Verbal Judo founder George Thompson developed Verbal Judo years ago as a way for police officers to deal with verbal insults and assaults as well as getting voluntary compliance without getting physical. With the help of ‘Doc’ Thompson and other Verbal Judo instructors we have incorporated these same lessons into our martial arts curriculum. Many of your kids have already …
Help Me Do 100+ Acts of Kindness!
Our son Kristoffer has taken on a “100+ Acts of Kindness” community service project in preparation for his green belt test in Sensei Oliver’s Junior Karate Class. With each person committing to 10 acts each, he hopes to achieve “way more” than 100 acts of kindness and make a global impact with our extended family and friends here in the …
States of Awareness
Its a nice, easy walk from my house to the dojo. A scant 10-15 minutes of peaceful exercise through the well landscaped UC Davis Med Center. This little exercise has been wonderful. The time allows me to release the day, warms the legs up for seiza, think over the week’s lesson and generally prepare for the class ahead. Mr. Oliver’s …
My Best Cure for Carsickness
Recently, I went on a long car trip. It was several hours of infamous German roads. Beautiful green landscape, 120+ kmph autoban, transportation trucks in spades, and me, being carsick, enjoying not a single moment. We still had a ways to go and needed to get the gymnastics in my stomach settled down. That’s when I thought of it. Mr. …
Safe from Assault: Are you Oblivious or Aware?
In our classes last week we talked about awareness and how real self-defense happens long before violence actually occurs. The U.S. Marines have a system for coding and identifying the various mental states that one can be in. We can apply these same color codes to our own awareness levels so that we stay safe. Condition White – Oblivious In …
Project Idea: 100 Acts of Kindness
The Project: 100 ACTS OF KINDNESS Outline: Jane isna 10-year-old white belt. Her project is to get 10 of her friends and/or classmates at school to do 10 acts of kindness each; recording each act in log that she supplies them. Ten students doing 10 acts of kindness each, equals 100 acts of kindness! Jane and her mother will design …
Sacramento Karate Kid ‘Kick-Starts’ Operation Backpack
Jack, a Sacramento 3rd Grader, organizes “Operation Backpack” at ZennMartial Arts in order to earn his next belt rank. At Zen Martial Artsnstudents are required to choose a Community Leadership Project thatndemonstrates compassion. Jack chose to collect Backpacks for homelessnchildren in the Sacramento area. This is the news coverage from KCRA.
Karate Kids Practice Compassion
Compassion must be practiced. You see, our school is about much morenthan kicking and punching. Kindness is self-defense. Helping others isnself-defense. This video shows just one of the many ways that ournKarate Kids PRACTICE compassion everyday.
Compassion is Everywhere
Today I realized how compassion truly is everywhere. Sabrina and I are visiting her family in Germany. We are in a small rural town, similar to Nevada City or Grass Valley in both size and location. Her family is not well off. They live simply, eat well, work hard, and love life. They also are a model of compassion. Her …
Your Help is Needed with “Operation Backpack”
The Sacramento-area community was more than generous last year – Operation Backpack 2009 exceeded its goal and collected more than 3,000 backpacks. That more than doubled 2008’s figure and demonstrates that even in tough economic times, children in need command attention. Latest statistics show that more than 5,000 Sacramento County school children are “homeless,” with some 40,000 living in poverty. Through Operation Backpack, …