Combat Sports Historian and Martial Artist
Posts about martial arts concepts and history.
A couple of years ago, I decided to stay at the rank of brown belt in Judo for a while. As a black belt in Taekwondo, I always assume that you keep going until you reach black belt in the art you are practicing. However, I began to change my mind about continuously trying to obtain a black belt
On November 12, 1993 at the McNichols Sports Arena in Denver, Colorado, a fourth degree black belt in the little known art of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu (commonly called Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in the United States) cut through an eight man style versus style martial arts tournament. Royce Gracie would turn the martial arts world on its head. After his walk through the
While many of the martial arts originated in Korea or Japan, the societies in these countries and the United States are very different. Yet, many American instructors continue to have students line up by rank and sex with men first, boys second, women third and girls last. While this line up would be normal and expected in Korea, it does
Huo Yuanjia was a real life hero, who inspired mythic tales about his life. His life and expoloits have been the basis of films starring Bruce Lee and Jet Li. The real Huo Yuanjia defeated many foreign fighters, when China was being victimized by other countries in the late 1800s and early 1900s. His exploits were a source of pride at a time,
This article is the second of two posts, which detail the conditioning and martial arts workouts I performed from 2006 to 2010. I used this program to earn my second degree black belt in Taekwondo and a third degree brown belt in Judo. Martial Arts Workouts Monday P.M.: Judo Class Wednesday P.M.: Advanced TKD Workout Thursday P.M.: TKD Kid’s and
This training program is what I used from 2006 to 2008, while I was training in both Taekwondo and Judo. In general, I performed conditioning workouts in the morning and martial arts workouts in the evening. Conditioning Schedule Monday A.M.: Chest, Biceps, Elliptical Trainer Tuesday A.M.: Thighs, Calves, Recumbent Bike Tuesday P.M.: Shoulders, Triceps, Forms Friday A.M.: Back, Abs, Elliptical
The idea for this post began germinating in my brain a couple of weeks ago, when I was in the store to spend my birthday money and found an article about self-defense positions. Taekwondo is my base style although we add lots of Judo, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and cane techniques into our system. I expected to see some realistic self-defense but