Year: 2018

Taking A Look Back At 2018 Wow. What a year 2018 was for Martial Journal. It really is hard to believe that we are back in December already, but multiple calendar checks have verified it for me so I guess it must be true. As I take a look back at this [Read More]

Recently I encountered a variation of this question in a martial arts channel on Reddit. The person asking the question was a teenage instructor at a traditional martial arts (TMA) school. She had begun teaching several older students, some of whom were old enough to be her parents. To complicate [Read More]

By Jonathan Bluestein The modern era has seen a significant rise in the popularity of sports-oriented martial arts, and eventually Mixed Martial Arts. The philosophical roots of these martial arts are strongly linked with American Capitalism. That is to say, that there exists a belief in sports martial arts, whereby [Read More]

The Black Belt. Everybody in the world knows it means… or thinks they know what it means! They think a Black Belt means you’re tough—maybe even a killer. It means you’re skilled—maybe even a master. It means you’re wise—maybe even a white-bearded wizard who wields the power to turn villains [Read More]

The open letter I’d love to write, but would never send…   Dear Parent/Spectator, I spend a lot of my time looking at my feet. Part of it is as I am getting older I am working ever harder at making sure I can still see them as I stand [Read More]

The Reality Of Perception I consider myself a fan of British comedy. I adore Monty Python, and I’m also a big fan of Eddie Izzard. Find his HBO Special “Dressed to Kill” sometime; he has a way of talking about language that is quite similar to George Carlin. The example [Read More]

First Things First (WARNING: This article may contain mild spoilers for both seasons of Iron Fist, Luke Cage season two, and The Defenders.) I recently had the pleasure of recording two podcast episodes about Iron Fist. The first one I recorded on Whistlekick Martial Arts Radio with the host, Jeremy [Read More]

What Is The True Price Of Fanaticism? The following is an excerpt from my book, “The True Believers” which was recently re-released in a 2nd edition. It’s a story about the darker side of martial arts communities, and how great things became corrupted by codependency, fanaticism, and yes, money. Some [Read More]

This write-up is the second in the series offering survey-driven data to interested martial artists. Our last report was on enrollment, and you read the write-up right here on Martial Journal. Well, here. If you haven’t followed the previous articles, here’s the short version. We construct surveys for martial artists [Read More]

A common prejudice among educated humans in both academia AND the martial arts is a bias against people who are self-taught. The nerdy word for these self-taught people is “autodidacts.” While I agree with the opinion that, especially in highly technical areas of expertise, formal training is nearly always the [Read More]

Traditional Martial Arts – Filling in the Gaps I was listening to a martial arts podcast last week while I was on the treadmill and I heard a line that really struck a chord in me. The line was essentially a statement by a traditional martial artist that said he [Read More]

Appetite For Destruction (Of Boards) My boards are stacked. Spacers set tightly at the edge. I raise my hand to strike the stack. *thud* The dull, dead sound of a hand hitting the boards and not going through. The force runs through my hand and wrist, up my arm. Why [Read More]

How The Martial Arts Helped Me Beat Cancer Odds can truly be overcome due to the physical, mental and spiritual training of the Martial Arts, as well as the camaraderie of your dojo brothers and sisters. Most importantly, you may find a relationship with your instructor that is far greater [Read More]