From The Desk of Tom Callos

How to Test for a Black Belt

2009-02-13T11:42:00.000-08:00

Hi, I’m Tom Callos and I’m just about as experienced in the martial arts as anyone (Oh sure, there are lots of people who started studying before me in the 1960’s and even in the 1950’s, but with 38 years of study “under my belt” and having been involved in almost all aspects of the martial arts –and considering I’m sitting here at my computer typing this, I hope you’ll give me a few minutes of your time).

When it comes to black belt testing, there are no universal standards or requirements. I mean, while there are some organizations that have set their own fine standards, there isn’t a single requirement that every school of every style in the world says, “This is required!” In fact, the truth is that any school can set their own standards and requirements for black belt testing –and they do, and those requirements can range from the ridiculously easy to the life-threatening stupid (and everywhere in-between).

Now this lack of universal standards isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I like regionalism, as in going somewhere and not seeing the same fast-food restaurants, the same giant box-stores, the same everything until every town in Wisconsin looks like every town in California looks like every town in Texas, if you get my drift. Styles of martial arts shouldn’t look the same –and the circumstances that an art like judo developed under aren’t the same as the Russion art of sambo or the Filipino art of kali or the French martial art of savate, so it’s very OK that styles should have different customs and requirements.

What I’m here to fill you in on, is HOW one should test for a black belt (or if the “black belt” isn’t used in a particular system of martial art, then whatever it is that marks the passage between knowing nothing and knowing a lot –and having from between 3 and 10 years of experience). The black belt test should be an event that causes the participant to have to “rise to the occasion.” It should be an event that is a right-of-passage, sort of the way some cultures put their young men and women through some kind of arduous test (you know, like going out on a “vision-quest” or a “walk-about” or living through one of those big debutante balls where your family has to spend more money than God to get your picture in some blue-blood newspaper or magazine).

Of course, nobody on the planet Earth has any authority to make martial arts teachers tow-the-black-belt-line, if you know what I mean; so some black belts are just handed out (“Ok, here you go, you’ve earned it. Now let’s go out for pizza.”) and some look like some kind of college frat-house hazing (Sorry, no water or food for 3-days and you’re going to sit here and meditate for 8-hours, then you’re going to fight these 10 black belts until you can’t hold your arms up --and then we’re going to start your test. Oh, and at the end of this thing, we’re all going to kick you in the stomach. Good luck.”).

With all of the above being said, let me get to the point here –and tell you how I think black belt testing should be:

A black belt test should be your Olympics. It ought to make you reach, grow, stretch, and change. It should be something you work for, in advance, 1, 2, 3, 4, and even 10 years; and I mean “work for” as in “in-training” –where every meal, every workout, every day is lived with an awareness that the test is coming. Why? Because life just doesn’t give you many of those kinds of opportunities (any more). Testing should make you eat differently (and with great awareness). It should be a reason to get in the absolute best shape of your life. It should cause you to look deeply at how you deal with stress, conflict, and anger. A black belt test is one of those rare opportunities where you can change just about anything about yourself that you want to –and that you should, and nobody would think less of you. In fact, people would say something (in each other’s ear after you walk out of the room) like, “He’s getting ready to test for his black belt.”

If everyone treated their black belt test as if it were THE MOST important and empowering day of their lives, well...shoot, people would change (and for the better), the martial arts would get more recognition and respect for some of the things that are, really, most valuable about studying, and if we were really lucky, the world might be a wee bit better for it –as it would be filled with more people who hold themselves to higher standards.

To see more on black belt testing and how it might look if it were, indeed, treated as something important; visit the experimental black belt testing project called The Ultimate Black Belt Test (www.ultimateblackbelttest.com). You’ll find some very, very serious martial arts people there (people like us, and/but living with a serious case of “I’m on a mission.”).

Oh, and see my martial arts association at www.thenewwaynetwork.com

Callos on the UFC and Martial Arts Business

2009-01-27T11:54:00.000-08:00

Here Tom Callos talks about the UFC and the Business of the Martial Arts

My Advice to the Martial Arts School Owner

2009-01-13T16:46:00.000-08:00

My Advice to the Martial Arts School Owner Seeking Business Success –as of the Month of January, in the Year 2009

By Tom Callos

For a few minutes, please, take a break from what you have learned and know about the business of the martial arts. Empty your cup for this short report –and let’s see if I can refill it with something that, for you, rings the bell of truth.

If I succeed, then so be it. If I fail to offer you the direction or inspiration I think you ought to feel after reading this, then –at the worst –I will have wasted only a few minutes of your time.

Education is The Way

It begins with YOUR education. What do you know, what are you learning, and how are you USING it in your life, for your school, and for your community?

Warning: Through no fault of its own, as everyone involved originally intended to offer help to the industry, the martial arts business world has fallen in a rut of “make it easy.”

We have a mass of gimmick-promotions, a plethora of poorly designed ads, VIP pass disease, 200 “consultants” in every magazine who think this is their next meal-ticket (because the school-thing didn’t work out), and 90% (or more) of promotional strategies that cater to the laziest, least skilled, dumbest school owners on the planet.

Education is the new way to inspire, lead, promote, advertise, enroll, and retain. Whatever you do, from minute to minute during your work-day, in your classes, in your community, with your staff, and with your students, if it doesn’t involve education, it probably isn’t going to help your school grow.

Teach! Teach on 10 levels, no –on 20 levels! Teach fitness, teach health, teach wisdom, teach defense, teach compassion, teach humility, teach history, teach manners, teach kindness, teach goal-setting, teach communication, teach non-violence, and teach teamwork, leadership skills, and the power of education.

Point: If fitness, health, compassion, wisdom, history, humility, manners, kindness, and all the rest aren’t a part of YOUR daily life, if you do not live the practice of these ideas, then you’re trying to sell something you don’t really own. To teach it, you would be very wise to live it.

Yes, it’s a lot to ask. I’m sorry; I wish it were easier than that.

The inexperienced and uneducated teacher has a very small range of expertise and a very small range of wisdom and experience to share. Limited education and experience equals limited VALUE.

If the education you have isn’t getting you the students you need to thrive and survive, its time to learn and/or re-learn something new. It’s time to engage a new group of teachers and friends.

The Evolution of the Education We Provide

Would you recognize the future if you saw it? Here’s a bit of “the future” for you:

In the future (read: now), half of the education you provide (and, essentially, “sell” your students), will be imparted on the mat –and the other half will be delivered on your member’s only website.

The mat will be for TRAINING. The mat is for sweating, practicing, and polishing. Your member’s only website will have all the things you don’t have the time to impart on the mat; your site will have the philosophical lessons, the lessons in etiquette, the school’s history, the detailed (on video) curriculum, the interviews with the master, and everything anyone needs to know that you don’t want to have to say 1000 times on the mat.

Your member’s only website will be where you store the information, in part, that you’re SELLING to parents. It’s where you’ll store the video-lessons on manners, on anger control, on bullying, on healthy eating, on the value of education, and on everything a parent would want to know you’re going to teach their child.

“Out of the Dojo and Into the World” is The Magic Message of the Master Teacher

There was a time when “the industry” would say to you, “It doesn’t matter how good of a martial artist you are, if you don’t know how to market and manage your business, you’re going to fail as a school owner.”

That statement, in today’s world, no longer holds the water it used to.

The truth, today, is that the better of a martial artist you are, the BETTER your business will do. The issue is not setting your martial arts aside and being a “business-person,” the issue is expanding the definition of what a great martial artist is.

Do you want to be enormously successful (and YOU get to define what that is)? If you do, then your primary objective in your teaching and living is to practice whatever style you practice diligently and with tremendous focus –and then (and this is the main point), you must take what you are practicing on the mat and put it to work in the world.

“In the world” means you have to apply it to something other than a kick, punch, or throw; something outside of the school and outside of the physical aspects of the martial arts.

If you can do this, you can teach this. If you teach this, you have just elevated yourself above the huge quantity of martial arts teachers and schools who think the arts live and die with their forms, their methods of self-defense, and their tournament victories.

If you had a device which could turn mud into diamonds, you would be one popular (and wealthy) person. Teaching people to take what you live, teach and practice on the mat and apply it to their lives, to their communities, and to the world is the martial arts equivalent of turning mud into diamonds.

Things to Avoid

Imagine trying to sell someone the thrill of surfing when you’re not a surfer! Imagine trying to sell someone the benefits of the martial arts when you’re not really a martial artist.

It must be very difficult for these consultants to the martial art industry, you know, the ones who are more comfortable in a suit than in a gi, to advice an industry they know so little about (but claim to be experts in).

It must be very difficult to teach people how to promote the values and benefits of the martial arts when they don’t practice --or have never lived them themselves.

It’s no wonder they sell strategies for overcoming sales objections, it’s no wonder they dole out lame techniques for tricking people into “upgrades.” It’ no wonder that their ideas have, quite literally, got so many of us kicked out of the public school system! It’s no wonder that State legislators are looking our businesses over and trying to determine how much regulation we need.

