"... absorb what is useful. discard what is not ..."
SHAOLIN CAT BOXING!?
Shaolin Cat Boxing. This is how I would define my training style. It is not a new martial art. It is simply a new way of returning to the old, authentic martial arts practice - as it was perceived "back in the days". It is a radical way of training - meaning a way of returning to the roots, to where it all started. My idea is to combine all the useful elements from all the disciplines I have encountered into one coherent and complete form of training.
To me, a complete martial artist should be able to demonstrate an array of skills, and not be satisfied with just mastering one of them. As martial artists, our task is to be human - totally human - and to go beyond, to always push over our limits. To be extremely curious about the human body and the human mind and to explore this in all possible ways. There has to be a good understanding of bodily functions and mental processes.
Martial arts, to me, are a form of active philosophy & medicine. But, before anything, this is an ART FORM. This is mainly about doing, not about talking. Of course, we have to be able to do the talking too - hence this blog. I am trying to make people understand what am I doing and it is a very tricky task since understanding movement can only happen through movement, not through words. The word itself - understanding - means to read between the lines. It comes from the Latin word "inter legere", which means "reading in between". As a native Romanian speaker, this comes easy to me since the Romanian word for this is "înțelegere". Simply acquiring knowledge over a topic is not enough for understanding. It may be useful to have some guidelines and combine physical practice with intellectual/scientific study, but at the end of the day it all comes down to SWEAT.
SO, WHAT'S UP WITH CATS
To me, the cat is a complete martial artist! Many traditional martial arts have found their inspiration within the animal reign and have developed animal styles: crane, tiger, dragon, monkey, snake, etc. Some have inspired their movement from the natural environment: water, fire, trees, grass, mountains, stars, etc. For example: Plum Style Kung Fu, Five Flower Boxing, Seven Star Fist. Some even got inspired from colors: Small Red Boxing - Xiao Hong Quan.
I have found my inspiration in CATS! Observing them, I noticed that they are able to fight well (even larger opponents such as bears, alligators - check youtube!), they are able to run, jump, land & climb very well (they are masters of their environment), they have healthy habits (washing, sleeping, eating), they recover very fast from injuries through purring during semi-conscious sleep (looks like mediation to me!), and they can be very brave, very patient, very focused, affectionate, resilient, sharp (also literally), peaceful, self reliable and, at times, they can even display quite an impressive sense of humor and sneakiness through various subtleties. So, I have tried to analyze the cats through different perspectives and picked up their skills one by one. At the same time, I pick up whatever I find suitable for my personality and body type from the different martial arts I have practiced and I mix all this together in one complex and complete training style: Shaolin Cat Boxing.
If you love cats, then you can get this very easily. If you are not crazy about cats, don't worry at all, just keep training (and don't mention you don't like them while around me, haha). This is not a cat cult. I don't even have my cat living with me anymore and I have already made up this training so you won't have to focus on petting cats, but on sharpening movements. Of course, having a cat and observing the cat would help our training immensely.
At The Shaolin Temple, they have been observing the big cats for thousands of years and have created traditional forms (Taolu) of Tiger & Leopard Boxing Styles. One of the Five Fundamental Stances in Shaolin is called Cat Stance (Xu Bu or Mao Bu). The First Basic Stance in Shaolin is also inspired from animals and it is called Horse Stance (Ma Bu). One of the most famous Shaolin QiGong Forms - Eight Treasures - has one of its sets designed for stretching the lower back and regenerating the kidney energy and it is called Cat Stretch Back. Also, at Shaolin, they put a lot of emphasis on being as agile as a cat! They show great respect for cats!
MIXING THE ELEMENTS
To get ourselves started, good knowledge on nutrition and good COOKING skills are a must. No food - no fuel - no training. The food is our fuel and it is our medicine, we must know how to cook and we must be able to enjoy it so that we can improve it. It all starts with cooking our own food. From this, we can grow healthy food habits. We may eat the healthiest food in the world, but if it does not come in the right proportions and at the right time - we may still get fat and out of shape. Eating disorders are common also among healthy food lovers and top athletes, not just among junk food consumers. Knowledge, open mindedness and discipline in this regard are essential for a long term practice. You can read more about my perspective on this topic in my article about Nutrition. Keep it simple. Start your day with fruits. Eat 90% plants. Cut down on sugar, white bread, alcohol, cigarettes and crap, in general. No supplements, no painkillers, no whey powders. No bullshit. Just food.
