James Eke looks at Shotokan Karate founder Gichin Funakoshi Sensei’s 20 Precepts Of Karate-Do and how to implement them into our training and our lives. We also talk about what to do when life is just a struggle and things seem against us.

James Eke looks at a chapter from the brilliant book, Zen In The Martial Arts, on Joe Hyams meeting Bruce Lee. We look at the need to be open-minded in our training and life. We talk about the idea of using marijuana while doing Jiu-Jitsu and whether it is the best of plans or not.

James Eke looks at Tibetan Buddhist monk and teacher Pema Chodron’s article Not Causing Harm. We also talk about how much you should train when you are first starting out.

A very Merry Christmas and a Happy 2019 from me to you.

James Eke takes a look at an article attributed to Mitsuyo Maeda, the man who taught Jiu-Jitsu to a young Carlos Gracie (who himself would go on to found Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu). We also look at what more we can do to get more from our training.

James Eke looks at an article written in 1910 by one of the first western women to teach Jiu-Jitsu, Edith Garrud. Edith secretly taught women in the UK suffragette movement of the early 1900s Jiu-Jitsu from her Soho school. She also trained an elite 30-woman bodyguard whose job it was to protect the leaders of the women’s rights movement. We also talk about whether or not you really need to show up for class given that you already pay your financial dues to your Dojo.

James Eke takes a look at Samurai legend and woman warrior Tomoe Gozen and we talk about the importance of having more women in the martial arts not just in classes but in leadership roles. He also answers questions about children in the martial arts.

James Eke takes a tackle of Jocko’s Good from the Jocko Podcast and the book Disciple Equals Freedom. We also look at frustration in our training and what to do about it.

James Eke looks at Dogen’s masterpiece as well as Zen Master Jiyu Kennett’s commentary on it. We extract from it what is important not just in Zen but in our martial arts training. We also come up with three important things to do for yourself off the mats.

James Eke looks at letters from the 1930s written by the first western female black belt during her two years of intense Judo training in pre-WW2 Japan. We also look take a hard look at what we should do when things get hard in life and training.