My Birthday Message to the Martial Arts World

At any moment, on any given day of your life, you can look in the mirror and say, “Today, I chart a new path for myself.”

You can give up smoking or give up eating foods that don’t offer the promise of good health –or you can let go of some hate, some disempowering opinion, some grudge or sour attitude about something that is, in the big picture of life, petty, meaningless, and a ball-and-chain thwarting some aspect of the happiness you seek in life.

At any given moment you can look at someone you live with or near and say, “Beginning now, I will treat you as if you were the Lord God Herself.”
At any given moment you can look at the people you have in your immediate sphere of influence and say, “Let’s do what cannot be done. Let’s live as examples. Let’s attempt something that is, in itself, the perfect example of that which is best about being human.”

You can add to your life.

One hundred push ups and sit ups for health. One hour of training for your head and the heads of those who share the space you train in. Three purposeful acts of kindness. One act of conscious non-consumption. One act of peace towards another human being and/or the planet. Ten minutes of silent and peace-focused meditation.

At any given point this “martial arts industry” could step up and say, “Beginning today, we will represent not only the best-of-the-best in the physical arts of personal self-defense, but we will step up as protectors to the serenity of that little boy and girl, to the peace of the village, to each community we live in, and to the world itself.”

As martial artists we must be able to execute precise, dynamic, and beautifully effective techniques. We must also be able to execute precise, dynamic, and beautifully effective ideas.

We must have a solution to every physical attack that might cause us or someone we love harm ---and likewise, we must have a solution to all of the non-physical attacks that might harm us or someone / something we love and cherish.

Whether it is the punch to the face or the danger of unhealthy anger; the kick in the stomach or the fear and hatred of the unknown or different; whether it is the molestation or rape of the body or the spirit or one’s confidence or the world in which we live and depend on for survival, we can look in the mirror, on any given day, and as martial artists, vow to step up and be the change we want to see in the world.

We are so much more than can be represented by a punch or kick. What takes place in our schools is so much more than the simple act of repelling the bully. What we have the potential to do is so far beyond the name of our style, what billing service we use, our petty differences of opinion, or what can be accomplished in the ring.

In 2009, we could, if we wanted to, demonstrate something about what the martial arts are –and are not –better than any year in recorded history.

We could show how we have evolved from fearful self-defense and/or revenge to holders of the torch of self-defense for the soul –and for the wisdom of co-existence and sustainable living.

I will, for as long as my legs support me, seek to learn and practice a brutally effective form of self-defense, and I will teach those who want to learn, how to defend themselves from physical harm. Likewise, for as long as my legs support me and my thoughts remain coherent, I will seek to learn, practice, and teach a kind of thinking and action that brings about peace and happiness for myself and others.

Tom Callos

Intelligent Curriculum: A New Concept for Martial Arts Professionals

Intelligent Curriculum is the term I use to express a method about how to design one’s martial arts school curriculum in a way that supports the education the teacher is seeking to provide the student.

I see the curriculum in most martial arts schools as more of an outline than a complete work. Most schools have a curriculum that is like a novel yet to be “fleshed out.”

To be intelligent, a school’s curriculum should not be a list of techniques and requirements written in a handbook or on a sheet of paper; with modern technology a school’s curriculum should shine, it should sing out and inform, inspire, and direct.

Why do we do these particular techniques? Where does this come from? Why has this requirement changed? Is there anything I should know that’s not written specifically in the curriculum? Is there room for changes or adjustments in the curriculum if I have some challenge that keeps me from doing a particular technique? What is this supposed to look like?

I’m looking for a few schools who would like to develop an “Intelligent Curriculum” model. I am certain that this idea will revolutionize the entire martial arts world’s approach to testing curriculum and requirements. Contact me at tomcallos at g mail dot com.

A Little More On Curriculum

A martial arts school’s curriculum is meant to bring a student to a certain level of skill and competency. What that level is, in most cases, is entirely up to the Master Teacher of the school.

As the teacher grows, evolves, and ages as a martial artist and a human being, his or her curriculum changes. At some point in almost every teacher’s career, his or her classes are pedal-to-the-metal competitive training sessions where, for the most part, only the strong survive. Somewhere along the line, most teachers wake up to the fact that they are losing some of (or MANY of) the students that probably need martial arts training the most.

The smart teacher adjusts the training to fit the student. Master Teacher and martial arts legend Jhoon Rhee expressed the idea perfectly when he said, “It is better to change your students through a peaceful evolution –than it is to attempt it by violent revolution.”

It’s an intelligent teacher that knows how to teach students in a way that doesn’t chase them off –and instead brings about a peaceful evolution of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual transformation.

It’s Time to Upgrade Your Idea of the Black Belt

It’s Time to Upgrade Your Idea of the Black Belt

by Tom Callos

Last year’s model was great. It’s a classic. We’ll never build them like that again! But this year’s model takes advantage of all the technology, all the learning we’ve done, all the mistakes we’ve made, all of the road-testing and repairs, and it’s designed, specifically, to deal with the world as it is today (and my, haven’t things changed!).

Nobody has to tell you that the world is a fast changing place. I just saw a video on YouTube of an anthropologist studying YouTube, who said that in just 6 months time there was more video loaded there than all of the TV programming created since the first television program aired in the 1950’s. Wow.

In the martial arts, some things have changed, dramatically, and some have not. One of the areas that I feel has not evolved enough in the martial arts is what it takes to earn, wear, and “be” a black belt.

Just the other day I watched a class in a martial arts school that was exactly like watching a black and white rerun of a TV show I first saw in 1971. The teacher was using the exact same methods, terminology, material, and class structure that I experienced when I started my first lessons in taekowndo in 1971. Now back then I thought it was all very cool. But now, 38 years later, I recognize it as not very cool, or practical, or even very refined. It might be “old school,” but it didn’t represent a school, in my opinion, that reflects the many years of growth, development, ideas, and education that have transpired since then.

What is a black belt?

No, the question should be, “What is the potential of a black belt?” It’s not what is that needs the most attention, it is what could be –if we changed our approach, intelligently redesigned our materials and methods, and modernized our expectations for being a black belt.

