Meet This Teacher of The Martial Arts Not

To my Dear Friends in the Martial Arts Industry / World (from Tom Callos):

I am writing you this letter to introduce you to one of my teachers, Thich Nhat Hahn.

You may listen to a radio interview with Thay (“Teacher” in Vietnamese) by following this link:

CLICK HERE FOR RADIO INTERVIEW WITH Thich Nhat Hahn

Thay isn’t wise because he’s a Zen monk or a Buddhist or a revered figure or a historical icon, he’s wise because he so eloquently and precisely talks the talk and walks the walk of the absolute opposite of violence.

He knows how to talk about peace and compassion and finding one’s center in a way that is so clear, perfect, and enlightened that if you listen carefully, you will instantly absorb some of his wisdom.

It’s the kind of wisdom, I think, martial arts teachers should know and have (study) as well as they know how to block punches and kicks. It’s the kind of wisdom that popular fiction (take the TV series KUNG FU for example) often connects to martial arts “masters,” but that you and I both know isn’t taught at martial arts conventions or in the magazines or well, almost anywhere in the “martial arts industry” (and that’s a shame, as the world could use a lot more wisdom and a lot less “martial.”).

I’m not selling you something here –I’m just telling you that the first time I heard Thich Nhat Hahn was like the first time I saw a Bruce Lee movie. It was like the first time I saw Royce win the UFC. On all three occasions, I instantly became a better martial artist –moved and inspired by the obvious mastery of these individuals.

In our world (the martial arts world), we’re so completely inundated with the calls to “get our gross up” and to be a “martial arts millionaire” and with all the hoopla from the UFC and MMA, with all the association-based political neck squeezing, and with every other business guru trying to tell us (and sell us) on the latest business strategy –well, I find Thich Nhat Hahn’s dialogue a much needed break from all this trivial financial ego-focused voodoo.

In the end, I think Thich Nhat Hahn is the Bruce Lee of common sense and usable wisdom for the martial arts teacher. I hope you’ll take the time to listen to something I think is monumentally important to our industry –and the world.

Tom Callos

The Nobel Peace Prize

To the Members and Friends of KAMA, From Tom Callos, Following the Los Angeles Convention:

I have to tell you I enjoyed myself this last weekend, spending time with KAMA members and sharing ideas. As often happens at seminars, we hear all kinds of good things, but soon after forget about them as "life" once again steps heavily on the gas pedal.

For that reason, allow me, if you will, to remind you about some of what we discussed –and offer a couple of "follow-up" suggestions:

Anger Management Training

Go to www.angercoachonline.com and click on the training program for martial arts teachers. It's a brand new program –and I want to convince you that is represents the highest level of intelligent, benefit-driven education in the martial arts world. This isn't some slick strategy for increasing your gross income, this is wisdom and tradition wrapped in education. Let's OWN anger management training in our respective communities. Let's arm children with the tools they need to make the world, truly, "a better and more peaceful place." Dr. Tony has agreed to extend the KAMA event discount to Friday of this coming week. Call me if you need help registering –or if you would like to discuss any sort of strategy for using anger control training to your advantage.

The Ultimate Black Belt Test

The UBBT is the future of black belt testing –of all testing. Ask yourself this: Is your black belt test the ultimate? If not, what would make it so? And why would you not do something that made your testing, your training, your martial arts better, more relevant (to the world as it is today), and more important?

Are you restricted because of tradition? Are you afraid that change will make the end product less powerful? Less important?

Are you in a "comfort zone" of testing and training methods?

Whether you choose to engage in this grand experiment or not, it is time to reevaluate, re-design, and re-engineer the what, why, how, who, and when of black belt testing. The world needs help –and we can provide it. Call me if you want to talk about how to make your martial arts transcend the current status quo. Tom Callos 530-903-0286.

The Kukiwon and Taekwondo in General

To the Grandmasters and Masters who attended the event, I would like your help in securing a meeting with those people in the governing body of Taekwondo who would be willing to open a discussion about how we might collectively craft a new and/or altered mission for Taekwondo in the world.

Taekwondo put its sights on the Olympic Games –and succeeded in making it happen. Could Taekwondo also secure a Nobel Peace Prize for its work in the world? Could the millions of followers of this art take action in a way that could make the world a better and more peaceful place?

There is a literal Taekwondo army out there in the world; could the leadership of Taekwondo use this army for something amazing, something spectacular? Could we accomplish a billion recorded acts of kindness in 12 months? Could we implement a peace education program and reach a million youth? Could we take Taekwondo out of the dojang and into the world in a way that no sports activity, no martial art has ever done before?

