Sensei's Blog

Resilience

Sensei — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 10:57:00 +0000

Somehow this past week has brought some challenges and some blessings. We were blessed with finding a new dojo space. We moved in last weekend. Lots of work done by some great students and supporters of the school. Lots of thank you's!

So... the second class we're there 1 block away, Manchester Police Office Doherty was shot. During this time I was exposed to what a wonderful person Sensei Alyssa Trinidad is by her taking charge and putting the school in to lockdown. She reacted quickly and got all our kids into a safe area. Parents who were in the school at that time were all very helpful. The kids seemed less nervous than all of us. What a scary evening and a blessing to see how my students and parents react in a situation like this.

The next day I opened my email to another "Minute with Maxwell" at http://johnmaxwellteam.com/resilient/ . Another blessing in disquise. I have been thinking about this word since Thursday and truly believe that MLK Self Defense Academy is a resilient school. We've been around for 16 years in Manchester and have moved several times because of different reasons but what I've gathered from these experiences is that our students stick with us because they understand what our teaching is about instead of the punching and kicking only that goes on in most schools.

Most martial arts schools talk about persistence and we do as well. It's persistence that helps us achieve our goals and achieve our black belts but I now will add resilience to that mix because it is the "the power or ability to return to the original form, position, etc., after being bent, compressed, or stretched; the ability to recover readily from adversity." which is what this school and students will be displaying over the next several weeks and months after moving our school and Office Doherty getting shot in the same week.

Unfortunately there is no escaping random acts of violence, you don't know when or where it will happen. We teach our kids to provide random acts of kindness to counter balance this. Sometimes its hard as kids to keep moving forward when we see this kind of thing happen but after doing some training this weekend for Denise's business with a gentleman from Philly he reminded us of a quote from the latest Rocky. And I think it is appropriate here for our school. "It ain't about how hard you hit, it's about how you can get hit and keep moving forward."

We are resilient and will keep moving forward.

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

Moving Time

Sensei — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 13:52:00 +0000

Well it's a new beginning. We've had several new beginning for our school and they have all been the right things for us to do. Economy doesn't help and I am surprised and thankful that we haven't had to close.

Last week when making the decision to close or move I put it out to God the universe/formless substance/ether and the answer came back to move and not close. So I believe my time for teaching and helping others achieve is not over for me in the martial arts world. I guess we have a few more champion grapplers to grow.

I am thankful to all my students who support me and the mission of our school to be a community member and help those around us to better their lives in some way. I am thankful for all my past students for allowing me to teach and grow myself and to learn with you. I am thankful for my future students who will show us the way to keep striving for excellence and make all of us better human beings.

See you all in the new space.
138 Wayne Street Manchester NH

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

Excel

Sensei — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 05:26:00 +0000

Watching John C. Maxwell - http://johnmaxwellteam.com/excel-live/

Where does excellence come from? As a teacher of the martial arts and studying my art for more than 25 years. I have found that excellence is connected to talent. Marcus Buckingham talks about talent as the seeds of your success and I have found that to be true. Talent to do the thing you like to do leads you to enjoy what you're doing which never seems like work. Its so enjoyable that you get better without knowing it.

Martial artists know that the skills they are learning can only become talent by practicing long enough to for them to become talent, since talent comes from brain connections that are formed while doing a skill over and over again. Perseverance is the key for transforming skill to talent.

Darren Hardy said recently that we all need new skills to continue into this 21st century if we are going to experience success. I disagree with that statement as a whole, I think we need more talent and the best success will be by joining forces with people who have talents you don't posses. Make you talents stand out so loudly that nobody sees or hears about your weaknesses.

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

Humility

Sensei — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 19:22:00 +0000

Listening to John Maxwell's Moment, http://johnmaxwellteam.com/humility

Humlity is part of our student creed in our school. What we talk about when talking about humility is being a good uke. In other words being a good partner. How do we become good partners in our Jiu-Jitsu practice? It's about making sure that our partner has enough practice to understand the techniques that we are learning and understanding the lessons we're talking about. My young students struggle sometimes with this as we are all trying to grow and find our place. I must say I am proud of my students for the constant effort they put forth for trying to be good uke's.

One of my students recently asked me what the difference was between modesty and humility. I struggle myself with the definition so I looked them up and the dictionary finds these words to be almost the same thing. After listening to John I find that humility is thinking less for yourself and more for others, not thinking less of yourself. Modesty is being quiet in the background not thinking of yourself or others.

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

Plan B

Sensei — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 12:12:00 +0000

Listening to a previous Moment with Maxwell http://johnmaxwellteam.com/plan-b

When studying self defense we are actually talking about plan B.

There are many plan B's out there. We have plan B for everything in life. In fact I find that people that have a plan B are more active and successful in their life than those who don't have a plan B. What's funny is these folks will have many plan B's and often the plan changes. The fact that their plan B changes usually means they are active thinkers in life.

Self defense training is really about taking charge of your plan B. As teachers of martial arts we are constantly trying to find techniques, lessons to learn, new ways of doing things. Basically all of that is making a plan B. Self defense is not only physical but mental, emotional, spiritual and financial.

If you're competing in BJJ like many of my students, then each competition is about who has a better plan B. If you don't compete then you are training to find your plan B, many of us haven't found it yet. Don't give up yet, with the help of a good instructor they can help you find that plan.

Original post blogged on b2evolution.