Being Disciplined is NOT Boring

The only time I was ever home on a Friday night was if the Dojo was closed that day. And yet people consider this kind of life undesirable.

I am in the process of extensive learning of the Romanian language. And I have good reasons for doing this. First I call România home. Second my lady and her family all speak the language. These are called anchors, reasons for doing something, for learning. A way to keep motivated. 

So today I spent 3 plus hours in formal study. I finished off with a podcast from the company called the "inner circle" in which the founder of the web company, Innovative Languages, talked about routines for success. Now this man has studied language for a hobby also.

He like to learn one per year to proficiency. And he is remarkable! In these podcasts he discusses the path to success, great! He talks of goals and routines. Perfect.

BUT I have never heard him speak of living a disciplined life. His life, while successful sound chaotic. He would be even more successful if he was highly discipled. Being Disciplined is NOT Boring.

Being Disciplined is NOT Boring

It could because people believe that being disciplined is hard. But in truth everything is equally hard. Let me explain.

It takes a lot of work to be successful in the world. It is hard. But it is just a hard to be a failure. And you would be shocked at how close each extreme really is to the other. Failures suffer because they fail. Hard workers, discipled people also suffer in a sense because they must at some point sacrifice to achieve their goals.

This is very true in the martial arts because input equals output. You get out of the arts what you put into them. And while I stopped running a Dojo in 2015 I have zero regrets for dedicating my life to it!

Being Disciplined is NOT Boring

The same is true of the language learning path. I am at about an intermediate level, and it requires sacrifice to be there. Now my "doamnă" and I speak at about a 30/70 mix right now. 30 Romanian, 70% English. If I know the word in Romanian she uses it. If I do not she uses English. She is fully bilingual. That will increase to 100% Romanian over time.

What is the benefit? I can speak with and understand her family members and friends without translation. Plus dealing in the world requires this. But, I could if I was lazy and undisciplined just hide behind her. 

SO what does this mean to the martial arts?

Being Disciplined is NOT Boring in Conclusion

Do you know the history of your martial art? Here is the history of Hapkido for me, and Kosho Ryu also. To do it all requires disciple, and being disciplined is NOT boring.

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Thank you for taking time to read Being Disciplined is NOT Boring. And I have a special gift for you for reading. A gift from dear friend Lee Milteer on dealing with adversity. Follow the link to download now!

Thank you for your time and have a wonderful day! Keep Learning!

Vă mulțumesc pentru timpul acordat și o zi minunată! Continua sa inveti!

Al vostru în arte,
Mare Maestru Art Mason

Defending against Martial Arts

For example, instead of defending against a step-in punch, practice defending against an actual haymaker. Or, defend against someone who resists at various times during a defense, hence causing you to react rather than perform a skit.

That’s no longer all that modern. The boom of MMA, came at the same time every ounce of knowledge in the world became available online. While people flocked to MMA-type gyms, they didn’t have to.

They could grab a buddy and learn online just as well. Point is, this has resulted in arts/sports such as BJJ, Judo, Boxing, Kickboxing, etc, to be easily attained knowledge. A lot of these gyms teach people to tap into their most arrogant selves.

Defending against Martial Arts

The majority of the best intentioned participants, join these gyms to be able to watch UFC with a buddy and be able to say: “ See how cool, sexy and tough they are? Just like me. I train at a MMA-type gym 3 times per week."

Therefore, I’m the same. Yeah, you know I’m the shit. To prove I’m the shit, I have a ton of pictures on my Facebook profile, where I’m in my gi, making an arrogant face, or posing with my thumbs in my belt, looking tough. You’re welcome”.

Then, you have the worse intentioned people, who simply just want to learn new and exciting ways to hurt people, and hit them with something they know nothing about.

I don’t want to repeat my article, “Evolution of Assault”, by diving too deep into the need to recognize how violence has evolved skill-wise. I’ve already made that point. We’ll call it the “what”. Now, let’s look at the “how”.

We need to understand these popular systems, from a what-makes-them-work perspective, in order to recognize them when they are used against us in an attack. Trying to outbox a boxer, or out grapple a grappler will get you killed when defending against a skilled boxer or grappler. That is the natural reaction, suicidal as it is sadly.

Defending against Martial Arts

This write up, Defending against Martial Arts is part 1 of 6. In this part, I identify that we need to know what makes some of these popular, fully accessible systems work. In the subsequent parts of the series, I will touch on the following, identify their success mechanisms, and how to attack those mechanisms:

• Part 2: Recognizing/defending against BJJ
• Part 3: Recognizing/defending against Judo
• Part 4: Recognizing/defending against Boxing
• Part 5 Recognizing/defending against Kickboxing
• Part 6: Recognizing/defending against Muay Thai

These are not evil-creating systems. Not at all. But, they do attract nut cases, and many nutcases are good at some or all of them. It’s a fact. Know what to do. Be on the lookout for the next installment.

I hope you enjoyed Defending against Martial Arts. Stay tuned for more soon!

GM Dave Degrouchie
Founder: World Budo Alliance

Defending against Martial Arts in Conclusion

We need to get BACK to effect, properly taught martial arts based on real life. And GM Degrouchie is 100 percent on target as usual!

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Vă mulțumesc pentru timpul acordat și o zi minunată! Continua sa inveti!

