Tom Callos on Martial Arts Business, Curriculum, a

The fellow on the left is Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt Flavio Almeida (read about his career, so far, here). On the right is Judo legend Mike Swain (bio on Wikipedia, here). I’m taking the photo out in front of Mike’s offices located in Campbell, California. Flavio came down

to chat about what he’s up to with Dollamur mats and his organization Gracie Barra —and to teach a seminar at San Jose State University for the judo team that practices there 6 night a week (including judoka Marti Malloy, who’s headed to the Olympic Games (see here Wikipedia bio here).

By the way, while I’m name-dropping, I should mention that I owe my renewed interest in judo, which was the first martial art I ever engaged in (my first lesson was in 1969), to UFC veteran BJ Penn. When I was last in Hilo, BJ told me he was seriously studying —and enjoying —judo, and that he wished he had started earlier in his career. BJ’s enthusiasm for what he was learning in his judo classes inspired me to start studying “the gentle way” again.

On a funny sidetone to that, when I first started teaching and working out with BJ Penn back in the 90’s, I tried to talk him out of fighting. I told him about my kick-boxing friends who’d tried to make it as professional fighters and how hard it was and how little money they had made. I suggested, instead, that he let me introduce him to Mike Swain and that he should consider trying out for the Olympic judo team. I remember saying, “There’s no money in judo either, but at least it’s prestigious.” Boy, was I wrong. Obviously, BJ didn’t let that detour him from his path.

I’ve beenhanging out with Mike Swain lately, as, well…not only is he a longtime friend, but if you plan to start taking judo lessons, who would be better to go to but one of the best coaches / judoka in the world, right? It turns out that’s also why Flavio Almeida flew into San Jose, CA; not just to get some judo pointers, but to connect Gracie Barra to the best mat surfaces in the world. Gracie Barra has adopted Dollamur Mats / Swain Mats as the official flooring of all Gracie Barra schools worldwide.

“Safety,” he said. “We have to put the safety of our students above all other considerations. Gracie Barra believes Dollamur mats are not only the best constructed mat surfaces on the planet, but that Mike Swain and Dollamur are committed to athlete and student safety as much as we are.”

When he said that, it didn’t come off as a “line” from a company press release, I could see that he genuinely meant it. I got to chat with Falvio quite a bit, we even drove over to Master Ernie Reyes Sr.’s “Mastery Test,” where about 100 of his highest ranking students were getting ready for a 5 day testing ordeal. More on that and more of my thoughts on Almeida, Gracie Barra, and some video from the seminar at San Jose State coming in my next blog.

May 08

3rd-grader takes a stand on bullying

Bullying: The harsh reality - Omaha World-Herald

We The People | Nothing to ‘like’ about Facebook bullies

May 07

Martial Arts Business: It’s Monday! The TO DO List

School owners, martial arts teachers, and staff members, it’s Monday! My favorite Monday line? Tony Robbins: “My Monday’s are better than most peoples Christmases.”

Monday’s the WEEKLY CARD REVIEW, one of 50 times a year that you and your team go through and evaluate each of your students, as though they were standing right in front of you and your team. “How’s attendance?” “Are we seeing the progress that reflects our potential?” “Is there some way we might better serve you?”

It’s the day when your staff each spends 5 or 10 minutes to tell you what they’re learning, applying from The 100. They tell you how they’re promoting the school, ingeniously, that week, and what projects they’re working on that both spreads the word AND mobilizes students in the community.

Each week, you see, the best staff members reaffirm why they’re so valuable —and, in many ways, they get re-hired each week.

Monday’s the day you and your team look deeply, ahead of any problem, as if you all had ESP —looking to catch POTENTIAL problems with students, long before anyone with less experience would see them. There’s no —or less —need for “DNS” calls (Did Not Show) when every challenge is caught FAR in advance of the “problem” stage.

Monday is the day progress is measured —and nobody on the team is permitted to be the same person they were the week before. Progress: What’s been read? What’s the most amazing thing you’ve seen, done, witnessed, and dreamt up?

Monday is the day we decide who, this week, we will reach and affect. Is there a business in town we can help? Is there a student doing something that we can push forward? Is there a kid, anywhere in our town, who could use a big brother or sister to stand up for them? Is there anyone who, not in a million years, would expect someone to come to their rescue? Can we do that?

