Dear Students, Teachers and Parents,

Just got back in town - sorry for the late karate-gram. We will be
closed for spring break the Saturday the 23rd through Saturday the
30th.


Message of the Week

Speed, Timing and Zanshin

This weekend I was given the rare opportunity to show the nation the
specific attribute of black belt speed, timing and zanshin. About a
month ago, I received a call from Ripley's Believe It Or Not, and the
producer had said that he had read an article that stated I was one
of the fastest karate men alive. After I got done laughing, I told
him that I had once heard that you should believe only about half of
what you see and none of what you read. Well, he said he had this
great idea for one of his shows – a man catching an arrow live on TV.
He had called Jim Mather who had done this once before, but he stated
that he was too old but that I might do it. They issued me a
challenge and bet me I couldn't do it. Well, at least they understood
the best way to motivate me to do anything, is to tell me it can't be
done.

I thought long and hard about this and tried to understand how this
could help or hurt our organization. I didn't want to lower the value
of what classical martial arts is all about by simply performing a
stunt, but also knew that the national PR could be a good thing if
executed correctly. I was also worried that some kid would not
realize how dangerous this really was and might get hurt trying to
duplicate this stunt. I finally agreed to try, if they would do the
background story on the positive benefits that karate does for kids –
goal setting, self-confidence, self-discipline, etc, and also if they
would allow me to tell everyone not to try this - that it is really
dangerous. They agreed to my demands.

I also understand the concept of superior customer service and
decided that I wanted to give them more than what they asked for.
When we arrived in Hollywood, I informed them that not only would I
catch a speeding arrow traveling at over 100 mph's with my bare hand;
I would do it blindfolded. I succeeded in pulling it off and they
said that out of the 13 shows they have shot this year, this was by
far the best yet. Although I have not seen the final cuts for the
show, they took some great footage of our students in action and
interviewed me about the positive qualities of martial arts training.

My intent is to show people that fear is devastating to the average
person. The fear of someone hurting you, the fear of failure or
simply the fear of setting high expectations for yourself limits ones
true potential. Martial arts training teaches us about courage; and
in the absence of fear, great things are possible. This should air
within the next month or so, and I hope this will be a positive thing
for the students and teachers of classical martial arts. I will let
everyone know of the exact airdate, as we get closer in case anyone
wants to build a local marketing campaign or teaching lesson around
the show.

Respectfully,

Terry Bryan