My LMA Years
My Lifestyle Martial Arts Years
Having moved to Hutchinson, Minnesota after my RMA year, I knew that I wanted to continue to develop my Seito skills to earn a Sandan. After looking into the many fine clubs in the area, I concluded that the best way to achieve this was to teach. I began teaching one-on-one in my apartment. When the opportunity arrived I began my very own club with a two goals in mind:
(1) To pass on the knowledge and skills passed on to me from Sabunim, DCU|MAC, Sensei and Sifu
(2) To determine the best method of teaching others to become the high calibre of martial artist that I aspire to be.
It took me a couple of years to figure out that I even wanted to tackle the second goal; not just to teach martial arts but to develop martial artists. The majority of those who ever take martial arts classes are practitioners - people going through the motions mimicking the action of others rather than determining what works best for them. Personalising ones' skills is part of the difference between a martial artist and a martial practitioner. A martial artist is someone who comprehends their strengths and their weaknesses. They comprehend what skills optimise those strengths and mute their weaknesses. A martial artist is someone who tailors their training to what will achieve their own goals. A school that achieves this with every student is a lofty goal.
Having had the great fortune to work with excellent martial artists who have cut their own path, I aspire to do the same. Encouraging my students to do anything else would be asking them to be less then their best. I don't believe any one style to be better than another. I whole-heartedly believe that the skills you develop to work for you is the best art for you. While I do teach from my personal art, I focus on the underlying principles of the art which are universal to all martial arts.
Ultimately, my goal is not to have people say that Lifestyle Martial Arts is the best art or style to learn. Rather I want them to say that Lifestyle Martial Arts is the way that allowed them to discover what art works best for them. Their own.