Meditations on God

Specializing in Mastery
Try new things, but then pick something to focus on to the point of mastery.

It is good to be a well-rounded individual, to be a polymath. These days, in fact, it is essential to know a little bit about a lot of things because most folks have to wear multiple hats in order to thrive in our fast-paced, ever-changing, highly automated world. True joy and satisfaction, however, do not come from shallow dabbling, but from deep specialization and mastery.

Specialization requires commitment and focus. Specialization to the point of mastery requires these to an almost obsessive degree. Mastery requires that we shut ourselves off from distractions, from the temptation to veer off on tangents, and reduce the number of variables in our way toward our goal.

There is simply no way to put in the time, energy, and repetitions necessary for mastery if we try to go for breadth over depth. Breadth is important for having a holistic understanding and knowledge of a given subject, but, without depth, all we are really doing is dancing around the shallows. By mastering one thing, it becomes much easier to master others, so the true polymath begins not with variety, but with specialization.

Holistic Budo: As it is in budo, so too it is in life. As it is in life, so too it is in budo.

Robert Van Valkenburgh is co-founder of Taikyoku Mind & Body and Kogen Dojo where he teaches Taikyoku Budo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, as well as a founding member of the Severna Park and Baltimore Holistic Chamber of Commerce.

Street art photo taken by Robert Van Valkenburgh, artist unknown unless otherwise noted.

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January 18, 2020

breadth, depth, focus, mastery, polymath, skill, specializing
Focus On That Which You Actively Avoid
Procrastination will get you nowhere and it will take a long time to get there.

If we are honest with ourselves from day to day, we know what we must do for the betterment of our lives. We know what we want to do, how we want to spend our time, who we want to spend our time with, and what we want to create. We also know all of the things that we put ahead of these, our deepest desires, as a way of postponing risk, reward, and potential success or failure.

Knowing all of this, however, is, as a favorite cartoon of mine as a kid always reminded us, only half the battle. The other half is action. Without positive action in the direction of that which calls to us from within the depths of our truest selves, all we are doing is wasting time.

If each of us has a purpose, or perhaps more than one, it may be most easily found by looking at what we are putting off doing in our lives, by focusing in on the things we are avoiding and procrastinating around. By facing that which we seek distraction from, we uncover the truth about ourselves and our potential. The things we avoid most strongly are also the things that will bring us the most regret later on, but they are also the things which will bring us the most satisfaction, fulfillment, and contentment if we shine a light on them and take action.

Holistic Budo: As it is in budo, so too it is in life. As it is in life, so too it is in budo.

Robert Van Valkenburgh is co-founder of Taikyoku Mind & Body and Kogen Dojo where he teaches Taikyoku Budo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, as well as a founding member of the Severna Park and Baltimore Holistic Chamber of Commerce.

Street art photo taken by Robert Van Valkenburgh, artist unknown unless otherwise noted.

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January 17, 2020

action, creativity, hesitation, inaction, passion, procrastination, regret, waiting
Persistence Towards Consistency
If you are trying to be consistent in your practice, but you fail, keep trying to be consistent in your practice.

Street Art Photo by Robert Van Valkenburgh (artist unknown)

Even the most dedicated amongst us have off-days. The difference is that the dedicated have them less often because they are dedicated.

Regardless of what our practice is, whether it is some kind of hobby, sport, or even diet, we will, at some point, fail. We are all inherently flawed creatures and failure is part of our makeup.

The secret is to get back to our practice as quickly as possible and to let the past be the past, and let our lapse be a lesson. When we fail at being consistent we should at least be persistent.

Holistic Budo: As it is in budo, so too it is in life. As it is in life, so too it is in budo.

Robert Van Valkenburgh is co-founder of Taikyoku Mind & Body and Kogen Dojo where he teaches Taikyoku Budo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, as well as a founding member of the Severna Park and Baltimore Holistic Chamber of Commerce.

Street art photo taken by Robert Van Valkenburgh, artist unknown unless otherwise noted.

