Martial Artist as Athlete

As I move through my day-to-day life, I am forced to reflect on my life in martial arts and training and how it all fits in to a bigger picture. Martial arts is more than just something a person practices and forgets, but it is a way of viewing the world and living life in each moment. It is a philosophy that you adopt. It does not mean you have to wear it on your shirt every moment of every day, but the general discipline pervades your life and influences your decisions and how you approach things. 

As an athlete, coach, trainer, and teacher, it is not hard to adopt a martial arts philosophy to help guide me through my day. The life of martial arts is a way of training, of perseverance, of understanding, and growing as a person. I believe that is what makes a martial artist different from a generic sport fighter. Sport fighters are great athletes, but not everyone of the sport fighters adopt the philosophy that is consistent with the way of the warrior. you need the right teacher or coach to help you understand that you are doing. It is also true that a general athlete can adopt the mindset of a martial artist if the coach has walked the path and practiced that philosophy.

Sports and the warrior mindset really do go hand-in-hand. The two are completely compatible for those that are willing to receive the information and the training in that manner. The training of warriors goes back centuries, and the traditions even in western civilization mirror that of athletes today. We have no further to look than the ancient Greek Olympics. The original games often mirrored activities of soldiers and traditions were based on martial activities. So, if the activities mirrored the soldiers, why not the philosophies? Today's military train the soldiers at athletes so they are ready for combat.

So, ,the way of the warrior, and athlete, go together. But it is up to each person to figure out the philosophy that they follow and how they proceed to live their life with it.

One of my goals as a personal trainer is to help al martial artists obtain the athlete's mindset with their training. It is an art that requires a lot of practice and discipline, but it is also a physical activity the demands the best of each person's body to practice it at the highest level that is possible for each person. Whether or not you are in a combat sport is irrelevant. It still demands we all carry ourselves as athletes when we step on the floor. That is for the benefit of ourselves and our training partners. 

Martial Arts and Fitness: A Need for Diversification of Training

 

At the time I created this draft, I think I had some different ideas in my head. That is all well and good. Its a natural evolution of things to progress forward somehow, and if content changes, that is ok. If anyone knows me at all, I am expanding out from martial arts into more fitness related areas, so a diversification of ideas and content is a natural thing to talk about at this point. One of the ways I am trying to achieve this is to reach more people so I can help them with my knowledge. It is a process. Knowledge does not equal influence. Those are two different concepts entirely. A diversification of what you do and share will allow one to find greater influence with more people if those people can be reached.

To that end, I have tried to use Instagram, or rather have tried to understand Instagram, to that end. That is an interesting experience all its own. What I see happening there is not so much about knowledge is more about creating click-bait and trying to get people to grab on to a catchy post and see if you can convince them to follow you. Maybe I have it all wrong. Maybe I understand it perfectly. I am not sure either way. 

What I do know is that I have nearly a quarter century of teaching experience alone, not even counting all the experience I have in sports, fitness, and martial arts. I believe I have a wealth of knowledge that can be shared, but it only matters if I can reach people and share it with them. So, to that end, I focus my efforts. I don't think I am so concerned about huge numbers of people as I am concerned with providing a great experience based on my knowledge and willingness to help others improve themselves. 

To that end, I think the diversification of training, be it in martial arts, fitness, sports, or whatever else I have to offer, is my greatest tool. I can provide an experience that would prove interesting for others to follow, if they are so interested in that. 

I think diversification is a hidden tool that we have at our disposal that can really attract people and hold their interest. It is also an essential way of training for anyone in martial arts. It keeps us interested. It provides a variety of skills and experiences that make us more well rounded. it is my hope that I can reach people to share this knowledge and way of training with them to enrich their lives. 

As always, I thank you for reading and hope we can connect at some time to share ideas.

Keep Training!

Jesse

Kenpo Karate and the Use of Duals

 

    Duals are a very common concept in Kenpo Karate. They are a tactical method of delivery used to make you more effective in combat and training. However, there are some essential questions that should be explored with respect to duals. It is not enough to just use them, but one should strive to understand them and how they can be employed in training and in practice. 