The next observation is with regard to HYGIENE. The cat always washes and stretches herself before and after sleep.
I recommend hot & cold showers and as little cosmetics as possible. I can't trust a product of which ingredients I cannot understand. Cosmetics have all the ingredients in the world. Especially, please do not use deodorants. I sometimes see people using them right after training, or right before training. Deodorants can harm the sweating process and it can close the skin. It does not allow it to breath. Therefore, the sweat will stay inside. It can be very damaging and very toxic. Same happens when we always train with the t-shirt on. I can understand that some people may feel uncomfortable being topless or being around other people who are topless. But, we must understand that this is done in the name of good health. It is not show off. If you feel uncomfortable training t-shirtless in public, please do this privately, at least once a week, so that the part of your body where most of your organs are is free, uncovered and the skin can breathe. It is much easier to understand this topic about no t-shirt & sweat when you train 6 times a week. And now we got back to the meaning of the word "understanding". It comes from doing. Not from reading. Not from thinking. If the skin gets irritated and if we cannot sweat properly, this can keep us out of training for a while and it can be just as annoying as a joint or muscle injury that does not allow us train. For example, the pain you get from plantar fasciitis - the inflammation of the soles of your feet - can be unbearable and you may even be able to stand or walk, not to mention training. The same happens when you have an irritation under your arm or on your back - even sleeping becomes a problem, not to mention training and sweating.
Use natural/homemade cosmetics (coconut oil), use natural massage oils (olive oil, arnica oil, dit da jouw) and, if possible, get a bamboo brush as well to hit/massage the body after training. And always shower.
Cleaning the mind is also just as important as cleaning the body. DAILY MEDITATION is recommended for calming down the nervous system which is in charge of all our reactions. We may have an industrial amount of reactions over a single day and we go on dreaming and reacting in our sleep as well. There has to be an amount of time given to pause all this and give our mind some rest. We need it for clearing our vision, processing past events, understanding the patterns of our mind and giving the body a chance to rest and regenerate. Start small with 5-10 minutes a day and build up.
Of course, SLEEP is also very important. If we look back at the cats - they are big fans of sleep. Try to sleep at least 7 hours per night and always try to be in bed already before midnight. Lack of sleep will burn us out and leave us drained. It also makes us fat and depressed.
In order to maintain our physique and speed up recovery as well as boost athletic performance, STRETCHING & QIGONG (breath training) are vital to our training. In this case, I have found all the knowledge I needed in Shaolin QiGong. QiGong, or breath training, or energy training, is an essential part of our recovery & maintenance training. Without QiGong, our whole training would lack the understanding of the internal bodily functions and the way our internal organs have an influence over our external movement. QiGong can help us recover faster from sickness and injury, it gets us rid of headaches and back-pain, it enhances our immune system and it relaxes our nervous system, it relieves stress and it gives us feelings of peace in return. It also increases our martial power. Stretching helps a lot with preventing muscle pain and joint/tendon injury and it extends the life of our training. In Shaolin, we train Stretching in two different ways: static & dynamic. These two practices - stretching & qigong - are the Soft Training from Shaolin. We need to combine Soft Training (Yin/QiGong) with Hard Training (Yang/Kung Fu) so that we can balance these energies and truly make our bodies stronger, internally and externally.
Now, we can move on to the Hard Training. We can start by taking care of these five qualities in this exact order: Stamina, Flexibility, Strength, Power & Speed. First, we need to START TO LIKE RUNNING. I do not understand martial artists who do not run! This is unacceptable. We have to run! Stamina is like our phone battery. It simply does not matter what type of phone we have and how many fancy applications we have on it if the battery is dead. First, we build up stamina so that we can endure the hard training and so that our minds don't get easily tired and out of focus. STAMINA, just like stretching, can be practiced in a static way and in a dynamic way. Example of static stamina training: planks & horse stance, handstands & headstands. Dynamic stamina training: running, swimming, cycling, skip rope and the really fun and artistic part comes when we START TO UNLOCK THE SHAOLIN TRADITIONAL FORMS.
