Ron Goin's Blog

MARTIAL ARTS RULES--ALL LISTS COMBINEDI know what you're thinking.
How do we keep our prices so low?  
VOLUME 

So, here they all are, at one low price!

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SURELY THERE'S GOT TO BE MORE THAN JUST ONE NINJA POSE
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HEY, WE'RE NOT LAUGHING WITH YOU, WE'RE LAUGHING AT YOU

Seriously, it's a very bad ass uniform.

 
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YOU DO NOT WANT TO F*#K WITH THESE NERDS!

They're 'roided up and full of rage, and they obviously know how to use those doohickeys!
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 IN LETHAL WEAPON 4, SOMEBODY MUST EXPLAIN WHAT HAPPENED TO MARTIN RIGGS' KILLER BJJ SKILLS FROM LETHAL WEAPON 1

Jet Li played with him like a pitbull with a sock monkey.  I have my thesaurus open, trying to find the opposite of 'lethal.'
 __________________________________________________
I HAVE NOTHING FUNNY TO SAY HERE...EITHER ONE OF THESE GUYS COULD PROBABLY KICK MY ASS

 ___________________________________________________
IT'S LIKE DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN

For some strange reason I am starting to suspect that these pictures might have been staged.

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MARTIAL ARTISTS MUST WEAR SAFETY GOGGLES
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“You could drop this guy off at the Arctic circle wearing a pair of bikini underwear, without his toothbrush, and tomorrow afternoon he’s going to show up at your pool side with a million dollar smile and fist full of pesos.”

Sorry, you lost me at the idea of Steven Seagal wearing bikini underwear.
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THANKS TO CHUCK, DRUGS HAVE FINALLY BEEN KICKED OUT OF THE COUNTRY!






...JUST ASK THIS GUY
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TO THE PERSON WHO STOLE MY KUNG FU LUNCHBOX IN 1972

I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my lunchbox go now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you.
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KUNG FU FIGHTERS MUST USE REAL WEAPONS

I swear, that one guy has a rake.  A RAKE!  How is that even a weapon?  Did somebody already call dibs on the weed whacker?  Did you have a coupon from The Home Depot?  Are you available one weekend in October?
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 DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME!

I'm guessing that this guy's profile on match.com says that he's a real 'swinger.'  At least he has the forethought to protect the carpet and stand over some absorbent cardboard, you know, just in case...__________________________________________________________________________________

SOMEBODY MUST EXPLAIN WHERE DONNIE YEN WENT IN BLADE 2 

One minute he's 'Snowman', a cold-as-ice, Samurai Vampire, stealing every scene of the movie with his phenomenal moves, kicking major ass, and then, just like me as I head to the washroom when the waiter brings the check to the table, POOF, he's just gone. 
____________________________________________________________________________________


NO, THE FAN DOES NOT QUALIFY AS A WEAPON 

Why don't you go get something a tad more intimidating...like a nice bouquet of roses.

__________________________________________________________________________________

REAL NINJA MUST WEAR BLACK 

They're supposed to blend in with the shadows, and the darkness, and the night.  
It's what they do, it's their schtick.  
Where exactly is a red or a yellow ninja going to blend in?  Sesame Street?
 ______________________________________________________________________________________

THAT CAMP?...THE ONE WHERE ALL THE KILLERS FROM SPECTRE (OR WAS IT SMERSH?) TRAIN IN THE JAMES BOND MOVIE "YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE"? 

It featured judo, karate, knife throwing, pistol shooting, jumping over flames...I have nothing funny to say here...I just really really REALLY want to attend that camp!
__________________________________________________________________________________


YOUR PATHETIC MARTIAL ARTS DEMO...THE ONE YOU DID AT THE MALL?  WITH SOME OF THE MEMBERS OF YOUR 'ELITE DEMO TEAM'?  WHERE Y'ALL RAN SOME KATAS AND BROKE A FEW BOARDS?  THAT WAS NO DEMO 

This, THIS is a demo!
__________________________________________________________________________________
JAMES BOND MUST FIGHT JASON BOURNE! 

