JS,

The majority of the preparation I did for my first few gatherings was solo. I will preface that by saying I had been part of a padded stick fighting class that met/fought regularly for the better part of two years before I started fighting. IMHO, sign up, show up, and fight. Then you'll know what it is. Like many things in life, you can know yourself very well, but speculation will remain speculation until you do the thing about which you're speculating!

Grateful to be able to create in the moment.

Thank you for the kind words, Rachel!

At the risk of being self-promoting, I am going to move this thread back to the top. I am a high school teacher, and I just successfully defended my dissertation to earn my Doctor of Education Degree (Ed.D.) from the University of La Verne. My next goal is to open a commercial martial arts school. I simply do not have the money to do so on pure speculation right now, so I am hoping to build my student base before moving to a commercial facility.

With my first month of regular classes coming to a close, I have 9 students signed up for monthly training. When I hit 15, I will feel good about renting a facility in the Chino/Chino Hills area. If you live inland, and do not have access to Guro Crafty, or some of the other amazing instructors based to the west of us folks in the IE (that's Inland Empire to non-Cali people), please take a look at my Website and think about making it out for a free evening of training. My current rates for regular training are well below industry standards. In the future, when when I am in a bigger facility and offering more hours of class a week, your current rates will stay the same forever as a way of my saying thank you for starting with me from the beginning.

We already have tee-shirts, a curriculum, a student manual, and a collection of training equipment. All we need are more students to warrant moving to a bigger place. There is no catch. There is no other instructor in the area offering classes in the arts I teach.

http://stoopsma.com

I look forward to meeting you soon.

Grateful to be in the presence of positive energy.

Grateful for another professional challenge to come to a close today.

Grateful to have successfully defended my doctoral dissertation about three hours ago.

Grateful that today is here.

Graetful to attempt to overcome a high level of anxiety regarding an event this week.

Grateful to have not overreacted to a stressful situation this morning.

I like the new look of both the public and the member's sites.

Grateful to have a supportive wife who let me take class this morning and then teach for 3 hours, all while watching our two (crazy) children.

Grateful to actually have students.

Grateful to be in a better frame of mind than I was an hour ago.

Grateful that the stressful part of my work day is over.

Thank you, Guro.

The high school at which I teach is up for California Distinguished School recognition. Tomorrow is our validation visitation.

My dissertation defense is next Friday, which is..."surreal" is the only word that fits right now.

Grateful for today, a prep day for tomorrow: a very important day in regards to my work.

Grateful to have a positive outlook on a current challenge.

Grateful for four days of wonderful training that went by in a flash.

Grateful for a fun dinner with friends. Prayers for those lost and injured in Japan.

I am defending my doctoral dissertation two weeks from tomorrow. I am grateful to have received the spiral bound copy for the defense in the mail today from my editor. I am also grateful for a day of excellent training amongst good friends.

Grateful to have received the electronic and second-to-final-draft version of one of the most important documents of my life today.

James,

Think back to the original UFC. How many deaths were there? Yes, if memory serves, the Sumo guy had his jaw broken by a well placed kick, and I think the Savate guy broke his hand. Just think about the striking, ignore the grappling.

Yes, there was no biting or eye gouging allowed, but how many people involved were permanently debilitated? None, and that was the first time that people boasting, "If I were to really let my attacks go, people would die" had an opportunity to see if that was true. What did we learn? Many of the techniques we thought were deadly turned out to be nullified by fighting in the adrenal state.

Now, turning our attention to RCSF, this also turns out to be true much of the time. The midline horizontal shots we are taught are so deadly in many systems really don't do much in the adrenal state. One of my post-gathering rituals is to go home, take of my shirt and have my wife help me with injury inventory because, frankly, MOST of the shots I don't feel during a Gathering. This is not to say that I haven't been hit hard or that the organization doesn't boast skilled fighters because I have and it does.

Body shots, if they are only leaving a stick hickey, are not severe enough in the adrenal state to be a worry. This is one of the gifts of fighting in a Gathering, rather than training for and speculating about things like hand shots, I have expereinced hand shots.

Yes, there are injuries. Yes, I have seen broken bones and blood. I'm fairly certain I have fractured some small bones in my right hand at a Gathering, but I never gone to the doctor (yet) because in a short time, the pain went away. After one of the last tribal Gatherings at which I fought, I had something like 10 fights (not counting knife fights) in two days, and I went and took a Kali/JKD class the next day. Why? To prove something? To be a "tough guy"?

