Nietzsche for Martial Artists — If you’ve ever read anything by or about Friedrich Nietzsche, you may be familiar with his concepts of will to power and the ubermensch (overman). These two key terms express Nietzsche’s defining characteristic: becoming. His book, Thus Spake Zarathustra, is a series of speeches and interactions of the prophet/hermit Zarathustra…

C.A.T.S. PERSONAL SAFETY SYSTEM — As a martial arts coach and educator, I teach self-defense seminars from time to time. While I enjoy the opportunity, I also prefer calling it a “personal safety” seminar instead of a “self-defense” seminar. I can hear detractors screaming, “semantics!” However, there is a reason for the terminology. As I…

Finding a Way Forward with Understanding — The Problem of Tradition On a recent Judo coaches’ forum, one coach mentioned a sensei who typically had a cheerful disposition, happily helping young students learn a technique. However, on one particular day, the sensei saw a brown belt, maybe 18 years of age, “walking to his mat area with his belt slung around…

Process Versus Product — In a comment on a recent post about learning, a person asked my opinion about new technologies called Open AI (artificial intelligence) and ChatGPT. This software is causing quite a stir in academic realms and has even made CNN and Wall Street Journal. Douglas Rushkoff, a supporter of humanity and…

Neil Postman’s Loving Resistance Fighter — Since closing my martial arts academy, I’ve found various ways to stay on the mat, including visiting other gyms and helping coach my daughter’s middle school wrestling team. It’s been a bit of a change of pace from teaching several nights a week, but I have enjoyed the different atmospheres. …

Thomas Kuhn’s paradigm-changing book. — I first learned about Thomas Kuhn’s 1962 game-changing book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, in my undergrad “History of Science and Technology” class. After reading the book, I see how Kuhn looks at science, not as necessarily a truth-seeking endeavor, but more of a rhetorical process. Scientists aren’t discovering truth…

I know it may be an old pastime, but I still enjoy reading a newspaper. I always pay attention to the obituaries section, usually looking for names I know from my parents’ and grandparents’ age. Something struck me the other day, though. I read a name and looked at the…

Jigoro Kano and Buckminster Fuller — Jigoro Kano In Judo, we often hear the phrase, “ Maximum Efficiency, Minimum Effort.” Judo’s founder, Jigoro Kano, spoke about the concept in 1932 during a speech at the University of Southern California. He said that for anything to be ideal, it must be performed on the principle of maximum efficiency. Throughout…

Wisdom From A Seafaring Stranger — In Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner, a haggard-looking old seafarer stops a young man on his way to a wedding. The old man begins to tell his tale to the young wedding guest. …