Aloha from the Big Island of Hawaii!

[Tom Callos]

Hello, I'm Tom Callos --and I think it's fair to say that I am a "part of the village" that helps your teacher, Sensei Mike Oliver, do what he does...better. I live in Hilo, Hawaii, but my work and my interests reside in just about every place where people practice the martial arts.

I created the idea that is "The Ultimate Black Belt Test" (UBBT) --which is, essentially, a way for us all to work together to bring lots of "things" to the international martial arts community --and to the world.

For example, the UBBT has introduced "Empathy Training" to the testing process. This is where we "walk in someone else's shoes" to gain an experiential lesson in what it is to do without (and/or how to empathize with the situations of others).

The UBBT started the "acts of kindness" program in the martial arts community --and to see what another one of my students is doing with the work, visit www.thinkkindness.org.

The UBBT's introduced the idea of "Dietary Self-Defense" training --to see what yet another one our cohorts is doing with that, visit www.dietaryselfdefense.com.

There's a lot more we're all up to --you know, BIG things ---but I'd like to point out that your involvement, even the smallest action, in my opinion, makes a difference.

So look at your own training as part of your "Ultimate Black Belt Test." Live each day like your BB test was TODAY. How would you eat? How would you work? How would you work with your team? How would you think about the difficult parts of your "test"?

Make sure to journal as often as you can --as the memories of your journey will actually be as important (if not MORE important) than the end result.

Learn how to make some films of your training and life too, as they'll store some very fine memories indeed. Here are a couple of mine (and until my next blog entry, good luck! Happy Holidays!).

Tom Callos

[Tom Callos]

The UBBT is your journey --and the films you make are about your journey --so some might be about your training, while others might be about your diet, your family, and/or just about anything you think relates to your work as a martial artist. The good thing about these kinds of videos --is that you can delete them if at some point they no longer work for you (that's a good thing, yes?).

So experiment. Thanks for asking.

Tom

[Lisa Clark]

Mr. Calls, the video blogs required in the UBBT confuse me because I'm not sure what is worth posting via video. Is there a vision you had or suggestions for content?

[Tom Callos]

Sensei, thanks to people like yourself, it's already happening.

[Mike Oliver]

Thank you for sharing your years of teaching experience with me (us). Your contribution to the martial arts community is a real and legitimate one and I hope that everyone associated with the UBBT will collectively change the public's opinion on what it means to be a martial artist and a black belt.