Big powers become interested in human rights violations only when there is some economic interest behind it.

I suddenly heard a noise and looked up to find Robert Hughes, the art critic of Time magazine, staring at me in disbelief. ‘But you’re Philip Glass! What are you doing here?’ It was obvious that I was installing his dishwasher and I told him that I would soon be finished. ‘But you are an artist,’ he protested. I explained that I was an artist but that I was sometimes a plumber as well and that he should go away and let me finish.

From The Guardian

Image CC by Letter Chen

A student asked me: “Why can’t I do the warm up with a T-shirt and then put on the Gi? It’s too hot in this heavy apparel. ”

“What a weak question” I thought.

With this thought I could have ended this dialoge, but I wear a heavy black canvas Gi and a combat skirt, the Hakama. That’s what I wear for work.

“…” say the horrified looks of students who, on weekends, pedal on bicycles wrapped in colored tights. “I’ll wear tights, I’ll put on branded sunglasses, a yellow Lycra hat, but a black skirt and a heavy jacket? It is unnecessary”, say the disdaining looks on the face, I’ll be a loughing stock.

It is unnecessary, but there is a reason why we are a loughing stock, a reason that relates to the concept of Respect. Practicing respect is always unnecessary, always superfluos.

When I related this exchange in the dojo, one veteran later told me: “In the trenches, at the Yom Kippur War, it was obvious that this was the end of us: we would soon die or be prisoners of war. It felt like the end of the world. I did not know if we’d see the sun the morning after”

I looked at him, I did not know what to say, I’m old, but on Yom Kippur I was in elementary school, so I listened.

“We cleaned our weapons and machine guns, then we polished our shoes.” I gave him a deep look, he never misses a training session, and on Yom Kippur war, under a smoky black sky, with artillery fire landing next to him, he polished his shoes. It seemed appropriate to me.

If one asks “what’s in it for me?” I will not supply an answer. In the old school the question is, “How do I do it?” When I try to answer the first question, I turn silent. What comes out of it? Nothing comes of it, nothing, it’s unnecessary.

It is possible that the late Professor Amotz Zehavi would have thought that this was an extension of the Handicap principle, maybe. I think it’s powerful.

Doing essential things is good, but it’s not like doing unnecessary things: treating elders and children with respect, not stealing even when no one is looking, putting on a Hakama and Gi on a hot day, being a mensch. Unnecessary.

During the thirty plus years I have been teaching, so many students have gone through groups, so many students, that I feel that the data I present is not anecdotal, it has a statistical significance.

Grit predicts success.

Success is also personal. Each practitioner starts from a different point, equipped with different initial quantities of courage, intellect and money. A different starting point affects the end point. Those who come to groups from a low starting poing will find themselves after thirty years in a better place, compared to their own starting point.

What is the unit of measure of grit? Years.

Grit is founded on decades of persistance, grit manifests in resistance to external difficulties. Grit maintains focus in front of disruptions. We sum up grit toward the end of life. Period.

A practitioner who trains for ten years is at the beginning of the road. Ten years is about tenth grade. A practitioner who has been training for thirty years is getting nearer.

Should the training be in Akban? Of course not, but there must be a comprehensive practicum, not just practicing but an initiation practicum that the apprentice is a part of.

When I look at the student’s cards, I do not see a statistically significant deviation. Long-term training predicts a student’s personal success – success relative to his starting point.

And those students who have a good starting point? Money, high IQ, crazy courage, the same students create success that can be measured in absolute terms, not only relative. Academic achievements, excellent family life, money or if the apprentice wishes to – an enterprise that improves the quality of life of many other people.

Grit means a simple but very difficult thing – training is not an option.

Training as usual during the week, but this Friday, 9.2.2018, 08:00, at AKBAN Tel Aviv, we will learn in a new seminar with Ran Levari, the AKBAN Berlin headmaster.

This seminar focuses on rhythm and syncopations in fighting.

Because of the high demand I added 9 extra tickets and you can register in this link: Event registration full

The previous AKBAN colloquium that dealt in this subject happened three years ago and, unlike this one, was very basic.

Video of the previous 2014 rhythm colloquium

Over the last weeks we went into the rabbit hole of Kukishin Ryu and especially paid respect and training time to the formidable Oni Kudaki armlock. As Z. said, the focus that Kukishin Ryu puts on this difficult lock is unprecedented in martial arts.

At the last sessions, last week, we worked on the riddle from a different direction, more battle ready, and did the special Tai Sabaki that epitomises Kukishin Kata. This background will also serve us at the Ran Levari, AKBAN Berlin Dojo Cho, upcoming seminar.

Video of a Kata from Kukishin Ryu

Food, tasty and good, is the basis for health and good feeling, it takes time, good advice and luck until we eat right.

Books are nourishment too.

Short paragraphs, on a digital platform or in the newspaper, are like sprinting to catch the bus, necessary, but not the same as running for an hour in the mountains. Learning to read right is a bit like learning to run long distances, we need a reading fitness plan, we can read longer and longer sections, make it a habit.

What does this have to do with martial arts? Our teachers exemplified, 文武一道 bun bu ichido, the brush stroke and the cut, the pen and the sword, learning and fighting, are one thing. In ancient Aramaic too: Safra ve Saifa (סָפְרָא וסַיָּיפָא)- a scholar and a sword man. And they say that Rabbi Eliezer said: “The Sword And The Book Came Down Bound Together”.

“Draw the target and hit its center,” says the master of the house. In meters yes, but not in years.

The arrow has to fly, fly, not just hit a target, and the view it sees when flying for a long time is not the landscape it sees in one moment.

The target is not there, it’s beautiful. We did not know we thought about it.
The landlord says in his sleep: “I am the dream owner. Do not worry, it’s a way that has been walked before” and “the target is in the Centre. Pull as much as you can, steady, leave, watch the arrow fly. Then Draw the target around the point of impact. “

The Pac-Man Rule: When standing as a group of people, always leave room for 1 person to join your group.
Leaving room for new people when standing in a group is a physical way to show an inclusive and welcoming environment. It reduces the feeling of there being cliques, and allows people to integrate themselves into the community.

Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to try and build the largest Pac-Man in the room. Invite new people into your groups, make new friends, and build a community full of people who feel included. We all benefit.
From: The Pac-Man Rule at Conferences

I was not nervous, but mainly task oriented. When I drove to the emergency room (I drove for about fifteen minutes from the road and then hitchhiked), I sang a song from Mashina. I was not afraid of the consequences of the sting, because I assume that people always exaggerate the lethal potential of external harms that are not under our control (such as terror attacks, snake bites, etc.), and underestimate the lethal potential of external harms that are actually under our control.

Image Bernard DUPONT CC BY-SA 2.0