Monday is 5 days before Friday, when we sit together again and talk about how we made things happen, how we engaged, who we helped, who we connected with, what we’ve learned, and what we’ve created.

Tom Callos heads The 100., a martial arts business association that starts anew, every day of the year, helping instructors create magic through their martial arts schools. If you’re a school owner and/or teacher of the martial arts, of any style, this is a week-long pass to our on-line dojo / campus. http://the100.me/?xgi=5YHew4Oyrkh0ya

Oh, and READING IS SELF-DEFENSE is a program, in development, courtesy of The 100. More news coming soon.

May 04

Martial Arts Business - How to Sabotage Your Success

Get out of shape; and If you really want to discredit yourself, get grossly out of shape.

It’s the giant pink elephant in the room of your credibility. It’s the thing that keeps your words from carrying enough weight to sink into the hearts of the people you should —and could —be guiding, teaching, mentoring, and helping.

You might be used to it, but everyone around you recognizes, at one level or another, that you’re trying to run a race while towing a refrigerator behind you. It’s uncomfortable to tell you, but it has to be done. You will not get the respect you could have, nor will your teaching reach the people you could, if you lack the self-discipline to make your health as extraordinary as what you think you have to offer the world.

If you think you’re too busy to take the time to train, to practice self-discipline at the table, and to live the fitness lifestyle, somewhere, someone did you a huge disservice, by allowing you to stray so far from the path.

You should, you can, and you must start, today, right now, to change the habits that have caused you to insulate yourself from the reality of your situation. This is the test, not the kicks, not the time you’ve put in, and not the fact that you own the school. This is the test —and all you have to do is put what you know into practice. You’ll be amazed, literally, at the weight that is lifted off of your shoulders when you start paying attention to the most important element of your success strategy.

Reminder 2
Stop Learning, Stop Reading

I read once, that 60 percent of adults never read another non-fiction book after graduating from high school. Ignorance isn’t bliss for the martial arts teacher, it’s career suicide. As destructive and as big an obstacle as ignorance is, the martial arts world is fat full of blatant, frightening, and obvious ignorance.

Take bully education as an example. Where are our scholars on the subject? Take nutrition and diet. Take peace education. Take philosophy. Take hyper-masculinity. Take anatomy and physiology. Take pedagogy. Take history, take science, take almost any and all the subjects that the great teachers pay attention to and use, and they’re missing from our seminars, our magazines, our forums, our conventions, and our dialog.

It’s as if “make it easy for me,” “can I buy it?” and “I don’t have time for it,” have become the left, right, and hook of our industry’s slide into irrelevance.

As a career choice, I work with martial arts teachers, many of who long for financial “success.” This has required me to, 365 days a year, gently (and sometimes not so gently) remind them that who they hang with, what they read, and what they’re working on are the three most important elements of their genuine success.

May 02

The Envirofit Stove, Black Belt Thinking

I stumbled across the Envirofit Stove in a magazine I was perusing this morning. Now here’s a company solving problems, which is, essentially, what I think martial arts school owners could and should be doing with their “product.”

Perhaps when you look at Envrofit’s website, at their videos, and at the products, you see a company selling stoves? What I see is something I want my own business to me made of. I’d like The 100. to be a company on a mission to make life better for others, to make things that are useful, and smart.

I’m giving my “Black Belt Thinking Award” to Envirofit —for inspiring me to do what I do better.

Apr 28

Martial Arts Business: Judo, BJ Penn, a 99-year Old Teacher, and Something Old / Something New

Something Old, Something New: Tom Callos Talks About The New (Old) Business of Teaching the Martial Arts —in 2012

Something Old
In 1969 a judo teacher invited me on his mat for my first taste of the martial arts. This month, 43 years after that first lesson, I’ve come back to judo. I’ve come back to Jigoro Kano’s art due to the influence of three people:

BJ Penn, who told me recently that he’d started taking judo lessons. According to BJ, the training was outstanding and he felt it was filling a gap in his knowledge he hadn’t previously been aware of. He also told me he was training at a dojo on Oahu that had been open for more than 100 years. BJ’s a longtime friend, occasional training partner, former student, and since he kicked the hat off of the martial arts world as we knew it, a teacher I try and listen to. In the case of judo, if it’s good for BJ Penn, it’s good for me too.

