Throwback Thursday My karate journey started some 20 years ago at the beginning of the 2000s. At that time I was still studying Civil Engineering in Cottbus, Brandenburg Germany. My friend Gunnar asked me if I wanted to do some self-defense. He knows somebody who is also a student and teaches karate. I was interested […]

Hello Zen Martial Arts family, Today I would like to address you on a personal matter. As you might know October is Breast Cancer awareness month. This type of cancer is the most common type of cancer with 290k new cases in 2022 in the US alone. Chances are that you know someone that has […]

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade! Guess who got Covid? – Right, me! I am not sure if I have had Covid before. Yes, I was sick a few times for just a day or two in the last two years and it could have been Covid, or just a nasty cold. Who knows? […]

You know what is cruel? Recovering from injury and getting back to pre-injury performance. You are losing stamina and strength super quick when you stop exercising, but it takes you so much longer to get back to where you used to be.I have reached a level where 200 pushups a day were no problem. Now […]

Summer, sun, vacation time! I cannot believe that it is already beginning of July! Half of the journey is over. My wrists still being sprained and I cannot practice as much as I want to. However, patience is a virtue and I know I should not push my luck. It is getting better slowly. I […]

Meanwhile we have had our dojo picnic on June 11th. This is always a lot of fun to get together outside the dojo. The last two years Covid threw a big wrench in our gears. So, this year we made it. Weather was nice, not too hot; just lower triple digits around early afternoon. Geneva […]

While the sprained bones cut my practice short a little, I started a new book. This will be my third one so far. It is called “Samurai Zen” from Scott Shaw. As the name suggests, it is about the theory of Zen Buddhism for the martial artist. Shaw describes how to refine your physical senses […]

It finally happened! I crashed with my bike on the way home from the dojo. Over six month I made it through the black belt test without any major injury, besides some minor bruises and pulled muscles. Nothing that really held me back doing my daily exercise nor doing my sparring rounds. But I knew […]

I am working now since a few days in the new office, and I have to say I really like it. It is totally different from my last two years sitting at my office table in my flat, spending most of my time on video calls talking to a screen. Now I am in a […]

Mid-April my company Sunrun had scheduled a three days offsite in Morro Bay. Not the worst location to spend a few days with colleagues that I have not seen in person since a few months. Fortunately, Covid restrictions were lowered in time to make this meeting possible. However, it was with a sad heart as […]