The Traditional Shaolin Kung Fu Forms (Taolu) train all the above mentioned qualities, plus some more, at the same time - in one training unit that addresses both body training & mind training. Coordination, focus, memory are also trained through the forms. Self Defense Applications can be discovered within the forms. They are a fun and enjoyable way to train the body, especially for when we get bored of repetitions. Oh... REPETITION! We will also have TO START TO LIKE BOREDOM. There is no other way. We have to repeat, repeat, repeat. Same movement, on and on. Thousands and thousands of times. This is the only way through which we can make a movement sharp, accurate, clear. And, the trick to fighting boredom is joy. If we really like and enjoy our training, boredom will not be such a big problem. If we have very clear goals for our training - putting in the hard work and the needed brain power will not be a burden, it will be pure joy. That feeling of the time flying - we only get that feeling when we are in love. We may be in love with someone - and then the time spent with that person goes by extraordinarily fast. Or, we may be in love with a movement - and the time spent doing that movement thousands of times will also go by very fast. This way, we stay younger for longer. The time does not stress us so much. We get tired when the time is passing really slow...
For building up strength, we make use of CALISTHENICS - functional body weight exercises, such as Squats & Push Ups. These exercises are extremely important for developing the Muscle System! Strong muscles are important for building up a good body posture and for protecting the bones and the internal organs from external injuries. Of course, stronger muscles also mean more powerful techniques and better defense.
We pick up our SELF DEFENSE TECHNIQUES mainly from Shaolin Kung Fu Forms and then we train each of these moves separately. We always keep an eye open on all the other martial arts and we may steal whatever moves seem intelligent and suitable for us. We use BOXING & SANDA for making our punches & kicks stronger and for translating, understanding, decoding or adapting the traditional technique embedded within the traditional Shaolin Forms.
In order to make our training more playful and to have a better relationship with our environment we use PARKOUR - the art of moving from Point A to Point B with maximum speed and minimum effort. For street self defense, this art is essential. Back in the days, Parkour was an integrating part of the martial art training. Think of Ninjutsu, for instance. It is still an integrating part of the current military training. But, nowadays, it has been separated from the traditional martial art training BECAUSE OF THE BOOM OF GYMS. Martial artists nowadays no longer train OUTDOORS. Training outside can increase the life of our training and will make us stronger, healthier and more creative. The space in which we train has a great impact on our mood and movement. If we always train in the same place, if we always train indoors... we can only get that far. Surrounded by 4 walls, just how much oxygen and inspiration can you get!? Surrounded by trees, wind, sun, stars, flying birds - that is a whole different type of training! And, I honestly recommend doing this all year round: spring, summer, autumn, winter and spring again.
WHY SO SERIOUS!?
Well, mainly because we only get to live this life once! It is now or never! And, no matter how optimistic we are about life, how happy we are about ourselves - life is suffering. It is a constant movement through time & pain. Here and there we may experience some great joys and great moments, but if we look at life as a whole we can easily see that this is not an easy process and that we lack the physical and mental training for understanding existence.
Some told me to take it easy, "no army of ninjas will attack you"! Well, that you simply never know! (Haha) We take it very easy - hence soft training, hence meditation, hence chilling & resting. We want to do this training exactly so that we can take it easy! Life is hard, man! We have to be strong! We want to enjoy life. So that life is not only suffering. But for this, we also need to push hard, we need to train hard and train smart. And we need to keep moving forward, keep pushing over and over our limits to give our body its optimum health and its best level of athleticism. Are you simply not curious!? You have a life! You have a mind and a body! Are you happy with just being able to climb the stairs and walk here and there and maybe dance and bounce a bit and, once in a blue moon, go on a hike... Seriously!? Are you not curious to see just of how much is this body actually capable of?! Are you not jealous on these people who seem to be having super powers? Don't you want to look beautiful, feel good!? I believe that it is our birthright to be happy, be strong, be healthy, look good and enjoy freedom of movement and freedom of/from thought.
Our mind and our body are a gift from existence, a gift from the Universe! It is our duty to take care of it! By doing so we give a gift back to the Universe and we give a gift back to us too. Besides this, I want to emphasize the word ART from the name Martial Arts. This is an art form! As martial artists, most of us train simply because we ENJOY it! Simply because we love it and we want to make it better. As a musician, you may play a song thousands of times until you get the exact sound you want, the sound you feel is the right sound. As a cook, you cook a certain dish so many times until it becomes so easy to cook and it becomes more and more delicious. As martial artists, we do the same - we train our capacity to move until movement becomes easy and perfect, until we feel that the quality of our movement has reached a different level. And through training the body we also train the mind so that our movement is not just mechanic, robotic, but it becomes aware movement, artistic movement, beautiful movement and the mind can get used to living in the present moment. We do this for the peace and the blossoming of our life!