You see, the martial arts world should operate in an entirely different realm than the health clubs, than the tricky bank contract-buying salesmen, and the water-it-down-until-any-20-year-old-can-teach-it profiteers. The martial arts world shouldn’t give a hoot about what kind of car you have your photo taken in front of –or the brand-name of the watch you wear on your wrist.

Success in 2009 is a return to The Way. Success will come with us looking deeply at how we can help the world –and in way that reflects the ultimate aim of the martial arts (remember what Funakoshi wrote: “The ultimate aim of the art of Karate lies not in victory or defeat, but in the perfection of the character of its participants").

What we need is an expansion of the definition of “martial arts” and our role in the world. Success in 2009 is in expanding our vocabulary and looking deeply at whether we are, truly, following a path that leads to mastery.

I, for one, refuse to give into the idea that our business success depends on hiding our prices, holding back our curriculum, getting people to say “Yes,” when they really aren’t sure, modeling “Wall-Mart” or “MacDonald's,” or any other giant corporate or franchise monster, selling long-term “get their money now” contracts, and/or the half-ass learning of some new curriculum that will appeal to kids or the masses so we can sign up more people.

I, for one, won’t be hanging up a Nintendo or Wi in my school trying to bribe people into bringing in their friends. I won’t be starting programs in my school just to “make money.” I won’t be selling a bunch of plastic crap at my front desk to “get my gross up.”

I’m going to stick with selling the genuine, deep-rooted, healthy practice of the martial arts –and the genuine, deep-rooted, healthy practice of applying the focus, the awareness, the self-discipline, and the courage we practice on the mat –to life, community, and the world.

Instead of spending your time listening to a bunch of business-people talking about how to maximize your profit potential, I’d like to suggest you look deeply at your habits, your practices, and your own life. Success will come with a life lived as an example of someone who is willing to be “The Teacher.”

The work we have to do to achieve any kind of worthwhile and fulfilling “success” in 2009, is to take where the old masters left off –and improve upon the ideas. We need to shape them to fit into today’s world. When someone writes or talks about the martial arts in the mainstream media, it ought to be with a voice of reverence.

We ought to be proving to the world that we do, indeed, teach people a lot more than kicks, punches, and throws. The evidence should be overwhelming (like this article).

Tom Callos Talks New Way / Martial Arts Business

2009-01-08T19:29:00.000-08:00

A Lesson in Black Belt Testing

2009-01-08T08:13:00.001-08:00

Team members, current and alumni; please allow me to remind/inform you of some of my beliefs/thoughts about our relationship and this “project.”

1. The black belt test is a sacred experience, but only if you treat it as such.

In my mind, when I say “black belt test” –it is a call to rise, it is to be treated with the utmost respect, it is a call to action. A black belt test is your own personal “Olympics” –and it calls you to train, to prepare, to rise to the occasion, and to evolve as an athlete and a person.

Do YOU have another event/thing in your life that asks so much of you? Perhaps you hear this call with parenting and/or with your significant other or with your career?

BUT, being that this is our life’s work, we would do well to hold the black belt test and the preparation for testing in the most sacred of places.

2. When it comes to your black belt test, require nothing. Nobody has to remind you.

Nobody has to wake you for training. No event, no obstacle, no injury, no bout of depression keeps you from preparing for the event.

You might miss a wedding, you might forget a birthday or an anniversary, but your training is who you are and how you work on yourself.

It’s your air, your survival mechanism; it is the outward manifestation of who you really are on the inside –and who you aspire to be. In your mind you hear the call to your test like an ever-present ringing in the ears.

You don’t sit at the dinner table, you don’t lift your feet into bed, you don’t breath, drink, stretch, or move without an acute awareness that you are testing for your black belt.

Very few people on this planet are bound by the code that you are. Very few people know how to apply themselves the way you are training yourself to do. Very few people treat their black belt test with the respect and reverence that you do –and this, my friends, is how you hone what it is you have given your life for.

3. You are part of a team. You may be a part of many teams, and some of them are very important to you, but in this endeavor you must cultivate an awareness of “team” in a way that warrants the most extraordinary care.

The fabric of the UBBT is woven on something intangible.

It is a recognition of our place in history –it is an understanding that collectively we stand to influence and change and improve the processes, the outcome, the culture, the direction, and the essence of “what is the martial arts.”

I am sitting at a table on my deck on The Big Island –and you are reading this in your own home or office –but we could just as easily be sitting next to each other.

This is the nature of the internet –and of a kind of connection, facilitated by our communication, that ignores distance and time differences.

Someday in the future I will be gone –and this body of work will be what I made of my life. This work will be what I did, what I worked on, and how I made my way. I might be remembered, for a time, as a very dedicated martial arts practitioner and teacher.

This is it.

This work, these messages, the call to treat our “test” and each other with a rare sort of respect, these ideas ---of peace, kindness, activism, environmentalism, anger management, leadership, purpose, intent, and mission ---this is what I/we will leave behind.

NOW is the time to recognize the opportunity we have to make change. We are not like Charles Barkley, who I heard declared he “was not a role model.” We are treating our position with the understanding that we are role models –and we are acting as if what we do –and how we go about it –will influence the quality of life in a million people who follow us.

All of this affects the solemnity of how I expect you to treat our relationship. TO treat it any other way would be far, far from “the ultimate.”

By treating our "black belt test" with this kind of respect, we make "being" a black belt something
worthwhile.

Tom Callos Talking from BJ Penn Academy in Hilo

2008-12-20T20:01:00.000-08:00

Here I am promoting my martial arts association, The New Way Network. Training with the Penn Family in Hawaii (ooh Boy, tough --but fun!).

My Birthday Message to the Martial Arts World

2008-12-09T08:39:00.000-08:00

At any moment, on any given day of your life, you can look in the mirror and say, “Today, I chart a new path for myself.”

You can give up smoking or give up eating foods that don’t offer the promise of good health –or you can let go of some hate, some disempowering opinion, some grudge or sour attitude about something that is, in the big picture of life, petty, meaningless, and a ball-and-chain thwarting some aspect of the happiness you seek in life.

At any given moment you can look at someone you live with or near and say, “Beginning now, I will treat you as if you were the Lord God Herself.”
At any given moment you can look at the people you have in your immediate sphere of influence and say, “Let’s do what cannot be done. Let’s live as examples. Let’s attempt something that is, in itself, the perfect example of that which is best about being human.”

You can add to your life.

One hundred push ups and sit ups for health. One hour of training for your head and the heads of those who share the space you train in. Three purposeful acts of kindness. One act of conscious non-consumption. One act of peace towards another human being and/or the planet. Ten minutes of silent and peace-focused meditation.

At any given point this “martial arts industry” could step up and say, “Beginning today, we will represent not only the best-of-the-best in the physical arts of personal self-defense, but we will step up as protectors to the serenity of that little boy and girl, to the peace of the village, to each community we live in, and to the world itself.”

As martial artists we must be able to execute precise, dynamic, and beautifully effective techniques. We must also be able to execute precise, dynamic, and beautifully effective ideas.

We must have a solution to every physical attack that might cause us or someone we love harm ---and likewise, we must have a solution to all of the non-physical attacks that might harm us or someone / something we love and cherish.

Whether it is the punch to the face or the danger of unhealthy anger; the kick in the stomach or the fear and hatred of the unknown or different; whether it is the molestation or rape of the body or the spirit or one’s confidence or the world in which we live and depend on for survival, we can look in the mirror, on any given day, and as martial artists, vow to step up and be the change we want to see in the world.

We are so much more than can be represented by a punch or kick. What takes place in our schools is so much more than the simple act of repelling the bully. What we have the potential to do is so far beyond the name of our style, what billing service we use, our petty differences of opinion, or what can be accomplished in the ring.

In 2009, we could, if we wanted to, demonstrate something about what the martial arts are –and are not –better than any year in recorded history.

We could show how we have evolved from fearful self-defense and/or revenge to holders of the torch of self-defense for the soul –and for the wisdom of co-existence and sustainable living.

I will, for as long as my legs support me, seek to learn and practice a brutally effective form of self-defense, and I will teach those who want to learn, how to defend themselves from physical harm. Likewise, for as long as my legs support me and my thoughts remain coherent, I will seek to learn, practice, and teach a kind of thinking and action that brings about peace and happiness for myself and others.

Tom Callos

Tom Callos on Connection

2008-12-02T06:57:00.000-08:00

This film is an example of the kind of material, whether in a film or by essay, that I hope to have come out of my upcoming Ultimate Black Belt Test Directed-Writing Project.

The "I am" project asks participants in the UBBT to take words --in the form of positive affirmations --and explore their meaning (in a context relating to the martial arts and/or their life).

In the past UBBT Teams, members were required to journal once a week --but this is the first team (Team 6) that has a "directed" writing assignment. The project seeks to expand the vocabulary of the martial arts teacher / world beyond the traditional "courtesy, integrity, perseverance, etc."