Live.  In Vegas.  In a cage.  On pay per view.



 ...Oh, and one more thing...



SEAGAL MUST FIGHT PUTIN!
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 APPARENTLY WE'VE BEEN WRONG ALL THESE YEARS...BOARDS DO HIT BACK! 
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 THE JANITOR?  AT THAT PLACE WHERE THE CRAZY 88 FIGHT WENT DOWN?  HE DESERVES A BIG PAY RAISE
Can you imagine the amount of Lysol he's gonna go through?  He'll be mopping for days.  I recommend a snow shovel.  And a squeegee.  That kung fu guy with the rake probably has one you can borrow!
   
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YOUR KIAI?  IT'S NOT A WEAPON...AND YOUR WARRIOR FACE?  IT'S JUST NOT THAT SCARY...

...YOURS, ON THE OTHER HAND, MADE ME WET MY PANTS A LITTLE BIT
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MARTIAL ARTS SCHOOLS ARE USING TOO MUCH MULTI-COLORED TAPE

2 choices...less tape or longer belts.  
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IF YOU'RE GOING TO WEAR BRIGHT SHINY UNIFORMS, OUTSIDE, IN THE SUN, YOU MUST FIRST DISTRIBUTE SUNGLASSES OR AT LEAST ISSUE A WARNING__________________________________________________
PUSH-HANDS COMPETITION?  SERIOUSLY, IT'S NOT THAT EXCITING.  

HERE'S SOME TIPS TO MAKE IT MORE ENTERTAINING:  1.  THUNDERDOME RULES!--2 men enter 1 man leaves.

2.  Everything's automatically more exciting with chainsaws! 

3.  2 words:  REAL STEEL!
 4.  2 more words:  Ring Girls!  
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YOUR CERTIFICATE IS BORING...

...YOURS, ON THE OTHER HAND IS AMAZING!!
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YAWN...BOARD BREAKING NO LONGER IMPRESSES US...

...I STAND CORRECTED
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UNLESS YOU'RE THIS GUY, KATA PERFORMERS MUST EXPLAIN HOW SOMERSAULTS ARE USED IN COMBAT  
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PLEASE, FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS HOLY, QUIT PUNCTURING YOUR SKIN!  

...I TAKE IT BACK...KNOCK YOURSELF OUT 
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CHUCK NORRIS MUST EXPLAIN WHY HE HATES BIKER BARS 
Or bars in general.  Or people who drink alcohol.  He's busted up more bars than Elliot Ness.  You end up worrying so much about whether Chuck's gonna show up and start a bar fight that it's making it difficult to enjoy your 5th round of body shots off that stripper's belly.

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ALL MARTIAL ARTISTS MUST REALIZE THAT THEIR KARATE GI WILL NEVER EVER BE AS AWESOME AS ELVIS' KARATE GI! 
  Sure, your gi is fancy.  Bright colors, loose, flowing sleeves, and patches for days.  But does it have a floppy collar?  Bellbottoms?  Fancy doohickeys on the legs?  Is there enough silk in your belt to make a dozen parachutes?  I rest my case.

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THE 70s ARE OVER.  NOBODY TWIRLS NUNCHUCKS ANYMORE.  IF YOU STILL TWIRL NUNCHUCKS, YOU NOW HAVE TO LIGHT THEM ON FIRE
While riding a unicycle.  Blindfolded.  In the middle of a group of Real Housewives.  Somehow Honey Boo Boo and swamp gators will need to be involved.

