Archive for June, 2009

You are the proverbial 98 pound weakling at Jones beach one summer day but rather than responding to that Joe Weider ad at the back of the comic book last fall, you sent away for the KETSUGO book! Yes you launched your pseudo martial arts training but now find yourself in a sandy situation! What do you do?

Before we explore that question – consider the ramifications? To what level of adversity must a confrontation rise before you respond? If you respond, how will you respond? Verbally? In kind? Or very aggressively? Are you concerned with your ego? Morally, Legally, Ethically, or do you just want to get even-steven?

In this post we will examine some of these issues as when to fight is every bit as important as how to fight. While you are framing your response, look at this video basically showing the logic of the comic book ad.

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Stories like this warm my heart although my kids are grown – I don’t like to hear about men messing with kids! Kids are supposed to be safe walking to school. The story here is about a girl in the marching band walking to school.

I don’t know about you but when I was in the band – I had to lug my trombone to school. In this case the girl in the marching band had her baton with her! One guy grabbed her coat from behind in an attempted robbery.

In this post I’ll talk about the girls self-defense as well as ways to use some ordinary objects as weapons. Here is a video I found of a girl with a baton. I’m not sure if it was this kind of baton or one of those large ones you see in the old time marching bands. Notice the amazing control this girl has of her baton.

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Well one of the main fights of the Summer is fast approaching on August 15! Crush vs. Cyborg! Some of you might correct me and say Gina’s handle is now Conviction and you would be right but I like the sound of Crush.

Both women have good records in MMA with 7 wins and Cyborg has one loss. Both women are billed as ready to fight and both seem ready for 5 rounds. Showtime is now hosting the Strikeforce fights and doing a good job. I’ll highlight both fighters in this post and talk a bit about what it means to women’s MMA. 

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There have been many great fighters and fighting arts that use similar moves but throw them differently. Kung Fu kicks look different than Tae Kwon Do and Muay Thai kicks look different than Karate kicks. Which way of throwing a kick is best?

What am I talking about? Well one example I am going to talk about is a wheel kick, also known as a round house kick. There are significant differences from style to style on how to throw this kick. I’ll talk about some of the rationals and what you have to consider when throwing a wheel kick. Here is one way to throw the round house kick from Bas Rutten.

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Now when I was growing up (in the dark ages as my kids would say) our family did not have a color TV, microwave, VCR, DVD, cable TV service or computers! Eventually all of those things came but not when I was little.

I remember my brother and I being so happy one Christmas when there was a Rockem Sockem Robots game under the tree! Back in the dark ages when one wanted to play a game – they did not merely turn on the computer or the game system but rather pulled the game out of the box!

In this post I will  tell you about how these games evolved (as I saw it) and hot the modern versions of these video games can contribute to one’s overall martial arts fitness level! Here is an old TV commercial for Rockem Sockem Robots.

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For those of you who watch the WEC on Versus TV, the fight of the year is happening Sunday, June 6th! Mike Brown is defending his title against Urijah Faber. Faber lost the title last year in a surprise upset.

The WEC is still airing free on Versus TV and thankfully there are some good competitors in this league. Miguel Torres is another exciting champion in the WEC. My guess is eventually the WEC will go to PPV like the UFC but I really hope not too soon. In  this short post I’ll briefly talk about my expectations in this fight. Here is a recent promo video I found.

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I have been watching too many youtube women’s self-defense videos and reading the chatter on the web lately and seem to keep finding a familiar theme. An alternate universe where karate instructors seem to be pumping up the egos of women, trying to pretend they can go toe to toe with men!

Now before you (if you are a 21st century woman) start screaming at your computer screen, let me assure you that I know women CAN defend themselves against men. But do I think just because a woman has attended a self-defense course and generally buys into equality, that she understands what she is in for?

I may have worded this a little too strongly but please understand that I think realism should be injected into any woman’s fighting strategy… rather than the dribble that I see so often put forth as empowerment for women (in the form of self-defense)! I spoke to my step-daughter to try and get an understanding of why equality is bandied about so freely when speaking of self-defense and she told me that for some women – it is more important to “feel” that women are equal to men in every way.

Ok here is what I am going to do in this post:

• Point out how to overcome a stronger attacker
• Point out that women have to use strategy (i.e. surprise, explosiveness, run, awareness, or weapons to win)
• Women in the martial arts can overcome a size/strength advantage by superior skill.
• That many men attacking women will strike hard to disillusion a woman – make her more complainant.
• Woman should expect to have to fight for their lives – become an animal if they expect to survive!

I hope I have not lost you but let me open with this video and then I will go into more detail. The good news is if you are a woman – YES you CAN defend yourself against a stronger, larger man but you will have to be smart about it!

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