Fighting Belongs in the Ring

Fighting Belongs in the Ring

By tom callos

I have been grappling (no pun intended) with the brutality of fighting in the UFC and the other MMA fighting venues. I mean, on one hand, I love it. I love the technical aspects of the fighting, the diversity and no-nonsense realism. On the other hand, I am often repelled by the violence, by the crowd’s behavior, and the spectacle of it all. I attended a UFC event in Las Vegas a couple of years ago and before and in-between the bouts they broadcast –on giant screen TV’s in the stadium –these images of a Roman gladiator preparing for and then walking into the Coliseum. I had to look around me at the other spectators and wonder if anyone else saw the irony in it.

As I understand it, the gladiator games were used by the Roman government to appease the masses –they entertained the general population and kept them distracted from the harsh realities of their own lives – while allowing the Government to do, for the most part, as it pleased. With the “war” in Iraq and all the other shenanigans of our and other governments, I couldn’t help but think about the statement that “history repeats itself.”

Until recently this love-hate relationship with the spectacle of professional MMA fighting had been going on in my head –and then BOOM, one day I just got it. I realized that the ring is exactly where fighting belongs –and that it is a million-times more civil, more dignified, more acceptable, and more just than fighting that takes place outside of the ring.

Fighting belongs in the ring, not in the streets. Fighting between two consenting adults, trained and ready, is the way fighting should go; it should never involve innocent men, women, and children. Children should not become homeless or lose members of their family because one government has a beef with another. We shouldn’t force children to run, burned and naked, from their homes –or risk being blown up by land-mines or unexploded munitions because two political bodies are fighting over the control of resources. Fighting in the ring between MMA fighters is at the top of the fighting food chain –while fat politicians sending poor kids from Michigan to fight useless battles for nothing (but in the name of “freedom”), is at the bottom.

In professional fighting you don’t have to see the mutilated bodies of innocent children, you don’t have to tend to villages blown to bits; you don’t have to worry about car bombs blowing out the eyeballs of your loved ones. No, from now on, when someone asks me if I think MMA is too brutal, too violent, I’m going to tell them that fighting in the ring is the most civilized and non-violent form of fighting and that, in fact, fighting ONLY belongs in the ring.

I’ll teach my students, from here on out, that fighting in classes, on the mat, and in the ring is noble and that it serves a purpose. It is the only way fighting should manifest itself; that is, as a game or contest. When you fight in the ring, you face yourself, your fears, your strengths and weaknesses. There are spectators who enjoy the game you have prepared yourself to play –and there is a referee to keep the game on track and to keep the contestants from being permanently injured. Both participants willingly step into the ring; they’re not conscripted or coerced to be there. They go into the fight of their own free will. When it’s over, they’ll give each other a handshake or a hug, and there won’t be anybody’s life or lifestyle ruined because these two fighters got in the ring and fought each other.

So all of you professional martial arts teachers out there –encourage your students to fight, in the ring –and never, unless for self-defense, anywhere else. The next time you watch an MMA bout or any professional fight, enjoy the fact that the two athletes in the ring are playing a game –and while they may often be young, brash, and theatrical, their contest isn’t going to kill innocent people. Their fight isn’t going to make any mothers and fathers wail in sorrow –the victims of insane politics.

Instructions for members of the UBBT and the 100

Instructions for members of the UBBT and the 100 from Tom Callos

You probably know that my work isn't about your black belt test or simply having a martial arts "association." At first glance that is what the UBBT and the 100 might appear to be. No, my/our work is about re-crafting the mission, the purpose, and the intent of the martial arts "industry" –but wait, it isn't just about that either.

The work, from a big picture perspective, is about re-crafting the role of the "martial arts teacher" in the world. It is about making the martial arts school a place where education about peace, responsibility, sustainability, environmentalism, compassion, and activism are taught, encouraged, and practiced.

This work is about taking all of the things the martial arts claims to promote –and seeing those ideas manifest themselves in all sorts of new, relevant, powerful, useful, and quantifiable ways.

All of the martial arts organizations that currently exist, like NAPMA, MAIA, EFC, The WTF, The JKA, and you-name-it, are valuable to the martial arts world. Each serves some purpose, whether it is to promote competition, distribute business resources and information, or collect tuition. The UBBT and the 100 aren't in competition with these groups, as we are (currently) operating from a completely different place.

While business, competition, collecting money, and staying informed about trends and happenings within the martial arts industry are a part –and sometimes a big part –of our work, these things don't adequately represent the soul of our work. We are here to bring peace, compassion, understanding, and awareness to the world –which, some might argue, is the potential and obligation of every man and woman on the planet.

