Category: Arts

Martial arts is a physical activity that just about anybody can benefit from. But with peer pressure and unrealistic images in the media, martial arts can be extremely beneficial for girls in their formative years. Heres why.

1. Its sustained vigorous physical activity. Martial arts is a physical activity that involves the entire body. Kicking, punching, forms and sparring all require the entire body to complete the movement. Movements are done over and over again to practice them, and as a result, endurance and strength improve, which improves overall fitness. This boosts the metabolism, vital in assisting weight control.

2. It helps with flexibility. The benefits of improved flexibility may not be immediately apparent, but they do make a sincere impact on self esteem. Improved flexibilty can prevent injuries, facilitate circulation and most importantly, promote better posture. Research has found that better posture can have a positive effect on self esteem. This is due to the relationship between how we carry our bodies and how we feel. Think about it: how do you feel when you hunch over your shoulders and slouch? If you stand up straight with your spine aligned properly, it may improve your mood – and flexibility can help you do this.

3. It makes you stronger. Martial arts utilizes your own body weight to improve strength. This, in turn, helps to make you stronger and you can even incorporate some weightlifting to accelerate results. A strong mind equals a strong body!

4. It teaches you respect. In structured martial arts classes, particularly in more traditional styles like kung fu and karate, there is a clear distinction between teacher and student, as well amongst peers. You are taught discipline and humility. The entire class structure is based on respect for all, including yourself. You respect and are respected. This is beneficial for self esteem and self confidence.

5. It makes you view the world differently. The world isnt viewed on appearance alone. Rather than seeing things superficially and judging them by their looks only, an appreciation for what others do and say is developed. Respect is based on the merit of anothers actions, and this alters your world view.

Each of these points shouldnt be taken alone. They are intimately related to one another. While there are several other benefits of taking martial arts, these five points are perhaps the most important for a girl developing in this society.

All of us have seen those amazing feats of mind over matter, where a martial artist is breaking a stack of bricks as tall as he is. Most of us assume that he’s made of something different than we, super human perhaps. And while it may be true he has a higher tolerance for pain than many, it isn’t true that these skills are natural or in bred. They can be achieved by anyone willing to put the time in.

So exactly how does a person go from ordinary to indestructible? The key lies in hand conditioning. Hand conditioning is the secret tool used in many martial arts to prepare the body for very high impact and for combat. It conditions the bone and the nerves to withstand great trauma without sustaining injury. But it must be trained gradually and methodically if great gains are to be made.

Hand conditioning has two physiological consequences. The first is a deadening of the nerves. Pounding bone on a hard object repeatedly eventually kills the feeling in that part of the body. So when expert breakers claim to have no pain during a break that is why. They can’t feel anything but pressure. The second change that occurs is actually a strengthening of the bone itself. When bone is cracked your body released calcium to that region which later hardens and becomes new bone. This often results in big thick fat knuckles, the trademark of a conditioned striker.

So for those interested, what is the best way to train for this sort of extreme skill? Hit stuff, plain and simple. Old school Karate practitioners would smash their knuckles with a hammer and then punch a wall until they passed out. This would turn the hand into more of a mangled club, good for little else but smashing. But this is unnecessary. Most hard core breakers take a long term and dedicated approach with a little each day mentality.

If you’re learning to strike with the fore fist, or the first two knuckles, you might start with lightly punching wood a hundred times a day or so. Go until the sting is too much to bear, rest, and repeat. Eventually your hands will harden and the nerves will deaden. You’ll know when its time to move onto brick or steal, a surface that won’t be so forgiving. But keep in mind, in training; you don’t need to be using great force. Keep relaxed and go for repetition.

This training is not recommended for everyone, but if this is your art and you’re dedicated, you can make great gains in just a few months. A few minutes a day will result in a rock hard punch after just a few months. But if anything feels off consult a doctor and use common sense.

Sparring is something that all martial arts classes utilize. There are various combat sports, such as boxing and wrestling that use sparring as well. It is a very useful tool, aiding students become better by having their combatting techniques as well as additional skills they have studied. By practicing against other individuals, students learn the system quicker and become more accomplished at performing the methods rapidly as well as effectively.

