Martial Artists need to be honest with themselves.

People who do martial arts often need a reason to do what they do. The combat sports guy would say stuff about how MMA or boxing is the ultimate test of manhood, that it’s proven to be the best method of combat and thus they want to be strong. They will talk about the high

Franca, Fadda, Santana and the history the Gracie family did not want you to know about.

So when people think of Brazilian Jui-Jitsu they immediately think of the Gracie family. They think of Royce Gracie in the first UFC defeating bigger stronger men(Usually using footwork and distancing not taught in most BJJ academies today) along with the narrative of Matsuda Maeda teaching the Gracie family Jui-Jitsu, which they then refined and

Khabib and the cage: Why he would be MORE dominant in a ring.

Khabib is not a perfect person or even a perfect martial artist. He has areas he’s weak at, etc. Hell when I saw him fight Edson Barbosa, I thought the way he just plodded forward would get him countered against McGreggor. But when Khabib fought McGregor, he didn’t plod forward, he controlled the distance very

One of my biggest pet peeves about aging martial artists.

Lets talk about aging martial artists and strength. So relying on strength when trying to learn technique is not a good thing. Most people would say that. Now if the technique requires a level of strength(Like a high crotch) it still must be executed smoothly and with good body mechanics, the maximum levage. The fact

Speed is an expression of strength.

Many years ago I was talking to my senior in my karate classes. He’s got very fast hands. I remember mentioning that speed is actually an expression of strength, but he said emphatically it isn’t, it’s technique. We didn’t argue, we never got a chance to hash the discussion out. But he was almost(i literally

Combat training is perishable: The bright side and down side of change and evolution in a martial artist.

One problem in martial arts is people never evolve. They never try to change things to suit their own body or their students body, just repeating what sensei, sifu or coach taught them. Always doing the same thing. Now it certainty isn’t the worst thing to do. A boxing gym that did the same thing

Counter assault: How does it actually work? Badly organized musings.

I’ve been talking with Dillon Byer about models. And one thing without a doubt is the fact that learning a pre-conditioned response is far better than what is taught in many traditional and even western schools that teach self-defense and counter assault. The thing is, that too is a model. And the actual neuro-science behind

Feints and Fakes: What constitutes a good feint?

When talking about feints, the sport combat crew views it mostly as half completed strikes or movements at best, little twitches and movements at most. The RBSD crew often doesn’t see much use for feints. Both of them though, don’t seem to put much thought into what a feint is. Both of them just see

The difference between combat sports and street fighting isn’t big.

When it comes to awareness, legality and general strategy, sport fighting and street fighting are very different. But when it comes to fighting styles and even training methodology, they actually are not that different. So….let’s get started. Hopefully I don’t burn any bridges. YOU PROBABLY WON’T USE YOUR SPECIAL DEATH EYE POKE OR THROAT PUNCH

A rough rant about problems in Catch wrestling cultures.

Catch wrestlers seem more obsessed with being ‘pure’ and having a ‘real’ lineage than actually winning against other styles in all out grappling tournaments.And the few catch wrestlers that smash high level BJJ players are attacked for not being pure. Well forgive them for actually winning. Meanwhile BJJ for all it’s faults, is constantly evolving.