Thanks to mr. teng for passing along this fantastic image! how many of these can you relate to?

We love how many parents and kids we have training together at east west! Mrs. Silverman and her son Ethan were our first parent/child black belt combination and now there are a lot more coming up! We know how significant that bond is between parent and child when they train together and its an absolute joy for us to enable that with our classes. Why parents & kids should join a martial arts class together

Here’s a little piece from a bok fu philosophy reading that the instructors heard in class last night…

“Learning to focus your mind is a technique just like any other of the many grab arts you have learned in bok-fu-do. In the same way you learn and practice the grab art for the next belt, you must do the same in developing your ability to focus your mind. When you learn a technique, the first step is to try to remember the movement. You are, in essence, creating a muscle memory that allows you to move through the grab art without thought. When practiced enough, the grab art binds itself to us and becomes a part of who we are. It becomes addictive, a habit that is developed through diligent practice and arduous concentration. It becomes so much more than a mere series of blocks and kicks and punches. The grab art is now a reflection of your inner core, a manifestation of the passion that burns deep within your soul. When you move, you don’t think about the movement but only the purest expression of what you are harnessing through your hands and your feet. It is now a habit, just like any other. But you must develop the habit, before the habit can and will develop you. And remember, it is not practice that makes you perfect, only perfect practice.

When you are doing a drill, totally focus your mind on the drill, nothing but the drill, so help you god – totally focus on nothing except the drill. Don’t let your mind wander even for a half a second. Tell yourself it’s not acceptable. I mean, absolutely unacceptable. Commit yourself like you’ve never committed yourself in your entire life. Focus your brain so hard it hurts, if that’s what it takes. You must have this kind of extraordinary mind focusing ability if you’re going to accomplish extraordinary things. Winning the world tournament is extraordinary. Getting a richard lee black belt is extraordinary. And only through this perfect practice of totally focusing your mind does it simply become a habit that will automatically kick into gear when you are in the most pressure packed situations of your life.

I tell you that you must internalize these concepts. You know what i’m talking about. Don’t allow the pressure of the moment to overtake you. Don’t allow a little distraction to dissipate your chi and throw you off. You must be like a rock in leaf storm, unwavering, steady, and focused beyond distraction. When you are in fight, there’s going to be times when it isn’t going your way. These are the times that count. This is when the perfect practice turned habit earns its keep. It fires within your soul that no matter how easy it would be to give in, and how hard it is going to be to stay the path, you will not falter. no matter how much pain there is, or how many people are telling you that you can’t go on, you will not falter. No matter what the circumstances, you stay fixed with single minded determination to your goal, and you will not falter.

The key is to discipline your mind to take control of loose thoughts. bad thoughts will assail you everyday, all day, if you let them. Thinking patterns are habits that when developed with the right frame of mind, form a steel wall of concentration that will turn aside the assault of bad thoughts. It’s not that they won’t continue to press you, this is human nature, but your capability to control what goes into your mind grows stronger with each bad thought turned good. Steadily these good thoughts develop into good habits. Remember, bad thoughts will produce bad results. If you want good results, think good thoughts. Great thoughts, black belt thoughts, world champion thoughts, will produce great results. Simple, right? but the key word in all of this is discipline. If you don’t discipline yourself in mind, body and spirit, you’ll never fully internalize these words.”