This website is dedicated to the Students of Seifu A.S. Umar Sharif, MA. It is also dedicated to the promotion and propagation of the Traditional Afro-Asian Martial and Healing Arts. Our goal is to inform, educate, inspire, encourage, and motivate others to improve their lives by applying The Wisdom of the Ancients.
As your teacher and host, Seifu Sharif [aka: Xia` Xue' Gong] [aka: Tobi Alakoso] is dedicated to helping each of you to remember and nurture the Spirit of Wu-Te and the powers dormant within you.
Namaste’ Students and Fellow Martial Arts Enthusiasts!
We have transitioned into a new calendar year and perhaps a new beginning. New Year’s resolutions have been made, many are off to a good start, and some have already been broken. It is important to set goals in the pursuit of the hopes and potential that lies dormant, untapped within you. As a martial artist, striving to achieve small realistic goals offers you the opportunity to experience many successes. This constant flow of success in turn builds your confidence and skills. The increase in your confidence and skills enhances your spirit and power. All of these developments together help you to achieve higher and higher versions of yourself, and in turn, to become an inspiration and motivating force for others.
As a martial artist you strive to constantly present yourself with new challenges for the mind, body, and spirit. New Year’s resolutions are good for setting one or two long-term (one year) goals. One or two things that you want to focus on this year like stretching more or finally mastering a particular set of forms or techniques. But don’t set too many of the long-term goals, don’t be overly ambitious because then you will set yourself up for being overwhelmed, frustrated, and dealing with a sense of failure instead of the many little successes.
For the beginning martial artist my suggestions for the year are:
Spend some time at a few different schools to get a sense of your comfort with one over the other.
As questions and see how you are treated.
Look for a cost that you can manage so you can continue once you start.
Learn the basic stances, punches, kicks, blocks, and movements of your new system and never stop practicing them. (Over time they will reveal things to you that you did not see before and they will strengthen all of your advanced movements and techniques.)
Learn your teachers system of Qigong (breathing exercises) and practice Qigong diligently. It will improve your health, internal strength, vitality, and power (and much more).
Make sure that you enroll in a Traditional Martial and Healing Arts Program so that you are exposed to all of the wisdom of the culture and tradition from which your system was developed. Martial Arts training is as much or more about building character and discipline than it is about fighting.
Pay attention to details! In the martial arts, details matter.
If you are a parent (or not) you might decide to read Wu-Te: A Guide to Parents – Why Teach Your Children The Traditional Martial & Healing Arts? (Preview)
Even martial artists age, and it doesn’t have to be a negative experience. Of course, depending upon the characteristics of your system and style you can expect there to be some long-term effects as the body ages. Systems that require repetitive hard impact on the body, like Judo, Aikido, or Jujitsu, are likely to have the greatest negative long-term health consequences (hips, back, joints). Other systems can leave their effect on the joints of your hands as well as the aftermath of injuries sustained over the years (broken toes, fingers, wrists).
I’ve seen the long-term negative effects of training on masters even from systems like Tai Chi, Jujitsu, and Kung Fu. I’ve also seen the long-term positive effects of Traditional Martial and Healing Arts training in a higher quality of life during and after many years of training. If you’ve been fortunate enough to avoid most if not all of the negative consequences, consider yourself fortunate. At 69 years old, I know how important and challenging it is to constantly reassess what your mind wants to do and what your body is able to do. That doesn’t mean that you stop setting goals. It means that you begin setting goals that have to do with how you want to evolve into the next stage of your life as a martial artist and as a human being.
For the aging martial artist my tips for the year are:
Strive to review all of what you know cyclically, once per month, quarter, biannually, or annually.
Soften the wood! That means allow yourself to become more flexible, unorthodox in how you execute your techniques.
Continue to perform every movement of your everyday life as if it were a martialarts movement. (Sweeping the floor, getting something out of a cabinet, getting in and out of the car).
Stretch! Stretch! Stretch! Some of us are naturally flexible and some of us are as stiff as dry wood. But dry wood can be softened. Stretching is a way of soaking the aging wood of your body so that it maintains or enhances softness and pliability.
Practice some form of Qigong every day!
Eat to Live! Don’t live to Eat!
Teach someone!
Have a safe, fun, and productive year of training!
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It is not simply practice that makes perfect. It is perfect practice and consistent practice that makes perfect.
