Personal Safety and Self-Defense Classes

Staying safe in a sometimes unsafe world: that will be the main topic and goal of a series of personal safety and self-defense classes we are starting for girls and young women in our community.

There is a lot of false information circulating on the internet about self-defense and safety. We want to make sure that girls and young women are fully prepared, that they will be able to determine what poses a real danger to them, and that they will be capable of protecting themselves.

On Tuesday, August 16, from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm, we will be holding a personal safety class for high school and college age young women. We will be covering a wide variety of topics about dangers and issues that participants of the class might be facing, or might face in the future. Each participant will receive a folder of all the information covered in class as well as supplementary material. Since the last part of the class will involve some hands-on training, we are asking that everyone wear loose, comfortable clothing.

On Thursday, August 18, from 10:00 am to noon, we will be holding a similar class geared especially for junior high age girls. Again, there will be class handouts and training that will require loose, comfortable clothing.

On Saturday, September 10, from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm, we will be holding a special safety class for teenage girls and their mothers.

Due to the sensitive nature of the material covered in these classes, and so that the participants will fee safe and comfortable, we are asking that men and boys not be present unless they have made prior arrangements with the instructor. Mothers of the participants are welcome to stay and watch the classes in August; the class in September will be limited to participants only.

Please call 805-931-0683 to register for more information. Spaces are limited and participants need to register in advance so that we can make class materials available to them.

Good values at great value

One can't turn on the TV or radio without hearing some bad news. Recently a friend of mine asked, "Where is our country headed? What sort of world are we leaving our children?"

As parents, we can't help but ponder these sorts of questions. Will our children be equipped to overcome the challenges facing them in the future?

At Shinjin Karate, these are not rhetorical questions. We believe strongly in empowering all of our students, children and adults, to deal with all that life might dish out. We believe that our Keichu Ryu program teaches not only excellent martial arts skills, but life skills as well.

True karate is this: that in daily life one's mind and body be trained and developed in a spirit of humility, and that in critical times, one can be devoted utterly to the cause of justice. - Gichin Funakoshi

As a neo-traditional dojo, we endeavor to teach true karate in a way that is most beneficial to the student of today.

RESPECT • ULTIMATE FOCUS • HARD WORK

It takes three things to be a good student in our dojo: respect, ultimate focus, and hard work. We don't expect our new students to be fully proficient in these things, so we teach them how to be respectful, how to focus their eyes, ears, minds, bodies --- and how nothing worthwhile is ever achieved without good old-fashioned diligence. Our students soon discover a wonderful secret: the harder they work at karate, the more they enjoy it.

We also introduce our students to our core values, and we encourage them to make these values a part of their lives:

DEDICATION
DISCIPLINE
RESPECT
HONOR
HUMILITY
THE KEICHU ATTITUDE

The last one encompasses all five of the previous core values and more. We describe the Keichu Attitude with these words: "I will train hard. If I fall down seven times, I will get up eight. I will never, never, never give up."

That sounds very old-fashioned. Dedication, discipline, respect, honor, humility, determination and perseverance --- these things have fallen out of style. But I believe that today and tomorrow, these particular values are more needed than ever. They are not optional for parents who want their children to be able to face the future with confidence, fully equipped to succeed. They are not optional for people who want to be able to stand firm and do what is right. These values are necessary.

In our dojo, you will learn to punch and kick. You will learn to defend yourself. You will learn a wonderful, cohesive and comprehensive martial arts system that you will be able to continue practicing throughout your entire life, even into old age.

But you will learn far more than that.

You will learn how dedication to your physical training can help you become strong and unshakable physically, mentally, and spiritually.

You will learn how discipline and hard work will stregthen your character.

You will learn how to be courteous and respectful and how to refrain from violence.

You will learn the importance of honoring what is important with your conduct, loyalty, and integrity.

You will learn the value of humility.

You will learn that quitters never win and that winners never quit. You will learn how to persevere in the face of difficulty and discouragement.

In other words, you will learn some of the most important life lessons and skills that you could possibly learn. You won't just learn those things. They will become part of you.

You will become strong.

Training in Keichu Ryu karate is one of the most important investments you can make for you and your family. It is an investment that will never fail and that will never lose its value.

Call 805-931-0683 today and invest in your future. We offer excellence in instruction at a great value.

Resolve today: hit the "re-boot button"

February is racing by. Are your resolutions long forgotten, left in the dust? Or are you going strong?

Today is the day to re-evaluate, whether you are enjoying great success, partial success, or not much success. Of the seven goals I set for myself this year, I'm right on target for three of them, having met my daily, weekly, and monthly goals without fail. I can't begin to tell you how great that makes me feel, and how much making those new habits has improved my life.