Speaking personally, I am not a student of the man or woman driving the Porsche, wearing the Rolex, living in the mansion, dressing in Prada and Armani, and living a life focused on hording, consuming, and personal pleasure. While all of these things aren't necessarily evil, I simply do not see them as outward signs of authentic achievement and success. But I am deeply moved, impressed, and inspired by men and women who hear a higher calling; people who take action to make the world a better place, people who act like you might expect Jesus or Buddha to act, if they walked the Earth today.

The point here is that I am calling on you, Mr. and Ms. Martial Arts Teacher, to be something more than a business-person, more than a self-defense instructor, more than a competitor, and more than a teacher of the art of __________ (fill in whatever you call your method). I'm asking you to be a role model for the modern and cognizant citizen. I am asking you and expecting you (if you're drawn to the work) to:

• Teach peace education, in all of its forms, to your students and community –and to do it alongside the things you currently teach. In the future, every school will teach as much about peace and with the same thoroughness and repetition that it teaches the intricacies of its various martial arts. I would think that it shouldn't be much longer that you, the Master Teacher of your school, would be the most vocal and proactive peace education advocate in your community.

• Teach Environmental Self-Defense. I am asking you, as a very first step, to require all of your green belt testers to perform and record 5 to 10 "acts of environmental self-defense" as a part of their testing curriculum. I think you should be a living example of someone who is fully aware of his or her impact on the environment –and as proactive about reducing their impact on the planet as possible. All it requires is self-discipline and awareness, which is something your training was supposed to give you –so use it for the good of mankind.

• Engage in Project Based Leadership Training (PBLT). Leadership training in the martial arts world is all too often a sham. Schools that sell leadership courses are often lacking in any real, quantifiable program. The idea is right, but the methods are lacking, haphazard, or non-existent. PBLT is about taking what you teach on the mat and seeing it used in the real world. I expect each of you to engage and record your own projects so that we may prove their value, prove our intent, and inspire the next generation of martial artists to follow suit.

• Be a part of this movement. I expect you to engage in the team effort –despite your schedule, your obligations, your troubles, and your opinions. If YOU can't reach out and connect, if YOU can't make time, if YOU can't do what most people can't find the wherewithal to do...then WHO WILL? WHO CAN? If not YOU, who has the inner-strength, the heightened awareness, the self-discipline, the focus, and the perseverance to do it? With this message today, you have the opportunity to either demote yourself to the rank of fitness teacher/business owner/self-defense instructor, or you can promote yourself to Martial Arts Master Teacher of the 21^st Century. We have a mission, a purpose, and calling to fulfill.

Note: I may be "the leader" of this "thing" at the present time, but I expect you to share the position in the near future. I expect you to take ownership of the ideas –and to stay connected in a way (a most difficult way for most people) that puts the work and the mission above business, above petty misunderstandings, above disagreements, above style and system. If YOU can't do this, if WE can't do it –then who can?

Specifically, I expect you to contribute, to be vocal, to help your fellow teammates, to support our activities, and to DO AND BE what it is we are working on. Start with our website, YOUR journals, and our activities. If you don't participate, it' could all go way --and you can then go back to the "conventions" to find your inspiration and team.

• Eat like a champion. What you consume makes a difference in your own health and for the planet. I fully expect you to eliminate 90% (minimum) of any and all processed junk from your diet. We've accepted dietary mediocrity, for a number of reasons, for most of our lives, but the time is now to change. You must serve as a role model for a generation of people who are eating themselves sick. It is the very least I would expect from a real master.

• Forget the current accepted business model in the martial arts world –as it is today. Our potential is so much greater than what we currently see. There are SO MANY tools we could be using, so much more we could be asking for, so much more we could be adding to the requirements of our various belt levels. We do what we do in the martial arts world at the moment because it was the best we could muster under the circumstances. We had no idea what the world was to become, what problems we would be faced with, what technologies would come to light. Our teachers didn't always have a way to make us wake up to what they were thinking, learning, and experiencing –and we weren't paying attention anyway, as there are some things that almost everyone tries to tell you –but that can't be understood until you have enough experience.

We are NOT breaking tradition –we are doing the very work that those old men and women, those old masters, would be proud to see us do. When the founder of modern karate said, "The ultimate aim of karate lies not in victory or defeat, but in the perfection of the character of the participant," wasn't he talking to us? When the founder of Aikido wrote, "Peace originates with the flow of things — its heart is like the movement of the wind and waves. The Way is like the veins that circulate blood through our bodies, following the natural flow of the life force. If you are separated in the slightest from that divine essence, you are far off the path," wasn't he speaking of something outside of the dojo, outside of the ring? Of course he was.

I am asking you to BE the ultimate black belt. To redefine what it is to be a master teacher, a martial artist, and a leader. The UBBT and the 100 must be made up of people who are willing to put their martial arts training to work –to the test. ARE THE MARTIAL ARTS only about war and war-related issues, or are the martial arts about life? Is the practice of the martial arts supposed to bring about any sort of clarity –or is the UFC the highest manifestation of skill for the martial arts teacher?