This film is also an example of a philosophy and education program I'm launching in The New Way Network, my association for professional martial arts teachers and school owners.

The UBBT School, a Movement of Engaged Martial Arts

2008-11-29T06:02:00.000-08:00

In art history there have been a number of movements or schools that defined a particular kind of art. The Hudson River school was a mid-19th century art movement comprised of landscape painters that embraced romanticism. My favorite artist of that movement is Albert Bierstadt, known for his beautiful paintings of the western United States.

The Ashcan School was a progressive group of American painters and illustrators who portrayed the realities of New York City life in a raw spontaneous unpolished style. Le Corbusier started the movement known as Purism in protest of Cubism. The German Bauhaus School was made up of architects, artists, and philosophers who had a significant influence on art and architecture before (and after) World War II.

Frank Lloyd Wright, Samuel Mockbee, and Frank Gehry, three very different kinds of architects, have each represented new schools of thought in their field.

Writers, artists, architects, scientists, fashion designers, poets, thinkers, and action-takers in almost every field can pioneer movements that end up generating new methods, ideas, and schools-of-thought.

I believe that the Ultimate Black Belt Test (UBBT) project represents a movement and a school of thought that is markedly different from what was the status quo prior to its inception. The UBBT was/is a protest of sorts; a movement to bring a new kind of innovation, authenticity, and intentional complexity to an “industry” that was/is suffering from a dumbing down and homogeneous commercialism of its methods, ideas, and character.

Many of the students and participants in the UBBT are practicing and implementing a new kind of methodology in their schools –much of which is a radical departure from commonly promoted methods.

The changes in curriculum content and design, promotional practices, philosophy, teaching methods, testing, and general motivation and intent pioneered and promoted by UBBT members represents what I would call an organic approach to teaching and living the martial arts.

The Buddhist monk and renowned peace activist Thich Nhat Hahn has coined his approach to spirituality as Engaged Buddhism; he advocates a kind of involvement with the world that brings the practitioner out of the meditation hall and into daily life. Being heavily influenced by Thich Nhat Hahn, I am coining the kind of martial arts being explored and practiced by UBBT members as Engaged Martial Arts.

There are two phrases embraced by students of Engaged Martial Arts that illustrate the UBBT School of thought:

“Out of the dojo and into the world,” and;

“My life is my dojo.”

The first was borrowed from Yogi Seanne Corn’s description of yoga practitioners needing to take their practice, “Off the mat and into the world.” The second is attributed to Master Gaku Homma, the last live-in student of Aikido Master Morihei Ueshiba.

Martial artists influenced by the UBBT School (school of thought) are experimenting with what I call martial arts activism –where they take what they practice on the mat and see it manifest in their communities.

This idea changes a martial arts school’s approach to curriculum, to philosophy, to promotional practices, and testing procedures. The UBBT Schools influence has spawned a variety of creative programs and practices including The National Leadership Team Proje ct, the Diabetes Education Project, The Environmental Self-Defense Project, and the Anger Management Teacher Education Program.

Participants and members of the UBBT include influential instructors such as Dave Kovar, Fariborz Azhakh, Bill Kipp, Chris Natzke, Charles Chi, Chan Lee, Dan Rominski, Dave McNeill, Gary Engels, and Tommy Lee. For more information on the Ultimate Black Belt Test and programs its members are involved in, visit www.ultimateblackbelttest.com.

My White Belt Story (Video)

2008-11-07T07:43:00.000-08:00

This year your life will change, for the better.

2008-11-05T06:23:00.000-08:00

This year your life will change, for the better.

This year you will have more influence with your students –and in your community –than you have ever enjoyed before.

This year you will save someone’s life.

This year you will simplify –so that your life isn’t ruled by things, by name brands, by the desire to shop, own, acquire, and consume; this year you will, as if you died and then had a second chance to live again, begin to appreciate what is genuinely important about living.

This year you will shed the pain you have been carrying.

This year you will step-up in an extraordinary way to bring peace, compassion, empathy, and wisdom to the world. You may not change things for the better single-handedly, but you will do your part to the best of your ability.

This year you will be part of a large group of people who are seeking to make being a “black belt” and/or a “master instructor” MEAN SOMETHING important, something vital, something heavy with integrity, purpose, and mission.

This year you will transform yourself into the person you want to be –and you will do it one day at a time.

This year you will be in the here and now –as often as you can be aware of, as often as you can pinch yourself to remember, as often as is humanly possible.

This year you will stop eating abundant amounts of sugar and processed food; you will be more aware of the connection between what you consume and how you think and feel.

This year you will forgive all trespasses. You will let go of all hate, misunderstandings, and grievances. This year, you will forgive and forget.

This year you will change your school’s curriculum to reflect wisdom, vision, and your mission as a human being; this year you will begin to teach the most important mental, emotional, and spiritual ideas –transcending the standard fare of the martial arts.

This year, whether you make more money –or less, you will live with a sense of joy, with a sense of “I am here for a reason –and it is to serve others,” and each morning you will awake, take a deep breath, say your prayers of thanks, and begin your day with a sense of purpose far and beyond simply “making a profit.”

This year you will practice being a true “master.”

Every year I invite a group of martial arts teachers, school owners, and students to join me in a project called The Ultimate Black Belt Test (UBBT). The UBBT is about living as a martial artist –but in a new way, a way that reflects something more than the kicks and punches of the martial arts; a way that transcends the “phone call,” the “intro,” the “black belt club,” and the profit and loss statement; a way that suggests the rank of “black belt” is meant to be something more than an incentive to pay for a course, something more than a piece of cloth and a certificate.

In the UBBT we seek to come together as a team, regardless of age, rank, style or system, and do, together, what would be impossible for any one of us to do individually. We’re working on changing and improving the entire martial arts world. We’re bringing new methods, new meaning, and a sense of mission to the martial arts that expresses our potential as human beings.

While people are capable of amazing things, they all too often do nothing, nothing at all about making a difference in the world. They sit back and watch, they sit idle and do as little as possible, self-absorbed - somehow justifying their inactivity.

In the UBBT we seek to BE AND DO something that reflects the best of what we are capable of. It’s not easy, but we must begin somewhere. By BEING "that kind of black belt" --we hope to leave a trail for others to follow.

We predict the martial arts of the future will be a richer, more interesting, more meaningful activity --and that someday "being a black belt" will carry with it a sense of responsibility that reflects those things that are best about the world --and about life. Real self-defense is recognizing our connectivity -and showing a deep respect and appreciation for self and others. Someday, black belts will not only be fine examples of the physical skills taught in their various styles, they will also be roles models of the best of the best of humanity.

This year I invite you to be a black belt, to be a martial artist in an all new light.

www.ubbt.squarespace.com

Tom Callos

Notes for Master Teachers

2008-10-28T07:00:00.000-07:00

Teaching the techniques of the martial arts is an obvious part of our profession. While technical instruction is important, it isn’t as important as the ROLE that the martial arts instructor can play in the life of his or her students.

The role is that of a person who lives life with a certain disciplined gusto, using the practice of the martial arts to reveal an understanding of life. The martial arts teacher can have a significant influence with students based on the way he or she deals with conflict, with personal motivation, with business, with management, with community involvement, with spirituality, with failure, and with any number of the other parts of the recipe that make for a high-functioning human being.

No, the martial arts teacher isn’t the ultimate deliverer of all that is wise, but he or she can definitely stand tall as a part of the village of (potentially) wise people who can make a difference in the lives of others.

With this idea in mind, I offer the following advice to all master teachers:

You are not The Master, you are the Servant

You’re not to stand at the front of your class commanding your troops, shouting out orders, and acting like the top dog; you’re on the mat and in the world TO SERVE.

You serve your students, humbly, and through that process you help others to be better teachers, leaders, and human beings. Whenever you start getting that superior-human-being feeling, I’d like to suggest that you have a a trusted friends whack you across the knuckles with a yardstick.

Instead of nursing an inflated ego and a warped sense of entitlement, you should be falling on your knees and thanking your students for the education and opportunities they’re giving you. In the end, you learn more from your students than they learn from you.

2. What You do Outside of your School is More Important Than What You Do In It.

You’re school is a box –and in it you are a VIP. What you do within the confines of your box dictates what you “sell” as a teacher and business owner. However, what you do outside of your box, the way you engage the world, is the difference between running a “successful business” and being a “Master.”

The truth be told, if every man and woman in the world started making a difference in his or her community, started taking some sense of responsibility for fixing problems, and developed lifestyles (including sales, marketing, and educational strategies) that affected the quality of life for others, well...the world would be very different place.

I hold the opinion that a large group of very disciplined, focused, courageous, and determined people ought to serve as role models of how people could and should engage the world.

Know any groups like that?

Self-Defense Has Little or Nothing to Do With Punches, Kicks, Blocks, and Grappling.

Is flour an important ingredient in a cake? Yes, of course it is, but have you ever eaten a straight cup of flour? Are kicks, punches, blocks, grappling, and all the other physical aspects of personal protection an important part of self-defense? Sure they are; they represent the flour of self-defense.