For the other four goals...well, life has happened and has gotten in the way of my best-laid plans.

But, all is not lost. I'm reworking those four goals, making them a bit more realistic given my current circumstances, and I'm starting over. Resolutions can, after all, be made and kept every day. We don't have to give up and wait until 2010.

Today, I'm hitting the re-boot button on those four resolutions I've been struggling with. I'm not giving up.

Resolve today: get the right tools, part 1

I am a firm believer in using the right tool for the job. At least most of the time. Once in a while, I can't be bothered with finding a particular tool and I attempt some sort of jerryrig...which never seems to work as well. But that's not as bad as having no tools at all, and trying to face a task completely unequipped.

Keeping your resolutions and goals usually requires some tools. There are the intangible tools, of course --- the sorts of things our series of articles have been about. But, in this particular article, I'm going to talk about some real, concrete tools.

If you are in our martial arts classes, or thinking of joining, here are some tools that will help you achieve the highest level of success:

• Uniform - A basic, beginner uniform is good enough for a child just starting out; however, the right karate uniform can make a big difference. Serious students quickly discover that, unless they want to do laundry quite frequently, several good quality uniforms are essential. Ask Sensei which uniforms would be best for you.
  
• Water bottle - Our special dojo sports bottle comes with a lifetime supply of drinking water.
• Healthy energy snacks - Starting a workout hungry will not help you train hard.

As you advance in rank, you will be adding more "tools", such as sparring gear, weapons, etc.

For our fitness classes (including Fight Class) the following tools will maximize your success:

• Hand wraps
• Good quality bag gloves
• Jump rope sized for you
• Suitable workout clothes
• Grappling gloves (especially for green belts and above in Fight Class)
  

Ask about our Fitness, Grappling, and Fight Packages. These will provide you with everything you need to get the most out of Fight Class for 2009.

For parents who want to make sure they are doing their best in helping their children succeed in our karate program, we now offer our Parents Package, which includes:

• Child's square target
• Child's kicking shield
• Black Belt Parenting book
• Mesh duffle bag
  

At Shinjin Karate, we want to make sure you have the right tools to succeed, whether it's martial arts training, fitness classes, martial arts supplies, uniforms, or more. Call us today at 805-931-0683.

Read more about having a successful 2009.

Resolve today: cut yourself some slack

No one is perfect. We all know that. But why are we so hard on ourselves when we fall short? It's good to hold yourself to a high standard, to push yourself to achieve --- but it's not good to beat yourself up should you suffer a setback or fail to meet your expectations.

Today, be kind to yourself. Celebrate your efforts, even if they were not as successful as you had hoped. Don't succumb to all or nothing thinking; don't give up in the face of setbacks. Tomorrow will be another day. In fact, you don't need to wait until then to "start over" or "reboot". Take a deep breath, regroup, and start over 5 minutes from now.

And, while you're cutting yourself some slack, be kind to yourself in other ways. Get some rest. Enjoy life. Refuse to be a martyr or slave to your self-improvement program but, at the same time, refuse to make excuses for failure. Be real. Relax and enjoy the process, the adventurous journey, towards an improved, healthier and happier you.

Resolve today: set yourself up for success

Too often we set ourselves up for failure. Perhaps we resolve the same thing year after year, without bringing about meaningful life change that will help us finally succeed at our resolutions. Or perhaps we set impossible goals. Or perhaps we suffer from all-or-nothing thinking, as in, "I resolve never to touch another piece of chocolate again as long as I live."

Today, resolve to set yourself up for success. Review our past articles to find ones that will especially help you. Surround yourself with positive people who will help encourage you to meet your new goals. Be real about what you can or can't do. Don't be sidetracked by lapses or discouragement. Plan to succeed.

At Shinjin Karate, we want to help you keep your New Year's Resolutions! Read all of our related articles here.

Resolve today: make sure my resolutions are meaningful to me

It should go without saying. Why on earth would we commit to a change in our lives that is not meaningful to us? Would anyone really do that?

Many of us do that all the time. We get caught up in the "shoulds", as in, "I should lose weight" or "I should try to learn to like my husband's strange hobbies" or "I should bake cookies for every school bake sale". But, if our new resolutions seem like punishments to us, if they do not fill us with anticipation, it will be almost impossible for us to succeed. If it's a goal you really don't want to reach, why work for it?

Go over your resolutions. Make sure you are committed to every one. Don't be afraid to abandon or modify those that you do not truly believe are worth your efforts. Be excited about your resolutions and goals!

Resolve today: don't despise small beginnings

It is not unusual for new students to tell me that their goal is to earn their black belts. Often they are very excited about the idea of being a black belt. However, sometimes they are far less excited about being a white belt.

