There is a strange habit in martial arts culture where people try to claim ownership over human movement. A knee strike belongs to Muay Thai. A joint lock belongs to Jujitsu. A throw belongs to Judo. As though human biomechanics were copyrighted. The reality is much simpler. Human beings all have the same anatomy. We […]
Nobody Owns a Technique Read More »
There is a specific “fact” in martial arts that has been repeated so often it has become gospel: “90% of all fights end up on the ground”. You’ve heard it, and I’ve heard it. It’s the primary justification for why so many people now spend 100% of their time rolling on mats. But if we peel back
The 90% Ground Fighting Myth Read More »
A friend told me last week he teaches karate on Tuesdays and self-defense on Thursdays. Like they’re two different things. They are two different things. But they weren’t supposed to be. Originally, martial arts were about self-defense. That was the whole point. Somewhere along the way, though, most of what gets taught became something else
Your Dojo Isn’t Preparing You for Violence Read More »
A while ago a student from a different style joined us. As we went through a few drills, one thing became obvious quite quickly – every time there was any kind of pressure, his hands went straight up to the sides of his head. Tight, high guard. He’d clearly spent a lot of time being
When ‘Keep Your Hands Up’ Stops Working Read More »
Where does a beginner turn when they want to learn self-defense? What draws them to a particular martial art or school? For me in the early 1970s, it was Bruce Lee movies and the TV series Kung Fu. Today, it’s social media. Every time I open my phone or switch on my computer, there’s another video
Where Does a Beginner Turn for Self-Defense? Read More »
A few years ago, I wrote something about untrained people and how unpredictable they can be in a confrontation. The point at the time was simple enough – just because someone hasn’t trained doesn’t mean they’re not dangerous. In many ways, that unpredictability can make them more difficult to deal with. I still agree with
Why Are We Still Preparing For The Fight First? Read More »
Do you watch a kata and, at first glance, it looks impressive – snappy, powerful – but something about the function just feels wrong? The techniques look powerful, but only because the body is being overused to make them look that way. Big shoulder rotation. Excessive upper body movement. A visible “back and forth” to
When Power Becomes Performance Read More »
Self-defense – the ability to protect yourself when it matters. We train for it for years, and for some of us, decades. But for what? One moment? Maybe a moment that never even comes. Does that make it any less important, or does it mean we should just treat training as something for fitness and
Self-defense – what are we really training for? Read More »
I received a comment recently about the opening of kata – the yoi position – and how it might represent awareness. The point where you recognize something isn’t right and prepare yourself. I understand why people see it that way. But it rests on something that doesn’t really hold up when you look at it
There Is No ‘Ready’ Moment Read More »
I’ve been watching this for years. Someone takes a piece of kata and immediately tries to turn it into a neat sequence. This is the attack, this is the defense, this is what comes next. It all lines up nicely, and on the surface it makes sense. But the more you look at it, the
Reflections on Kata: Why Kata Does Not Show the Setup Read More »
I recently pointed out the inherent dangers of falling or fighting on hard surfaces like concrete, and, as expected, the responses came in. People sharing their experiences – “I fell off my bike and did a perfect roll”, “I’ve fought on pavement and I’m fine”, “I used to train on concrete all the time.” The underlying sentiment
The Dangerous Myth of “Nothing Happened to Me” Read More »
I’ve been thinking lately about how much time we spend polishing the outside of the vessel without ever looking at what’s inside. After over fifty years on the mat, I’ve performed thousands of repetitions of the same kata. In the beginning, it was about the physical – the crispness of the technique, the power in
Reflections on Kata: The Syllabus in the Shadows Read More »
