Amazing animation and swordfight

Check out the animation and dance choreography: very interesting show.

Shadow swordfight presentation brought to you by Funny Tube

Effortless jiu-jitsu and judo / first class back in 2011

On Wednesday we had our first class back for the year with eight regulars on the mat -- what passes for a small class nowadays -- plus one prospective student.

It was good to be back, even on a rainy night; never mind this Summer's floods and cyclones.

* * *

This year I'll be taking an over-arching theme of "minimal effort".  How can we become so efficient in our jiu-jitsu and judo that it becomes near-effortless?

Of course, the training for such masterly ease will entail a lot of hard work!

A fun Judo kata

Changing lives with Cricket.

Martial arts are often seen as sports for hard people who like to fight. Or sporty people who want to express themselves physically. But there is another side to martial arts and that is the intriguing philosophy underpinning the external manifestation. This philosophy often contains elements which help in forging character and development of the self. I'm sure that Funakoshi used this in licking young ne'er do wells into shape physically and mentally. Doshin So certainly used martial arts as a tool for forming people into socially responsible individuals.

But this is unique to martial arts owing to its philosophy and grounding in Buddhism which has important self-development doctrines, right?

Not quite. A cricket team in LA, USA, is using cricket as a vehicle to clean up gangster neighbourhoods. Established 15 years ago it is captained by a homeless activist, Ted Hayes, who feels that cricket has lessons for life which can show gangsters that there are other ways to live their lives.

Mr Hayes says, "We were... successful at teaching the homeless guys civility through the game".

Marvellous.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12382224

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compton_Cricket_Club