I saw this on the news not to long ago and decided to find out more about it. I have kind of a closet interest in ballet because at one time I wanted to be a dancer. I thought that karate and ballet might be the perfect combination but as probably happens so many times – I had to chose one over the other (I could only afford to take karate lessons, not both).
Practitioners of ballet have to be in superb condition to make all of the moves look easy. That is kind of like fighting because one should not telegraph a move by grunting during a the initial execution of a kick. Now as much as I like good form during kicks and punches, I am more concerned with the application, meaning does the kick actually connect. Watch this video for the overview of Balete (TM) the new fitness craze in LA.
Imagine you are a point karate champion with lots of trophys - you are at the top of your game. You take some well deserved time off an attend a party with your girlfriend. You happen to mention you are a champion and you start getting questions about MMA or Mui Thai belts? When you tell them that it is in one of the iterations of point karate, a practitioner of jui-jitsu or MMA ask if you have ever done any real fighting?
This may seem surreal to many but various types of sport karate and many martial arts do not seem to have the same level of respect as some of the other fighting arts. In this post I am going to limit the discussion to various point karate and full contact karate sport matches. The focus of each will be examined along with my opinion. One correlation for context might be the difference between fencing and sword fighting. Here is a quick video of fencing followed up buy a sword fight for your perusal.
I was in High School when this movie came out, Billy Jack. I remembered it as one of those old hippy-indian protest films but just watched it again here. At the time I watched the movie, the USA was in a time of turmoil on many fronts. I used to watch the evening news and heard the body count of the day in the Vietnam war (or the second Indochina war).
While I did not get into the politics of the whole war – hippy thing as I was a military brat, I did notice how people treated the veterans poorly at the time. Let me just say that the military is never the problem. An old saying I’ve heard and still rings true today is that old men make wars, and young men fight them. I am happy today that message seems to be understood.
As I was watching the movie I realized why I liked it – there was a former Indian Green Beret that was trying to protect the reservation, Indians, and hippy school from the bigoted local towns people. It made for some interesting situations where Tom Laughlin had to use his Hapkido skills! I’ll examine some of my fist attempts as self-defense and how this movie highlighted some of the reasons a populace has to learn self-defense. Here is a quick clip of Billy Jack’s famous kick!
I have always had dogs growing up and most of the time they were big dogs like German Shepherds. The dogs always went where I did and I don’t remember having any problems with wild animals. Dogs like that are protective but I always demanded that they listen to me.
I think that many breeds of large dogs can make good companions for children and adults. One trend I noticed when I was growing up was a large number of Doberman Pincher’s owned by guys that wanted to be tough. Now I like Dobermans but I don’t like owners that try to make them mean. The same trend has continued today and even more irresponsible pet owners, evidenced by people getting attacked.
I will not focus on the bad owners and mean dogs in this post but rather what was and is still right about owning dogs! Dogs are loyal and protective of their owners! Here is a short video of how one dog protected a girl. I will talk about the ways pet dogs are helpful and how they can continue to be Man’s, Woman’s, Girl’s, and Boy’s best friend!
I started learning about martial arts buying books such as Ketsugo, Jukado, and various karate manuals. The thing was I was a 10 year-old-kid and money was tight. I wanted to learn to fight so I learned some moves by pictures in books.
After I grew up and went back to college, I ended up taking one online class from the University of Phoenix. My initial assessment was I could learn this way but the question then became more of what suited me. In this post I will examine karate distance learning in many of the modalities found today and ones I have personally been involved. Now here is a link to one lesson online I found on youtube. Embedding has been disabled so please just select the link to view.
It is looking like there is going to be a Uriah Faber – Mike Brown rematch after Brown destroyed Garcia in Texas. Take a look at this video from MyVideoFight.com below and the Faber vs Brown video and lets do some Monday morning quarterbacking.
I was thinking about boys and girls in today’s society taking on responsibility and becoming Men and Women. I have an idea of what a man or woman is but I’m not all that sure my definition is universal. My wife and I watch TV shows such as Judge Judy and are amazed by the childish behavior some so called adults do to each other! Well I will not attempt to discuss all of the definitions of what it means to be a man or woman but focus on the rites of passage from a self-defense point of view.
When I was a boy I had a good example of what a man was by watching my dad. He was a marine and took his responsibilities seriously so that early in life – I learned that one was supposed to work hard and not shy away from adversity. My guess is each child learns important lessons from one’s parents and society at large. What I’ve never understood is why self-defense and standing up for one’s self is not understood by all. I will expore one Iesson that I think every boy and girl should learn before they become an adult. Here is the introduction from the TV series, “Kung Fu” that shows Kwai Chang Cane’s rite of passage into manhood.
I’ve been asked to review BrigadeQM.com, a website that has all sorts outdoor and survival gear. Looking at the landing page the website is well organized into sections, starting with gear on the left. I found an ample supply of hard to find military quality gear.
One example I was looking at, a CAMELBAK® M.U.L.E.® ™ MAX™ GEAR HYDRATION SYSTEM ~ 3.O LITER/100 OZ that would be a perfect companion for my mountain biking adventures. If you look at this item you will notice another neat feature of the BrigadeQM.com website – there are often more than one picture and there is a description tab below that has all of the information about the product.
I noticed there is an ample supply of military gear from clothes to speciality packs. One application of these supplies surprised me. I found a Brigade Quartermasters, BGood, The Giving Back Program, Goodies for the Good Guys program that allowed for donations to the troops! This program has allowed Brigade Quartermasters to give extras when shipping orders out as the Letters from the Troops illustrate. Apparently military families shipping comfort items and supplies to their loved ones are very pleased with the fast service as well as the extras included in their shipment. In this post I will highlight some of the features and products of this website.
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