Tuyet Tan Dojo

read moreAs we all know, every cup can hold a certain amount of water. Once it's full, any other water you pour in just spills over the sides. Humans are a lot like cups - but instead of holding water, we contain ideas and skills. If we get it in our heads that we know everything, then our cup is full, and anything else people show or tell us just spills over the edge. Grandmaster Ngo Dong teaches that keeping your cup full (closed-mindedness) is a limiting and undesirable way to live life, since a person can't grow if his or her cup is full.

read moreMIND: The mind is a very important source of power. You may have a lot of body strength, but if you doubt your ability, then you will have a hard time achieving your goal. Your positive attitude and belief that you can accomplish your goal will help you to realize it. SPIRIT: "The power of a positive attitude" refers to one's spirit. If you approach things with enthusiasm and focus, you can accomplish many goals. You can also share your good spirit with others and better develop teamwork. Even when things are not going well, a strong spirit can help one overcome many obstacles.

read moreThe highlight of my day is when I get to go to class at Moon Dragon Dojo and train with a great group of people. At this dojo, there's a supportive environment that accepts people at whatever level they are at, while providing martial arts training that is fun, challenging, and and practical for self defense. The senseis that teach there regularly are truly inspirational women. I love Moon Dragon Dojo! It's just the right combination of "martial" and "art". Good workouts and lots of personal attention from the instructors, but they don't push people through too fast: you know when you get a black belt from the Moon Dragon Dojo that it really means something.

read moreFortify Your Body - This one is pretty straightforward - get stronger; improve your stamina; eat right, exercise, and treat your body well so that it is powerful and reliable for you. Find Your Way - This is an interesting one for a martial art, if you consider that the popular image of martial arts in the U.S. is of wizened guys shouting orders and demanding blind, unthinking, instant obedience. Finding your way requires more than that — it requires reflection, introspection, and some independent commitment toward the direction you want your life, or more literally your training, to take.

read moreCuong Nhu means "hard-soft" in Vietnamese. Cuong Nhu offers a wide variety of techniques which is the result of blending seven styles of martial arts, from the hardest to the softest. In 1965, the first school of Cuong Nhu was founded in the city of Hue, Vietnam by Master Ngo Dong. Cuong Nhu was more than just another style of martial art. It provided an ideological foundation for its students, young people who had grown up in a sadly disjointed and war-torn society, who were hard-pressed to meet their spiritual needs.

read moreWe spend a lot of time in our training developing our forms - doing kata helps us learn techniques and self-defense possibilities. Praticing kata gives us the opportunity to learn how to demonstrate and express awareness, power and strength, softness, ferocity, and tranquility. We can imbue our forms with the properties of things like a mountain, a tiger, and a cloud. To develop a three-dimensional presentation of kata, the following three principles may be used for an optimal performance. Kata without an understanding of application is dance, and not nearly as profound an experience.

read moreMany strong emotions come up in sparring - lots of fear, sometimes anger, joy, surprise, frustration, etc. - the emotions themselves are not a problem. In fact, they're a source of energy. The problem is often the stories that we bring to sparring, or that come up in sparring, that have emotions and beliefs about ourselves attached. Stories like "I have to win" or "I can't look bad" or "I'm lousy at this" or "I'm going to get hurt." It's the stories that freeze you up, take you out of the moment - that lead you to try to prove or disprove them, and doing that takes you out of relationship with your partner.