Why should we be afraid when we find ourselves saying more than we know? That must happen to us, if we are to become useful instruments. Some have written like that, some have painted like that, some have simply acted like that. Then we must understand the meaning of what has been said or written or acted through us. And so we grow and make it really our own.

– Rodney Collin

This quote seems to resonate with the way I think about ranking in the traditional arts.  Most of us rarely feel ‘ready’ for whatever the next level or rank is, however if we push through anyway we often find ourselves on a new plateau where things look different.  We then have a clearer sense of the work we must to do in order to live up to and become something more than we were before.  

Jonathan FitzGordon from CoreWalking.com has a good series of posts on the sympathetic and para-sympathetic nervous and the role they play in our lives.

The post on being stuck in the sympathetic nervous system seems to particularly relevant for many of us, and possibly more so to martial arts.

Here’s a good article from The Bulletproof Musician on the role of slow practice in music and martial arts (and really any body-mind learning endeavor).

Is Slow Practice Really Necessary?
by Dr. Noa Kageyama

Joe Adornato visited the Hakkoryu Ken-Nin Dojo for a day a training on Saturday. If you or anyone you know is interested in studying Hakkoryu Jujutsu in the Houston, Texas area, please contact Joe Adornato at the Nintai Dojo for more information.

 

The Budo Bum has written an excellent post on his blog essentially about why he trains in Budo. While much of it is personal, I find it resonates highly with me and I’m not sure I could have said it any better for myself. Definitely worth a read if you practice a traditional Japanese martial or would like to do so.

“Training, motivation, and counting practice time in decades instead of years”