Street Fighting Samurai Style We always have to grapple with our mind between studying a martial art, style or system and it being practical for use on the street. On the street it is messy, dirty, aggressive with no judges to call yame (stop) usually you are out numbered and once you are in the […]
How do you learn martial arts? Your instructor shouts at you and says do it like this, watch me, he then goes through a series of combinations and you are supposed copy and learn it from that but you don’t even remember the first technique or whether he used his left hand or right hand. […]
A time to reflect The year is nearly over and now it’s time to reflect. How did your training go? Did you do all the things in your martial arts that you wanted to do? Have you completely changed course? Have you given up on martial arts training? Are you evolving or doing things different […]
Can you flow? Water flows, the waves on the sea flow, a fountain flows, nature flows. In the dictionary it explains the meaning of flow as; ‘’To move or run smoothly with unbroken continuity.’’ How does this relate to our martial arts training? Or for that matter anything we are trying to achieve in life […]
Is your martial art pressure tested? So many people do so many different types of martial arts and everyone has their own reasons for doing each one. The main reason is if push came to shove would it be an effective aid in saving your life if needed and does your training reflect a realistic […]
There is only one angle of attack and defence? This is a funny observation, how many angles of attack and defence do you know? When learning the knife, sword, stick or just boxing how many angles are there? In the Filipino arts most styles teach a basic 6 to 12 angles of attack and defence […]
Hips Don’t lie Not just a Shikira song, funny thing to say in a martial arts blog but please bare with me. Martial arts and it really does not matter what style/system you use should be about effortless motion using the body to its maximum effect but with economy of motion and efficiency of movement. […]
Repetition Repetition Repetition Just siting here thinking about how I can improve my teaching skills and the best way to pass on knowledge to my students to help them improve in their martial arts. An observation I have encountered is students won’t spend enough time repeating a movement or skill they are trying to perfect […]
Skill is rank but rank does not equal skill What Dan grade are you? So many people ask that common question when they find out that you practice martial arts. Are you any good? Years ago I used to be asked are you a black belt? Nowadays the black belt has been watered down so […]
Improve it, evolve it or forget it We love shiny toys and new things that look cool and or have that wow factor, this is obvious in the way that we buy new cars, the latest clothes. trends, gadgets and the latest get rich scheme (bit coin) hoping that it will solve all our problems […]