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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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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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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Say you are on  the deck of a star ship, away from your home planet for the first time and you need to blow off some steam with your buddies. Why not stop in at the intergalactic watering hole? But what do you do if you find a creature hankering for a rumble? That is the subject of this post – what you can do to survive the bar fight – anywhere in the universe!

I come to you as a quasi expert in so much as anyone can be an expert because in my youth I was a doorman at a fairly rough bar. I talked my way out of a fight at least every other night in my capacity as a doorman because most people just want to be dealt with respectably. I will relate a few stories about some altercations that I could not avoid and some that I handled poorly (yes I too was sucked into some meaningless tussles). But first watch this excellent video on how to avoid a fight (at least for a little while)!

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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.

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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.

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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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