Master Dufour | PTSDA Karate

August 12, 2019

Quality

One of the many things that I thoroughly enjoy about my Instructor, Choong Jae Nim C. S. Kim, is his desire for quality. On many occasions, I’ve been in his class with Masters and Black Belts and we didn’t get past choon bee (ready stance) for about ten minutes.

His desire for excellence comes out in his teaching and through his personal demonstration of how to preform Tang Soo Do. Many of you have not had the privilege training with him yet, so here are a few tips I have learned under his direction.

SLOW DOWN
He constantly reminds us to take our time and do it right. There is no race with quality. Be the the turtle.

BE MINDFUL
Don’t let your mind wander during class. Stay focused and in the moment. It will take discipline, but through consistent effort it will pay off.

OBSERVE
When your Instructors demonstrate skills, watch carefully. Listening is very important, but watching is even more important. I’m always in awe by the amazing example my Instructor provides me.

We all enjoy quality people and things in life. Let’s take the necessary steps to help improve our personal quality by slowing down, being mindful and observing. Aristotle was right when he said, “Quality is not an act, it is a habit.”

August 5, 2019

Identity

What makes you…you? It’s not your job title, income bracket, style of clothing, the music you listen to or even the martial art you study. Those are all things that we do and enjoy. Again, what makes you..you?
To get to the bottom of this question, we have to peel away all these layers that society has put on us. Often times, we are guilty of putting ourselves into this box of who we think we are.

Here are a few tips to help us discover more about ourselves.
Quality Time with YOU
Make time for yourself. If you want to get know someone else, you spend time with them. Find a place of solitude that will allow you to discover more about you. At first the questions will be simple, but they will get deeper as you progress.

Get Out of Your Comfort Zone
It’s easy to stay where we feel comfortable. By pushing past our set boundaries, we begin to learn more about ourselves.

Help Others
Nothing feels better than serving others. It provides us with a sense of purpose and community. Gandhi once said, “the best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”

Learning more about who you are as an individual will be a fun adventure. To begin this quest of self-discovery, spend quality time with yourself, get out of your comfort zone and help others. Best wishes in your journey.

July 23, 2019July 23, 2019

Failure

We have all experienced the sting of defeat in our life. Perhaps it was a relationship, competition or career. After we experience failure, what’s next?

We can choose to wallow in our failure and loathe in self pity. There’s also the blame game. These traps are easy to fall into after we fail. The challenge with these solutions is that we don’t learn and grow from the experience. Here are a few tips to help us deal with failures.

Use Your Energy to Improve
When you fail, focus on the truth of why you actually failed. Focus your energy on what you can do to improve yourself. Be relentless.

Failure is NOT a person
Realize that failing is an event not a person. When you don’t get the gold medal that you worked so hard to accomplish, focus on how you have improved. It will also help if you focus on gratitude to be able to do the activity.

Prepare for Success
If you don’t prepare for success, you are headed toward failure. Do the consistent work necessary to succeed. Develop a solid plan for yourself that will lead you to improvement.

We’ve all experienced the sting of defeat, but hopefully now you can navigate around the pitfalls of non learning solutions. Use the sting of defeat to push you towards learning from the experience and making you a better individual.

July 16, 2019

Practice

We’ve all heard the saying, Practice makes Perfect. I really don’t agree 100% with that statement. Let me explain.When a person practices something incorrectly, they are not making progress. If they practice it incorrectly one hundred times, they will have to work really hard to undo all the work they had done. I like the idea of Quality Practice makes us better.

So what is Quality Practice? Let me give you a couple of tips to help you have more quality in your practice sessions.

Remove Distractions
This is a challenging one. Find a place and time that you are least likely to be interrupted. Be creative.

Quality vs Quantity
It’s not necessarily about training for gobs (is that even a word) of hours. It’s about what and how you do your skills during your session. Focus on doing your skills correctly. Be very picky. Start with 5 -10 minutes of QUALITY practice.

What To Practice?
Start with a specific area of your training that you are struggling with during class. Again, be very picky on how you are performing your skills. Discipline and mindfulness will be key to helping you have more quality in your practice.

So there you have it. Get out there and give it a try this week. Be consistent and watch as your quality practice time transforms you into a more confident practitioner.

Practice

We’ve all heard the saying, Practice makes Perfect. I really don’t agree 100% with that statement. Let me explain.

When a person practices something incorrectly, they are not making progress. If they practice it incorrectly one hundred times, they will have to work really hard to undo all the work they had done. I like the idea of Quality Practice makes us better.

So what is Quality Practice? Let me give you a couple of tips to help you have more quality in your practice sessions.

Remove Distractions

This is a challenging one. Find a place and time that you are least likely to be interrupted. Be creative.