If you are studying martial arts in a dojo, you ‘ll discover sparring to be extremely fantastic as well as useful to your instruction. The instructors are going to be overlooking proceedings as well as guiding students, making sure that no one becomes hurt. Students generally apply safety equipment, including headgear, to make certain the sparring session is safe throughout practice.

Depending on the talent level and the particular martial art class you are attending, you might end up sparring without protective gear. When students get to a sophisticated stage and are extremely skilled they will not normally want protective equipment. At this phase, their sparring abilities as well as approaches are such that they can easily go a few rounds by having more skilled students as well as not make any detrimental contact at all.

Martial arts such as Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, that focus on grappling, make substantial usage of sparring, as it is needed to correctly execute the procedures against a resisting opponent. Martial arts that focus mainly on grappling use joint locks as well as submission methods, which will certainly desire to be extensively practiced before they can be utilized effectively during a rivalry or in a self defense situation.

Throughout sparring, students go back as well as forth, remaining competitive with each additional and testing talents. Timing of the rounds will differ, although most last several minutes. Students will even obtain guidance as well as insight from their instructors to allow them recognize how they are doing and if they need to alter just about anything. This also provides instructors a prospect to see simply exactly how well you are progressing in instruction as well as what areas you want to function on.

In some cases, sparring can easily be done by yourself, without anybody else working by having you; shadow boxing! If you are sparring by yourself, you might utilize equipment such as punching bags, tackling dummies, or other forms of hardware that will certainly help you by having the martial art. The foam or rubber dummies are most frequently utilized by having grappling approaches or for ground as well as pound drilling, as they render the opponent that you are attempting to pummel into entry.

Sparring is an impressive much to practice the skills you have learned against hardware or other students. Students are fun to spar against, specifically if they are at a greater level of skill than you. You can easily use sparring to your benefit, studying what others do as well as how they react to the movements and approaches. The longer you spar as well as practice your moves – the better you will certainly get in the instruction, speed as well as the execution of the skills. Martial Arts classes are unfinished without this excellent instruction device.

Up until 30 years ago, JUDO was the martial art. Then with the introduction of the more mysterious martial arts with more of a “killing” edge to them this coupled with the focus of the USJF/USJI (the leading Judo organizations in the US and the world) focus on Olympic competition and the simple fact that training in judo is painful and to this day, very difficult to get a black belt rank in it, especially if you are in a competitive area. I could probably write another 5 pages on this, but I will stay on point.

During these years EVERY major metropolitan Police Department had a Judo club. Even countries like Thailand taught Judo to their police force, NOT Muay Thai. I personally train a number of law enforcement officers and I have seen the results first hand. So why is Judo the martial art for law enforcement?

The primary purpose of non-lethal force with law enforcement is to get your target to comply. What is the most realistic way of getting someone to do something you don’t want to with out seriously damaging them? How can you get someone from their feet to the ground as quickly as possible? How do you know what its going to be like for real? The answer is JUDO.

First off, when most people “resist” arrest, it’s an ego thing. They are looking to be restrain, or they don’t want to look like a punk and go quietly. The advantage the cop has is that the suspect knows that the officer is not trying to kill him or her. I realize this is a disadvantage in some situations, but that’s what the stuff @ www.thetruthaboutselfdefense.com is for.

First, the object of judo is to throw the opponent from his feet to his back. Think about the majority of the altercations policemen get in, most of the time the skel is just kind of testing the officer. Once the suspect feels that the officer is going to be a tough customer, he’ll comply. Nothing drives this point home better than taking someone from their feet to their ass with one shot. Usually, when the guy is on the ground, he’ll take his medicine, since he knows the cop really isn’t going to kill him, a lot of time, that’s all it takes. Plus, to witnesses, it just looks like you pushed or pulled him over; mean while, they hit the deck HARD. Just ask my friend who threw guys one night with sasae tsuri komi ashi (lifting, pulling, ankle throw). These guys were fighting each other, and the guys on the scene had to get them to stop. So, he got in the fray and tossed ’em all. Well, I guess they felt that getting up and fighting again wasn’t that much of a priority.

