Jack Hoban in Minnesota

This past weekend I traveled to St. Paul, Minnesota to train with Jack Hoban and others in Budo Tai Jitsu. It is always inspiring training with Jack. Not only is he a great practitioner, but he shares what I believe to be true warrior ideals; the art of living. He never fails to inspire me.

There we were about forty of us sweating like hogs in this little racquetball court. No air conditioning or matts and not much space to move...It was great! We covered mainly empty hand fighting, defense against the knife and protecting a third party from empty hand and knife attack. It was hot & sticky... all in all really good training! Jack told many good stories about his experiences with Robert Humphery, Hatsumi sensei, The Marines etc. I love hearing the history, philosophy and just cool stories!

I continue to explore their way of moving and approaching combat. The way that they control the space is somewhat different than how I currently control that space. It is kind of like the yin and yang. It is all good, just different. I utilize different tactics to achieve my goals in a combative manner. I saw some rays of light at the workshop. Somethings made more sense to me and I was beginning to capture the flow better. Keep going!

After training I had the opportunity to hang out with Jack a bit and talk. I always appreciate that. A number of us had a beer or two and dinner. We went to some Mongolian grill, the food was great, unfortunately I had to cut things a bit short because I had a 9 hour drive home :( but it was well worth it! I am looking forward to training with Jack again soon (probably next month).

Until then take care all.

~Craig

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