A YEAR OF MAKE OR BREAK

 

   A little more than a year ago, we made a decision to close down our existing location and move to a new one an hour away. Several factors entered in to that decision. Travel time of my instructors, money, leaving a familiar market, and my age. I am on a fixed income, so money has to be well spent. We were also moving into another fitness gym after we had just left one that closed, eight months earlier. We were also diligently working on our Sen-I Jutsu and taking on new students, was going to be a distraction. But new dojo’s need to make money. I was also maxed out time wise by being on multiple boards. These were, the ICA, the Harold Long Foundation and Isshin-ryu Hall of Fame.  My family is also growing every day. We have four daughters between us and we like to help with the 10 grandkids. More than just helping, we like to have them around. My most glaring concern was my age and health. At my age I need to make decisions on the future fast. Hate to sound gloomy, but the future is a lot shorter now than my past. I have also had some unexpected health issues that would usually minimize Martial Art activity. Did I want, and could I stand to teach a mixed martial arts system on a daily basis. My shoulders of some days feel spot welded together. I have a pinched sciatic nerve in my back that on good days only keeps my left foot asleep. The other ailments are from lots of “body brutal” activity. But this is all relative to how bad you want to do what has to be done. I’ve been in pain for so long I’d be afraid I was dead or dying if I had none. Does this sound familiar to any of you?? I also knew that it would require a lot more physical participation opening additional nights and days to training for new students.

   So a wise man would have weighed the minuses and been honest about the pluses. That being the case, I held my nose and jumped in.

 

   Are you ready for some good news instead of all the loser talk, doubts, and fears??

 

   We have enrolled around 60 or so students. They are 90% adult with excellent raw material. I think everyone at the last Jam will attest to that. The 40 I had there were what we are all looking for. No matter how you gage your accomplishments, the only one worth a damn is, what did you produce? How many good people do you have, and what have you done lately. The two below are our first brown belts. They are two worth opening up for if it were just them. They were my first two and only, Wednesday morning students. Every morning as they were leaving I told them how well they did and how much they had improved. In a way I felt kind of guilty as I would just beat the crap out of them in the ring. They would joke that I must be improving too, because they never come any closer to hitting me than from the first. That has changed with them for sure.

 

   
 


 

 

  

   I now have about ten to twelve Wednesday morning people. It is my favorite class next to our black belt work out on Monday nights. They are some bunch!

  

   I have also paid myself back in six months and have turned out a really nice dojo. The Pivotal gym staff could not be any nicer and more supportive. Even so, we have had to build from within our own ranks.

 

   I feel great. My problems don’t put a dent in my training. I train very hard, but with more recovery time in between. I have finally come to accept that, more is not always better. I am planning my workouts and listening to my body instead of my pride, stubbornness and ego.

 

   My Dragons have done everything and more that they said they would. They have actually built the school. I have since dropped off the Hall of Fame and Harold Long Foundation boards. I have stayed on the ICA as training director. We mostly train rather than talk.

 

   I hated to drop from the two boards as I was instrumental in originally helping organize both for Mr. Long. I guess I have contributed enough to both. I hope so. Besides, it is time for some of you other folks to get a shot at running things. It was time and I hope I always know when it is time to walk away. I now have more time to devote to dojo, friends and especially family.

 

   Along the way, we decided to make Dragon Sen-I Jutsu our primary system. Many of my new students are cross trained and hold rank in both DSIJ and Isshin-ryu. However, by the 4^th kyu level, there was not sufficient time to teach both the way they deserve to be taught. In some ways they began to contradict each other. So we met and decided to change over. We dropped the Isshin-ryu part of our name and became, Red Dragon MMA. We also set up a Red Dragon Fight club for the overly aggressive..! It was a good decision for us. Our enrollment soared and we gave our students better input without the dichotomy of two systems.

 

   Sen-I is harder to teach from a physical level, as jujitsu/grappling is five times harder than kumite. Plus, the continuous standup striking that often results in clinching, take downs and ground and pound, is gut check work. With out my black belts help, I’d be dead meat. Sometimes I think I am anyhow. But happy dead meat none the less.   With the hardest possible training, I have lost but four students, due to their lack of interest.

 

   People ask a lot as to why after 45 years of Isshin-ryu, I made such a change so late in life. For one thing, Isshin-ryu was not the only thing I have been teaching all this time. I have been forming and teaching DSIJ since 1999. It was only couple of years back that I made it public and official.

 

   My friend Clyde Stanley and sometimes advisor and jujitsu sensei, has done the same thing in his dojo, as have some others. They just don’t get on a website and write about it like I do.  Clyde teaches his Half Circle Jujitsu and Muay Thai in his dojo. Like the rest of us, Isshin-ryu is at the core of his teaching minus the kata and Stand up only approach. Clyde has expanded his fighting skills and that of his students. He was already operating a very successful dojo full of students. He made the change based on his insight and the courage of his convictions. He started going to Dallas every month taking Muay Thai and continuing his knowledge and education in Jujitsu. He didn’t just hold seminars, he went through exactly what he asked his students to go through. This is tough training but here is a guy with hip and knee replacements, starting over again. He has taken one step back to take two steps forward. That is guts and leadership.

 

  I am appreciative of Isshin-ryu and all it taught me. I think we made a good team. But for me, Isshin-ryu was not to be looked on or followed blindly forever like a religion. My students already have their individual religions and aren’t looking for another one. To deify a martial art, or anyone in it, is not the purpose of my martial art teaching and training and never will be. It is a way of life for me, but it does not define my inner soul. So I approach it as a passion and an activity that is applicable to life in so many meaningful ways.

