(Cut to the chase and donate to our Kickathon at Support Sun Dragon!)

The Kickathon is an annual event at Sun Dragon and our main fundraiser for the year.  We gather at Zilker Park, throw a thousand kicks, break some boards, eat an extremely long sub from Thundercloud, and wake up sore the next morning.  This year, in addition to the kicking event at Zilker we'll be doing an evening of marathon sparring and another of marathon kata.  It's gonna be a long week, but it's all for a good cause, supporting our scholarship program specifically and supporting the school in general.

Sun Dragon Martial Arts and Self Defense, the non profit I've been associated with for twelve years,  started over 23 years ago with a simple mission:  to make martial arts training and self defense instruction available to anyone who walked in the door.  Oh.  Wait.  That's not entirely true.  When Sun Dragon started it's goal was to make martial arts and self defence training available for women.  At the time, there were limited options for women who wanted to train and Sensei Suzanne wanted to created a space where women could train without discrimination, hazing, or being viewed as second class students.  Around 1999-2000, Sun Dragon began inviting men to train and today men and women train side-by-side, but the ethic remains of openness and accessibility for non-traditional students. (you can read the basics of our history here: Sun Dragon History )

I recently watched a video produced by one of our students ahead of her book launch next May (Smile at Strangers--Susan (George) Schorn Smile at Strangers--it's a wonderful book that gives a lot of our dojo's history along with George's personal history as a martial artist) that I think is a pretty good representation of what we do.  It's a montage of students breaking boards, one woman after another.  Okay, I'm in the middle of it somewhere.  It's almost a shame that the video is so well-edited because you miss the battles students fought to overcome hesitations and doubts and then triumphantly smash through their boards.  But I find it powerful just the same:

And, of course, there are the children.  Won't someone think of the children?  Okay.  I mainly teach kids classes and so thinking about how to teach children karate safely and effectively takes up a lot of my time.  Almost two-thirds of our students are children that range from four years old (I have nothing to do with them this young!) up to teenagers.  We've got some great kids and I think a wonderful program that opens up training for all kinds of children, gives them manageable challenges, helps them overcome those challenges and move to the next one.  We have a lot of fun, while still learning discipline, self control and principles of justice and respect that in time permeate their lives outside of the dojo.  And, of course, there's the video of children:

The money we raise at Kickathon goes to support the school in general and to fund our scholarship program.  Scholarships are scaled to income level and are designed to make sure everyone has the opportunity to train with us.  The scholarship program also applies to our self defense classes, which we offer annually at the dojo and in conjunction with various other non profits and groups in the Austin area.  We work with the Girl Scouts a great deal, we're currently offering classes that are focused on issues facing the LGBTQ community and we just recently had a series of free classes for children focused on bullying.

I'm proud of the work we do at Sun Dragon and I'm so glad to have been a part of the program for twelve years.  I've been a member of the board of directors for seven or eight years now and have been teaching or assisting teaching for almost as long.  If you'd like to help keep our school going, if you'd like to help us keep martial arts and self defense training accessible for all comers in the Austin area, I'd be honored to have your support.  You can make donations via this link:  Support Sun Dragon!

Thanks for taking the time to find out about Sun Dragon and the work we do.  Thanks also for your support!

I know that some of you have been waiting on pins and needles for this announcement, but the time has come and Kickathon 2011 is just around the corner!  The Kickathon (which most spell check programs refuse to recognize as a proper word), is Sun Dragon's annual fundraiser.  It's like a walkathon, but with kicks.  I promise to do a thousand kicks with 50 or so of my boon companions and all you supporting, loving people out there donate money to Sun Dragon. 

Here's what it looked like last year:

First things first--why would a karate school do a fundraiser?  Sun Dragon is a nonprofit corporation, dedicated to teaching the martial arts and self defense skills to anyone who wants to train.  Our fundraiser helps us keep general tuition low and it helps us provide scholarships for anyone who can't afford to train or take one of our self defense seminars.