But the physical aspects of self-defense don’t make up the cake of things a person really needs to know about personal protection in today’s world.

What really hurts people, today, are things like cancer, rampant consumerism, relationship dysfunction, diabetes, and poor money management (to name a few).

For the resourceful martial arts teacher this opens up a huge window of opportunity and adventure; for the less-than-resourceful instructor this idea represents a real pain in the behind.

The Ultimate Black Belt Test 6 (UBBT 6)

2008-09-30T12:59:00.000-07:00

The Ultimate Black Belt Test 6 (UBBT 6)

Preparing for your black belt test in a way that is sacred, extraordinary, and that brings about personal and community transformation.

The UBBT Project asks martial artists from around the world to come together, on-line, and LIVE an amazing black belt test for an entire year +.

This is a process that has the potential to challenge the participant physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and socially.

On one level, the UBBT is completely about the participant –as anyone who goes through the training will be transformed in one way or another.

On another level, the UBBT is about coming together as a team, as a group, a community.

The team, collectively, has the potential to do what no single person could do alone. By being on this team, a member reaches beyond his or her school, style, association, town, state, and/or nation –to find like-minded people who become friends, colleagues, classmates, and sometimes, family.

On yet another level, the UBBT is an entity that is influencing the international martial arts community. Thousands of school owners, teachers, and martial artists have visited the UBBT’s website, read articles about the program, and/or seen film and interviews with team members.

The UBBT is influencing instructors and students around the globe. The program offers dozens of previously unexplored ways to make one’s martial arts and life “journey” more fulfilling, exciting, and fruitful.

Teachers going through the UBBT Project come out of it with an experiential lesson in innovative black belt testing procedures. Every graduate knows, first hand, what the process feels like –and what it does for the candidate.

More to come (always, more to come).

Every Day, I Get to Begin Again.

2008-09-29T09:13:00.000-07:00

Perhaps you don’t need reminding, but I do –so hang in here with me for a moment while I remind myself of the following.

Today is a BRAND NEW DAY!

A new beginning, a new start, and NOTHING is as important to the present and the future as how I apply myself from this moment on. The past is the past –the present and future, my happiness and progress, is not contingent on what has transpired, but on how I think and act from this moment on.

I am a martial artist, a life-long career martial arts teacher. I’m pursuing my DREAM not because it makes great economic sense, but because THIS is what hooked me. In the face of everything I might have done, I was drawn to the mat and the practice and the delight of being physical, of learning and teaching and practicing.

While other people practice the martial arts, but feel no pull or obligation to bring change to the martial arts world, I am a different animal. I feel a call from the handful of martial artists who have made a global impact on the martial arts –and sometimes the world, because of their ideas and actions.

Today, I begin (again) my “test” to be a 7th degree black belt in a way that sets the pace for every 7th degree black belt in the world –and of the future. I’m going to set the best example I can –so that any one of my brothers or sisters in the martial arts that follow me, in whatever part of the world they reside, might look to how I applied myself and find some sort of guidepost, inspiration, and/or ideas.

I want to be a 7th degree to the best of my ability. I want to be a 7th degree who has looked deeply at his flaws –at his strengths. I want to be a 7th degree that is, in accomplishment and contribution, equal to those people who I most admire in history. I believe that this kind of expectation is the right one to have for someone of my experience, rank, and position.

Today, I begin my “black belt test” again. My life is my test.

Practicing Mastery and YOUR School

2008-09-22T16:21:00.000-07:00

Getting a Grasp on How to Practice Mastery is One of the Best Things you Can Do for Your Martial Arts School

Call me old fashioned, but I still believe the best thing a martial arts teacher can do for his or her business is to BE the best darned martial artist he or she can be.

And note: I'm not talking about "best in your school or town good," "tournament champion good," "ring good," or get nominated to the "Universal Black Belt Grand Canyon Hall of Fame good." I'm talking about "transcend the martial arts good." I'm talking about the kind of martial artist that Rosa Parks would give up her bus seat for; the kind of martial artist that garners grants from groups that give money to people doing amazing work in the world.

I'm talking about the kind of martial artist that doesn't let anger and hatred or other destructive kinds of thinking invade and/or infect his or her life; the kind of black belt who truly understands the -real -enemy.

Call me unrealistic, but I think all of this damned torturous training is supposed to be for something that's more important than getting fit, earning belts, and winning medals. Oh, and it's not to learn how to upgrade my students to the Grand Vital World-Famous Master's Leadrship Club, either. I haven't studied this long and hard to see it boiled down to some sales pitch for a long term course, franchise, new Corvette payment, or Rolex. Please!

I think that, if properly taught and/or directed, the serious practitioner of the martial arts ought to start making a connection between state of mind and outcome, between fear and action, between clarity and confusion, and between compassion and happiness.

It's like the Ring, Only BIGGER.

For those of you who were competitors, do you remember the clarity that a 3-minute performance provided you with?

Whether it was a fight or a form, you trained HARD for that 3 minutes (and maybe a few others). You focused on that little bit of time and space and you fired it up!

Man, if life were only that small, only that simple, only that easy.

The ring gives you this small place to focus on; the rules provide you with clear boundaries and objectives. But the POINT of the game was not just to win -it was to show you, in a very practical way, how focus, concentration, goal-setting, effort, and clarity could give you power and purpose. You were supposed to learn how to plan, engage, and execute.

The BIG LESSON should have been about taking that learning experience and making the "ring" bigger -like as big as your family, as big as your career, as big as your circle of influence, as big as your community, as big as the world, as big as your ability to make a difference.

In the ring you focus on the task at hand. The audience doesn't distract you. The advertisements hanging on the bleacher's railings don't call to you; the negative energy from your opponent and his or her helpers don't detour you.

So what's the connection between the ring and mastery?

It's in defining what you want. What do you want to accomplish? What is your personal definition of mastery? How does it translate to your "daily training?" And are you smart enough, resourceful enough, creative enough, focused enough, compassionate enough, and disciplined enough to expand the ring to represent the remainder of your finite period of time left here on the planet?

The pursuit of mastery, relevant to your potential, is -I believe -the root system of the tree that bears the fruit that sustains your school and -very likely --your life.

If you don't focus on mastery -then you ignore the roots and spend an inordinate about of time on that which is visible, yes? If a tree doesn't have deep roots, what happens to it in the first big storm?

Mastery is about controlling anger, practicing detachment from illusion, expanding one's empathy and compassion for others. It's about making contribution (adding to, not taking away from); it's about awareness; it's about self-control and respect and courage to be different when you must -and the same when it's time to be the same. I also believe mastery is connected to simplicity.

I really don't know everything -if much - about mastery -but I recognize the power that the study and practice of things that bring about clarity and awareness and global consciousness brings to me. I can HEAR the words of masters -and I believe they are talking about a kind of thinking and clarity that I have, on more than one occasion, experienced as a practitioner of the martial arts. And everything in my life keeps pointing to the idea of mastery -the way everything used to, when I was younger, point to the mat and the competitive arena.

Getting a grasp on what mastery is, to you -and to masters -and the idea of beginning to PRACTICE mastery, on a day-to-day basis, is I believe, one of the best things you can do for your school, for your students, and for yourself.

My work with The Ultimate Black Belt Test -and the association, The New Way Network-is dedicated to exploring the idea of mastery for the individual and as a collective force for good, for clarity, and more contribution and meaning.

Martial Arts Teacher, Feeling Stuck? Find Your Mission –and You’ll Find Your Profit

2008-09-17T10:03:00.000-07:00

A sense of mission, beyond profit, beyond image, beyond “agenda,” and beyond anything but a call to duty is, I believe, THE factor to search for if you want to work in a martial arts school and feel like you’re doing something important –and for the world.

A child is not raised by occasional coaching or instruction; a child is not raised by the occasional direction and attention. A child is raised and educated daily, hourly, and by the minute. A wise parent won’t wait to give life-lessons and direction to his or her child once a month, as it’s all too important to wait, it’s too important to put off.

Work for the world, work that connects you to something more than a brand name, a corporation, some elite group of people, or the almighty dollar, shouldn’t be put off either. You don’t wait until you’re wealthy or retired or semi-retired or until the kids leave home or until the truck’s paid off to do the work that feeds your soul and the souls of those around you. It’s something you do in small, incremental, weekly, daily, and hourly pieces.

To be fueled by a purpose beyond profit motive is a kind of freedom everyone should enjoy, but it is sometimes looked down upon by people stuck in the money-mode like an infant stuck in some short, but important stage of brain development. We all know that money doesn’t buy happiness. We all know that we can’t take it with us. We all, in the end, would be better off having lived a life of service to others, a life rich in meaning and contribution, and full of love and compassion and kindness.