How does one prepare for the black belt test? What is the curriculum? And is it all physical? Does it all take place on the mat? Do we, as teachers, have the ability to teach our students to take their martial arts “out of the dojo and into the world?” And is there a way to measure, quantify, and record this process?

I am deeply involved in the 6^th year of an experiment, a “project,” specifically designed to revolutionize the what, where, and how of black belt testing in the world. The program is called the Ultimate Black Belt Test (UBBT). It is less of a “program” fixed in stone than it is a flexible and dynamic experiment to see what happens when we dramatically change our thinking and approach to testing for –and living as –a black belt.

The UBBT is, in my opinion, less of a black belt test and more of a Master Teacher’s training course; the first of its kind in the world. It is an experiential course that requires the participant to walk the talk of his or her martial arts, but far more importantly, it requires the participant to be a better, more cognizant, participative, compassionate human being.

Here is an excerpt of an interview that I did with What is Enlightenment? magazine that defines how I think about the rank of black belt:

What Is Enlightenment: What is the Ultimate Black Belt Test?

Tom Callos: The Ultimate Black Belt Test is a hero's journey—exodus, epiphany, and return—and passing it requires a physical, mental, and spiritual transformation ... Preparing for and taking a black belt test should be like preparing for the Olympic Games: win or lose, you are shaped by it. You go for it, full out. You hold yourself to the highest standards. You step out on the line and reach for a sliver of perfection.... To me, being a black belt is more than a physical experience. Yes, a black belt should be able to execute precise, effective, beautiful, and technically proficient martial arts techniques, whatever the style. But just as importantly, a black belt should be able to execute precise and beautiful ideas, equal to or better than their physical techniques. A black belt should have an attitude equal in its brilliance to his or her physical skills. What makes a master is not physical skill alone but mental clarity, emotional maturity, and spiritual awareness.

To read more about the UBBT and/or to see a film made on the project by Academy Award Winning filmmaker Nancy Walzog, visit www.ultimateblackbelttest.com.

The 13 month + UBBT 6 has begun, cut off for enrollment is January of 2009. I’m looking for a group of black belts, serious, career-oriented martial arts practitioners, who are interested in being in a project that’s intent is to change the martial arts world –and THE world –for the better.

It's time we re-design what it is to be a black belt in today's world. The UBBT is a training program for people who want to have a say in the best way to make that happen.

Tom Callos

Can You Bring Me 100 People?

To: UBBT and 100 Folk

Re: Staff and Students and a Mission

My friends, YOUR SCHOOL is so much more than a “karate” or “taekwondo” or “kung fu” school. Your brand of martial arts is a quantum leap ahead of what the typical martial arts school used to be. And, of course, you’re not just teaching a richer brand of physical martial arts –you’re educational approach has evolved to a place where your work impacts lives deeply.

And not JUST the lives of your students, but everyone in their/your sphere of influence; If you tackle Project-Based Leadership Training (PBLT) you are making inroads, change, and improvements in your community.

Let me remind you of one of my favorite quotes from my Peace Flashcard set, Peace is More Important Than Punches:

This might be THE ESSENCE and the core of our philosophy. “Self-defense” is believing, understanding, and taking action on the idea that you CAN and DO make a difference. You are not powerless –and you are not a “victim of circumstances.”

But wait, we (UBBT and 100 folk) take this idea a step further. It’s not enough to have an empowering philosophy, ACTION on IDEAS is where it’s at. We are THE ACTION HEROES of this Century –and every student who comes into our domain is empowered with the ability to turn all these wonderful notions, ideas, and slogans into ACTION IN THEIR LIVES –and of course, since it’s NOT always about YOU –in the WORLD.

Our training is then, in essence, ACTION-HERO Training.

There will be a day, if I have my way, when a martial arts school is synonymous with community service, with mobilizing its students for projects that burn with the talk we talk so well. The education you provide your students will have everything our teachers taught us, like a concrete foundation, and from there we will build a structure on top of that full of rich experience and modern, functional, centered beliefs. You see, this is self-defense for today.

How YOU Can Help This Work, RIGHT NOW:

We need people--special people. We need more of the kind of people who see their martial arts journey as something more than memorizing 12 forms, a couple of dozen one-steps, and some self-defense.

I’m looking for people to join the UBBT, the UBBT Student Program, and the UBBT for Kids, who are willing to try new ideas –to take action in their lives and in their schools and in their communities.

I’m looking for people who would be willing to eat healthier –and not just for themselves, but to serve as role models for as many people as we can possibly reach through our collective work (millions?).

What if we had a website that was FAT with hundreds of people each working on themselves in extraordinary ways? Imagine the power of 100 young people exploring healthy eating –while working on their martial arts. Could those 100 inspire a 1000 others? Could we get this “school” of people living in different cities all over the world to create something –like a school without borders –that changed the world for the better (at the very least the “martial arts world?”). We could! And guess what, it’s never been done! We could do it!

When I started studying the martial arts in 1971, we (the martial arts community) met in magazines and tournaments. In the 1980’s we met through an audio cassette tape sent out by EFC and thru conventions, seminars, and tournaments. Then we met through a box and DVD’s. Today we meet here on the internet –and it’s rich and content heavy and in an instant messages and ideas and results are transmitted to groups of people who come together for, well ---good reasons.

Even this lecture I’m giving you now, which at one time might have been an outline for a full presentation at a convention, is delivered to you in the comfort of your own home or office.

I’m looking for 100 people to Join us in the Next 30 Days

I’m looking for UBBT members, I’m looking for YOU to bring in special people to the UBBT Student Program ($75 a month), and I’m looking for kids with a interest in joining a national experiment in martial arts activism to join the UBBT for KIDS ($9.95 a month).

Now what I’ll give your students who become a part of these programs, is...

· A consistent daily, weekly, and monthly education in human potential through the martial arts. We’ll expose them to thinking that supports YOUR work –and we will talk about the richness of the martial arts, about mission, about change, about being centered, compassionate, aware, and conscious.

· I will talk with them about the power of what they are doing when they step onto your mat.

· I will engage them in the Alabama Project (and invite them to attend). I will talk to them about fitness, about acts of kindness, about PBLT, about Intelligent Curriculum, about helping you, and about the mission YOU are on to make your path to mastery a rich and daily spiritual practice.

