Tai Chi

 It was a tragedy that those Asian women and their patrons were killed in the latest of the American shootings.  A sad tragedy.  More the reason to learn a martial art.

       I joined a karate Dojo.  It was in the YMCA where I was living.  It was then I knew that there were some really good people in the world.  My Sensei, probably of Scandinavian descent, is one of the most understanding people in the world.  Which is why I felt guilty moving to Omaha when I was a second degree purple belt.  If I would have stayed one year later, I would have reached third degree brown belt and the next test would have been for my black belt.

But I didn’t.  I left when I did because I thought bettering my English and Writing were very important.  I know enough about karate to know when proper form is being taught and when it isn’t.  There were no karate teachers in Omaha who could teach me because their form wasn’t correct.

Well, now decades after I first moved to Omaha, I am way out of practice.

With the stress that I carry, karate wouldn’t be a good thing for me.  I am currently so stressed out that I have a clenched jaw so bad that it made my teeth even more crooked than they were.  I want to return to martial arts, but with all the tension in my body, practicing karate would result in injury.

So that leads me to Tai Chi.  I am looking into BK Frantzis.  A guy my Sensei recommend reading and watching his videos.  My Sensei talked about Internal martial arts a lot because he knew that was my interest.  It was a good thing we talked about those martial arts.  It is so useful now.  I plan to learn Tai Chi, but in a way that I could teach it to others.

The basics of a martial art practice is: learning the form, breaking down the technique, real world applications.  All things that I would want to teach.

Self defence has been an important part of my life.  Though the martial arts has other applications than self defense.

Self defense is a process.  The best way to explain would be a neat example I saw on twitter.  People tend to put their car keys between thumb and index finger.  If someone came up and grabbed you, it would be difficult to get out of their grasp.  If you hold your car keys at the bottom of your palm, where the metal part of your key is below your pinky, you could stab your attacker in the leg.  Push your butt out and push your elbows up in your efforts to escape.  That is what self defense is, thinking a few steps ahead.

All martial arts has these applications in their practice.  What it would do for mass shooters, I don’t know.  But the thought process of the martial art may be the difference between becoming a victim and being a survivor.  All the more reason for me to return to martial arts.  The next step for me is learn how to be fluid like water.