For many people, the status of their martial art is something of great importance. For others, it’s not important at all. Is your art sport, or does it have a deeper meaning for you? . Having success in an arena or being able to break boards, ice, bricks etc., or to fight in a controlled…
Tag: Self-Protection
You want to karate quit? Again?
You want to karate quit? Again? . How many students do you know that quit only to return for a little while and then quit again? . Here are a few reasons why people quit: They get bored with it. Financial issues. They move to a different area. They realize it requires more effort…
You must take failure into account.
Is the demonstration of techniques by your instructor successful….. every-time? . Why this could be a problem?….…. Because those techniques will often fail, more often than you think….. and students need to understand this, and practice and prepare for failure. . The success of any demonstrated technique is largely dependent upon having predetermined knowledge of…
“Do not think of attack and defense as two separate things.”
“Meotode” (夫婦手), an uchinaaguchi (the native Okinawan language) principle literally meaning “husband and wife hands”. In the case of an actual fight both hands should always be used together, which is essential in close-quarter pragmatic karate. It is a way of maximizing strategical advantage in a physical altercation by utilizing both arms and hands equally,…
Know which battles to fight.
Know which battles to fight. The real skill is not how to fight. It is knowing which battles to pick and which to walk away from. . If your response to all things is to fight, this is bad thinking, bad practice. After all, life isn’t measured by how many times you stood up to…
“Your physical safety is up to you, as it really always has been.”
During my time working as an EMT, there were many instances of stabbings. The victim(s) was usually stabbed multiple times. . The dangerous truth is that if people mean to stab you…. you either are stabbed before you even notice it, or the attack is immediate the moment you notice that they have a knife…
“Sport sparring is not self-defence and has very little to do with it.”
If you’re like most people, you probably hope you will never find yourself in a self-defense scenario. . As a general rule, self-defense only justifies the use of force when it is used in response to an immediate threat. The use of force in self-defense generally loses justification once the threat has ended. Any use…
Your bunkai needs to be effective, it must be applicable to real situations.
When you analyze kata, breakdown the movements within, your bunkai needs to be effective, it must be applicable to real situations. The kata were created for this reason. . Some of the applications put forward as interpretations of kata movement vary from the wonderful to the ridiculous, and unfortunately it is often hopelessly inadequate. ….
To not fight is the greatest victory in a street fight.
For those of you who ‘laugh in the face of adversity’, and your response to all things is to fight….. You know who you are! . I want to stress the importance of attempting to solve a problem without a physical altercation. Really you should be trying your best to deescalate a situation before it…
Do you only know one way?
Do you only know one way? Have you only been taught to fight? . For all the importance we place on learning how to fight and defend ourselves, the martial arts should at their core, teach that it is best NOT to get into a fight in the first place. . There are dojo and…
Symbolic gesture or combative function?
When people don’t understand things, they often find it easier to create their own explanations. We see this all the time, in every part of society. . To psychologists, this behavior is known as ‘rationalization’. If something doesn’t make sense, then make it make sense. Karate is no exception. And salutations in kata is an…
Why take the time to learn the martial arts for self-defense?
Why take the time to learn the martial arts for self-defense? . It’s a well known fact that size and strength matter significantly when engaging in unarmed combat. So why bother learning the martial arts for self-defense at all? Why not get a gun (legally: Country and State permitted), where size and strength are much…