Shihan Keiko Fukuda. It was about a year ago that someone sent me a trailer for a film in-the-works called, “Be Strong, Be Gentle, Be Beautiful,” which was to chronicle the life of Keiko Fukuda, the last living student of judo’s founder Jigoro Kano. The trailer brought me to tears, as Fukuda, then 98-years-old and still teaching judo, exemplified a level of commitment and dedication I could only stand back and stare at in awe. It may sound strange to some people, but after seeing the film (now titled “Mrs. Judo”) and meeting Shihan, I felt compelled to study judo in her honor.

Judo world champion Mike Swain personifies the gentle spirit of judo. I have only moved with him on the mat once, many years ago during my 4th degree black belt test under Master Ernie Reyes, Sr., but lately I’ve been hanging out with him as we worked together on some projects for his mat company (www.SwainMats.com). I’ve grown to respect the gentleness of his approach to business and life, which I attribute in part to his training —and it has renewed my interest in the philosophy and practice of “The Gentle Way.”

I’m now working on a project with Swain Mats and its parent company Dollamur Sports Surfaces to renew interest in judo training to everyone in the international martial arts community, or should I say “back” to everyone (in the non-judo martial arts world). To begin the dialogue about how that might happen, we’ve started a community of martial artists interested in judo and, well, pretty much all things that take place on a mat. Membership is free and the content on the site is, I think, noteworthy. If you’d like to be a part of the dialog and movement to bring (or re-bring) some good judo technique to all styles of martial arts, come join us at www.DollamurMartialArts.com).

Something New
While judo speaks to my sense of martial arts tradition, the kind of martial arts that is, today, blowing my mind is the kind that takes the work “Off the mat and into the world.” That’s the slogan for a giant project I’m up to my chin in called “The 100.” (www.the100.me).

The 100. isn’t about the techniques of the martial arts, it’s about innovation and education. The work is about community activism, experiential leadership training, environmental self-defense, dietary self-defense, peace education, on-line technology for curriculum development, health education, and a truckload of other concepts that aren’t currently a part of the “martial arts industry,” but that are so right, so smart, and so relevant-to-today’s world, that it’s only a matter of time. The 100.’s on-line campus is abuzz with smart, hardworking martial arts teachers doing some of the coolest, most inspiring, and —I think —healthiest work in the martial arts teachers community.

It’s like I have one foot in the past and one in the future. I find it all very invigorating —and I invite you to join me in the work, if it speaks to you too. I’m curious, too, if you’re experieincing anything like this in your teaching career. If you are, come to www.dollamurMartialArts.com and tell us about it.

Tom Callos

Apr 18

Martial Arts Business: The Work is Mastery

In the end —and/or now —you could be a monumental force for good, for sanity, for connectivity, for education, for non-violence, for peace education, for clear thinking, for many, many good things in your community.

In the end —and/or now —you could be a Master Teacher of all the most important topics: Peace; kindness; service to mankind; compassion; tolerance; love; listening; art; sustainable living and thinking; forgiveness; awareness; simplicity.

In the end —and/or now —you have an opportunity to define your role as a martial arts teacher in a way that helps you, maybe even forces you, to become a genuine, centered, compassionate and wise teacher, student, leader, follower, dad, mom, friend, grandparent, activist, and engaged, sane human being.

In the end —and/or now —your work can allow you to self-correct, to contribute, to give, to heal, and to act like a master (like a “master” the world doesn’t often see).

The only thing that really makes you a Master is what you do in your head —and what you do in the world as a result of what you do in your head.

In other words, mastery is found in what you think —and what that thinking causes you to do.

Greed is not the trait of a master. Hate, anger, misunderstanding, envy, and violence are not the way of the master. Selfishness, self-deception, attachment, narcissism, justification, apathy, and disconnection is not the way of the master.

Find some real masters. Find people who do amazing things and for all the right reasons. They’re out there. You can be one of them.

