Know Your Job

KNOW YOUR JOB

 

For the new beginner it is an automatic process when learning new techniques to remember and understand the terms and descriptions of the various stances, kicks and punches but for the more advanced student and instructor it is vital to remember these things to the fullest extent. Knowing the name of a specific punch will not make any difference when it comes to a fight but a senior student will be looked upon by the new or lower graded student for guidance and if the more senior student cannot help in this way it would look bad for him or her.

 

 

For a senior student to have gaps in their knowledge however is not that vital to a degree as they are still learning the fighting arts themselves but for a qualified instructor who wears the coveted black belt to lack knowledge and experience in such matters will most likely leave the new or lower graded student wondering if they are qualified enough or are they one of those bogus instructors that they sometimes hear about.

 

No matter how good the instructor is with regard to his or her physical abilities if they lack knowledge and teaching skills then they will instil doubt and a lack of confidence in the students that they teach. No one of course can remember everything about the martial arts or learn everything that there is to know but a good working knowledge of all the basics and a good understanding of the specific martial art in question is important.

 

Just imagine what it would be like if you were talking to the man in charge at a building site and he did not know what a shovel was.

Don't Wave Your Finger ...

DON'T WAVE YOUR LITTLE FINGER AT THE TEACHER

 

Waving my little finger at the instructors was a moment in time that I will never forget. It was my very first lesson at a kung fu club back in 1973 and after doing the traditional bow, called the Sun & Moon in Chinese martial arts, the instructors then made us do loads of on the fists press-ups.

 

 

Never having done such a thing before and having weak hands at the time I ended up putting all the pressure on my third and little fingers, (not a good idea), which set off a noticeable nerve twitch in my one little finger. This proved to be most embarrassing when it came to standing with an open-handed guard with fingers pointing skyward.

 

Still unable to stop my one little finger from twitching, one of the instructors, asked me why I was waving to him with my little finger in front of the whole class. I have never forgotten how to do fist press-ups the correct way, as a result of that situation, to this day.

 

Experience I find is often the best way forward when it comes to gaining wisdom.

Teaching The Arts

TEACHING THE ARTS

 

Teaching the martial arts is something that a new student would of course never think about during their early years of training but it is inevitable, for many, that they will start thinking about such things when reaching the more advanced stages of their training, and hoping, to become an instructor themselves one day. However something that a lot of people will fail to realise is that a lot does depend on how a new instructor will conduct classes, based in part, on the way they have been trained themselves.

 

 

If they have been taught under a set rigid routine then they could very well end up teaching in this same fashion, and if they have, then there is a great danger that they will end up teaching like a robot, without flair or flexibility, which could very easily end up with students leaving after only a short period of time.

Gloves Or No Gloves?

GLOVES OR NO GLOVES?

 

Say the word 'bareknuckle' and most, if not all, will know what you are on about without hesitation. Bareknuckle Boxing is one of the most well known of all the 'old style' boxing matches with a history that goes back at least a couple of hundred years. Sadly however it also has a reputation for being not only illegal and bloody but also a high risk factor of damage to both, not only the body, but also the mind in the form of brain damage.

 

 

Today we have a multitude of martial art styles, self-defence courses and of course mixed martial arts, (or cage fighting as some of us call it), to choose from including of course the vastly popular boxing that is promoted through not only various venues but also via the television media. In the case of bareknuckle boxing however the problem of 'image' is very much a problem due to its past history and how it was, and still is, portrayed over its long and in-depth history.

Martial Art Adverts - 1970's Style

MARTIAL ART ADVERTS - 1970's STYLE

 

Click on the picture to enlarge!

 

Martial art adverts that offered new students the ability to kill in just 5 easy at home lessons, and all sorts of mystical powers, by some all powerful and all knowing guru are long gone since the day's of all the over the top hype of the 1970's - or are they??? Just a passing thought.

BKB Event

BKB EVENT

 

With event organiser Michael Blackett at the

Bare Knuckle Boxing event in Nottingham, (UK)

on Saturday the 15th of March 2014

 

BKB website - Click >>> HERE <<<

The Basic Punch

Click to enlarge!


Look out for me in the April 2014 issue

of Martial Arts Illustrated!

 

Fighting Aftershock

FIGHTING AFTERSHOCK

 

This article was specifically written for the Aftershock Awareness Project that was founded by Dragonwriter (UK) on the 1st of October 2012 and featured in various martial arts magazines at the time.

 

 

There is a remarkable amount of information available on how to deal with a confrontational situation, both before a fight starts and how to defend oneself during an attack, but the subject of how to deal with the emotional after-effects is also a vital part of dealing with such a dramatic situation.

Do Or Do Not

DO OR DO NOT!

 

All martial art classes and self defence courses, for both men and women, are based on responding to an attack in a variety of ways using tried and tested fighting methods, like a strike to the eye or a knee to the groin for example, but all of these things are falsely based on the understanding that you will have a clear emotional free mind and without any fear to get in the way throughout the conflict.