Shaolin Cat Boxing. This is how I would define my training style. It is not a new martial art. It is simply a new way of returning to the old, authentic martial arts practice - as it was perceived "back in the days". It is a radical way of training - meaning a way of returning to the roots, to where it all started. My idea is to combine all the useful elements from all the disciplines I have encountered into one coherent and complete form of training.
To me, a complete martial artist should be able to demonstrate an array of skills, and not be satisfied with just mastering one of them. As martial artists, our task is to be human - totally human - and to go beyond, to always push over our limits. To be extremely curious about the human body and the human mind and to explore this in all possible ways. There has to be a good understanding of bodily functions and mental processes.
Martial arts, to me, are a form of active philosophy & medicine. But, before anything, this is an ART FORM. This is mainly about doing, not about talking. Of course, we have to be able to do the talking too - hence this blog. I am trying to make people understand what am I doing and it is a very tricky task since understanding movement can only happen through movement, not through words. The word itself - understanding - means to read between the lines. It comes from the Latin word "inter legere", which means "reading in between". As a native Romanian speaker, this comes easy to me since the Romanian word for this is "înțelegere". Simply acquiring knowledge over a topic is not enough for understanding. It may be useful to have some guidelines and combine physical practice with intellectual/scientific study, but at the end of the day it all comes down to SWEAT.
SO, WHAT'S UP WITH CATS
To me, the cat is a complete martial artist! Many traditional martial arts have found their inspiration within the animal reign and have developed animal styles: crane, tiger, dragon, monkey, snake, etc. Some have inspired their movement from the natural environment: water, fire, trees, grass, mountains, stars, etc. For example: Plum Style Kung Fu, Five Flower Boxing, Seven Star Fist. Some even got inspired from colors: Small Red Boxing - Xiao Hong Quan.
I have found my inspiration in CATS! Observing them, I noticed that they are able to fight well (even larger opponents such as bears, alligators - check youtube!), they are able to run, jump, land & climb very well (they are masters of their environment), they have healthy habits (washing, sleeping, eating), they recover very fast from injuries through purring during semi-conscious sleep (looks like mediation to me!), and they can be very brave, very patient, very focused, affectionate, resilient, sharp (also literally), peaceful, self reliable and, at times, they can even display quite an impressive sense of humor and sneakiness through various subtleties. So, I have tried to analyze the cats through different perspectives and picked up their skills one by one. At the same time, I pick up whatever I find suitable for my personality and body type from the different martial arts I have practiced and I mix all this together in one complex and complete training style: Shaolin Cat Boxing.
If you love cats, then you can get this very easily. If you are not crazy about cats, don't worry at all, just keep training (and don't mention you don't like them while around me, haha). This is not a cat cult. I don't even have my cat living with me anymore and I have already made up this training so you won't have to focus on petting cats, but on sharpening movements. Of course, having a cat and observing the cat would help our training immensely.
At The Shaolin Temple, they have been observing the big cats for thousands of years and have created traditional forms (Taolu) of Tiger & Leopard Boxing Styles. One of the Five Fundamental Stances in Shaolin is called Cat Stance (Xu Bu or Mao Bu). The First Basic Stance in Shaolin is also inspired from animals and it is called Horse Stance (Ma Bu). One of the most famous Shaolin QiGong Forms - Eight Treasures - has one of its sets designed for stretching the lower back and regenerating the kidney energy and it is called Cat Stretch Back. Also, at Shaolin, they put a lot of emphasis on being as agile as a cat! They show great respect for cats!
MIXING THE ELEMENTS
To get ourselves started, good knowledge on nutrition and good COOKING skills are a must. No food - no fuel - no training. The food is our fuel and it is our medicine, we must know how to cook and we must be able to enjoy it so that we can improve it. It all starts with cooking our own food. From this, we can grow healthy food habits. We may eat the healthiest food in the world, but if it does not come in the right proportions and at the right time - we may still get fat and out of shape. Eating disorders are common also among healthy food lovers and top athletes, not just among junk food consumers. Knowledge, open mindedness and discipline in this regard are essential for a long term practice. You can read more about my perspective on this topic in my article about Nutrition. Keep it simple. Start your day with fruits. Eat 90% plants. Cut down on sugar, white bread, alcohol, cigarettes and crap, in general. No supplements, no painkillers, no whey powders. No bullshit. Just food.
