Kris Wilder – Page 7

November 28, 2020December 25, 2020

Break The Karate Rules

Break the karate rules. Breaking what appears to be a rule is important. Here is how you, as a martial artist can break free of stifling rules that may not aide you in your martial arts journey.

Rory Miller’s Permission sheet

This is Rory Miller’s Permission sheet. The permission sheet has been in use for many years. but it is always good to dust it off and get it out there for people to get exposure to it.

The premise, and I love this, is to break out of your conditioned responses to authority.

This little document isn’t about being a contrarian. Pushing back to push back, that is childlike. This permission sheet is about becoming one’s self. You know that real self, through expansion, thought and deed. Especially in the martial arts area.

As a student of anything, and I do mean anything, hold this template up to your instructor. Do they meet the criteria?

And because this is about personal responsibility. When you hold this document up in the mirror, do you make the grade?

The Permission sheet follows below. Know these are not my words, but Rory’s I did not write them, but I sure like them.

Roy Miller using attacking elbow — Rory Miller greeting a friend

PERMISSION (To Break The Karate Rules)

This is something I give my students. Sometimes I ask, “Why didn’t you…?” reach for a weapon, use a preemptive strike, run, call for help…

And the students says, “I didn’t know I could.” For the longest time, I assumed that meant the student had never considered it or didn’t know how… it didn’t occur to me that they thought it might be forbidden.

These are things that should never need to be said but still must, because there is power in the words.

You have permission to defend yourself.

You have permission to be rude.

You have permission to survive, no matter what it takes.

You have permission to act when the scary man reaches for his belt. You do not need to wait until he draws the weapon or until he points it at you or until he hurts you. You have permission to act.

You have permission to beat me, even if I wear a blackbelt.

You have permission to become better than the best instructor you ever had.

You have permission to invent something better than I ever taught you, and permission to use it in my class and permission to use it to defeat me and permission to teach it to your students.

You have blanket permission to grow and live and survive and fight and run and scream and talk and play and laugh and learn and experiment.

You have permission to win, and you have permission to decide what winning is. Be amazing!

-Rory

You can find Rory here at his website

https://www.chirontraining.com/

Below are two links to podcast interviews with Rory. Each is about an hour long. Enjoy.

Podcast #1 Rory Miller & Violence Dynamics

Podcast #2 Rory Miller – Clarity

Here are a few other topics you may find of interest.

Let’s Connect

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.

November 27, 2020December 25, 2020

Winning Over Pain Two Views

Winning over pain two views. Pain and suffering are different and warriors and fighters hold them differently.

Pain has an end. An example would be when the surgeon tells you that the procedure you are about to undergo has a four to six-week recovery period. You go to the calendar and mark off the days, you know you will get better, and the better is likely to happen over this time.

Suffering is open-ended it has no end other than the end of your life. A person rarely knows the exact moment that they die. Some exceptions would be execution or suicide.

While visiting a friend in the hospital the adjacent patient was being visited by her family. The conversation was anchored by the woman on the bed, she said, “You know me I’m a fighter.”

A fighter. She was trying to convey her spirit. That she would not go lightly, that she was strong and likely stronger than the broken bones and internal injuries she faced.

Winning Over Pain Two Views

Fighters only know how to fight. The world is a nail and fighters are a hammer. Fighters are limited in the palette of response that they have to choose. Limited response leaves little confusion. A limited response also leaves little room for creativity.

Warriors have many choices and understand the expense and benefit of fighting. That bull-headed fighting may well be too expensive to the state they represent. Or damage adjacent partners. In other words, Warriors have a larger palette. Warriors have a toolbox that allows the manipulation of the nail in ways the fighter may never see.

A Good Plan Works

How does a fighter deal with pain? Quite well actually, a narrow focus and a timeline is part of the world of the fighter. Another item is suffering. Suffering is long, protracted, and with no end in sight. Suffering saps fighters of their energy. It breaks fighter’s will, their ability to fight.

Warriors deal with pain much in the same fashion a fighter does. This process involves a timetable, doing what is necessary, and seeing the process to the end.

Suffering for a Warrior can be different. Warriors identify suffering and then shift their focus. The focus is acute, and diverse as well. The effects of the moment are viewed in a more global vision.

Constant and unrelenting pain changes everything. It colors the world, changes choices. It has been my experience and observation a fighter holds pain differently than a warrior.

Is the woman in her hospital bed fighting the injuries sustained from an auto accident, less because she declared herself a fighter? No! She was meeting profound trauma with the best skills she has at hand.

You have to respect her, her spirit and her commitment to herself and those who love her.

A few links below you may find useful.

Let’s Connect

KRIS WILDER

November 26, 2020December 25, 2020

Being Gentle with Others

Being gentle with others. The story goes this way, as I remember it told to me. If I get a detail wrong you will still get the message. It took place several years ago about this time.