Sun Dragon is also different because of the way we approach self defense training.  All too frequently, the self defense model features a long list of things that women should avoid doing to remain safe, instruction on punching, hitting, scratching, kicking to the groin, and a lot of fear-mongering about men hiding in bushes or lurking in sinister vans at the mall parking deck.  Sun Dragon has a more holistic approach.  We recognize that violence lies along a continuum that runs from harassment and abusive remarks all the way up to rape and murder and so self defense must be flexible enough to address a continnum of behavior rather than just offer a few cookie cutter responses to a few basic scenarios.  We also know that the vast majority of violence against women occurs at the hands of friends, family and acquaintances rather than strangers, which means that in addition to violence coming in many different forms, it can also be something that's so pervasive, so much a part of a person's life they may not even recognize it as being destructive.  Because violence comes in so many different forms, a large part of our training focuses on assertiveness training, de-escalation skills, awareness and drilling home the idea that everyone has the right to defend themselves against abuse of all kinds and we try to give people tools that are adaptable to any situation.  Sure, we teach people how to kick the groin, too, but we'd much prefer a violent situation be averted long before that becomes necessary.

So why do I train at Sun Dragon?  You know, I'm not a woman or anything.  I train there because when I moved to Austin I was suddenly without a martial arts home.  I'd been training for eight years in Tang Soo Do and tried a few different schools, trying to find a good fit.  My girlfriend at the time trained at Sun Dragon and so I hung out with them a good deal and I always felt comfortable around them.  Eventually, I figured out that Sun Dragon felt like home and it was silly to train somewhere else when SD was such a good fit. 

A few years back, Sensei Suzanne left the school to pursue other things, Sensei Joy took over and Sun Dragon has become a part of the World Seido Karate Organization, a really good organization with a fine curriculum derived from Kyokushin karate that I like a lot and I have trouble imagining training anywhere else.  My people are good people!

I'm not asking for any of you to break the bank, just a few bucks to help us keep going for another year.  We only have one full time employee (and one very part time) and we strive to keep our expenses as low as possible.  We also scale our scholarships and other assistance programs so that the people who are receiving assistance are buying-in and making sacrafices of their own.  If you're willing and able, you can make a donation (no size is too small!) at our fundraising website via my fundraising page.  Many thanks to anyone who is able to help out!

Hi Everybody!

It's that time of year--Sun Dragon's annual fundraiser to support our scholarship and self defense education programs (described below). Every dollar that you donate will go to keeping our doors open to anyone who's interested in studying karate and anyone who would like to take one of our comprehensive self defense training courses.  We believe that everyone should have these opportunities and with the help of donors like you over the years we've been able to welcome all comers, whether they can pay for classes or not.  Your support will help us continue to do this for another year.  If you've helped before and don't want to read any further, you can just click on the following link to become one of my sponsors with your tax deductible donation to Sun Dragon: 

 http://sundragon.dojiggy.com/pledge/index.cfm?mid=GRAHAM

What's a Kickathon?  It's like a Walkathon, only with kicks!  Sun Dragon students will be meeting at Zilker Park in Austin on November 6th to raise money but also to endure the physical challenge of throwing around 1500 kicks and punches (the youngest kids will be kicking and punching 200 times, older kids 500 times, adults 1000 times and those of us who are helping the kids will try to hit the 1500 mark).  As if that's not enough, we'll also have the chance to join in a fun run before the event or do kata for half an hour.  If you sign up as one of my sponsors then I'll be kicking and punching and kata-ing for you as well as for the dojo (I won't be running--there are limits to what I'll do for the school).

At this point, you may be asking yourself--board of directors?  What sort of karate school has a board of directors?  Well, we're a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and so we have a board of directors to oversee Sun Dragon, to make sure that we are pursuing our mission and to make sure that we use our money wisely and responsibly.  I don't get paid for my work as an instructor (though I don't have to pay monthly tuition) or as a board member so I'm not doing this to line my pockets or anything fishy like that.

