Dear Students, Teachers and Friends,

Congratulations on everyone that moved up to a new belt color this
weekend. We will be working on new material this week – Basic and
Novice students will be working on block 4 training while
Intermediate students will be working on their block 2 requirements.
Master Club students will be learning Tokomine Bo so please bring
your long staff with you to that class. Leadership students will
spend the next two months learning the Tiger/Crane two man form.

Come celebrate the Chinese New Years with us at the City Auditorium
this Saturday. We will be doing a Chinese Kung Fu demonstration and
will have a booth there all day. There will be shows, food and good
times as we celebrate the beginning of the Year of the Monkey.

A couple of up coming events to put on your calendar is the Pikes
Peak Tournament to be held here in Colorado Springs on March 13th
and our black belt testing and training camp to be held on April
16th and 17th. We have a great group of master instructors lined up
for training and many of our senior black belts from around the
country are flying in.

A special recognition goes out to Sensei Joe Calderon for his work
with security in the airline industry. He has been a big part of the
process of getting guns approved for pilots and is now heading up
airline security defensive tactics. Keep up the good work!


Quotes of the Week
ANDY WARHOL:
They say that time changes things, but you actually have to change
them yourself.
ECCLESIASTES:
For everything there is a season,
And a time for every matter under heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die;
A time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal;
A time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh;
A time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
A time to embrace, And a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to seek, and a time to lose;
A time to keep, and a time to throw away;
A time to tear, and a time to sew;
A time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate,
A time for war, and a time for peace.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

THOMAS PAINE:
Time makes more converts than reason.
Lesson of the Week

Go No Sen and Sen No Sen
"It's All About Timing"

In my earlier years I occasionally visited officer clubs on Air
Force installations and was always intrigued by seeing pilots
talking with their hands describing their aerial tactics during
training or combat missions. Get two combat fighter pilots together
and you can tell from across the room when the topic switches to
combat tactics.

Martial artists are much the same as they discuss strategy and
tactics in self defense situations. One of the most common subjects
is the timing of the response in self-defense. In Japanese martial
arts there is the ideal of "sen" or the moment of awareness that a
threat is recognized. Using this terminology, let's talk about
different strategies in dealing with conflict.

Go No Sen means to counter after an attack has been launched.
Martial artists spend many hours on this type of tactic by having a
partner grab or throw a strike at them, and then practice their
response over and over again till it becomes a subconscious reflex.
This type of training is very effective against surprise attacks in
self-defense and a mandatory step in the self-defense process.

Sen No Sen is a level above this where the counter attack is
launched at the same exact time the threat is realized. In fencing
this is called a stop-hit. Bruce Lee called his art Jeet Kune Do
or "the way of the intercepting fist" based on this strategy. The
Okinawan punching-block is another example of this strategy at work.
This strategy is dependent on your ability to recognize the
potential threat before it happens and through this awareness having
a defense already in place so at the very first signs of the real
attack, the counter measures can be released immediately. This is
clearly a more advanced strategy, stopping an attack at the very
moment it appears.

The highest level of achievement however, is Sen Sen No Sen. This
tactic is based on defeating an attacker before the threat has ever
been launched. No it doesn't mean that you reach over and knock
someone out because they may be a threat. It is based on superior
knowledge of strategy, tactics and potential threats, and using this
knowledge put defenses in place where an attack would never be
successful, therefore minimizing the chance the attack ever
develops. On a personal level, one must develop knowledge of
psychology, verbal and nonverbal communication and personality
styles, knowing in advance where a conversation or relationship is
heading and being able to guide it down the proper path. A true
warrior knows where he or she is heading, and polishes his words,
deeds and actions to minimize threats towards his reaching the
desired goals. This is the ultimate strategy towards black belt
leadership and achieving anything you want in life.

Respectfully,
Terry Bryan