Skills Training, Fun, and Friends - Firefly Gathering 2013!

FIREFLY THIS WEEK: Hello friends, the firefly gathering is upon us, I am no where near packed (I plan on going in style this year complete with solar power, multiple covered teaching area and a motorcycle) woohoo.....

it's not too late to get your tickets to one day or the whole thing, and the schedule is AMAZING.  I will be teaching the following classes; Stick Jiu Jutsu parts 1 and 2 (Thursday am and pm) - learn strikes, locks, parries, chokes, escapes with a variety of stick lengths.  Cherokee Knife throwing - not much to say there, Trapping (the big picture) - a look at trapping from a global perspective, meaning, psychology, behavior, weather, mantrapping, vehicles, animals, noise alarms, trigger systems, strikers, national maneuvering, and animals that display trapping prowess.  Also Solo Whitetail Bow Hunting, offered twice - mostly a discussion with resources, techniques and strategy, stories, and some fun drills for awareness.  Lastly a kids Ninja class that will not only include physical training and some self defense, but also improvisational acting and 'being in character' as well.

Read about the other AWESOME classes and teachers, AND reserve tickets at this link;
www.fireflygathering.org

Makin do!

Tonight on destination America, in Hillbilly Blood, Eugene​​ and I build a primitive vine fish trap, make a coat from gathered grass to counteract hypothermia and almost get washed down a gnarly flooded river. As if that wasn't cool enough, we then use junk yard parts to create a large scale water filtration device and engineer a machine that turns wood chips into electricity!!! Check it out.

Walk Like a Ninja

Walk like a Ninja?

People will never cease to associate Ninjutsu training with blowguns, black outfits, throwing stars, and smoke bombs, but in small steps I enjoy exposing my students to a larger perspective on training that is as fun as it is educational and rewarding.  Kids even sign up for LOTSWild’s Ninja Camp thinking they will suddenly inherit deadly skills of ancient stealth warriors, and parents think it sounds fun, and a dozen area Karate schools have Ninja Camps or something similar that has nothing to do with Japan, let alone Ninjas – so let’s discover one aspect of our training!  Kutsukae, or “Changing your footwear.”

                Like many things in Japanese culture and language this term can be interpreted in various ways.  It can, in fact, be as straightforward as changing shoes to mask already laid tracks.  It can also be wearing shoes that mimic another animal, which cannot easily fool a good tracker, but it can throw off a novice.  Some clever folks have even made shoes that stamped a backwards shape into the ground making it look like the walker was moving in the opposite direction.  Like all things, practice makes better, experience teaches hidden lessons.

                “Changing your footwear” can mean much more than these simple tricks.  Any hunter knows the importance of stalking, and it doesn’t take a creative genius to find a small stick and scratch a squirrel pattern in the leaves, or make turkey scratches to fool an approaching deer and cover our own slight sound moving through the woods.  There are many types of footstep methods that can be explored in a variety of games and drills, then tested in higher stakes situations that raise the heart rate and teach how adrenaline truly challenges us.  Nukiashi is a very quiet method of walking and highlights the many correlations between the Japanese Shinobi and native American Scouts.  Quiet walking may be different depending on what it is we are walking on!  Wooden surfaces, decks, steps, gravel, grass, leaves, dirt, rock, in water, on rooftops, all have variations that need attention in technique and foot placement.  We also have Shuriashi shuffling steps, and Kataashioto or gimping gait.  Students must learn first to walk with an injury, then hide the injury, then walk like they are trying to hide an injury.  The best false-injuries to portray are ones we have actually had in the past so we know the full emotional and mental effect of that injury and not limit our actions to the physical level alone.  Running, or Hashiriashi, can go in multiple directions especially in a mountain or forest environment.  Different concerns might include quiet running, running within shadows, running for concealment, running quickly, running with items or weapons, or running up and down, over surfaces including rock, mud, grass, and through streams.  Even Tunenoashi, or normal walking, becomes a wonderful study on a quiet afternoon in camp.  What is normal walking?  We watch and listen to each other and in a moment find that everyone’s normal is different.  A fun game is to watch and listen to each other and then copy each other to the smallest detail in sound, personality, stepping length and raise of the foot, and so on.  Emotional states greatly affect our strides, as does physical health – these are important understandings for the tracker!   And How can we walk differently and embody an array of subtle internal feelings and thoughts?

                If you are interested in exploring these topics further get in touch!  I’d love to invite you out for a hello, or have a new visitor for a weekend clinic this Fall.  We may not ever need such skills to evade a sword wielding pursuer, or to infiltrate a castle to steal vital plans, but learning to walk like a ninja is good for general awareness, fitness, flexibility, and opens our mind to a larger world that is always at our fingertips.  Even as a schoolteacher I used to wear keys on my belt, but then hold them silent as I approached the room after a short absence!  Students assumed I was always accompanied by the soft jangling of keys and click-click of dress shoes.  Not so!  For more information visit www.lotswild.com , and spend some time watching other people and animals – even without formal instruction your creativity and awareness will in time have you Walking Like a Ninja.

LOTSWild -

Salutes all of our men and women in uniform and their heroic families this memorial day 2013!

Drive on!

This Sunday! Cruso NC (April 28) - SAVE CAMP HOPE!

THIS SUNDAY: Save Camp Hope, this Sunday April 28 from 1-5pm Eugene Runkis and I will be demonstrating some cool survival stuff, meeting folks and doing whatever TV people do to bring attention to a worthy local cause in Cruso, NC. Camp Hope has served our local community and is also the film location for an upcoming new episode of Hillbilly Blood where we catch fish to smoke and preserve in an old fridge. Free drinks and lots of fun stuff going on. Bring attention to the preservation of this local landmark that is open to the public most of the year. I'll probably bring my guitar. Don't let the rain stop you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 http://themountaineer.villagesoup.com/p/all-should-pull-together-to-save-camp-hope/990680#.UXsjVkrneSo

Classes on schedule

During spring break this week!

WNC Parent Camp Expo

Thanks to everyone who made today's event at the Kimmel Arena, UNC-A campus, a success! I had a BLAST showing things related to our camps and answering questions about LOTSWild programs.  If you are visiting to learn more about what we do, please take time to look over the links below the title photo of this site.  There you can find out about our staff and instructors, general outlook, see classes and activities, and browse photos from the last 10 years of excellence!

Starting in March our summer camps begin filling quickly - and we only have ONE week of day camp available.  Please contact us asap to reserve a spot and get more information on registration.  You can email lotswilderness@gmail.com or call 828-280-0847.

If you are in a hurry or just glancing by the site, perhaps a video with original photos and music from a camp session will do the trick.  Here are a few good ones to start with! FULL SCREEN IS BETTER

2010 favorite photos collection; AWESOME!

2009 Advanced Camp, "Land" (SCII)


Hope to see you again soon

wise and inspired words

An articulate and educated man speaks on victim mentality, education, minorities, overcoming difference, fairness, politics, economics, and more.  Give him a few minutes of time and be reminded of what speaking without a teleprompter can be like.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFb6NU1giRA