Dog Brothers Public Forum

Grateful for a light comedy last night after the kids were asleep.

PK,

I am dropping my forms for the tribal and for September in the mail in a few hours. I know I could have done them electronically, but every now and then I like seeing, and using tangable documents. They should be in to you in a day or so.

Grateful for one of the mentors in my life.

Grateful for a sense of renewal regarding a particular endeavour.

Grateful for a particular work assignment.

Grateful that a 24/36 hour cold is making its exit from our house.

Continued prayers for Japan.

Grateful to be able to maintain some levity about two situations.

Grateful to have worked it out so that my wife can participate in a yoga retreat.

Grateful to have students who seem to LOVE training as much as I do.

Grateful for having support on limitless possibilities.

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!

Congratulations Guide Dog on successfully defending your dissertation. That is an awesome accomplishment!

Thank you for the kind words, Rachel!

Grateful to be in the presence of positive energy.

Where else would today be? 

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

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

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

Grateful to actually have students.

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

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

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

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.

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 my wife is so good with our children.

Grateful for the hope of some stillness this weekend.

Grateful to have the martial arts in my life.