No. I went to class because the more effort I put into making a Gathering seem like a semi-regular training event, rather than a life-threatening test, the less I have to focus on nerves and the more I can focus on being present during the Gathering, enjoying the tribe members (because, and this is the truth, DBMA attracts some of the nicest, most authentic, funny guys you could ever meet), and enjoying the special nature of the fact that only a handful of people in the world want to do RCSF, and I get to be one of them.

Again, not to be a "tough guy", but to be in that elite number, and be able to bring that self-discovery to my life, my family, my classroom (I teach high school), and my martial arts students.

The human body is capable of handling a lot more than we think it can in our crucible-less, initiation-free culture. That's what I've found to be true.

GD

Grateful for confusion having become clarity on some work issues.

Grateful my wife is so good with our children.

Grateful for a good first week of the next phase in the continuing adventure.

Grateful for the hope of some stillness this weekend.

My wife is sick, so I am staying home to see that she gets some rest and gets better. Grateful to have seen my son off to school a few minutes ago.

Grateful to have the martial arts in my life.

Classes start tonight at 7PM. Tee-shirts arrived yesterday. If you would like to attend, please send me an e-mail: bryan@stoopsma.com

Grateful for a fine day of training amongst nice people.

Grateful to have a great training space coming together.

Grateful for a mentor to have taken the time this evening to communicate in an honest and open manner.

Poi,

You know I have mad respect for you. You're one of my favorite people to beat up and get beaten up by "a little bit". Anyone who has spoken with you/fought you knows that you "get" it on multiple levels. Congrats, brother!

GD

Felt terrible yesterday. Took today off from work and felt terrible for most of the day. I have a minor headache at this point, but I think I need to down some more water. Grateful to be feeling better.

What a terrible, shocking loss. My condolences...

Thanks for the good wishes from everyone. The tee-shirts are on their way. Pappy has set me up with sticks and training daggers. The class Thai pads and focus mitts are also set to arrive shortly. This is very exciting.

Grateful for a nice work week that was extremely positive.

Starting on Tuesday, March 1st, I will be teaching regular weekly classes in my garage in Chino Hills. I will be teaching on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday nights. My current schedule includes up to 32 hours a month of class time.

Professionally, I am a high school teacher. I'm about to earn my doctorate from the University of La Verne (a little private college in SoCal) and I am on to my next goal, which is to open up a commercial martial arts school. I am hoping to build enough students who would like to train with me regularly so that I can eventually transfer to a commercial facility with a student base all ready to follow me.

I start each evening off with an hour of Phase Class, the curriculum for which is composed of eight different martial arts; there is always a DBMA section. DBMA is one of the eight arts I would like my students to experience. Friday nights, I have budgeted a full hour of class time in my weekly schedule for DBMA. There is a DBMA section in all of my testing requirements. I am both a full Dog Brother and a Lakan Guro in the DB curriculum. If you would someday like to fight at a Gathering, I can help you with that. If you are only interested in the practitioner path, I can help you with that. If you would like to do both, I can help you with that. It is important to note that if you would like to learn DBMA, participating as a fighter (which is far out of the comfort zone of most people) and is not required. DBMA is one of the martial curriculums I require my students to explore; if you wish to take it further and fight, that is appreciated but not mandatory.

Your first night of training is always free, so you can come and train and get a feel for what I have to offer. I'll explain my fee structure after class if you want more info, and you could start the next evening I offer classes if you like. The people who start with me will lock in their rates if and when I do transfer to a commercial facility regardless of more hours offered or a more comprehensive schedule. My curriculum is written, and will stay the same from garage to commercial facility.

If you would like more info, please visit my website at: http://stoopsma.com

or e-mail me at bryan@stoopsma.com or give me a call at 909-606-4315

Grateful for support from a variety of different directions and arenas.

Grateful for a nice Valentine's Day with my wife.

Grateful to receive feedback on some important work.

Grateful to file some important paperwork in about 45 minutes.

Grateful to have a sense of where the day is going.

Grateful to have decided upon the form that a project will take.

Grateful for new possibilities.

Grateful to be in a position to start trying to pin down a date and time for a major event in my life.

Grateful for a good start to a new week.

Grateful for my wonderful wife. She's celebrating a birthday today.

A big congrats from me as well.

Grateful to essentially have reached what should be a fun weekend.