When I was a kid I used to watch both Batman and the Green Hornet and at the time thought I learned some really cool fighting techniques. I was too young to hear about the drama behind the scenes but apparently some people thought that Robin could beat Kato in a real fight? Why about the time the movie, “Enter the Dragon” was out I made a comment to my uncle that I guess Kato would have won the fight.
My uncle said he heard that Robin (Burt Ward) and Kato (Bruce Lee) got in a real fight outside a bar and Burt won and stuffed Bruce in a trash can. I told my uncle that was a bunch of hooey and who Bruce Lee really was. I guess that it was like Coke or Pepsi, or Ford or Chevy… everyone had an opinion what would happen if they ever met up. Well what I did not know but reportably Robin (Burt) was a black belt in in own right but I have not been able to track down where he trained. This is kind of a fun post but I will try and tie it into what I thought fighting was when I was a kid and what the TV shows were portraying at the time. Here is a video of Batman and Robin meeting the Green Hornet and Kato and I will have a video of the fight scene where Batman fought the Green Hornet and Robin fought Kato!
I went to a garden party one time and did not see Yoko with a walrus (sorry for the Ricky Nelson reference for you young-ins) but did have an interesting conversation with a formal karate stylist. During that interchange it came out that he (the formal stylist) did not think much of sport karate as it might be applied to self-defense.
I was quite interested in his perspective and made the point I fought effectively in street-fights with sport-karate! At the time I had won tournaments in SoCal and had also worked as a bouncer at a bar for two years. I will try to highlight his and my points in our conversation and then close with my opinion now.
I searched youtube for a video of a proper low snap-kick to the shin or knee and could not find one in 20 minutes. I saw plenty of high snap and jump snap kicks that would be marginally effective in a street-fight. So I found the shortest karate guy I could find to demonstrate a excellent street technique (although even this guy was kicking too high)
I saw this video on TV years ago and was surprised on the level of idiocy on the pimp’s part. Just because he scared the women, did not translate well into really being an intimidating figure. The guy had a poor education, maybe no father figure to teach him how to treat women.
When I was in the 4th grade, I made the mistake of slapping a girl back after she had just slapped me. The girl went crying home and told her mother, who told her father after he came home. The girls father came over to my house and told my father. My dad was embarrassed that his son (me) had broken one of societies rules – boys don’t hit girls!)! Well let me tell you that after my father had educated me – I was not able to sit down easily for days and had to apologize to the girl the very next day.
Society has conventions that transcend any laws that may come into play for a reason. Girls and women are boys and men’s partners in life and should be respected. If a girl mis-steps and strikes a boy – two wrongs do not make a right!!! Men should not ever hit women! Anyway review this video and I will try and tie karate principals to the pimp’s education.
We all know the object of a fight, you know, hit your opponent without getting hit back but do you know how to do that? Well one way to increase your percentage of hits verses misses is to increase your accuracy!
Wow, with this one statement where I have seemingly stated the obvious, one can put together a strategy and formulate a plan to increase your accuracy? Yes if you think about what accuracy is!
Accuracy is hitting your target. This does not mean your aim has to be better then the next guy or gal but rather you have to figure out a way to land punches. In this post I will explore ways to land kicks and punches that you otherwise might not. I will not talk too much about avoiding getting hit in this post but logically if you do that, you will probably increase your striking accuracy too! Here is one classic example of a sneak attack.
One story of my martial arts career would span from one injury to the next. Seemingly injuries are part and parcel of karate, judo, boxing and any other physical sports. Do injuries have to occur? Are their best practices for warm-ups, stretches, workouts and cool-downs?
I started in karate learning how to toughen my knuckles and fingers so I could fight better. The rational was that if I deadened my blows, I could hit harder and get injured less. As I continued in karate training I came to the realization that I would not get in many fights during my lifetime so way worry about a few injuries? While this topic is important, I will focus more on the mechanics of normal workouts to see where they might be improved for martial arts. Here is a video of injury prevention for some soccer players (football for the rest of the world).
Any of you that know me realize that I am not much for social networking but I do enjoy talking about a topic that interests me. Karate is one of those topics that is near and dear to my heart! It is in my blood. I also have an almost phobia for joining groups as I already have enough user names and passwords to remember. So when Nathan Teodero of TDA Training invited me (as I’ve commented a few times on his website) I was initially sceptical.
I ended up joining because it is one way to reach out to martial artists of other styles and have discussions about issues that are relevant to all of us. As you know different styles have their way of executing mechanics of martial arts but we can all agree that the ultimate goal is the same. We focus to some degree on self-defense, tournaments, MMA, kata, kumite, art, and we all want to increase our proficiency at our chosen style. I realize that we all do not focus on all aspects, for instance I do not train in MMA but there are Kenpo students that are active in the sport. I will talk about forums and how they might be useful for us, as martial artists. Here is the Convocation of Combat Arts badge I’ve posted on my website.
I saw this video entitled, “Seniors Learn Self Defense Techniques” on San Diego’s 10 news last night and was stunned! Some parts of the news story by Joe Little made sense, you know seniors learning to defend themselves but as a kid that grew up in long island, fighting over your wallet or purse does not make much sense unless you are a great fighter! Better sense is to not carry too much cash on hand and be ready to give up your wallet if doing so can save your life!
After watching the story I had the feeling that it was endorsing old folks fighting for their purses? Why? Part of any self-defense strategy should be giving up lesser valued property (wallets, purses, cars) to save your life! Unless you live in an area that allows you to license a concealed firearm, why would a 70 year old man, much less a 70 old woman want to fight for a wallet or purse from a 17 year old assailant? Watch this video I found on youtube.
Church is a place that people go to connect with their God. Most people end up letting their guard down as they feel safe at church. My wife had an experience recently while she was praying alone during the day at a local house of worship. She got the feeling of dread while she was in her quiet corner of the church like a premonition of something bad was about to happen. I will tell her experience and relate it to an important self-defense issue for women.
One area of self-defense for women has nothing to do with fighting but is very important for women’s safety! If someone is stalking you (the women or anyone), you first try and avoid if possible. One way might be walking inside andlocking your door or simply not walking through a bad looking neighborhood. But what do you do if you cannot avoid the situation? Here is a picture of a scary looking church I found on flicker here.
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