I charge for these programs because this is all I do –and I must support myself and my family. But for me, this work is not my "model for financial success." My "job" is to ask a whole bunch of martial arts people to take a small part of their time, energy, and resources and put them together to win the championship of a CAREER, A LIFE, WELL LIVED. In a big way, I am simply looking around the "classroom" and asking my classmates if we can tackle "this job" (whatever "this job" is). I think "this job" is making this martial arts journey of ours, this "thing" we have dedicated our lives to –something we can be proud of. I think it is about making this all mean something, something important, something that our most esteemed heroes would look at and say, "Hey, good work there, my friend."

When I was coming up the ranks as a martial arts competitor and performer, I was all about pushing my body to its limits. Now, with 37 years of marital arts study –and being "a senior teacher" of the martial arts, I am all about expanding my potential as a teacher, a citizen, a man, a husband, a father, a part of humanity, a student of Parks of Gandhi of Schweitzer of King of Carson of Mandela of Hahn and of so many other people who have gone above and beyond the call of duty to do what it needed, what is right, what is within their/our potential.

This is what I am expecting of you, too.

You have it within you. This is our community –for support, for reminders, for help, and friendship. It's almost nothing –and yet, it is, potentially, so much.

Tom

Martial Arts and the World - a Letter from Tom Callos

Written to members of the UBBT and the 100:

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I offer you a chance to be a more active part of something that is bigger than your school, your business, your commute, your personal habits, your training, your duties, your agenda, and your schedule.

I would like to extend to you an invitation to spend a small amount of your time in joining forces with 100 + teachers around the nation (and the world) to bring some needed ideas and practices to all the students, families, and communities that we represent.

Those "needed ideas" involve a unified and cooperative effort to bring such things as PEACE EDUCATION (in any or all of its forms), ANGER MANAGEMENT, DIABETES EDUCATION, ENVIRONMENTAL SELF-DEFENSE, DIETARY SELF-DEFENSE, and PROJECT BASED LEADERSHIP TRAINING to...Oh, about a 250,000 to a million people +.

Most importantly, however, is the conscious choice and effort --and realization --that you are or could be a part of a movement in the martial arts community to bring radical change to the what, where, why, and how of the martial arts. We can, if we combine forces, accomplish a number of things we might never be able to do alone.

You could, if you look carefully, recognize that I am reaching some kind of limit in what I can accomplish as an individual --and if you know me, you might appreciate that I am, rather consistently, chasing some big and fairly elusive objectives. I need help --and I would like to help you too --by engaging you in a revolution of thinking and action among a group of people who, I think, are perfectly suited to take on something of this nature.

We would do well to find ways to contribute more consistently, to stay on track with national and international objectives, to be more unified in our approach to what it is we are, in our "spare time" working on.

Honestly, I don't want to "run a program" --I want to make change in a way that allows us to look back on what we're doing and know that we REALLY, REALLY took it to "the next level." Why? Because we could...because when everyone else sat around and debated their gross incomes, their after school programs, their taxes, their latest holiday, who won the last UFC, and their what-ever ----we were pursuing an effort to bring social change thru education and action.

I'm proposing that you become a MASTER TEACHER in a new light --under a new definition of what a Master Teacher is -and what that title means. We could commit ourselves to fitness, to health education, to environmental education, and to all sorts of other easy-to-implement ideas...we could commit ourselves to implementing -in a unified and aggressive way -programs that were indicative of our potential. We could all come together in some way -in many different ways - and work on making history in a way that represents our life's work --our love for our chosen profession. We could, in doing this, leave a legacy for the future --for everyone who ever teaches the martial arts.

What I / we need is your participation. We can't make much happen if you allow yourself to become so busy, too busy, to recognize the limited amount of time we have left --and the opportunities which are presenting themselves. Truth be told, we might have a 10 to 20 year max "window of opportunity" to do something amazing. In 10 years I will almost be 60 years old --and every adult male in my family (except one) has died before the age of 65. Some of you are already in your 50's and 60's ---so, really, why wait?

Can you get involved? Can you contribute SOMETHING, some level of energy, of participation, of dialog, of resources? Can you recognize that these projects, the UBBT and The 100 might just represent the most forward thinking, progressive non-physical-based martial arts associations in the world? Can you appreciate how we are jockeying ourselves into a position, politically, to make the martial arts industry something worth being involved in?

Or are you going to "take the ubbt" --and then disappear back into your own circle of activities?

I'm out here hoping to engage you --I'm hoping to do something that allows you to contribute on a level worth contributing on. I'm not saying your work, as it is, isn't good or valuable...but let me tell you, I'm seeing a chance for us to Nobel Peace Prize this thing ---to bring something to the world that touches people --and that speaks of all the "stuff" we'd like to believe about "martial arts masters" --but that currently doesn't really exist.

