In the much anticipated match of the summer, Chris Cyborg won decisively over Gina Carano! Cyborg turned out to be the better striker as well as better ground fighter. Carano held her own the first half of the first round and escaped a couple of submission attempts but she (Carano) could not hang with Cyborg’s pace.
I was impressed with one other match of Showtime’s Strikforce event; Babalu Sobral vs Gegard Mousasi for the light heavyweight belt. I will highlight both videos in this post but first, here is Cyborg vs Carano.
The world over, people realize that we have the right to defend ourselves in self-defense but the defense of others has always been a murky concept. I mean what is our obligation to our fellow man or woman? One person can only do so much and even in the prosperous USA, homeless and mentally ill people abound in cities and tourist areas. Does an individual have an obligation to one person in need or is that societies problem at large?
As you can see before I really start getting into this topic there are a lot of grey areas. One person only has so much financial resources. A person has to provide for himself, his family, maybe his church, maybe his charities and then save for his retirement. The street bum or hobo’s as we called them in my youth are not our collective problem! Right? I mean they choose to live that lifestyle (one can argue this point either way)?
In this post I will attempt to clarify ones obligation to his fellow man or woman by telling a story that has haunted me ever since I learned about this ethical dilemma in my Organizational Management class for my MBA degree. Some mountain climbers found a monk on the high trail while ascending Mt. Everest. The Monk was near death and in the story it was not mentioned why the monk took the high trail instead of the normally traveled low trail. But before I get into that ethical dilemma, I found a funny short video about ethical dilemmas.
I remember back to when the LA riots occurred after the Rodney King beating caught on film. That was a scary time in Los Angeles because all of societies rules and laws were seemingly suspended. The National Guard had to be deployed on the streets of an American city! This is not without precident starting back to the days of the American Revolution (or American Rebellion if you were educated in Great Britain).
The reason I have been thinking about this is because of the IFC movie “Beyond the Gates” I watched over the weekend. This film is about the Rwanda genocide that occurred in the mid-nineties. In this post I’ll examine what self-defense options people might have to consider if they are unlucky enough to live in a nation undergoing some civil unrest (or civil war as the case might be). If you get a chance – watch Beyond the Gates or Shooting Dogs, as it is known internationally. Here is a video clip.
In something seemingly right out of the movie, “Taken,” my step-daughter’s friend and her girlfriend were the subject of some sort of scam yesterday in Paris! You might remember my review of the move Taken here.
I found out about this late last night from my wife but before I speak about what happened to the girls, the movie plot and safety when traveling in Europe, I want to say this turned out ok – The girls lost guys in the train station and streets of Paris! Here is a clip of the movie Taken.
I was flipping channels the other day and came across an old grainy black and white film on IFC where a martial artist was backed against a wharf and taking on his antagonists! The movie is called Sanshiro Sugata (the Judo Saga) and was filmed in 1943. What caught my eye was how he was dispatching his opponents – by throwing them over the side.
This was reminiscent of when I found the Seven Samurai movie on IFC. As the story unfolded it was apparently about the early days of Judo and its players being challenged by Jiu Jitsu combatants! In this post I will review the movie and speak about Judo’s beginnings as well as my views of Judo as an effective martial art. Here is a clip from the movie as the head of a Jiu Jitsu school faces one of the main Judo players (subtitled in French I think).
Back by popular demand (search engine traffic - key word searches) I wanted to catch up with what Michelle Waterson has been up to lately. Many of you have heard of the karate hottie from MMA competitions and her good showings last year. She is coming off of one loss but still an exciting fighter.
Michelle has been blogging-vlogging over at My Fantasy MMA here. She has an interesting point of view about fighting, other fighters and she is trying to find her niche as a blogger-vlogger (for those you like me that did not know what a vlog was – it is a video blog). In this post I will try and catch up some sine I last posted on Michelle. Here is her latest video she posted this morning.
As you know we here at MySelfDefenseBlog.com do not shy away from the tough questions. My first experience with the concept of a modern serial killer was when I was basically homeless and living in my instructor’s karate studio. My instructor, Dick Willett, let my broken down car live in his parking lot and allowed me to “watch over the place” in the evenings. Why he even suggested and loaned me a book entitled, “The Michigan Murders.”
My routine was simple, after a day of teaching karate lessons, I walked down to Lavicios Delli and bought my favorite sandwich – a British Submarine! I’d walk back to the school and turn on the desk lamp to save money and start reading. The book was fairly scary because the sociopath, John Collins, was the boy next door – a real clean cut college student. Before long I had all of the lights on in the school and word got back to Dick that his studio was lit up all night!
It was not that I wanted to be an ungracious tenant but rather I was not thinking and was kind of freaked out! Mind you that I was a brown belt at the time and already a fairly good fighter. I quickly apologised and mended my ways.
In this post I will examine serial killers and I will concentrate on how women can try and stay safe. No promises here but I have some ideas that make sense. Also I have a treat as my wife, Sylvia has written a good overview of Ted Bundy and how some women were able to avoid or get away from that monster. Here is a overview video of the Michigan Murders that scared me 33 years ago.
Now that you have achieved your brown or black belt and have fought a few open tournaments, you have overcome the pre-fight jitters but want to start winning some matches. Yes you know all of the kicks and punches as well as the next guy or gal but you have not won a trophy yet? What can you do?
In this post I will go over what a tournament is and what knowledge you are expected to gain from fighting at these matches. I will speak to specific strategies that will help you improve you point fighting and I will note how to transition point fighting to self-defense.
You have heard me mention ways to improve you sparring from time to time but to date have not seen me in any of my tournament matches. Well today I have a blast from the past to share with you. Bob Whites Karate Studios has kindly furnished us with a tape of some old team competitions from Parker’s International Karate Tournaments! I’m not sure of the year but my best guess is about 1979 or 1980. Please have a look and then I will go over some strategies. I am wearing a black top and red gi bottoms.
Subscribe to Feed
