This is the first in an occasional series of short posts on Gichin Funakoshi’s “twenty principles of karate,” a set of concise axioms describing the Master’s philosophy of applying one’s study of karate to one’s everyday life, and vice versa. The 20 principles were first published in 1938, when Funakoshi (“Shoto”) was 70 years old. The English translation I am…
This is the final post in an eight-part series on the necessary components of a successful plea of “self-defense” in the case where a person has had to employ lethal force to protect himself or others* from harm. This “self-defense” type of legal defense normally comes up in cases when a person uses a weapon, particularly a firearm, to kill…
This series has covered the elements that constitute a legally justifiable act of self-defense. This topic is usually presented for cases in which a person uses a firearm to defend himself, but we have been applying it to hypothetical cases in which a person trained in martial arts used their “empty hand” techniques to inflict lethal force against an attacker.…
Showing remarkable poise, Alex delivered two Heian kata and a board break in a little over a minute-and-a-half at his school’s variety show on the last day of school. Great mental concentration and kime! A ‘stellar’ performance — well done, Alex!
This is the 6th post in the series covering the legal elements required for a successful plea of self-defense. Today we will look at the fourth of the five elements, as described in Andrew F. Branca’s book “The Law of Self Defense.” We have already looked at Innocence, Imminence, and Proportionality. We have learned that a legally justifiable self-defense requires…
We ran our first Summer Camp at the Sellersville location last week, during the first full week of summer. This was Shuto Karate’s first camp since 2015, which was two dojo locations ago, back at “Candyland” (actually a candy distribution warehouse) in Hatfield. Surprising probably no one, I would rate our first Sellersville camp to have been a big success.…
The week after summer camp, we will debut our “Tiny Samurai” class on Monday and Thursday afternoons from 4:30 to 5:15*. This class will be of immediate benefit to the 3-6 year old children who participate. It will also prepare them to enter our children’s classes, which begin at 7 years old. (Or in some cases a mature child could…
This is the fifth in our series on the legal aspects of “self-defense.” I use quotes to emphasize that we are considering how the law refers to the legal claim made by a defendant who is accused of (and admits to) using force against another person, but asserts that their use of force was justified. We are studying how uses…