I don't want to "kick people out of this program" ---but MY GOD you men and women, what is wrong with this picture? Are you content with NAPMA and MAIA and the "business approach?" Do you have something going on that's better than what we're working on? If so, tell me! I WANT TO HELP. I am compelled to help. Or are you going to be like every other Tom, Dick, and Sally out there ---and be too busy to engage?

I really wish I could reach you. Maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree? Maybe that's why I haven't been able to engage 100 powerful and proactive masters to unite as a team and bring some sanity to this trivial pursuit of ours. Maybe people are just better left to their "own thing" and I ought to quit trying to rally troops who don't really hear the call?

It's my heroes. It's those damned heroes. I look at them and I feel like they're looking at me --and expecting me to recognize the opportunity, the responsibility. They opened some kind of door --and I think I'm supposed to follow suit, I think I'm supposed to give a shit about the world, about one person's ability to make a difference -and some kind of obligation to something noble and right and beyond the scope of that which hypnotizes the masses to do nothing but the minimum to get by --and yet justify their inactivity.

Am I supposed to feel this sense of duty -or am I just an ego-maniac? Am I really out here working because there is a genuine opportunity -or am I just an opportunist? Is Thich Nhat Hahn calling me to action? Did Martin Luther King, Gandhi, and all those other amazing human beings try to compel me and others to DO SOMETHING, or am I just way, way, way out of my league?

Should I just shut up and appreciate the fact that I am just a martial arts teacher --and run my school?

Slide Show for the Ultimate Black Belt Test

Tom Callos on Courage, The Teacher, and Martial Arts Business

I have a view on what martial arts teachers should teach; that is, what they should teach beyond the physical aspects of the martial arts.

Perhaps you share this viewpoint with me?

I think a martial arts teacher needs to teach his or her students to use courage when it is needed. On a very base level, it takes courage to stand toe-to-toe with an opponent of equal or greater skill. However, summing up the courage it takes to fight or compete in a contest is just a drop in the bucket of what courage is really needed for in today's world.

If a martial arts teacher only manages to impart the idea of courage as it relates to kicking, punching, and grappling, well...what an injustice it is to the student! It takes courage to go against the flow of popular opinion. It takes courage to try a new business venture when most fail within their first five years. It takes courage to live with integrity, to be a good parent, to be a good mate, to accept our blunders, to open our hearts to other people.

It takes courage to do what is right, when the powers-that-be disagree.

The kind of courage we practice on the mat or in the ring is the drip coming from the kitchen faucet. The kind of courage we need to be fully aware and alive in the moment, in our lives, and in the lives of those around us, is the Colorado River in spring. How shallow is the thinking of a martial arts teacher whose lessons only involve the technical aspects of fighting?

To teach courage in a way that is powerful and lasting, one must take a look at courage on a global scale; as there is courage –and then there is Rosa Parks courage, Wangari Maathai courage, Martin Luther King courage, Aung San Suu Kyi courage.

Why is it that martial arts teachers embrace the most extreme forms of hand to hand combat without much thought, yet don't approach the idea of teaching courage from a big-picture (global) perspective? I think it's simply a matter of improper focus -and inadequate influences. We become so insulated in our schools that we begin to think the mat and the ring is the world –and out of the desire to teach people the skills of the martial arts, we have forgotten how unimportant they are, unless applied, courageously, to the world outside of the dojo.

It takes courage to look at injustice –and more courage to do something about it. The courage it takes to be a warrior is wasted, if the battles aren't worth fighting. In the Ultimate Black Belt Test, each participant is required to profile 10 living heroes. The reason for this is to expose the instructor to a level of courage-in-the-world that puts the subject of what courage is in proper perspective.

My 10 Living heroes are The Dalai Lama; Thich Nhat Hahn; Wangari Maathai; Aung San Suu Kyi; Julia Hill; Muhammad Yunus; Nelson Mandela; Shirin Ebadi; Pamela Dorr; and Sarah Chayes. These are (some of) the masters of courage --like Kano, Ueshiba, and Funakoshi were the masters of their respective disciplines. When you look at courage from their perspective, you get a much better grip on what courage is –and how it might be used in the world.

The kind of courage it takes to practice and compete in the martial arts is worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $50 to $250 a month. The kind of courage it takes to make change in the world cannot be measured in dollars, but it is exactly the kind of teaching that a martial arts instructor has the opportunity to address --and, if he or she is wise enough, this is the kind of teaching that takes a martial arts school from a business --to an institution.

If you (Mr. and Ms. Martial Arts Teacher) want your lessons to hold a higher value, then get out of your school and get into the world --and then get the world to come onto your mat.

