Inspiration: My Karate teacher - a Lifetime of Practice

Hanchi Robert Bowles; my Karate teacher - and probably my greatest life influence- working kata and bunkai this year. He has over fifty years of practice; and moves and looks the way he did over 30 years ago. What an inspiration!

I truly am blessed.

Tournaments?

I was talking to Sempai the other day and the subject of Karate tournaments came up. A lot of my training days were spent participating in various events, and she was wondering why we don't do a lot of participating these days.

To answer this question I think I first have to tell you why I participated in competition in the first place. Ever since I was 15 years old I always wanted to teach Martial Arts. Competition just didn't appeal to me; in fact I think it's fare to say I'm basically not a competitive person at heart. But since I did want to teach I always thought that by winning various events I'd have the credibility to represent my art and my Sensei as a teacher. (This was mistaken thinking - see my footnote.)

Thinking that I had to accomplish something in order to be a great teacher was really a mistake. While it's true that I wouldn't trade anything for the lessons learned through competing, the reality is none of that was necessary to be a good teacher. All that was and is required is a genuine love for the students you are blessed with; it's that love that makes people of all ages learn - it's also that ability to see the greatness in them that makes them see it in themselves. Behind every Master is someone who knew they would become a Master - someone who believed in them; and that's what all great coaches and teachers have in common.

One coach screams like Bobby Knight, another is soft spoken like Tony Dungey, but no matter what STYLE of coaching, the consistency is they care about their people and see their greatness.

But as for open tournaments, I do NOT recommend open tournaments to our students today. (We do host our own internal dojo events that I DO recommend HIGHLY.) The reason I do not recommend tournaments in the open circuit to most students has to do with the philosophy and atmosphere that we've created at our dojo. The culture of our dojo is a carefully designed ingredient to helping students learn. We have a certain way of treating each other, a certain way that we believe rank should be considered and respected but not lauded, a way we believe that higher ranks should conduct themselves. We also believe that winning is secondary to representing self and art with etiquette and dignity.

We believe that you could spend a lifetime on one segment of one art. We believe that the variety of technique is far less important than one technique performed with excellence. We believe in being flexible and open to change, but change for change sake or out of boredom is a mental and attitudinal problem that can never be fixed with a new technique, form or weapon.

The problem I have with open tournaments is that new - and often unaware - students are exposed to a clash in culture that is not representative of what we believe the Martial Arts are and should be. Sadly they sometimes can bring some of these less than positive attitudes back onto our mats and have a less than positive impact on our culture. Sometimes this can lead to the student getting sidetracked, and losing sight of what matters the most, and losing their way in their own practice.

I realize it may sound self serving to say this, but it's from the heart. I believe we've created something really special in our dojo. We've created something that shouldn't be special because it's the atmosphere that the Martial Arts was designed around; but unfortunately today it IS really special. It's my conviction that open tournaments are seldom helpful in creating a better dojo and better Martial Artists.

Do you still have the urge, just gotta know what it's like? Here is my challenge to you then: spend one year training in our dojo HARD. (no off one week on another) Train hard and fully submerge yourself in the class, the philosophy, and learn to meditate and do it daily. If you've given the dojo one year, then go and watch your first tournament and I bet you you will not be comfortable there. You will feel something is missing, something very important in the practice of the Martial Arts and you will understand my viewpoint.

Is there a place for competition in the Martial Arts world? I believe there is a place for few, and I mean very few, who might be looking for MMA experience to use that experience as sort of a test - a personal rank test - of what it's like to face their fears and challenges head on, and try one of these events. But that is the exception and not the rule, and generally an MMA event is not viewed as a "Martial Arts" event; it's generally viewed as a "sporting" event. Consequently our team members actually have a better chance at influencing the culture of the event rather than the other way around. - I've seen this happen with my own eyes!

Bottom line; train, train harder, meditate and understand the philosophy behind what we do, and don't let anything side track you on your way to becoming the Martial Artist that our ancestors would be proud of.

Just my thoughts today.

This weeks talk: Listen to Me!

I got myself fired up when I gave this talk so I hope it does the same for you!

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“mindpower” is Joseph Hurtsellers podcast. It’s a weekly shot of motivation and inspiration. Joseph Hurtsellers (Sensei Hurtsellers) - as his students call him, is a 30 year veteran of the Martial Arts field. Joe uses his experiences both on and off the mats to create a talk each week that is designed to help you get more of the things you want and less of the things you don't. While many of Joe's talks will help those practicing Martial Arts, these talks are designed for EVERYONE that might be looking for techniques, stories and thoughts designed to inspire, and live a more joyful life.

"Massive thanks go to some of the great influences of these talks: Esther Hicks and teachings of Abraham, Wayne Dyer, Steven Covey, Tony Robbins, and Sifu Robert Brown. A great deal of thanks also go to the students at the Martial Arts Center (www.ohiomartialarts.com) for their constant support and enthusiasm that has made this work possible." - Joe Hurtsellers

It's Up To You - latest talk

What if you could control the way you feel? What if you could learn to practice your way into being happy? What would life be like if no outside force could cause you to feel fear, anger, or resentment?

To find out more, enjoy this weeks talk by pressing the play button below:

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How the world of audio just got a little better.

If you don't listen to internet radio there is a new service that might make you join in.