Your anger, it’s not her fault. That feeling like he just doesn’t understand, has little or nothing to do with him. That mess, is your responsibility. That car, that watch, that shirt, that house, that posing, that performance, that income, that thing is not you.

Be of the school of thought that says being a master of the martial arts is not about the martial arts at all, but about all the best things in the world. Embrace education. Embrace involvement. Embrace solutions. Embrace peacemaking. Embrace all the smartest, healthiest, most enlightened ideas.

This is the path to “success” that in the end —and/or now —is worth investing in and that will offer you the kind of ROI (Return on Investment) that will make your life’s work something of sparkling significance.

Mar 21

The Martial Arts Lesson: On The Power and Value of Practice

On The Power and Value of Practice

Surprise! You’re not here to learn karate or kung fu or Brazilian jiu jitsu or capoeira or aikido or judo or taekwondo or Filipino stick-fighting or whatever it is that you think you are learning.

All of those things, those styles and systems, are like the pencils, paper, chalkboards, rulers, and report cards from the school of martial arts and life. What you’re really here to learn is how to make practice your practice.

Kicking doesn’t matter. Arm-bars don’t matter. Learning to fall is unimportant. Blocking is trivial. Boxing is all a waste of time. Practice is the dark matter, the glue, the lessons-to-be-learned, the everything behind the everything you ever want to become, might become, have the potential to become, and will become.

Practice is the tick, tick, tick of the clock of awareness. Practice is what makes the tea sweet, the bread worth eating, and what brings laughter to the table of our lives. The more you use the word, the more you practice the idea of practice, the more powerful and cognizant and wise you become.

The Master Teacher knows that whatever he or she gets you to practice, is what contains the gold and diamonds of the teaching. Practicing what you want to be good at is more important than what you’re good at. Practicing kindness is the $5,000,000 gift that is supposed to come from the money you pay for your lessons. Making a practice of training —your mind, your body, your emotions, your spirit —this is the priceless gift, the winning lottery ticket of anything a teacher can impart.

Start like this:
Make a practice out of practicing what you learn in your martial arts school. Even though there are many other things you can practice, start with your martial arts. Practice at home for 10 minutes a day, as sometimes that’s all it takes to learn what is to be learned.

If you can’t discipline yourself to practice, then what you’re learning loses almost all of its value. Practice is the lesson, it’s just disguised in the skill you’re learning.

If you have a martial arts teacher who doesn’t talk about practice, then you have one who hasn’t, himself, yet practiced enough. As once you move beyond what you’re practicing and understand why you’re practicing, the whole world becomes a friendlier, happier, and easier to navigate place. Health? It’s a practice. Love? it’s a practice. Fitness? Yes, a practice. Education, business success, being an inventor, writing books, being an artist, being a great parent, being a great friend, and seeing the good in life —all of these things are (or can become) a practice.

So there you have it. When you’re in the company of someone who talks the talk of practice, make a practice of listening carefully. Practice is the lesson. Practice is self-defense against all the things that we have control over in the world, in our lives, and the key to waking up to life. Without an understanding and an awareness of what practice is and how to stuff your life full of practice, you can sleep right thru it all. So wake up to practice. The more you practice, the better you’ll get at it.

Mar 02

Martial Arts Business: Chase Jarvis, My Sensei

I follow, almost daily, the blog and work of creative genius / photographer Chase Jarvis. Yes, I know, I teach teachers how to teach the martial arts —and Chase doesn’t. That hardly matters. He may not know how to do a rear-naked choke, but all the same I consider Chase my Sensei (he just doesn’t know it —or [spasm of realization] maybe he does?).

Chase’s post from today is a fine example of why I study his work and how it relates to teaching the martial arts and martial arts career / school management (my translation of the work into martial-talk, in italics):

How to Become a Photographer in 5 Simple Steps
How to Become a Successful Martial Arts Teacher in 5 Simple Steps

Got a note the other day from an aspiring photographer. He wanted to know what it takes to become a pro. I thought–very pragmatically–that it’s really not complicated. HARD maybe, but complicated, no. It might be what “the industry” doesn’t want you to know, but here are the 5 steps.

1. Declare yourself a photographer. That’s what you ARE in life. You’re not a student, not a finance-guy-slash-part-time-photographer, not a part time anything. You’re a photographer. People have to know this.