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.

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.

Self Defense for the Brain

Peace is More Important than Punches Flash Cards

This video shows a new handmade FLASH CARD series called PEACE IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN PUNCHES. It's a part of the TAKE 5 FOR EDUCATION series of products (5 minutes "POWER LESSONS" for kids --ages 6 to 60).

Take 5 for Education

The video here is a look at a new series of flash cards for teachers (martial arts or otherwise) to teach history --and to introduce role models / heroes --to kids. It's called TAKE 5 FOR EDUCATION --and it's about 5 minute "power" lessons for the end of classes.

How the UBBT Works

For Kelley, Kelly, Chan, Angelo, all Team 5 members, and to anyone interested…

You seek to be…
· Real / authentic
· Successful
· A good teacher
· A good student
· Effective
· Important
· Enlightened
· Productive
· Esteemed for your work
· Recognized for the value of what you do
· Efficient
· Wise
· A contributor
· A “Master” of your chosen profession/passion
· A mentor / role model
· Respected
· A good human being
· A smart business-person

You may relate to some of the above –and perhaps you could add a few of your own? Let’s just say that if the UBBT interests you enough to even read this, then you are a part of a group that seeks to improve, contribute, evolve, and BE / DO something different (or if not different, then at least “effective”).

I am a consultant to the martial arts industry. I have spent the last 15 years thinking about the “business” of the martial arts –and how to make it better (better for the student/customer, better for those that teach, better for the “industry”, and better for the world). I have produced seminars, reports, audio, and video on almost every aspect of the business of martial arts.

The UBBT has come out of all of my experience and ideas; it is my answer to some of the following questions:

· How do I make more money?
· How do I keep from getting burned out?
· How can I be a better teacher?
· What is a master?
· How do I effectively advertise my business?
· How do I motivate my students?
· How do I test my students?
· How do I produce better black belts?

The UBBT is not THE answer to all the questions a student, teacher, or school owner might ask –as there is no single source for all answers. The UBBT is my statement about how I believe you can make your practice, your business, and your life/motivation/mission/purpose more meaningful, more successful, and more satisfying.

The 28 tasks that make up the UBBT’s curriculum are built out of the raw material I believe a school owner/teacher should teach and promote to his or her students. If your school and/or “public offering” of martial arts lessons were a book, then the UBBT’s curriculum is what resides in-between the cover. The curriculum is the heart and soul of what you SELL. It is what has value. It is what people will pay for. It is what, in the end, lifts you above the status of “vendor” and makes what you teach, what you have spent your life studying, what you know and believe –something wise, of value, something you can give your life to –and not regret it.

The UBBT’s curriculum isn’t something you were given, something you bought, something you saw at a seminar, something you spent a weekend learning. The UBBT’s curriculum is something you live; and there is the key. You live what you teach –and by living it you become authentic, you become the student and the teacher as the same time, you reap the benefits of what you do and know, you teach by example, you learn through your own failure/success.

The UBBT is made up of things that make sense:

· You write your goals because writing your goals has power. You don’t teach your students to write their goals down by giving them long lectures; you write your own down and then show them how they work for you.

· You journal once a week NOT for yourself, but to show your students -in the here and now –what THE JOURNEY is really all about. You journal to show your students the POWER and PURPOSE of journaling. You don’t stand at the front of your class telling them about it; you DO IT –and you show your students what journaling is for.

· You document and seek to achieve 10 PERSONAL VICTORIES to show your students how you apply your training, your experience, and your wisdom to things outside of the realm of kicking and punching. You SAY to them, through your actions, that it is important to BE MORE THAN A FIGHTER or a “martial artist.” You show them the power that declaring goals, publicly, gives to the person doing it.

· You do 10 public performances to show what that kind of action does to the performer. You show your students how to improve, how to present, how to perform, and how to put “it” on the line for the sake of personal improvement and mentoring.

· You attend the UBBT’s events because you want your students to attend your events. You show them how you USE your own activities to evolve, grow, learn…

Are you getting the drift? Do you recognize that you DO what you teach? You DO what you think your students should be doing?

Things like:
· Writing down their goals
· Keeping a journal
· Mending their broken relationships
· Hanging out with people WORTH hanging out with (heroes)
· Exercising more; putting down the car keys and WALKING to see, to slow down, to experience, to put the breaks on the rush, rush, rush…
· Meditating (focusing on the now)
· Reading, seeking out wisdom
· Doing for others
· Caring for the environment
· Supporting teammates

In the UBBT you seek to LIVE the philosophy that you SELL. You say, “Here’s what I think is important –SO IMPORTANT, in fact, that I practice it. You have, effectively, turned the “talk” into action. YOU turn it into action in your own life –because you are going to ask your students to take action in their own lives…

The UBBT asks that you transcend the PACKAGING OF THE MARTIAL ARTS; that you go beyond the established “dialogue” of the martial arts business community; that you stop mindlessly repeating the sales talk that has been passed onto you from people who were trying to sell the martial arts to paying customers –but who didn’t have the resources that YOU have here, today –in the “right now.”

