Reflection of 2009

In this blog, I usually write corrections for you guys that I notice or try to write about things that I tell you to try to focus on. I don't really write anything for myself on the blog but I save that for my booklet rather than online. So I shall share some of my thoughts from my booklet.

The biggest thing I wanted to work on this past year by far was making things my own. Many times when I do a demonstration, I always got comments like, "Your kata is like hataya sensei, and you cut like sakaida sensei." or things of that nature (which are all very big compliments). This is fine, but I felt like I must make my own identity. I feel like for myself this has happening slowly. This is not to say I do not want to be like the sensei's that I learned from but rather add and supplement to what I have now to create a new interpretation. Of course this is through my experiences in other martial arts and life. This is why Dave Drawdy calls JSA a living, breathing art because it evolves. Of course there are things that are written in stone. Those things we cannot stray from, but how you express these things is what makes it yours.

I can say before that even though I knew the kata, even if I could do the cuts, and even if I could express a technique, it wasn't mine. I felt as if I was wearing a fine suit that wasn't tailored to me. I remember going to Arizona, Bakersfield and Orlando. When I taught and demonstrated I always thought I was just representing just my teachers. But I realized how important it was to represent myself as well. Confidence in my the effort I put in, my teachers effort in me, and being unafraid of looking outside to find myself. So with this confidence at the beginning of this new year I feel like there's a new found comfort in my technique. The ingredients were always there, I just had to bake is what someone told me. I must continue to build on this.

Those are my thoughts on my growth, now for about the dojo is a bit different. I can say, I'm pretty lucky. I'm pretty lucky that the guys who train in my dojo are hardworking and look at training with a positive out look. So I don't have to worry about anything huge but what I do worry about is that some members progressing too fast. So my advice for the new year. No matter how easy or how much easier things become, remember how hard it was and then start over.

Happy new year everyone and let's train diligently.