Another day and I find myself writing about some more malarkey from a “self-defense” master. I just got an email from the head of the system which I actually believe is borderline false-advertising (as in fraud). One way a lot of groups seek to add credibility is by aligning themselves with the military. This has [...]
I just got an email from a martial arts “master” who repeated, almost verbatim, one of my least favorite self-defense myths. I am not going to reply to him publicly, but I need to call this out. The myth goes something like this, “if you do technique x, and the guy has a gun you’re [...]
Given that we’re raising this question on a blog dedicated to self-defense, you can probably guess what my answer is. Yes, every person should study some form of self defense – even if you carry a gun, even if the police station is next door, even if you are as big as the Hulk. But, [...]
The Internet is full of haters. Chairborne warriors who grasp one or two principles and use them to shield their weak self esteem by bashing every chance they get. An area of the martial arts under constant attack these days is traditional martial arts. The criticisms of traditional martial arts tend to fall into a [...]
In the movies and on TV, bad guy gets punched in the face, he falls down unconscious. Most of the time our movie hero doesn’t even take the bad guy’s weapon, he just saunters off. Let’s be very clear: movies and TV are NOTHING like real life. Real life fights are brutal, sloppy, and full [...]
For the most part, this blog talks about physical self-defense. One of the things we strongly believe in is preparation. Part of preparation is gaining a realistic understanding of the risks to you and your family. One thing we’re all aware of is that the economy is really screwed up right now. Things are tough [...]
There are many reasons one could study a martial art: for sport, for exercise, to relax, build self discipline, or because you think the costumes are cool. All reasons are valid. In my experience, most people start training in martial arts because at least one of their goals is to learn how to defend themselves. [...]
After a recent fatal knife duel in Lewiston, police in Portland are reporting that two men are in the hospital after a knife fight in an apartment on Congress street. I still believe that knife on knife fights like this are fairly rare. They rarely come up in self defense situations – usually it is [...]
In self-defense, defensive tactics, or hand to hand combat – environment matters. Early in my life, as a traditional martial artist, I always trained in keiko-gi (training uniform). I would don a white canvas Japanese-style uniform, no shoes, and train on a hardwood floor. I would train with others dressed exactly like me. Link to [...]
Martial Arts photos from Flickr
