The year 2023 marks my 53rd year training and teaching martial arts. As I tell students and friends, “Anything in your life that you’ve been doing longer than you haven’t, is a way of life, whether it be good or bad, positive or negative.” So, martial arts (or ‘martial science’ as my friend and colleague, Hanshi Butch Torres, calls it) is a way of life for me.
I’ve written on the subject of self-defense and martial arts for the thirty years in magazines like Blackbelt, Inside Kung Fu, and Taekwondo Times, and I remain thirsty for knowledge and new experiences. You can find a link to my most recent Blackbelt Magazine (Nov/Dec 2020 issue) below.
https://blackbeltmag.com/billy-jack
The Danger from Strangers by James D. Brewer
Back in 1995, I decided that it was time for a book to help people avoid assault, not just how to execute techniques once you find yourself the victim of an assault. So, I wrote The Danger from Strangers after doing detailed research in the Bureau of Justice Statistics and conducting personal interviews of both criminals and victims. I asked criminals what they looked for in a victim, and I asked victims about their behavior prior to the moment of attack. From that information and multiple other sources, I wrote the book to provide advice on how to avoid a stranger assault. My book is not a primer on elbow strikes, or punches, throws, and kicks, but a guide to recognizing high threat situations and keeping oneself out of the situations in the first place.
Although the book has been out of print for more than two decades, copies are still available from the source listed below.
The Danger From Strangers: Brewer, James D.: 9780306446429: Amazon.com: Books
Seeking an Indomitable Spirit:
Life Lessons Learned from My 50-year Sojourn in the Martial Arts
by James D. Brewer
I’ve been developing and writing Seeking an Indomitable Spirit for the past six years. It has been a labor of self-reflection and a painfully honest evaluation of the many lessons I’ve learned while training in the martial arts over the years. Through the eyes of a man who lived it, I take the reader through a six-decade journey that looks at the history of the martial arts in the United States as it evolved in the 1950’s and 60’s, grew into maturity during the 1970’s and 80’s, and burst forth into the 21st century.
While I excerpted short portions of the work for national magazines like TaeKwondo Times (May 2020 issue)and Blackbelt (Nov-Dec 2019 issue), I have decided to present the book as a serial on this website, offering a chapter periodically, and responding to comments from readers as we proceed. The first increment, the Introduction, is presented below. Please share any comments and observations you may have as we move through the series.
Seeking an Indomitable Spirit
Life Lessons Learned from a 50-year Sojourn in the Martial Arts
by
James D. Brewer
Major, US Army, Ret.
© 2016 Brown Bear Writing & James D. Brewer
Introduction
I have punched and kicked and grappled my way through life, both in the training hall and outside of it. I have taken a lot of shots and given several myself. I ultimately chose a warrior’s lifestyle (military), but I have also learned a great deal by reading and studying the life experiences of other martial artists, as well as successful people outside the martial arts. This book chronicles my personal, 50-year journey in the martial arts, and it is my hope that some aspect of my quest for an indomitable spirit might be of assistance to you. Clearly, if you are a warrior, or if you train in self-defense, this book will have more meaning for you. Good habits or bad habits, positive or negative behaviors, or anything you have been doing longer than you haven’t, represents a way of life. If you are a person for whom the martial arts have become a way of life and not just a pastime, this book may have special meaning to you. But maybe you have never entered a dojo or training hall, or never worn a karate uniform or never studied kung-fu or any other martial art. I still believe the lessons I present here against the fabric of my own experience may be of value as you seek an indomitable spirit in your own life and pursuits.
What is Indomitable Spirit?
“Indomitable Spirit” is one of the five tenets of Taekwondo and a clear and present element of many other martial arts. Other tenets that accompany indomitable spirit are courtesy, integrity, perseverance and self-control. Variously defined by many different sources, indomitable spirit can be broken down into its parts. Merriam-Webster.com defines “Indomitable” as “incapable of being subdued” or “unconquerable” (“Indomitable”). “Spirit” is defined as the “force within a person that is believed to give the body life, energy and power,” or the “inner quality or nature of a person” (“Spirit”). But indomitable spirit has taken on an even broader meaning both within and outside of the martial arts. It can be described as,
…that spirit in you which keeps you going when really bad times strike and push you down. And [it is] that spirit in you which won’t be crushed however tough things are … It comes from persevering, from getting up when you fail and trying again. And indomitable spirit also comes from facing your fears (“Do You”).