Quality vs Quantity

It’s not necessarily about training for gobs (is that even a word) of hours. It’s about what and how you do your skills during your session. Focus on doing your skills correctly. Be very picky. Start with 5 -10 minutes of QUALITY practice.

What To Practice?

Start with a specific area of your training that you are struggling with during class. Again, be very picky on how you are performing your skills. Discipline and mindfulness will be key to helping you have more quality in your practice.

So there you have it. Get out there and give it a try this week. Be consistent and watch as your quality practice time transforms you into a more confident practitioner.

July 8, 2019

Purpose

Have you ever felt like you were running in circles? We all have experienced it. We feel like we are going through the motions in our relationships, careers or even training. We’ve identified our challenge, so what do we do about it?

Try asking yourself what and where. What was the reason I started this relationship, career, etc? It’s easy for us to lose our way and get off course. Perhaps, your purpose has changed and you haven’t worked it out in your mind yet.

Next, you may want to ask Where am I wanting to go? Once you’ve discovered the direction, you feel more of a sense of peace and focus. Think about what brings you joy and fulfillment in life. That sounds like a great direction to head towards.

Discovering our purpose on a small or large scale takes time. Try spending some quality time with yourself (hiding in the bathroom from your kids does not count). If you want to get to know someones else, you spend time with them. Why not with yourself? Discovering and taking purpose filled steps leads to a more enjoyable journey.

Ready, Set, Time to get more Purpose!

Purpose

Try asking yourself what and where. What was the reason I started this relationship, career, etc? It’s easy for us to lose our way and get off course. Perhaps, your purpose has changed and you haven’t worked it out in your mind yet.

Next, you may want to ask Where am I wanting to go? Once you’ve discovered the direction, you feel more of a sense of peace and focus. Think about what brings you joy and fulfillment in life. That sounds like a great direction to head towards.

Ready, Set, Time to get more Purpose!

July 2, 2019July 8, 2019

Respect

When most people think of the martial arts, they think of fighting. It’s very natural due to societies exposure to MMA and action movies. Yes, we do spend a lot of time on developing our fighting skills.However, it’s not our only focus.

We strive to follow the traditional path of disciplining our minds and bodies. This process assists us in forging ourselves to have a strong character. Gichin Funakoshi once said, “The ultimate aim of Karate lies not in victory or defeat, but in the perfection of character of its participants.”

My encouragement for all of us this week is to work on being more respectful with our words and actions in our daily walk. Being respectful is one of the greatest expressions of love.

June 24, 2019

Focus

How many of you can recall being told to focus? Me too. How many of you were shown how to actually focus? Exactly. Not many of us were formally shown how to focus our mind and body on what we are doing.

The martial arts is a wonderful tool to help a person improve their focus. The disciplined environment encourages individuals to be present minded with the task at hand.

Here’s a simple method that can help each of us improve our focus. Visualize a spot light on a stage beaming down on an object. The light is our focus and the object is our task. When you are doing a task this week, try visualizing the spot light on the task. When your focus is off the task, gently remind yourself to bring it back to the task.

Through consistent practice, you will find that your focus will improve. The benefits of your improved focus will feel fantastic too. Now it’s time to start making it happen. Ready, Set, Time to Go Get It!

June 17, 2019

Testing starts August 8th

Our next belt exam cycle starts August 8. That testing date will creep up on us, and I don’t want anyone to be scrambling at the last minute to be ready. Make the time to practice. Remember that prior planning prevents poor performance. You’ve got this! Tang Soo!

June 17, 2019July 8, 2019

Kindness

As a parent, we often times put our needs and wants on the back burner. Some of you are so busy that you don’t even know when you last showered. Just kidding. But seriously, I would like to encourage everyone to flip it around this week. Here’s what I mean.When we properly take care of ourselves, we can properly take care of others. When you fly, what do they instruct you to do first in an emergency? That’s right, put your oxygen mask on first. It’s not being selfish, it’s simply being smart.

Start with being kind to yourself with getting that needed rest, workout, etc. It will make it a lot easier to be kind to others when we are kind to ourselves. Give kindness a try. It’s free.

June 13, 2019July 8, 2019

FUN

FUN

With the hardships and challenges of life, we can often times lose our way in the area of fun. When was the last time you laughed or played? Yes, we adults need to have fun too.

I’m not saying to quit your jobs and head to Vegas. Simply work on being more playful this week. What brings you joy? Perhaps it was something that you did as a kid. As a child, I enjoyed skateboarding. Since Christmas, I’ve been having fun working on improving my skateboard skills.

This week, get out there and discover or rediscover what is fun for you. Get out there and live the best life possible.