    You don't have to look any further than the kata Short Form 2 in Kenpo Karate. One of the main themes in that kata is the use of duals. There is only one way to get better at the use of doing two things at once, and that is to practice, analyze, and employ the concept in different ways. 

    There are a number of techniques that look at this. Conquering Shield, Unfurling Crane, Courting the Tiger, and Desperate Falcons to just name a few. I am going to look through these techniques to just bring some ideas to light in order to inspire other types of thinking an analysis. 

    For Conquering Shield, you have have a blocking strike combined with a front kick. One cancels the height zone while the other cancels the width zone. So, the first move, a dual, allows for the practitioner to not only deliver pain in multiple places while possibly crippling the opponent if it is done well enough, but it cancels the retaliatory options my targeting joints and points of articulation that allow for movement. All done in one move with two different parts of the body. Economy of motion in its full glory. 

    Unfurling Crane, while offers a series of movements that exemplify duals. It moves from simultaneous defensive maneuvers to simultaneous offense/defense on the second move. It shows how to check, cover, and strike with all of its dual moves, doing them in different combinations, at the same time, and sometimes slightly offset to create a compounding effect with the delivery. 

    Courting the Tiger shows how duals can be used when attacked by two people at the same time. The first moves shows how, depending on the context and relative relationship to the opponents' bodies, can drastically change. It also emphasizes the need for efficiency when dealing with two people and duals is a perfect example of that concept. Wasted motion means more injuries and pain to yourself if you do not move with precision and purpose on the multiple strikes. 

    Desperate Falcons shows how the pull and push motions (which are opposites) using duals both set up your opponent and can throw them off balance in preparation for the dual strikes of a left back-knuckle and a right vertical punch. The pull motion brings about a mandatory step by the opponent, forcing them to lean into the duals strikes the reverse the lines of the pulls to become a punch and a strike. 

    These are just some of the ways duals are taught in Kenpo through the great variety of techniques that we have. They are everywhere, waiting to be recognized and broken down so they can be resynthesized into each practitioners own style of movement. They are efficient and effective when properly employed. 

A New Direction

Moving to a Martial Arts Themed Blog

 

    It has been awhile since I have written anything in here. I remember reading something by Lee Wedlake (a kenpo black belt and author of several books). He mentioned that many martial artists and black belts have more than just a martial arts talent and focus. This is the same with me. I focused on several subjects in the earlier version of this blog. I have decided, after some time off, to rename the blog and put my focus into writing about martial arts and martial arts related themes only going forward. I have, for the moment, elected to keep my past articles here because They are also part of me and my quest to be a complete and well-rounded person. I believe every warrior needs to try to be well-rounded and complete so they can teach what they have learned and help their students apply it to life lessons.

    Moving forward, I will write articles about Kenpo Karate, martial arts, musings on martial arts and warriors, aspects of living the way of a warrior in today's world of the 21st century, and the martial themed subjects just expand from there. I have a lot of thoughts on my training over the years, and I hope that my point of view can be of some use to people who choose to read what I am putting out there.

So, those who come to read what I have written, thank you for your continued attention. I look forward to sharing my knowledge and life lessons with you as I embark on this blog journey in The Way of a Warrior. All of us are warriors fighting the good fight every day in trying to get things done and making a difference in the world. I hope your journey is fruitful and productive and I look forward sharing mine with you.

Panama

Offering Photography Services at Brown Artworks

What It Means to Offer a Service as an Artist

You know, one of the things I am discovering about art is it is a lot about shaping your perspective. I know when I was in college, some of my fellow students might have said that making art for anyone other than yourself would have been going against what is true to an artist. However, I would argue otherwise.

I picked up photography some time ago, and I discovered that both my wife and myself have an inclination to use the camera as a medium. It also happens, in this day and age, that there is a need for people to be able to take good photos and record people's lives. Is that not what we do as artists? Don't we record life around us? That is what I am doing now, helping people record their lives by using my artistic vision and experience to help each person record and preserve a memory. Photography is a real medium in the art world, and I think the intent of the photographer richly determines what area of art he/she gets placed in.

