May 2005 Newsletter

JUNIOR PURPLE AND BROWN BELTS REMEMBER - - - THERE ARE SPECIFIC RANK TRAINING SESSIONS FOR YOU THE 3^RD FRIDAY OF EACH MONTH AT THE DOJO (UNLESS THE LOCATION IS CHANGED). 

•  EACH EVENT WILL BEGIN AT 6:00 P.M. SHARP AND LAST AN HOUR.

•  THE COST FOR EACH SESSION IS $5.00 AND YOU MUST REGISTER FOR EACH SESSION BY THE WEDNESDAY OF THE WEEK OF THE SESSION SO WE KNOW HOW MANY STUDENTS WILL BE ATTENDING.

•  WE WILL BE WORKING ON SKILLS NECESSARY FOR YOU TO CONTINUE TO ADVANCE YOUR ABILITIES.

Our 19^th Benefit Tournament was held April 24^th at Hackettstown High School.  Slightly more than 200  students participated in 81 divisions.  Congratulations to everyone who participated.   Regardless of the outcome, remember you have grown by the experience.  The next tournament will be easier and less confusing.   We raised a great deal of money for the Diabetes and Cancer programs.  THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO JUMPED IN TO HELP WITH BOTH FEET.  THE TOTAL TEAM EFFORT FROM KARATE STUDENTS, PARENTS AND FRIENDS HELPED MAKE THE DAY A TREMENDOUS SUCCESS. (PHOTOS)

"It is time for us all to stand and cheer for the doer, the achiever - the one who recognizes the challenges and does something about it."   Vince Lombardi

After reading a recent article by Dr. Dick Boyum - “Winning vs. Success,” I found some of the  principles are worth and sharing.

It’s no fun to feel like a loser all the time. We all need to experience a fair degree of success to feel like worthy people. Losing isn’t so bad when we know that we are winners a good share of the time. Being a winner in life is a lot like being a winner in baseball (or karate). It takes a lot of practice; you have to find your position and you have to accept the fact that there will be both good and bad days. You also have to take risks (the hit and run) and sometimes you have to do something today to achieve something tomorrow (the sacrifice fly).

Sometimes in life, like being at bat, we expect too much. If a batter hits 300 he’s really doing well.  But he’s out seven of every ten times at bat!  Even though he is “failing” seven out of every ten times, his attitude remains good because he knows he is doing at least as well as others. He is successful relative to others and so he feels good. In real life we often make the mistake of emphasizing our failures and playing down our strengths. At the same time, we often only see the strengths in others. We forget that each of us (including the other guy) has both strengths and weaknesses, good and bad days. Relative to others, we have as much opportunity to experience success.

As long as we see things in a realistic and perspective way, some things will go as we want them to and some things will not. In that respect the game of baseball and the realities of life are alike. Try to look at all the angles so that your definition of the way things really are is as accurate as possible. Then make the best choices possible as you accept responsibility for your life and what you become. Maybe your batting average isn’t what you would like it to be (It may be better than you think!), but with a little work and the right attitude it can get better.

Just like in baseball, karate competitions require practice.  Attending more events improves our abilities to succeed because we have practiced in the dojo and then we have taken our skills, individually, into the competition.  We must also remember that as we perform, we are being scored by judges that may not fully understand every aspect of our kata and may miss a point we scored during sparring.  Whether you won an award, remember you tried your best.  Think of the good you did.  You participated and you have helped raise money to support Cancer and Diabetes research

Master Duessel,  my instructor,  will be in the area to conduct seminars May 13^th, 14^th, and 15^th.  He  will be conducting seminars explaining the “secret scrolls” (techniques specific to Isshin-ryu Karate created by the founder of the style) and he will be helping students with tips to improve their kata and sparring techniques.  These seminars will be geared to the ranks of people in attendance and one that you should not miss.  The seminars on Sunday the 15^th will be at our  dojo.  Seminars for children will be from 1:15 P.M. to 2:30 P.M. and the seminars for adults will begin at 2:45 P.M. and end at 4:30 P.M.   Please look at your schedules and sign up early for one of the seminars.  We need to have a count so I will know whether to schedule it at the Main Street dojo or at another place close to “town.”

Remember if you want to attend  the 2005 Isshin-ryu World Karate Championships you must preregister by June 12^th.  The seminars and tournament this year are  June 24^th and 25^th in Akron, Ohio.  Any questions see Sensei or Mrs. Hughes.

