10/13/2026
I genuinely appreciate it when people reach out to me. I do. I enjoy hearing from fellow martial artists, exchanging ideas, and occasionally helping someone find their way along their own path.
But I also need to establish some boundaries.
If you're reaching out simply to chat endlessly, ask a hundred questions, seek ongoing advice, or enlist my help in developing some exciting new martial arts "system," I have to be candid: unless you're one of my students, or at least supporting the school in some capacity, I simply don't have the time or inclination to engage at that level.
I have a family. I have a career outside the martial arts. I have my own training and research to pursue. And, most importantly in this context, I have students who have made a commitment to learning and preserving the traditions I've spent decades studying.
Those people deserve my time and attention.
Perhaps because I've spent so many years cross-training, researching the relationships between different martial traditions, and exploring the principles that connect them, some people assume I must be interested in inventing the next great martial arts system. I'm not.
I have no desire to create some new, super-duper, all-encompassing martial art, declare myself its Sōke or Grandmaster, and award myself a gold belt with seventeen stripes. Quite the opposite.
The deeper I've gone into the traditional arts, the more I've come to appreciate just how much there is left to learn within them. My cross-training isn't about inventing something new to put my name on. It's about understanding, appreciating, preserving, and more effectively transmitting what generations before us developed.
I don't need to invent a new tradition. I have more than enough work to do honoring the ones I've inherited.
So please understand: it's not personal. It's a matter of priorities.
Time is the most precious resource I have. Unlike money, rank, or recognition, I cannot earn more of it. Every hour I spend on one thing is an hour I cannot spend somewhere else.
I choose to reserve that time primarily for my loved ones, my healyh, my own continued study, and those who demonstrate through their actions a genuine commitment to learning and carrying these traditions forward.
I'm always grateful for sincere interest, and I welcome people who want to become part of what we're doing. But my availability, experience, and decades of study are not an unlimited, free resource.
And I hope people can respect that distinction.
