As this site approaches its two year birthday, I wanted to give everyone an update of where it is at, where it is going, and how everyone can help. When I started this site in 2010, it was my ramblings about karate class and I expected about five readers (that was all the bigger the class was). Within two months it had grown at a pretty rapid rate. By the end of the first year I had a co-writer (who does a fantastic job), a lot more viewers, and some pretty regular comments. Since last year, I have gained a second partner on this site (who is off doing amazing things in the military at the moment), some money coming in, and a lot more viewers.

Right now, the big strengths of this site are:

• Philosophy
• Lifestyle
• Kata (Videos)

Our big weaknesses are:

• Application
• Weapons
• Organization of the Site

Where I Would Like to Be in May

For those of you who don’t know, I will be graduating the United States Air Force Academy in May of 2013. It will be the end of a big chapter in my life and I think it will both open and close doors in my karate training. As such, I am planning everything with this site on the premise that I may not be able to continue running it after May of 2013. Ideally, I will, but I treat this like a book – and I want to finish the story while I have the time.

Some big things I would like to get finished before then are:

• Complete Section on Okinawan Kobudo (Weapons)
• One Article for Each Technique in Karate
• Videos of A Lot More Application
• Reorganization of the Site by Rank

That last one was suggested by someone on my recent survey. If it was you – please take credit for it in the comments, it was an awesome idea.

How You Can Help

One of the biggest limiting factors of doing everything on that list is the fact that I am a full time college student and on active duty in the military. Everything you see on this site is the product of my free time and the help of readers like you who got involved with this idea.

I would like to start dedicating more of my time to creating videos explaining the application of techniques in kata. I think that is something a majority of people who read my site mention they want more of. In order to do that – I won’t have much free time to write articles.

If I could get a few other karateka who read this site that would be willing to create articles about the hundreds of techniques in karate, I feel pretty confident that this site will be a comprehensive  guide to learning practical karate by May.

I Would Be Willing to Write an Article – How Do I Start?

Leave a comment or email me directly. I will create you a login for the site and explain the very simple instructions to creating an article.

Do I Get Credit for My Work

Of course! I love showing off the great community this site has become. All of your articles will have your picture and bio at the bottom (similar to the other guest writers).

Do I Get Some of That Money You Mentioned

I know at least one person was thinking about that, so let me address what I do with the money. It all stays within the site. I use the money I have been making on this site to pay for hosting, give away things when I have extra, and for the digital camera I use to take photos and shoot video. None of it goes into my own pocket, so I hope that seems fair that none of it will be going into yours either.

This site isn’t over running with random google ads and I try to keep it that way. Being sponsored and getting money lets me do a lot more, but my primary goal is to provide quality karate information to everyone for free. Can’t do that if this whole site looks like one big advertisement.

I Want to Help But Don’t Have the Time/Ability to Write

Make sure to leave suggestions then. As I said above, treat this site like a big book. If you read it – what would you wish was included in the book? Let us know and hopefully we can get it added.

One comment I want to make on the “ability” part – I am not a professional writer. No one who has ever wrote for this site is. If you are willing to write, but don’t have “ability” – try a short article anyway and I can fix any grammar problems and give you some feedback on the article. Any help goes a long way because editing articles is easy – starting from scratch is a bit harder.

A Big Thanks

It wouldn’t be right to end such a big request without a bit of thanks. First, thank you if you are still reading this. Secondly, thank you in advance for any help you can give to this project. I think Noah and Billy will agree, its a lot of fun to treat this as a small team project, but I am realizing there are a lot of people who read this site, know a good bit about applicable karate, and could help spread this message of “karate isn’t just for kids” a lot faster than just the three of us can.

Hope to see you in the comments.

Over the past two years, I have read numerous comments, forum posts, emails, and other blogs where people talk about the stress and anxiety of a belt test. Having gone through a few tests of my own in the last decade, I though I would share three thoughts on how to get through a belt test.

Practice

If you are feeling worried or nervous, odds are you are concerned that you aren’t ready for your test. How better to prepare for that then by practicing? For my 1st dan test I must have practiced Kusanku Sho 1000 times. I would practice it 5 to 6 times each class and then another 20 or 30 times each week outside of class for a few months leading up to my test. It was the one thing I didn’t feel very comfortable on and I just kept doing it until I knew the pattern and was confident that I could do it during my test.

Breath

In my article about drinking tea I talk about breathing routines. One of the routines that I think works very well is to close your eyes and sit either cross legged (“Indian Style”) or in seiza (formal kneeling position). Breath in through your nose for 5-10 seconds. Hold that breath for 5-10 seconds. Finally breath out for 10-20 seconds. Repeat until you have calmed down. Anytime I feel a little overwhelmed, I end up reverting back to this trick and it has always proven to be a great trick when stressed.

Accept You Will Make Mistakes

One fact of tests that almost any black belt will tell you – you are going to make mistakes. The trick to being successful is that you keep going. If you are performing a kata and you make a mistake, keep going and finish strong. The moment you make a mistake, there is nothing you can do to change it – the only thing left to do is to ensure that you don’t make another mistake. Getting upset and reacting to the mistake is a sure way to start making followup mistakes.

Last Contest

I wanted to end this article with a story about a pretty cool guy whose story inspired this article.

For those of you new to the site, back in April and May we were running a contest where we would randomly select one person to win a free copy of Gichin Funakoshi’s Karate-do: My Way of Life (not paid to advertise this – it is just that good of a book that I think everyone should buy a copy).

Terry Soucy of Canada (pictured above on the left) was our lucky winner and you can see him there holding his copy of the book after his Shodan test. He passed and gave me this great email about the night of his test:

Shortly before we were called in for our grading, I took a few minutes from my warm-up to read the last 10 or so pages in the book as you suggested.  I’m wondering if that helped calm me down because at no time did I feel nervous like I did through my pre-grading sesions.

Karate-do is a life-long journey to better yourself, and this grading is just the beginning of it.  I know that.  I’ve always known that, but I think Funikoshi Sensei’s words really helped to drive that whole concept home.  The book could not have come at a better time for me.

What got you through your last test?

• The Way of Walking Alone - Miyamoto Musashi’s Dokkodo, wrote shortly before his death in 1645.
• Organized Instruction - Thoughts on the many Karate organizations and why I am against them.
• Matsumura’s 1882 Letter - Discussion on Budo in a letter from Soken Matsumura to his student.
• Tadashi Yamashita - A short look at the martial arts legend who taught Bruce Lee nunchaku.
• Deep Stances - Why I don’t do deep stances and why you should consider not doing them too.
• Unrealistic Concepts in Karate - A look at some of the less applicable ideas in mainstream Karate.
• Defining Budo - What Budo means and where we have gone wrong in explaining it over the last 100 years.
• Chosin Chibana’s Essay - An essay attributed to Chosin Chibana consisting on a collection of his thoughts on Karate.

If you think there is an excellent article that didn’t make the list, leave a comment below.