To make your “product” more valuable , more sellable, more appreciated, easier to “market”, better “understood” by the “general public” –then I suggest you try living it like an Olympic athlete prepares for the Olympics, like a triathlete prepares for the Ironman, like an award-winning novelist prepares his or her manuscript for a publisher.

My opinion is that if you actually LIVE the training –the philosophy –of the martial arts, if you put into action ideas that you can then help others put into action…then you are crafting a very, very valuable product/approach.

The UBBT asks you to take a heroic journey –something that makes you disconnect from the trivial, from the tabloid-culture, the media, the feeding frenzy of want, want, want and work just to supply the want. The program asks you to apply yourself at 1000 percent, so that you can talk like an expert to your students about living at 100 percent. It asks you to show your students how you can take the raw material of your life – and turn it into something magic.

· Push-ups and crunches are self-discipline
· Mending wrongs is humility and wisdom
· Reading is mind-exercise and respect for knowledge
· Walking is slowing down in a world of needless rush
· Acts of kindness is awareness and a spiritual practice
· Profiling living heroes is self-improvement
· Declaring that you won’t quit is courage

The UBBT Works by connecting you to a community of people who have grown out (or of the box, out of the history of our industry, out of the less-than-effective and/or useless rituals of MA business and advertising, out of the established “effectiveness” of what has worked, what usually works, and what’s working now . The UBBT works because it connects the participant’s growth to the student’s growth to the school’s growth –as they all co-exist. The UBBT works because it create authentic experience out of ideas. We used to sell ideas –now we sell experience.

The UBBT works because it asks its members to DO –and sometimes it’s DO THE IMPOSSIBLE. In DOING I believe the school owner and/or teacher creates a kind of “business” strategy that is impossible to beat. In DOING the teacher creates all of the raw materials of a magical, moving, authentic, experiential experience.

Beyond making a product to sell is spending time making a difference in the world. Beyond business is passion, purpose, mission, and meaning. The UBBT is built around the expansion of passion, purpose, mission, and meaning for the martial arts teacher/practitioner. The UBBT embraces the idea that there is more to the martial arts –to being a “martial artist” than is currently “celebrated” in the martial arts community.

When you join the UBBT, you seek to make this a reality –and by doing so you CREATE a better, more unique, more valuable, more relevant-to-today PRODUCT; Something really valuable to “sell.”

That’s how the UBBT works.

The Rock, The Pond, The Ripples

The ripples, those expanding circles caused by tossing a rock in a pond of water, represent something about becoming a master teacher of the martial arts.

You are the rock; your education is the pond. The point at which the rock enters the water is when you start learning and teaching –and each expanding circle represents a deeper understanding of the pond, which also represents life.

The first ripple happens at the rock’s entry point and then travels out from it. That’s what happens when you learn something; it starts within you; you immerse yourself in it, and then it moves out from you, expanding to include or affect a wider circle of people.

At first it includes people you know and interact with, but later it expands to include people you don’t know.

Beyond the people you don’t know are the people yet to be born.

POINT: At the highest level of teaching intent that I can conceive, the teacher is aware of herself, her students, and her effect on her community, the world, and the world of the future.

The Native American Indian tribe known as the Iroquois had a law that said, "In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations."

This concept, I believe, represents the awareness that a martial arts master teacher —a real, genuine, evolved master –must operates from. He or she may have started training for self-centered reasons, but as the practitioner’s consciousness and awareness expands so does an understanding of what is most important to teach, take action upon, and then leave behind.

At the center of the circle a knife hand block and a vicious counter-punch might be all that is important. The circle that has traveled a foot from the center might represent personal energy, vitality, and stamina –which, in the context of a man or woman’s life, are all key ingredients to a good life. Farther out is the practitioner’s family, and he or she prays that they are gifted with health and happiness; somewhere beyond that comes community, state, nation, world, and all future generations.

Teaching for Seven Generations
When you next walk out on the mat to teach a class, think of what you can impart that will have value for the next seven generations. At the center of your consciousness are the benefits of the physical exercise you’re giving your students. Then, expanding out from those things that directly improve their bodies, think about what they might think –to be equally healthy of mind. Then, think about what you might inspire them to take action on –and how those things might directly improve their relationships. Expand that thinking to include ideas you can teach that reach out and make the world a better place, better for people living in it today –and for those who will occupy it tomorrow.

You might see your own martial arts education in the ripples made by a rock thrown in a pond –but it is not only YOUR education that is important, it is what happens at the farthest reach of your influence that take you from being a martial arts instructor –to a Master Teacher.

