2011 Martial Arts Gear Review
January 4, 2011 by Scott Polderman
Filed under Fitness
When you’re thinking of martial arts gear you have a million products available. Some of these items are a waste of money and others are good for enhancing your skills. The majority of of the retailers online are just trying to sell the latest and greatest not what’s right for you. In this article I will review just a few items and explain why you should buy them.
Get Leather not Vinyl- Nearly every piece of equipment will come in either vinyl or leather and I can tell you from personal experience, choose the leather. This is one time in which you most certainly get what you pay for. Leather holds up to the abuse better and will generally out last the vinyl version by 3 to 1. I have found that most vinyl products will begin to wear out and tear easily. The harder you strike, the more you need the leather to take the impact.
Buy Adidas- Adidas is truly one of those companies that has invested a lot of time and money in researching the martial arts and they get it! Their equipment is top quality and once again it lasts a very long time. I have been in the martial arts for over 26 years and I will tell you from experience, your Adidas lasts.
Excellent Mouthpiece- This is one item I suggest you spend extra money on, you will be glad you did. The standard mouthpiece at your local sports store will probably be fine if your not doing any contact.
Listen To The Experts- The best way to know how good a piece of equipment works is to ask someone who has tried it. This can be your best reference for learning the caliber of the item and just how it will strengthen your skills.
With regards to improving your skills you don’t need a lot of martial arts gear, but you do need to work hard. The more you workout your techniques the better you will get. Absolutely nothing can replace working hard and sweat in terms of accomplishing your goals. Good luck with your training and continue to practice each day.
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Online Martial Arts Upsets Society…Something is About to Happen!
Consider what the boy at the computer is really doing. He is engaged in storing up energy. Yes, there is a certain parasitic back and forth in this energy thing, but he is getting more than he is giving.
The watching of the fight causes muscles to twitch, installs synaptic responses that enervate the boy. The exhilaration of winning and losing causes the whole nervous system to move into a state of excitation. Most important, the images imprinted on the brain are an very personal tutorial.
Why do you think they call it programming? The programming is not in the computer, except in the driest of senses. The real programming is happening in the boy.
Excessive knowledge is being tamped into his brain. He starts to know about all manner of subjects, and his education explodes. He begins to mull over such things as ninjitsu, MMA, Tai Chi Chuan, and more.
The visions of Gung Fu movements to be implemented becomes instilled in him. Within his psyche are the seeds to handle all manner of confrontation, physical and otherwise. The next cycle of humanity is about to open its eyes.
This has already happened in history. It happened when mankind swarmed into the cities during the industrial revolution. When mankind released his energy at the end of that industrial upheaval the world was changed.
It happened when mankind discovered television sets, and then exploded into the world with all manner of new concepts. It happened when mankind invented computers, and the world became a virtual conception of unlimited design. The same upheaval of energy and experience is about to happen with online martial arts, when the boy pushes back his chair and goes to explore what he has learned…life will never be the same.
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Is Classical Martial Arts Better Than MMA?
Now, obviously, we are going to have a difference of opinion, the main thing is can we come up with some facts, or at least opinions so well grounded, that belief in one system is superior to another? I believe it is possible.
First, there is sport v art. In a sport one fights an opponent. In an art, one is in conflict, and thus attempting to resolve conflict, with oneself.
Second, there is the question of control. In a classical art one is attempting to control ones body, ones opponent, and ones own spirit. In MMA one is all too often just attempting to knock somebody’s face in.
Thus far, the edge seems to be headed in the classical direction. In attempting to control ones own self there is a high ground, after all. This is not to say, however, that the MMA school of thought does not have considerable attributes and qualities.
The main consideration, UFC stylists would argue, is whether an art works in the dark alley, and in this they would appear to posssess an edge. After all, the face smashing, body twisting, leg breaks that one perceives in the octagon is definitely useful for self defence. This writer, however, is not completely convinced of the argument.
In the ring rules are present. No fingers to the eyes, strikes to the coconuts, small joint twisting, punching the back of the skull, and so on. These are the techniques that a classical practitioner might veer towards in a street encounter.
Thus, in the final tally, while experience with violence, such as one might find in the MMA ring, has a definite edge, this writer is still going to stick with the classical. After all, in traditional martial arts one learns how to fight without getting mugged, and there are lessons to be learned outside of violence, and which can actually de-escalate conflicts. Choose which you wish, be true to your choice, both classical martial arts and MMA have much to offer.
