We Are Always Growing We here at Martial Journal are always looking for ways to grow and improve. We’re martial artists, we can’t help it! Many times the growth or improvement is behind the scenes and not obvious to you, the reader. Other times, it most definitely is. This is [Read More]
Traditional Chinese Culture Under Attack? This article is how I see it. I could be wrong, but from my 30 years of training, experience living in China, and education in Chinese culture and philosophy, I have some thoughts. The CMA (Chinese Martial Art) is being upended by MMA fighter and [Read More]
And so, it ends. In all honesty, there weren’t too many surprises in here for me. You see, over the last few years, I’ve had the privilege to speak with hundreds of martial artists. All over the world, all sorts of styles. Different ages, different backgrounds. Different goals and experiences. [Read More]
Voting for Enter the Dragon vs. Ip Man will close on Monday, June 17th at 6 pm EDT. The Final Round: There Can Be Only One! So here we are. You, the readers, have read and voted us to this point. This is the last hurrah. The end of the [Read More]
How to watch: Netflix(with membership) Run time: 1 hour 30 minutes Starring: Cristine Reyes Director: Pedring Lopez Writer: Pedring Lopez Rating: R Release Date: March 27, 2019 (Philippines) Style: Action, Martial Arts, Filipino, Violent You can find more information about this movie on its IMDB page. I don’t know if excited is the right word for [Read More]
The Most Genuine Question For a Martial Arts Teacher By Jonathan Bluestein John Taylor Gatto (1935 – 2018) was a famous American educator and public speaker. He spent three decades in the United States’ public school system, thrice earning the title of ‘New York City’s Teacher of the Year’, [Read More]
(If you suffer from any kind of knee problems, I encourage you to go and see a PT or a movement specialist.) One of the biggest problems in the martial arts world is knees issues. It’s so important to start your Martial Arts journey with a good technique. There are [Read More]
Voting for Enter the Dragon vs. Seven Samurai will close on June 9th at 6 pm EDT. Enter the Dragon vs. Seven Samurai (votes needed) Well, we have made it down to the final four! In this semi-final match-up, I will provide a short (spoiler free) comparison of Enter the Dragon and Seven [Read More]
Voting for Ip Man vs. Fearless will close on June 7th at 6 pm EDT. The Father of Moden Wing Chun vs the Father of the Jing Wu We’re at the semifinals of this tournament. We’ve seen Ip Man fight himself in the previous stage. Now it’s time to face [Read More]
Martial Cinema Tropes The advent of the sport called “mixed martial arts” was a pivotal point in the history of the wider culture of the martial arts, and more importantly also marked a significant alteration in the perception of the martial arts that is held by the huge fraction of [Read More]
Sifting Through The Remains From The Fallout Of The Elite Eight We had some really interesting matchups created from the winners of the Sweet Sixteen round of Martial Journal’s Martial Arts Movie March Madness. Now it’s time to cover the fallout of the matchups from the Elite Eight round. We [Read More]
How The Wall Can Help Your Stretches With our every day stretching we tend to focus on the back of our body, hamstrings, calves, etc. We hardly ever stretch our sides: I don’t mean obliques, I mean deep muscles on our sides. As a martial artist, those deep side stretches [Read More]
Introduction Myths abound in the martial arts world. One of the most pervasive is the myth that the late Bruce Lee created the “Kung Fu” television series. Airing from 1972 to 1975, this show on the ABC network and produced by Warner Brothers starred the late David Carradine. Portrayed as [Read More]
Voting will close on 5/20/19 at 6 pm EDT. John Wick vs. Enter the Dragon In this review, we’ll look at two very different martial arts films: John Wick and Enter the Dragon. But there is one interesting plot similarity between the two… First, we have the modern take on [Read More]
As Martial Journal’s resident novice, I have volunteered to write an article in defense the young black belt featured in the recent Telegraph article. While the article does make quite a few statements that would give any martial artist pause, I’m only going to be speaking about why I feel [Read More]
Voting will close on May 15th at 6 pm EDT. Seven Samurai vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990) In this review, I will do a short comparison (spoiler free) of Akira Kurosawa’s 1954 epic film Seven Samurai against the more recent, but still (in my opinion) classic Teenage Mutant Ninja [Read More]
Full Disclosure: The school I am an instructor at teaches kids and teenagers, and we do have a Junior Black Belt grade. A retest (with additional material) is required at age 16 to receive a full black belt. The opinions expressed here are my own only, legal mumbo jumbo, yadda [Read More]
Voting will close on 05/12/2019 at 6 pm EDT. The Sequel Versus The One That Started It All The first Ip Man movie was a breath of fresh air, started a trend of Ip Man related movies, and gave Donnie Yen’s career a big push. It was an odd choice at [Read More]
Voting will close on May 8, 2019, at 6 pm EDT. Okay, round one has determined, by your poll results, the 8 greatest martial arts films of all time! In this showdown, we have two expected winners with the #7 seeded Jet Li’s Fearless vs the #2 seed The Karate [Read More]
Breaking Down the Aftermath of the Sweet Sixteen Matchups Now that voting has closed on all the Sweet Sixteen–round matchups, we will be moving forward to the Elite Eight. So, how did the voting go? Which movies won, and which didn’t make the cut? Read on to find out! #1 [Read More]
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