Archive for the 'Self-defense' Category

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.

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This is the time of year to beware! Monsters and goblins are soon going to be roaming our streets. When I was a child I remember watching the scary “Creature Features” on TV featuring the werewolf, the mummy and swamp thing but one of the most scary was Count Dracula!

Now that I have grown up I am no longer scared of the dark or any creatures that might be lying in wait because I learned karate! In this post I will try and answer the question will your martial art protect you from vampires?

Do vampires really exist today? I will even entertain some of hollywood’s notions of vampires in some cool flicks but most of all I would like your little goblins to have some good skills in case a “vampire” attacks them for their candy! Here is a scene from Blade Trinity where Jessica Biel is seemingly about to become a victim of vampires!

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According to a recent Justice Department report on ABC News, “1 million gang members belonging to more than 20,000 gangs were criminally active within all 50 states and the District of Columbia as of September 2008.”

That is a scary statistic that I think means that gangs outnumber our police in many cities. In this post I will try to take on a small slice of a huge problem in America (and probably the world over), is peace or violence a choice? If it is (and more to purview of this blog), how can one structure their lives to live the kind of life they want? If one wants a peaceful life, is there a martial arts solution?

Most people have already seen this shocking video about an honor student being beaten and killed in Chicago but I thought I’d open with a news story about this event to put these questions in the proper context of importance.

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I remember in the fifth grade, some kids were picking on me. I started coming home from school with some bruises and my mom started questioning me. I told her what was going on and she had my dad talk to me.

I faced what so many children in the world face every day – bullies! I was a nice enough kid and had no idea why someone wanted to pick on me. I’ll tell you later how I came out of my shell but in this post I found one heart warming story about some children from India.

It seems that kids get bullied there a lot but some people are giving girls the tools to fight back! Girls have a good chance to fight back against boys on an even playing field (they are just as strong) until their teen years! In this post I will highlight how a self-defense class can even up girl’s chances against bullies. Here is one video I found.

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Have you noticed the amount of martial arts related videos that do not seem to be related to fighting? I won’t show the extreme examples here but if you have been on youtube, you can find a lot of videos of bikini clad women demonstrating karate moves.

Now I do not believe that is necessarily a problem because what if it is nice day out and the girls live in a warm climate? Who am I to say how one should practice their martial art? That being said, I do think the demonstrators in the videos ought to actually know some martial arts!

In this post we will look at how sex appeal might help or hurt overall martial arts. First I’d like to show one funny video I found of how the presence of women in the dojo might seemingly affect some males. 

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I was happy to hear that Neil Martin of Urban Samurai had created a e-Book entitled, “Street Smart” that dealt with common self-defense issues! I have had to chance to review this book and I will give it a review in this post.

First off the title is aptly named, “Street Smart” because Mr. Martin is trying to make the connection that not all self-defense situations have to happen. Often times the decisions one makes in his or her own life can contribute to one’s safety! For instance how important is it to take the short-cut through a bad part of town? Neil  injects lots of good common sense into this book.

I will go over some of the many points  of this book for your consideration in this post. At the end I will offer my opinion of the usefulness of this work for students of the martial arts.

Cover of Street Smart, displayed under Fair Use

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I suppose that I have one advantage over most law-abiding citizens of nations – I have worked on the fringe as a bouncer! What does working the on the fringe mean? Well that means in any county, city or other form of municipality – the authorities do not want to over budget their resources (read man/woman power – jails – courts) to any one business.

Well in America, if you want to play fast and loose with normal laws – you become a bounty hunter (laws of normal search and seizure do not apply). If you want to have various municipalities tolerate your fights – you become a bouncer!

In this post I will review some of the common issue facing these folk that want to make the easy money (supposedly) by watching an establishment as a bouncer!  I will also relate some true life stories of my life as a bouncer and why you should tell your children not to travel my path. I’ll open with this Danzig song entitled, “Mother” for how I really feel about bouncing and I will then relate some stories and video about the act of balancing called bouncing. Also I will speak about a city’ s role in law enforcement at bars and regarding specifically bouncers! Here is how I really feel about bouncing:

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I have a recurring dream where I am fighting for my life and I come up against this big guy that is running at me. In my dream I think, cool, I’ll just hit him in his bread basket or nose and take him out! You know in real life, if someone is running at you – this is one of the easiest kind of fighters to beat! Just step off and nail the SOB!

Well in my dream I would hit the guy, kick the guy and nothing happens! It got me thinking about real life – what if this really happened!? In this article I will talk a little strategy and how to overcome a seemingly invincible behemoth! I will also look at a video of one guy that was totally impervious to pain as well as relate some stories from my life. Here is a quick into video from Moonraker and how James Bond dealt with this.

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