Al vostru în arte,
Mare Maestru Art Mason 

At 56 I moved to a foreign country without knowing the language. Today at 63 I am in intense study of the Romanian Language. All things the masses are afraid of doing. Using AGE as an excuse for everything!

The age excuse makes me laugh. A pathetic reason. If you look at the history of the martial arts, study it you will understand why. 

What do I speak of? Perseverance Never Give Up!!!

Perseverance Never Give Up

Statistically speaking history will show people tend to give up just before they make it, reach that goal! In business we see this all time! And in truth if you wish to succeed you need to fail faster. Do not be afraid to trying new things and fail.

I throw things up against the wall every day to see what sticks. Most things do not. And that is cool! I learn. 

Recently I offered one of my mail list, or about 700 people a very special FREE gift. This was a video from dear friend Lee Milteer. The video was dealing with adversity, and today people are facing serious adversity!

Typically, or in the old days before the BULLSHIT of 2020 about 10% of the people in that list would click to download something like this. I have seen it as high as 30%.

Today, as of this writing, 24 hours after the email went out only 11 people have downloaded it. That is 0.016%!! Now either they do not have any problems, which is not possible, or they simply cannot deal with the times. Perseverance Never Give Up!

Perseverance Never Give Up

The BS they have planned for the coming fall simply put I WILL NOT COMPLY to. I did not in 2020 either!

In order to succeed in any martial art you must have perseverance. It is the 4th Tenet of my Dojo Art Mason's Peaceful Warriors' Martial Arts Institute. Yet I am concerned it is a dying virtue.

And virtues are verbs, not nouns. It is an action, not something you can say like the political class pretend. Mind you they have no virtue at all. 

Where does perseverance come from? Something people today do not like! Disciple!, specifically self disciple.

Successful people are will to do things the average person is not will to you. Yet, they complain when someone is successful in life.

What time do you get up each day? What time do you sleep? How long do you sleep? Do you wander through each day or do you have a plan? I get up at 2:00 and work online. Then around 4:00 after eating I spend about 90 minutes to 120 minutes in language study. 

And this is everyday without exception! Then I have the rest of the day for family, friends other activities. But I put in about 10-12 hours per day of work.

In conclusion Perseverance Never Give Up

Let's take a look the tenets of my Dojo.

1. Integrity
2. Courtesy
3. Self Control
4. Commitment
5. Perseverance
6. Indomitable Spirit

And they go in order. Living religious by these tenets will change anyone's life for the better. Thank you taking time to read Perseverance Never Give Up.

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I hope you enjoyed this article called Perseverance Never Give Up!

Thank you for your time and have a wonderful day! Keep Learning!

Vă mulțumesc pentru timpul acordat și o zi minunată! Continua sa inveti!

Al vostru în arte,
Mare Maestru Art Mason

He was 100% one of the greatest if not the greatest of the 20th century. Yet rank is not spoken about. Everyone knew his was great without the rank.

In truth the belt rank system was designed for Judo competition, not self gratification.  While I really like the belt rank system, things always seem to go off the rails these days.

People seeking rank for pure self gratification, no connection to learning Martial Arts.

Learning Martial Arts

Back a few years ago after I resurrected the World Budo Alliance I had someone contact me about promotion in Karate. Well that is NOT what the WBA is about. However when he told me I need to do this, and for FREE too, to be humanitarian I knew what kind of person I was dealing with.

No further communications will happen with and myself. Go in peace. I have no interest in this.

Now I have been TEACHING martial arts for about 38 years. I began teaching as a Green Belt in my system. And I have run a Dojo. But NOT ONCE has any student coming in the door, and there have been thousands, ever ask me my RANK much less if I was a Black Belt. And in the last years I did not wear a black belt. 

Learning Martial Arts

Learning Martial Arts should be the priority, not a piece of paper. There is just too much focus on that. Back a few years ago in a phone conversation I had with Hanshi Bruce Juchnik his first question to me was if I was after rank.

And while I do have rank in Kosho Ryu, I am not interested in more. It has to me become meaningless. It is all about the learning and the passing on of the Mitose teachings. Here is a history of Kosho Ryu you might enjoy.

When I told Hanshi I was ONLY interested in learning he became very interested in talking to me. I have been studying ALL his teaching now for a long time. And the benefits have been great!

Learning Martial Arts

Today the focus of the martial arts is not in learning Martial Arts but for the purposes of sport. Sport is a game, and does have a place, but it is not nor should it ever be the focus on the arts.

Once again, that is ONLY about ego, and the martial artists should become ego less, not egotistical.

I am concerned at what I do see in the martial arts today. It has become a commodity, and that is just BAD. And after the LIES of 2020 with so many Dojo's forced to close their doors permanently I have concerns about the future of the teachings.

Plus the BITE is gone now from the arts due to the teaching of children and sport. I am still teaching the real thing, but there are not many these days. And the benefits of learning Martial Arts are so great this will be a big loss for the world.

Learning Martial Arts in Conclusion

So why this article? Because I hope in reading this you will put learning before rank.

Life is about learning and growing. When we stop doing this life is finished. Educate yourself in all things you can. Do not indoctrinate yourself in anything. 

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Thank you for taking time to read this article called Learning Martial Arts, not Belt Rank. Please checkout our list of FREE stuff from this link.

Thank you for your time and have a wonderful day! Keep Learning!

Vă mulțumesc pentru timpul acordat și o zi minunată! Continua sa inveti!

Al vostru în arte,
Mare Maestru Art Mason