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Get Extreme Power and Speed With Your Roundhouse Kick
December 4, 2010 by Scott Polderman
Filed under Fitness
The roundhouse kick is one of the most effective kicks you could execute if performed correctly. This kick is common in Taekwondo, Karate, Combat training, MMA, and many other styles. If you would like to create power and speed there are several details you must know.
Step one shall be to study the basics of this kick. Without having the basic principles, adding power will only result in your injury and not the other fighter. You must first raise your kicking leg, pivot on your standing leg, rotate your hips, and extend your kicking leg. To perform this kick you have to see it on video, I would recommend that you simply visit BlackBeltSite on the web to get a better description or hit one of the links at the conclusion of this article.
After you get the principles down, it’s the perfect time to work on hitting a target. I propose that you start by striking a kicking bag lightly and build-up power as your entire body and foot get used to it. Make sure that you are rotating your hips and your foot on the base leg whenever you strike the bag. If you don’t rotate the base foot you can hurt your knee!
I recommend that you simply throw 10 roundhouse with each leg on the heavy bag, rest for 1 minute, and repeat. For the very best results, begin with 3 sets and progress up from there. After your feet toughen up and get used to striking the bag, 5-10 sets, three times per week will generate devastating power with your roundhouse kick.
Our next goal is to work on the speed of the roundhouse kick given that we’ve got a power training curriculum in position. Timing drills work the best for creating explosive speed, and there are numerous different ways to work your timing. If you’ve got a partner, I would recommend one of you hold a typical hand target as the other is doing kicks. Have the holder in fighting position ready to extend his hand out with the target, so the kicker can strike. This exercise will really help you create lightning quick roundhouse kicks in a hurry. By doing what’s called “broken rhythm” or kicking drills where the kicker doesn’t know when the target shall be held out, you’ll develop explosive speed.
Don’t rush, don’t start too fast, and practice these drills regularly and you will be shocked at the difference in your roundhouse kick. The primary manner in which students get injured is simply by overtraining and pushing their body to early and too quickly. Take your time, martial arts training is actually a marathon, not a sprint.
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Uncovering The True Evolution Of Real Taekwondo Styles
First, the original kwans, the Song Moo Kwan, Moo Duk Kwan, Kwon Bop, and all the others, were predominately Karate. Most of the fellows who put these arts together studied with Gichin Funakoshi during the forties. The rest studied with his students or asssociates.
Thus, the first schools were karate, plain and simple and not negotiable. Korea gaining independence, however, and nationalism rising, taekwondo was invented by General Choi Hong Hi. Thus, much of Japanese Karate was tossed out, altered, and taekwondo began its various evolutions.
There are several taekwondo methods, and several evolutions of forms. Most of them are versions of simple karate basics, with concentration on kicking. One should not hold one art as better than another, and such statements as my Taekwondo is the Deadliest Martial Art, or my Taekwondo is the Best Martial Art should be withheld. The individual arts are pieces of the whole puzzle, and the serious student will study all the styles, do all the forms, and decide for himself which are best.
That said, one should branch into a study of Hapkido. Hapkido is a put together by a fellow who is supposed to have trained in Daito ryu Aiki jujitsu. There is some confusion on the exact experiences of the founder, but the art is proving valuable. It is lasting, and people are learning their lessons, but one does need to go into a study of it with awareness.
After Hapkido there are the original Korean Martial Arts. These would be such arts as Taekgyeon and Subak. Taekgyeon, and there is some variation on this spelling, eventually translated into Hwarangdo. While Hwarangdo borrowed the name, there does seem to be some meat to the art.
Subak is one of the ancient Korean arts taught before the Japanese outlawed martial arts study in Korea. It is an excellent style of drilling and training and throwing an attacker. Unfortunately, it may be difficult to find a sensei in this style, but it is still worth exploring.
So, the advice here is that one start off with the simple variations of Choi Hong Hi, and travel through the various groups and styles to find what is best for you. After that, one should explore original karate forms and techniques, to better explore the origins of TKD, and then begin a sojourn through Hapkido, and Hwarangdo, and, if one is lucky, Subak. While this suggestion of study may seem time consuming, it is the only way to get to the the original secrets of Real Taekwondo Styles.
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Where Did The Martial Arts Come From?
As one might expect, I was quite surprised by my co-workers viewpoint, the Philippines were famous for their martial arts, and so I tracked him down and queried him further. “Why do you think the martial arts are so bad?” I asked. This is the anecdote he told me.
“One day I decide I need know martial arts, so I go outside and hit tree. I chop like so (he did a downward chop, as if hammering down on somebody’s forehead), and a I chop and I chop. I do this karate two hour a day for two year.
