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2005 - The Year of Patience
2005 has me going into my 15th year teaching golf. From day one, I thought that if I could come up with a technique that was fast and easy to learn I would be a pretty popular guy. Well, I did ... and I am. So what is fast and easy? Does it...
5 Tips For Motivating Your Gymnast – A Basic Overview
For every gymnast, there is a different motivational need. This is the same in anything, really -- we all have different ways in which we are given confidence in ourselves, no matter what we do. Whether we write or draw, sing or dance, we all need...
Clemens Strikes Out 20, Again; Rocket Repeats Magic 10 Years After
DETROIT--In 1986, Roger Clemens was a young fireballer amidst his first Cy Young season when he struck out 20 Seattle Mariners and established a Major League Baseball record. That same year, Clemens won All-Star Game MVP honors as well as the...
Tommy Smith, Basketball Player, Team Texas, FWC
12/08/2005
2005-2006 Fort Worth Christian Varsity Basketball Schedule
(pre-season)
10/15/05-10/16/05 Fossil Ridge Pre-season Shootout (Fossil Ridge
High School) - Off to a great start this season. FWC played four
games, all against 5A...
Why Coach Soccer? And how to have fun doing it.
Why Coach Soccer? How to have fun doing it. Warren Buffet might not know soccer, but when he said, "Tell me your heroes and I'll tell you how your life will end up", he was onto something. When it comes to coaching, everyone wants a say but...
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Martial Arts in Each Season: Nature in Training
We of the Upper Peninsula, Michigan, the people who inhabit the wild lands north of The Bridge, are at the crest of winter. Which isn't saying much, because no matter what time of year, up here, winter has a way of creeping gleefully nearby, like an antic, poised to drop in on even the most summery of days - like an August wedding (mine), and remind all who live here that we live, first and last, at nature's pleasure, and not she at ours.
I love nature and the outdoors. Here, you would be hard pressed not to, since nature is ever present and wild, and cannot be constrained. We live here among the big forests, the blue-black waters of Mother Superior.
At my Center, we are about to dive into our first kangeiko, which is intensive winter training. The windows will be open, and the cold will surely come. The indoor sanctity of the dojo will be broken by the outdoors, the rude ways of the howling, northern winds.
It occurs to me - we spend so much of our time trying to protect ourselves. When it is hot outside, we try to
cool down; when it is cold, we try to keep our warmth. In Japanese martial arts tradition, kangeiko and its summer counterpart, shochugeiko, are ways of marking one’s training, and giving over to nature. When the sun is raging, and summer's heat is on - train fully, sweat, give over to the experience and hold nothing back; in the depths of winter's cold, do not tighten and try to stave it off, but accept the cold, relax into it and break through to a new understanding.
But in this training, I believe, we find a mirror to life itself. Beautiful, chaotic, demanding - nature. Nature just is.
About The Author
Paul Smith is the Founder and Director of the Aikido Center of Marquette (www.aikido-marquette.com), located in the Upper Peninsula, Michigan. He is an avid outdoorsman, and is also the webmaster of www.a1-outdoors.com, a website serving as a resource for outdoor sports gear and information.
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