One Road

I am not interested in martial arts not the movies and not the multitudes of schools or systems that infest the western world. This has not always been so, in my younger days I was an avid Bruce Lee fan and saw all the movies when they were fresh in the cinemas and I wanted to be him, I wanted that lightening speed and deadly accuracy and I wanted that ageless physique that had no hint of waste, oh boy! I wanted to be Bruce Lee! But now as the years have rolled by and the pounds have rolled on I do not want to be anyone else I just want to be me wrinkles and all.

To say that I am interested in martial arts is to say that I am interested in train spotting or darts. They both offer an open door from the rigors of life or a shady retreat far away from the intrigues of the daily grind. To enjoy them is to separate myself from life to walk away or to turn my back even for momentary salvation I am somewhere else. I have never been very good at turning my back it does not come naturally to me it is not in my profile.

I live and I work and do. I teach and I train and I wash up and I do the ironing and all of the sewing and all of my writing. There is no separation there is a kind of osmosis that oozes through the minutes and hours of my days and my days always have training and training and every day is the same with teaching and teaching. Mostly who read this know me through my teaching and training and not through my washing up or sewing.

It has been a few years since I stopped teaching martial arts and it has been even longer since I wanted to be Bruce Lee. I imagine most of you wrongly think of me as a martial arts instructor but I understand that that is an easy mistake to make because I carry with me all of the trappings of martial mania. Do not come to me if you want to learn martial arts because I am not your man, there are many far more worthy of the accolade of martial arts instructor than me, Budo Warrior Schools boasts many excellent and honourable instructors but I am not one of them. I can only teach what I know and I no longer remember martial arts, I have been on this road too long to cast my mind back that far. I can now only act and move in full accordance of my life and experience and every breath and strike and wrench is now just the interpretation of what has gone before.