Take 5 for Education a product for teachers

Martial Arts Instruction and the Key to Being More Than a Luxury or

I speculate that a lot of current and potential clients of martial
arts schools view martial arts instruction as a luxury and/or
recreational activity paid for with "disposable income."


I propose that by expanding our thinking -and teaching the martial
arts from a broader, holistic, and more, I believe, authentic and
culturally relevant place, we can position ourselves as an
essential part of our individual community's educational services
-as opposed to a recreational, thus non-essential, activity.

The way some martial arts instructors teach their lessons minimize
the value of the martial arts, of the potential for the martial
arts to be meaningful and useful, and for the value of martial arts
instruction to be compared to, oh say, the value (in dollars and
esteem) of a college education.

These teachers don't do this on purpose, as I believe that most
serious, career martial arts teachers believe in the martial arts
-and see the long-term study of the martial arts as a life
changing, life-enhancing undertaking.


Many teachers have simply "grown up" in a martial arts educational
environment that overemphasized the physical aspects of the martial
arts, without an equal emphasis on aspects of "self-defense" that
transcend the physical realm. In addition, most instructors who,
from the mid-1980's to the present, have been involved with the
prominent educational/consulting groups in the martial arts
community, have been immersed in a culture whose primary focus is
to develop athletes into managers and/or business-people. While
business skills are vital to the school owner, the intentionally
myopic focus of the industry has not encouraged, with equal
emphasis, other educational concepts that aren't technique-based or
business or money related, but are just as essential for the
industry's health and future growth.


The problem, reiterated:


Talking the Talk
Martial arts teachers minimize the perceived value of the martial
arts by not knowing how to intelligently and effectively
communicate the core and peripheral benefits derived from the study
and practice of the martial arts.


Note that I write minimize, as I believe most teachers are
imparting valuable skills to their students, but I believe that
there is a sizable gap between the results we are getting -and the
results we could get with a revised approach.


Walking the Talk
In addition, and perhaps most importantly, most teachers are far
better at kicking, punching, and grappling than they are in seeing
the non-physical (philosophical) ideas and concepts practiced on
the mat, put into action in the world.


As an example of this, I site my own training; in the 37 years I
have been a martial artist, I have received a handful of lessons,
out of thousands, from martial arts teachers, that directly
suggested (and offered concrete examples) that behavior off the mat
was as much or more about the martial arts that the training on the
mat. I don't fault my teachers for this, but I am suggesting it is
time for us to take the martial arts out of the dojo -and into the
world.


An Incomplete Definition
Generally speaking, martial arts teachers define their brand of
martial arts and/or self-defense in a way that is limiting and
archaic.


Many teachers draw far too many imaginary lines between "what is
martial arts" and "what is life."


Most teachers can describe, in great detail, the technical
intricacies of their art, but can't offer an equally detailed
description of why the study of the martial arts is an essential
component to life, versus a non-essential one.


Part of the reason for this, is that many martial arts teachers
hold an incomplete -and almost crippling -definition of the martial
arts. They hold this viewpoint about what the martial arts "are" or
"are not" because they haven't, I believe, devised a way to
transcend the boundaries of their schools and the competitive arena
and, literally, take their martial arts training into the world.


The Solution, in part, in my opinion:


Think About Self-Defense from a New Perspective
In today's world, self defense is as much about kicks, punches, and
grappling as windshield wipers are about the performance of your
automobile. Wipers are a part of your car, an essential part in a
rain or snowstorm, but they aren't "the car."


Kicks, punches, grappling, and all the other physical
manifestations of martial arts practice are useful in the right
situation, maybe even essential, but they are not -by any stretch
of the imagination "self-defense" in its entirety.


According to the famous Mayo Clinic, the top killers of adult makes
are heart disease, cancer, unintentional injuries, stroke, chronic
obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes, influenza and pneumonia,
suicide, kidney disease, and Alzheimer's disease.


Now let me clarify this: We are (the martial arts industry)
supposed to OWN the "self-defense" market (they're not claiming to
teach self-defense in public schools, dance studios, football or
baseball programs, etc.), but we're not addressing -in our
classrooms, in our writing, in our advertising -the things that
actually hurt and kill people TODAY?


What kind of "self-defense" program is that? I'll answer that
question right here:


Outdated, incomplete, and inadequate.


In addition, while the list above is actually what is killing
people in developed countries, there are other issues that hurt,
maim, and kill; take conspicuous consumption or environmental
degradation or dependence on oil (and what it does to economies and
politics in oil-producing nations) or diet, apathy, ignorance,
indifference, prejudice, and anger.


I suggest that the war we are currently engaged in has already
maimed, killed, and/or physiologically damaged more people in the
last 12 months than any kick, punch, or arm-bar has in the last 100
years.


