I once met a guy and our conversation drifted very quickly into martial arts (surprise!), specifically about self defence. I was confused when he stated that he wanted to learn Tao Kwon Do for self defence because a friend of his is a highly ranked student of the discipline. My … Continue reading
Judo was the first martial art I have ever practiced and, even after many years, I have good memories of the experience and I can still use good part of what I have learnt at the time. Description Judo is essentially a martial art based on throwing techniques: the intent, … Continue reading
Although martial arts are not team activities there are many elements of cohesion that motivate martial arts practice more that any other sport. Let analyse why this is true: Practicing a martial art is a long time investment in your health and well being: the time to proficiency is often … Continue reading
Many people, too many people, confuse Kickboxing with Thai Boxing (also called Muai Thai). Perhaps it is because of the generalisation that many schools do in defining any fighting sport that uses upper and lower body strikes (e.g. punches and kicks) as Kickboxing. I used the term fighting sport to indicate a … Continue reading
Recently I was running a lesson with the Cambridge University Kickboxing Society and I was pointing out to two beginners young ladies how one was not hitting has hard as she could while performing a simple exercise. Her partner was surprised of my remark and she stopped asking how I could tell … Continue reading
One of the models I used during my Professional Coaching Training describes competence in four broad steps or levels: I found this extremely useful and practical because it helps identifying very quickly at which stage a person is with her competence toward a certain subject. I’ll add an example about driving … Continue reading
Considering that martial arts are, in essence, methodologies for fighting I always consider paramount to perform a reality check of each application. This is to assess if and when a technique or combination can be useful in a self defence or real fight situation. Please notice that some styles, like … Continue reading
If you look around you, if you think about the world surrounding us simplicity is where everything starts and ultimately where the main goal for most is: this is described very well in John Maeda’s “The Laws of Simplicity” that I encourage you all to read. We have today devices … Continue reading
Martial arts were developed to help people fight, being it for attacking people in battle or for defensive purposes. If we look at China and Japan, two countries that gave birth to some of the most famous martial arts in the world, they have profound differences in the way martial … Continue reading
Have you ever heard expressions like: Practicing martial arts without thinking? Going with the instinct? Thinking is too slow in a fighting situation? The main purpose of learning complicated moves and combinations during most martial arts practice brings two main advantages: improving the muscles, tendons, ligaments and joints involved in … Continue reading
When you see a person who is active and among the top performers within your school or club have you ever asked your self what took that person to be where he/ she is now? We surely cannot assume that anybody was born capable of punching, kicking or performing any … Continue reading
I have been toying with the idea of writing book reviews for a long time. Have an extensive library of martial arts and Eastern philosophy books that cover a broad range of subjects. I hope that what I am going to write about each of them will be enough to … Continue reading
Different schools and styles of martial arts teach the hook kick (also called reversed round kick) in different ways. Main differences manifest essentially in the way the movement originates, how the kicking leg is moving during the kick and what part of the foot hits the target that can be … Continue reading
We define combat sport a sport application or expression of a martial art where we set and impose rules to limit and control the amount of damage that can be inflicted to the opponent. Ranging from contactless Karate tournament, via Boxing and all the way to MMA fighting sports usually … Continue reading
I am convinced that a proper warm up is an essential part of any martial art session: I see around many clubs that are quite informal about this part of training and they resolve the issue by telling students to “warm up”. People therefore chat away for 10-20 minutes while … Continue reading
Different martial arts teach and instill different postures that have been designed to offer the ideal position(s) to best use attack and defend actions for that specific style. Although what works for Aikido is so substantially different from Kickboxing or Wing Chun they all make sense when you apply the … Continue reading
I practiced Karate Shotokan for 2 years in the early eighties; I had a go at Wado Ryu in 1994 for less then a year and I then trained in many occasions with experts, dan level, of Goju Ryu, Shorin Ryu and Kyokushin kaikan. I find it an interesting martial … Continue reading
If you ask a person with no experience in martial arts to throw a punch or a kick you might get some kind of result that will be, in most cases, very inefficient and inconsistent. Having a foundation based on some kind of martial art ensures the application of a … Continue reading
Practicing martial arts, as well as any other physical activity and sport, can cause pain due to accidents or simple practice: this post discusses some of the aspects of pain and my view of dealing with it. What is pain? Wikipedia states that: Pain is the unpleasant feeling common to such … Continue reading
Whenever you a guy fighting in a movie one or more attackers armed with knives don’t believe what you are seeing: most of the times it is unrealistic. I have seen lots of knife defences that simply won’t work when, in the street, a random guy (or girl) pulls out … Continue reading
This post is discussing the importance of contact training in martial arts, particularly in view of their effectiveness in self defence situations. Once I welcomed a new student in my club: he stated to be nearly at Dan level in his club back home. He practiced a style of Korean … Continue reading
Martial artists and sport fighters with some level of experience are aware that some punches or kicks are stronger than others; some people just accept that as a fact, some of us try to understand the reasons behind by studying the human anatomy, how the body works and how biomechanics … Continue reading
In order to be a good martial artist you must aim at excelling in a number of different skills and having at the same time: Strength Agility Coordination Reflexes Balance Endurance Speed The last but definitely not least one in the list, speed, is to be considered of extreme importance … Continue reading
The other day I bumped into MT, a former student of mine. He joined my club years ago and trained with us for at least a couple of years. MT is a guy in his late thirties, over 6 foot tall and well over 200 pounds of weight. When he … Continue reading
I am convinced that getting involved in a fight is something that should be avoided at all times. There might be circumstances where fighting is absolutely unavoidable and I repeat something I have already expressed before: in a fight or flight situation the latter should be preferred if you are … Continue reading
Finding a Tae Kwon Do class is usually very easy, in most places and for this reason I have practiced Tae Kwon Do (TKD) in a number of locations around the world (UK, Indonesia, Antilles, Spain) and I was lucky enough to train several times with some top experts, exchanging, … Continue reading