My life is about facilitating empowerment. I have a passion for sharing knowledge of moving, martial arts, and the mind.
Martial arts got me into science. As a teenager, I started training in Chito-ryu karate (4th dan) in the early 1980s and was fascinated by the combination of power and precision in martial arts. I marveled at how complicated it must be for the body to do all the things I was able to do and my teachers were able to do better. Later I trained in Okinawan Ryukyu weapons (3rd dan) and the integrated Yuishinkai martial arts system (4th dan).
My earliest science studies were on martial arts, but shortly into my scientific career, I shifted to the neural control of movement and rehabilitation of walking after stroke and spinal cord injury. Here I marvel at the capacity for adaptive plasticity that the nervous system has after injury. This continues as my main research focus now. In fact I’m now coming full circle–we are working to see if martial arts training can help with balance, walking, and self-efficacy in Parkinson’s, Multiple Sclerosis, and after stroke. It’s called “K.I.C.C.: Karate Intervention for Chronic Conditions” and I’m very excited about it!
In addition to being a doting dad, I enjoy walking, fishing and playing electric guitar.
My favourite authors are JRR Tolkien, Stephen King, Isaac Asimov , Arthur C. Clarke, and Frank Herbert while my favourite poets are T.S. Eliot and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
I have very eclectic musical tastes and enjoy almost all music from Beethoven to Benny Goodman to Black Sabbath. I have an aptitude for languages and can speak some French, Japanese, German, Italian, and Spanish. I enjoy watching pretty much every sport (except golf and cricket, sorry but it’s true).