Epic Tournament Battle

Hard to believe, but it appears real.

Intent and purpose in training

What's the purpose of your drill? How about your Kata? Patrick, at the venerable Mokuren Dojo blog, always seems to have something in every post which can apply to all of us. This post, "Gripe about Tomiki jo" is no exception. Patrick asks this key question:

Or do you do kata in order to get better at some underlying principle (ju oraiki or ran or whatever)?  Are kata a vehicle or are they an end goal?

This is AWESOME!

Read this, and check out the linked story for the best part!
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Shameless Self-Promotion and so on…

Where the cool kids hang out.

Ok, so I don’t do this often enough, per the Excellence in Martial Arts Blogging Manual (you didn’t know about that? More later…), I’m supposed to constantly make sure you know that TDA Training has a Facebook page. And that the TDA Training Facebook Page is at http://www.facebook.com/TDATraining. So, you should check out the TDA Training Facebook Page because it’s getting so popular that you’ll really miss out on the fun at the TDA Training Facebook Page. And it you don’t make it to the TDA Training Facebook Page, you might not get in because this is a limited time offer or something.

Please take the poll–but only if you vote the right way!

It’s on the TDA Facebook page. You can click the pic to take the poll.

For an Idea–The Greatness of America

America is great, not because of her material blessings, or her physical might, but for the idea that is manifest in her:

Man is not here to serve government, but government is here to serve the people.

I attended a firework demonstration last night, and for a small town, they were great. It caused me to reflect, yet again, on that which makes this country great. We are the only country founded on an idea, a concept, and not to replace one form of class-based hierarchy with another. We were not formed to replace a king with a president, or a monarchy with a committee of the few. We were formed to re-establish what the founders of our nation considered the natural order – protection of life, liberty, and the freedom to pursue happiness.
In no other nation were those words or concepts the cause of their founding. Only the oppression and arrogance of the crown government forced these loyal subjects to realize that they wanted what was in every heart, the desire to life one’s life as he pleases: freedom.
The founders understood that government had a necessary place in man’s world, and that too much power in the hands of government created a small class whose only purpose was to perpetuate itself, and so they set upon a dangerous course of opposing the most powerful nation on the Earth, and risked all for independence, and the freedom to choose self-government. From our Declaration of Independence:

Should You Care About Your Styles Politics?

Just what are you talking about? Politics in Martial Arts?

I’ve meant to comment on this for a while, but have stayed out of the fray, as I usually do. Dojo Rat recently had two posts (Alex Gillis; “A Killing Art” and Alex Gillis on The Future of Tae Kwon Do) on a book by Alex Gillis, “A Killing Art, the Untold Story of Tae Kwon Do.” Striking Thoughts has now weighed in as well. The gist of the matter is that: