From Legends of the Martial Arts MAsters edited by Susan Lynn Peterson For as long as he could remember, all Saito ever wanted to do was become and expert kyudo archer in the service of his lord.  For ten years, since he was only three years old, he had been practicing with a bow.  Soon […]

Oddly enough, what stuck most in my mind this week about my practice was thoughts on the act of practicing.  It just so happened that in the same week, several of my students asked me about how often they should practice, and two of my martial-arts-role-models spoke about the frequency of one’s practice.  With these […]

Why do we practice forms and where did they come from? Taekwondo forms were designed to serve several distinct functions.  Amongst these was to encourage the exploration of the practical application of techniques.  Secondly, forms were originally intended to encourage mental discipline, focus, and the cultivation of the mind and spirit.  These ideas should be […]

Greetings… As my summer wears on and my work life is becoming just a bit busier I’m beginning to think about how I structure the time that I have for practicing martial arts.  Master Pearson has said in the past that there is no reason one cannot practice every day, that there are plenty of […]

For those of you who have read my last post, you know that I am working on strengthening my fundamentals.  Here are a few things that I have learned this week from some of the masters in Cincinnati who have been helping me towards this goal. Below, I have listed a few kicks, and what […]