Mind Control

Direct your thoughts.

    Critical thinking was instilled in me. My father was a Bates graduate, trained to be a medic for WWII. Scientific by nature he had a healthy scepticism and encouraged me to take an analytical view of life. Question authority. Consider the source. Ask why.

    I arrived at Colorado University in 1960 a naieve 17 yr old with an exaggerated sense of my own importance. After a less than stellar 2 years, I took a year off to establish Colorado residency and qualify for in state tuition. Boulder was a great place to live, and I'd fallen in love with a Denver girl, so a year out of school was no hardship. After a summer supporting myself with campus lawn care jobs I was hired as a security guard.
   The American Karate School was on Pearl St, a block from Broadway. The job with the security service came with a eight week jujutsu class conducted by Boulder Police Dept. officer and self defense instructor Gene Sparks. Although he was only a brown belt instructor, he was competent and I am grateful to him for that introduction. Eight weeks, and I'd be able to handle myself in any situation. It was rudimentary, but I imagined I'd learned quite a lot over those two months.
    Along about the last week we had a special instructor. Frank J Goody, a man they called Shihan, and two of his yudansha came from the parent school in Denver, the American Budo College. Shihan Goody spent much of the class demonstrating aspects and principles of Jujutsu, including Judo, Aikido, and Yawara. It was a  demonstration that is still highlighted in my memory fifty years later.
    I saw magic that night in the power and precision of the execution of technique, and in the profound elegance of the art. I'd learned barely enough to appreciate what I was seeing, and I saw enough to realize that I'd learned very little indeed. It was a start.
   The class continued. I was invited to attend the Jujutsu class at the home dojo. Walter F. Doris, Sensei became my mentor and benefactor, teaching me lessons in life and Bushido in the tradition of a Japanese sensei.
   The American Karate School of Boulder was in fact a Tang Soo Do School. The head instructor was Jerry Bestol, Cho Dan, who had studied with Lt. Choi of the Moo Duk Kwan, at the invitation of Shihan Goody. Karate was the rising martial art, and after I had been studying Jujutsu something less than a year I wanted to join the Tang Soo Do class as well. With Sensei Doris's blessing I started cross training.
   Jerry Bestol, our last Moo Duk Kwan black belt, had moved to Ariz., leaving Robert Jay in charge of the classes. In Korea, in an act of nationalistic pride, the government preempted the Moo Duk Kwan and declared the all Korean style to be Tae Kwan Do, effectively orphaning American Tang Soo Do. Being a branch school of the American Budo College we fell under the Shin Go Ju Ryu school of Karate, of which Shihan Goody was hachi (8th) dan and Grand Master. Although our style and technique remained Tang Soo Do, all subsequent promotions in Karate, including my own, were in Shin Go Ju Ryu.
    I relished the discipline of Tang Soo Do training and the challenge of tournament competition, and it certainly refined my striking skills, but I always saw it as a subset of jujutsu technique. As with judo, tournament karate offered valuable lessons and experience, but the rules of competition invite disaster in real combat if training doesn't transcend them.
    Inspired by my Senseis I started setting goals for the first time in my life. Writing down my objectives, and the time I hoped to accomplish them. Keeping them in the forefront of my mind by regularly reviewing and affirming my intentions, tracking my progress. The discipline of regular training encouraged me to use my time more wisely. I grew more fitness conscious, giving up some detrimental habits.
   I learned to direct my thoughts. It's not done by thinking or willing it, but by action. Setting a goal of becoming Yudansha in 5 yrs I accomplished it in less, with the help and encouragement of many fellow students, the motivation and guidance of Senseis Jay and Doris, and the inspiration and benevolence of Shihan Goody, himself.
    Setting goals, specific trackable goals, and tracking them;
    Controlling your environment, who you associate with, the media you listen to;
    Committing to action; regular and sustained activity in furtherence of your goals;
    Seeking the guidance of those whose mastery you admire, and the help of those with whom you interact, even in competition.
    These are a few specifics that helped me combat self indulgence and follow my own Bushido.
    These, and the practice of meditation, about which more to follow.

   
Bob Jay, Sensei, Bob Webster, Ron Small, Al Richardson
American Karate School of Boulder ca 1968