Month: August 2020

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Intrusive Evil of The Media

Intrusive evil of the media. It’s commonplace to have outbreaks of intrusive thoughts. Intrusive evil thoughts. Intrusive thoughts can lead to bizarre behaviors. Sometimes these thoughts can be detrimental actions to self to others to communities and society on a large scale.

The Dancing Plague

The cause of the dancing plague of the 1500s is open to interpretation. Yet up to four-hundred people danced themselves to death via exhaustion.  

We’ve found graves with severed heads and stones placed in mouths to stop the undead from rising. All you need do is ask an anorexic if they are fat. Or ask the bodybuilder is the right size or shape. You know the answers and it is distorted.

These are intrusive thoughts just aren’t productive as that they have little anchor in reality. Yet they persist and we let them persist we let them live in our heads rent-free as the term goes.  

The Media

This occurs especially after a media report of a human-caused disaster. These intrusive thoughts are brought to you by your media and it is a corporation telling you how to think. They only sell panic and confusion they use intrusive thoughts they lie, and they are evil. That is the intrusive evil of the media.

The Cure

Take two days away from the media and that means on the airwaves and on your phone. Keep track in a journal and notebook. Whatever thoughts you may have about how you feel when you start this two-day experiment.

You can replace the void with an audiobook if you’d like or pleasant music it’s up to you. At the end of the two days, the evil intrusive thoughts about the undead, the frenzied dancing, and the body dysmorphia will be gone.

Just to make sure that you heard me correctly the media, they lie and they are evil. They’re not misquoting or making mistakes; they are evil it’s what they do.  Seize your mind with intrusive thoughts is their game. They count on you to allow their intrusive thoughts into your mind.

I’d like to make a note that no side has been taken in this argument. There is no good or bad side, there is no side to be taken other than the media is evil.

They count on you to receive their intrusive thoughts so that they can be the kings and queens of evil deception. 

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KRIS WILDER

Kris Wilder is a martial artist based in Seattle Washington. He has authored many martial art books, including the classic, The Way of Kata. Making no apologies for his obsession of Football he can be found telling any who will listen about the nuances of the Canadian Football League.

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Go No Sen is a Worthless Strategy

Kris Wilder

4 Minute Read

Go No Sen is a worthless strategy. Go No Sen bubbled up to the top of the training list the other day. Recently in an interview, Sensei Ando of, Fight for A Happy Life, asked me a great question. The question sort of slips by in the conversation – but the question stuck with me.

Sensei Ando and Kris Wilder

The question was about the wisdom gained by research for a new book. He asked, and I paraphrase, “Don’t you learn a lot researching for a book.”

The answer is, “Yes.” Sometimes the research is a rabbit hole that leads no place. However. other times the research in combination with life experience becomes a game-changer.

There is an argument made the research for a good book is as deep as that needed for a University doctoral paper.

What do you do when you find something that validates an assumption? What do you do when something you had a misgiving about turns out to be – less than you had even suspected?

You must call it for what it is.

A couple of award-winning books on strategy. 4 decades on the floor and I have some answers to the classic three, “Sen” pieces of strategy.

P.S. follow the interesting and creative Sensei Ando at; Fight For A Happy Life

That Strategy Isn’t All It’s Cracked Up to Be.

Go No Sen, Sen No Sen, and Sen, Sen, No Sen cast a large shadow over the world of martial arts. You needn’t be an adherent to a Japanese style or system to have experienced these three elements of strategy. These strategic ideas tend to show up in different words and forms of expression in combative situations.  You ever heard of a counter puncher in boxing?

I’m taking a jeweler’s loop to one aspect of these three, Go No Sen. The result is the examination is coalescing of discoveries made over time.

The underlying discoveries of the research are from two award-winning books. One book on Musashi and one about Sun-Tzu, I did with Lawrence Kane. Throw in a few years on the mat, stir it up and a new clarity arose. Go No Sen isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

I’m putting together the final touches on a video for subscribers that addresses:

· The lost power curve

· What is Go No Sen, even if it looks like something else

· How punches are like buses

So, I’m putting the finishing touches on the video and writing a few last words.

You’re going to enjoy this.

If you’re new to my newsletter, you can get free bonuses at Kriswilder.com – it’s the entry point to all the good stuff.

And heck, forward this to a friend that might enjoy this session. It’s always their choice as to whether to access the material.

The Introduction video: 3 Strategies

3 Strategies Video

The idea of this section is to lay bare a training strategy. To pull it into the light and see that it is a training strategy.