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MEN MUST FESS UP...ROADHOUSE IS KINDA SORTA LIKE PORN   Don't sit there and try to pretend like it's a good movie.
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MOE WAS A SERIOUS BADASS   A take-charge kind of guy.  Fast hands.  Quick reflexes.  Could give as good as he got.  Huge repertoire of techniques, from slaps, to eye pokes, to ripping out hair.  Plus, he routinely took on 2 opponents at the same time!  
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HOCKEY ENFORCERS MUST TEACH FIGHTING SEMINARS
Have you seen some of the people traveling around teaching lame fighting techniques?  They wouldn't last a round with a hockey enforcer.  Forget tough and ruthless.  As they said in "Fistful of Yen", these guys are rough and toothless.
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TAE KWON DO MASTERS MUST GO AHEAD AND REVEAL THE SECRET THEY'VE BEEN HIDING FROM THE REST OF US ALL THESE YEARS:  GIANTS ARE COMING, AREN'T THEY? AND WE MUST ALL BE PREPARED
There is no other legitimate reason why they are always working on such high kicks.

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Someone must tell the Shaolin Monks they have to stop 
At first we admired your zeal, your discipline and your dedication.  Now we just want to stage an intervention.
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NO REVIVALS:  WHEN A PRESSURE POINT 'EXPERT' 'KNOCKS OUT' SOMEBODY, THEY CAN'T RUSH OVER AND HELP THEM
You've probably seen them...one guy, let's call him "grand master", gets a volunteer from the seminar to come up and stand there while he hits him 2 or 3 times.  The volunteer mysteriously falls to the floor like somebody dropped a bag of rice, and, quick as a flash, there they all are working desperately to revive the guy.  Like it's an episode of E.R. and the guy's flat-lining.  Okay, if we have to watch YOU intentionally knock a guy out, at least WE get to have a little fun watching him convulse and swallow his own tongue.__________________________________________________
YOU HAVE TO USE SOME OF YOUR BIZARRE, IMPRACTICAL KATA MOVES IN A REAL FIGHT
 I saw one guy put his hands on his hips, stomp the ground, and turn around several times repeating the move in different directions.  Like he's doing a one-man dance interpretation of "I'm a little teapot."  I asked him what he was doing, and he said he was blocking attacks.  I kinda sorta want to see that in action.  In fact, I'd pay good money to place him in a ring with a Golden Gloves boxer.  I'd even volunteer to mop up the blood.
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UNTIL THE MOLE PEOPLE HAVE BEEN IDENTIFIED AS A POTENTIAL THREAT TO NATIONAL SECURITY, ALL BIND FOLDED MARTIAL ARTS DEMONSTRATIONS MUST STOP  
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IF YOU CAN FIGHT OFF 2 OR MORE ATTACKERS PROFICIENTLY, THEN YOU MUST BE ABLE TO DEFEAT ONE MEASLY MMA FIGHTER
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YOU HAVE TO STOP SAYING "OSS" ALL THE TIME
OSS has become the 'aloha' of the martial arts world.  It apparently means 'hello', 'goodbye', 'great technique', 'S-O-S', and 'hey, good looking, what's your sign'.  
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NO MORE FRUIT AND VEGETABLE SLICING 
I watched one guy take a sharp samurai sword and hack a watermelon to bits while it was positioned on a volunteer's stomach.  Another guy took a banana and put it on a guy's hand, while one crazy S.O.B. put a cucumber on a volunteer's throat.  At least those crazy guys at Benihana occasionally work up some fried rice to go with their chopped veggies. __________________________________________________
YOU MUST STOP DOING DEMONSTRATIONS WHILE WEARING A NINJA OUTFIT 
It's not an authentic reference to a real, dangerous historic period, it's a Halloween costume.  Let's make a deal...if you get to wear a ninja outfit, then I get to wear rodeo clothes.  In fact, they have something in common...they both involve a bunch of bull.  But only one of them is in any real danger.
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THOSE GUYS?  THE ONES WHO LET PEOPLE PUNCH 'EM IN THE THROAT OR KICK 'EM IN THE GROIN TO PROVE THEIR CHI ARMOR?  THEY NEED TO STOP 
Either that, or we get to do it when they least expect it.  Like, when they get out of the shower.  
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QUIT CALLING WHAT YOU DO AN 'EXTREME' MARTIAL ART
I went to a martial arts school that called itself 'EXTREME' one time, and the only thing extreme I noticed was just how extremely white their gis were.  Look, unless you're having a full contact fight while base jumping off a skyscraper or riding the loop-the-loop on a BMX bike, it's really not all that extreme.  Before you start calling it 'EXTREME' ask yourself one question...would the guys from JackAss do it?  And where exactly would they place the sparkler?
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ANYBODY WHO HAS PARTICIPATED IN AN UNDERGROUND DEATH MATCH MUST LEAD US TO WHERE THE BODIES ARE BURIED 
You can trust us.  We'll get our brother in law, the one who's in law school, to draft up some immunity contract or give you a get-out-of-jail-free card to carry in your wallet. 
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CHI MASTERS, PRESSURE POINT FIGHTERS AND NO-TOUCH KNOCKOUT EXPERTS MUST ALL NOW ENTER THE OCTAGON   It'll be a breeze...easy peasy.  You don't even have to work up a sweat.  We'll let you teach Steven Seagal a few tricks.  I'll even be your corner man, (and if my calculations are correct we'll only need 7 more).
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MARTIAL ARTISTS MUST STOP DOING FLYING KICKS
If they were used, as martial arts historians like to point out, to dismount attacking cavalry, then that is now their only legitimate use.  If our early detection military satellites begin to pick up giant hordes of invaders on horseback, I promise, you'll be the first ones we contact. __________________________________________________
MINIMALISM:  FROM NOW ON NO MORE BREAKING GIANT SLABS OF ICE...FROM NOW ON, YOU MUST SIMPLY PLACE ONE ICE CUBE ON THE GROUND AND SMASH IT WITH ONE BLOW.  AND WHILE WE'RE AT IT, NO MORE LYING ON A BED OF NAILS...YOU MUST LIE DOWN ON ONLY ONE NAIL.
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SANCHIN KATA MUST GO AWAY
If I want an exercise in which I stand there blowing out hot air while my blood pressure rises, I'll do what everybody else does--get a job blowing up party balloons.
 