· I will talk to them about the kind of history we are trying to make (and you know what, we could make history. We could change the entire western world’s view of what the martial arts are about –beyond the ring, beyond the mat).

· I will encourage them to stay your student –to practice with awareness, and to help you in your mission to make a difference in your community.

· I will bring resources to the table, videos, books, ideas, authors, heroes, and concepts you don’t’ have the time to dig up. Your students will come to YOU with ideas –and they’ll feel like they’re a part of something big, something extraordinary.

What you’d have here is the first real, authentic, functional MARTIAL ARTS ASSOCIATION. You are, in essence, hiring me as a staff member –and my job is to INSPIRE. I inspire student and teachers to see their martial arts as a deep, important, life-enhancing practice. My job is to boost your sales by boosting your presence in your community.

Can you help? Can you bring me students you know would blossom in this kind of environment? Do you have members you’d like to groom for this kind of activism and activities? Any future leaders out there who might benefit from the relationships they would make in our group?

Bring ‘em on!

This year I’d like to move forward in the world with the power of 100 people committed to crafting a new mission in the martial arts world. 100 people doing acts of kindness, 100 people reading, training, talking, and exploring diabetes education, anger management, PBLT, and so on.

I can HELP YOU be a better teacher –and it won’t cost you a penny.

Can you help the UBBT grow to a place where we are recognized as the most amazing martial arts group in the world? Will WE have a chance to speak at TED (www.ted.com)?

HELP! Let’s Grow! Let’s see what 100 highly motivated, pro-active people bring to our table.

Tom Callos

A Call to Associations

A Call to Every Martial
Arts Association in the World

To: Every Supply Company, Every Consulting Firm, Every Billing Service, Every Magazine, Every Association of Every Style and who have Come Together for Every Reason under the Martial Arts Sun

For a Moment, Put Profit Aside
Money's a darn fine thing. It buys stuff. I value it as much as the next person. I think a portion of everyone's day, of their life, should be focused –like a laser beam –on making enough of it to make ends meet (and then some).

However, with that being said, for the reminder of this short request, I'm putting the making a profit part of the money thing aside. I'm not denying it makes "the world go around," I'm not suggesting it isn't important, I'm simply addressing that which has little or nothing to do with making money to show a profit.

Martial Arts Associations - Groups I'm Asking You To Consider the Following

Martial arts associations, whether you have 10 members or 10,000, I'm asking you to recognize your power. You have the power to reach your members –and, quite possibly, to mobilize them. You have the power (albeit sometimes a lot less than you would like), to influence people, to educate them, and to inspire them to DO SOMETHING.

Now, most of the time, you're trying to get them to buy stuff or pay dues, which is good. But there's something else you could get them to do –and it's that something else that could play a significant role in a better image for the martial arts, for the kind of attention we want, and to prove that the arts are really what we say they are (something special).

Let's Start with Something Very Simple.

Imagine this: If you had 500 members (or 167 members, each with two "significant others"), and each of those 500 people did 10 acts of kindness for 5 other people, you would have impacted 2500 people and be directly responsible for 250,000 acts of kindness.
What human being wouldn't appreciate a little more kindness in his or her life? Simple, yet it is something that we have never done –and something, I think, indicative of the values we promote.

Let's take it to another place:

Imagine if one of the billing services in our industry created a program that allowed students to voluntarily donate an extra $.10 to a dollar every month over and above their tuition. With a $.25 donation, 10,000 students could accumulate $60,000 in 24 months. Now imagine we gave that money to Oprah and let her gift it to the most worthwhile activist on her long list of people working on amazing and world-changing projects. How exciting would that be?
Think about what we could do with four or five times that much.

Century, NAPMA, EFC, APS, UFC, the WTF –everyone, everyone! What profits would be lost in utilizing the simple idea of combining forces to do something absolutely extraordinary? Something so stunning, so solid, so enlightened, that the good from it could light the face of a million martial artists --and possibly, a million martial artists to be.

It's not about profit, it's about the opportunity. It's about the martial arts and what is not fighting. It is about a lot of people doing very, very little –to show how much can be done. I'd like to see a half-dozen of the most prominent business owners in the martial arts world use their influence to do something amazing.

I'll bet you if these men and women led the movement, a whole lot of teachers and students would step in to help.

Why not? Why not in our lifetime? Is Oprah the only one who has the chutzpah to step up and take ultra-positive action in the world? We could do it –and a million "karate kids" could own a piece of it.

Note: Of course, in no way do I mean disrespect to any martial arts group; I simply dream of what we could do if we put down our company names, set aside our styles, groups, and differences, and just did something completely unexpected.

Tom Callos

Interview with Author Dan Millman about the Martial Arts

Click this banner to listen to an interview with author and martial artist Dan Millman (Way of the Peaceful Warrior) conducted by Tom Callos, May 1, 2008.

To Mom and Dad: Your Child and the Martial Arts

A letter to parents –from an old martial art

teacher –about martial arts lessons and children.

I’m going on 50 years old, which really isn’t that old, but to talk to you about what a child, your child, stands to learn from taking martial arts lessons, it’s old enough. I took my first lesson at the age of 9, received my first degree black belt at 19, and this year I will celebrate my 30^th year of teaching and assistant teaching the martial arts.

I’m going to condense my experience into a few hundred words for you; the goal is to give you the 30-year perspective on what I have learned as a result of my training –and what I know your child will learn, should you decide to make the martial arts a part of his or her life.

In some ways, martial arts schools are all the same. Each school is going to be contained in some kind of space, like a shopping mall, a free-standing building, a room in a gym, in an office building, a garage, or maybe on a stretch of lawn in a park or in someone’s backyard. What makes a martial school great is not the space it is in, although as parents we want the school to be clean and safe; what makes or breaks a martial arts school is the people that fill that space.

Here lies the primary reason to enroll –and then keep –your child in martial arts lessons, from the moment they first meet the age requirements of a school, until they leave your nest: The people.

The teachers (and students) in a martial arts school become leaders, heroes, role models, and friends to your child; and while martial arts teachers, like every kind of teacher, have their various strengths and weaknesses, their influence and friendship is worth every penny you will ever spend on tuition, times 10.

