Team Training, Leadership, Self-Development 
& Self-Cultivation
For Corporations, Organizations, Businesses, Managers, Executives & Individuals

About me and Taitoku

Ten years ago, my first son was born, and since I had learned the art of traditional Karate from my father and my wife Christina from her father, we both felt strongly that we should pass it down to our son as well. Even though my wife and I were both successfully teaching for more than 20 years each, we did not have our own dojo.

In 2012 we founded our Karate school Tokon Martial Arts (Tokon translates to "fighting spirit"). It was my first professionally run karate school in the United States. (I am born and raised in Germany). It took us only one year to build a strong group and community. But we wanted to send some of our students to competitions - a secondary goal of ours, and we knew that would require more work and specific focus. 

So I sat down and started to write notes to myself about everything I considered essential. I followed my notes, and within a few years, we built a powerful dojo and an excellent competition team. 

We started to do pretty well within a very short period. It became apparent that my wife and I had a good system. 

This all happened naturally, and I saw positive changes happening on literally hundreds of students. Then I thought if all this happens naturally with hard training sessions, how much more successful could we be with our students if I make specific topics an active part of the training. How much more successful could we be if I implement into our routine pearls of Zen wisdom and specific exercises?

My drive and desire were and still is to make our dojo the best program in the nation, and secretly I am aiming to make it one of the best programs in the world. So I went back to the drawing board and started to fine-tune what we were doing. I wrote a manual on the necessary steps to become a successful athlete.

From my own experience as an athlete and business owner, I know that everything that makes you successful comes down to habits and patterns that you must implement to become successful. You need to put into place a system so success can be repeated continually. If you don't have a system, it might as well just comes down to luck. 

I needed to put a system into place that allowed me to take a regular student and transform them into an athlete. You can't just sit and wait until the most gifted person finally walks through your door - If you want to be an elite coach or instructor, you have to know how to create and mold such a person. 

In that process, I realized something entirely else. Our athletes and all other students became significantly positively affected when I combined lectures about topics with very specific physical exercises. The combination of explaining a specific topic intellectually and then manifesting it in the body through a specific exercise would give the student an "aha moment." These "aha moments" and breakthroughs started to happen in all age groups, and many times it didn't even matter how naturally gifted the student was. I did not expect how many students of all ages began to overcome anxiety, fear, hesitation, improved focus, and concentration. Of course, everyone improved at their own pace, but the improvement was always there, visible and apparent. 

Parts of my success system, dealing with the athlete's emotions, confidence, and character traits significantly impacted their personalities and characters. Once I started to implement more and more of my methods, I saw more and more positive changes. 

Every sport rightfully can claim that it builds confidence, helps with concentration and focus, and other positive aspects. Still, in no sport or activity, it is done with more depth, more powerful inside, or a more effective system than traditional Martial Arts. That's why they are ARTS. 

They merge mind, body, and soul. 

We all carry baggage with us from our mother, father, society, and our own bad or even positive experiences and beliefs. Positive experiences can turn negative too. They can make us overconfident, cocky, greedy, and all those negative character traits that nobody likes on others and even less on ourselves. If we want to move ahead in our life, career, and success, we need to have a mentor that helps us move forward in our personal growth journey. 

Nobody gives us tools to deal with this baggage and those character issues that we develop knowingly or unknowingly throughout our lives. 

There is nothing new under the sun. There are only things that you don't know yet. There is always a pattern that gets you into trouble, but also a pattern that gets you out of trouble. A pattern or habit can destroy your confidence, focus, commitment, or determination, but a pattern or habit can be used to increase and improve it as well. 

The Samurai had tremendous in-depth knowledge about health, human psychology, emotions, work ethic, team spirit, loyalty, social aspects, and society. They not only built their martial arts around those aspects but encoded them into the Katas and even into the techniques.

As a former competitor, athlete, and instructor, I know about all the positive aspects of traditional martial arts. I went (and still am) going through it myself as a student of the art. I mean, everyone has heard about those benefits and knows about it. There are many layers of these positives effects, and to uncover the full depths of it takes a lifetime. 

