I think a good teacher does what a good leader does: provides purpose, direction, and motivation.

Jeff Cook

Jorvik, I was speaking specifically about physical fitness, not body-hardening. Also, the fat people I am referring to are the ones we ALL have met in the dojo many, many times - not elite athletes like sumo wrestlers. Chances are the fat, low BMI Westerner is not going to be one of those elite athl...

Most people who argue against conditioning, or say it is a waste of time, are the ones who are too lazy to work out themselves, and are embarrassed about their lack of conditioning and have a poor self-image. In short, they are rationalizing their own shortcomings.

Jeff Cook

Ooops! Sorry about that! Here is the link: http://www.aikiweb.hit.bg/kaz_tanahashi_sen.htm

You've got some great points. I noticed in the interview O'Sensei only ranked him to shodan.

Jeff Cook

He's 74. Here's an aikido-specific interview with him. I can't find anywhere where he is referred to as "master," except as a calligrapher.

Thanks for bringing this up as a topic, Jorvik. I never heard of him until you did.

Jeff Cook

Great article! Reminds me of a personal event. My very first student, and one of my best friends, was attacked about a year ago in an attempted mugging. She was walking across a parking lot; a vehicle rolled up, the passenger (a very large man) jumped out and blind-sided her. She avoided his punch, ...

Fascinating videos! Question for you: Your topic title seems to question him being a master. Is he? I know nothing about him.

Jeff Cook

As a follow-up to the original article, she apparently didn't do "quite a bit of damage." His wounds were superficial; he was treated and released within a few hours. Sounds like her choice of weapons was sub-optimal as well, but still somewhat effective: a pair of scissors and a "kit...

Thanks Mike; good chatting with you here. The kanji are from the link in my post above - I just copied and pasted from the link. I have no idea if they are correct; I only know a few characters. Let me know how your training with the USJA guys goes! By the way, if you ever play stand-up with a BJJ g...

Mike, good to hear from you! You have an impressive background. I forgot to mention I am *mostly* a classical jujitsu guy too - and a karate guy - and a certified Modern Army Combatives Program instructor (still active duty). But I started with Judo, back in '79. Getting old brother. (Not boasting, ...

With all respect gents, this is totally incorrect on all counts. I am a USJA judo sandan, and a purple belt in BJJ (among other things) - been studying it for about ten years. I have ring experience with both. Very rarely in judo will you see a player during shiai execute ukemi. It helps make the ot...

Even Geesink Sensei understood that you honor your defeated opponent by not taking it easy on him. He did the right thing by squashing the after-win celebration, but he still took it to his opponent with no leniency. I agree; the way the tree-hugging press and handout-entitled liberals view this who...

maxwell ainley wrote:Jeff one reason why I posted the Budda enlightenment was historically that was the first in the enlightenment records ,all the methods coming down to us come from that original way .

The Jnanayogis of Hinduism would disagree with that statement.

Jeff Cook

Max, thanks for the reply. I apologize, but I am not sure I know what you mean here: Well thank you very much for the interest .This is why I thought the idea of [before the experience /enlightenment / and after experience . I have a HUGE headache today, so am not thinking as good as I could. Are yo...

It's because what was there has always BEEN there, but finally realized. Everyone is a Buddha.

What "brand" of Zen do you study? The Ten Oxherding Pictures come to mind when I read your above post.

Jeff Cook