I remember my teachers, I remember the senior students in my classes, I remember my classmates and the students who joined after me. I remember when I was 12-years-old and a red belt student, a man in his mid 20’s, told me, nonchalantly, that “practice was the key to being a great martial artist –or a great anything.” I can hear his voice as if he told me that yesterday –and the advice has shaped my life. My father probably told me the same thing a 1000 times, but who listens to their parents –until much later in life?

A martial arts teacher is a real man or woman; they’re not heroes fabricated by the entertainment industry. These are real people that will be there, in their classes, day after day, patient, persistent, and persuasive. Their message is about consistent effort, about perseverance, about focus and goals and defense and self-control. Even teachers who can’t speak English can, with an uncanny ability delivered through their coaching, translate values and powerful, life-changing ideas to their students.

The kind of education a good martial arts teacher provides a young person is different from anything they will learn in grade school, from parents, or from football, soccer, or gymnastics coaches. The magic that forms in the long term relationship between a martial arts teacher and his or her students makes them an incredibly valuable, but all too often unacknowledged, part of “the village” that can help raise your child to be confident, self-disciplined, resilient, and resourceful.

Literally thousands of adults have told me, long after they stopped practicing the martial arts, what a powerful and positive influence their martial arts teacher was, and still is, in their life. I concur. Even the teachers that I came to think were inadequate, when I look back, I realize were a gift.

I owe them all a huge debt of gratitude for helping me develop respect for my self and others, for helping me build by body, develop my coping skills, and for the confidence their constant attention and direction gave me. It took me a long time to understand the value of their friendship, but oh, now, I so completely get it. What a blessing! I would hope that every child would have the chance to interact with teachers like I had, men and women who coached and fixed and taught and laughed and yelled and, as I now understand, loved.

The second most valuable reason to have your child studying the martial arts, any style, any method, is the philosophy that goes with the training. Every style, every teacher of any skill, has something positive to teach your child. Some, of course, do it much better than others, but whether they know it or not, they are imparting wisdom of the most extraordinary kind –and at a time in a child’s life that they really need it.

I can still hear my teacher’s words:

“Eyes straight ahead! Focus!”

“It’s ok to be afraid, just don’t let it stop you from moving and trying!”

“What are the two qualities of a champion?” We would answer, shouting, “Attention to detail and follow through, sir!”

“Real bravery isn’t found in fighting! It’s found in not fighting!”

“Attention! Pay your respect!”

Pay your respect, indeed.

Mom, Dad, every lesson is important and it’s worth every penny, every minute you spend convincing your son or daughter that going to class that day is better than watching TV; it’s worth every bump, bruise, stubbed toe, and every tear.

The good times, the victories, the understanding of the value of finally breaking through a barrier, the friendships, the little kids, the teenagers, the parents, and the old folks –it’s so good, so very worthwhile, and so needed in today’s world, that I had to write you about it. I had to encourage you –and try to give you the big-picture perspective on the martial arts. If you can swing it, get your child into a martial arts school and keep them there, even when they don’t recognize the value of what they’re doing.

They will, someday.

About the Author

Tom Callos is a consultant to martial arts instructors, currently helping teachers to work environmentalism, anger management, kindness and leadership training into their schools. His websites are http://www.tomcallos.com/ and http://www.ultimateblackbelttest.com/. He may be reached by phone (PST) at 530-903-0286 and/or by e-mail at tomcallos@gmail.com.

Video and Speaking of Faith Interview with Tom Callos

Out of the Dojo from Speaking of Faith on Vimeo.

Stream-of-Consciousness Teaching for the Matial Arts School Owner

Martial Arts School Business Advice –Coming at You From the Future, From Left Field, and Made of Things You Will, Most Likely, NEVER Read About in a Martial Arts Business Publication

Stream-of-Consciousness Teaching By Tom Callos

First things first:

Value. BUILD VALUE. Sell value.

Benefits. BUILD BENEFITS. Sell benefits.

Perceived value and actual value; perceived benefits and actual benefits.

Build them, sell them.

Concepts:

• Make a tool; find out tool serves more purposes, has more value that originally perceived. Tool with many uses is valuable.

• Teach self-defense; discover that people are hurt and/or killed by a LOT of other things besides round kicks and back-fists; learn what these things are –and integrate them into your curriculum.

• Abandon the pursuit of business, become a martial artist committed to enlightenment and service; suddenly realize that this IS the business –and that you now have something (more)valuable to sell that serves you (spiritually) serves your students, serves the community, and serves the world. Realize that’s why you came here in the first place.

OK, with all of that out of the way, I am here to talk to you about your business –and what it’s going to be like in the future.

First off, recognize that our business is life-coaching, not teaching self-defense/exercise.

Exercise is self-defense from ill health. A healthy diet is self-defense from food-related health issues –and the food we consume has a direct effect on the planet, so consciousness about food production and what it does to the world is a form of global self-defense (like it or not, your consumption has a ripple effect far beyond your dinner table).

Practicing meditation is a form of perspective self-defense. Developing a positive and healthy perspective about things like defeat, food, consumerism, relationships, competition, death, impermanence, detachment, and compassion (the short-short list) is mental self-defense. Mental self-defense is the ability to use your mind to create understanding, happiness, health, connection and compassion as opposed to pain, suffering, jealousy, envy, lust, addiction, and hate (another short list).

Community involvement is self-defense from selfishness, narcissism, disconnection, and isolation. Practicing forgiveness and compassion is a form of spiritual self-defense. Spiritual self-defense is the ability to understand, feel, and put to use the idea that we are all of the same family, that we are all more connected than we are disconnected, and that there is nothing more important than love, kindness, compassion for others, and non-violent solutions to our problems. Spiritual self-defense is the idea that we would behave the way, now, that we would if our maker, our God, our _______ (name the person, place, thing, or idea that you would do and be your absolute best for) were here –and watching us.

Now, let me reiterate:

Recognize that our business is life-coaching, not teaching self-defense/exercise, not teaching a complicated skill-set of maneuvers and movements designed to prepare us for hand-to-hand combat. It is not found in the selling of belt programs, of contracts, and of retail gear. Our business is not about simply building self-confidence –we are in the business of LIFE and COACHING and COMMUNITY and UNDERSTANDING.