If it is within our "realm of possibilities" --then why not?

We inspire people all over this planet to do millions and millions of techniques –every day/week/month/year. Could we also ask them for something else? What if we took on environmental education, diabetes, dietary self-defense, peace education, and/or anger management? With technology as it is today, how hard would it be to talk to and convince Taekwondo practitioners worldwide to put their training into action for the world?

Could KAMA start this movement?

If you are politically connected in a way that can offer ANY help in this matter –if you can help facilitate a discussion and/or meeting about the possibility of Taekwondo being connected to a new kind of world strategy, please don't hesitate to contact me; this is just the kind of project I would like to invest my energy in.

Thank you again for the privilege of being able to share time and ideas with you!

Your friend,

Tom Callos

Martial Arts Philosphy and Our TRAINING

I just wrote a note to someone about...well, “life.” Specifically, I wrote about a current situation, debating the pros and cons about how to proceed in a certain matter, and I wrote the phrase:

“If I fall back on my training...”

That made me take pause –as I had to consider what “my training” had been.

And that made me think of the book Dune, the science fiction novel by Frank Herbert. In Dune, many of the characters had, from early in their lives, received specialized training, which gave them tools that they used to get what they want, to pursue their various missions, and to cope with whatever life threw their way.

“If I fall back on my training...”

Like the characters in Dune, I’ve been “in training” since the age of 11 –and that training, if we look at it from a certain perspective, was aimed to give me certain skills.

Now the question is: What were those skills supposed to be –and what were they supposed to do for me? Were there certain powers I was supposed to be developing? Was the training for a purpose beyond being able to kick and punch? Beyond fighting? Beyond the development of the obvious physical skills?

These questions lead me to what I am today, what I do, and what our potential is as teachers of the martial arts.

What, for that matter, are the martial arts for? And what is the end result we, collectively, desire out of the work we do with our students? What ideology are we imparting? Do we have a collective “mission?”

“If I fall back on my training...”

Looking back, I think much of my training was haphazard; and if not haphazard, then it was simply –and probably unintentionally –trivialized.

Does a teacher teach his or her student how to read books for the purpose of reading books? Or is to unlock the ideas contained in them?

Likewise, do we, as martial arts teachers, teach the techniques of the martial arts just so that our students can execute technique? Or do we teach what we teach to help our students learn something else hidden within the practice?

Does the physical practice, does the time we spend together, does all the history and strategies and philosophy serve some other purpose than the obvious physical aspects of the martial arts?

How well-defined is our mission? Do we have one?

Now forget the past. All of these questions lead me, lead us, to what we are doing right now.

How big is our vision?

And tell me, Mr. and Ms. Martial Arts Teacher, what kind of training are you, right now, imparting to the next generation?

When, 30 years from now, one of your students writes the phrase, “When I fall back on my training,” what training will they be thinking of?

Will you have taught them the power of action? The power of education? Of the spoken and written word? The power of perseverance? The power of teamwork? The power of self-discipline of compassion of simplicity of open-mindedness –and the power of love? Or will you have taught them a bunch of exercises?

All of the above speaks of the work you and I are doing today.

We are educators –and so what is the education we are imparting?

My martial arts, that is, the “training” my students may some day “fall back on,” is about developing oneself as a fully engaged, compassionate, cognizant, participative, human being.

The physical training is for fitness –and to train the mind for bigger things. If we are training “warriors,” then it’s up to us to recognize the “war” we are preparing to fight. In my mind the war is not hand-to-hand combat, it is the battle to evolve mentally and spiritually in the model of those men and women in history who have done just that. It is to follow in the footsteps of ________ (list your most spiritually evolved heroes here).

If, indeed, we are someday held accountable; if indeed we are meant to learn something while we hold this form; then the training we give, get, and fall back on should, ideally, prepare us for that purpose.

This is how I am designing my curriculum. This is the intent I have as I prepare my lessons, as I interact with my students, with their parents, with my community, and with the world.

This is my sense of mission.

This is what makes me look for new lessons, for teachers, and for material for my classes. This is what I think about when I call my class to attention –it’s the mission behind all the movement.

This is our " business."

Now you know the motivation behind the UBBT and The 100 and Six Tasks and The Acts of Kindness Program and Take 5 for Education and Alabama and just about everything I do.

If someday you look back on the time (any time) we spent together, involved in any way, you might consider that the purpose behind whatever it is we did was to further “our training.” The training we “fall back upon” when we need it.