Dear Students, Teachers and Friends,

The next belt testing is scheduled for March 6th. The north school
testing will begin at 9:00 am. The Bijou school's testing will begin
at 11:00. For all students that are eligible to test for black belt
or any degrees of black belt we are having the pretest at noon at
the Bijou school. Black belt training will follow. (Approximately
from 12:30-3:00)

A couple of more up coming events to put on your calendar is the
Pikes Peak Tournament to be held here in Colorado Springs (Coronado
High School) on March 13th and our black belt testing and the elite
training camp is scheduled to be held on April 16th, 17th and
18th . 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. If you are coming in from out of town, most of the
event will be held at the event hotel – the Radisson Inn. To get
free breakfast and the $69 a night rate call (719) 598-5770 and tell
them you are with the American Black Belt Academy event. School
owners please get a late flight out on Sunday if you want to attend
the management training seminar. For more info on the schedule go to
www.americanblackbeltacademy.com and look under up coming special
events.


Quotes of the Week

ALBERT EINSTEIN:
The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil,
but because of those who look on and do nothing.
CARL JUNG:
Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart.
Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens.
JONATHAN SWIFT:
Vision is the art of seeing the invisible.


Lesson of the Week

Zanshin – Perfect awareness

In Japanese the word zanshin is made up of two separate kanji
meaning remainder, heart. This has taken the connotation for modern
martial artists of maintaining perfect awareness and presence with
all your heart, or the ever-remaining mind. Zanshin contains mental,
physical and even spiritual elements the warrior develops to
maintain proper vision and awareness, while at the same time
maintaining an indomitable presence and posture in the eyes of
others. Zanshin allows a person to implement and flow from one
action plan right into another, based on feedback almost invisible
to the untrained eye.
One of the cardinal rules in combat is to never turn your back to
your opponent. This physical posture of zanshin is demonstrated
during self-defense when the warrior maintains a fighting posture
and attention directly towards the threat until absolutely sure it
has been neutralized. At a higher level, one learns to maintain this
presence in all 360 degrees by developing a heightened sense of
awareness and through the knowledge of understanding probable
reactions in all situations. This same process is used when dealing
with any problem we encounter in life. If one faces their problems
and deals with them early, while staying aware of other potential
threats, success is easier attained.
The true warrior uses a wide-screen view that takes in every detail
of information. He or she develops the uncanny ability to understand
all motives and tactics of all stakeholders, and eventually learns
to predict the future before it happens. He learns to understand
subtle nuances, which can indicate motivations and strategically
maneuvers the situation to the desired outcome, based on the reality
of the situation that many people never even see.
In business it has been stated to understand the truth, all one
needs to do is follow the money trail to understand the motivation,
and most of the time this is indeed a fact. Many times, what most
people recognize as a problem is not the real problem at all. The
solution to challenges many times come from a completely different
direction than we first thought. In addition, many times what is
presented to you as an opportunity is in reality just busy work that
actually slows you down from reaching you goals. In any business
understanding what the real problems are, and offering solutions to
these problems through win-win strategies, is where the mission of
creating and maintaining a strong customer base is achieved.
The warrior's ability to see all the systems and the effects of his
actions on each one of them allows him to see the big picture.
Warriors have long known that the best way to observe the actions of
the hands and feet of his opponent is by watching the center and
seeing everything else with his peripheral vision. This same tactic
is used when observing, and seeing physical, mental and spiritual
capabilities in yourself and others.
When practicing kata, we constantly are reminded about the
importance of zanshin in our training. Every time you look before
you turn it is a simple reminder to not take your eyes off your
goals and to always truly look before you take action. Upon the last
move of a kata, we hold that posture for a couple of seconds before
we return to ready position, demonstrating the ever-remaining mind
element of zanshin. By developing zanshin, you will be able to
accomplish more in a shorter period, than many people do during
their entire lifetime. Zanshin is indeed a crucial principle of
black belt excellence.

Respectfully,
Terry Bryan