Becoming a ninja My teacher, Mark Davis of the Boston Martial Arts Center, asked us to write a bit about how we got involved in the martial arts and why we’re still here. Way, way back, as far as 4th or 5th grade in school, I was the short, unathletic kid who ended up getting…
Sensei is an interesting term in Japanese culture and the martial arts. Traditionally, most people translate it as “teacher”, and the term is applied as an honorific to doctors, lawyers, teachers, and others of high esteem. If you dissect its meaning and characters, it literally translates as “before born” in the sense of someone having…
Guido Stein asked a terrific question in this Twitter conversation: cspenn: @chrisbrogan I am stingy with my recommendations, but when I recommend something, I *mean* it. High bar, but kudos if you reach it. GuidoS: @cspenn how can you be stingy about recommendations but not about people in your network? Isn’t association partly an endorsement?…
How You Fight Tells Me Who You Are A lot of your personality is revealed when you take up arms against someone else, whether in self defense or aggression. How you fight, your particular fighting style, reveals your traits – strengths, weaknesses, identity. After all, in a fight, you’re tapping into your most primal traits.…
Hat tip to Stephen K. Hayes’ Densho and the Tsubaki Jinja shrine for this stirring description of what 2009 may hold for us all: HEISEI 21/TSUCHINOTO/USHI DOSHI/KYUSHI KASEI meaning the 21st year of the Heisei reign of current Emperor, 6th of the Ji-Kan 10 Celestial Stems Inner Aspect of Earth, Year of the Ox and…
Celebrate International Day of the Ninja today by taking some ninja lessons right online! Want to take actual ninja lessons? Study with Stephen K. Hayes, or if you’re in Massachusetts, check out the Boston Martial Arts Center in Boston or the Winchendon Martial Arts Center in Winchendon, MA. Ninja grandmaster teacher Stephen K. Hayes: Learn…
A Ninja Response to Chris Brogan’s Pirates I of course couldn’t let the pirates win out over at Chris Brogan’s blog, so without further ado, a followup commentary on the beauty of pirate ships: one shot. The ninja clans of old were fundamentally a mix of esoteric practitioners of mind sciences mixed with samurai who…
Choking in clarity Friday nights at the Boston Martial Arts Center are always interesting. It’s the night that black belts get to train and focus on material relevant to them (one of the few nights/evenings exclusively dedicated to advanced training). This past Friday, we were looking at various choke techniques to put someone’s lights out…
11 years on the path, still going Over the weekend, I had the opportunity and privilege to attend New England Warrior Camp (NEWC) 2008, the 11th year of the event. For those not involved in the martial arts, NEWC is a 3 day, 2 night seminar that gets together practitioners of the Bujinkan ninjutsu family…
What is visionary? What is vision? Stephen K. Hayes posted an interesting challenge to me for my blog. “I would enjoy seeing your take on “visionary” and why you feel that the term is used so frequently by others to describe your work.” To me, vision is being able to see where you’re going, to…
