Archive for November, 2009

I have been reading with interest when martial artists are equated with being a modern day warrior. Say you are walking through a dark alley on the way to your favorite watering hole. All of a sudden you hear a noise behind you and see a couple of menicaning thugs approaching fast from behind!

What would you do? Does the fact that you are a 2nd dan black belt mean that you have mentally prepared for this moment? What is a marital artist in the context of our society. Here is what used to be thought of as warriors from Versus TV.

Full Story »

As a well traveled woman, you feel safe at your beach front resort in one of Mexico’s beach cities. After a while you decide to take a walk to the cantina for some cervesas! The sun warms you in your bikini as you think about that gentleman that said he would meet you at the cantina today.

All of a sudden you notice some unsavory characters in your path through the alley shortcut. Being a worldly woman you realize that the time to act is before you are attacked. You warn them off as you take another path. The guys move quickly to intercept!

In this post I will examine self-defense as a concept in its own right! I mean many enlightened people will take kung fu or karate for the goal of self-defense, but really – how good are the martial arts for self-defense? I will explore one kung fu master, Bruce Lee, with his views about martial arts as they apply to fighting and oh yes – I will finish the story about this soon to be accosted woman in a foreign country.

Here is part of an interview with Bruce Lee to set the stage for this conversation. Martial arts are discussed at about 3:11 of this interview.

Full Story »

Just a quick update on tonights fight. Jose Aldo won decisively in the 2nd round. Brown looked strong but he did not have an answer for Aldo’s speed and was not able to take Jose down. Aldo kicked and punched Brown in his normal relaxed fasion. Jose took Mike down in the 2nd and then rained down unanswered punches to Mike’s head… took the W!

Wednesday, November 18, 2009 is when Mike Brown is defending his title against Jose Aldo. I’ve been watching both fighters recently and have been impressed by Brown’s title defenses and Aldo’s decisive wins.

Both fighters in my view  could walk away with the belt. Brown does well against pressure and may successfully defend against Aldo’s standup and ground onslaught but it should be a great fight.

By the way Tito Ortiz vs Forest Griffin is happening this Saturday and should get a mention. Its not that I am not excited about this bout but I have to snake it from the internet if I am to see any of it. This as most UFC bouts is – is a PPV event.  I think Brown vs Aldo is also PPV somewhere but I can still see it on Versus TV! Here is the preview of Brown vs Aldo.

Full Story »

I was reminded on the incredible power of our brain recently as a window in my bathroom fell open. Before I had a chance to think, my body had jumped into a fighting stance as a surge of adrenaline shot through my body and a growl escaped my lips. It was kind of funny but as this was happening I already knew what the affront to my serenity was – the window. But like it or not, I was as ready as my body could possibly be for whatever the external environment might throw at me. This I attribute to my brain’s intervention with my normal thought processes.

The brain at an instinctive level, does not understand the legal definition of self-defense or even care about self-defense, but rather it (the brain) is concerned with self-preservation! This post is not going to cover all facets of brain power like Ki, Chi, or the sixth sense as these concepts are ways of unifying the subconscious mind with the endeavors of the conscious mind. What I will try to cover in part, in this post, is how brain power can help us achieve seemingly superhuman feats! Here is a video I found that sets the stage for this discussion nicely.

Full Story »

This is just a quick note that I mentioned Blood of the Last Vampire in my Halloween Self Defense; Vampires post and I just watched it. Boy let me tell you this was a good martial arts flick. The girl in this movie was quite the swordswoman and there was an interesting plot while all of the great rippage happened.

I rented the movie from Netflix after I saw it was one of the martial arts movie choices.

Thats all for now – just wanted to do a quick follow up on the movie I mentioned in the Halloween post.

In case you missed it, one of the big fights happened Saturday, November 7, 2009 – Fedor Emelianenko versus Brett Rogers! The other big fights for me (as I only get free TV and I am too cheap to buy pay-per-view) was Cyborg vs Carano and Mir vs Lesnar (I saw this over the Internet).

Strikeforce is one of the more visible organizations. They used to have kickboxing and moved to MMA. Strikeforce took over the EliteXE and aired fights on Showtime. I like that they are still having some fights on CBS.

In this post I’ll highlight some videos (not sure how long they will stay up) and talk about this fight and the middleweight championship Sheilds vs Miller.

Full Story »