If you'd like to support me in the Kickathon, please click the following link to reach my fundraising page (if you're not comfortable with the online process, send me an IM and I'll give you alternatives or you can visit the dojo website at www.sundragon.org and mail contributions directly to the dojo): 

 http://sundragon.dojiggy.com/pledge/index.cfm?mid=GRAHAM

Whether or not you're able to donate at this time, I want you to know that I appreciate your interest and support.

 Thanks so much,

Graham

 Karate Scholarships & Work Study

Kickathon funds directly support the Sun Dragon scholarship fund.  Our scholarship program is available to any student or organization needing financial assistance to participate in any of our classes.  Participants in our scholarship program fill out a simple application that shows the extent of their financial need and they receive discounted class tuition based on a sliding scale.  Approximately 15% of our karate students receive scholarships. 

Sun Dragon has only one paid employee, our Sensei Joy Williamson.  In order to help run the dojo, we also sponsor several work study students who help out in the office and with various administrative tasks.  Again, funds raised during the Kickathon help make it possible to defray the costs of reduced tuition for these work study students.

Self Defense Education

The money raised during our Kickathon also supports our reduced-cost and free violence prevention workshops for local non-profit organizations.   Sun Dragon provides personal safety training and violence prevention workshops for women, children, and men. We believe that an individual is most likely to make the best decisions in threatening situations when she or he has developed a variety of responses, including assertive boundary setting, conflict resolution techniques, and physical defense skills.

Sun Dragon self defense workshops:

• Teach skills in awareness, assertiveness, verbal confrontation skills, safety strategies, and physical techniques, to help students prevent, escape, resist and survive assault, abuse or harassment.
• Provide training in psychological awareness and verbal skills, not just physical skills.

Sun Dragon has partnered with Austin-area groups such as SafePlace, Austin Recovery Center, Girls Scouts Lone Star Council, Settlement Home, GenAustin, LifeWorks, Garden Terrace, Communities in Schools, Avance, Morning Star Rising, and the YWCA, to provide self-defense training for women and girls in all walks of life.

Sun Dragon’s Mission Statement

Sun Dragon Martial Arts and Self Defense supports the physical and spiritual empowerment of all through training in conflict resolution, self defense, and non-violent martial arts.

We offer a safe and affirming learning environment for all. We believe that we can end violence in our community, and that self defense is every person’s right.

Sun Dragon Martial Arts and Self Defense is a registered non-profit organization.  We have a single paid employee which means that our overhead costs are extremely low.  Not only is the money you donate during the Kickathon tax deductible, you can be assured that we will use the money wisely and efficiently in pursuing our mission.

In karate practice every move you make must be made with
intention. You can’t just reposition your body in the air, adopt the
posture of a punch or a block and think you are really training
karate. In karate your intention itself is what you are training.
A kata is a sequence of fighting moves performed against a series
of imaginary opponents. It is one of the two primary methods for
training in the traditional martial arts—not only on Okinawa, but in
China and Japan as well. If kata is trained without intention in the
movements it will not be useful for self- defense. If you are training
your intention, not just your posture, it is an effective means of
perfecting fighting skills.

Kata should be approach(ed) as art on one level, and the pursuit of the kata should, in my opinion, have all of the elements that I touched on: a fever, desire, even obsession. The pursuit of kata should involve the desire(,) the desire to achieve more tha(n) skill, but become art. . And let me be clear the word obsession, it teeters on imbalance. Hmmmm… teetering on the edge of imbalance – where the action is in pursuit of art.

                                            --Obsession in the Pursuit, from The Striking Post

It's a tough line to walk--there has to be an obsessive element to raise any pursuit to an art form that causes other parts of your life to suffer by comparison.  You don't want that to create an imbalance that makes your life too one-dimensional but you do want it to create a spirit of freedom that allows you to take chances and explore, both in your art and in the rest of your life.  Where you draw the line (and how well you hue to it) will be different for everyone.