I am, in the end, a business consultant and I’m telling you that it’s a sense of mission, deep and meaningful, that is –in my opinion –the very thing that makes you and your business more important and valuable. If you take a partner in marriage because he or she has an inheritance that you would like to get your hands on, well...you’re destined to be in –and cause no small amount of –pain. Likewise, if you’re in your school and your primary focus is on your income and maximizing your profits, you’re headed for an empty kind of accomplishment.

Finances have their role in your life, there’s no avoiding it; but don’t lose sight of the kind of thinking and action that makes life worth living.

Find your mission and you may very well have the best money-making tool you could hope to find.

If you don’t know how to find your mission, don’t despair; a lot of us don’t know how to find our sense of mission because we haven’t been hanging out with people who “live” mission. If you’ve known somebody who has, then you already know what I’m talking about. For those who could use some “mission coaching,” look, for example, to people like the winners of the Nobel Peace Prize or the MacArthur Fellowship (called the “genius grant”).

Here’s a list of the MacArthur Fellowship’s 2007 recipients:

Deborah Bial, education strategist
Peter Cole, translator/poet/publisher
Lisa Cooper, public health physician
Ruth DeFries, environmental geographer
Mercedes Doretti, forensic anthropologist
Stuart Dybek, short story writer
Marc Edwards, water quality engineer
Michael Elowitz, molecular biologist
Saul Griffith, inventor
Sven Haakanson, Alutiiq curator/anthropologist/preservationist
Corey Harris, blues musician
Cheryl Hayashi, spider silk biologist
My Hang V. Huynh, chemist
Claire Kremen, conservation biologist
Whitfield Lovell, painter/installation artist
Yoky Matsuoka, neuroroboticist
Lynn Nottage, playwright
Mark Roth, biomedical scientist
Paul Rothemund, nanotechnologist
Jay Rubenstein, medieval historian
Jonathan Shay, clinical psychiatrist/classicist
Joan Snyder, painter
Dawn Upshaw, vocalist
Shen Wei, choreographer

(By the way: Why isn’t there, in the history of the MacArthur Fellowship, a grant that’s gone to a martial arts teacher?)

Go to Borders or any bookstore and you’ll find shelves of books about people who are making positive change in the world.

Be warned and be aware: Just like junk food is readily available at just about every turn, so is “junk influence.” Turn on just about any radio station, any TV channel, and go to any movie –and you might find yourself bombarded by triviality, by shallowness, by “buy this to be happy” messages, and endless discussions about the habits and behaviors of blond actresses and singers or ex-football and soccer players. It’s mind-numbing.

Spend a year of your life immersed in the study of people with a sense of heroic and purposeful mission –and you could very well come out of it transformed and empowered. Being an empowered person with a sense of mission --is, in my opinion, a fine form of “mastery,” and a very real form of “self-defense” for today’s world.

It’s also the right way to “do” our kind of business.

Intelligent Curriculum: A New Concept for Martial Arts Professionals

2008-09-15T09:23:00.000-07:00

Intelligent Curriculum is the term I use to express a method about how to design one’s martial arts school curriculum in a way that supports the education the teacher is seeking to provide the student.

I see the curriculum in most martial arts schools as more of an outline than a complete work. Most schools have a curriculum that is like a novel yet to be “fleshed out.”

To be intelligent, a school’s curriculum should not be a list of techniques and requirements written in a handbook or on a sheet of paper; with modern technology a school’s curriculum should shine, it should sing out and inform, inspire, and direct.

Why do we do these particular techniques? Where does this come from? Why has this requirement changed? Is there anything I should know that’s not written specifically in the curriculum? Is there room for changes or adjustments in the curriculum if I have some challenge that keeps me from doing a particular technique? What is this supposed to look like?

I’m looking for a few schools who would like to develop an “Intelligent Curriculum” model. I am certain that this idea will revolutionize the entire martial arts world’s approach to testing curriculum and requirements. Contact me at tomcallos at g mail dot com.

A Little More On Curriculum

A martial arts school’s curriculum is meant to bring a student to a certain level of skill and competency. What that level is, in most cases, is entirely up to the Master Teacher of the school.

As the teacher grows, evolves, and ages as a martial artist and a human being, his or her curriculum changes. At some point in almost every teacher’s career, his or her classes are pedal-to-the-metal competitive training sessions where, for the most part, only the strong survive. Somewhere along the line, most teachers wake up to the fact that they are losing some of (or MANY of) the students that probably need martial arts training the most.

The smart teacher adjusts the training to fit the student. Master Teacher and martial arts legend Jhoon Rhee expressed the idea perfectly when he said, “It is better to change your students through a peaceful evolution –than it is to attempt it by violent revolution.”

It’s an intelligent teacher that knows how to teach students in a way that doesn’t chase them off –and instead brings about a peaceful evolution of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual transformation.

Advice for Martial Arts School Owners and Teachers

2008-09-13T15:59:00.000-07:00

I’m writing this to talk to you about how to have a healthy, successful, and profitable martial arts school, in today’s world, and in a way that makes a DIFFERENCE in the world. And before I really get started, let me tell you that I’m not talking about the kind of success or profitability you might see in Forbes, Worth, or WSJ Magazines. I’m not talking about something out of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.

The kind of success I’m suggesting is grounded in global consciousness. It is more spiritual than it is material. The measure of wealth, success, and profitability I’m thinking about won’t fund the endless consumption of disposable things. It won’t have you driving a car that costs as much as a year’s worth of food for an entire village of people in Southeast Asia. It isn’t the kind of success that has every amenity you can dream up and acquire at your fingertips. It won’t fund $100 cigars or $20,000 watches or $1000 purses or $5000 suits or 5-million dollar McMansions.

In my world –and maybe in your world too –these things are an embarrassment. They are personal neon signs of narcissism, selfishness, and ignorance. They are the result of a kind of corporate consumer-brain-washing and snow job that convinces the unaware that the label, insignia, and hood ornament is a personification of success, intelligence, and style.

The kind of success and profitability I’m pointing to is about quality time with people you love. It is about enjoying the sound of the river as you soak your feet in it. It is in the slow preparation of a dinner, the sound of your child reading aloud, and the feeling of knowing you don’t NEED or WANT anything but what you already have.

With all of THAT being said, I’ll now begin:

I would like to suggest that you make your black belt test mean MORE than it means today.

I am not suggesting that you make your test a fierce gauntlet that weeds out the weak or an Ironman-like endurance event that breaks people down; I’m suggesting that the journey one goes on to become a black belt might be interwoven to activities that expand one’s ability to feel empathy and compassion for others, societal awareness and involvement and, perhaps, a more useful inner awareness.

I am suggesting that we (martial arts teachers) take a closer look at the idea of “self-defense” –and that a new definition ought to include more than defense from physical attack. We should train our students to recognize the damage and pain caused by self-centered living. We should link conspicuous consumption to self-defense. We should consider attitude and outlook as important as middle block and palm strike.

The way to make your black belt test (and all your testing) mean more, is to make your own job description mean more. If you could make the decision that BEING a master teacher of the martial arts means FAR MORE than teaching people combat –and if you lived this idea, you would then teach from an entirely new place.

Being a master teacher means LOOKING DEEPLY at conflict; at ego; at wants and needs; at community involvement; and at one’s own beliefs and habits. If you/we made BEING a master teacher mean MORE, we would then teach, BY EXAMPLE, something that is far more important that profit, than punching, than combat, than competition, than style and method and system.

Like a Round Kick to the Head

Getting kicked in the head is, well...a real eye-opening experience. It’s not one you soon forget. It can be, however, an excellent teaching tool. Yes, one solid kick to the head can teach someone exactly how much they don’t want THAT to happen again.

I have, on a number of occasions, used a kick to the head as a teaching tool. It’s not one I use often –and it might not be the “sharpest” tool in my toolbox, but let me tell you, sometimes it’s the magic key for quickly changing one’s behavior.

Changing your own habits, living a simple life, getting your own head together by looking deeply at how you can make a difference for others –and in the world; well, for your students and almost everyone in your sphere of influence, it can affect them like a kick in the head. It’s not in what you say, think, or write –it comes in what you DO.

To run a successful and profitable martial arts school you must look deeply at your own center, at what is driving you, and why. If you could actually BECOME A MASTER, a real, honest-to-goodness MASTER, then all the accoutrements of wealth won’t mean much to you anyway. Making a difference, living with compassion, living simply and giving to others, and enjoying today with whatever it is you have been fortunate enough to be given, I believe those are the concepts embraced in authentic mastery.

Under those guidelines, we should begin to run our schools and classes with a new vigor and energy. I believe that by focusing on these ideas rather than all of the boxed-up marketing junk-mail that some school owners have been convinced is the key to a school’s success, will eventually bring us a kind of success we hadn’t anticipated.

Your Students Become Limited By Your Limits

2008-08-19T14:08:00.000-07:00

On the whole –and I speak for myself here too, we ask very little of ourselves. We do very little for our fellow man. We are absorbed in our business, in our things, in our personal drama, and in our desire (conscious or unconscious) to conform.

