“As you think, so shall you become.” ~ Bruce Lee Guro Lynn Varghese is a talented instructor in the martial community, a dear friend and influential woman. Currently she inspires women to express themselves, learn self defense and have fun while learning the effective martial arts of the Philippines, Korea, Indonesia, China, [Read More]
The “Pre-Reading” Review Duality can be an amazing thing. Two things that seem completely independent from each other often have complementing features, commonalities even, that help elevate each other to new standards. Brightness and darkness, quiet moments and loud ones, cooked chicken that is both sweet and sour (I may [Read More]
Don’t Be A Crab I recently read an article on Fatherly entitled “Everything You Need to Know About Martial Arts Before Signing Your Kid Up”. I came away in a very conflicted mindset after reading the article. Overall, I think the article itself is actually fairly decent. It relays some [Read More]
The warm up is finished. The instructor tells you to find a partner and get a pair of pads. You put on your gloves, and execute your combination on the pads. ‘You need to pivot more on the ball of the foot, because that’s how you get power. And also, [Read More]
At 11 years old, my son earned the right to wear the most universally-recognised symbol of excellence there is – a Black Belt in martial arts. I consider it one of my greatest achievements as a parent so far. Do I sound smug? Probably. Like I’m living vicariously through my [Read More]
I just got home exhausted from a great Taekwondo class, feeling pretty good about myself. I worked hard and I’m not as sore as I usually am. Not bad for a 53-year-old man! After a quick shower, I settle down in my chair and it’s time to wind down a [Read More]
2018 started off great for me, training-wise. I was never one of those people who seemed to live at the dojo, but I was maintaining a fairly regular training schedule and felt I was progressing nicely. And then, as happens all too often for many people, life got in the [Read More]
“The warrior is not someone who fights, because no one has the right to take another’s life. The warrior, for us, is one who sacrifices himself for the good of others.” ~ Sitting Bull. First Things First A lot of people who think of martial arts think of the [Read More]
Imagine this: You go to a restaurant that you heard good things about. You like pizza, and they are known for making great pizza. You come in, take a menu and sit down. When someone comes to take your order, you ask to speak to the manager. When the manager [Read More]
If you’re into Japanese martial arts you’ve definitely heard of Ellis Amdur, maybe even read some of his books. In case you haven’t, he’s written some of my favorite books on the subject (and I don’t actually train JMA) which you can check out here. Suffice it to say he [Read More]
If you’ve been training in the martial arts for more than a little while, you have probably had awkward interactions with other people when they found out about your martial arts “habit.” I’ve been practicing a variety of fighting arts for forty seven years, and I can tell you that [Read More]
In the interests of full disclosure, I received this book for review purposes. Title: Crippled Immortals: Shaolin Enlightenment on a Singapore High-Rise Author: Chris Murray Publisher: Arcadia Format: Paperback Pages: 269 Price: $15.00 (on Amazon) I think most martial artists have this dream, inspired by many movies from the ’80s, [Read More]
How Using Indian Clubs Can Improve Shoulder Mobility Many of us live a sedentary lifestyle. We sit at a desk, drive, and watch TV on the couch. Many suffer the upper crossed syndrome, a posture where your head leans forward, your shoulders round, and your muscles become too tight and [Read More]
Violence – My Perspective I’ve come to believe two things about violence: it is fluid in nature and it is morally neutral. I don’t think I’ll get much pushback about violence being fluid. After all, almost all of us train in dealing with any number of unpredictable scenarios. There’s a [Read More]
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]
USA Today is reporting that an arbitrator has overturned the lifetime ban for Stephen Lopez, 40, handed down by the U.S. Center for SafeSport in September of this year. Stephen was a two-time Olympic champion in Taekwondo. According to the report, arbitrator Jeff Kaplan rescinded the lifetime ban on December [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]
Today’s post is going to be a little different. I’m hoping to introduce more people to Usagi Yojimbo, a comic book series by Stan Sakai. Usagi Yojimbo has anthropomorphic animals in a mimic of Edo-period Japan and is filled with great information about its history, folklore, architecture, and clothing. Everything in [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]
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