All Journal Entries (393)

After a recent class, a mom of one of our young students came up to me and asked to share a success story about her child. As teachers, if we are doing our job well, we will often hear stories about children taking what they learn in the dojo and out in to the world. Sometimes it manifests itself as more respect at home, or as better focus on school. This story however, was…

This is the second installment of my Brown Belt Project, where I will be discussing the second habit in “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” namely, to “begin with the end in mind.” It focuses primarily on developing a principle based center, rather than leaning towards some of the problematic centers discussed in exercise four below. It then discusses developing my own guiding principles and integrating them into a personal mission statement, an…

A student recently asked me what my most memorable training memory is. I have many, from achievements that I have been proud of to obstacles I've overcome. One of them that comes to mind now, is my brown-belt test.



At the time that I was getting ready for brown-belt, I was training mostly with Sensei Phillip Debord at the Robertson Community Center near Natomas. The city didn't have us on a very fixed schedule, so depending on the day, we would be training in different rooms at the…

Joslin’s Martial Arts Center in Auburn and Roseville celebrates 40 years

By: Special to Gold Country News

It may be cold on Saturday but the degrees will be high at Joslin’s Martial Arts Center annual awards banquet, where they…

This was an awesome day. The people of this community are so thankful. They remember us year after year and come out to watch us work and say hello and thank you to us. The front porches of all the houses around us were well occupied with spectators and cheering folks. Meeting Ms. Georgia was awesome. She is SO excited. She watched every bit of the days work from a neighbor's porch. I love being here!





Go check out the video! I'm going to bed :)…

For my brown belt project, I have chosen a personal challenge in the area of personal management. Having an active and curious lifestyle, I am aware of challenges with managing my thoughts and managing my time, both of which are essential to pursuing my most important goals and lifetime desires. In order to provide a formal structure to my personal management goals, Sensei Oliver referred me to “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,” a bestselling book by Stephen Covey, one of the…

  Karate-Do, My Way Of Life, by Gichin Funakoshi had some very important stories to learn from.  I loved the chapter Training For Life, Win By Losing.  He avoided fighting attackers by using his head and not his karate defenses.  He remained calm which helped to stop a fight.  He said,"Why fight if he knew he would lose."  Of course he knew he could win , but he chose not to fight.  He calmed them down by saying what he did.  They were happy…

I've been researching the recent upsurge in armed robberies in Downtown Sacramento over the past two weekends. I wanted to share what I've learned with everyone associated with our dojo.

There are some common themes in the nature of the robbery and in the chosen victims. Most, but not all, of the robberies are targeting female…

I first heard this story from Kyoshi Joslin. It is a very common Zen story and it is often told in class. There is value in emptying our cup, both in the dojo and out.

A Cup of Tea

Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era (1868-1912), received a university professor who came to inquire about Zen.

Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor’s cup full, and then kept on pouring.

The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could…

After reading Gichin Funakoshi’s autobiography “Karate-do, My Way of Life”, what I most appreciated was the rich variety of themes that this 90-year-old karate master chose to include when recounting his life.



Being part of a changing Japan through Master Funakoshi’s life must have been remarkable. Living from the Meiji Restoration period through the post World War II period in Tokyo, his life seemed to illustrate the need to accept some changes (such as the cutting of the…

This list of project ideas come from Gary Engels (of Projabi.com).

General Project Ideas

1. Gather 10 friends and record 10 random acts of kindness each (that’s 100 acts of kindness!)

2. Organize a Food Drive for your local Food Pantry

3. Volunteer Time with a few friends in a concession stand to raise money for a good cause.

4. Make a gift (group effort) for the secretary of a non-profit organization you are associated with.

5. Gather some…

In order to fulfill the community service project requirement to test for my green belt, I teamed up with the VH1 Save The Music Foundation and organized a charity fundraiser concert at Luigi’s Fun Garden (1050 20th St Sacramento).  The VH1 Save The Music Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to restoring instrumental music education in America's public schools, and raising awareness…

Hello my name is Grace Cwynar, I am a student at Zen Martial Arts. I am a green belt candidate in the Advanced Junior class and have chosen to help the children at Shriner’s Hospital for my community service project.



Often time’s children have to wait long periods of time while in the Burn Unit waiting room at Shriners Hospital. I would like to provide decorated shoe boxes filled with fun things the kids can play with while waiting.



I am collecting shoe boxes filled with…

Hello. My name is Dean Cwynar. I am a Tiny Tiger black belt candidate at Zen Martial Arts and I am hoping to make a difference in the lives of some of the mothers and children at St. John’s Shelter.

My community service project is to collect supplies to benefit women and children at St. John’s Shelter here in Sacramento. St. John’s Shelter Program for Women and Children assists families in transitioning from…

Back from Montana!  The pictures show my training space I had up north.  Definitely a different feel than the Dojo!  I'm back home in McMinnville now - the exciting news of the week is that I have two people interested in learning some Isshinryu, so I have a strong motivation to brush up on my basics!

I'm fairly happy with my training - I've starting slowing upping the reps on my situps/pushups and incorporating more "special" (triangle, finger tip) pushups into the mix.…

Training went alright this week.  I fell short of my goals, but I'm still moderately pleased with my training given the random distractions in my life.  "All Kata" refers to the four Kata I know.

6/17:

All Kata x2, 100 pushups

6/18:

All Kata x2, 100 pushups, 200 situps

6/19:

Seiuchin x2, 25 pushups, 50 situps, ~15 minutes sparring, ~20 minutes grappling

6/20:

All Kata x3, 150 pushups, 150 situps

6/21:

2.5 mile…

Nathaniel, a 7-year old karate student at Zen Martial Arts in Sacramento shares the results of his effort to collect cans of Play-Doh for the families at WEAVE Sacramento. WEAVE uses Play-Doh for play and for art therapy. You can learn more about Zen Martial Arts by visiting…