Archive for July, 2009

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.

Full Story »

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.

Full Story »

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.

Full Story »

Is has been hot here in Southern California the last week as temperatures have soared to almost 100 degrees! I have not really bought in to this whole global warming debate because the average temperature has actually dropped in this decade but imagine my surprise to learn some coffee shops in Washington state actually let the gals work in bikinis! You can see this all the time at the beach but I usually think of Washington state as cold.

Things warmed up fast for one Washington area pervert when he was scalded while flashing the baristas! In what apparently is an old story from last year, a pervert was repeatably flashing the baristias at a drive though coffee shop! In this post I will examine ways anyone can defend themselves and some not so common weapons that can be used in a pinch. Here is a video I found on youtube.

Full Story »

So you have learned how to throw all of the kicks and punches and have achieved a black belt in your chosen style of karate; how can you improve your fighting ability? You have fought at a couple of open tournaments (open to all styles) and have yet to win a trophy? You had to defend your girlfriends honor and end up looking as bad as the other guy?

Do any of these statements resemble you? If so – read on. In this post I will introduce advanced fighting tactics that American Kenpo Karate teaches to brown and black belt students. Many of you that have learned your karate at Tracy’s or Joe Lewis Fighting Systems will recognize these techniques too as I believe Joe Lewis and Bruce Lee to be the source.

Do you remember that childhood game of hand slapping? Seemingly the fastest guy could slap the other guy’s hand before he could move it! If one knows how to do initial movement, he or she can slap the hand before the the other guy can move it! Watch this video I found and then I will explain initial movement and a high level overview of Angular Attacks.

Full Story »

I was watching sports on HBO I found a trilogy of fights between Autro “Thunder” Gatti and “Irish” Micky Ward and noted it was a tribute to Gatti’s passing. I’ve not been watching too much boxing in the last 10 years but it has always been one of my favorite fighting contests growing up.

Aturo Gatti was born in Italy and migrated to Canada. He grew up as a teen in New Jersey and was a notable blue collar boxer especially due to his exciting fighting style. I found a good overview of his life here. In this post I’ll talk a bit about his fighting style and show one good highlight video I found of the Gatti vs Ward trilogy. Here is a good overview of the sad case of his murder and the highlights of his boxing career I found.

Full Story »

Ok – you have stuck with your training and achieved a black belt in your chosen style. Perhaps you have really stuck it out and made it to 2nd or 3rd degree black belt! Are you stuck in a rut? I mean do you know it all? Have you wondered what is the meaning of life? Ok – the meaning of life will not be addressed in this post.

Many times we as martial artists get to a point where we think we know it all. After all once you learn all of the kicks, punches, knees, elbows, and kata – what else is there to learn? In this post I will talk about what the different levels of karate (the martial art I am most familiar) mean and how one progresses when they know it all.

Do we really have to retreat to the mountains and meditate to gain insight? How can we improve our fighting methods? Are there better ways of teaching students? Answers to all of your questions to help you in your quest to become a better martial artist in this post! Here is a video I found about the first masters of the marital arts doing a demonstration.

Full Story »