The Power of One

Sunday, October 2 marks both the United Nations' International Day of Non-Violence and the birthday of one of its biggest proponents: Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. This video pays tribute to the concept and the man and is called the "Power of One."

Here at SKS, we honor the values and practice of the nonviolent civil actions that changed a nation -- and indeed, the world.

Video from KarmaTube

Sensei Chris Feldt

Samurai Karate Studio

Columbia, SC 29229

803-462-9425

samuraikaratestudio@gmail.com

Gardening At Home

This past summer, I participated in a home gardening experiment, working with several containers of vegetables. This was just one of several Ultimate Black Belt Test challenges I gave myself.

Why?

I want to better understand our food supply and the use of pesticides, growing organic food naturally, the economic foot print of shipping food halfway around the world, so that we could have certain vegetables that were out of season.

I had only moderate success, as my "no pesticides" pledge made it very difficult to deal with bugs that constantly were eating my plants or the vegetables themselves.

I plan on doing a lot more research over the winter to prepare for next season. In the mean time, I found a website with a detailed process for growing container fruits and vegetables and I love the work they have done.

Here is a video that explains their process:



Pretty neat process that I am going to try and model next year. I will update everyone to let you know how it works.

In the mean time, if you would like more information, please visit Global Buckets.


Sensei Chris Feldt
Samurai Karate Studio
Columbia, SC 29229
803-462-9425

samuraikaratestudio@gmail.com

The Healing Arts

One of my goals this year was to begin the process of understanding Kyusho, an ancient art that focuses on pressure points on the body and manipulating them through striking, rubbing, and pressure; to increase the amount of pain that is felt or to get the body to react in a certain way that will help facilitate a defense or take down.

There are a lot of points to memorize, but when used correctly, they sure do HURT and are a wonderful addition to my self defense training.

While I have enjoyed learning about these points, I have also become aware of how useful they are inHEALING.  Whether treating my ankle with acupuncture or getting a therapeutic massage, both treatments focus on using meridian points to heal my ankle and help nourish the surrounding tissue. 

How cool is that?

There are points on the body that can be used to destroy your attacker, or heal your best friend!  It's pretty amazing!  

Coach Tom talks all the time about continuing our training as master instructors.  Before the UBBT, I was putting very little time into my personal training, focusing almost exclusively on my school and classes.

As a result of starting Ju Jutsu training as a requirement on team 6, I am now training in karate, a combatives style of Ju Jutsu, Kyusho and now the healing arts.  

Gosh, there is so much to learn that I wish I got involved in the martial arts at an earlier age, however, I see many opportunities in the next 50 years ahead for me!

Thanks to Master Dave McNeil, not only for his advice on dealing with my ankle, but also opening my eyes to another wonderful element of the martial arts.

"If you want to be an average martial artist, learn how to be the best fighter.  If you want to be a great martial artist, learn how to be a healer!"  Shihan Tom Ryan

This blog post is a part of The Ultimate Black Belt Test (ultimateblackbelttest.com), an undertaking of The 100 (the100.us), and a part of Samurai Karate Studio (samuraikaratestudio.net).




Sensei Chris Feldt
Samurai Karate Studio
Columbia, SC 29229
803-462-9425
samuraikaratestudio@gmail.com

9-11 Tribute

I visited Ground Zero 3 months after the attack on the twin towers and the emotion was just as raw then as it was today, watching the memorials on television.  I had friends who had loved ones that perished that day. It's so hard to imagine the horror of it all and the pain of the survivors and their family's.

And we can not forget the magnificent men and women in our military who work hard every day to keep us safe and especially, those fallen soldiers that made the ultimate sacrifice in protecting our freedom.

This is a very powerful tribute to the victims of the 9-11 attack.

Let us celebrate the memories of their lives and continue the good work that we are all capable of!







Sensei Chris Feldt
Samurai Karate Studio
Columbia, SC 29229
803-462-9425
samuraikaratestudio@gmail.com