A friend and training partner (well, okay, she outranks me) over at Sun Dragon writes a regular column on self defense and women over at McSweeney's that she calls Bitchslap:  A Column About Women and Fighting.  And it's always a rewarding read when she comes out with a new one.  Her latest is something of a meditation on the vulnerability (there it is again) of the human body and the really unfortunate fact that there are so many folks out there who like to take advantage of those vulnerabilities for their own power and gain.  She's cynical, sarcastic and funny and she uses those powers to consider vulnerability in terms of Jesus and his becoming human and Christmas all wrapped up in a healthy dose of what in the hell was he thinking when he agreed to be human? 

The natural readership of this article are the kids who are skeptical, those wacky atheists, or just the plain irreverent types like me who love a good twisting of a traditional story for non-traditional purposes.  But for any of you out there in the Christian camp with a thicker than average skin, you might find it interesting as well, a nice little push into the deep end of thinking about the full ramifications of the incarnation.  Sure, we've all had the occasional giggle about Jesus and the more scatological aspects of being human, but I think if you're going to believe that your God became man and dwelt among us, it's a good exercise to keep in mind what all that entails, Tidings of Comfort and, Uh,:

I grew up reciting the Nicene creed, which relates how Christ came down from heaven, and after some not entirely clear interaction between the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary (the Second Ecumenical Council was pretty vague about it), he became man. I've often wondered if Jesus really knew what he was getting into when he signed up for this. It must have been something like having your dad tell you he's buying you a new car for graduation, and it turns out to be a Pontiac Sunbird. I don't know about you, but I'd be pissed.

How is Your Kata Reading Going?

A kata is like a book; one that explores the experiences and ideas of warriors from past generations. They encompass not just rote movements, but core principles that made these classical combatants so effective. As Hayes Sensei likes to say, “if you read a book many times over many years, the words never change. But if you are growing, the meaning and understanding of the book will grow with you.”

Physical Strength:  One of the most basic functions of kata practice is that it makes the practitioner stronger.  At the simplest level, you are repeating a series of physical movements, moving your body, striking with your hands, kicking with your feet, transitioning through different stances, all of which works your body in ways a little outside the norm.  As you go deeper with the kata, more of your body gets involved as the legs become vital parts of your hand techniques, the hip motion becomes more pronounced and your breathing becomes deeper, strengthening your core and the dynamic tension of certain moves works your muscles even more profoundly. 

Flexibility:  I'm not the most flexible person in the world when it comes to static stretches and so forth, but when I'm consistently training with my kata, my dynamic flexibility can be pretty good.  A lot of old school practitioners scoff at high kicks in kata as being useless when it comes to application, but I like practicing much of the time using high kicks because of the physical benefits.  Master Hansley used to always say that we learn and practice the hard way so that we always have the ability to do it the hard way, but also because it makes us better and faster when we do it the easy way. 

Concentration and Focus:  Kata is an activity that can far too easily become rote and mechanical.  You're doing something that you've hopefully done hundreds and thousands of times before so that the actual progression of moves and techniques should literally be a no-brainer.  But when you start a kata, you should be totally immersed in it so that there is no separation between the practitioner and the kata.  Part of that means you need to decide what you are doing in the kata before you start.  Are you just trying to learn the moves?  Are you pushing your flexibility and strength by focusing on deep stances and high kicks?  Are you thinking about application?  Are you working on speed, smoothness, center of gravity?  Or are you approaching the kata without an agenda, looking to find what it can teach you rather than setting the terms of the conversation ahead of time?  I think that if you set out ahead of time with an agenda you are using the kata in a different way than the purist form--you are using the kata rather than experiencing it.  And that's fine--we train for different reasons at different times--just don't forget to frequently approach kata without an agenda so it can teach you.  This is part of what's meant by beginner's mind--keeping yourself open to what the kata can teach you rather than telling it what you want to learn.  But always make sure before you start a kata that you know why you are approaching it and keep make sure that animates the kata once you start. 

