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

WAIT! Catch wrestling used to be in the Olympics? WHAT!!!

I watched this video, and it makes many wonderful points. But if there is anything I learned from watching it, it’s that martial artists should never ever ever ever want their style to get into the Olympics if they still want it to have a combative focus. Most notable was the fact that when the

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

An example of how trends can cause a loss of skills.

Let’s start with an example. Unless it’s kyokushin, most karate styles are point sparring. They don’t throw kicks below the belt. Now if someone is scoring a point, what’s the harm in scoring with a low kick? Jesse Enkamp suspects that it’s because Savate was practiced in a ruleset similar to old school point sparring,

SLOPPY LIST: How Okinawan karate informs my kickboxing.

Punching to penetrate rather than to ‘pop’ People often talk about a ‘proper’ way to punch. Usually they say it must bounce or pop. The reason is such strikes are difficult to parry, they move fast, go into openings more easily and they deliver power that disperses quickly. This is especially seen in boxing, particularly

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

Strength and good body mechanics are the same thing.

No the title isn’t click bait. Depending on how you define what technique is, it’s not different from strength. If you define technique as collecting a bunch of moves and tricks to pull off, then technique and strength are different things. But that definition of technique only helps you in a limited fashion in combat.