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January 14, 2020

consistency, persistence, practice
Grappling Is A Competition For Freedom
“In a fight, only one person can be comfortable. Your job is to transfer the comfortable from your opponent to you.” —Rickson Gracie

The goal in grappling is to maintain and protect our own physical freedom, our ability to move freely and unhindered, while taking away the same in our opponent. Posture, balance, and dynamic mobility are the means by which we maintain our own physical freedom. It is by disrupting these attributes of freedom in our opponent that they are thrown, pinned, and/or submitted, depending on what the goal of our particular grappling art or sport is.

The Japanese word for this disruption to another person’s physical freedom is ‘kuzushi.’ Although commonly thought of as simply the act of unbalancing an opponent, kuzushi is most likely derived from ‘kuzusu,’ which means, roughly, to tear down, collapse, or destroy. While unbalancing an opponent for a throw is certainly one manifestation of kuzushi, pins, strangles, joint locks, and even strikes are all actions that, by taking away an opponent’s ability to move freely, are methods of kuzushi.

Looked at in this way, grappling is a means of competing for freedom. Grappling is the physical struggle between two persons wherein, depending upon the chosen ruleset, the goal is to limit the other person’s freedom to such a degree that he or she either falls, is pinned or contained, and/or is put into a position to submit via strangle or joint-lock. At the highest levels of grappling, however, instead of forcing a person into a position of reduced freedom, an opponent is actually led or guided there in a combined effort wherein the decisions he* makes unwittingly allows him to choose the form of his own demise.

*he or she

Holistic Budo: As it is in budo, so too it is in life. As it is in life, so too it is in budo.

Robert Van Valkenburgh is co-founder of Taikyoku Mind & Body and Kogen Dojo where he teaches Taikyoku Budo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, as well as a founding member of the Severna Park and Baltimore Holistic Chamber of Commerce.

Artwork by Ana, except where otherwise noted.

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January 13, 2020

bjj, brazilian jiu-jitsu, competition, freedom, grappling, judo, jujutsu, sumo, wrestling
Grappling Is Measured In Irimi
“Whoever controls the center, wins.” —Ellis Amdur

Grappling is essentially a negotiation for space, space that one person is attempting to occupy to the detriment of the other. Takedowns, throws, pins, strangles, and joint-locks, are really all variants of taking space so that we are in control of it and our opponent is not. In Japanese martial arts, this idea of taking space is known as ‘irimi,’ literally ‘entering body.’

Irimi, as Ellis Amdur describes it, is a martial form of displacement wherein “[t]wo objects cannot occupy the same space, and I, with greater power/speed/timing/postural stability, etc, take that space.” Whether we are talking about destabilizing an opponent to the point of a fall, like in sumo or judo, pinning an opponent such that he or she can no longer move, like in western-style wrestling, or submitting an opponent with a joint-lock or a strangle, as in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, grappling is measured in our ability to take space and not give it back. It is measured in irimi.

Through irimi, we develop the ability to predict where our opponent wants to be, the space he or she wants to take. Then, we can choose to either be there first, to cut him or her off by making that space our own, or to not be there at all by moving to a more advantageous position from which we can take more space with less resistance. Irimi is the means by which we take space until we achieve our takedown, throw, pin, and/or submission, and it is also the means by which we do not give up our own space in the process.

Holistic Budo: As it is in budo, so too it is in life. As it is in life, so too it is in budo.

Robert Van Valkenburgh is co-founder of Taikyoku Mind & Body and Kogen Dojo where he teaches Taikyoku Budo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, as well as a founding member of the Severna Park and Baltimore Holistic Chamber of Commerce.

Artwork by Ana, except where otherwise noted.

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January 11, 2020

bjj, brazilian jiu-jitsu, center, grappling, irimi, judo, space, submission grappling, sumo, wrestling

Specializing in Mastery

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Focus On That Which You Actively Avoid

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Persistence Towards Consistency

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Grappling Is A Competition For Freedom

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Grappling Is Measured In Irimi

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