The Fistslinger

Marty Callahan 8th Degree Black Belt

“Warriors are not what you think of as warriors. The warrior is not someone who fights, for no one has the right to take another life. The warrior, for us, is the one who sacrifices himself for the good of others. His task is to take care of the elderly, the defenseless, those who cannot provide for themselves, and above all, the children, the future of humanity.”

-Sitting Bull, Hunkpapa Lakota Indian Chief

There’s a guy who came to our door a few weeks ago. He wanted to challenge the master – me – to a fight Where exactly he got this idea, I don’t know, but you see this scenario played out in movies, particularly westerns, all the time. The young gunslinger wants to make a name for himself so he challenges an established gunslinger to a duel. What generally happens is that the young gunslinger ends up dead.

I started training in Southern California in 1970. Back then it was the wild, wild west for martial art schools Tough guys, or fistslingers as I call them, would go around and challenge the instructor s at other schools as a way to make a name for themselves. I was a member of the Japan Kar ate Association (JKA). JKA Instructors had a reputation of being some of the meanest, baddest fighters around. You didn’t mess with a JKA Instructor without paying a high price. One of my instructors at that time, Frank Smith, had been the U.S. Kumite (sparring) Champion for 5 years in a row. He was, to put it politely, a bad a__ . He told me that if anyone ever gave me any trouble to let him know and he would take care of things.

I moved up to Santa Rosa in the early 80’s and opened our school, a few years later a fistslinger showed up at our door. The class I had been teaching was winding down. Ed Salas, one of our instructors, was leading the 8 – 10 students in the class through warm-down exercises. It had been a long day. I was tired and ready to call it quits. The fistslinger was standing in the doorway puffing himself up for the fight. I swear to God that I could see steam coming out of his ears he was so hot. I was leaning up against the wall directly opposite him watching him out of the corner of my eye. No one else paid him any attention. After a minute or two he realized that we ignoring him. He wanted a reaction out of you, and since we were ignoring him, he didn’t know what to do.

This went on for another couple minutes and then Ed started to end the warm down exercises with deep breathing exercises. He stood and slowly brought his hands from down in front of his body up while taking a deep breath in. He then circled his arms back down while breathing out. When the fistslinger saw this, he threw up his arms in disgust, turned and stomped out the door. I think he came to the conclusion that we weren’t worth the trouble. I just smiled to myself and knew that sometimes the best defense is no defense.

Now with the fistslinger who came to our door recently. He wanted me to get on the mat and prove myself to him. I told him sorry but I don’t do that. He told me that I was a poor example of a martial art instructor. I told him that I really didn’t care what he thought because I knew that if we did that one of us was going to the hospital and the other one was going to jail and I didn’t like either one of those outcomes. He ended up leaving, convince that I was a wimp, while I went back to doing what I had been doing. I don’t really care what other people think of me. Now it seems that he’s been coming to the school at night and watching us from his pickup. Jacob Richardson, our Student Services person, used to be a cop, and has suggested that we get his picture, a description of him, his vehicle, and his license plate. So, my plan is, if he comes back, to go out, take those pictures, ask him how he’s doing and suggest that he become a student. Guys like this are often misguided, and could benefit from having well-trained martial artists help them get their life in order. We’ll see what happens. Stay tuned.

Shotokan Karate Leadership School®

3082 Marlow Road B1, Santa Rosa, CA 95403

AskAboutKarate.com, 707-575-1681-ph. 707-861-0092-txt.

Who are you?

Marty Callahan 8th Degree Black Belt

“Who are you? Who, who, who, who? Who are you? Who, who, who, who? Who are you? Who, who, who, who? Who are you? Who, who, who, who?”

- From the song Who are you, by Peter Townshend, songwriter for the Who

Who are you? Really... who are you?

Before we can lead, we must know who we are. If we don’t, we won’t ever be much of a leader. If we do know who we are, it will be the first step towards become an extraordinary leader, a leader who can have a huge impact on the quality of life for many, many people. The houses we have in our school were designed for this reason, to help our students understand themselves and understand others. That’s the next step after you understand yourself, to understand others.

Knowing yourself starts with knowing your personality. Psychologist consider their to be four major personality traits. We understand these traits through the four major elements of earth, water, fire and air that Miyamoto Musashi talks about in his tome, the Book of Five Rings. Musashi is considered to be the greatest swordsman of Japan. He was a swordsman, philosopher, strategist, and writer. He was born in 1584 died in 1645. The Book of Five Rings is still widely read by those who are interested in strategy.

House Terra represents earth and the personality traits of someone who is careful, methodical and structured in how they do things. This person is recognized as being grounded.

House Kraken represents water and the traits of someone who is amiable, fluid and social, someone who likes people, likes parties and likes to make people happy and can fit into any situation as water fits into any container it’s put into You may have heard Bruce Lee’s quote, “Be water, my friend.”

House Fire Dragon represents fire and the traits of someone who has lots of energy and can hardly wait to get started. Fire can be incredibly helpful to us but when out of control it becomes unbelievably destructive as we know here in Sonoma County.

House Sora represents air and the traits of someone who is studious and likes to think and analyze. This person may not even like most people. But don’t underestimate an air person or you will pay the price. Tornadoes and hurricanes are some of the most destructive forces on earth.

Most people are a mix of these different personality traits with one more dominant than the others. After we know ourselves and know others then we develop the ability to change our personality to adapt to new situations. When we can do this Musashi would say that we are in the void or place of emptiness, his fifth element. More on emptiness in the future.

Gichin Funakoshi’s fourth precept is to know yourself, then you can know others.

Shotokan Karate Leadership School®

3082 Marlow Road B1, Santa Rosa, CA 95403 707-575-1681