As “martial arts masters” –and in general, there is absolutely NO CALL to rise, no call to perform, no call to unite or make change or DO ANYTHING.

Our profession asks very, very little of us.

We have no physical “standards” of performance.

We have no reading or educational requirements.

We have no expectations of activism, involvement, and/or anything that borders on “work for humanity.”

There is no martial arts master-teacher’s journal or magazine speaking out against violence or war or consumerism –or for peace or social consciousness or advanced education or even higher standards of performance.

I think that our “industry” –that is, the business entities that survive on our commerce, the business entities that provide most of us with the tools we think we need to achieve “success,” --promotes a superficial, politically inoffensive, dumbed-down set of standards for martial arts teachers.

For the most part, the men and women who seem to be leading the “martial arts industry” are cemented into a 20th Century definition of success –the success of hoarding wealth, of driving it, of living in it, of wearing it on your wrist, of shopping for it, and of using it as a measure of achievement and quality of life.

Personally, every hero I look up to in my life, both living and no longer living, have asked me in one way or another to refocus my thinking from accumulating overt wealth to accumulating the tools to make a difference for my fellow man.

The more deeply I look at my practice the more simple my needs become.

SO, let this note be a call to you.

Are you a teacher? Are you on a path seeking some sort of “mastery?”

Are you willing to step up, this year, now, and fix that which needs to be fixed?

Will you explore with me, for the coming year, a new definition of “martial artist?”

Of “master teacher?”

I am calling you to be a part of a revolution in thinking and action. I am looking for 50 teachers who are willing to ask more of themselves ---so much more of themselves that they risk inspiring the next generation of martial arts teachers. I’m looking for 50 teachers who would be willing to bring along 20 students each –so that we collect 1000 men and women for a one-year action-oriented exploration of a new kind of martial arts –for a new world.

We will get fit; we will do more than one-million acts of kindness; we will do 1000 community-based projects; we will simplify; use less –and enjoy MORE. We will connect with people who don’t live near us physically, but who we join with emotionally –and in recognition of our collective influence.

For the Ultimate Black Belt Test 6 I’m looking for 50 teachers who will “Proceed and BE Bold” with nothing more than a connection to the Internet –and the willingness to take LOTS of action, personally, with and for others, for the “martial arts industry,” and for the world.

I’m calling you out –to join one of the few, if not the only, martial arts movement of its kind in the world. With your help, we can establish a new set of standards for what it to be –and live as –a black belt and a master teacher in today’s world.

Tom Callos 530-903-0286

It’s Time to Upgrade Your Idea of the Black Belt

2008-08-11T15:50:00.000-07:00

It’s Time to Upgrade Your Idea of the Black Belt

by Tom Callos

Last year’s model was great. It’s a classic. We’ll never build them like that again! But this year’s model takes advantage of all the technology, all the learning we’ve done, all the mistakes we’ve made, all of the road-testing and repairs, and it’s designed, specifically, to deal with the world as it is today (and my, haven’t things changed!).

Nobody has to tell you that the world is a fast changing place. I just saw a video on YouTube of an anthropologist studying YouTube, who said that in just 6 months time there was more video loaded there than all of the TV programming created since the first television program aired in the 1950’s. Wow.

In the martial arts, some things have changed, dramatically, and some have not. One of the areas that I feel has not evolved enough in the martial arts is what it takes to earn, wear, and “be” a black belt.

Just the other day I watched a class in a martial arts school that was exactly like watching a black and white rerun of a TV show I first saw in 1971. The teacher was using the exact same methods, terminology, material, and class structure that I experienced when I started my first lessons in taekowndo in 1971. Now back then I thought it was all very cool. But now, 38 years later, I recognize it as not very cool, or practical, or even very refined. It might be “old school,” but it didn’t represent a school, in my opinion, that reflects the many years of growth, development, ideas, and education that have transpired since then.

What is a black belt?

No, the question should be, “What is the potential of a black belt?” It’s not what is that needs the most attention, it is what could be –if we changed our approach, intelligently redesigned our materials and methods, and modernized our expectations for being a black belt.

How does one prepare for the black belt test? What is the curriculum? And is it all physical? Does it all take place on the mat? Do we, as teachers, have the ability to teach our students to take their martial arts “out of the dojo and into the world?” And is there a way to measure, quantify, and record this process?

I am deeply involved in the 6^th year of an experiment, a “project,” specifically designed to revolutionize the what, where, and how of black belt testing in the world. The program is called the Ultimate Black Belt Test (UBBT). It is less of a “program” fixed in stone than it is a flexible and dynamic experiment to see what happens when we dramatically change our thinking and approach to testing for –and living as –a black belt.

The UBBT is, in my opinion, less of a black belt test and more of a Master Teacher’s training course; the first of its kind in the world. It is an experiential course that requires the participant to walk the talk of his or her martial arts, but far more importantly, it requires the participant to be a better, more cognizant, participative, compassionate human being.

Here is an excerpt of an interview that I did with What is Enlightenment? magazine that defines how I think about the rank of black belt:

What Is Enlightenment: What is the Ultimate Black Belt Test?

Tom Callos: The Ultimate Black Belt Test is a hero's journey—exodus, epiphany, and return—and passing it requires a physical, mental, and spiritual transformation ... Preparing for and taking a black belt test should be like preparing for the Olympic Games: win or lose, you are shaped by it. You go for it, full out. You hold yourself to the highest standards. You step out on the line and reach for a sliver of perfection.... To me, being a black belt is more than a physical experience. Yes, a black belt should be able to execute precise, effective, beautiful, and technically proficient martial arts techniques, whatever the style. But just as importantly, a black belt should be able to execute precise and beautiful ideas, equal to or better than their physical techniques. A black belt should have an attitude equal in its brilliance to his or her physical skills. What makes a master is not physical skill alone but mental clarity, emotional maturity, and spiritual awareness.

To read more about the UBBT and/or to see a film made on the project by Academy Award Winning filmmaker Nancy Walzog, visit www.ultimateblackbelttest.com.

The 13 month + UBBT 6 has begun, cut off for enrollment is January of 2009. I’m looking for a group of black belts, serious, career-oriented martial arts practitioners, who are interested in being in a project that’s intent is to change the martial arts world –and THE world –for the better.

It's time we re-design what it is to be a black belt in today's world. The UBBT is a training program for people who want to have a say in the best way to make that happen.

Tom Callos

Using Your Black Belt Test as a Tool for Promotion and Education

2008-07-28T14:30:00.001-07:00

Face it, if more people knew what benefits come out of martial arts training, more people would be knocking on your school’s door.

If more parents understood the value of martial arts training like they understand, oh say, the value of EDUCATION, then more parents would be knocking on your school’s door.

If only there were a little ray gun that you could point at somebody –then ZAP them with the feelings, the memories, the skills, the friendships, and all the experiences one has on the mat, well there would be a LOT of people in your school, yes?

Unfortunately, I haven’t yet perfected the ray gun you see above; so we must rely on more primitive methods of educating the general public about the martial arts. Here is, in my opinion, the next best thing:

Your Own Black Belt Test as the Ultimate MA BENEFITS RAY GUN for Teaching People about the Martial Arts –and About the Benefits of the Martial Arts

Your very own black belt test, whether you are a 1st degree going for 2nd or a 7th degree going for 8th, is the absolute perfect weapon for teaching your community about the martial arts.

In fact, it’s the absolute perfect vehicle for your own personal transformation, for motivating other people, for reaching out to your community, and for bringing your message to the masses.

Step No. 1 is rethinking what a black belt test is supposed to be.

Yes of course, it’s a personal victory –it’s about you, the mat, your effort, your determination, your dedication, your courage, and your skills. BUT, what if it were more?

What if being a black belt wasn’t JUST about YOU? What if your teacher (or whomever it would be that would or could hold you accountable) followed you around to see if you were applying your martial arts education to your LIFE? What if THAT was your real test?

What if a black belt test wasn’t just about what the practitioner could do in the ring or on the mat –but what he or she could do with other people? With the community? With the world?

Ahhh, now we’re talking! What if your black belt test wasn’t separate from your school’s advertising? What if your black belt test and what RESULTED from it –WAS the way your school advertized! Wow –talk about doing double duty!

What if all of your school’s testing contained some element of this idea?

This is So Radical a Departure from Mainstream “Black Belt Test Thinking” –that Most People Can’t Quite Get Their Head around It

Nevertheless, this is what the Ultimate Black Belt Test Project is about.

Get in the best shape of your life –WHILE promoting your school in the BEST possible light –WHILE teaching your students how to LIVE as a black belt –WHILE living a new kind of martial arts test process that you will use to re-engineer your own teaching/testing –WHILE motivating, inspiring, learning, growing, and teaching by example. Yeah.

The UBBT 6 is now taking enrollments for the GREATEST BLACK BELT TEST in HUMAN HISTORY. See the details at http://www.ultimateblackbelttest.com/.