I am still an artist, but I am also now an artist that offers a service to people to help them enrich their lives. Let's face the facts as well, if you don't make money as an artist, you are not going to continue doing it for nearly as long as if you were making money. Art is meant to be shared by the world, not locked in a closet. We have a duty to share our vision and skills with the world. It is the same in any art. If you have an artistic skill, share it with the world.

That is how I view my move to also take photographs of people who want their memories recorded. It may be uncomfortable to deal with people for some artists, but without the people, we have no audience.

We recently did a family photo shoot for a friend of mine and his family. I was so pleased at the joy and positive reaction that the photos we provided them garnered such a positive response. It is something that makes you feel you make a huge difference as an artist. For that, I am very grateful. It is what we all strive to do, is to make a difference with our work.

As you can see above, I have posted a list of options and prices of photo services that we do. I will also say that each idea above is carefully considered to be an artful process where we collaborate with each person and client to make the co-creators in an artistic representation of their lives. When it is done, we will all have made a work of art celebrating the life of each person that we work with. I am excited to do this and look forward to working with more and more people on this artistic journey!

A New Series: Martial Arts and Motion

What is in a photo?

It is no secret that I have been contemplating and working on this martial arts series for awhile. Many people know that I have been grinding this idea through my creative thought processes for awhile. You usually ask yourself when you look at the photo, or any other work of art, "Where is the artist going with this?" Another questions that usually gets asked is, "What does this piece mean to me?" Every person has to determine what the image he or she is looking at means and how it relates to his or her own experience. A work of art is encompassed by everything in it, not just part of it.

I work hard at trying to figure out what something means to me, and then I analyze whether or not it is something I want to share with the world at large. In this current series I am working on in collaboration with my wife, Gina, we are trying to capture martial arts, and the story of its motion. Specifically, this story is told from the point of view of us as photographers, and from the point of view of the art of Kenpo Karate. Every art has a story. Every move has an origination point. If anyone is familiar with Kenpo, it is a set of concepts and principles that guide the practitioner in the use and practice of the art.

However, each martial artist has a story. Every training session has rhythm and pulse all its own. Everyone's mindset and point of view is unique. Just the same, lighting, setting, interpretation of the motion within a photo...those all help dictate the story of what is going on in the photo.

Gina and I love the ocean and spend a lot of time there. It influences what we do and how we see things. I believe that the ocean brings a large measure of peace to people when it is represented in art. This day in particular was an ideal day for photos and martial arts at the beach. It was the perfect temperature. The light was amazing. The waves and the wide open space was without compare. It made for perfect photos and a perfect setting for martial arts.

What I like about the photo above is Gina captured the moment near the point of origination for the kick. I like the horizontal composition because it speaks to horizontal motion, and it mirrors the beautiful horizon in the background.

One of my favorite aspects of art is the exploration of light and dark. Of course, the setting sun is perfect for setting up a dramatic environment for any scene, but something about training in martial arts as the sun sets over the horizon...it speaks volumes to one's mind and spirit. Further more, training at the edge of the Pacific Ocean, it further touches the soul. Gina did an amazing job of capturing the this kick in mid-motion and lining up the shadows of the landscape, as well as my silhouette, and getting the two to blend for a wonderful composition.

I truly love the photo sessions with my wife in martial arts because she is able to capture things in a way that I would not necessarily see if I was behind the camera, as opposed to being in front of the camera. It was an ethereal experience out on the beach that day. The sun was slowly falling toward the horizon, and there was this beautiful mist that shrouded the surrounding rocks as we shot photos and trained and explored the surrounding area. 

This series is ongoing at the moment. We have not finished it to the point that we can present it in a complete and unified story or experience yet. We are working with other martial artists and many of the photos are still in development. However, the entire set will be presented in a unified manner in a gallery experience. We will be sure to post the announcement so anyone who wants to come view and share in it will be able to do so. Thanks for coming by and reading!

The location is Fort Bragg, CA. It was in the month of July for both of those photos. I will present the detailed information formally when they all go up for display!