A martial arts friend and colleague of mine sent me an email yesterday to wish my happy Mother’s Day. He said, “This may seem weird, but I wanted to wish you a Happy Mother’s Day. Not sure if you think about it this way, but you are truly a mother to your dojo.” It was the nicest thing I heard all week.

Tags: martial arts instructor lifestyle

A few weeks ago, I was teaching a class in which I had students working on their boxing punches while moving forward and backward in a chasing/retreating drill.

In self-defense or live training exercises like sparring, it is rare that you would get to hit a completely static target unless you managed to stun or distract the person first. That’s why it’s important to practice target tracking and this drill covers one particular aspect of it. It allows you to practice striking while your target is moving backward or while you yourself are backing away for whatever reason. (more…)

There are a lot of different martial arts out there with a lot of different styles of hand positions that are used as their main fighting stances. The hand positions that are adopted are generally developed around the goals of the art. So in determining how you should hold your hands, you should keep this in mind. (more…)

Tags: fighting stance | hand position in guard

In my book, When the Fight Goes to the Ground, there are chapters detailing a variety of ways to defend against specific types of ground combat situations, from hold-downs and submissions to kicks to the head and knife attacks. We demonstrate each move in detail, which might lead one to believe that our goal is to provide a form of ground defense that is no more than a “if this, then that” type of prescriptive approach, when it is quite the contrary in reality. While I do go into detail about true self-defense being adaptive, and that the “techniques” I show for defending against various situations are only to serve as examples of the principles in action, it is difficult to make this point clear to readers. The less experienced are more likely to simply take the examples and practice them alone, rather than fully explore the principles behind them. (more…)

Tags: self-defense principles

If you read our blog regularly, you probably know that we are strong proponents of personal development in and through the martial arts. Learning self-defense and getting/staying fit are the main reasons most students join us, but the ones that stay over the long term usually find other less obvious benefits that seep into them over time through their training.  Today, we’re going to feature the top 10 articles related to personal development in and through the martial arts in the history of our site. Here they are below. Enjoy!

1. 3 Methods for Learning Martial Arts More Efficiently and Effectively.

2. Black Belt is Where the Real Learning Begins: Putting the Saying into Practice. (more…)

Tags: personal development

When practicing self-defense techniques in Jiu-jitsu, we often have to play the role of attacker so that our partner can play the role of defender (described in more detail in my post, The Importance of Role-playing in Martial Arts Training). In our dojo, our students are quite friendly with each other, and as a result, they sometimes have a tendency to take it easier on each other when playing the attacker role, particularly the newer students. This phenomenon was happening on the mats the other day.

A Side Headlock Gone Sideways

A number of my students were working on defenses against various types of headlocks. I noticed that many of them were struggling to get a feel for the technique. Something looked odd about the way a couple of them were doing it so I stepped in and had one of the students in question do the attack on me, in this particular case, it was a side headlock, so I could demonstrate the defense again for them. As I suspected, the student playing the attacker role was only taking on the position of the side headlock, but not really applying it with any intent. (more…)

Tags: role of the uke

Focus is an important skill to have, in the martial arts and in general life. When we are working on a particular task, having the ability to focus completely on it makes the difference between getting the job done efficiently or having it drag on as you wonder where the heck all the time has gone.

Many people take up a martial art for the mental benefits the training can bring, including focus. Part of the reason it develops focus is that one’s development as a martial artist is very much connected to how well people are able to focus on their training. This development comes naturally for many, and they reap the benefits it brings, including quicker progress and greater retention of what they are exposed to in class. (more…)

Tags: Focus

Since last year, I’ve been much more conscious about controlling the amount of refined sugar in my diet. There have been a lot of articles (like this one from CTV linking soda pop to 180 thousand deaths per year) and documentaries like Hungry for Change (Watch this one for sure!) that are unified in their message; we need to cut back! Last year, I wrote a blog post about ways to cut back refined sugar intake, but I sometimes find myself missing sweet treats for desserts. I recently found a delicious and healthy sweet treat that fills this need: chia seed pudding.

Chia seeds are really high in fibre and are considered one of the three “super seeds” along with flax and hemp hearts. They also have the wonderful quality of turning into a gelatinous paste when soaked in liquid, making them a supremely healthy base for a pudding. Because these recipes are so healthy, they can also make for good breakfasts (I particularly like the cinnamon raisin nut and berry based recipes for this purpose.) I have tailored a nice base recipe for the chia seed pudding, and have 7 different “flavour” modifications for different types of puddings, which I’ll share here. (more…)

Tags: chia seed pudding recipes | low sugar

A couple of years ago, I did some cross-training with Chris at a Filipino martial arts school in my area. We enjoyed it for a while, but our interest waned. This school’s teachings were largely based around practicing very set sinawali (patterns), which were fun at first, but we eventually felt that it wasn’t taking us any place new, that there was a flatness to the general approach to training.

Last month, I was given the opportunity to meet up and train with Filipino martial arts instructor Guro Mark Mikita. This man is no weekend warrior. He is a consummate martial artist who has dedicated his entire life to his training, having trained over 46 years, nearly every day, and for long bouts, he was putting as many hours into his training as most people do into their full time jobs. And it shows in the way he moves and teaches. Here is a photo of him (can you believe he is in his 50s?!?!)

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I recently received a copy of The Treasures of Bruce Lee: The Official Story of the Legendary Martial Artist to review. When I was first asked to review it, I was pretty excited as the book looked pretty cool. Splashed across the cover is Bruce Lee in flying form, with notes about how there are 5 posters and 15 rare facsimile documents and items of personal memorabilia.

I’m a casual Bruce Lee fan. Not a crazy nut, but I do own the box set, and I enjoy watching the fight scenes from the movies on occasion. This book is full of the usual iconic photos that most casual fans have already seen, or will remember from movies, as well as behind the scenes shots from filming & premiers. What I found new and enjoyable were the shots he had demonstrating techniques, and pictures from his classes when he was teaching.

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