In the states, we begin to make our Thanksgiving holiday plans up to a month or more in advance. Getting back to the home nest is paramount.

As an example, airlines are crushed as people try to get to and from. The local news schleps out to the airport and takes footage of the traveling throngs. Then they follow the video with questions, “Where are you from? Where are you going? How are you handling it?” The media could recycle an interview from 1972. Nothing has changed.

Thanksgiving with Friends

The woman, whose daughter was in my karate class, started telling me about a friend. Their friend has a Thanksgiving dinner with friends and family. They attend. Several years ago, the guests were arriving for the Thanksgiving celebration. The knocks on the door began at the appointed arrival time.

The person closest to the door would answer the knocks, “Welcome!” A man, solo, responded by offering a pie with a “Hello, good to be here, thanks for inviting me.” While stepping into the house.

A Surprise Guest

After some time, it became clear that no group of people at the dinner knew him, nor did he know them. He was from another country and this was his first Thanksgiving.

The guy had been invited to a Thanksgiving dinner at a different address. The address where he ended up was similar to a co-worker’s address. It was kind of co-workers to make sure the man was not alone on the holiday.

Once the mix-up was made clear a laugh was had, and a, “Well, you are here, stay enjoy, we are having a good time.” Being gentle with others, it is a great thing.

He did stay. And was asked to come back next year, which he did. And for several years he attended. He stopped coming for Thanksgiving dinner when he had his own family. He then rightfully became committed to that experience.

What a wonderful moment. A wonderful story of people being nice to one another. No conditions, no litmus test, just being gentle with others.

A few links you may like to follow-up with.

Let’s Connect

KRIS WILDER

November 25, 2020December 25, 2020

3 Traits of The Karate Zealot

The 3 traits of the Karate Zealot. They are similar to the sports fan. We all know that sports fan that has gone full in. The thing to do today is to create a Man Cave. And yes, it has been my experience that men dominate the world of sports fans. These folks are subject to the win-loss record of their team. Mondays can be tough if their team loses.

You know them and you love them, Raiders Fans. P.S. I’m a Raiders Fan, but no Zealot. But, KC Stinks!

Burn Them at The Stake

The religious zealot is demonstrating correct commitment. Think of it like the sports fan, who paints their body in the team colors. These zealots will place doctrine above compassion. They believe, without hesitation they are correct. The Cathars, a religious order ending in Europe in the 1400s were considered heretics. Cathar is from the Greek, Katharoi, meaning, “Pure Ones.”

When the last of the Cathars surrendered they marched from their stronghold singing hymns. The captures sang hymns louder. Then they burnt the remaining Cathars at the stake. The burring was to destroy the body so it could not be reconstituted in the next life. A warning to others.

A Story of Understanding

The 0verbearing boss has committed to the business plan. All well and good but they have lost their humanity. I was told, by a friend, about his lack of performance at work. A large company but his failures had not escaped his Boss. The meeting they had was powerful.

His boss informed my friend of his continued disappointment in completing quality work, and on time. Then the boss laid this on my friend. He said my friend was a good man, and capable. He also acknowledged the divorce and its impact on my friend’s life.

Then the boss went even farther. He said he would issue less work, and my friend had one quarter to get his act together. And check in with his boss often to help make the work correct. Generous.

The boss had two choices, cut my friend or fix him. He chose to fix him instead of lighting my friend on fire as a warning to others. The boss was no Zealot.

One way to look at a Zealot is as a person who has committed so deep, they have lost the purpose of their actions.

The sports fan, the religious zealot, the overbearing boss.

The Martial Arts Zealot and Their 3 Traits

Then there is the Martial Arts Zealot.

You know what they look like. Every effort is designed to prove purity and commitment. These zealots are so tight in their effort to be perfect they become ridged of mind and body.

They will work to eject less than zealots from the school. These zealots use physical means to bring others into compliance. Hold a choke a little long, strike harder than necessary. If you are an instructor, guard against these people. Their game plan is to ingratiate themselves to you.

Now the Hard Part

If you are an instructor and you are a zealot. You likely don’t see it and if you do you are unlikely to change. “It’s working, why change?” you say. It will work, for a while, and then it won’t. If you see this behavior creeping up on you arrest it.

We find super sports fans annoying. Religious zealots repugnant and overbearing bosses, make life hard.

Martial arts Zealots have the unique ability to combine all three of these nasty attributes. Hench the title 3 Traits of The Karate Zealot. They are annoying, repugnant, and overbearing. I see you shaking your head in agreement.

Zealots will dominate and impose their version of piety, or they leave with a dismissive comment about, “Doing it right.”