Once in a while, a student asks me, on his first day of class, if he could just "skip all that stuff" (meaning, learning the basics) and go right to sparring the other students. Then I point out the importance of learning incrementally. First, he needs to learn how to stand, to make a proper fist, then how to punch and block, etc. Sometimes I will remind that student that, as a baby, he learned a progression of skills that led him from crawling to standing to walking to running.

Sometimes it's hard not to despise the small beginnings. We want to rush past the beginner stage. Sometimes we want to skip it entirely. Who wants to crawl when they would rather be running?

Seasoned black belts recognize the value of beginning small. Sometimes they will train in another art entirely, just so they can recapture what is called "beginner's mind". The martial arts are full of sayings about emptying one's cup so that it might be filled. No matter how long we have trained, we still work on the basics that we learned as white belts. Sometimes it is not until we've trained for years, even decades, that we realize how valuable and rich, how essential, those basics are.

Today, resolve not to despise small beginnings. Instead, celebrate them. Take your first steps, no matter how small, to becoming a better person, a healthier person, in 2009. Don't be afraid to start small. Everyone is a beginner sometime.

One important step you can take is to enroll in our beginner course. Call 805-931-0683 to sign up. It may seem like a small beginning, but it's an extremely valuable one, and one you will continue to find worthwhile for years to come. Get started today.

Resolve today: start small, finish big

For many of us, today is the first day of 2009 that we are headed back to work or school --- or just back to the old grind. It's a day that can be discouraging. We might discover, for example, that the daily goals we set yesterday aren't quite so easy to achieve today. If so, we may need to re-evaluate.

Today is the day to learn to take baby steps towards our goal, to start small so we can finish big.

A friend of mine decided to lose weight last year. As many people do, she set some lofty goals. She was going to reach her healthy weight by the end of the year. When I pointed out that this meant that she would have to lose about 10 pounds per week, a goal that was not only unrealistic but unhealthy, she shrugged off my concerns. What was the point of going to all the trouble of changing her lifestyle, she insisted, if she couldn't achieve what she really wanted by the end of the year?

Her lifestyle change lasted exactly a week and a half --- the time it took her to realize that losing ten pounds in a week was impossible for her. Unfortunately, she didn't see the benefit of making incremental, realistic changes towards her goal. It seemed too much like the pace of a tortoise and, if she was going to move at all, she wanted to do it at the pace of a hare.

Slow and steady is what will win a long race, because it's the pace we can keep up until the end. If your daily goals prove to be too difficult, modify them. Be willing to take baby steps. For example, if you now get up at 7:00 am and your daily goal is to get up at 5:00 am, you might find that sort of change to be too difficult to adjust to. Why not get up 5 minutes earlier each day, until you reach your goal?

If 20 minutes of exercise each day is proving to be too difficult, scale it back. Or perhaps set the goal to be 20 minutes of exercise three times per week. Once that becomes a habit, you can begin taking bigger steps.

For today, resolve to take one step at a time, whether it's a baby step or a more ambitious step. No matter what, make sure you set out on a pace that you can continue for all of 2009.

At Shinjin Karate, we want to help you keep your New Year's Resolutions! Read all of our related articles here.

Resolve today: set daily goals

2009 is the year to keep those resolutions! In order to succeed, we've chosen our resolutions wisely (by looking back to look forward) and we've set monthly goals that are measurable, attainable, purposeful, and specific. We've begun taking actions that will help us form good habits.

Now it's time for another important step, one that will help us turn our actions into habits: set daily goals. By this, I don't necessarily mean a to-do list for each day. What I mean is to take the resolutions you've already expressed in the form of monthly goals, and break them down into what you specifically need to do each day in order to reach your short-term goal --- and your long term goal of succeeding at whatever you have resolved to accomplish this year.

For some resolutions and/or monthly goals, your daily goal may be the same each day, such as "Exercise for at least 20 minutes" or "Stay in touch with friends by calling or emailing at least one each day" or "Replace potato chips with a healthier snack".

At other points, your daily goals may be a series of action steps. One day, you might call us (805-931-0683) to sign up for your beginner course (it's a gift you can give yourself all year long!). The next day, you might go for a brisk walk. The day after that, your goal might be to show up for your first intro class on time, ready to work out. Etc., etc....

Like your monthly goals, your daily goals should be measurable, attainable, purposeful, and specific. At the end of the day, you should have no doubt whether or not you met that particular goal.

Let your daily goals, your action steps, help you form the good habits you need to succeed at your goals and resolutions.

At Shinjin Karate, we want to help you keep your New Year's Resolutions! Read all of our articles here.