A limiting belief is not simply a wrong idea. It’s a belief that set like concrete over the years. You experienced something once, maybe twice, and without quite realizing it, you filed it away as a permanent truth about your practice. The mind loves efficiency. It doesn’t want to re-examine every experience from scratch, so it […]
The Danger of Certainty Read More »
One of the biggest problems in martial arts is that many people discuss violence without ever having experienced what genuine violence actually feels like. I don’t mean sparring in the dojo under pressure, demonstrations, or competitive exchanges. I mean the kind of violence that is sudden, emotionally charged, physically overwhelming, and nothing like theory. There
Violence Is Not a Puzzle Waiting for a Secret Answer Read More »
Many people today study martial arts as a hobby. They do not train to the level that develops robust and functional real-world self-defense skills. That is why the non-physical side of self-protection is so important. While many people can make physical skills work, not everyone can develop a knockout punch or a strike that will
The Limits of Fighting Skills Read More »
When I was younger and competing, I had a couple of favorite techniques. Most of us did. They were the moves that felt natural, the ones I could rely on to score points or end a match. There’s a certain satisfaction in finding something that works; it gives you a sense of certainty. But even
The Danger of Being Right 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 »
Karate doesn’t fail people – unclear goals do. My page is predominantly about practical, pragmatic karate. It says so right at the top. So naturally, everything I write comes from that context. And from that perspective, something all of us have had to practice and learn at one time in our karate journey – step-kumite
Step-Kumite Isn’t the Problem – Misunderstanding It Is Read More »
In the modern dojo, it’s common to see almost every combination include a kick somewhere within it. That isn’t accidental. It reflects the influence of competitive environments, where kicking plays a significant role. At a high level, competitors are exceptional athletes. They have the timing, flexibility, balance, and conditioning to apply kicks in ways that
Kicking in Karate: A Question of Context 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 »
In my recent article I talked about awareness – something everyone should be thinking about in relation to self-defense. Even if your goals are elsewhere, such as competition, awareness still matters. . But the question that always follows is this: how do you train it? . Awareness isn’t trained by adding content. It’s trained by
What Remains When Distraction Is Removed – Awareness Is Not a Drill. Read More »
Self-defense and karate – two words that can be the difference between chalk and cheese, or, if trained within the correct context, can comfortably coexist. . Some people believe combative skill, that is, self-defense, will somehow emerge despite never training to develop it, even while calling what they do “self-defense”. . That assumption sits at
When Purpose Isn’t Clear – Context Is Everything. Read More »
