C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

 A couple of months ago, I wrote the first part of this series on SERIOUS strength and power training for martial artists and other "combat" athletes.  When I wrote that first piece, I expected to write the second part within a week, and I should have already finished the series.  But life has plans of its own sometimes.  A few days after I wrote Part One, a dear friend of mine since my childhood died unexpectedly.  It has been very hard on me and my family, and is the reason the only thing I have even "felt" like writing since that time was my continued series on The Dokkodo .  But I finally sat down at my computer this morning, and realized that I really  want to begin writing again.  And writing more than I had previously been doing.  When death intrudes upon your life, it can often spur you to concentrate on the things that do matter in life, the things that are important to you, and  the things that you want to leave behind you when...

  Essays and Thoughts on  The Dokkodo Part Ten Resentment and Complaint are Appropriate Neither for Oneself or for Others "Clouds gather around the Enso."  The clouds represent fleeting thoughts.  The enso represents the stable, grounded mind of the Budoka. Have you ever been around a co-worker or an acquaintance who seemed to whine or complain almost all of the time?   I had an acquaintance years ago - a fellow budoka  - who trained with me at the karate dojo of my youth.  He was the kind of guy who others in the dojo didn't want to be around because he made everything  about himself.  If he hadn't achieved something, anything, then it simply wasn't his fault.  It was the fault of society, the situation in which he was raised, the fact that his genetics could have been better - the list could go on and on. There is nothing worse than this sort of pettiness. Success has nothing to do with the support you receive, or don't, not ultim...

 Essays and Thoughts on The Dokkodo Part Nine Never Allow Yourself to be Saddened by a Separation 16th century painting of Musashi (public domain) Another translation that I like of this musing is David K. Groff's that reads, "On whatever the path, do not be sad about parting ways."  If you are following a "way," then you must be prepared for the fact - inevitable some might say - that you will have to separate yourself from others who are not following the same path that you are embarked upon. When one first reads/hears a maxim such as this one or one similar, our initial reaction is to recoil from it.  We - as a human race - love our attachments!  Not only are we saddened by a separation, but we never want to be separated in the first place.  Of course it's natural for us to feel saddened upon separation, right? We are attached to many things other than just people.  Some of these attachments are subtle and we might not even be aware of what it is we are ...

  Years ago, when I was a regular columnist for Ironman Magazine , I wrote an article in which I said, "bodybuilding has ruined strength training in America."  I'm pretty sure that I got more hate mail from that ONE article than all my others put together, and I wrote a LOT  of articles for Ironman  in the '90s and the early years of this century, so that's saying something.  But I stand by that statement.  Now, you may ask yourself, why am I beginning an article on strength training for martial artists  with an anecdote I wrote for a bodybuilding magazine that most martial artists are never going to read?  And the reason is simple: bodybuilding has also ruined martial arts strength training  in America.  Why?  Most martial artists who take up weight training in this country are greatly influenced by bodybuilding-style training , whether they know it or not, the kind of training that relies on multiple sets of multiple reps in order...

Essays and Thoughts on The Dokkodo Part One C.S.'s Note: I hope you enjoy the essays that follow in this series.  These essays are really the seed of a book idea I've had brewing for some time.  I have been apprehensive in starting it as a book, seeing the odd "niche" that it abides in might find it hard for it to get picked up by a publisher.  But niche as it MAY be, I finally decided that it would work best as a series of essays on Integral Strength, and we'll just see what happens from here. Contemporaneous painting of Musashi from the Edo Period (courtesy Wikimedia)       Terao Maganojo gazed at the dojo ahead of him.  Over the past decade - when he retired from one of his many successful duels - he always came here to refine his technique, to improve his speed, to perfect his timing, and to learn the history of the sword school in which he practiced.  But most of all, he came to spend time at the foot of his master.      ...

Can One Be Both a Martial Artist and a Bodybuilder?      Both of my sons have recently taken more of an interest in martial arts—or, perhaps, I should say, just "fighting" in general.  My oldest son, Matthew, who writes regularly enough here, has gotten pretty serious about his martial arts training, with plenty of bag work, sparring, and conditioning, with a fairly high workload to boot.  (If you are going to take anything serious, then your work load should  be high, by the way.  As in the above caption from the great Masutatsu Oyama—one must "train more than one sleeps".  That is Mas Oyama in the picture.)      Yesterday, as we were finishing a sparring session, he remarked, "I just don't think I can do it."  And he seemed rather frustrated when he said it.      "What can't you do?" I asked.  I generally don't like comments that are in the "negative" from my offspring.      "I can't ...