“One weekend my neighbor have crazy party, and three in morning I go ask him to turn music down. He laugh at me, so I karate him. I chop his face and he turn upside down, so I go home and worry I kill him…that why Karate bad!”
I didn’t l reveal my grin, because he was serious, he really thought that karate was bad, and didn’t understand that his bizarre method of training, and his own lack of control, might have something to do with the art ‘being bad.’ But his story led me to wonder where and how the martial arts had been invented. I mean, the fighting disciplines are as old as the world’s second oldest profession, so how did they come about?
They came into being because somebody wanted to take something away from somebody, and they came from somebody wanting to stop somebody from taking something away from him. This is the same as lawyerism, but applied to the actual hit and punch that occurs when politics breaks down. Eventually, the idea of taking something away from somebody, or protecting your property from somebody reached the levels of armies and weapons of mass destruction.
The idea that what you have belongs to me, and I don’t have to pay you no stinkin’ money…that is where the martial arts came from. And people train to war, and steal money and property and wives and whatever else they covet. And, oddly, as my previous words indicate, the solution to this avarice and misbegotten art is…in the study of the true art.
You practice the art to be able to protect yourself, and in that practice you discover the truth of yourself…you realize your self worth, and the idea that you are honorable and suddenly you don’t have to fear others, or that they might take from you. On the day that every person on earth practices the martial arts immorality and war stop, and on that day everybody will know why the martial arts were invented. They come from inside, from the spirit within, from the honor that pulses with every beat of your heart and every breath you expel.
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Quicker Reaction Time Through Traditional Martial Arts Practice
But to have a body is to have reaction time. If you conduct your self defense through a body then you have to have the time it takes to make that body work. It’s going to exist no matter what you do.
Unless, of course, you see what is happening before it happens and move with it. Or, better yet, move before it can even occur. You simply watch what is going to happen and insert your body into the desired place and time.
Training in Martial Arts techniques is going to help you do this. You create a plan, and you carry out the plan. Eventually, all actions can be predicted, eventually this carries into life, and life becomes something you can predict.
Of course, those that don’t believe this have there own way. A boxer or MMA specialist trains his body to react, but the other guy is also training his body to react, so what you have is two virtual robots bashing their bodies together, and less awareness. This is not shortening reaction time, it is increasing it, once you have been bashed enough times.
You have to be willing to face yourself and ask the question, what is reaction time, if you are going to to undo it. You are acting after something. But what?
Well, after reality has already occurred. That’s right, you are making your body do something because of something that has already happened, and thus you are already late, and thus you are a victim. You have to be a victim if you follow this path of muscle memorization, acting after something has happened means you are moving after somebody has already acted.
If you don’t want to be the victim, you have to seek out methods which do not have muscle memorization, and which short circuit reaction time. While classical martial arts practice (if you can find a pure school, and an instructor who knows what he is doing) doesn’t provide the glory, and sometimes seem a bit confusing, the fact of the matter is that they have been expressly designed to get rid of reaction times. Reality fighting methods may draw in the crowds, you will gain faster reaction time through traditional Martial Arts training.
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When It Comes To A Martial Arts Bible Several Books Have To Be Considered
The first book to be considered would be Karate Do Kyohan: The Master Text, by Gichin Funakoshi. The reason this book has to be considered is because it was the first to really offer a comprehensive look at the eastern fighting disciplines. Of course, it is slanted towards Karate, and it offers techniques and forms without real explanation, but it is a good book.
The next book to land in America with impact was the George Mattson book on Uechi Ryu. This was a huge read, offered hows and whys, and even went into some of the legends and real possibilities of the arts. While it was of more depth than Funakoshi’s epic, again, it didn’t cover grappling or throwing potentials.
Filling the space left by the first two books, and through the use of some of the most beautiful martial arts concepts ever inked, is Aikido and the Dynamic Sphere. While it goes too far in the opposite direction, not being concerned with any of the force arts, it is still a work head and shoulders above nearly all others. The book was scribbled and inked by Oliver Ratti and Adele Westbrook.
The next book on our list is Yang Family Secret Transmissions. This book is weak on form and technique, but absolutely amazing on presentation of concept. The trick is to be able to extrapolate these concepts to all arts and make them work.
One of the lesser known Martial Arts books is Taiki-ken. While the title translates as Japanese for Tai Chi Chuan, it deals more with Hsing I. Interestingly, while this book says little, it imparts huge, and it is one of those rare gems that a student must be ready for, or it will likely make no sense.
