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]
A Tough Week For Civility Last week, I watched the horrible state of American politics unfold over a five day period. A crazy person sent bombs to political figures and government officials all over the country. Luckily, no one was hurt. Then, Saturday morning, a gunman entered a synagogue near [Read More]
This past weekend UFC229 created headlines everywhere. The build up to the fight was huge and the rivalry between Connor McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov was highly publicized. It was so heated that it ended up with McGregor throwing a trolley through a bus window and injuring people in the process; [Read More]
Once the violence in her marriage escalated to a point where she feared she would end up dead, Anaya* knew it was time to get out. But now, living on her own, struggling to cover the bills, she has had to quit Taekwondo. And it was the one thing – [Read More]
Thousands of parents enroll their children into martial arts programs across the country every year. Maybe it’s your unruly 4-year-old who needs to learn self-discipline before kindergarten, a high schooler who should learn self-defense before going off to college, or any age in between. No matter why, you are helping [Read More]
Are Forms Still Relevant? Forms. Let’s face it, they have gotten a bad name. Whether you call them forms, kata, shapes, or one of the many names given to them, it’s true. Most modern martial arts and self-defense systems not only question them but completely put them down and often [Read More]
Age Happens I literally caught myself mid screenshot. Click. Please tell me I didn’t just do that. *peer in horror through my fingers at the phone screen. “AGE IS JUST A NUMBER” I just took a screenshot of that quote. *gulp. Don’t know about you, but I’m thinking this is [Read More]
The Long, Winding, And Unexpected Road to Black Belt At one point or another in our studies, we’ve come across one version or another of this question: “How long does it take for a normal person to get their black belt?” Well, normal people don’t get a black belt. We [Read More]
The ancient Samurai believed a strict code of conduct. These principles and ideals are collectively known as Bushido. Among these values are honesty and integrity, honour, loyalty and responsibility. The ancient Samurai believed that speaking and doing are essentially the same. Someone who is honest and has integrity does not [Read More]
In the year 2018 we are, unfortunately, becoming more and more ideologically polarized. The vast majority of people have figuratively, if not literally, joined one of two tribes, much to the detriment of our society. Unless you are a hermit living in a cave somewhere, part of your daily life [Read More]
Iko Uwais and Mile 22 I just got out of the theater where I saw Mile 22, a film starring Mark Wahlberg, Lauren Cohan, Ronda Rousey, John Malkovich, Iko Uwais, and directed by Peter Berg. I myself was drawn to this movie because of Iko Uwais, an actor and martial [Read More]
Although it is not my favorite magazine, Blackbelt is the default martial arts magazine still in existence. For my tastes, most of their feature articles (not the monthly articles mind you, which I love) are a little shallow, and serve really as an introduction to a subject. Occasionally, there are [Read More]
Last night my brother-in-arms, Hylton Silver, and I were running a Krav Maga class. We focused on an interesting topic – pressure. I recently wrote on pressure in self-defense training, and you can read more about this here. We were working on defending against punches and tackles/takedowns, and asked our [Read More]
Your Culture Will Define Your Brand The analogy I hear often from traditional martial arts (TMA) practitioners is that their school consists of individuals that combined feel like an extended family. I too, have experienced this and am grateful for the community TMA fosters. If you are a school owner [Read More]
Martial art’s little white lie I remember the very first night I stepped into a martial arts school. The instructor gave me the sell. Of course, he mentioned the great shape I would get in. He also took great pride in the fact there were very few injuries in that school. “We [Read More]
Let me just get my social media and tech cred out of the way. I had an account on Friendster. Most of you haven’t even heard of that cautionary tale. I still remember my ICQ account number (2946721) I remember when I couldn’t use Facebook because I no longer had [Read More]
A Look At Self-Defence Instruction I have recently taken part in an interesting debate centering around the validity of Kata and Traditional Martial Arts (TMA) as tools for self-defence. This is something I have written extensively about, and you can read about this here, here and here. My opinions aside, [Read More]
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