Now, understand this:

The purpose of your training is to be an example of the benefits derived from the study and practice of the martial arts. This is the best thing you can do for your school, for your students, for your community, and for the world. Getting your own poop together –makes it a LOT easier to help others get theirs together too. And on the other side of that note that helping other people get their stuff together is part of the way you get your own stuff together.

It’s a real give and take, isn’t it? That’s a good thing.

About Your Business

You’re only going to teach people to expand their skills to the place where you have expanded your own. You might fake some of that for awhile, but it won’t fool people for very long. The plan is to expand your own skills, your own awareness, your own level of compassion, understanding, your own sense of humanity, your own wisdom, your own centeredness, your own sense of community connectedness, your own inner-Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed, or _________ (name your favorite spiritual person, place, or thing here).

Do this and you have something of real, deep, meaningful value. You can then give something to your students that they take with them into their life, something wise, something needed, something that will serve them and protect them better than any technique.

Let me break, here –to make a point:

Which of the following things cause more pain and suffering in the world?

Jabs and right crosses or emotional isolation?

Arm bars or anger?

Side and/or round kicks or unhealthy diets?

Foot sweeps and take-downs or bigotry?

Wrist locks or ignorance?

Knife hand strikes or greed?

Knee attacks or depression?

Our business is the business of making the world a better, safer, more compassionate place. We should go about it methodically, our first step being the introduction of a kind of practice, a physical/mental/emotional/spiritual exercise that helps us battle the ego, helps us see more clearly, helps us deal with the fear, helps us to find our center.

This work is harder than learning a kata, harder to do than mastering a technique, more challenging than running a successful business, but more fulfilling than just about anything else in the world.

A Request and/or Suggestion

I’d like to ask something of you. Consider it a request and/or a suggestion:

• I’d like to ask you to ask more of yourself, this year, than you have in the last 10.

• I’d like to ask you to renew your study –with a new perspective and a new idea of what you/we are here to do.

• I’d like to ask you to re-craft your school’s mission statement, your curriculum, your goals, purpose, and intent to reflect a new understanding of your purpose here.

• I’d like to ask you find a group of spiritually evolved people, not necessarily in your neighborhood, who you respect enough/so much, that when they speak, you will listen.

• I would like to ask you to look very carefully, very deeply at who you’re hanging out with.

• I’d like to ask you to step out of the current methods and intend of martial arts school management advice –and see if there isn’t something bigger, more valuable, and more relevant to today’s world just waiting there for you to embrace it.

I don’t know how to plot your course, exactly, from this place –but I do believe that this is the best work, the best contemplation, the best beginning for your school, your career, your business, your students, and the world.

Tom Callos

Expectations of Your Involvement in the Ultimate Black Belt Test

Expectations of Your Involvement in the Ultimate Black Belt Test

Toss a rock in a still pond and watch the ripples of the impact fan out from the center. This is how I see your involvement in the UBBT. At the center are your own personal achievements; at the outside is the effect you have on the entire “pond.”

First

Your commitment to the UBBT, which is your commitment to your personal test, should first be a physical one:

• Alter your diet by eliminating junk and paying very close attention to what you consume (conscious consumption).
• Increase your cardio training, in whatever form suits you.
• Increase your strength training, in whatever form suits you.
• Practice your martial arts to the point of mastering those skills you’ve decided to focus on for this period of time.

You need to lean out, muscle up, and get rid of that belly. You should come to your final test looking like you’re in the best shape of your life. If you intend to test for rank, this is an absolute must.

Your form should be a masterpiece; as an example:

Here are some Japanese form masterpieces: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mU2hqaaK8AA

Here’s an example of a Wu Shu masterpiece:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZ7oDlXq9BM

Your martial arts skills should show that you prepared yourself with hundreds of hours of practice for your performance.

Second

You are expected to treat your UBBT team exactly the way you would want your own black belts to treat their own teammates. Do it in a way that shows your students exactly how it’s supposed to be done.

Third

Craft your story in journal and video. While you are a student, always, you are also a teacher, always. Your documentation and test-diaries should explain and illustrate the ABC’s of test preparation –to the best of your abilities. After your test is over, you’re students should be able to review your journals and learn from them, they should model your approach to testing. If you are not doing this test to teach others how a test is to be done, they you have missed a significant opportunity.

Fourth

Your test must engage other people; your students –and your community. At some point, you should realize that your test isn’t all about you, only. In the “ultimate” test, many other people would be affected by your commitment, inspired by your actions, and involved in their own self-improvement because of your efforts.

Fifth

Your 13 month test should add up to be something more significant that a test of your physical endurance. You need to look for a WOW that can be initiated during your year. That WOW can take almost any shape, but it something indicative of understanding of the expanding role of the martial arts teacher –in the world.

In Closing

The UBBT isn’t just a black belt test, it’s a movement to improve the quality of education provided by martial arts schools around the world. Your test must set an example for the industry, you must, at whatever level you happen to be at, understand each layer of the project –and commit yourself to excellence, even in failure.

Tom

Interview with Tom Callos for Martialinfo.com about the Ultimate Black Belt Test, The100., and a New Vision for Martial Arts Teachers

Conducted by phone, April 22, 2008 by Fariborz Azhakh of www.martialinfo.com

Martialinfo: Would you provide us with a little of your background?

Tom Callos: Martial arts wise, I was 6-years old when I saw the first episode of The Green Hornet (1966) featuring Bruce Lee as Kato, 9-years-old when I watched my first judo class (the instructor would invite me on the mat after the adults-only classes and show me how to roll and fall), and 11-years old when I first joined a school. That was 1971.

I received my black belt in taekwondo in 1979, and moved to San Jose, CA to join Master Ernie Reyes’ school in 1980. I opened my first school in 1981 and in 1991 I was overseeing two schools, 10 miles apart with a total active enrollment (at their peak) of about 800 students. Due to my success at the schools, I was invited to join Educational Funding Company’s Board of Directors, which is when I started becoming a teacher and consultant to the martial arts industry. Since then I have worked with most of the key companies in the martial arts industry. In 2003 I created the Ultimate Black Belt Test and in the following year I started working on my own martial arts association, The 100.

Martialinfo: Explain the Ultimate Black Belt Test.

Tom Callos: The UBBT is a complete redesign of the testing process. It expands the purpose of a test, it expands the nature of training for a test, and it investigates and redefines the objectives for all rank testing in the first place. The UBBT is designed to be the most challenging and authentic black belt test in the world, but it was also designed to improve the martial arts industry.