Last on the list, and the one that resides in relative obscurity, is The Master Instructor Course. It is a book, and it is accompanied by two videos which detail exactly what the author is saying. Hard or soft, intrinsic or external, striking or throwing, the author explains all, and it is an enlightenment for any who read it.
In summation, there will likely be some discussion as to what is necessary for a book to be considered a martial arts bible. Still, the writings on this list are crucial to the eastern fighting arts, and well worth the read. Of course, bible or not, all are of little value in the hands of studetns who are not willing to read, to think, and to put to work through diligent training.
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Three Martial Arts Dirty Tricks You Can Win A Life And Death Street Fight With
It’s not really much of a dirty tactic in these times, at least not as much as when I was in high school, but a good, swift kick to the peaches can win a back alley brawl quicker than fast. It doesn’t require a lot of martial arts training to do this, and it will distract the thug, and maybe even end the fight. When he rushes towards you do a front kick, or simply bring the leg up and let him run into your foot, and the fight is completed.
One important item you should understand, dirty fight or not, is to not take your eyes off his. If you launch a snap kick to his silly sacks, watch his eyes, and be willing to change tactics as you must. You will find that this eyeball thing can really change the fight.
For example, as you run at him throw something in his eyes. Heck, you can even spit at his eyes, and if you can make those lids flicker, you have just increased the odds of you living and him going down for the count. Even a quick flick of the fingers, an intention to make him think you are going for the eyes, might turn the tide in your favor.
Now, let’s say the fight is hot and heavy, and you have to do something or you are going to lose. Something you won’t learn in a polite training hall, and especially not in the MMA arena, or the UFC octagon, is to go after his fingers. One of the first things we were taught, back when I was first learning freestyle, was to use a snappy backfist to his open fingers as you close the distance.
If you can make him say ow, or even damage his fingers, you’ve got an edge. Make him blink, or make it so he can’t close a fist, or use his hands to grab, and you’ve essentially destroyed his weapons. The idea here is to win the fight, to walk away from the mugging, and to leave him with a better idea of how to behave in polite society.
Now, in closing, I know these tricks aren’t much, but they are an edge. If you want more than an edge, if you want a fighting chance, you really should find and concentrate on learning Martial Arts Techniques. Heck, a little time having a blast in the dojo, and you’re going to have Karate power, or Kung Fu power, or Kenpo Power, or Taekwondo Power, or whatever kind of power you want, and whether you use martial arts dirty tricks or not, you’re going to win the street fight.
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True Martial Arts Power Starts With Building Ideal Muscles
The purpose of a muscle is to to pull, and thus to make a limb or body part move in a specific direction, or become tense for some purpose (impact). Thus, when somebody builds his biceps so people will think he has ‘big guns,’ he is reducing his punching power. Punching power comes from building the muscles on the other side of the arm, the triceps, which cause the limb to extend, which is where you’ll find a punch.
The point is to figure out which muscle, or set of muscles, results in what action, and then to isolate and work those specific muscles. Want hard punches? Then do a slow strike and examine the workings of your arm and body.
Figure out which muscles result in the extension of the arm, which muscles support the impact of the arm, and so on. This will enable you to develop specific exercises which will cause you power in the punching muscles…which will give you harder punches.
If you want to really gain some punching power, try doing ‘punch ups.’ These are push ups where you don’t go all the way to the ground, you only go down six inches, then up. This isolates and builds the exact muscles which come in to play in a knock out punch.
Yes, you should work other muscles, explore other variations of push ups, but concentrate a bit of your work out on punch ups and you will shortly be amazed at your growing ability to knock somebody all the way down. You should explore this concept for places where you will get hit. By this I mean some sort of wrestler’s bridge so you’ll have a strong neck, or some sort of crunches for when you get hit in the belly, and so on.
Now, the other thing you should be concentrating on is endurance. By this I mean you shouldn’t be growing a large, bulky muscle, for that weighs more, runs out of juice sooner, and is more awkward to move around. Instead, you should be growing dense muscles, muscles that are leaner and not fatter.
To do this you should reduce the weight you are working with (or just go to body calisthenics, which is my personal favorite) and focus on how long you can do the exercise. Try for hundreds of deep squats that take 3-4 seconds to complete (build the number slowly to avoid injury), or build up the number of pulls ups you can do into the hundreds and hundreds. I’ll write more on this subject, but for now, this should give you a good idea on how to change your work out so that you have maximum body endurance, the potential for lightening quick motions, and all the other things that go along with creating real Martial Arts Power.
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