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Mountain Quest 2025
Rainy Mountain Quest 2025 on North Carolina’s Grandfather Mountain is now a grand memory… As promised, I will list notes from the kata taught over the August 2025 weekend. These are from the Kuki Shinden Ryu bojutsu collection Sabaki Kata GEKICHU KERI AGE TSUKE IRI GORIN KUDAKI (“Crushing the abdomen”) I did not include the description of what the adversary is doing with his sword in these descriptions. I don’t expect anyone to learn and apply this technique without having been there. It is listed as a reminder for those coached through the kata at Mountain Quest 2025.
Dealing With Symmetrical and Asymmetrical Violence
The purpose and methodology preserved in our To-Shin Do kata were not created to address mutually consented fighting, where we agree to fight another martial artist until one of us quits. Our practice methods address handling non-consensual violence. That means self-protection, or stoping harm when attacked with criminal violence. The purpose determines the strategies used to achieve the goal. The strategies dictate the tactics. The tactics determine the choice of techniques. “Winning a fight I agreed to take part in” is not the same as “eliminating harm from invasive criminal violence”. You can’t take the strategies, tactics, and techniques used to achieve one goal and put them into action to achieve a different goal. This is not a value judgement
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Codes in Martial Arts Training?
A friend wrote critically of codes and creeds in martial arts schools. He feels people just want fitness and self-defense and do not sign up
Simple Keys to Guide Everyday Living
(A take on some thoughts from Dave Kovar) How would you breathe if you were totally calm and confident? Breathe like that. How would you
Secrets to Transforming Fear
What is the biggest enemy we face? It may be fear. Fear that you will not know the right thing to do in an emergency.
Five Minds in the Middle of Conflict
Traditional martial arts training, back when martial arts prepared the practitioner for living accurately and safely, offers us a series of five states of mind
Historical Ninja and their Secret Fighting Art
Some scholars have in the past ten years translated into English some of the ancient classic books of ninja reference. An-shu Rumiko and I never
3 Levels, 3 Tips
After 50+ years of teaching martial arts, some things stand out. Let’s take a look at 12 bare-bones gotta-do-it To-Shin Do skills as minimal requirements.
To-Shin Do Schools – Vision, Mission, and Values
I was asked how I define our work, and specifically, what makes the Quest Center To-Shin Do schools stand out. Here is what I ended
Consistent Tiny Steps Win the Day
“An ant on the move is more powerful than a dozing ox.” – Lao Tzu Even though we start from humble beginnings, we can rise
Concepts, Principles, and Techniques
Something I will be emphasizing in seminars this year is the differentiation between concepts, principles, and technique instructions. If our students know the concept of
Why the 3-Part Student Creed?
When people come into our schools as white belts, they learn a three-part Student Code, or student creed, and promise to abide by it. We