Martialinfo: How does the UBBT improve the industry?

Tom Callos: A friend of mine, John Bielenberg, is a well known teacher and innovator in the graphic design world. One of his primary slogans is Think Wrong, which spells out his viewpoint about conventional approaches to design, creativity, and problem solving.

The UBBT helps the industry by thinking wrong about what activities make the martial artist smarter, better equipped to cope with self-defense issues beyond the obvious physical ones, about the best ways to show and tell the general public the benefits of the martial arts, and about what role a martial arts teacher is supposed to play in the world.

You see, I believe in the power of the individual to make a difference in the world. My heroes are people like Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Ali, and just about any person who has taken action for others, for a cause, on the side of right. I believe that a martial arts teacher is supposed to teach, educate, and empower his or her students to fight the big battles, to tackle issues that might scare others, issues that relate to personal protection, protection of family and community, and even of the planet.

The problem is most martial arts schools don’t know how to integrate these ideas into their curriculum. They don’t understand, yet, how to take their martial arts out of their schools –and put it to work in the world. There will be a giant shift in the industry, a huge upgrade in the perceived value of martial arts training, and a monumental change in what a martial arts teacher does in the world when school owners and teachers finally get the scope and intent of this new kind of martial arts educational mission.

Martialinfo: Does the UBBT’s curriculum contain the ingredients for this new mission you describe?

Tom Callos: It does, in part. There are requirements in the UBBT’s curriculum that might force a teacher to step out of his or her comfort zone. The curriculum requires the participant to get off the mat and into the community. It asks people to learn meditation, to get outdoors, to help others, to mend relationships, and to learn new things.

But there is something the curriculum doesn’t contain that is a vital part of the work. That missing ingredient is my belief that martial arts teachers should be extraordinary people –and I mean extraordinary in the image of people like Mandela, Armstrong, Julia Butterfly Hill, Gore, Dita Sari, and Wangari Mattai.

I mean, if a martial arts teacher and/or veteran practitioner doesn’t have the courage, the perseverance, the self-discipline, and the fortitude to tackle issues relevant to people’s health and well being, then who does? If a martial arts master teacher doesn’t know how to make his or her work more meaningful, more effective, more relevant to the world today, then what’s all this training for?

Do kicking, punching, and throwing contain all the value of the martial arts? Or is there something beyond the physical? And if there is something else, then is it meant only for individual benefit, or can it be applied to the world?

My job is to do for the role of martial arts teacher what Ernie Reyes and the West Coast Demo Team did for the martial arts competition world, what Dana White and his colleagues did for mixed martial arts fighting. I think martial arts teachers are in the perfect position to be leaders in a new global view of self-defense, a view that looks at the big picture, and a view that transcends the current definition of ‘what are the martial arts for.’

The UBBT and the 100. are both parts of a community that nurtures and encourages instructors to expand their curriculum, to step out of their schools, and to embrace a kind of thinking that may be new to the martial arts, but that is common among the most self-actualized, cognizant, proactive citizens of the world.

Martialinfo: What is The 100.?

Tom Callos: The 100. is my martial arts association and it was inspired by Rosa Parks. Rosa was a 43 year old African-American seamstress who took action at the right time and place and as a result, helped make history. I started The 100. with the idea that 100 martial arts teachers, I mean people who have spent their entire lives forging themselves to be warriors and teachers, ought to be able to equal the power of one Rosa Parks. Couldn’t we create the right time and place? Couldn’t we see injustice and do something about it? The 100. is an association about martial arts business for people who believe it is our business to make a difference beyond the ring and outside of the dojo.

Martialinfo: So the UBBT is about testing and The 100. is a about activism?

Tom Callos: All my work points to the same place. It’s all about walking the talk of the potential of martial arts training. It’s all about a kind of martial arts teacher that is a hero to others, a living example of martial arts principals put into action.

Martialinfo: Do you have members who are examples of your ideas?

Tom Callos: Mike and Karen Valentine of San Rafael, CA have the first officially Green Certified school in the nation and they have the first ever ocean-based cleanup requirements for black belt testing. What this tells the general public is ‘See, we’re not just fighters, we’re warriors for a better, healthier world too.’ Tim Rosenelli of Pennsylvania is now using his degree in environmental engineering in his martial arts school and it’s bringing him students he would never have met otherwise. Dan and Kim Rominski, Alicia Kastner, Bryan Klein, and Charles Chi, all of New Jersey, are running acts of kindness programs that are making community leaders stop, look, and listen to the martial art in a way that had never happened before. Brian Williams of Nevada has started the One Million Acts foundation where he’s working on getting people all around the nation involved in performing one million acts of kindness. UBBT member Andy Mandell is on the last 1000 miles of a 10,000 mile walk around the perimeter of the U.S. for diabetes education.

What’s happening is that the UBBT and The 100.are expanding the role of the martial arts teacher in the world. We’re practicing a new kind of martial arts that isn’t just physical, but that transcends the subject matter.

Martialinfo: So, someone we know recently called you a “Tree-hugger.” Are you?

Tom Callos: (laughs) No, I’m much more than that, there’s just not a name for it yet. I’m a martial arts teacher that believes in the power of the martial arts to make change. I believe that the fear I faced and defeated on the mat and in the ring was meant to be applied to other things. I believe in martial arts mastery –and I think it’s my job to carry on the work my martial arts teachers, people like GM Jhoon Rhee and Master Ernie Reyes, Sr., have been doing. I think I’m supposed to add to the martial arts world, not just exist in it.

Master Reyes was always fearless in the way he attacked competition and our demo team performances. I think he was showing us what could be done if you focused. I think he meant to empower his students with a belief that we should ‘go for the WOW.’ With the examples of my teachers and heroes, how could I shoot for anything other than something powerful, meaningful, and important?

Martialinfo.com: Are you still accepting people in the UBBT and the 100?

Tom Callos: Any time, any place. My only requirement is courage and the understanding that we are here to do something unbelievable, something most people can’t even get their head around. I’m looking for people who are tired of the status quo and who are willing to try new things to see what happens.

Martialinfo.com: Thank you for taking the time to talk.

