Balance is best achieved by moving. We all have a degree of balance when standing but combat is not done by standing in one spot.

So what are the Karate guys doing when they get into a rigid stance and have the teacher try to push them? Isn't that balance while standing still? Well contrary to what you may perceive that you are seeing with your eyes, a stance in martial arts (Karate included) is not a fixed position but a transition from one technique to another. What the teacher is doing in ...

Congratulations! You got your black belt, now what?

In my home Dojo black belts are encouraged to study outside their own style. This doesn't mean learning a whole new style somewhere else, although that is fine, you should still be training in your main style and perfecting your skills; as a black belt is the top of one set of stairs and the bottom step of another set of stairs. It means to go beyond just doing techniques to thinking about techniques and the nature of combat. No one style has...