Most of us, perhaps all of us, have been in a situation involving a potential combatant. Perhaps it is an angry driver, pissed off neighbor, unruly guest at a function—whatever, whenever, wherever, whomever. The thing is, we want to avoid a physical confrontation if at all possible. We don’t want to hurt anybody, get hurt ourselves, or be part of a self-defense conflict in which things can get out of hand, destructive, or worse.
There is only one way to deal with bullies. You back them down or put them down or you will go down. This is a lamentable truth but truth it is, nonetheless. Those who stand up for themselves will be free. Those who don’t will become slaves. It is the story of life.
Bullies are heartless souls with an unquenchable thirst for dominance and power. They don’t care about anyone’s well-being, rights, goodness or life except their own.
From The Black Belt Book of Life: Secrets of a Martial Arts Master.
In cleansing the soul
and losing its dross,
it’s axiomatic —
You Must Win The Cross.
Without recognizing the ordinances of Heaven, it is impossible to be a superior man.
Confucius Another way of expressing the phrase, To become everything we must first become nothing (TBBBL), is this corroborating maxim—You Must Win the Cross.
The symbol of the cross is ancient, far antedating its use by Christianity.
KIA first dan Brown Belt and Champion fighter Guy McDonald has reignited his desire to achieve a Kiado-Ryu Black Belt. He was extremely active at the Karate Institute of America from 1986 to 1990 but he had to stop his martial arts studies because of back surgery. Three years ago Guy was featured in the KIA article, The KIA’s Own Hollywood.
With changing times and circumstances, Guy has reignited his original desires to become a Kiado-Ryu Black Belt and is back studying again.
THE V.E.T.S. SYSTEM OF SHOOTING ACCURACY Kiado-Ryu Gun-Fu™ is the ancient martial art of using firearms in sport, competitive shooting and one’s God-given right of self-defense.
For anyone who has ever fired a handgun at a target, they soon realize it’s challenging to hit the target—in contrast from what the movies often portray. Shooting accurately is not easy. It takes applied knowledge, concerted and concentrated practice to be successful. Fortunately, learning to shoot effectively does not take years of study.
Delusions are false beliefs held to be true. They are problematic because they project a reality that doesn’t exist. They become dangerous when people act as if delusions were true or they simply don’t realize that delusions are indeed false. Young people are especially vulnerable to such circumstances and can fall prey to them.
For example, take fight scenes in the movies. They’re obviously not real but they can have a negative impact on people who can’t discern the difference between fantasy and reality.
Ee-yo-ca-be-he, yo-ka-be-be. What? Ee-yo-ca-be-he, yo-ka-be-be.
Don’t bother looking it up in the dictionary. You won’t find it there.
This phrase—Ee-yo-ca-be-he, yo-ka-be-be—is a fundamental concept taught at the Karate Institute of America. It represents one of the most critical aspects of fighting, not just in the Kiado-Ryu Martial Arts system, but in actual combat. It is not a new concept. It’s been around forever. Yet, it is still often ignored in self-defense encounters, actual battle and competitive sports.
As all of humanity knows, the Gold medal is synonymous with being the best, the apex of one’s athletic performance in competition. To those who win gold, they are often lionized, idolized, and frequently offered lavish commercial contracts worth millions of dollars. Such souls become media darlings as heroes, heroines and role models to others.
This, of course, is a good thing. We all need heroes and heroines, individuals who strive to become the top of their craft because their accomplishments can inspire us to do the same.
The 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics are now history. As we all know, the Gold medal is awarded for 1st place, the Silver medal for 2nd place and the Bronze medal for 3rd place in each of the contested events across all disciplines.
Together, these three medals create a trifecta of manifested excellence and a seemingly ubiquitous celebratory declaration from those athletes who earned a medal. Over and over again, from one competitor to another, from one discipline to another, from one gender to another, the most common phrase heard time and time again in post event interviews was, I worked so hard for this!
The Tokyo Olympics of 2021 (branded as the 2020 Summer Olympics) have been exciting to watch—so many different sports, so many countries represented, so much talent, heart, soul, effort, emotion, victory, jubilation and, sadly, defeat and disappointment. Such is the reality of competition.
With its 33 sports, 339 medal events and 50 disciplines, the Games of the XXXII Olympiad bring together competitors from all over the world, athletes whose primary desire is to win a Gold medal—the symbol of unequivocal, irrefutable, indisputable dominance in a specific discipline.