Fifteen Upper Body Exercises: (Advanced Understanding) The upper body techniques or “Chart-One” are not original to Isshin-ryu karate. They were…
Fear: Published 1/01/2010 By Gary Spencer What drives a man/woman to pull a stranger from a burning car, or rush…
Do Not Be of Two-Minds: Published 11/08/2013 By Spencer Sensei I have mentioned in other papers that you cannot mentally…
Decoding Bunkai: Sensei Spencer 3/4/2016 Learning to decode kata’s bunkai is like learning an ancient language. The word bunkai, in…
Courage: Published 2/01/2010 By Spencer Sensei In martial arts we seek perfection. Joe Montana once said, and I paraphrase, that…
Competition: Spencer Sensei 10/05/13 It’s that time again. Yes… time for our invitational tournament. Many instructors hate the idea of…
Character: Published May 15, 2010 By Spencer Sensei One of the oldest text references found that refers to Okinawan Te…
Change: Spencer Sensei 12/2/2016 About a decade ago a prominent and well-respected instructor told me about an incident at a…
The Body-Mind Connection: Published 5/27/2016 By Spencer Sensei In the seventies I was training in Shotokan, and for the first…
Blocks are Strikes and Strikes are Blocks Published: By Sensei Spencer There is a saying in the AOKK, “If I…