PeaceWalker Blog

  Another beautiful day here in Grand Rapids, Michigan! Couldn't ask for better weather! An exciting day... But before I get into that, I wanted to share an epiphany that I had yesterday.  I just got finished working out and was eating my subway and bag of lays bbq potato chips... If you remember, I've losing weight these past few months and one of the things that's helped me to do this is being more mindful of my eating.  You may be thinking "No sh*t Sherlock!" of course you have... But why are you eating potato chips?! Aren't they on the ;'no no' list?! The answer is... Not if you don't over do it!  If you keep things in check, you can eat about anything, but in moderation. I've had to consciously slow down when I eat... Enjoy the process more, chew my food and appreciate the taste, rather than just shoveling it in! =D So, yesterday I was enjoying my 6" ham sub along with a small bag of Lays BBQ potato chips and had to remind myself to e

  I am in a bit of a reflective mood about the shock and tragedy that happened years ago. It could just as well have been yesterday for me... It's still that clear in my memory... Where I was... What I was doing... How I was feeling... The phone calls... Watching events unfold... But I was one of the millions of people who weren't actually there... But I have friends who were...  Police, firefighters, friends. Not everyone made it... But, we all remember... And that reminds me of Israel and what an Israeli friend of mine said about the attitude of many in that culture... An Uncommon Wish... When a terrorist attack occurs many people think  "I'm so lucky I wasn't there."   And don't get me wrong I would say that would be a pretty rational and intuitive thing to think... However... Some of my friends and colleagues from Israel have a different perspective... When something happens, when a tragedy occurs these people think... If only I were there I could have

  Had a great morning walk. Beautiful day!  When I got home I took a look at my phone and see I had a few emails from PeaceWalker members. One read: "You hurt my feelings with this email…NOT Good word.  J" It was in reply to the email I sent a few days ago called,  "Everyone's Welcome Around the Fire." Which speaks to everyone being welcome in my circle, as long as you aren't being a jerk. I'll take you as you are even if we don't see things the same. We can have differences, even bust each other's chops about things. We aren't politically correct, rather we try to be respectful, even and especially when we don't see eye to eye. But, there is also a fair amount of 'chop bustin'. Yes, life can be serious, but we have to stay light hearted and not take ourselves too seriously. We're all in this together.  Not Knowing... I know, I know, I can be dense, but not knowing how he meant what he sent, I replied with this: "And how

  If you've been around a little while, regardless if you train at the local academy, gone to some workshops, are a PeaceWalker Member or simply read these emails, you know that this community values perseverance. You hear me continually say "Keep Going." Although this sentiment may sound trivial, cliché' even, it bares weight that is quite profound.  Here's a great example of that:  This man was born in 1809.  In 1816, at age 7, he was forced to work because his family was expelled.  In 1818, he lost his mother.  In 1828, he lost his sister.  In 1831, he opened his first business and went bankrupt.  In 1832, he stood in the legislative elections and lost.  In 1833, he borrowed money   to open another business and went bankrupt again.  In 1835, he met a wonderful woman. He falls in love with her, they get engaged, and she dies.  In 1836, he entered a dark period of his life: deep depression.  He remains bedridden for 6 consecutive months. But he gets up.  He gets

Last year this time, after a rather warm run (Temps in the mid 90's...), as per my tradition, I stopped by the Subway that is a couple doors down from the Krav Academy to get my dinner before teaching class. As soon as I walk in I see, or rather feel something... A disturbance in the force so to speak.  There is a rather strange looking man ordering his sub from the young sandwich artist girl who looked like a cross between a deer in the headlights and someone walking on eggshells. The man looked to be in his late 50's, possibly homeless, maybe not...He was dressed in a dirty jean jacket, jeans w/nylon cargo style shorts over them. He was bald with longer hair in the back of his head, almost 80's style 'rat tail' if you can remember what those were. His graying goatee and thick eyebrows were dyed a bright pink / red. The dye stained his face giving him the look reminiscent of the Joker who just escaped from Arkham.  He didn't act like he was on drugs so much as