Application (bunkai):  Just like our practice of kata can have a lot of different levels and purposes, so can bunkai.  There's always the most obvious level of bunkai, wherein the low block in a Taikyoku kata is just that, a low block (a low block is a low block is a low block).  There are other ways to look at that low block, for instance, consider that the block may actually be part of the chambering movement and then what we assume is the low block is actually a strike to a pressure point in the leg.  Some look at the 3/4 turn in the Taikyoku kata as a hip throw.  Sometimes we approach the bunkai in a kata as a long series of interconnected defenses, other times we break the kata down into discrete combinations with very specific and often nuanced applications.  It's good to have an application in mind as you learn and go through the kata and as you consider it afterwards, but it's also good to keep an open mind and realize that the movements often have many more meanings than are obvious on the surface.

As I mentioned up top, I'd like to end this discussion by pointing you in the direction of a blog post comparing application and performance kata that I found very valuable.  Embedded within the discussion are several videos, some showing very flashy, pretty kata, others showing grittier versions of the same kata.  Check it out and consider your own kata in light of the discussion.  I don't think there's any one way to approach kata and there will be times when the kata itself dictates the terms of how you approach it.  But I do think it's fundamental for karateka to understand their motiviations for their particular approach to kata and I think they should be flexible enough to use kata many different ways as part of their training:

Application during kata can be a tough pill to swallow because it forces us to question ourselves. Every technique in kata is designed to off-balance, damage, or otherwise negatively impact our opponents in a way that would deter them from continuing their aggression. That means with every block and every punch there needs to be consideration for breath, hip movement, weight shifting, and kime (focus) on the end of the technique. Ignoring these things for weak quick-hand techniques or multi-snap kicks can lead to bad habits which manifest themselves poorly when dealing with an enraged attacker who wants nothing more than to punch your face in.

Please read this post in its entirety at The Interweaving of Kata Beauty, Application and Perfection.

1.  Buy mac-n-cheese from Central Market

2.  Take it home

3.  Densely pack about half a pound of mac-n-cheese into a broiler-safe gratin dish--it will be slightly mounded but that's okay; just make sure it doesn't overlap the sides.  Turn on your broiler (I use my toaster oven).

4.  Microwave for around a minute-and-a-half until the macaroni is warm through and slightly bubbly.  It should reduce down to fit the dish as it melts down.  

5.  Sprinkle the top of the dish with a healthy layer of bread crumbs--I've used Progresso Italian Herb bread crumbs because that's what I have on hand and because I like the finer small crumbs rather than something coarser. 

6.  Sprinkle the cajun blend of spices of your choice.  I use a blend called Tchoupitoulas that a friend gave me--supposedly this is Paul Prudhomme's version of Emeril's "essence".  I'm rather liberal with it (as in all things) because I like a little heat. 

7.  Stick it under the broiler.  Since I use the toaster oven, it takes a little longer.  If you're using your oven's broiler you'll need to keep a close eye on it as it will probably brown within a minute or two--you want it brown and bubbly, not black and carbony.  

That's it!  Last night I chopped up some pickled green chiles I had on hand and this was yet another revelation.  If you like the green mac-n-cheese at the Alamo Drafthouse you should try this--I'm thinking that chopping them up and adding them after the microwave step might be an even better way to do this but I haven't tried this yet (the macaroni is a little too lumpy and unwieldy to try this before nuking).

Rather than turning this whole Thanksgiving thing into some sort of maudlin exercise in thinking about, oh-my-god-I'm-so-thankful-for-this-and-that, I'm going with the lighthearted approach.  Don't get me wrong, I'm thankful and stuff, but I've been known on occasion to over-do it.  So today I return to a Thanksgiving tradition I've all but ignored for many years now--listening to Arlo Guthrie sing through Alice's Restaurant.  So today, in honor of and in full thanks for father rapers, dog-sniffin' prints, 8x10 color glossy photographs, forms and pencils, circles, arrows, Group W, psychiatrists and all-American kids from New York City, I give you Arlo Guthrie.  Happy Thanksgiving to all:

November 19th has been declared "World Toilet Day" by a group of nonprofits which are trying to raise awareness of the two-fold nature of the clean water problem.  You can find out more about the problem and what is being done to address it at Water for People.

Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed.  Never shall I forget that smoke.  Never shall I forget the little faces of the children whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky.

Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever.

Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live.  Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust.  Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself.  Never.

                                                                                            from Night

After that day I saw him often.  he explained to me with great insistence that every question possessed a power that did not lie in the answer.

"Man raises himself toward God by the questions he asks Him," he was fond of repeating.  "That is the true dialogue.  Man questions God and God answers.  But we don't understand His answers.  We can't understand them.  Because they come from the depths of the soul, and they stay there until death.  You will find the true answers, Eliezer, only within yourself."

"And why do you pray, Moshe?"  I asked him.

"I pray to the God within me that He will give me the strength to ask Him the right questions."

What's the last chapter of My Name is Asher Lev about?  Asher has painted two pieces, Brooklyn Crucifixions I & II that are to be displayed in his show.  The paintings depict the agony of Asher's mom as she is torn between her love for her husband and her love for her son.  Asher's father in the past has forbidden Asher to even look at crucifixion paintings--they are anathema to him because of his religious tradition and also because his own father had been killed in Russia by a peasant on the night before Easter; an anti-Semetic murder based on the perception of the Jews as "Christ killers." Most of the chapter is filled with Asher's dread of the moment when his parents will turn the corner at his show and see the crucifixions--not only has Asher painted a crucifixion but he has painted himself and both of his parents in it.  The moment they see the paintings is as bad as he has imagined and nothing he can do or say is able to make things right with his dad, though he makes peace with his mom.

A lot of things have changed in my life between my latest readings of Asher--I can't even remember the last time I read it.  But I had my own moment with my Dad in which I lived out watching him be unable to understand his own son, unable to understand the path his son was taking.  To his immense credit, unlike the father in the book I've been able to maintain a close relationship with him since then and through some other times when our divergent beliefs became very clear--he has never turned his back on me even though he's been terribly disappointed by my lack of faith. 

For us, the moment came when I had to tell him that I was moving in with a girl, that I was going to be "living in sin".  I dreaded the conversation for weeks before it happened and struggled with whether I could try to deceive him about it.  But I'd spent a fair amount of my teenage years living a lie, acting one way in front of my family and in my church and another way when I was with my friends and I decided I was done with that.  So we sat down and talked it out and I tried to explain why I didn't think it was wrong to do so and tried to explain that I no longer believed in Jesus and the Bible the same way he did.  I can't really picture the moment any longer but I will always remember the way it felt--the feeling I got from my father that not only had I rejected his faith but that I had rejected him as well.  

I was the same person at the beginning of that conversation and at the end of it.  Regardless of the belief system animating my actions, I was still the same boy who loved my folks and tried to be respectful to them.  But I knew that he would never look at me in quite the same way because we didn't share a common faith.  I think it will always make me sad that the moment when my Dad could understand me better than he probably ever had before was a moment of profound disappointment, hurt and fear for him. 

It may well be that the expectations of others we carry around with us throughout our lives are unfair burdens, they often feel that way to me.  But more than just burdens, I do think they can be incredible tools for looking at our lives and figuring out if what we are doing and the way we are living are in line with what we want and what we expect of ourselves.  And while I'll always hate it that the moments when I'm the most honest with some people that I care a great deal for and love as much as I possibly can are moments when I quite possibly hurt them the most, that's not my fault.  We should never be penalized for being honest, though there are definitely times when it's better to remain quiet than to rub salt in wounds.  

Nothing like the occasional confessional blog posting, eh?  But that's why I love Asher Lev so much--Potok does a great job of distilling some of those tensions and conflicts that exist within any family and universalizing them into great art.