Last nights class was Brad, Aaron and myself, hard to believe that it turned out being one of the best classes we've had in awhile.  Even harder to believe is we spent the entire night on Kata. Ran it, broke it down and tried different Bunkai on one another.  Felt wonderful!!!!

I use to just shake my head and think how silly it was when every few years a new crop of blackbelts or old masters would start proclaiming how useless kata was as if the ultimate goal of martial arts is to fight, and then bemoan the lack of interest by the general public.  It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that most people don't want to fight, most people want to avoid conflict and that is exactly what martial arts teaches.  Now I pity them because their usefulness is directly tied to their youth.  You can only last so long telling stories about your glory days.  Eventually some young pup will come along who is faster and stronger, and if all you are teaching is kicks and punches you are obsolete in no time at all. 

I totally understand the business model for a successful commercial dojo has to focus on what's selling at the moment but my fear is that by doing this we constantly dilute the true nature of martial arts.  That's why The Halls Dojo is and will probably never be a successful commercial dojo.  We love what we are doing!!

Anyway ..... (rant over)

The Halls Dojo is alive, well and open to anyone interested in Traditional Isshinryu or Arnis.