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Is Aikido a Martial Art ? Part Two
Part Two. Choreography Aikidoists are often accused of practicing " Choreographed Aikido" and to be honest I must admit that these claims are very often justified, with Uke (attacker) preparing to break fall long before he makes his attack, and...
Kick Your Body Into 2nd Gear -- In 3 Easy Steps
When it comes to life in general, 90% of us feel the need to loose weight or change the way we look in some way. Once we’ve undertaken our fitness quest for weight loss or hypertrophy, usually after the first week or two we find that the energy...
Targeting Your Balance For Better Workouts
Did you know that beefing up your current exercise routine with balance challenges can make every activity easier?
And incorporating your "core" is much easier than you think!
Targeting Your Balance
For Better Workouts
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The Aikido Biography of Sensei Henry Ellis 5th dan
The Biography of Sensei Henry Ellis 5th dan Henry Ellis and Derek Eastman - 2000 Henry Ellis was born May 3rd 1936 in a tough coal mining town in the County of Yorkshire, North of England. This was pre-war Britain, and growing up as a child...
The History of Kali and Escrima
Filipino Kali is the martial art of stick fighting. Hard, bamboo sticks are used for defense and to attack. They have made this particular fighting style into a unique and deadly martial art form.
Kali Practitioners are first taught weapons...
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The Plight of Industrialized Man
Living in the Pacific Northwest is a challenge for any body: the poor excuse for weather west of the Cascades is one of the worst on earth for human health. Luckily our Ch'uan Fa Club meets in central Oregon several times a week, rarely missing an opportunity to train outdoors .
I'm not speaking here of a prepared arena of asphalt or even grass. I mean we use/find/even search out poor footing surfaces, including ice, deep snow, pebbles, desert sand, and forest floor.
Admittedly, it's a challenge to get new students to be involved with a teacher who trains his school outside regularly in the woods and desert, and even on mountain tops. (I never have more than 10 guys—seldom any women—who are tough enough to dare to be different.)
But it's my experience that once the cultivated, civilized martial artist gets exposed long enough to the exhilarating benefits of fresh air, wildlife and trees, his deeper roots take hold. Most of my students now find it difficult—even unpleasant—to go back to the enclosed, stuffy conditions of "normal" training halls. It's not that tough to understand why, as most of us came from peasant stock a very few generations ago, putting our reliance on modern life-style within the realm of the absurdly tenuous—not to mention degenerative.
It may not be chic or socially advantageous to admit your recent connections to Earth rhythms, but it could save your life. For a man to deny his biological heritage is a fatal error. Never mind that the industrialized world is going to hell in a mechanized hand-basket (and taking the rest of the earth's humans with them): you can marshal your piercing powers of striking to the heart of the matter by coming to terms with your natural place in this biosphere.
It is a common musing among older teachers to speak of the great "immortals" of bygone eras in martial arts. We've all heard the stories and wished we could approach the skill levels of the great ones. I think we're sliding over important points that get buried in the telling. The First Principle to successful
training is to "Eat Bitter Every Day." If you don't know what that means, you may be incorrigibly industrialized and your male principle de-germinated by urban life-style. You well know that the dominating principle of modern life is to promote comfort and convenience. You tell me how such an attitude can possibly create excellence of skills and evolution of spirit.
Why have the bulk of the great men retreated to natural environment and even harsh circumstance, with only the basics of survival to sustain them, while they cultivated excellence? The answer to this question brings us to the integration of the First Principle with the Second: "Nature shows the Way." Correct me if I am misguided, but I can't seem to recall advice from any culture in synch with its environment that directs us to "come downtown" for wisdom and health.
When a human extricates himself from the rhythms of the Earth he becomes a foreigner in his own house. The strident make-up of the modern life-style has left most of us without the means of carrying forward the natural abilities and skills we inherited as a creature of natural rhythms.
The Zen Tao Ch'uan Fa group recently met with me for a training session that lasted 3 ½ hours. That wasn't too radical in itself (we've met over 2 ½ days before, isolated in the woods), but toss in the heavy snowstorm that swirled around us, and you get the idea. Actually, maybe you don't: we've found that it's difficult to impart to observers the changes in self-regard, the increase in focus and intent, and more importantly, the appreciation of just being outside.
About the Author
Edward Orem has 40 years experience in integral mind-body training systems, and holds the following titles: Certified Instructor, Guang Ping Yang T'ai-Chi Assn; 6th Degree Black Sash in Chinese Boxing; 8th Degree Black Belt in Zen Kempo-jitsu, as well as a PhD in Holistic Health. Dr. Orem is the author of several manuals, and has produced 50 training videos. In 1990 Sifu Orem founded Chuan Fa Kempo International, http://kempochuanfa.com.
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