Historical The Quest List Post 72

From: Christopher S. Penn
Subject: [The Quest List] Bujinkan Atlanta Dojo announcement
Date: 2000-01-14 09:54:00

Just off the wire, fairly astounding news from Bud Malmstrom.

For the students on The Quest List who are relatively new and don't know Mr.
Malmstrom ("Bud"), he is one of Stephen K. Hayes' earliest students, one of
the "plank holders" of the old Shadows of Iga Society, long before Quest
Centers were even an idea. Pick up any Stephen K. Hayes book from the 1980s
and Bud is almost certainly one of the uke in the photos. Bud's been just
about everywhere, done just about everything, and is one of the most
respected practitioners of budo taijutsu in the world for his frankness and
his skill.

My personal favorite experience in the few times I have trained with Bud was
watching him take down an uke at a Jack Hoban seminar with sankaku-jime, a
fairly tough choke for me to figure out. The part that made it interesting
was that Bud's uke was a good two feet taller and probably 200 pounds
heavier. Bud came up behind his uke, literally ran up the guy's back,
applied the choke, and then vaulted off of him while the uke hit the mat.
Given that he had just turned 50, it was an inspiring performance for a
young, impressionable college kid.

Chris

-----

From: Bud Malmstrom [SMTP:bud[ at ]bujinkanatl.com]
Sent: Wednesday, January 12, 2000 10:49 PM
Subject: Bujinkan Atlanta Dojo

My Friends:

Bonnie and I have some sad and exciting news. We have thought about this
for months. We will be closing the Bujinkan Atlanta Dojo between the end of
March and the end of April. We have looked at all of the possibilities of
how to keep the dojo open without my immediate involvement, and we have
found none. It is not going out of business because of the lack of students
or poor financial management. On the contrary. Bonnie and I are in the
financial position to be able to simply retire and take care of each other,
and we have decided to do that. I will still have a training group of 20 or
so black belts. I am not quitting the training. I will probably do more
training, although less teaching, than I did before. This
should allow me and the black belts to train more on the kinds of training
that will allow us to progress further and faster than before. I will still
be available for seminars and out of town training. I will still be happy
to guide those students who live outside of Atlanta who look to me for
guidance in their training and rank. We will still be sponsoring the Tai
Kai Atlanta 2000 in August. The Bujinkan Atlanta Dojo has been our training
home, and home for many of you, for the last 16 years. I have many memories
from the dojo that I will always hold close to my heart. But it is time for
us to embark on our new phase of our lives.

Bonnie and I have invested well and have become part owners an international
precious metals company, Premetco. The company imports gold from Africa and
we sell the gold to refineries that we have contracts with around the US and
Europe. Bonnie is the Senior Vice President and I am the Director of
Security. So far this has been a very lucrative business and we plan to
help this company grow in the next few years. I am beginning flying lessons
this month to be able to move the gold with more freedom. Bonnie and I both
will be traveling to Africa several times a year. Along with the time that
I am already out of
town doing seminars I am just unable to continue to manage the dojo. So you
see we have new things to occupy our time.

Many of the black belts of the Bujinkan Atlanta Dojo will be forming small
training groups for those of you who want to continue to train. Please
contact the one you wish to train with and see if he/she is conducting
weekly training. I know there will be those of you who will feel abandoned,
but this is not our intention at all.

Bonnie read me a commencement speech she received yesterday via email and it
made me think of some things I would like to share with you. Think of life
as a terminal illness. We don't know when it will get us but we know that
it will. Use the time you have to make friends, laugh, love your family,
training hard and learn. Think of the hard times as times to test
your integrity, character and your metal. Think of these times not as times
when the world is dumping on you but think of them as the only time that you
have to find out who you are. I have done a fair amount of golfing in the
past year and I have hit the ball in the rough also a fair amount of the
time. When I first started golfing I would get frustrated that I had to hit
from such a bad place, but then I saw Sergio Garcia hit a ball that was
laying up against a tree. He studied the shot then set up, swung, closed
his eyes, and hit the shot that he will be remembered for for decades to
come. It was a great shot and he ran down the fairway and jumped in the
air to see how good it was. Out of all of the great shots he made that day,
that shot gave him and the gallery the most pleasure. Why? Because it was
extremely hard to make; it tested his skill; it challenged his courage and
concentration. That tournament will be remembered in history because of
that shot. So
don't see all of the so called bad as bad. See the bad as a time to earn
your own self-esteem. You are not born with pride or self-esteem. You must
earn it.

In her speech she also said "Get a life in which you are not alone. Find
people you love, and who love you. And remember love is not leisure, it is
work." Every time you look at your belt or rank certificate, remember the
people along the way whom you have loved and who have loved you. Remember
the good times and the lessons you have learned that have made you a
better martial artist and a better person. Remember the hard times that were
frustrating and the times that you almost quit, and know that it is supposed
to be hard, that's what makes it great! If it was easy, it would be as
useless as watching TV and wouldn't require study and effort. I have been
loved by a great many of you and we have laughed and with some of you we
have cried. I am not leaving the training, I am only changing the way that
I am studying and sharing that study. We hope that you understand our
decision and realize that we are not changing anything except we will not
have a commercial dojo. Our friends will still be our friends and our
perspective of life will still be the same. All of your support has made
us better martial artists and certainly more fulfilled in our lives and it
is not over.

NINPO IKKAN,
Bud and Bonnie

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