I believe in a karate school where we can embrace the entire person, the joy and the intensity, a place where we can go grab a bite to eat together after a promotion or stand around and talk for twenty minutes after class about the important things that are going on in our lives.
Partner relationships at Sun Dragon are probably the most important part of your karate training and it's worth the time to make sure we do our best to make sure that they are cooperative, mutually beneficial, based on consent, and rooted in love and respect.
There are a lot of ways to train and I try to find different ways to bring these modes to the training floor, because they all have distinct advantages. You can go full power, full speed. You can train slow. You can train playfully. There are other training modes as well, but I want to write about these three a little bit.
Learning to see is at the heart of the discipline that animates karate as a "do," as in Sei-do, or a way of life to follow. Learning to see teaches you patience and persistence. Learning to see gives you ample experience with fighting your demons of frustration, ego, anger, and impatience.
In those times in our lives when some things are not okay, when we feel broken, and when we're looking for answers, karate helps us to keep going to the next day, it gives us some tools for helping us find what we need, and maybe even gives us a little place in our life when we don't feel quite so broken.
Every once in a while, I like to elaborate on some of philosophies and values that we try to teach at Sun Dragon via Seido karate and today I'd like to write about the pivotal role that courtesy plays in our practice.
It's a good thing to keep in mind, the lessons that were important, the things that we were supposed to learn to do as a white belt continue to be important in the dojo and in our lives.
The phrase means, "one chance, one opportunity" or "one opportunity, one encounter" -- each moment is fleeting and unrepeatable, if you ignore the moment you're in because you're thinking about something else, you'll miss it and you'll never have a chance to get it back.
It's important for us to hold on to our history. We have so many people who have been influential and essential to Sun Dragon's survival over the years and if we don't take the time to remember them, we run the risk of losing our identity, forgetting what we stand for, becoming just another karate school.
We're not going to ignore the pandemic, but it does feel like the right time to get back to planning confidently for the future and welcoming anyone who's vaccinated and wants to train.
People that we care about are under attack, and I think it's vital that we make clear our support for trans youth and adults at Sun Dragon. Whether it's legally binding or not, it's still an attack that labels people as undesirable and unwelcome and stokes fear and anxiety among many of our friends and students. Please know that you are always welcome at Sun Dragon.
Sun Dragon will be celebrating our 33rd anniversary this summer. It's hard to believe. As I was thinking this morning about what I wanted to write about today, the themes that kept running through my head were community, safe spaces, and sacrifice.
There is joy and peace in movement. I was that kid who would stand in the driveway and throw a tennis ball against the wall over and over again, trying to hit the spot. I sometimes wonder if that makes me better at teaching kids or worse.
I hit it yesterday. It's that wall that you hit after you've been keeping it together the best you can for a while and you see the hope coming, you relax a little bit, and it all crashes in on you.
