Every child and parent has had to deal with the “I want to quit” syndrome. But you can provide a foundation for keeping commitments with a few helpful guidelines. First, you must properly analyze the real reason why the child wants to quit. Are they under for over challenged? Are they bored? Is there a [...]

Black Belt Excellence at home, at school and at the dojo March finds us bringing strategic thinking to the table in order to complete our goals. Identifying a challenge may be a step in taking action, but this is only half of the equation. Actively seeking a solution is the other half. When a student [...]

Our teacher says to have a question ready. You never know when you may get the opportunity to ask the question and work on discovering the answer. Our martial art has an introspective look at the student. Each student needs to be willing to look at the guiding training principle and be willing to ask a [...]

  Enjoy this TedX talk on the wisdom of play- by Stephen K Hayes. Newbury Park Martial Arts Center

Here’s a short section of a great book entitled “The Essence of Ninjutsu” by Masaaki Hatsumi, 34th Soke of the Togakure Ryu. I think this is applicable to all of us. I believe that Ninpo, the highest order of Ninjutsu, should be offered to the world as a guiding influence for all martial artist. The [...]

We spent this past weekend in a self-development weekend, exploring how we can shed old belief patterns, and attract positive energy to reach our goals and help make this world a better and brighter place. Fortunately, we have ancient secrets that are being interpreted for us to fit our modern challenges. The life questions aren’t [...]

4 Ways to Deal with a Bully Compassionate training from Newbury Park Martial Arts Center- check out this interesting article: http://www.theidproject.org/blog/kipp-efinger/2012/01/02/4-ways-loosen-bullys-grip

Awareness of mind and body Today I spoke with a teacher about a few of our foundational skills in our ninja martial art. I was reminded to be ever mindful of both our physical body- and how you may be presenting to others, but also our thoughts- and the waves of energy as they affect [...]

So you can mimic, or you can get the essence. Our martial art sets up circumstances for you to really get a life experience. The student has to be willing to be open to this experience, and to “let the paint dry”—to take the time to test the result of the experience. A good student [...]

                          Benefiting yourself through helping others Perseverance is having a strong will. Do you as a warrior have what it takes to endure a physical challenge? Can you overcome intellectual conflicts without breaking your spirit? This idea of perseverance is represented by our “nin” kanji in the To-Shin Do crest. What is one way to [...]