August 2010 Journal Entries (10)

Thanks everyone and keep them coming!

As our Martial Arts school in East Sacramento has continued to grow, I frequently heard requests to teach younger students--4 and 5 year olds. For years I had taught these ages at my teacher's school in Auburn and I am pleased to say that we are now offering classes designed just for this age group at Zen Martial Arts in Sacramento!



The Tiny Tigers karate class… Continue

Mr. Oliver often asks the Little Dragon class. The translation is empty hand. That's only one meaning though.



I was talking to someone the other day about what karate meant to her. She was trying out some dojos in the Sacramento area since she moved her recently from the bay area. She liked karate because it stimulated her mind and body. Admittedly, she was pretty hard core during warm up exercises. Her discipline showed through too.



That was a few weeks ago and it got me to… Continue

Local boy demonstrates that the martial arts are about much more than punching and kicking by taking on a city-wide “acts of kindness” project

Sacramento, CA Aug 21, 2010 – Kristoffer Brown, a 9 year old Sacramento resident, has been studying the martial arts for 14 months now. Five months ago he…

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Thank you to everyone who has been sending in their acts of kindness already!! We are already over 100 and its been less than a week!!

Verbal Judo founder George Thompson developed Verbal Judo years ago as a way for police officers to deal with verbal insults and assaults as well as getting voluntary compliance without getting physical. With the help of 'Doc' Thompson and other Verbal Judo instructors we have incorporated these same lessons into our martial arts curriculum. Many of your kids have already had great success in using these techniques to deal with bullying.



Here's a short message from Doc explaining why… Continue

Our son Kristoffer has taken on a "100+ Acts of Kindness" community service project in preparation for his green belt test in Sensei Oliver's Junior Karate Class. With each person committing to 10 acts each, he hopes to achieve "way more" than 100 acts of kindness and make a global impact with our extended family and friends here in the U.S. and in other countries. If you can help out, that would be great! Attached is his letter and a form you can use to log your acts of kindness. Thanks for…

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Its a nice, easy walk from my house to the dojo. A scant 10-15 minutes of peaceful exercise through the well landscaped UC Davis Med Center. This little exercise has been wonderful. The time allows me to release the day, warms the legs up for seiza, think over the week's lesson and generally prepare for the class ahead. Mr. Oliver's recent journal on the colors of awareness has made me walk this regular route a little differently.



A casual observer may have been deceived into thinking… Continue

Recently, I went on a long car trip. It was several hours of infamous German roads. Beautiful green landscape, 120+ kmph autoban, transportation trucks in spades, and me, being carsick, enjoying not a single moment. We still had a ways to go and needed to get the gymnastics in my stomach settled down. That's when I thought of it. Mr. Oliver talked about redirection some months ago.



When something is bothering you, redirect your attention to something more positive or productive. Kata… Continue

In our classes last week we talked about awareness and how real self-defense happens long before violence actually occurs. The U.S. Marines have a system for coding and identifying the various mental states that one can be in. We can apply these same color codes to our own awareness levels so that we stay safe.



Condition White - Oblivious

In this mental state you are completely oblivious to your surroundings. This is the state that people are… Continue