Step into many dojos today and you’ll see students moving through kata and floor drills with a kind of casual rhythm. Their stances are loose, their strikes lack conviction, and their eyes drift as if the mind is somewhere else. The movements are performed, but the spirit is absent. This is not how martial arts…
Tag: personal strength
Crowds Can Kill: Riots, Protests, and Panic
We’ve all been in a crowd, a packed concert, a highwaytraffic, a rush-hour subway platform. Usually, it’s just an inconvenience. But a crowd has a mind of its own, and when that collective mind turns volatile, it can become one of the most dangerous forces on earth. In these high-density, high-stakes scenarios, the difference between…
Reflections on Aging in the Martial Arts
I turned 56 yesterday. That number feels different than the ones before it. Not heavier, but more textured. It carries decades of sweat, bruises, blood, breakthroughs, and quiet moments of clarity. It reminds me that I’ve spent most of my life in the martial arts and that the path I walk today looks different than…
Empowering Teens through the Martial Arts
I had a wonderful student years ago, and for our purposes here, we will call her Lisa, but that isn’t her real name. Lisa was not a bad kid by any stretch of the imagination. She did have some trauma in her life before she became my student. She also had some odd choices in…
Trigger Warnings or Personal Strength? Your Choice!
In my previous post, I began with what I thought to be a funny opening and poking fun at the overly offended people in our time. I am sure this was insensitive in the eyes of some people, but allow me to explain. I play around a lot. My sense of humor is quite wide,…
Wallace Smedley 