Bethlehem Martial Arts Academy

Bethlehem Martial Arts Academy will be closed on Saturday, 27 March 2021 so our instructors can attend the World Tang Soo Do Association 2021 Master’s Clinic. Train at home on Saturday while we improve our skill in order to serve our students even better. Tang Soo!

Self-defense Sunday: one of the most undervalued aspects of self-defense, physically and mentally is the self-talk that goes on in our heads. As Mr. Campbell says, The strongest muscle in Tang Soo Do is our brain. https://www.becomingminimalist.com/how-to-be-more-confide/

Since classes are cancelled tonight, that means it’s time for the BMAA Snow Man Challenge! Post a pic to our page of a snowman you made during this storm. The BMAA Instructional Team will select one winner from each class and that person will win a prize! Submissions must be made by Wednesday, February 3 at 5:00 PM. Here’s one from a previous year.

ATTENTION Bethlehem Martial Arts Academy family: Bethlehem Martial Arts Academy will be closed tonight, Monday, February 1, 2021 due to the weather. Stay home. Stay safe. Look for the Snow Day Challenge to be posted soon... https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6UvbhER4RmM

Shoveling snow as training, part deux: Remember you can work out hard or you can work out long, but you can’t workout hard for long. Vary your shovel loads to vary the intensity of your resistance. Cycling (going from heavy to light loads) helps your body adapt with active recovery. As mentioned before, don’t forget to use both sides equally, hydrate, and rest, too. This snow ain’t going nowhere, save some fun for later, too. Oh yeah, and there’s this little thing called breathing, you might want to match your exhale to your exertion. But then again, my brain is frozen from round 1 outside, so I could be wrong.

From our friends at Impact Martial Arts, in celebration of Black History Month. Master Steven Chambliss, a true gentleman, martial artist, and legend. One of the heroes of the BMAA instructional team. Tang Soo!

Hey, BMAA family. Keep an eye on this space. If it becomes necessary to cancel classes tomorrow, I will post it here. We might have to train outside in the snow at home...

Philosophy Friday: One of the fringe benefits of training in Tang Soo Do is that we learn to separate an evaluation of our practice from our value as a person. Sometimes when people are corrected, they take that as an attack against their personal value. Sometimes, that attitude is the product of an overinflated ego, other times, from heightened insecurity. As we are corrected on the performance of our technique, we are being given advice on how to make our technique better, ...according to the standards of performance of that technique and the art. We are given advice that serves to make us better practitioners. (Ask sometime about Grandmaster Shin asking me if I was wearing a diaper ) With a proper mindset, that process turns into a cause for gratitude, even celebration. That's one of the reasons we bow after being addressed by a higher rank. In essence, our bow is saying, "Thank you for your time and effort in making me better." We should learn to rejoice and be glad at being corrected in the dojang and in life. Ultimately, what we are being told is, "You're so valuable, I want to help you be even better!" Happy Friday.