1. Declare yourself a master teacher. Do what Chase says, above.

2. Be in business. Make it real. Get a business bank account, business license (city + county), business cards. Business. Otherwise it’s a hobby.

2. Be in business. Make it real. Do what Chase says AND be a real master teacher (as in, act like a master).

3. Read every book you can find at the library or online about the business of photography. Understand the rules.Because if you fail at the business part, if you can’t SUSTAIN this business, you’re not a pro. You’re unemployed, or back to part-time this or that. And back to step 1 you go again…wanting to be a pro. NOW then, if read these books and they make sense, and they teach you how to run the books and land the gigs…you gotta then break some of the rules you read in these books. And YOU choose which are the right ones to break. You’ll be right 50% of the time, you just won’t know which 50% until after you’ve taken the leap. Action is the only thing that matters.

3. Read everything about anything pertaining to combat, peace, violence, non-violence, and anything else pertaining to self-defense as it relates to the human species (food, relationship issue, gender bias, drug abuse, anger management, etc.). While you’re at it, know / study everything about the business of running a school —and then choose to run your school in the light of day, not on the dark side (translation: choose honesty and authenticity over sales-hype and manipulation). In the end, Action is the only thing that matters (you won’t REALLY learn how to BE a master any other way). Oh, and read, twice, what Chase wrote, above.

4. Take photographs everyday and share them, pimp them, promote them like mad. For clients and for yourself. Get creative as all hell. Find YOUR voice through shooting more photos than you thought was possible. Aim to be different, not better than everybody else. Be brutal in your edit. Put forward only your best work around the the things you actually want to get paid to shoot. Break all the rules here too. And again, you’ll be mistaken 50% of the time, but you gotta take your swings to hit anything at all. Don’t forget, the DOING is the only thing that matters here too. What you THINK is nice, but it counts for zilch, zero, nada. Action wins.

4. Do everything Chase says, above, just replace any mention of photography with teaching the physical, mental, and spiritual aspects of the martial arts, as you know them. Get creative as hell. Find YOUR voice as a master teacher by studying, bycreating, and don’t simply seek to replicate the “success” of people trying to sell you their formula for success. DO —take action every single day (maybe every hour) —and make sure it’s more than double what anyone else you know is doing.

5. Repeat.

6. Repeat (with refinements and a shocking [masterful] level of focus and perseverance).

Feb 16

The Wakamatsu Tea Colony, Gold Hill, CA

I just finished a meeting with Isaak Egge from The American River Conservancy; we did a walk-about on the historic California property that was/is The Wakamatsu Tea Colony, which is “the cultural Preserve…site of the first agricultural settlement of pioneer Japanese immigrants in North America who established the Wakamatsu Tea and Silk Farm Colony on June 8th, 1869.”

Not only does this 272 acre preserve house what was the first Japanese settlement on US Soil, but it’s also just a mile from my home in Gold Hill. I’ve been told that this was the site of the very first Japanese person to pass away on US soil —and where the first Japanese person was born in the US.

I am planning on hosting events with the martial arts community to help restore and maintain the property —-more to come.

Tom Callos on Martial Arts Business, Curriculum, a

May 25

May 12

Confronting Bullies and Bullying — iKeepSafe

May 09

Martial Arts Safety, Gracie Barra, Mike Swain, and Dollamur Mats

May 08

3rd-grader takes a stand on bullying

Bullying: The harsh reality - Omaha World-Herald

We The People | Nothing to ‘like’ about Facebook bullies

We The People | Nothing to ‘like’ about Facebook bullies

May 07

Martial Arts Business: It’s Monday! The TO DO List

May 04

Martial Arts Business - How to Sabotage Your Success

May 02

The Envirofit Stove, Black Belt Thinking

Apr 28

Martial Arts Business: Judo, BJ Penn, a 99-year Old Teacher, and Something Old / Something New

Apr 18

Martial Arts Business: The Work is Mastery

Mar 21

The Martial Arts Lesson: On The Power and Value of Practice

Mar 02

Martial Arts Business: Chase Jarvis, My Sensei

Feb 16

The Wakamatsu Tea Colony, Gold Hill, CA