Learn how to promote your school and services like a master, learn how to engage the world as a master –in a way that brings students to your school. Expand! Evolve! Grow! Inspire! Elevate! Change! Experiment! Play! Connect! Take it out of your dojo and put it to work in the world!

Get out of the fricken box.

The UBBT 6 is 100 years of martial arts evolution in 13 + months. Call Tom Callos at 530-903-0286. Come make some history.

Come Monday

2008-07-27T18:54:00.001-07:00

Come Monday –or any day you decide –you may wake up and realize that you have a new job, a duty, an obligation, and/or a mission. The subject is "self-defense," the definition of which is the key issue.

As a martial arts teacher –and a member (recognize it or not) of the international martial arts community, I present you with the opportunity to be something more than a fitness teacher, something more than a teacher of the arts of physical self-defense, more than an instructor in some classical or eclectic martial art, and something far more than a school owner with a particular gross income and student count and tax obligation.

Self-defense, in today's world, has little or nothing to do with kicks, punches, grappling, and bo-staff training. These aspects of the martial arts are the bowl that holds the mix –they are not "the cake." Self-defense in today's world is contained in what we do –or do not –consume. It is in our beliefs about ownership, about conflict, about relationships, about people with fewer resources that you or I, it is about anger and diet and attitude and community and the environment.

A young instructor inexperienced in life, without the understanding and knowledge that comes with life-experience, may have some difficulty in grasping this idea. Age and experience brings the appreciation of what is to have failures and lost dreams, with the burden and gift of being a parent, with the inevitability of losing those you love, and with the crazy brutality and injustice of war, of prejudice, of hatred, and of greed.

Without the educational foundation of history, of philosophy, and of all the things you learn along the path –a young martial arts teacher can be unaware of the value of everything on the periphery of "martial arts" that is not contained in the movements and techniques –and that is not practiced "on the mat" (and this doesn't, of course, apply to all young instructors, as some people are born aware).

If this last statement rings true to you –then perhaps you are ready to become a martial arts teacher cut from a new –and different –cloth. Perhaps you are ready to be a martial arts teacher with a sense of mission and obligation to the world.

To begin, you must first appreciate and understand that to be a MASTER teacher, you are not going to find your skills easily, nor will they come to you in a best-selling book, a box, a video, or in a weekend certification seminar. You're going to have to wake up and work and experience and network and be a part of something bigger than your "business" –something bigger than "the ring" or the arena.

Start with teaching anger management –and start that by really studying the subject (www.angercoachonline.com). Move from there to embrace diabetes education (www.defeatdiabetes.org).

Why diabetes?

Well, besides the fact that it will touch the lives of 1 in 3 children in the next decade, it could be ANY health subject; your job is to become a master of integrating various topics, intelligently, into your school's curriculum and educational materials. From there you should develop the most active and visible acts-of-kindness program in your community. You must OWN this topic.

Next, tackle an aggressive environmental self-defense program. Read "Last Child in the Woods" by Richard Louv –and integrate environmental education with unstructured outdoor play with your students.

From there, custom design your own Ultimate Black Belt Test Program –and start living as a real master teacher.

I have lots of ideas, tactics, and strategies for making all of the above the very things that bring students to your schools.

Should you, Monday morning or any morning wake up and recognize that you are being called to action (and that it's going to make what you may do for a living a LOT more fun and rewarding), please don't hesitate to contact me.

Tom Callos 530-903-0286
The New Way Network
The UBBT 6 (taking members now)

Mission Driven Marketing

2008-07-20T11:25:00.000-07:00

Marketing Your Martial Arts School by Adjusting and Refining Your School’s Mission and Your Life’s Work

By Tom Callos

In a perfect word you would, as a teacher of the martial arts, make art –and that art would be so remarkable that it sold itself. Take for example the glass artist Dale Chihuly’s work (http://www.dalechihuly.com/). Chihuly has developed an international reputation and sold millions of dollars worth of art because his work is absolutely stunning. And while his materials are not much more than colored glass, Chihuly takes it and turns it into magic.

This is how I visualize the fully evolved martial arts master teacher. The art that a master teacher makes is, for the most part, human –it’s physical. Our tools are our various martial arts –and it really doesn’t matter if it’s aikido or Brazilian jiu-jitsu or taekwondo or karate or gung fu, because the methods are just a small part of the art. What makes the work turn the corner from mundane to magical is what the artist does with the materials –how he or she puts the raw material to work.

Point: Approach your work as art. Make art –and let the art speak for itself. USE the art you make as your primary source of marketing and promotion.

Sell your services because you make magic –and you know how to display that magic, how to light it, and where to put it for the best effect.

Find the art in what you do; use what you do to make beauty, to teach people, to produce the extraordinary, and to make positive change in the world.

So what is the “art” that you can make as a martial arts school owner / teacher?

Your School is Art
Some of the art is in how you present your school. By itself and standing alone, your school’s appearance says something about what goes on there. I like a school that looks at its presentation and attempts to make a statement. It doesn’t matter to me if the look is Japanese minimalism or Brazilian culture or Chinese pagoda or American pragmatism –it’s that the school owner recognizes and is aware of the presentation’s impact on the senses.

Two fine examples of this reside in Southern California with Dawn Barnes Karate Kids schools and Rorion Gracie’s Gracie Academy. If you haven’t seen these schools –I’ll have to describe them to you as “art in and of themselves.” Both schools teach dramatically different “styles” of martial art, but both perfectly represent the idea of “academy as art.”

Point: A school can sell its lessons because of the “art” of its presentation.

Your Classes are Art
How you run your classes is a kind of art. A master teacher mixes the paint of his or her students into a moving, yelling, rolling, kicking work of art. It might be a class of gently flowing aikido practitioners or a group of 20-somethings in shorts and t-shirts getting ready for a no-gi jiu-jitsu workout or a class of taekwondo students in bright white uniforms or a capoiera troupe rhythmically warming up to music; whatever it is, it can be art.

Point: Your classes are a kind of art; done right, they can sell your services. Look at your class structure and execution as a kind of art.

Your Testing is Art
There is no better example of testing as art than my own program, The Ultimate Black Belt Test (UBBT). The UBBT spreads the process out, it blows it up into something grand, it breaks it down into little artful pieces. In the UBBT each martial artist crafts his or her own test –and then plays the process out in writing and film and action. Even before the UBBT participant throws a single kick or punch for the test, he or she has something to talk about, something to show, something with an expectation of emotion, spiritual quest, and mission.

Point: Your testing process has the potential to be the art that attracts people to your work.

Your Philosophy is Art
What comes out of your mouth, as in your message, your philosophical mission, your intent and direction as a teacher –this is art too. It can attract people, sell your programs, and be the foundation of your marketing and promotion campaign –if you know how to make it fly.

What you say is up to you, but that it is ART, just as Chihuly’s glass is art, is the point. It is something the martial arts master teacher ought to understand.

Philosophy as art might take the shape of adhering to ancient traditions, it might come from Christian or Buddhist teachings, it might be cultural or motivational or, as in my own focus, about sustainability, peace education, global consciousness, compassion, and community activism. Whatever it is, I am suggesting that seeing it as art, treating it as art, and selling it as art, is a far more constructive and intelligent approach to marketing a martial arts school than a strategy that makes no consideration of the idea.

What You Get Your Students to Do is Art
How your school looks, how you run your classes and testing, and what you say is all a part of your art –your mission to do more with what you have been given than to simply run a “business.” But the finest art you can make as a martial arts teacher comes in what your students do with what you teach them.

THIS is what you SELL. This is the crux of your marketing and promotion. Your art your mastery your mission in the world reveals itself in what you do and in what you inspire your students to do.

I’m not talking about what they do on your mat –which is undoubtedly a beautiful part of your art. The ultimate art that comes out of your work is what your students do in their lives and in the world.

This is your life’s work –to see your teaching manifest itself in goodness, in results, in victory, in health and happiness and peace and accomplishment. If you could display this, if you could light this work up, put it out there for the public to see –well, this would be the venue where your art would be most appreciated, understood, and valued.

Point: The art of the martial arts is found in ACTION. What you and your students do in the world is your ultimate art –and is should be the foundation of your schools marketing and promotion campaigns. What you do, what you produce, what comes out of your efforts –THIS is what you sell. It’s what brings people to you, it’s what makes your phone ring and your front door swing open. Your art allows you to transcend the triviality of simply operating a “business” for money.

How to Turn This Idea into Action

-- You don’t sell lessons, you change lives!

-- You don’t teach “karate” in a “dojo” –you teach people how to make their LIFE THEIR DOJO.

-- Your brand of self-defense instruction isn’t meant to simply protect your students from kicks, punches, and arm-bars; you teach self-defense from the REAL KILLERS: mediocrity, lack of self-esteem, apathy, the inability to connect with other people, and –among other things –the idea that you are what you own!

-- You don’t only produce fighters or black belts; you are a part of the village that raises people to be aware, to be here in the moment, to enjoy their health, and to learn how to keep fear and doubt from destroying their sense of humanity.