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 IF THE CLOSEST YOU'VE BEEN TO COMBAT IS PLAYING A HECTIC, SWEATY SESSION OF 'CALL OF DUTY', YOU CAN'T CALL YOURSELF A 'WARRIOR'   
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NO MORE HORSE STANCES  
Unless you're getting ready to perform your famous karaoke version of "U Can't Touch This" it just looks kinda weird.
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NO MORE PATCHES ON YOUR MARTIAL ARTS 
UNIFORMS
Seriously, I don't know if I'm supposed to bow to you or buy a box of cookies.  
BTW, those new Savannah Smiles™ are to die for.
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NO MORE ELABORATE TITLES
The only person I call master is my dominatrix.  (She hurts me if I don't). __________________________________________________
STOP USING BRUCE LEE TO PROMOTE YOUR STYLE
Lee was for freedom of expression and individuality.  He was most definitely anti-style, anti-regimentation, and anti-group think.  You wouldn't use Donald Trump to promote a seminar on humility would you? __________________________________________________
MMA FIGHTERS MUST NOW START TATTOOING THEIR FOREHEADS
Look, we know it makes you look tough, and screams out to anybody who's watching that you can take a lot of pain, but you guys are starting to run out of room.  It's either that or your tongues.
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 FINI *
(*I have no idea what that means, but they put it at the end of classy foreign movies, so I figured, what the hell)

NEWEST RULES...FINAL EDITION
"You're a funny guy... I like you. That's why I'm going to kill you last!"Commando
Alas, all great...er good...okay mediocre things must come to an end.  This is my final edition of top ten new martial arts rules and observations.  ___________________________________________________
SURELY THERE'S GOT TO BE MORE THAN JUST ONE NINJA POSE






___________________________________________________

HEY, WE'RE NOT LAUGHING WITH YOU, WE'RE LAUGHING AT YOU
___________________________________________________



YOU DO NOT WANT TO F*#K WITH THESE NERDS!They're 'roided up and full of rage, and they obviously know how to use those doohickeys!



