It is amazing that, while most who are attacked with an edged weapon survive, it is still the one violent attack that tends to scare people the most. There are several possible reasons for this…among them: amount of VISIBLE injury (i.e. slasher film effect), close range of the attack (personal space is instinctive) or viciousness of attacker. But, in spite of this almost visceral reaction, it is even more surprising that most traditional karate (or most martial arts for that matter) schools lack any REALISTIC form of defense training in this area. I included some clips to illustrate:
Aikido knife defense - shihonage
Continue reading Fear the Blade! Defense Against Knife Attack
Knights of the 1st Crusade
Is the practice of karate an “unholy” thing? Well, obviously this would depend entirely on whether or not you as an individual are a religious person…if so, what are the specific tenants of your religious faith. Myself, being a Christian, makes the question: “Is my karate training an un-Christian thing?”
I had
Continue reading A Karate RELIGIOUS Crusade…!?
It’s interesting how extreme some people can get when talking about an abstract concept…trying so passionately to debunk what they see as other peoples “misguided” ideas. This applies to anything: politics, religion and…yes, the martial arts as well. Here in the real world, where everyone is different, how can you have a practical training regimen
Continue reading The True Kata Applications…Part 3
Is the practice of kata, or more specifically its fighting applications, an out-dated relic of a training method that can be replaced with a philosophy of “more sweat, less thought” or even discarded altogether? Or, is it possible that in many cases in the modern dojo (or dojang) there is a lack of the collective
Continue reading The True Kata Applications…Part 2
From conspiracy theorists to profiteers to well intentioned, committed students, all karate-ka (it seems) have a take on the mystery of kata application and relevance. Ideas like: “Only a few select people are still alive who know the REAL bunkai for these kata”, “It is the OLD way of training and Karate has outgrown it”,
Continue reading The True Kata Applications…Part 1
The steep climb in popularity of the UFC (and by extension MMA training) has given rise to a lot of arguments over what is “the best/most effective/most realest” martial art. I am not about to get into the “my-style vs. your-style” argument! I am more concerned with the distinction between combat-based sports/health training and actual martial
Continue reading Machineguns and the Martial Arts
There is an old saying: “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.” There is a lot of truth there. But, in some instances, there is another dimension to that ideal. While there is nothing inherently immoral or evil
Continue reading Karate Is Like Fishing…Or Not
I put together this bunch of clips so I could get a look at how different forms of karate executed a basic take-down (nage- waza in Jananese). When I started training (many, many moons ago), it was in Shotokan Karate. And, being a very hard Japanese style (Okinawan origins), it focused almost exclusively on the linear techniques.
Continue reading The KARATE Ground and Pound!
What makes a “new style” of karate anyway? Is there such a thing as an old one? Does it matter if it’s old or new? These kinds of questions give me a headache sometimes. Partly, because they sound like a pair of 6-year–olds arguing over whether or not Superman could beat up The Hulk. But,
Continue reading Well…Don’t We ALL Have Style!
In his Twenty Precepts, Gichin Funakoshi (founder of Shoto-Kan Karate) said “There is no first strike in karate.” It was number 2 in the list; second only to “Karate begins with courtesy and ends with respect.” It is fairly easy to see how important both of these ideas were in his estimation given the fact
Continue reading Karate, What Is (or Isn’t) an Attack?
