I was reading this blog and it talked about sun-tzu's art of war. Well, here are my thoughts. The core of sun-tzu's writings are about people. Without people, one cannot know the information to decide the strategy one should use. However, now it is possible with the internet to gather information without people. Not that people are not necessary, but rather that there are other means of gather information.

So I've been thinking, how could one best instill martial arts lessons into today's generation. One idea, is a theme park. A theme park? Yes a theme park.

For instance, take ninja warrior program, now image a big obstacle course. I mean the obstacles would have to be "dummed down" so no one got hurt and such. But alot of people like obstacle courses.

Or image a big maze with where people their could be projectors on the wall. Then without notice, an image of someone attacking you came on the wall. People would have to do the maze under a certain time limit.

Or image a remake of the shaolin temple. In a tourist town people might want to come and see it. Most might not make it too the "real" temple anyway.

Where I want to start a school, the market is over saturated. I mean you have two franchises that are opening up school's in the area already, and the population is like of the town is 6,000. Also, the studio I studied at is 45 minutes away. So people do go come from there. Now if the city was a bigger city, let's say 20-30,000 of the area, then maybe it might be posssible.

Personally, I would be willing to teach for free, live out of the studio, and work a full-time job. Why? Because I find that is how I meet the people who I like being around. Now people look at me and look at how much stuff I've done at karate, and think I'm "naive" for doing it.

One thing is people have gotten me jobs because I've helped teach for free. I'm not saying, that one should go into teaching expecting that of course. However good people do know good people. For example, 90% of the jobs are unadvertised, and if one is capable of teaching well then might have other skills as well.

You know I read an interesting article written by a Tai kwon do practicioner, as to why sport martial arts is good. The basic premise was that your life is more in danger of a heart attack, stroke, etc. then getting attacked. Which I can understand. But couldn't one do a self-defense and get that exercise in?

Over the last month I have been working on my website, www.maustonskkacademy.org. Trying to get it ready. I'm planning on putting some videos on it of my bo staff work on the site. So you may want to check it out in a few months.

In the game of Go, it's best to spread one's pieces out. That way one, you gain more territory. However, I don't know if it might be better to group martial arts studios. For one thing, it's easier to support two studios close together. Another thing is if you have different people running these studios then they can grow exponetially.

So often in the martial arts, an organization gets to be a certain size then it splits. One thing I've been wondering about is perhaps it would be better for there to be school owners who own multiple locations, then have a person running the school. If you would have multiple school owners for the same number of schools then that would be that many number of people your going to be dealing with.

softness prepares for the hard

One thing I'm wondering in the Okinawin Kubudo, is if perhaps their is too much hardness. Perhaps if there were more softness, then people would be more able to do the hard style. For instance I was told kenjutsu is not for everyone. So why then should it be part of the entire school's curriculum? Perhaps a seminar or two or even a class.

My approach to starting a school

Here's my approach. Before I even have a physical location, I want to have a client list. So when I open the doors, I already have money coming in. It's one thing to already have people your working with and start a school, but it's another to not have anyone and open one.

One thing my instructor recommended is that I start a school, then six months later adopt the Villari system as the Villari system. Basically, they don't want me to infringe on the Villari name. If I run it as a shaolin kempo karate school that's fine.

Demo Team

I was watching the demo team. Alot of teenagers are involved with it. One of my thoughts is a demo team should demonstrate the techniques of that school. So people say I want to learn that, it looks cool.

In the past people have had trouble recognizing what demo team is doing. So perhaps weapons techniques would be good, because people understand, oh he got attacked by a club, or a knife. Perhaps focus more on the applications of techniques.

I was watching Jet Li's fearless. One thing is in the movie he took on students whoever asked. His students almost backrupted him. Then they got him in a fight with another teacher, whom he killed. Later it was found out the guy was sleeping with the other school's teacher's mistress.

People would say this is a business. However, as sun-tzu said "it is foolish to let fate decide your troops." One thing is in martial arts school your students are the people who will get you more students, buy stuff, and help out with things.

One thing I have been thinking about is when you work one on one then your time just benifets one person. However, when you work with five people then your time helps five people at once. When a master gives a seminar, if there is a hundred people, then he gives a little knowledge to each person.

Making of a Wing Chun Dummy

Think of making a wing chun dummy for someone I go to school with. Thing is there is a bunch of different designs of one. So maybe I will come up with a unique design.

I was reading an article about a martial artist. Instead of opening a school, he taught privately. That's an interesting way of teaching.

Spot Runner

Saw this website on tv. One thing I was thinking of is this could help martial arts studio's. Since it's a focus on local instead of national television.

Been thinking recently, that if one wants to teach martial arts for a living, one should study other things. For example, you could probably make more as a massage therapist, or a write than as a martial arts teacher.

I recently stumbled on this. Now, no question on how tough the guy is, or that he's trying out to do good. But it seems his goal is to help someone take responsibility.

One thing I was thinking about is why would he put people into tournaments unless they raise the money for it? To me this seems like it would be a lesson in itself. Another thing is he wants young men. Well, young men are not known to be for their maturity.

Personally, I would love to train everyday. I don't think I would ever get accepted to a place like that. But it's interesting none the less.