"Even monkeys fall from trees." I came across this one today and at first thought what the heck does that mean? Apparently it is an old proverb. Monkeys by their nature are born to be adept at climbing trees but they still sometimes fall. I see this a couple of ways. Don't get upset when you make a mistake because even those who are the best at what they do still make the occasional mistake. It can also mean to remain humble for the same reason. So, remain humble but don't be too hard on yourself. 🙂

Hi everyone! I hope you're having a fantastic summer — hopefully cooler than ours here in Central California (103–109°F)! I wanted to update you on what's coming for the community, especially those of you in the Distance Student plans. First, I'll keep refining the free resources section. I know it can be hard to know what to study first and what to practice, so I'll work on giving clearer direction. The content in the free section is meant to help you get acquainted with Nami Ryu kenjutsu and help you decide whether you'd like to give distance training a shot. Remember, I'm just a DM away if you have questions. Second, I've been thinking about how to better support our distance students. Two things drove this: live classes are hard to coordinate across time zones (which is where recordings come in), and I want to give you everything you need to train well on your own. With that in mind, I'm upgrading the structure and resources for both distance student tiers: - VIP ($49/mo): Upgraded to a live, dedicated 45-minute class every Tuesday plus two Saturdays a month - six live classes total, each with one core focus. Recordings will be organized by kata, technique, or topic so they're easy to find. - Premium ($25/mo): Built for anyone with less time to train or a training schedule that works for solo training and limited live training. Includes 3 live classes per month plus access to recordings. A few more updates: - I'll be refreshing the Zoom links for each tier. Distance students please look for an email with the Zoom links. I will add the links for you in KO, too, so you can find them easily. - I'm scheduling a free 1-hour training in August, open to everyone. Date TBD. - Fresno dojo students are welcome to join the Tuesday and Saturday Zoom trainings and access the recordings too. These are scheduled outside our regular in-person dojo classes. If you have any questions about the VIP or Premium distance training please DM me or post a question below.

Hi everybody, I just created this poll to get a better idea of where you are at with your training right now. If you're already a distance student, there's no need to answer since this poll is for members who arend distance students yet. Also, there's no wrong answer, I'm just curious to learn where you're at so I know where to direct my time.

In class this week we were working on a displacement exercise. We were each using a jo ( a short staff). One partner held the jo horizontally in front of them and the partner would attempt to move the person by using a cutting motion with their jo. My partner was a pretty big guy and he kept pushing using muscle so he wasn't moving me well. I pointed that out to him and he said confidence is strong faith is soft. He reset and then did the technique well because he didn't use myscle, he followed principles. It was a really good lesson. We may have confidence because we are strong but if we have faith in what we are doing, we wiil be soft and relaxed.

Hey everyone! I hope everyone is doing well. What suggestions do you have for reading in regards to safety, violence prevention, awareness and basic preparedness? I have read The Gift of Fear by Gavin DeBecker and found it to be informative. He talks about developing and listening to your instincts. I definitely recommend. What recommendations do you all have?