Just got back from New Jersey yesterday. I was out training w/Jack Hoban. Most of you have heard me talk about Jack before, but for those who haven't heard of him...   Jack is a former Capt. in the USMC and one of the guys responsible for creating MCMAP as well as their  Warrior Ethic program. He is the president of Resolution Group International (RGI) that teaches conflict resolution to military, LEO's and other organizations. Jack's also a very accomplished instructor in a traditional Japanese martial art called Budo Taijutsu.  I've been training with Jack for going on two decades now... I'm also one of RGI's founding instructors, so we've hung out a lot together the past decade or so teaching police and others from all over Jersey and beyond.  I stay in touch and get out to train with Jack as much as I can.  A lot has changed in Jack's life since Covid, one of those changes is that he recently moved to Hawaii (half the year anyway) and is 'snow-bi

  A little while back  I taught a workshop at Temple Emanuel, a Jewish Synagogue here in Grand Rapids, MI. (Pictured above) Jenn Franson was kind enough to help me inspire these wonderful young people. We all had a great time training together, training, telling stories and helping uncover these kid's Protector Identities.  They were taking it all in when I told them the story about the reason why I named my organization PeaceWalker.  That name comes from a quote from Imi Lichtenfeld who was the first Krav Maga instructor in the Israeli Defense Force.  Imi was quoted saying, "The reason we train is so that one can walk in peace." I took that quote and got the term  " PeaceWalker"  out of it .  Molding Clay... It's important that we lead and mentor people.... Especially young people.   I was talking to Tim one of our Instructors at the local academy. He was telling me about this 17 year old Brazilian Jiu Jitsu competitor who goes to competitions or sparring s

If you train with me you know we talk a lot about tactical space (the place of advantage) and strategy. I'm always going off on how they trump techniques.  Well, if you want to learn more about strategy there's a good book called 33 Strategies of War by Robert Greene. It's a good book, especially for us PeaceWalkers. The main reason it's so important is because it gives ample examples of how to start thinking more strategically instead of just thinking about techniques.  What it teaches is the exact opposite of what all these self defense instructors preach and try to brag about on facebook, youtube and instagram. All of those flash techniques probably look especially cool to the newbies. But in reality it’s kind of foolish and not-very-wise, basing your ability to protect yourself on the One Technique to Rule them All! When you think about it its like bragging about jumping out of a plane and then building the parachute on the way down. How about simply not boarding a

"Stand up, you don't have to be afraid Get down, love is like a hurricane Street boy, no I never could be tamed Better believe it..." Loud, I wanna hear it loud Right between the eyes Loud, I wanna hear it loud Don't want no compromise" Yep, listening to some early 80's Kiss, "I love it loud." to get me 'in state' so to speak!  That song was on their Creatures of the Night album. I remember when it first came out. I can still see it in the wooden record bin near the checkout at the 'little' Meijer grocery store near where I grew up.  Here's the Real Irony! They shut that Meijer down in the early 80's. Later they renovated the space into smaller units and that I've been running our local Krav Academy out of for almost 20 years now!  Keeping it close to home yo! Makes it easier to visit my folks and hang out in my old stomping ground! It's good to shoot for the stars but remember where you came from!  Never forget your

Every year I watch Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit trilogies. That  brought to mind a book called: “Bandersnach” (Funny name I know! It was a fictional creature in Lewis Carroll's 1871 novel Through the Looking-Glass and his 1874 poem The Hunting of the Snark =) The book is mostly about J.R.R. Tolkien & C.S. Lewis and their time in the writers group they founded called The Inklings that met for some 20 years. Lots of good advice inside for writers. There’s also some insights for community-building and conflict management. Especially for us PeaceWalkers. For example: The inklings was like a mastermind but was also a community. And without it the Lord of the Rings especially would be quite different. In fact, Tolkien fans can thank C.S. Lewis for it being written at all. Lewis basically had to nag & prod Tolkien into finishing it. Yet, Tolkien had an extreme… dislike… for Lewis’ Narnia books. And so there was certainly some conflict there. But what there was not between them

In today's day in age we have access to more information than ever!  The internet is both a blessing and curse!  We are overloaded with information. There's too much of it to process! Especially if you don't know how to curate it.  You can watch a video, read a book, take a home study course and aside from it's entertainment value, you've really haven't progressed at all.  Think of how many self help, diet and fitness books, videos and other information is out there, Combined together it's about a $400 billion dollar industry... Yet many people are still overweight, out of shape and miserable...  But still buying all that stuff! The Missing Ingredients... The problem is that all that information is DIY... Do It Yourself! You get the info, but information alone isn't going to work. Heck, most of the time, if you're not already some type of exert, you won't even know if the information is good or not!  Even if it is good, mixing some things from he