If you do listen – this new service will make you fall in love with radio all over again!

This post is an exception to the rule of my posts. Rather than being inspirational I just want to share something I found that I really, really, like. As many of you know I love tech - and when I see something that makes my jaw drop it's in my nature to share it.

The other day I found a fairly new web site called RadioWeave. This site is pretty revolutionary, so much so that I think it could be the very beginning of something very big across the internet. Imagine being there at the beginning of Facebook or Twitter. I believe that RadioWeave has the might have that same kind potential.

Remember the days when in the car the radio was king? The traditional approach was you pressed your preset buttons that were based on the kind of station you wanted to hear. You didn't have to download anything, mess with any settings, you'd just get in and listen. If you didn't like what was playing you just pushed the next preset (or maybe later just changed the preset all together). That radio model worked incredibly well for decades - to tell the truth sometimes I still miss it. (This is probably the reason that people still subscribe to Satellite radio - you just tune to a station you like, but if something comes on you don't want to hear you just press a button.)

But, the world has changed so much since the days of the radio. There are literally hundreds of thousands of places you can get audio content over the internet – and music is only a fraction of the content available. These stations are really each individual shows that cover the broadest subjects (like CNN, ABC News or NPR) – down to the most specific subjects - you name the topic and somewhere there is an internet radio show hosted by enthusiasts on the subject. (I host a weekly show on the specific subject of using your mind to create a better life that I call "mindpower" as one of many such examples.)

Now imagine what it would be like if you could get in your car, or go on a run, or head to the gym, and simply press a button that was a loop of all of your favorite stations all kept track of for you and updated as soon as new content was published. If you are listening to one show and get bored you just tap a button to move to the next one, and all of your shows – and the individual places you've left off are all kept in perfect order for you and played as an indivdual track ranging as long as 6 minutes to shorter broadcasts such as quick weather, or stock updates. Radioweave is sort of like an eight-track player that is continuously organizing and playing the tracks of your life. (Sorry to those of you too young to know what an eight-track is.)

But there is even more – because RadioWeave also links to your Facebook and Twitter accounts. What this means is that as part of your running loop the service READS OUT LOUD recent Facebook and Twitter posts. I'm not kidding and I”m not making this up, IT READS THEM OUT LOUD!

I think the reason RadioWeave is so powerful is it matches the way most of us naturally go about our day. Rarely do I have a large block of time to listen to my shows; usually I'm moving from one place to another, doing yard work, working out ect. So what ends up happening is I end up with small blocks of time to listen throughout the day. RadioWeave keeps me updated on what's going on around me, but it let's me skim everything I find interesting and find the real gems in the audio world that I would otherwise miss.

Bottom line is this: I can tell you personally that almost as soon as I signed up with RadioWeave it immediately began to change the way I listen to content and I'm absolutely in love with this service!

Wait you say – what does it cost?

That's the best part of all – it's FREE! ..... Don't we live in some amazing times?

Here is a video from the company – when I watched it I was it's 64^th view on YouTube – so really folks we are on the absolute cutting edge of this new technology. If you love podcasts like I do – or think you might if there were an easier way - then check them out.

I have only two warnings: So far RadioWeave has a highly developed Iphone app, it's stable and works great, but the Android app is still in Alpha so it's not in the regular market - (Mine seems to work OK - still a little buggy but passable!). Secondly, RadioWeave is new - and they don't seem to have Wall street money behind them yet; they are a small group of people working on this project in their spare time - so if everything doesn't work perfectly just remember they are doing their best. I consider it the price I willingly pay for being on the absolute cutting edge and being able to do something no one else can. If you keep those things in mind; and like audio like I do, I think you're going to become a fan.

Free Hugs!

The story behind the video:

One day, while Juan Mann was getting off an airplane he noticed all of the friends and families of travelers waiting to hug their loved ones. He thought it would be sad if someone didn't have someone waiting for them to give them a hug, so he started this project.

For over an hour he waited - then finally - the older lady in the video took him up on his offer. She told him earlier that day she had lost her best friend - her dog - and his hug had meant a lot.

Still later others started joining the project but local authorities tried to stop it. Juan was told he needed 10,000 signatures in order to continue - watch the video to see what happens.

To date this video has been seen over 67,000,0000 times; and Jaun has sparked a movement that has been repeated countless times all over the world.

My New Talk: The Tightrope Artist

Today's talk is all about faith; enjoy.

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About "mindpower":

“mindpower” is Joseph Hurtsellers podcast. It’s a weekly shot of motivation and inspiration. Joseph Hurtsellers (Sensei Hurtsellers) - as his students call him, is a 30 year veteran of the Martial Arts field. Joe uses his experiences both on and off the mats to create a talk each week that is designed to help you get more of the things you want and less of the things you don't. While many of Joe's talks will help those practicing Martial Arts, these talks are designed for EVERYONE that might be looking for techniques, stories and thoughts designed to inspire, and live a more joyful life.

"Massive thanks go to some of the great influences of these talks: Esther Hicks and teachings of Abraham, Wayne Dyer, Steven Covey, Tony Robbins, and Sifu Robert Brown. A great deal of thanks also go to the students at the Martial Arts Center (www.ohiomartialarts.com) for their constant support and enthusiasm that has made this work possible." - Joe Hurtsellers