A popular argument is that most fights go to the ground. This may be true, but most people don’t know what they are doing. Most people don’t study judo.

One of the primary components of judo is being able to stay on your feet. You develop this skill as a by-product of the training. Just gaining the ability to stay on your feet is worth the price of admission. Especially when you are in a ‘scrum’ maintaining your balance is a primary concern.

The fact is, there is not better way to practice imposing your will on someone who is non compliant. Nothing gives you greater confidence than throwing a man that has 100 pounds on you. Nothing. Especially when that guy doesn’t want to be thrown.

Another important component is the pinning and submissions of judo. To secure a full point in judo you need to hold him on his back for 25 seconds. Being able to hold a man down until the cavalry arrives will save your life. Plus, while this guy struggles, you are just squeezing the life out of him. Trust me, when it comes time for you to put the cuffs on him, he’ll be as compliant as a wet noodle.

Strangles and arm-bars, yep, Judo has them too. If you have to put someone “out of commission” and you really want to know how to strangle someone who doesn’t want to be strangled, you’ve come to the right place. When they wake up, you will have them cuffed and ready to go. (Uh-oh, the choke hold alarm! Hey, I am not talking about liability; I am just trying to save your life).

Lastly the overall toughening and body conditioning is second to none. If you can “randori” for 30 minutes, non- stop – you’re in really good shape. So why aren’t some many people, knocking down the doors of every Judo club. Because it’s hard work and it hurts. There’s no junior black belt, student of the month. Your gi is white and the work is hard. No secrets, just hard work.

The irony and the tragedy: the guys who train with me are only a few. Most of the guys interested in this type of training are SWAT or tactical guys. Unfortunately, these guys are the least likely to get in a roll around. That’s the irony. The tragedy is the guys who are most likely to need good hand to hand fighting skills are the patrolmen doing car stops, domestic violence; and all of the first response details. By the time the SWAT shows up, the situation is intense and the reality of a hand to hand confrontation is highly unlikely if not damned near impossible.

MartialArts | Martial arts instruction | Self Defense

That a Martial Arts Tattoo could indicate who would win an MMA match is nothing short of surprising. Yet, it seems to be the fact. To be sure, this is a quite unscientific survey, yet the results seem to be fairly predictable.

The project first began a couple of weeks ago, when this martial artist/writer was spending an exciting night perched in front of the tube. Exciting, because it was man to man contests of pure savagery: the mayhem and mania of grown men pounding one another to bloody pulps. At some point during these fights the question was born: do martial artists with tattoos adorning their bodies win more, or lose more?

A balance sheet was kept, results were tallied, and the results gave a decided advantage to the uninked ones being more victorious. Mind you, there was some confusion to be sorted out. After all, the bodies being tallied had to be compared for tattoos.

Two fighters had designs swirling across their torsos. Which one used more ink? Which artwork covered more flesh?

Regardless of proportions of ink and flesh, the martial arts fighters with less ink won more times than their inkier brethren. Actual statistics were between 70 and 80 per cent. These statistics held true for later tabulations, actually leaning even more in favor of the unmarked Mixed Martial Artists.

One factor that was of interest, but proved too difficult to keep track of was whether the type of tattoo had any effect on the proportions. The speed of the matches, the motion of the fighters, it was difficult to tell whether the contestants had a Karate tattoo, or a Bruce Lee Tattoo. The only specific tat noticed by this author was in conjunction with a victory by a Latin fighter with Heysoos emblazoned across his body.

Comes the question: why would a tattoo make a difference in a fight? Various theories were considered, theories having to do with the amount of ink having an adverse effect on the ‘breathing’ of the body. Or whether ink could have an effect on the musculature under the skin.

In the end, no theory held for all the facts, one could only reach the conclusion that fighters who cared more about image were not as concerned with punching power. That fighters who cared about how they looked, were not as serious about building the unique fighting willpower that is crucial to the successful gladiator. That a Martial Arts tattoo could very well weaken the fighting spirit of a man.