A comment on one of my articles about ‘self-defense or fighting’ said that “if you’re young enough [snip] why can’t you do both? (self-defense and sparring)”. . Well of course, you can. You can do both provided you understand the differences and you are aware of the dissimilarities. . But it’s not wise to do…
Category: Martial Arts
Self-defense or fighting? Do the research. Be aware of the differences, and be ever mindful of them.
Anyone claiming to teach self-defense has a moral obligation to do the research. . Sport training is created to ensure success in sport. It makes little sense to train to develop one set of skills when they are not the skills you wish to actually attain. If you want self-defense skills, then you should be…
You have to PUSH yourself, because, no one else is going to do it for you.
PUSH Yourself: Karate in Daily Life . I can no longer separate my advancing years from my almost 50 years of Karate training. Even if I never put on my karate-gi again, I would never be able to separate them. . Those of you who have trained for many years will understand what I’m talking…
“You think it’ll last forever, people and cars and concrete, but it won’t. One day it’s all gone. Even the sky”.
“You think it’ll last forever, people and cars and concrete, but it won’t. One day it’s all gone. Even the sky”. . Time does not care about anything but moving forward. What do the martial arts offer the aging student? . Young practitioners mostly see karate, or the martial arts in general, as something I…
“If one trains diligently every day, then in three or four years one will come to understand karate.”
Losing interest in your martial arts training will happen to everyone at some point, and of course there are various reasons why this can happen. . I have seen this so many times. How often have you heard; “I used to do karate”? The decision to stop is made in a second, and the sad…
The ‘Dojo’ (道場) not just a place to workout. It is the “place of the way.”
There are numerous training facilities for all types and styles of martial arts. However, very few of these places rate the title of ‘dojo’. The commonly used terms of studio or gym are, in general, much more appropriate. Many of these institutions teach only the shell of an art and neither understand nor attempt to…
When was the last time you just listened to someone? I’m talking about just taking in the words that are being said, and allowing it to settle into your mind….. Forget about a response.
Sometimes it’s good to just shut up and listen….. When was the last time you just listened to someone? I’m talking about just taking in the words that are being said, and allowing it to settle into your mind….. Forget about a response. . A good listener, listens slowly to what is being said, doesn’t…
Looking at movements as solely blocking could be missing the interpretation entirely.
Uke-waza (受け技), the Japanese term many practitioners translate as “blocking techniques”, by now practitioners should know that a better translation is “receiving techniques”. . When you think of uke-waza with the latter translation in mind, it can open up a lot of doors in your training. . It is often stated that there are no…
Being a Black-Belt means you have learnt enough to realize how little you actually know.
EVERYTHING up to Shodan black-belt is the foundation on which you practice your karate and the foundation in which you are ready to solidly build upon. . Shodan should represent the end of your initial training and you now have a solid basis on which to build and go forward through the next levels. Every…
“By constant self-discipline and self-control you can develop greatness of character.”
If karate has to do with your own personal growth and development, what is the student supposedly developing? . Many instructors cite discipline. By this do we mean conformity and obedience? . This may have been regarded as a valid objective in Japan a century or two ago, but conformity and obedience aren’t generally valued…
Why is impractical “bunkai” still being taught?
For many systems of karate, which rely heavily on kata, “bunkai” – 分解 (breakdown, analysis, disassembly) and “Oyo” – 応用 (application) is of the utmost importance. . The past masters handed down the kata as an encyclopedia of their form of martial art, the ‘styles’ of the day. Even though many karate systems share kata,…
What is the definition of self-defense?
What is the definition of self-defense? . The average person’s idea of what constitutes “self-defense training” is generally the furthest thing from the truth. . The question “what is real self-defense?”, prompts many to play their ego card. Some people become offended at the suggestion of anything outside their martial arts world that is not…