 

 

Some teachers of the martial arts will say go in fast and hard and fight for your very life while others will tell you not to fight back and make things worse by upsetting your attacker with your own acts of aggression, but all these things are somewhat pointless bits of advice when you will be clearly emotional and fearful for your life.

 

The only thing that you can truly rely on are your own feelings of the situation as to if you should fight back or not at that moment in time and do what all cornered animals would do and that is look for a means of escape.

 

The only true advice that should be noted however, when it comes to making your mind up to fight back, is that it should be timed for maximum effect and done with full commitment and not a half-hearted attempt that would fail in most situations.

Maximum Reach

MAXIMUM REACH

 

Look at any promotional poster or video and you will often find in the main that promotional photos show a person performing a high kick that often goes much higher than the persons own head and in some cases aimed skyward to highlight their flexibility when kicking.

 

 

In the case of close combat styles that focus on what some would term as 'infighting' methods the kick will be shown as targeting their opponents legs due to being in a close combat situation.

Creating The Need ...

CREATING THE NEED BUT NOT THE REALITY

 

Everywhere you look you will find the martial arts being promoted as the answer to all of your hopes, dreams and prayers with the offer of being taught not only the best effective self defence skills but also the best of the best of all deadly fighting techniques that will enable you to kill.

 

 

One of many tricks of the trade when it comes to selling your product or service, regardless of your business, is to create a need even if you do not need it. A perfect example would be to make people think that their product or service is vital to your well-being, happiness or safety - but is it?

How It Was

HOW IT WAS!

 

In 1973 I started learning the martial arts, along with many other people who were totally impressed with Bruce Lee and films like Enter The Dragon at the time, and went through all the required training and formal grade tests to become a black belt.  Gaining my 7th Dan in 2001 I then became a writer of the martial arts in 2004.

 

 

Back in my day, regardless of the various ranking systems, you had to earn your rank every step of the way. In recent years however it is now the 'norm' to invent a new martial art name and self-promote oneself to 10th Dan as the new name founder and effectively bypass any formal grading tests as a result. Even Bruce Lee did not claim 10th Dan grandmaster status by the way - for the record.

Free Form - The art of experience

FREE FORM - The art of experience!

 

Have you ever watched a boxer training on his own? If you have then you will have noticed that in addition to practising the various ways of throwing a punch against an imaginary opponent they often also practice ducking and diving, as it is often called, and moving from side to side as they pretend to avoid their imaginary opponents punches.

 

 

Simply just standing still and throwing a punch is of course a typical way of learning how to punch with speed, power and of course that vital much needed accuracy but moving and avoiding an imaginary opponents attacks is a vital next step before experiencing the real thing with a solid person.

There Are No Masters

THERE ARE NO MASTERS

 

Imagine what it would be like if at the flick of a switch all power on the planet was gone for good. No lights, no technology and no machines to help you survive. In the blink of an eye we would all be back in the dark ages, and although people would of course help each other, law and order as we know it would also be gone.

 

 

Under such a situation people would have to grow their own food, for example, or maybe steal it from others. Of course we would all say that due to our martial art training and our high level of moral standards we would never do such a thing, even if we were only days away from starving to death - or would we?

How It All Started

HOW IT ALL STARTED

 

After retiring from teaching the martial arts in 2009, due in part to ill health, I began writing a series of articles on the martial arts. Not wishing to cover the same ground that many others had done many times before with regard to the history, development, origins and technical aspects of the various combat styles I thought I would try my hand at writing a beginners guide to the combat arts instead, but of course, this had also been done many times before.

 

 

It was at this point that I realised that many, if not all, books and articles that were aimed at the new beginner were based on a specific fighting style in the main and were aimed at promoting that particular way of doing things as a way of attracting new students to their school of combat. This being the case only the positive and beneficial aspects of the martial art style in question would be promoted, of course, and not the negative things that the new beginner would be unaware of at that point in time.

Buy My Washing Powder

BUY MY WASHING POWDER

 

If we are to believe what many martial art clubs tell us then we most definitely need to learn some form of deadly fighting combat skills if we are to survive the threat of a crazy mad axe man that stands on every single street corner waiting 'just' for us.

 

 

We all know that the world can, and often is, a very dangerous place but in an effort to highlight their own self defence or martial art classes some clubs will go beyond just simply advertising what they have to offer and will instead go over the top and instil the idea that unless you are trained in 'their' deadly fighting techniques and are capable of killing someone with a single blow you will not survive the day.

Totally Taekwondo - March Issue

TRADITIONAL OR SPORT?

 

Lookout for my 3 page article in the March 2014 issue of Totally Taekwondo Magazine!

 

 

You can find Totally Taekwondo Magazine via my > Links Page <

 

Where To Start?

WHERE TO START?

 

For hundreds if not thousands of years people from all over the world have practiced one form of combat or another. Some have become legends in history while for many others attending just one training session was all they could take.

 

 

Often these one-off would be Bruce Lee experts made the wrong choice when attending a club for the first time or they did not realise just how hard it was, in any event, the reasons why taking those first steps into the world of martial arts must be done in the right way is vital if you are ever going to do it right.