I realized that I have a talent to decode Karate techniques and Katas (forms) and develop specific exercises and chronological timelines that are a shortcut for the practitioner that puts them on a path of accelerated learning, inner discovery, and internal engineering.

The psychological and emotional components of success and character development started not only to show in my athletes but literally in all our students. 

Once I get them onto the path, I can lead them to success by implementing my success pattern. These success patterns are beneficial for children and have an even more significant benefit and positive effect on adults. Children exposed to those teachings and lessons subconsciously learn those virtues, values, and lessons naturally over time. However, adults can grasp concepts intellectually much faster and implement them into their family lives, work, businesses, and careers. 

Adult students kept reported back to me by telling me how much happier they are, how much more in balance their lives are, and how much more successful they are in their careers and businesses just through training at our dojo. 

But then it hit me. I mean, it really hit me. I realized that if I decoded specific techniques, Katas, and Kata elements, I could build a program for corporations, managers, and leaders. Suppose I create classroom lessons and lectures and combine them with specific exercises. In that case, I could deliver a service to corporations that would help them mold their managers into leaders and leaders into inspiring motivators. 

I started my own research almost to the point of obsession. 

I realize that the Samurais had created over hundreds of years a complete system that joins people together and creates within that group of people, not only everything you could ever ask for in a group but also each individual. 

For the group, some of the benefits are:

• Solid structure
• Effortless communication 
• Lifelong loyalty
• Strong belonging & camaraderie
• Great teamwork & team spirit

The individual will gain: 

• Well defined focus
• Higher confidence
• Commitment, decisiveness, and determination
• Perseverance, resilience, and patience
• Better health and longevity
• Goal setting and goal achievement skills
• Great work ethic

And so much more. Isn't that what every employer would wish for in their employees? Isn't this what will make your corporation successful in the 21st century?

The Samurai had created the perfect system to survive on the battlefield. In the 21st century, where there might no longer be a battlefield, this very same system can be used to thrive in the corporate world. 

They developed an excellent system for managers, leaders, and innovators to gain all the necessary tools for personal growth and professional development, precisely what corporations need to strengthen their workforce and management elite.

It was right in front of me for over 25 years, but I could not fully grasp and understand it. Until that point, I didn't know how to decode these secret and hidden lessons in certain moves, techniques, and Kata. Like most other good Karate instructors, I only knew how to let the system take care of it but did not understand how to decode the system within the system. The true depths are not even known and fully understood by most Karate practitioners and Karate instructors.

World wars, the change of generations, and the passing of time have led to the unfortunate point that even the Japanese Masters don't have this knowledge anymore or don't know how to teach this knowledge actively. They just let the "system" take care of it. 

You hear old stories from Zen Masters about certain teachings and lessons, but most of those stories are hundreds of years old. Good luck finding somebody who makes these lessons and teachings accessible or tangible in the 21st century.   

In their wisdom, the Samurai did build tools for excellent human faculties, intellectual, physical, and spiritual abilities, practical skills, and the capabilities of awakening somebody's talents and inner strength into the different martial arts. 

As a former competitor, athlete, and instructor, I know about all the positive aspects of traditional martial arts. I went (and still am) going through it myself as a student of the art. I mean, everyone has heard about those benefits and knows about it. There are many layers of these positives effects, and to uncover the full depths of it takes a lifetime. In the Taitoku program, I share those layers with the students and practitioners and speed up this learning curve tremendously.

I discovered that I have a talent to find appropriate exercises, combine them with classroom lectures, and then put the student on a path of accelerated learning. 

With the Taitoku program, I send participants onto a path of inner discovery and internal engineering. 

Participants learn not only intellectually to understand but feel and explore and discover within their own bodies. Which helps them understand and analyze good patterns and learn to embody them. 

Looking around me, I know that our society would be better off by learning the lessons of history and following our ancestors' advice and lessons. Many times those lessons have proven themselves for centuries, if not millenniums, and the latest most fashionable "New York Best Seller Book" will not change what has stood the test of time. This is why I train and teach Karate and why I have taken my 30 years of experience and developed over five years the Taitoku Leadership & Team Training programs for businesses, managers, and leaders.

That's what Taitoku is all about.