It’s not a cookie-cutter resolution, one size doesn’t fit all situations. It all has to be measured. All I can do is point to the three items that make the Zealot. The zealot that has lost the original purpose of their action.

3 Traits of The Karate Zealot

Annoying

Repugnant

Overbearing

Below are some links you may find of interest

Let’s Connect

KRIS WILDER

November 25, 2020December 25, 2020

Two Distinct Roles in Your Life

Two distinct roles in your life. One is the role of citizen the other resident. These two positions result in how you hold yourself in your community.

Resident v. Citizen

A resident is a person living in a place, that’s pretty much what they do they live in that place. Done. A citizen has rights and privileges a resident doesn’t have. A resident is not responsible, other than the laws, and a citizen is.

Here is an example. Walking out of the store I watched a young woman pull a candy bar from a wrapper. She then and throws the wrapper to the parking lot ground. She was born to citizenship. I assume, because if you are born in the United States you are a citizen, a leap on my part but there is my assumption.

Work is Required for One Distinct Role in Your Life.

Citizenship requires stewardship. It carries with it responsibilities, not just rights. But the behaviors are not mandated they are assumed and they are observed. You see being a good person is being a good citizen. I know that sounds trite, but it’s not, it’s not a cast-off statement, but a worked for and earned position. These are two distinct roles in your life.

It’s the same in life. You can do the minimum, you can be a resident of your body, of your mind and let your life drift. Or you can actively take on the challenge of being a citizen responsible to yourself, your family, and your community.

So, decide if you want to be a resident living in a place. Or you want to be a citizen one who is entitled to rights and privileges based on your allegiance to the community and all of the responsibilities that go with that role. These are two distinct roles in your life.

You may enjoy these links as well.

Let’s Connect

KRIS WILDER

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November 24, 2020February 17, 2021

Best Karate in West Seattle

The Best Karate in West Seattle. Each year at the West Seattle Karate Academy we meet with well over 100 people in the West Seattle / White Center area about their desire to start karate training.

Our website is clear about the value of karate training. And the benefits associated with martial arts, as well as our rates, and times.

Sometimes the question arises, “Who are some of the other martial arts clubs you might recommend?”

Not to shy away from the question here are some other schools and clubs in West Seattle. These schools / instructors have great qualities.

This is not a list assembled by googling. I know these people and have been on the floor with them.

Best Karate in West Seattle, Well Kung-Fu

When it comes to Wushu and Tai Chi Sifu Resita DeJesus is the go-to person. Her studio is at 5423 California Ave. SW Seattle, WA 98136.

I have known Sifu DeJesus for some twenty years. She is affable, pleasant, and has high expectations for her students. I have been on the floor teaching with her at seminars and have had her instruct at some of my seminars. Sifu DeJesus is quick to laugh and wields a mean bullwhip too. Her accolades and skills run deep.

Tae Kwon Do – Again Not Karate

The West Seattle Tae Kwon Do Club is run by Master Darren Smith. Master Smith teaches at the Highpoint Community Center on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays. I know it violates the theme of Best Karate in West Seattle, but I think it has become clear it is about the people, not necessarily the art.

Take note: His classes are for adults only, 18+ and beginners are always welcome.

You will find Master Smith pleasant, thoughtful, and dedicated to his students. One of the attributes I like about Master Smith is he is always seeking, learning. You can reach him at westseattletkd@gmail.com

High Point Community Center in West Seattle at 6920 34th Ave SW, 98126.

Karate (Shotokan)

A member of the Pacific Northwest Karate Association Sensei Skip Matthews teaches at the Hiawatha Community Center. The address is 2700 California Ave SW. Seattle. Next to West Seattle High School.

Sensei Mathews and I met about a decade ago and he is a good guy. His classes on are Mondays and Wednesdays in a 2-hour block Beginners first-hour, Advanced the second hour.

Shotokan Karate is what he teaches. Shotokan could be considered the classic Japanese karate. Sensei Mathews is earnest, and pleasant. Ranks are earned with hard work and effort. You will get good training here under his guidance You can email him at: lsmathes2@comcast.net.

Also, the Hiawatha is the oldest community center west of the Mississippi, what a cool place to train.

Best Karate in West Seattle – Not in West Seattle and It’s Judo

The Seattle Dojo. The oldest Judo dojo in the United States the Seattle Dojo is the place to train in classic Japanese Judo.

I trained there and recommend the instructors as smart, and focused on their students. Tournaments are an important part of advancing in rank but are not required. Not in West Seattle, but they warrant a shoutout. The building was purpose built as a Judo dojo. The floor is spring-loaded and the walls are bathed in tradition and experience.

The facility is basic, no-frills because they train. It is common for Judo-ka from Japan who are visiting on business or for school to train at the Seattle Dojo.

Let’s Connect

KRIS WILDER