      There is a single mental move you can make which, in a millisecond, will solve enormous problems for you.  It has the potential to improve almost any situation you will ever encounter  . . .  and it could literally propel you down the path to incredible success. We have a name for this magic mental activity.  It is called DECISION.  Decisions or the lack of them are responsible for the breaking or making of many a career. Individuals who have become very proficient at making decisions, without being influenced by the opinions of others, are the same people who succeed at whatever they set their minds to achieve.  The health of your mind and body, the well being of your family, your social life, the types of relationships you develop  . . . are dependent upon your ability to make sound decisions.  You would think anything as important as decision-making, when it has such far-reaching power would be taught in every school, but it is not.  To compound the problem, not only is decision making missing from the curriculum of our educational institutions, up until recently, it’s also been absent from most of the corporate training and human resource programs available.  So, how is a person expected to develop this mental ability?  Quite simply, you must do it on your own. However, I think it’s important to understand that it’s not difficult to learn how to make wise decisions.  Armed with the proper information and by subjecting yourself to certain disciplines, you can become a very effective decision maker.  You can virtually eliminate conflict and confusion in your life by becoming proficient at making decisions.

      Decision-making brings order to your mind, and of course, this order is then reflected in your objective world  . . .  your results. James Allen may have been thinking of decisions when he wrote,  “We think in secret and it comes to pass. Environment is but our looking glass.” No one can see you making decisions but they will almost always see the results of your decisions. The person who fails to develop his or her ability to make decisions is doomed because indecision sets up internal conflicts, which can, without warming, escalate into all-out mental and emotional wars.  Psychiatrists have a name to describe these internal wars, it is ambivalence. The dictionary tells me that ambivalence is the coexistence in one person of opposite feelings toward the same objective. You do not require a doctorate degree in psychiatry to understand that you are going to have difficulty in your life by permitting your mind to remain in an ambivalent state for any period of time. The person who does permit it to exist will become very despondent and virtually incapable of any type of productive activity. It is obvious that anyone who finds him or herself in such a mental state is not living; at best, they are merely existing.  A decision or a series of decisions would change everything.

      A very basic law of the universe is “create or disintegrate.” Indecision causes disintegration.  How often have you heard a person say, “I don’t know what to do.”   How often have you heard yourself say, “What should I do?”  Think about some of the indecisive feelings you and virtually everyone on this planet experience from time to time.  Everyone, on occasion, has experienced these feelings of ambivalence.  If it happens to you frequently, decide right now to stop it. Indecision is a cause of ambivalence.  However, it is a secondary cause, it is not the primary cause.  People who have become very proficient at making decisions have one thing in common: They have a very strong self image, a high degree of self-esteem.  They may be as different as night is to day in numerous other respects, but they certainly possess confidence.  Low self-esteem or a lack of confidence is the real culprit here.  Decision makers are not afraid of making an error.  If and when they make an error in their decision, or fail at something, they have the ability to shrug it off.  They learn from the experience but they will never submit to the failure. Every decision maker was either fortunate enough to have been raised in an environment where decision-making was a part of their upbringing, or they developed the ability themselves at a later date. They are aware of something that everyone, who hopes to live a full life, must understand:  Decision making is something you cannot avoid. This is the cardinal principle of decision making: DECIDE RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE WITH WHATEVER YOU’VE GOT. This is precisely why most people never master this important aspect of life. They permit their resources to dictate if and when a decision will or can be made.

      When John Kennedy asked Werner Von Braun what it would take to build a rocket that would  carry a man to the moon and return him safely to earth, his answer was simple and direct. “They will to do it.”  President Kennedy never asked if it was possible.  He never asked if they could afford it or any one of a thousand other questions, all of which would have  . . .  at that time  . . .  been valid questions.  President Kennedy made a decision  . . .  he said, we will put a man on the moon and return him safely to earth before the end of the decade.  The fact that it had never been done before in all the hundreds of thousands of years of human history was not even a consideration.  He DECIDED where he was with what he had.  The objective was accomplished in his mind the second he made the decision.  It was only a matter of time  . . .  which is governed by natural law before the goal was manifested in form for the whole world to see.        YOU WILL BE AMAZED!  Once you make the decision and commit,  your desired outcome will happen  . . .  every time.  In school, at work or in the dojo, the things that you decide to do, commit to do, and work to complete will be completed - - once you develop the skills needed to make and keep the decisions necessary to succeed.  In karate the intention to succeed is accomplished when we learn to focus our attention on a single point.  The KIAI, or shout, further heightens our intention just a fraction of a second before we perform a specific task.  AND imagine that  - - - the task is completed!

"Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul; the blue prints of your ultimate achievements." -Napoleon Hill

Congratulations to:

• Junior Orange Belt - Joey Reinbold 

Promotions are granted when the student demonstrates the proper techniques and a continued advancement of practice and training, inside and outside of the dojo