This is just a quick note about a new feature on this blog – the 3-minute retreat found on the right sidebar. As you probably already know to be good at karate takes focus of mind, body and spirit.
The 3-minute retreat is one way I relax my mind and allow myself to focus. It has the added benefit if you are Christian to relate a good message daily.
Grandmaster James Mitose in his book, ’ “What Is True Self Defense?” he stated that one should practice the dominant religion of whatever country one is in, including its application to martial arts and spiritual practices.’
I encourage you to find your own peace or borrow mine – the 3-minute retreat.
I remember one Sunday evening while I was a new bouncer at the bar. Eight guys powered past me before I could card them and ordered some beers. The obviously had already consumed a fair amount of beers. I was a bit nervous as there was the old bartender, a few dancers and everyone was depending on me to keep the peace.
I calmly walked up to them and asked them to meet me outside. The six big guys followed me outside and I told them they were out for the night since they had not followed the rules. They were having none of that and they attacked me! More on this later but what could I do against six big guys? I mean I was 155 pounds to their 200 and over?!!!
In this post I will address somewhat of a lost art – the much maligned sidekick! What? Yes once a staple of karate is not considered somewhat of a risk to use in a fight for some reason. Back in my day the sidekick was a great equalizer. I mean most people were inept at kicking and did not really understand how a little guy me could quickly gain the upper hand without a punch!
Here is a quick video showing some of the mechanics of the sidekick.
As some of you know I used to own a karate school in the 1980′s and back then in the stone age (pre-internet), supplying students with uniforms and such was a bit challenging. Each school had several suppliers that sent you a catalog one used to find the best deal.
Then came the internet and while reading through the catalogs were a bit easier – one still had to find trusted suppiers that would pull everything together for school owners. Zengu.com is one attempt to make it easier for school owners.
This quick post is going to highlight Zengu.com so any school owners can have another resource. I do have a relationship with karatedepot.com and I have had advertisements from boxingdepot.com in the past but this is not a paid post. I think this resource is one good option any martial arts instructor (karate, boxing, mma, etc…) should consider for their students needs.
Matt over at Ikigaiway.com did a post about Zengu.com that explains some of the tools available for school owners. Zengu.com is actually the wholesale website for:
From what I can see Zengu.com is an easy way for school owners to find their wholesale needs. Owners need to build relationships with suppliers and Zengu.com is a one more good option for school owners.
Since I’ve started this self defense website I have written about many topics of martial arts. Today I am going to tell you a bit about the school I came from and highlight it’s new website http://mmakenpokarate.com/.
I have also added a Recommended Dojos link off to the right sided of this post. This is a personal recommendation based on my 36 years with this school. If you live or work near American Kenpo Karate, Kick Boxing & Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, check this school out if you are considering martial arts training!
Our lineage almost spans 800 years starting with Zenko Yoshida in the thirteenth century. Quoting from the Tracy’s Family Tree here, “This would establish the Yoshida clan’s tie to the Renzai sect of Zen and Kenpo/Kempo/Kosho.”
The reins were passed to the 21st Grand Master, James M. Mitose in the mid-twentieth centry. Ed Parker, one of Mitose and Chow’s students brought Kenpo over to the mainland in the 1950′s.
As a teenager I remember watching Tracy’s Kenpo Karate commercials during the Kung Fu tv series. I found one old commercial for your perusal.
MMA has a way or turning the martial arts world on its ear. I remember back when the UFC started and this skinny guy trained in jiu-jitsu took the contest! I thought, wow – what a fluke! Everyone knew that wrestling around on the ground would not win any fights! Now almost 18 years later, UFC 1 changed fighting!
The more traditional martial artists like myself have had a love-hate relationship with MMA. You see it has proven to be a way to test various techniques within the framework of the rules – to see if they have any merit. You see martial artists take techniques taught to them at face value – meaning if our sensei says it will work – we believe it.
MMA has changed all of that to a point. It is not quite self defense because there are a lot of rules compared to self defense but it is the closest and most exciting fighting constest probably since the Roman arenas! Today’s martial arts students see and hear a lot about various fighting methods. Students know what is fairly realistic in a fight and what skills are just a piece of the puzzle.
In this post I will first speak of my frame of reference so you can evaluate my thoughts about MMA, Steven Seagal. Then I will focus on the trend I have been seeing in MMA where more traditional arts are coming back into these modern gladiators fighting skill sets.
First for your persual here is a video of Steven Seagal being interview after Machida’s recent win.
I remember as a small boy wondering if I could ever fend off masked attackers that jumped me in the dark of the night. Kids have active imaginations and I was no exception. I ran through scenarios in my head and decided that my best chance was to become a superhero (with a costume and all)! At the slightest hint of trouble I would retreat to a phone booth (where no one would witness my secret identity) and presto/chango into my super garb!
Let me just say that did not go well for me and luckily I never did run into any bad guys. But I did believe for some reason that I could do something to improve my chances if I ever had to to fight crazed ninjas! I started to read self defense books and sent away for manuals from obsucre masked Kung Fu masters who would be put to death if the other masters ever discovered their secret identity!
I soon was practicing how to throw kicks and punches and even learned how to yell! I learned some tricks with leverage that my friends did not know, so I was confident and started bragging to my friends. They did not really believe me so as I was walking by the 5th grade class of the current Duke of the school, I slammed my fist into my hand while staring at the Duke! He of course slammed his fist into his hand and the challenge had been made and accepted for that day after school!
More on that challenge match later and my learning exeprence but in this post I will explore does self defense work? Since I’ve been blogging I’ve read a lot of websites that purported to have the answer! Yes everyone is an expert when it comes to doling out advice and telling you what to do incase you are attacked! But is this a realistice view? I mean because one guy/gal running a blog says it is so – does that mean (even if it is so for him/her) that it is so for you?
Here is a quick video I found on self defense scenarios as one example of the stuff out there. Read on to hear my opinions on self defense and does it work or the better question is can it be made to work for you?
We here at My Self-Defense Blog strive to keep self defense in peoples minds! For girls and women the risk of rape is a real possibility at some point in their lives. There are other dangers like assault, robbery, kidnapping but the real fear I think is rape for many women.
Generally I try to make the point that women should take a martial art ( judo, karate, boxing, wrestling, jiu-jitsu, kung fu, muay thai, aikido…) or even a short term self defense class! I make this point but I know that if it is not in the woman’s interests why would she go to all of the effort and expense to take this on?
In this post I will try to deal with this subject realistically within the realm of possibility and talk about what a good plan should include. To start this topic off, take a look at yet another self defense course going around and then we can talk.
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