Archive for September, 2009

You’ve started to take karate lessons from your local school for some reason. Perhaps you have had a run in at the local pub or you have been mugged. Whatever the reason you have decided to learn how to defend yourself. You want to become the next Ninja Warrior! You do not want to be a MMA star but you just want that highly respected Black Belt.

You went with a reputable school that has been recommended by one of your buddies and have had your introductory lessons. The school is one of many that teach basics, self-defense techniques, katas and sparring. If you are really motivated you can do some semi or full contact sport karate tournaments later.

In this post I will focus on self-defense techniques, what they are, how long it takes to learn them well and do they work. I will also speak about beginning students with the goal of self defense and how realistic that is learning a traditional martial art. Here is a demonstration of some American Kenpo and Tracy’s Kenpo Karate techniques.

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When I used to fight tournaments and have to get into fights at the bar (in my capacity as the bouncer), my favorite punch was my counter or lunge punch! Imagine if you will, an attacker rushing you. He already has the advantage of speed and power (speed and mass equal power)! You have a split second to formulate a plan and put it into action! What do you do? Well the answer for me has often involved using my counter punch!

In this post I will compare and contrast reverse and right cross punches from Boxing, Muay Thai and Karate. I will note similarities and differences and how one might use one to their advantage. I will also relate  one instance where three counter punches helped me when I was attacked by six guys when I first started working at the bar. But first lets look at a boxing right cross.

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As I was growing up, one of the reasons I wanted to learn karate was because I was introduced to the concept of superheros watching cartoons and reading comic books. I was a fan of Superman, Flash, Spiderman, Batman & Robin as well as Wonder Woman and Captain America!

Comics helped me understand (as well as a child can) that there were bad guys in the world and if you had a super power – you could easily thwart any antagonistic attack! Later as I entered my teen years, I realized that Kato of the Green Hornet, Robin of Batman and Robin, and James West of the Wild, Wild West all knew karate! This seemed more attainable to me as I realized that super powers did not really exist.

In this post I will give a very superficial overview (of the youtube videos) of Comic-con but I am ashamed to say that even though I live in San Diego, I have not yet attended one of these wonderful events. Here is a Comic-con martial arts demo from 2006.

Get a real ninja costume for Halloween.

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