training, our ability to focus goes far beyond the capacity we would have if we were untrained. That deep focus comes, little by little, naturally, as we make effort to meet the high-performance demands of our training. We […]
Mountain Karate 