I recommend hot & cold showers and as little cosmetics as possible. I can't trust a product of which ingredients I cannot understand. Cosmetics have all the ingredients in the world. Especially, please do not use deodorants. I sometimes see people using them right after training, or right before training. Deodorants can harm the sweating process and it can close the skin. It does not allow it to breath. Therefore, the sweat will stay inside. It can be very damaging and very toxic. Same happens when we always train with the t-shirt on. I can understand that some people may feel uncomfortable being topless or being around other people who are topless. But, we must understand that this is done in the name of good health. It is not show off. If you feel uncomfortable training t-shirtless in public, please do this privately, at least once a week, so that the part of your body where most of your organs are is free, uncovered and the skin can breathe. It is much easier to understand this topic about no t-shirt & sweat when you train 6 times a week. And now we got back to the meaning of the word "understanding". It comes from doing. Not from reading. Not from thinking. If the skin gets irritated and if we cannot sweat properly, this can keep us out of training for a while and it can be just as annoying as a joint or muscle injury that does not allow us train. For example, the pain you get from plantar fasciitis - the inflammation of the soles of your feet - can be unbearable and you may even be able to stand or walk, not to mention training. The same happens when you have an irritation under your arm or on your back - even sleeping becomes a problem, not to mention training and sweating.
Use natural/homemade cosmetics (coconut oil), use natural massage oils (olive oil, arnica oil, dit da jouw) and, if possible, get a bamboo brush as well to hit/massage the body after training. And always shower.
Cleaning the mind is also just as important as cleaning the body. DAILY MEDITATION is recommended for calming down the nervous system which is in charge of all our reactions. We may have an industrial amount of reactions over a single day and we go on dreaming and reacting in our sleep as well. There has to be an amount of time given to pause all this and give our mind some rest. We need it for clearing our vision, processing past events, understanding the patterns of our mind and giving the body a chance to rest and regenerate. Start small with 5-10 minutes a day and build up.
Of course, SLEEP is also very important. If we look back at the cats - they are big fans of sleep. Try to sleep at least 7 hours per night and always try to be in bed already before midnight. Lack of sleep will burn us out and leave us drained. It also makes us fat and depressed.
In order to maintain our physique and speed up recovery as well as boost athletic performance, STRETCHING & QIGONG (breath training) are vital to our training. In this case, I have found all the knowledge I needed in Shaolin QiGong. QiGong, or breath training, or energy training, is an essential part of our recovery & maintenance training. Without QiGong, our whole training would lack the understanding of the internal bodily functions and the way our internal organs have an influence over our external movement. QiGong can help us recover faster from sickness and injury, it gets us rid of headaches and back-pain, it enhances our immune system and it relaxes our nervous system, it relieves stress and it gives us feelings of peace in return. It also increases our martial power. Stretching helps a lot with preventing muscle pain and joint/tendon injury and it extends the life of our training. In Shaolin, we train Stretching in two different ways: static & dynamic. These two practices - stretching & qigong - are the Soft Training from Shaolin. We need to combine Soft Training (Yin/QiGong) with Hard Training (Yang/Kung Fu) so that we can balance these energies and truly make our bodies stronger, internally and externally.
Now, we can move on to the Hard Training. We can start by taking care of these five qualities in this exact order: Stamina, Flexibility, Strength, Power & Speed. First, we need to START TO LIKE RUNNING. I do not understand martial artists who do not run! This is unacceptable. We have to run! Stamina is like our phone battery. It simply does not matter what type of phone we have and how many fancy applications we have on it if the battery is dead. First, we build up stamina so that we can endure the hard training and so that our minds don't get easily tired and out of focus. STAMINA, just like stretching, can be practiced in a static way and in a dynamic way. Example of static stamina training: planks & horse stance, handstands & headstands. Dynamic stamina training: running, swimming, cycling, skip rope and the really fun and artistic part comes when we START TO UNLOCK THE SHAOLIN TRADITIONAL FORMS.