How we go about addressing any of these issues will be have to be
tackled in other essays -but the OPPORTUNITY for martial arts
teachers to redefine "what is self-defense" and to address subjects
that are relevant to the world today, and in doing so increasing
the relevance and value of the martial arts, is undeniable. The
opportunity to provide education that improves the quality of life
for people on the planet earth -and that actually saves lives -is
here. We simply must grow up and into the idea.


When You Redefine Self Defense, You Redefine the Martial Arts,
Which Means you Redefine the Curriculum, Which Means you Redefine
the Advertising, Which Means You Redefine the VALUE of the Study of
the Martial Arts

Teach trivial pursuits -be treated as a trivial pursuit.

Teach things that are absolutely indispensable for existence, for
happiness, for peace of mind, for a world that is sustainable and
at peace and with less fear -and you acquire a new value. You
also,then, trancend the "subject matter" and teach wisdom.

The good news is that we are, I believe, not incredibly far off the
mark. It's as if we were building a house and we had all the
materials, but had them delivered to the wrong jobsite.

If any of this intrigues you -and you'd like to talk solutions and
discuss how to DO SOMETHING about making your brand of martial arts
instruction more meaningful (you would, I think, have to believe
there is "room for improvement") contact me; I am looking deeply
into the nature of martial arts instruction and self-defense.


Tom Callos; tomcallos@gmail.com; 530-903-0286.

Tom-Cast to teams, Oct. 24, 2007

The Ability to Flip The Switch

You wake up in the morning, it’s dark, you slip out of your bed and work your way towards the bathroom. Your hand follows the wall feeling for the light switch you know is there; when you feel that familiar plastic protuberance you flip it to “on” and –suddenly –the room is transformed.

Everything is illuminated.

This is exactly the same skill you must learn to apply to your black belt test –and just about anything else you plan on truly committing yourself to.

Your plan is the hand on the switch, and once you flip it, you are committed –and everything changes.

As I write this, UBBT Team 1 member Peter Johnson is on a track somewhere in San Francisco running laps. He’ll be running for the next 24 hours. As I write this, UBBT 5 Team member Andy Mandell is walking, clicking off one at a time, the 1800 miles left in his 10,300 walk around the perimeter of the United States for Diabetes education. He has been walking for five years. As I write this, Team 1 member Rob Anctil is somewhere on the Appalachian Trail. Rob is the UBBT team member who carries the distinction of having run a marathon on every continent in the world. As I write this, UBBT Master’s Video-Diary Project member Chuck Jefferson is preparing himself for another day of judo training, as Chuck is committed to taking home a medal in the next Olympic Games.

At some point, each of these athletes flipped that switch. They woke up one day committed to a goal they had set, and from that day on nothing was the same.

They were driven towards a certain destination, an achievement, a goal. After they flipped the switch, their diet, their actions, their thinking, their focus, their habits, their everything changed.

This is the switch I expect you to throw when you commit yourself to the Ultimate Black Belt Test.

When you sign on, beginning that next day (and/or the moment you “get” your commitment and the power it holds for you), nothing is the same. Your diet, your thinking, your habits, your EVERYTHING changes; you are now “in training.”

Things you might do when you flip the switch:

· Stop eating sugar and/or refined foods.
· Start meditating, seriously and with focus (get help), every day.
· Start keeping a “food diary.”
· Give away your TV.
· Walk, run, or bike your way to your workouts and/or office.
· Train, in some way, five to six days a week.
· Read, study, and associate with others who have also flipped the switch (in any and every discipline).
· Tell everyone you know (knowing that they are a huge part of the village that supports your commitment and progress) about what you’re doing –and show them you’re really doing it.

Flip the switch, as there is no more powerful metaphor for the level of commitment a champion, in any field, applies to his or her quest.

Flip the switch and recognize, feel, believe, understand, and take action upon the idea that you are a man or woman on a mission.

Master the art of flipping the switch; use it to make change on a cellular level.

Train yourself to, when you are ready, flip the switch and know in your core, as if the room had been pitch black –and in the next moment illuminated, that you have the power to flip it on command.

Flip the switch and board a ship sailing out of port. There is no return until the adventure is lived. There is no turning around until the destination is reached. There may be storms, their might be danger, their might be struggle, but you are no longer sitting in your house waiting for something to happen –you’re on a journey; an undeniable, can’t-turn-back, here-we-go journey, OH MY GOD journey.

Flip the switch, now.

“Fear of commitment is perhaps the most deadly sin of all, because it's not simply your failure to commit to yourself, your dreams, your hopes. Underlying a lack of commitment is a low self-esteem. To be successful, you have to believe that you deserve success. You have to have an image of yourself so tangible that you can reach out and touch it” --Peller Marion