December 20, 2019
This is the first post in a new series titled Sensei’s Stories - a collection of stories told by my sensei, each of which contains a valuable lesson.
November 22, 2019
Listening to my Sensei talk about how Seiunchin, a kata currently taught at blue belt, used to be a Nidan kata, it got me questioning whether there really are white belt and black belt katas at all.
August 30, 2019
2
Lens filters come in a wide variety of different shapes and sizes. You have colour-enhancing filters, polarizing filters, neutral density filters and more. Within each of these categories are a series of subcategories; neutral density filters, for example, decrease the amount of light that enters your lens, without changing the colours that come through (hence the term “neutral”). In a category all its own is the ND1000 filter. It’s one of the strongest neutral density filters available, letting in 1024x less light than the lens normally allows. So why the heck would anyone want to do that?
July 19, 2019
When we as adults see a child black belt, we may not realize it consciously, but subconsciously the value of a black belt is degraded every time it happens. Yet the same thing can happen in the office right under our noses.
July 12, 2019
Five years isn't a long time to train in the world of martial arts. It's long enough, though, to see many others come and go, along with their excuses. Before dismissing a martial art for outside reasons, it's worth looking in to see if there's something else at play.
June 28, 2019
It’s a question I sometimes wonder about. The reality is that I don’t plan to train in martial arts at a dojo for my entire life. I don’t think that’s a secret to anyone around me. That doesn’t mean that I’ll stop studying karate though; there’s a big difference between the two. It’s just that, in a future that may include kids, more work responsibility, and shifting priorities, I often think about the role karate would play in that world.
May 31, 2019
The past couple weekends have been pretty special for me. See, I’ve been using a commercially-produced Bo staff for my weapons training for a while now. It was ok, but it had no character, no soul… and it was poorly finished in a way that made it just plain annoying to use. So I spent these past two weekends making my own with my grandpa's guidance.
March 29, 2019
As I walk into the dojo, I hear unfamiliar voices. There are students from other dojos here to attend today’s seminar on Iaido and Aikido. Exciting stuff; this seminar is one we’ve been anticipating for a while now, and I’m pumped it’s finally here. I set my bag down in the change room and start changing into my gi.
March 22, 2019
After the conclusion of last night’s karate class, my sensei gave us a basic primer on Iaido and Aikido in preparation for an upcoming seminar some of us black belts would be attending. In doing so, he opened our eyes to a fact that I think often gets neglected in many other schools: that Japanese martial arts don’t exist in a vacuum. They were created to work with, against, and in response to other arts that were practiced at the time of their creation, and understanding these relationships can help you understand your own art more deeply.
March 8, 2019
I eagerly unpack the bag of art supplies I just bought at the store. It has all the basics I need to start painting: brushes, paints, canvas paper and disposable palettes. I arrange them all out on the table, then jokingly tell my wife not to interrupt me for the next 30 minutes, because a genius is at work. Today, first the first time in over seven years, I am going to paint.