 

   There are many of us through our training years who have learned a lot. There are just as many that haven’t learned anything past what their one and only sensei’s taught them many years ago. One of my Motto’s is,” what you learn after you think you have learned it all, is what is important”. I never want to hold people through ignorance. I always challenge them through enlightenment. We in the ICA teaching board, have tried hard to make that our standard bar for training with each other. I believe we have more than accomplished that ideology.

 

   Our change to DSIJ has also created a change in competition interest to compliment out specific training, or no outside competition at all. As point fighting does not follow our training regime, we have opted out of those tournaments with only that to offer. That has been used as a political talking point by some. Yes, I’ll readily admit that another reason me and my guys decided to depart from Isshin-ryu, was to avoid some of the clowns you run into... I’m speaking of a very few, but they mess it up for everyone else. I know they are not exactly missing me either and that is fair and fine. We hate it that we can’t support our friends to include the Hall of Fame, but their competition format is their decision. It is no secret that attendance is way down at most point tournaments. If I was a tournament director, I would be looking for ways to attract people, not keep them away. If I had my time and money in it, I would open my tournament up to attract others as I saw fit. It is too bad that the same boards and associations dictating the rules and activities, are not even adequately supporting their own members tournaments. I’d get on the phone and personally invite schools not attending. I would find out what it would take to have them. Otherwise, it will wind up with more high ranking dans than competitors. Most Isshin-ryu schools don’t have the student enrollment any longer to support the tournaments. You have many sensei’s bringing one or two students or many bringing only themselves. Why there is no effort to change things up, I don’t get. I see why the big shots don’t care. They have a nice social day, get in their cars and go home. The poor tournament director is left to pick up the pieces.  But it is not my worry and that is why I don’t feel too awfully bad not going. I’d tell the rules and policy makers, to take their old boy politics and stick them up their old yin yang. Then I’d go out and recruit support. There are four dojo’s who have been made to feel unwelcome by the click, that have well over 100 students/competitors. I have forty myself that are free to travel.

 

   I also must say that the mma (striking, jujitsu/grappling) people by and large, are very easy to be around and identify with. They are not especially hung up on rank or any kind of political drama. I think it is because they concentrate on their training and don’t get involved in the politics. In this way and others they are just a different breed of martial artist. They also have an easygoing, top among equals relationship with their students. I feel because they are not just always teaching and are physically involved in the training. Also the interest in new ideas and techniques are for more than to just appear to be an expert. It is for their improvement too. It is a different culture that we are enjoying and discovering a whole new world of people. Real friends are solid and don’t need a common martial system to define the strength of that friendship. For this I am grateful. I and my Isshin-ryu friends know, that if we pursue different martial arts paths forever, the friendship is still the same. This is why we formed the Red Dragon Tab holders group, to illustrate this very relationship statement. However, every time you take a step forward you leave someone behind. For some, politics and like thinking do define their relationship with people. The only status they have is around their waist and they are petrified of loosing it.  

 

  Last and probably least, the rank thing reared it’s ugly head. At the last Hall of Fame, I was awarded two tenth dan certificates. One for Isshin-ryu and one for Sen-I Jutsu. By now, everyone but our new readers know that. They were given by supportive friends. But for a couple who signed my certificates for whatever reason, they are people of merit and judgment. If you want to find out who your friends are in Isshin-ryu, just get promoted over them, or equal to them. Some of  the “rank police” who were aghast and horrified, have  produced not one quality black belt in twenty years if ever, and/or have not had or trained consistently in a dojo for years. Some are just family members of the chiefs of police and have received their rank and awards by outrageous nepotism or pillow talk. It is this kind of hypocrisy that sends us running for cover to the ICA JAMS, and well rounded and grounded associates events.

 

   High ranking dans of the ICA have promoted some very deserving people. We have the power and we will use it to reward what is worth rewarding. I have also given certification in Sen-I Jutsu to four high ranking dans; (Butch Hill, James Ogle, Joe Laney and Clyde Stanley) There is room and justification within my system to do this.

 

   I have since retired my rank of Ju-dan in Isshin-ryu and will wear it later when the time is right.

 

  I have a belief that there should be only one Ju-dan per system. This is just my belief and should not reflect on some of the fine Ju-Dans around the country. Master Harold Mitchum is the only one I consider myself junior to at this point. In the mean time, I proudly wear my, Master Chief Instructor rank, in Dragon Sen-I Jutsu and my Ku-dan rank in Isshin-ryu. Throw in my sho-dan in Half circle jujitsu and Kung-fu, and I think I have enough to work with right now.

 

   So how has your year been so far. And you thought I had no reason for my bad disposition and temper. It has been rewarding but it has also been trying. I have said a lot of things I have said before. I repeated myself, as there are a lot of fine people out there held captive by their own fears and doubts. You cannot hide from progress of promote your self into being a better martial artist. If you are getting all you need for that right now, pump it like an oil well. If not, you have some decisions to make. No guts, no blue chips. Do what makes you happy, makes you a good student or instructor and where you can make a difference in someone’s life outside of church, the work place and your own family unit. You are the kind of people who can lead others through life’s clutter. Lets just all make sure we are going in the right direction when we do.

 

 GOD BLESS OUR TROOPS AND

 

GOD BLESS AMERICA