Archive for the ‘Thoughts’ Category
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Into the void
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- February 16, 2009
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A good few years ago I did a tour of Italy with a group of other top martial artists. The tour lasted ten days or so and we did demonstrations all over. It was great fun and we got to make friends with some great guys. On the first day all the performers were doing [...]
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Green shoots?
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- February 5, 2009
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We’ve had an incredibly strong start to the year. Last weekend David Onuma won the European Brazilian Jiu jitsu championships at brown belt and Steve Payne also won the white belt competition. David also got bronze in the open weight. So a huge congratulations to them. At the club it’s the same thing, maybe it’s [...]
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No Yoda! Show Me the Money
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- August 17, 2008
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When I started martial arts forty years ago it had an esoteric oriental feel that was totally different to all the other sporting or physical activities out there at the time. It had a romance about it, a spiritual feel. When I first saw my first instructor Tatsuo Suzuki practicing I thought he looked incredible [...]
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It’s Just Fighting
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- August 17, 2008
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I had always had an idea in my mind of how a martial art should be but despite travelling the World never really found that model until I found Filipino martial arts. In a fantasy World I wanted an art that could in the best James bond or modesty blaise tradition despatch opponents with ease [...]
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Draw!
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- August 17, 2008
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There’s a lot of knife attacks happening on the street so it’s vital to be able to stop it before it starts. Knife fighting often starts from the point when the opponent draws his weapon. Some would say that it starts long before then and that you should either pre-empt your attacker or even better [...]
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Just Fighting
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- August 17, 2008
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A close friend who’s also a black belt Karate instructor texted me the other day. He was at the Karate national championships and was letting me know how he was doing. A team had asked him to join them so I advised him to be a ‘team whore’ and fight for whoever would have him. [...]
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Fear Is The Key
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- August 17, 2008
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Fear is a huge component in martial arts training yet one that very few people talk about. This can take many forms: fear of being hit, fear of looking bad, fear of knowing that you’re not that talented, and just wide ranging non-specific fear. Geoff Thompson has written about fear in his excellent books on [...]
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