Writer, photographer and martial artist Stacianne K. Grove says that indomitable spirit is that part of a person that sets them apart or makes them unique, providing “hope, strength and courage to get up and face each day with a smile.” She calls indomitable spirit “perseverance on a long-term basis.” Martial artist and author, Forrest E. Morgan, in his book Living the Martial Way, addresses indomitable spirit using the Japanese word kokoro which he defines as a mental attitude that “simply means to refuse to accept defeat.” Kokoro, he argues, resides deep within each of us and we must root it out. “That’s why,” Morgan says, “you have to find [author’s italics] [indomitable spirit], rather than … learn it” (108). Yet the concept of indomitable spirit is by no means limited to martial artists and fighters. In a non-warrior context, poet Dylan Thomas demands perseverance in the face of death when he admonishes the reader to “rage, rage against the dying of the light” in his poem “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night.” That kind of never-give-up, perpetual striving represents a characteristic most people would seek in their life, whether they are a martial artist or not.
One Man’s Journey
I will tell my story beginning in a time much different from today—a time in the United States of relative innocence and unfamiliarity with respect to the martial arts. My personal story will start during that period where the centuries-old eastern martial arts first began to create their own identity here in the West. But my definition of martial arts will be much broader than just that which emerged from Asia. Starting in the 1950’s my story will take you through the past seven decades and deposit you in real-time today. Others who have documented some aspects of the rise of martial arts in this country were great teachers. Some were popular tournament champions, some were philosophers, and some were movie stars. But my story is different precisely because I am not a part of that group. I am a husband, father, grandfather, soldier, writer, and teacher. But like many of you, my life will likely pass with little more than a footnote in the mind or memory of those outside my immediate family. Yet it is precisely because I am not an extraordinary man that I believe you can relate to, and perhaps learn from, my story. Seeking an Indomitable Spirit will provide you no secret, unstoppable techniques or mystical spiritual insights. It will offer no recollections of some 9th degree black belt running a nationwide chain of schools or leading some worldwide association. Instead, I will simply tell you the story of someone who grew into adulthood and learned to be a man during a fascinating period in our shared history. I have been an eyewitness to almost seven decades of martial arts history in this country. I am hopeful that someday someone will write a definitive study of the evolution of martial arts in the United States. But that is not my purpose here. My goal is to show how the martial arts influenced my life as I sought to develop an indomitable spirit. In the process, perhaps my story will offer you some insight into your own experience. I have, to borrow a phrase, “been a lot of places, seen a lot faces,” and I have come to some realizations and understanding during my pilgrimage that I would like to share. Sometimes you will agree with my rather direct observations. Sometimes you won’t. But it is my sincere hope you will be better for having made the journey with me.
I have, to borrow a phrase, “been a lot of places, seen a lot faces,” and I have come to some realizations and understanding during my pilgrimage that I would like to share.
My story will begin in the 1950’s, examining factors and experiences that contribute significantly to who I am today and why I have the attitudes and views toward the martial arts (and the world in general) that I currently maintain. Chuck Norris, in his 1989 book, Secret of My Inner Strength, did not ignore his early years, and his book is the better for it. His book would not have made any sense without that discussion, and I find myself in the same situation. If you indulge me while I describe my early influences, you might just find parallels with your own life experience. You may discover that you can relate to many of my experiences at least as well, if not better, than those of someone who has become a national figure.
Our journey will pass through the 1960’s as the martial arts began to appear on television and in the movies. Dojos (training halls) began to spring up on the east and west coast, and in larger cities in the mid-west. I will describe my own efforts to find realistic, effective training. Through the 1970’s and 80’s I will share my personal journey among various martial arts styles, as major figures (e.g., teachers, competitors, and media personalities) emerged to shape my view of the martial arts in this country. Through the 1990’s and into the new century I will share important lessons learned, and I will reveal my successes and failures. And lastly, I will describe how I approach training and self-defense as I have grown older. Dr. Morris Massey, a leading scholar and speaker in field of management and leadership development, likes to say, “What you are [now] is where you were when… (“What You”).” He posits that the person one is today is inexorably wrapped around significant emotional events, both personal (e.g., childhood fears, disciplines) and national (e.g., assassinations, space shuttle disaster), that occurred at critical points in life. Alfred Lord Tennyson further makes that point in “Ulysses,”
Much have I seen and known; cities of men
And manners, climates, councils, governments,
Myself not least, but honour’d of them all;
And drunk delight of battle with my peers,
Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.
I am a part of all that I have met (lines 13-18).
We are each, indeed, “part of all that [we] have met.” Now travel with me as I share “all that I have met” on my martial arts odyssey in search of an indomitable spirit. Buckle up and hang on. We need to go back a few years.