C&S Online
An Online Newsletter For The
C&S Self Defense Association
Fall 2001

Confidence. Fitness. Success.

The Front Page
A Note From Grandmaster - Senior Grandmaster Peter M. Rose, 8th Degree Black Belt

Thoughts From the Board of Directors
Alive and Kicking - Grandmaster Paul B. Dusenbery, Ph.D., 7th Degree Black Belt
The Dragon's Tail - Senior Master David R. Landers, 6th Degree Black Belt

Featured Articles
Hair Pulling - Yondan Kerry Bushue, 4th Degree Black Belt
Restraints and Takedowns for DART Students - Senior Master David R. Landers, 6th Degree Black Belt
The Leveraged Takedown - Grandmaster Peter Rose, 8th Degree Black Belt

What's Been Happening
Boulder School of Self Defense - Boulder, CO
Chung Fu-do - Fort Collins, CO
Mountain View Martial Arts Academy - Spokane, WA
Orange School of Karate - Orange, TX
Personal Protection Agency - Tyler, TX
Rose School of Karate - Portsmouth, NH
Sachem Self Defense School - Laconia, NH
Shadow Dragon Karate Guild - Mason, IL
Somersworth School of Self Defense - Somersworth, NH
Storm Dragon Dojos/Landers - Effingham, IL
Storm Dragon Dojos/Larison - Montrose, IL

Views From Around The Association
Women's Art - Ikkyu Chuck Fussman and Yonkyu Liz Cooley
What To Seek - Nidan Larry Holman
Making The Box - Sandan Tim House
Attack On America - Grandmaster Peter Rose
Now What? - Sandan Bruce Vinciguerra

The Back Page
Submissions - How To Submit Articles To The Newsletter
Guidelines - Helpful Guidelines For Writing Articles
Parting Thoughts - Quote of the day
Interesting Links - Links to other places of possible interest
About C&S - Role of C&S Self Defense Association

C&S Online Newsletter Issue Index

Dear Students and Friends,

This is the 1 year edition  of C&S Online. And with it, a different URL to use in your browser to find your way to the site. You will note that I have a new domain: http://www.zzrose.com. And, for the time being, I will continue to host our Association site on my website at http://www.csSelfDefense.org/index.html; there is pressure a-foot to get a C&S domain name and eventually I think this is what we will end up doing. My previous ISP was purchased by another ISP and all email addresses were going to be trashed, website space was going to be reduced, and the price was going to go up over 30%. I have a big site with lots of references to my URL and email address so the thought of having to go through changing all of these entries now and then again in the event that this company was bought by another company was unappealing. So: http://www.zzrose.com is for as long as I pull air; I will never have to change reference URLs again. One less thing to have to mess with! That gives me more time to harass karate students!

Speaking of harassing folks, I recently communicated via email with one of our newest Pending Black Belts, Joanne Edwards. I wrote something to her that I would like to share with all of you if I could. The thrust of my email was in response to Joanne's statement that she felt humbled by the experience of her success. My reply sums up why students strive to reach certified 1st Degree Black Belt in our group, and it is what they do for the rest of their lives as Black Belts.

" And well you should be humbled. It is a great honor and with that, a great responsibility as it puts you one step closer to making a very important committment to your art, your sensei, me, my master, and his master, and all the way back as far as it goes. This committment comes at Certified 1st Degree Black Belt. It is two fold and you need to keep this in mind as you strive forward with your training. These are:

1) You make a committment to continue to study and practice the priciples of the art as it has been shared to you for the rest of your life regardless of whether you remain active in your club, or the association. This is similar to making a committment to brushing your teeth every day. At Shodan you know that what you do is good for you whether you actively study in a club environment or not. At Nidan, you make a committment to your Master- one step further.

2) You make a committment to directly affect the lives of 2 other people through your art and you have them make the committment to pass this on to 2 other people who then pass that on... You may never know if you affected a person in this manner. It is thus your responsibility to keep actively practicing a principle centered life, what the Chinese call "right thinking; right living". Only in this manner will you place yourself in a frame of mind to fullfill this goal. Have you seen the movie "Pay It Forward"? We're not the only ones who think up this stuff. It is a universal truth of living a principle centered life. We (your sensei, me, etc. all the way through the chain) just make this a formal committment of moving to Shodan.

In any event, smile and remember that each and every day in each and every way we become better, better, and better and we are happy, we are healthy, we are terrific, and we are calm. "

These are goals that not only a Black Belt should strive for. Everyon can put more meaning into their lives by following these principles- even those not involved in the martial arts. They represent principles of the goodness of people reaching out for the goodness of others. Now, the first one- making a "committment to continue to study and practice the priciples of the art…" really has nothing to do with karate. It means, in a more large scale sense, that each of us has some activity that we can involve ourselves in that we can become passionate about and that furthers our positive self development. And it is through this development of the self that we are able to then help others.

Commitment and passion are keys to a happy life. And if you can bring that to another, well then you have really accomplished something to be proud of!

In our art,
Grandmaster
Grandmaster Peter M. Rose

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Grandmaster Peter M. Rose holds an 8th Degree Black belt. He began his studies with Grandmaster S.A. Brock in 1968. Grandmaster Rose is a senior software analyst, designer, and technical project manager. Grandmaster Rose can be reached at zzrose@yahoo.com.