Dojo Blog

Essays on Martial Arts

It’s important to take the basics seriously

It’s important to take the basics seriously. The basics cover a wide range of skills, including physical movement, tactics, strategy, and mental and spiritual training. All of these factors can either interact harmoniously or they can clash and create...

How we process fear

When studying self-defense, it’s important to understand just what you are protecting yourself from. Having an honest understanding of what you are facing is the key to honing a mindset relative to a problem at hand. In general, we don’t want to be controlled by our...

Breathing for Self Defense

It’s so important to study breathing for self defense. When adrenaline rushes into your body and your heart rate goes up, body function changes, and you need to be able to use natural breathing suited to what is happening—whatever it may be. Honing this ability will...

Studying martial arts for personal protection

Studying martial arts for personal protection

The main reason I started studying martial arts was for personal protection and self defense. Teaching it allowed me to help others defend themselves, too. But I also train and teach traditional martial arts. Some people ask me: why specifically traditional martial...

Am I too old to start martial arts?

Learn martial arts at any age Guest Post by Kerry Kokkinogenis One of my favorite quotes, from an advanced practitioner of martial arts, is “The white belt is the hardest to earn; mine took 30 years!” Mine took me nearly 40 to earn. Other practitioners start as small...

Why Should Kids do Martial Arts?

Guest Post by Cynthia Miller Ready for class to start "Can't you just tell a kid who grew up doing martial arts?" I heard the gentleman say to a few of the other parents who were gathered, either arriving or about to depart after the day's classes. I had recently been...