Combat Sports Historian and Martial Artist
Posts about martial arts concepts and principles.
Martial artists always created their arts to solve a problem. Judo was created when Dr. Jigoro Kano put his mind to solving the problem of how to train at 100 percent effort without getting someone injured by the crippling techniques of Japanese Ju-Jitsu. Helio Gracie created the basis for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu by trying to solve the problem of how a
In the distant past, one of the new holders of a teacher’s certificate in a traditional martial art brought a wheel barrow with round wheels for approval to the head of the style and his top two instructors. Previously, the wheel barrow had square tires and was referred to as a square barrow. The student waited with expectation as the
Once you reach the rank of black belt, you will find it difficult if not impossible to workout in class. Unless you have lots of black belts, who can take turns rotating, you will spend most of your time teaching. The window of training in class also closes the longer that you are a black belt. How do you continue
As a taekwondo stylist, I spent my first few years of training trying to develop high kicks. I could throw crescent kicks head height pretty easily and even an occasional side kick. For the most part, my kicks tended to land on the body not the head. However, high kicks are still beautiful to behold and with several spectacular head
We always taught students not to punch to the head during self-defense training. Yet, we did teach students to punch to head height on pads, when teaching striking. After watching some of mixed martial arts legend Bas Rutten’s fights from Pancrase, it struck me what we were doing wrong. Pancrase banned closed fists to the head. Rutten, an accomplished muay
Michael Hyatt recently wrote an article about retirement being a modern invention and dirty word. I agree with his views with one caveat. At different seasons in our life, it is time to let somethings go to make space for new things. To do new things well, we sometimes have to let go of the old. When I was in
Recently, I heard a podcast about clearly identifying why you do anything because it is important to effectively deliver your message. I started a martial arts blog for one main reason and a couple lesser ones. I am going to cover the main reason today. I was not satisfied with most of the martial arts instruction related to self-defense. You
The problem with too much martial arts’ self-defense instruction is that they are low percentage defenses against unrealistic attacks taught by some instructors, who have limited knowledge of street attacks. Some systems were created for street or military training and are better than others. However, the insularity of too many martial arts keep some instructors from exploring defenses for different
If you want to be able to defend yourself, work on your conditioning The greatest technique in the world is only so effective if you do not have the stamina to outlast an attack. Conditioning is one of the most neglected aspects of martial arts training. Cardio Conditioning – Remember the old saying, “Fatigue makes a coward of all of
After you earn your Green Rank, you will have completed your first year of training. Congratulations. On average, 75 percent of students who started with you have already quit training. Lucky for you, they will be much better targets for criminals. A humorous anecdote is told about two campers worried about a bear attack. One of the campers tells his