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

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

An Uncomfortable Situation

Image
  Funny pic (and movie) about a not so funny situation… In training as in Life, it’s better to treat people with dignity and respect. However… What does that look like in the moment? Being that I’m teaching a Women’s Assault Prevention and Response Workshop this weekend - it’s probably a good time to talk about… Uncomfortable Situations Let’s talk about training at the academy for a minute… We run open co-ed classes at the local academy. What does that mean? Men and women train together, but we don’t stop there. People of different skill levels, backgrounds, ethnicities, sexual orientations, careers, religious beliefs, political affiliations, ages, injuries, pre-existing conditions, life experience, training expectations etc. etc. train together! We ALL work together! Overall, I think it’s better this way. Of course sometimes there’s static, you know, conflicts, and misunderstanding. When something happens, most of the time it’s just that, a misunderstanding… Sometimes people simply do
Read more

The Shot Heard Around the World

Image
Even though many could see where all of this division and hatred in our country was leading to, when we witness the actual violence, realty once again floods in and has a way of shattering the comfort of our complacency, if only until the next headline. Some may find all of this shocking, others may see it simply validating their own fears. Regardless, of your political views, we have to take into account what this level of violence can do not only to the former President and his family, but what does to the state of our entire Nation. Yesterday as news broke of former President Donald Trump being shot, I can’t say that I was entirely surprised. Saddened, but not surprised. Regardless of your political stance, this act of violence is a dark reminder of the dangerous consequences of a society steeped in hate and division. Our collective heartbreak should not be about politics, but about the division and hatred that fuels this erosion of our humanity. We live in a time where traditional
Read more

Cutting Through the Static

Image
  Me and the crew at Venue 3 Two after a PeaceWalker Conflict Communication Workshop Remember in the old days when you used to listen to the radio on a road trip? No, not digital or streaming. I’m talking about old school FM radio. When you’re putting some miles on and crossing state lines. The radio stations you listen to don’t broadcast far enough for your entire trip, so you have to channel surf to find new channels as you move on down the road. You continue to push the search button until you hear a song in the genre that you want so you can lock in a desirable station for a spell. Sometimes you’re listening to a song you really like but the station is fading… The static starts feint, almost imperceptible, than grows in intensity to the degree that you can no longer ignore it. If you really like the song, you try to hang on as long as you can, listening to the tune through the white noise and times it cuts out completely, hoping to hear as much of the song as you can before the sta
Read more