Author Archives: susan

Martial Arts Business Magazine

Martial Arts Business Magazine How it got started and … WHO was the FIRST? You may wonder how Martial Arts Business Magazine got started. If you’re not a 20-year martial arts veteran you may never have heard of it before. It was the brainchild of me – Ric Black in 1989. Yep – that’s 20 years ago, give or take ...

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Black Family Martial Arts 90th Anniversary

Black Family Martial Arts Celebrates 90th Anniversary In the winter of 1914, a fourteen year old boy ran away from his Pennsylvania home intent on seeing the world and to accomplish this he would lie about his age and join the Army. He was a large boy, larger than most men in his community. You had to b 16 years ...

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Coward or Brave

In Law Enforcement and Security work Officers are faced with many dangerous and stressful situations. How those Officers react to those situations often effects how other Officers, and even themselves, view that reaction. Is one a Coward or a Hero, and do either really exists?

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Day 1 – Issue #1

Friday, May 8th, 1992 started like most days. It was a work day, one that would, thankfully, take me out of the office. I loved to get out of the office and today, I was scheduled to do a “live remote,” which meant I had completed the programming and employee training, and I was ready to install the program onsite at the Purple Parrot, a new restaurant which was located on the south end of Marco Island, FL. All they would need to get started was four hours of “live support” from me, “the Programmer.”

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Dazed and Confused – Issues #2

My eyes searched the darkness ahead, desperately attempting to focus on anything which might shed light on what had just happened. My head was now stinging from what must have been shattered glass mixed with blood, running down my face. My ears were still ringing from the impact of the two vehicles. I now realized that the oncoming car must have been on the wrong side of the median – in my northbound lane – instead of on the other side of the median in the southbound lane as it had first appeared. Oh, yes, that portion of US 41 was on a curve. I remembered thinking, “What should I do? Okay, I’ll just wait, someone will find me. Surely someone will come.”

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Chatty Female – Issues #3

I could hear the voice of the first paramedic on the scene now above and behind me as I lay on the gurney, though I couldn’t see his face. His voice was now familiar in the darkness. He asked me how I was doing, then he asked me if I knew the telephone numbers of my closest relative or friend I wanted him to call, and he wanted to know if I was allergic to any drugs. I was aware of the other paramedic next to me who remained silent.

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I Was Fortunate – Issues #4

The first surgery that was performed on me was as a result of my blood pressure dropping. The cardiac surgeon on call ordered me up to the “Heart Tower” as the orthopedic surgeon on call was still counting broken bones. His experience would tell him that this type of head-on collision had caused a tear in my aorta, a common deceleration injury.

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Counting Bones – Issue #5

Every time I go to see my orthopedic surgeon, Dr. D., he tells me the story of our first meeting. “We were standing in the E.R., and I was counting bones and Dr. H. said, “We gotta get her to the heart tower.” He said, “I need supplies, we’ve never done orthopedic surgery up there and there’s no elevator.” Dr. H. then, very calmly said, “Man, you don’t understand. We gotta go NOW. Her blood pressure is bottoming out!” He barely raised his voice, but conveyed the urgency of the situation to him, he said. He realized how close to death I was when he looked at Dr. H.’s face.

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THE PERSONAL WAY OF THE SWORD

As the martial arts left the Oriental world and literally spread to nearly every country on the face of the earth, there has been a gap created that people have not been able to breech. That gap was first caused by the fact that Westerners did not understand certain fundamental aspects of Oriental thought. Where the Western mind was focused on facts, intellect, and reason, the Oriental mind turned to aesthetics, intuition, and freedom. Where Westerners fought for physical freedom, the Orientals developed personal freedom of mind and spirit. Westerners desired and sought open spaces creating in themselves an individuality unheard of in the East, while Orientals developed a highly integrated society where the individual only exist as a part of the group, from living in a country without the vast open spaces of a continent.

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The Multiple Legacy of Daito Ryu

No system has had a greater influence on the development of the modern martial arts than the one known as Daito Ryu. Known primarily as an Aikijujutsu system, according to the students of Sokaku Takeda, the system was actually much more comprehensive in nature than just being an Aikijujutsu, empty hand, system of combat. Like most ancient Ryu, the system was designed to teach total combat to the practitioners from every weapon of the time, to combat skills applicable to Ashigaru (foot soldiers), as well as, Bushi, the upper echelon of the Samurai clans. Thus Daito Ryu as a Bujutsu or Bugei, martial arts system, taught Jujutsu, Aikijujutsu, and weaponry.

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