The Traditional Shaolin Kung Fu Forms (Taolu) train all the above mentioned qualities, plus some more, at the same time - in one training unit that addresses both body training & mind training. Coordination, focus, memory are also trained through the forms. Self Defense Applications can be discovered within the forms. They are a fun and enjoyable way to train the body, especially for when we get bored of repetitions. Oh... REPETITION! We will also have TO START TO LIKE BOREDOM. There is no other way. We have to repeat, repeat, repeat. Same movement, on and on. Thousands and thousands of times. This is the only way through which we can make a movement sharp, accurate, clear. And, the trick to fighting boredom is joy. If we really like and enjoy our training, boredom will not be such a big problem. If we have very clear goals for our training - putting in the hard work and the needed brain power will not be a burden, it will be pure joy. That feeling of the time flying - we only get that feeling when we are in love. We may be in love with someone - and then the time spent with that person goes by extraordinarily fast. Or, we may be in love with a movement - and the time spent doing that movement thousands of times will also go by very fast. This way, we stay younger for longer. The time does not stress us so much. We get tired when the time is passing really slow...
For building up strength, we make use of CALISTHENICS - functional body weight exercises, such as Squats & Push Ups. These exercises are extremely important for developing the Muscle System! Strong muscles are important for building up a good body posture and for protecting the bones and the internal organs from external injuries. Of course, stronger muscles also mean more powerful techniques and better defense.
We pick up our SELF DEFENSE TECHNIQUES mainly from Shaolin Kung Fu Forms and then we train each of these moves separately. We always keep an eye open on all the other martial arts and we may steal whatever moves seem intelligent and suitable for us. We use BOXING & SANDA for making our punches & kicks stronger and for translating, understanding, decoding or adapting the traditional technique embedded within the traditional Shaolin Forms.
In order to make our training more playful and to have a better relationship with our environment we use PARKOUR - the art of moving from Point A to Point B with maximum speed and minimum effort. For street self defense, this art is essential. Back in the days, Parkour was an integrating part of the martial art training. Think of Ninjutsu, for instance. It is still an integrating part of the current military training. But, nowadays, it has been separated from the traditional martial art training BECAUSE OF THE BOOM OF GYMS. Martial artists nowadays no longer train OUTDOORS. Training outside can increase the life of our training and will make us stronger, healthier and more creative. The space in which we train has a great impact on our mood and movement. If we always train in the same place, if we always train indoors... we can only get that far. Surrounded by 4 walls, just how much oxygen and inspiration can you get!? Surrounded by trees, wind, sun, stars, flying birds - that is a whole different type of training! And, I honestly recommend doing this all year round: spring, summer, autumn, winter and spring again.
WHY SO SERIOUS!?
Well, mainly because we only get to live this life once! It is now or never! And, no matter how optimistic we are about life, how happy we are about ourselves - life is suffering. It is a constant movement through time & pain. Here and there we may experience some great joys and great moments, but if we look at life as a whole we can easily see that this is not an easy process and that we lack the physical and mental training for understanding existence.
Some told me to take it easy, "no army of ninjas will attack you"! Well, that you simply never know! (Haha) We take it very easy - hence soft training, hence meditation, hence chilling & resting. We want to do this training exactly so that we can take it easy! Life is hard, man! We have to be strong! We want to enjoy life. So that life is not only suffering. But for this, we also need to push hard, we need to train hard and train smart. And we need to keep moving forward, keep pushing over and over our limits to give our body its optimum health and its best level of athleticism. Are you simply not curious!? You have a life! You have a mind and a body! Are you happy with just being able to climb the stairs and walk here and there and maybe dance and bounce a bit and, once in a blue moon, go on a hike... Seriously!? Are you not curious to see just of how much is this body actually capable of?! Are you not jealous on these people who seem to be having super powers? Don't you want to look beautiful, feel good!? I believe that it is our birthright to be happy, be strong, be healthy, look good and enjoy freedom of movement and freedom of/from thought.
Our mind and our body are a gift from existence, a gift from the Universe! It is our duty to take care of it! By doing so we give a gift back to the Universe and we give a gift back to us too. Besides this, I want to emphasize the word ART from the name Martial Arts. This is an art form! As martial artists, most of us train simply because we ENJOY it! Simply because we love it and we want to make it better. As a musician, you may play a song thousands of times until you get the exact sound you want, the sound you feel is the right sound. As a cook, you cook a certain dish so many times until it becomes so easy to cook and it becomes more and more delicious. As martial artists, we do the same - we train our capacity to move until movement becomes easy and perfect, until we feel that the quality of our movement has reached a different level. And through training the body we also train the mind so that our movement is not just mechanic, robotic, but it becomes aware movement, artistic movement, beautiful movement and the mind can get used to living in the present moment. We do this for the peace and the blossoming of our life!
