State of mind There has been a lot of interesting ideas by some martial arts instructors when using thoughts or intentions in the use of nerve striking/pressure points. We won’t go into them as we prefer to keep it at a more realistic self defence level at this time. The goal of your intentions or […]
Slow and smooth and smooth is fast Slow down! My instructor would say as I tried to replicate the martial arts movements as fast as him. Now I am repeating the same things to my students. We have a tendency always to go as fast as possible whether this is to hide the lack of […]
THE FORGOTTEN ART OF STRATEGIC LEARNING One of the challenges of any martial arts teacher, sensei or instructor is to get the best out of your students without it being too difficult, too easy yet still making it interesting so that the students will want to learn and become fully engaged in the process. Just […]
Forget Breath Control Forget breath control and you will fail to master any martial art movement, but let’s take it further than that if you don’t have breath control you will not master any martial art movement or body action/function. Students when learning any new skill will naturally hold their breath and this is a […]
Chinese spine tail There is an old Chinese proverb ‘‘you are as old as your spine.’’ Meaning your actual chronological age is less important than your health and the way that body can and should move. I call this ‘‘body movement potential.’’ (BMP) It’s no surprise that the spine is in the centre of the […]
Who is your teacher? Everyone likes to think that their teacher or Instructor was the best and the system of martial art they chose propelled them to where they are today. We can say that of course but this is only a small part of it. Who actually taught you though? I have many people […]
Don’t Platform your footwork! In my 47 years experience in the fighting arts, giving seminars in over 20 countries around the world one of the biggest observations is how little credence is given to footwork, everyone watches the hands of the instructor or master but nobody watches the feet. Your footwork takes you into the […]
Key points of self defence engagement Awareness- Of surroundings, the people around you, possible flare points including groups of guys, drunks, dark streets, unlit areas, person or persons approaching with possible concealed weapons and or acting suspiciously. Defensive orientation- The potential for threat is assessed as high. Positioning- Seeing the oncoming danger and position yourself […]
Can you flick the switch from martial arts to self defence? A question I get asked by a lot of people is can you use martial arts effectively for self defence? Let’s look at why some people would think like this. Some say that when you get the adrenalin dump when faced with a real […]
Are you frozen by a system, style or tradition? So many people think that we should always fit in a box or have some label attached to them, we are not our names or the job we do or the system, style or tradition of martial arts we practice. We must resist the temptation to go […]