Tom Callos: It is my honor to be here and to have an audience for these concepts.

Tom Callos may be reached at tomcallos@gmail.com. The UBBT’s address is www.ultimateblackbelttest.com, The 100’s is www.theonehundred.org.

Watch for a recorded interview with Tom Callos to be aired soon on the NPR radio program Speaking of Faith at www.speakingoffaith.org.

A Sense of Vision and The UBBT and 100

UBBT and the 100

My Vision for What We’re Doing –for What You Are Involved In

When I think about our work (and “our work” is our involvement in a brand/style of thinking and action which involves a re-design, a change, in what our long-term objectives are –what our intent is –as martial artists, teachers, and citizens of the world), I think about the collective efforts of everyone involved. I think about 150 push-ups a day adding up to be 52,000+ in a year –and how that idea also applies to the small daily efforts of each person on our teams as well each person we are influencing as a result of our efforts.

I think about how all these small things have the potential to add up to something significant.

When I think about what we are doing, I think about Rosa Parks –which always makes me think of the power that one person can have in the world by taking the right action at the right time; how that person needn’t be famous or powerful or connected or anything but committed to doing what is right.

When I think about the UBBT and the 100, I know they are “programs,” I know they are ”products,” and “services,” but for me, perhaps to my detriment, I see them more as groups of committed activists working on something big –something important and healthy and historic. I may be “the leader” or “the owner” of these programs –but from my perspective I am encouraging each participant to take ownership of the mission...just about the way a good martial arts teacher would like his or her own students to take ownership of the “mission” of his or her own school (which might be called “your life’s work”). The tuition members pay is simply the cost of supporting the work.

I would like it, very much, if my work became a catalyst for you to do your work, better –and that the real lessons I sought to teach were:

1. Self-defense is more about thinking and action, than it is about blocking, weapons, and techniques.

2. A martial arts master teacher is a citizen of the world in the mold of Rosa Parks of Gandhi of Martin Luther King of Thich Nhat Hahn of people transcending the trivial to do for others –and to stand up for what is right and healing and important. Why not?

3. That the martial arts have very little value –if we do not move beyond the physical-ness of it, if we do not take the practice “out of the dojo and into the world.”

4. That the real “business” of the martial arts is the business of living more simply, out of respect for others and for our world’s finite resources, it is about teaching people that real self-defense is the ability to take action to right things that are wrong (Like Jhoon Rhee’s motto “might for right” –and without the need to hurt or kill others in the name of right), it’s about seeing the training go so far down the line that it transcends the sport of it, the exercise of it –that it takes it right to the core of what it means to be a human being in search of connection with something much, much bigger than AT&T, Microsoft, GM, Mercedes, Macy’s, and RJ Reynolds, Co.

I’m sure there are a couple of other things too, but the point is:

You’re not a businessperson teaching “karate” in a strip mall somewhere in America. You’re something much more than that, much more even than a father or mother or son and daughter. I see the UBBT and the 100 as symbols for the way things ought to be –the way things in the martial arts world should strive to be, and that is what happens after the enrollments, after the cleaning and the taxes and all the necessities of our work. These programs are about what we REALLY believe and what we really intend to DO in the world.

I want to be able to point to each and every one of you –and tell the story of the work you do in the world –and how you use your connection to these ideas to do extraordinary work, small work –and big work. Somewhere in one of your schools is a Rosa Parks –and perhaps you will be lucky enough to be a part of his or her education –maybe you will be one of the reasons this person becomes a person of action. Our world needs some more folks like that.

When I think of the UBBT and the 100, I think about the power of working together to experiment and try new things and to share our time together going after the grand. I think how together, all of us, doing our little things –have the potential to do something amazing.

I think about martial arts schools that really, honestly, provide a kind of education that lives up to the concept of mastery that is often attributed to “martial arts masters.” I think of how, in history, we might be viewed as pioneers in an educational movement that made a shift in the world –thru all of these martial arts schools teaching all of these young, willing, excited, people.

There are many groups in the martial arts community dedicated to helping your business. Good! --and my vision for the work we are doing is beyond the business --it's about the soul, about mission, about the kind of action-in-the-world that would have you standing on the same platform as those really brave folks, our heroes, who put themselves on the line for what must be done in the world.

Peace. Conscious consumption. Simplicity. Compassion. Awareness. Family ---these are the self-defense lessons of the martial arts taught by teachers who took what they practiced on the mat and applied it to life. This is what we're trying to "get" --and to put into action in our own lives -and in our schools/communities. This is what we want our students to talk about --when someday they talk about what they learned from us.
Tom Callos

A message to the UBBT Teams

To Students, Participants, Friends, Alumni, and Fans of the Ultimate Black Belt Test,

I don’t know if you know this or not, but you are helping me craft an all new approach, a revolutionary approach, to black belt testing, rank tests, training –and the “martial arts” in general. Through your actions and commitment to your goals –you are shaping a new kind of meaning for the rank of “black belt.”

Through our work, parents are going to look at the martial arts in a different way –a better way –and so will the media; so will teachers, school administrators, politicians, students, and anyone else who finds value in transforming, value in giving, value in working on peace, activism, environmentalism, and all of the things that we are saying are a part of this process.

All the things we are working on –and doing –in this process.

You are a part of something much bigger than your own black belt test –something bigger than your own training. So many of our experiments here, in the UBBT, are new ideas, ideas that have not previously been executed the way we are doing them. When you apply yourself to the UBBT, you are bringing something very valuable to the martial arts –and to the world.

Long after this program is gone –what you’re doing here will still be an influence in the martial arts world. And if I can convince you to take it all very seriously –to apply yourself to your training like you are going to the Olympics –like it’s everything to you (things like empathy training, eating like a champion, performing and recording acts of kindness, reading, walking 1000 miles, participating in Alabama, etc.), then you will make this all so much more powerful, so much more effective and meaningful and influential.

Treat your time here as if you were aware that you are a pioneer; that you aware that you are influencing and/or will influence scores of other people. Document what you are learning, what you experience –not just for your own growth and record, but for every little boy and girl, for every young man, for every person over 30 looking for authenticity –and looking to the UBBT for inspiration. Do it for everyone who will study the martial arts in the future --and experience empathy training, who will keep a journal of their year-long "test", who will learn and then teach peace education, who will perform acts of kindness, and environmental clean up projects, who will forgive their enemies --and who will do all these things in the pursuit of the coveted rank of "black belt."