Your mission in life –your life’s work –has got to be more, in my opinion, than in “getting your gross up” and being a multi-school owner. Our industry is fixated on business basics, on suit-and-tie professionalism, on coming up with the next big plan to “double your gross” or “fill your school.” Our trade magazines and industry e-mail campaigns are all about promoting the martial arts through some new movie or the next lead-box gimmick.

Point: We should be fixated on seeing the martial arts come out of our schools and into the world.

Where to start?

It all starts with the primary teacher / owner of the school.

Mr. or Ms. School Owner / Master Teacher, can you answer these questions with an affirmative response:

Are you in the best shape of your life? Are you in the kind of shape that inspires others to get in shape too?

Are you doing anything in the world besides the minimum requirements to thrive and survive?

Do you have a list of heroes –and do you look to them for inspiration? Does that inspiration manifest itself in any kind of daily behaviors?

Do you have, in your mind, a clear definition of what it is to be a true master of the martial arts? Does this definition make you a man or woman on a mission –or is it a non-issue in your daily life?

I created the Ultimate Black Belt Test because I felt that a school’s master instructor should be able to market his or her lessons by acting like a master on a mission. The very process of testing ought to promote the martial arts school. The very nature of the test, what it is made up of, what it causes the participant to do –ought to be the very things that make people stop, look, listen, and enroll.

I think a school can operate without a master teacher on a mission, but it’s like a marriage without romance. The school owner who doesn’t use a sense of mission as the fuel for his or her school ends up getting hyper-focused on the procedures and particulars of payroll, statistics, bathroom maintenance, employee handbooks, and what’s called “majoring in minors.”

Five Concrete Steps to Start a Marketing Campaign for Your School Based Upon Having A Sense of Mission

Ok, enough with the rhetoric. Now I’m going to step out on the line and actually suggest five things YOU can do to make your work the kind of ART that brings people into your school; the kind of art that gives you something powerful to show, something powerful to talk about and to promote and to SELL.

Action Step # 1
If I were you, I would consider joining the Ultimate Black Belt Test (http://www.ultimateblackbelttest.com/). Other than going to the Olympics or deciding that you’re going to go after BJ Penn’s UFC title, you won’t find another mission-based program like this in the martial arts world. And unlike going to the Olympic Games or fighting in the octagon, the UBBT is designed specifically for school owners and master teachers.

If you don’t join the UBBT 6 (the next UBBT project) then carefully look it over and undertake your own “hero’s journey” program. Make your training and growth and personal/professional development a priority. Read, mend relationships, meditate, train like you’ve gone insane, and put yourself smack-dap in the middle of a new circle of friends. Find people that inspire you and remind you that there is a whole hell of a lot more to life than driving a fancy car, buying the right clothes, and competing with that school down the street.

Action Step # 2
Over the course of the next 12 months, commit yourself –and all of your school’s resources –to saving one child’s life in your community. Somewhere in your community there is a child who is going to die from something you might help them avoid. Children defend themselves with their heads; that is, children protect themselves by knowing how to avoid danger.

What you have to know is WHAT is killing children in your community? Take for example, diabetes. This insidious disease is expected to touch the lives of 1 in every 3 children over the course of the coming decade. By the way, UBBT member, “Mr. Diabetes,” Andy Mandell, has a completely free martial arts instructor diabetes prevention training course –with dozen’s of free teaching resources –at http://www.defeatdiabetes.org/. Look for the MADDCAP program (Martial artists Defeat Diabetes Community Action Program).

Is there a possibility that a child in your community could die from smoke inhalation or a fire this year? Will there be any teenagers who might perish from reckless driving? Or from drug or alcohol abuse?

How many children could you reach with some kind of life-saving message in the next 12 months?

Point: A teacher on a mission to save lives is 10,000 times more powerful than a business-person looking to distribute 10,000 VIP passes. This is mission-based marketing.

Action Step # 3
Embrace Project-Based Leadership Training (PBLT). If you haven’t heard of –or if you don’t fully understand my concept called PBLT, then BOY are you in for some fun times. PBLT is pure rocket fuel, pure genius, pure marketing power for the martial arts school owner and/or teacher.

For you, for free, on Friday, August 8, 2008 at 10:00 am Pacific Standard Time, I will host a free one hour tele-seminar on the subject. Here are the specifics:

EVENT: Project Based Leadership Training Tutorial
DATE & TIME: Friday, August 8th at 10:00am Pacific
FORMAT: Simulcast! (Attend via Phone or Webcast -- it's your choice)
TO ATTEND THIS EVENT, CLICK THIS LINK NOW...
http://instantTeleseminar.com/?eventid=3654912

Action Step # 4
You should OWN the acts of kindness program in your town. In 2001, I developed a program for the martial arts community called Random Acts of Kindness. Since then, more than a million acts of kindness have been initiated by martial arts students around the world. Starting an acts of kindness program with your students is still one of the most effective (and least expensive) forms of community-based, grassroots “marketing with a mission” you can do.

Can you name another business in your town that makes acts of kindness its business? Is there a better form of practical day-to-day self-defense than kindness? Do it for a day, do it for a weekend, or do it for a year –just do it.

Action Step # 5
Profile 10 living heroes. This might seem like a stretch, but I guarantee you that the PEOPLE you hang out with have the most amazing affect on your thinking –so amazing in fact, it might be the key ingredient to your school’s success (or lack thereof).

My 10 living heroes are:

Julia Hill; Nelson Mandela; Pam Dorr; John Bielenberg; The Dalai Lama; Thich Nhat Hahn; Ray Bradbury; Wangari Matthai; Oprah Winfrey; and Sarah Chayes.

If you want to find your mission, if your want to light a fire in your own life and in the lives of your students, then DO NOT make your primary influences people you read about in martial arts magazines. Get out of that box and into a new realm of quality thinkers and action-takers.
Point: In the future, the people who are going to have the most profound impact on your martial arts –and what you sell in your lessons, ARE NOT going to be martial artists.

Not only do we have to take our martial arts “out of the dojo and into the world,” but we need to bring the world into the martial arts.

About the Author
Tom Callos heads the Ultimate Black Belt Test and The New Way Network. He resides in Northern California. His e-mail is tom@tomcallos.com.

Letter on Non-Violence from 1995

2008-07-06T18:40:00.000-07:00

I have been thinking about how to teach non-violence for many years. My first experience with the subject, as a martial arts teacher anyway, was when I read my friend, Dr. Terrence Webster-Doyle's books. He wasn't very well known in the martial arts world at the time, but I read his first book and immediately contacted him and offered an invitation to a yearly training session I used to organize for Master Reyes and our West Coast MA association --in Squaw Valley, CA. We hit it off right away --and had a great weekend talking about violence and the martial arts.

Shortly thereafter, I began teaching my young students about the ideas of non-violence. Part of my program was using the words and writing of well-known people. The following letter is from someone I'd written back in 1995 --first the letter, then I'll reveal the source:

Dear Tom Callos,

Your idea of a wall covered with letters about violence is wonderful. Here is my little contribution:

As you know, my Babar books are and expression of non-violence philosophy! And is not because I decided to give a message, it is because I deeply feel non-violent myself. I am glad that the message comes through.

Violence is the most horrible disease of the human race. Of course, there is violence against animals also, but it is mainly because we must eat! What is despicable in human violence is that it comes from hatred, contempt, simply will of power (I should say "man's" violence, because women's violence doesn't generate destruction as man's does).

I believe violence arises when you don't know how to understand the "other," you don't know how to listen. Of course, one can say that if you want too much to "understand" you might become vulnerable.

I simply cannot forget that there are occasions when I wouldn't dare to patronize and recommend moderation. I am talking of persecution, aggression, rape.

Personally, since I rarely feel mad at someone, my problem is rather, as you say, "dealing with bullies." My way is to try not to stand against them like a wall, it is to let them push but, at the same time get them to understand that I am not impressed, I am not going to accept their views.

This is not easy and I am not saying that I am always successful!

The difficulty, a real challenge (particularly in politics), is to come to compromise without being unfair to your own thinking, to come to a compromise without dropping what you care about.

With my best wishes,

Laurent de Brunhoff

2008-06-24T13:28:00.000-07:00

You do recognize, right, that I am suggesting that martial arts teachers are (should be) more social entrepreneurs than business entrapreneurs? At least the teachers in my sphere of influence anyway...

By the way, if you read these journals and are a professional martial arts teacher (or will be someday), you are invited to join me for a tele-seminar this coming friday at 10:00 am pacific standard time. Register at www.tom-callos.com.

Social entrepreneurship is the work of a social entrepreneur. A social entrepreneur is someone who recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to organize, create, and manage a venture to make social change. Whereas a business entrepreneur typically measures performance in profit and return, a social entrepreneur assesses success in terms of the impact s/he has on society.

While it's very likely that this is the first time this idea has been stated as such, I predict that you'll hear it a LOT more in the martial arts world. All of my work is a reflection of this idea. --Tom