Go No Sen is not a viable combative strategy and it is often discussed in the context of combative strategies. The reason for this inclusion in conversation on strategy is because somebody at some time lumped Go No Sen into the conversation.

We know these three as, Go No Sen, Sen No Sen, and Sen, Sen No Sen but if you are engaging in Go No Sen as a combative strategy you are losing.

Standing in the falling October rain watching a college football game the pain of the rain and my team falling behind on the scoreboard was raw. The guy next giving a dismissive wave announced he was leaving the game early.

With half of the final quarter still to play, he stated, “These kids are playing on their heels, the game is over.”

He was right, you can’t win on your heels.

Go No Sen puts you on your heels. This strategy is about responding, it is about being behind, fighting from behind always responding never dictating.


You are losing you are on your heels, metaphorically or literally. In using Go No Sen you are at the will of the opponent and you are not on your toes.

Here are two links for reference, one is from Wikipedia the other a PDF: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_no_sen.

For balance I have included a counter-argument.

This comes from an Aikido practitioner, Ethan Monnot Weisgard from Copenhagen. http://www.aiki-shuren-dojo.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Go_no_sen.pdf.

Aristotle Quote

Finally, here is an explainer video I made with one of my students breaking down Go No Sen.

My goal is to show you in clear terms why this idea of Go No Sen should be abandoned as a viable form of combative strategy.

The usefulness of this strategy is limited in a combative sense – however

Go No Sen is good as:

-A method of slowing down technique

-Creating space

-Allowing observation of mechanics

– Producing a safer training space

Here is the link to the video demonstrating why Go No Sen is of little use in a combative situation. 

Brutally Simple Simply Brutal Link

Kris Wilder

– Let’s Connect!

You may enjoy this brief podcast on Self-mastery, and the bifurcated choice: Self-mastery

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Do you want more? Here are some courses both free and upper-level courses

The Brutally Simple / Simply Brutal courses + more at Kris Wilder Courses, More than just information. Wisdom.  https://kriswildercourses.teachable.com/

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Teaching Karate – 1 Great Move

Kris Wilder

3 Minute Read Time

Teaching Karate – 1 great move. For years I used the technique of, “Leaving the students on a high note,” in my martial arts classes. I thought I had high training awareness. I thought I had the 1 great move, however there was more to know.

The principal was simple, help the students recall the positive that happened during training and then head on home. A simple act that was lacking a little something. I thought I was engaged in training awareness; but the tail end of class was lacking.

I ran into Sue Enqust on a podcast and was, honestly a little upset I had not paid attention to this outstanding woman and coach in the past. Once she was on my radar I reached out and she responded. In a brief direct message conversation over twitter, subsequently Sue Enquist gave me the next level of success.

The briefest and important tip

Who is Sue Enquist? Coach Enquist won 11 National Championships coaching the University of California Los Angeles, (UCLA) softball team. That is an insane win record! She was doing something right. (Her coaching record was 887-175-1)

Her website is: http://www.sueenquist.com/

What she told me was so counter to Martial Arts instruction as I have known it. I had a hard time getting my head around the idea. I’m supposed to be in control, directing the learning, not wasting a moment, keep ‘em moving. In short I was leaving, the 1 great move on the table.

Her suggestion was the opposite, almost.

What Coach Enquist recommended was a fun flex.

She went on to guarantee this would send the class out on the highest of tones. “Give the last 5 minutes of class over to the students, let them choose what they want to do, and then do it.” It went against my years of experience yet did what she recommended.

The results were so powerful the 5-minute Fun Flex, is in the Conquest Martial Arts Class Method. (Yes, you can click on this link and learn more about the class method)

I trusted a coach with 11 national championships and who won almost 9 out of every 10 games she coached.

Now I pass it on to you. Let the students have the last 5 minutes of class. As Coach Enquist told me, “Watch the enthusiasm go through the roof Woo Hoo!” It’s the 1 Great Move.

She didn’t lie.

P.S. If you are not watching Women’s College Softball you’re missing out on a fast paced, top shelf sport. The championship rounds are insanely great!

You may enjoy The Back Channel Podcast a weekly podcast that last about 3 minutes. The podcast is designed to give you some grist for the mental mill. You can access every episode here.

Yes! I’d like to hear The Back Channel Podcast

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Corner Office

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The executive in the corner office is supposed to be in control of the business. They may appear at times to be disengaged or focused on other things then what you or I might consider important and that’s the problem.

