Shoshin Ryu

Martial arts has continuously gained popularity since Bruce Lee jump kicked into Hollywood so many decades ago and a great many powerful things have been associated with this equally powerful physical art since. This growth has been fantastic for the awareness and understanding of what martial arts means to those of us that have studied and practiced it but as time moves forward and studios find need to compete with one another on a marketing scale in order to keep their doors open, sensationalism has taken hold and the grandiose has saturated the market with studio names that may be better fit as titles to a Shaw Brothers Martial Arts Movie.

Some of the softer, yet equally powerful, messages of the nature of our arts get overlooked in this realm of marketing and advertising. Many schools promote the stronger sounding beliefs in their names and attitudes to appeal to extreme fighters and individuals that are looking for evidence that martial arts can truly protect them and so, often times, words like dragon and flaming and other powerful sounding words are chosen merely in hopes to draw appeal to a place of learning.

Equally important philosophies of martial arts can be found in such simple words as respect, humility and honor or through more complex ideas such as peace through knowledge, honesty of action, and learning with the heart. Though the powerful ideals are strong within our minds, chest and teachings; it is from this quiet place of the arts that our school resonates loudly with. It is here that we find our balance, our Yin.

Through personal studies, we have always held firm to entering each class or session with an open mind and see every instruction with the eyes of the beginner, without the bias of experience. This belief has been honest to us every day, both inside and outside the dojo, and it is with this valuable lesson teaching us every waking moments of our lives, we continue to develop the personal integrity that we feel needs to be given to our own martial arts and offer the same for those that choose to learn along side us. Within our Shoshin Ryu or Beginner's Mind School.