Be a champion –regardless of your age, your ability, your background, and your obstacles. Understand too, that you are not being “acted upon” in this program –no, you are laying the foundation for the program. You are actively involved in making it happen –you are growing the UBBT.

Tell me of a test –a martial arts test, where you might have the opportunity to change the martial arts world for the better? Have you been in one? Have you seen a test like that before? Perhaps you have –but either way, if you’re in the program now, then appreciate that you are making history.

I know that to be true.

Thank you. I’m glad to be here with you –even if you’re not up to speed yet, the fact that you have arrived here is a sign that we are making progress.

Tom

Ultimate Black Belt Test Team Message

Good morning,

Let's talk business
The new strategy for 2008 is to get each of your students, even if only in the smallest way, to take their martial arts "out of the dojo -and into the world." What if, this year, each of your students took on a little community activism project –based on something they had an interest in? What if some of them banded together to help each other? What if people who were not your students got involved and/or heard about it? Even better, what if people heard about what you were up to –and were MOVED by it?

What if you decided that you were going to get proactive and "black belt creative" this year (starting now) about promoting your business and your services in unique, innovative, and emotionally powerful ways?!

That's the plan. It's all about PROMOTION, CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT, EDUCATION, and BEING A MENTOR/LEADER. It's NOT "buying an ad" –it's LIVING the talk. It's seeing if you can use your powers to inspire people to take action; action that shapes, action that teaches, action that creates CHANGE.

What will happen as a result?

You will TEACH people to USE THEIR POWER (too). You will reach out to people who care about your community and it's people. You will also accomplish several things at once –and your school will take on a new USP –and you will have things to talk about and sell that nobody else has.

Step # 1 is to create a PROJECT PORTFOLIO for your school –and document every project no matter the size, no matter the outcome.

Look to our new website to create an association-wide Project Portfolio —but don't wait, start now. The goal is to take each project and use it to write the book of black belt action, empowerment, activity, and outcome.

No more "this is what we can do" bullshit...it's time for THIS IS WHAT WE DO. Prove it.



Let's talk projects
Anger Management is, I think, "the thing" you should be jumping on –like yesterday. After you take the course at www.angercoachonline.com, the program's not going to fill your school like magic –you're going to have to WORK at using it....but let me tell you, there is magic in the subject, in its power, it's its potential –and you need to learn how to talk the talk, now.

Diabetes Education and the Acts of Kindess Program are your e-tickets to SELF-DEFENSE education for the HERE AND NOW. Can you get to every school-age (6 to 18) child in your town with a message about their health and diabetes? Do you have the wherewithal to use our connection with Andy Mandell and www.defeatdiabetes.com to get your black belt on and help prevent young people in your town from getting this insidious disease?

You might have to learn about diabetes first –but again, let me tell you, this could help you meet and get involved with all sorts of people that could benefit your school in a "get new students" sort of way.

This tool isn't going to come to you in a fricken box –so you're going to have to get on the stick a little and WORK IT. But you've never, ever had access to better resources to do that –than you have now.

ALABAMA. That's all I should have to do --is mention the name of the upcoming UBBT/100 event --and my phone should be ringing off the hook with offers for help. THis is the martial arts anti-convention convention. This is everything we hoped the martial arts would be about -but haven't seen become reality. It's 4 months away -and I need your help to make it happen --and I need you to be there, in force, ready to learn and share and grow.


Let's talk your head
I don't what your obstacle is. I don't know what your excuses are. I don't know what demons you have on your back.

What I do know is that you can do better. I do know that you would do very well to change your behaviors –to the kind that empower you to be who you want to be. I do know that you have joined a community that is working to MAKE A DIFFERENCE –and that if you can get yourself our of your normal routine, out of your comfort zone, out of your excuse-zone, you will become an integral part of a MOVEMENT in the martial arts world –and in the world itself, for something different –and better for the soul.

Get your power on. Hang out with better thinkers. Hang out with those that are DOING. Hang out with people working for others. Throw off the constrains of "keeping up with the Joneses" –throw off the need to feed your endless wants –and start living in a spiritual world.

As a MASTER TEACHER, this is your path. You aren't here to teach technical skills alone –you're here to inspire and make the world a better, safer, more compassionate place.

Just because you don't read about this in martial arts magazines --and just because "business associations" aren't talking about spirituality you YOU transcending the status quo ---doesn't mean it isn't important --or that it isn't time to grow up.

Let's talk journals

Besides the site getting hacked and photos not being up in any sort of timely way –what's your JOURNAL problem? Is it "hard to do?" Sorry. Are you feeling disconnected? Double sorry.

I understand –and now I have to tell you that this is THE ULTIMATE BLACK BELT TEST. And the UBBT is YOU –performing in an uncommon and remarkable way. It's you PROVING that the martial arts isn't a bunch of talk and fabrication. Studying the martial arts really does develop self-discipline, right? Black belts really have special powers, right? It isn't all show and tell, right? There is "a way," is there not?

You are a leader and a teacher, correct? You are pledged to "live as an example," yes?

Well, I'm sorry this is difficult –but the more difficult it is, the harder is for you to cope, the more challenging the obstacles, the CLOSER we get to something that helps us actually grow and evolve.

Let it BE hard! Bring it on! Come on -is that all you've got?!!! Get on your journals and journal like you're a genius -like you're a leader and a teacher -like you're a man or woman on a mission -like you're driven by unseen forces -like you eat the UBBT for breakfast.

One year –just one stinking year.

TO ANYONE and EVERYONE reading this message: LOOK to this program to see what martial artists really are -or are not! Let this stand as a banner to what "master teachers" and "black belt instructors" are capable of –what they are like under their uniforms. Watch them display the self-discipline they claim they can inspire in their students. Watch the UBBT to see if it's all so much talk –or if the martial arts are really what we so often claim they are.

Watch me make it hard for these teachers and black belts. Watch me create conflict and hardship to "test" them. Watch how they come together -or fade away...Watch all of this and it will reveal what they can actually teach their students. Collectively we will show you, now –right here and now, what the martial arts really truly are.