How many of you wake up to an alarm?  Over the past few years, I have only been woken up by an alarm two or three times (after traveling and changing time zones).  The rest of the time I have woken up on my own.  “Why does it matter?” you are probably asking.  When […]

Several weeks ago I posted about the transition that occurs between um changing into yang and yang changing into um. Basically I put forth the argument that they don’t immediately go from one to the other. There is a transition phase between them. This phase can be very short/small or it can be very long/large, […]

How many times have you overheard someone talking about something you are knowledgable about and they don’t have a clue about what they are talking about?  It happened to me last weekend.  I was watching my wife’s daughter playing in a soccer game.  In front of me, was a group of three people.  One person […]

A man was struggling in the woods to saw down a tree. An old farmer came by, watched for a while, then quietly said, “What are you doing?” “Can’t you see?” the man impatiently replied, “I’m sawing down this tree.” “You look exhausted,” said the farmer. “How long have you been at it?” “Over five […]

This tip can drastically increase the stability of your stances. A large number of martial artists spend all their time focusing on the position of their feet (see last tip), the weight distribution between their feet, and the exact location of their feet relative to each other and their body. You might be asking, “what […]

A large number of Taekwondo Stances require the practitioner to have one or both of his/her feet pointing straight forward.  A large number of  practitioner use their big toe as an indicator of whether or not the foot is straight.  Herein lies the problem. If the big toe is pointing straight forward, the foot is […]

Students will often comment that a specific pressure point they learned isn’t working. Typically, they assume that they are off in its location and sometimes they are. However, most of the time they are simply not “activating” it correctly. Some points need to be struck, some points need to be pressed and some need to […]

日日事無別 惟吾自偶諧 頭頭非取捨 處處沒張乖 朱紫誰爲號 邱山絶塵埃 神通並妙用 運水及搬柴 Daily, nothing particular, Only nodding to myself, Nothing to choose, nothing to discard. No coming, no going, No person in purple, Blue mountains without a speck of dust. I exercise occult and subtle power, Carrying water, shouldering firewood. Hõ Koji  

Continuing with the theme of my last post, this is a quote from W.H. Murray that one of my instructors gave me in the 80′s: Until one is committed there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which […]