We are focused on our stuff and not the big picture.

Executive Control of Your Life

I’m not telling you that you shouldn’t be attentive to your own things, your own business, but projecting that into the corner office that can go sideways. You see the executive should be in control and they should be set on an agenda. Neuro scientists will call it executive control. The ability to direct attention our mental executive function should serve in the same way as the executive in the corner office.

Focus on the Meaningful

Focusing on the meaningful and the useful and getting that function in order to direct attention and control that’s what that whole executive function is about. The world is just simply a clutch of jingling keys to the section of our infantile, mind we all have it.  It just sometimes focuses on those jingling keys or the snapping fingers with the accompanying, “Hey look over, here look over here!”

Murder Hornets

When our executive function is easily deceived then as individuals we’re lost, your lost to the jingling keys, killer-wasps, fire tornadoes, global warming, rolling blackout, identity stolen non keto monster and that’s really no place to live.

Free up your executive function let it roam and whenever possible spend as much time in that executive office and let it set the tone for your day, your life and have an experience.

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Fallen Stories, Negative Self-Talk

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We tell ourselves fallen stories, negative self-talk. Sometimes these stories are ego feeds, they’re a great story about how wonderful. That we the best and we’re pretty darn good at what we’re doing.

You’re Not Good Enough

Then of course there are those other stories, those fallen stories, negative self-talk, where you’re not good enough. Who thought you could do that? Why would it go any other way? These kinds of stories – we are a captive audience.

We are able to create these moments, these short stories, the fallen stories, about ourselves, and we tell ourselves those stories. The most powerful stories are the ones we tell ourselves, good, bad, or indifferent. We are far more cautious, far more judicious in what we say and how we say our words and thoughts to others than we ever do in our internal conversation.

Destroy That Lie

Let’s give that act of internal storytelling a new framework in which to look at it. If you are tied to a chair in a basement with a single naked light bulb above your head and a re-education agent was demanding you speak certain words and in glowing terms over and over regarding the presiding Führer, you would recoil from this picture.

The Good Stuff Happens in Your Head

Yet it happens in our heads on a daily basis. The negative talk. The most powerful stories are the ones you silently tell yourself and you do it repeatedly. They can be as horrific as the picture I just painted, being underneath that naked lightbulb on a chair, or they can’t be useful, uplifting, creative, and of course realistic.

Because the most powerful stories, we tell ourselves take place between the ears and we’re always listening.

Call it Fallen Stories, or negative self-talk, it is as scary as being strapped to a chair and browbeat into an idea not based in reality.

Here is a past podcast that deals with: The Non-Existent Problem

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Sprinters v. Hikers

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Sprinters v. Hikers is one way to look at information. There is a quote from Arthur Schopenhauer, the German philosopher, and this is not an exact quote, but he relates all truth passes through three stages. The first stage is the idea is ridiculed, secondly, the idea is violently opposed. Thirdly the idea is accepted as being self-evident.

That’s the difference between sprinters v. hikers. Stay with me for a minute because this is a fun way to frame information. Lies travel fast, they’re sprinters. Lies often carry with them a salacious tone, the are nasty they can be evil rude, brutal, and harmful.

An overreaction to this, of course, is to see that information and be in a state of ridicule. We may choose to look at the information in a negative light. A quick decision is made and sometimes after everything has played out and with hindsight, which we know is often 20/20, we get a clearer version of what has happened.

This is not always true.

Context of course is the order of the day. When it comes to these kinds of situations you have to have the flexibility and you have to have wisdom. One of the ways to go about that is to treat the information as if it were a sprinter and to wait for the hiker. The hikers aren’t fast but they carry a backpack, a backpack full of information. Yes, it is sprinters v. hikers.

So, go ahead the next time you hear something think of it as a sprinter.

Let that sprinter run on by if you’d like. Then wait for the methodical hiker. Then you can let the hiker sit down and share the information that they gathered on their hike, their trip as they observed everything along the way. Let the hiker share the information around that campfire.

Not a Perfect Method. Sprinters v. Hikers

Measuring information in the context of sprinters v. hikers is not the perfect way to see the world, no question. Often that sprinter has done gone and run off down the hill spreading their words, their thoughts, their ideas. And doing it in a fast way when sometimes we need to step back and wait. Wait for that hiker to arrive and see what they have to say.

Here is a link to another post you may find interesting on the topic of: Cultivating a Life

A 9 minute video on: Arthur Schopenhauer

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