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5 Things You Can Do To Improve Your Ice Hockey Game
Are you an ice hockey playing teenager that dreams about one day making it all the way to the National Hockey League? Do you want to become the next superstar in ice hockey? My guess is that your answer is yes to both of the above questions (at...
Croquet - A Recreational Sport
Is croquet a sport, or more of just a recreational activity for people to play in their backyards, or both it be both a competitive sport and recreation. Croquet was actually once played as a competitive sport in the Olympics. It began to get...
El Ocotal Jungle Adventure in Costa Rica
Eo Ocotal Jungle Adventure Read Jetsetters Magazine at www.jetsettersmagazine.com Read this entire feature FREE with photos at http://www.jetsettersmagazine.com/archive/jetezine/sports02/scuba02/ocotal/ocotal.html Our wake-up call didn't arrive....
Lance Armstrong, Exercise and Will – Characteristics that make a champion!
The Tour De France, arguably may be the hardest sport of all time, and Lance Armstrong probably one of the most conditioned athletes ever. But, how is it possible for a man on the door step of death to be able to overcome cancer, return and win...
Sony Open: Will Wie Do It?
From the To the (Previous Seasons') Victors Go the Spoils
department: Jason Gore averaged 80 in four rounds at last week's
season-opening Mercedes Championships and still walked with
$70,000.
Among the discussion points one week into the...
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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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