I don’t care how much muscle the other guy has, if you have speed, then you are going to win. If he throws a punch, you are fast enough to block or step out of the way. If you throw a punch, it is faster than his block.
Do you understand how important speed is? Yet, the sad fact is that nobody ever teaches speed. Nobody ever teaches you the specialized techniques or drills that result in your becoming able to move your bo Read the rest of this entry »
At some point while you were dutifully teaching classes for your instructor, I bet a few students and/or parents let you know that they preferred your classes to those of your instructor. At first, you thought they were just being polite, but then you began to notice things your instructor did that you would not do ‘if it were your school.’
You enjoyed the attention and the rewards that came from teaching martial arts Read the rest of this entry »
While Asian Martial Arts have become very popular in the western world, many scientific circles do not take the study of the Martial Arts seriously as a topic of research. In some cases, they may suppose that current research efforts in aerobic and anaerobic exercise are sufficient. In other cases, they may believe that there is nothing to be gained by researching such an esoteric area, or that the research is difficult or impos Read the rest of this entry »
The Benefits of Tai Chi and Internal Martial Arts for Self-defense: Part 1 of 2
Internal Martial arts such as Tai Chi, or Ba Gua can be extremely effective for self defense if trained correctly. There are a few strategic principles in Chinese internal Martial Arts that can provide a tactical advantage in melee combat. I will outline them in the following sections: Body Alignment and Changing, Friction and Sens Read the rest of this entry »
Choosing the Best Martial Arts Style
For anyone who wants to learn a martial art, there is a lot to know in regards to the many different styles. Of course there is the question of finding the best martial art, which is a question a lot of people ask with so many martial arts styles to choose from, it can be very complicated to pick one to learn.
No matter what you may hear or what others have Read the rest of this entry »
When discussing self-defense training, we really need to be discussing more than just learning some tricks and techniques for dodging punches or escaping locks and holds. Why then, are most instructors content with stopping at, and most students satisfied with learning, self-defense in a vaccuum?
Well, I have my own beliefs, mostly involving the fact that most have never been in a real-world self-preservation situation wi Read the rest of this entry »
Kowloon Park acted as a military base during the time of the British occupation of the Kowloon peninsula during the 18th century. Then known as Whitfield Barracks, it was of mutual opinion that the Victoria Harbour of the peninsula was an ideal dock for vessels that visited the country for trade.
Kowloon Park is one of the largest parks in the area of Tsim Sha Tsui and was opened to the public June 1970 by Sir David Read the rest of this entry »
The name aikido is formed by the combination of three characters in the Japanese language. Ai, which means joining; ki, which means spirit and do, which means way. These three words actually summarize the essence of aikido as a form of martial art- the joining of the spirit to find the way. It was only in the period from 1930s to the 40s that the name aikido was officially accepted as the name of the martial arts form.
Read the rest of this entry »
The name aikido is formed by the combination of three characters in the Japanese language. Ai, which means joining; ki, which means spirit and do, which means way. These three words actually summarize the essence of aikido as a form of martial art— the joining of the spirit to find the way. It was only in the period from 1930s to the 40s that the name aikido was officially accepted as the name of the martial arts form.
I recently had a couple of students in my Wing Chun class ask for training in swordsmanship. Now, Kung Fu has a lot of weapons forms, but they tend to be stylized, rather than sparring formats. I originally thought of teaching them Kendo, on the Japanese forms, but having just taken some Tae Kwon Do classes of my own, I decided to look a little further afield. I found the Korean cognate of Kendo, called kumdo.