___________________________________________________


 IN LETHAL WEAPON 4, SOMEBODY MUST EXPLAIN WHAT HAPPENED TO MARTIN RIGGS' KILLER BJJ SKILLS FROM LETHAL WEAPON 1Jet Li played with him like a pitbull with a sock monkey.  I have my thesaurus open, trying to find the opposite of 'lethal.'
 

__________________________________________________

I HAVE NOTHING FUNNY TO SAY HERE...EITHER ONE OF THESE GUYS COULD PROBABLY KICK MY ASS

 ___________________________________________________



IT'S LIKE DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAINFor some strange reason I am starting to suspect that these pictures might have been staged.




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MARTIAL ARTISTS MUST WEAR SAFETY GOGGLES


___________________________________________________

“You could drop this guy off at the Arctic circle wearing a pair of bikini underwear, without his toothbrush, and tomorrow afternoon he’s going to show up at your pool side with a million dollar smile and fist full of pesos.”Sorry, you lost me thinking about Steven Seagal in bikini underwear.



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THANKS TO CHUCK, DRUGS HAVE BEEN KICKED OUT OF THE COUNTRY!



...JUST ASK THIS GUY


___________________________________________________

TO THE PERSON WHO STOLE MY KUNG FU LUNCHBOX IN 1972I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my lunchbox go now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you.


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YEP, YOU GUESSED IT
Blah, blah, blah...more rules!
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KUNG FU FIGHTERS MUST USE REAL WEAPONS.  
I swear, that one guy has a rake.  A RAKE!  How is that even a weapon?  Did somebody already call dibs on the weed whacker?  Did you have a coupon from The Home Depot?  Are you available one weekend in October?

__________________________________________________________________________________
 
DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME!

I'm guessing that this guy's profile on match.com says that he's a real 'swinger.'  At least he has the forethought to protect the carpet and stand over some absorbent cardboard, you know, just in case...
__________________________________________________________________________________
 
SOMEBODY MUST EXPLAIN WHERE DONNIE YEN WENT IN BLADE 2
One minute he's 'Snowman', a cold-as-ice, Samurai Vampire, stealing every scene of the movie with his phenomenal moves, kicking major ass, and, just like me as I head to the washroom when the waiter brings the check to the table, POOF, he's just gone. 
____________________________________________________________________________________


NO, THE FAN DOES NOT QUALIFY AS A WEAPON Why don't you go get something a tad more intimidating...like a nice bouquet of roses.
__________________________________________________________________________________

REAL NINJA MUST WEAR BLACK They have to blend in with the shadows, and the darkness, and the night.  It's what they do, it's their schtick.  Where exactly is a red or a yellow ninja going to blend in?  Sesame Street?
 ______________________________________________________________________________________

THAT CAMP?...THE ONE WHERE ALL THE KILLERS FROM SPECTRE (OR WAS IT SMERSH?) TRAIN IN THE JAMES BOND MOVIE "YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE"? It featured judo, karate, knife throwing, pistol shooting, jumping over flames...I have nothing funny to say here...I just really really REALLY want to attend that camp!

__________________________________________________________________________________

YOUR PATHETIC MARTIAL ARTS DEMO...THE ONE YOU DID AT THE MALL?  WITH SOME OF THE MEMBERS OF YOUR 'ELITE DEMO TEAM'?  WHERE Y'ALL RAN SOME KATAS AND BROKE A FEW BOARDS?  THAT WAS NO DEMO
This, THIS is a demo!__________________________________________________________________________________
JAMES BOND MUST FIGHT JASON BOURNE!
Live.  In Vegas.  In a cage.  On pay per view.


 ...AND SEAGAL MUST FIGHT PUTIN!

_______________________________________________________________________________

 APPARENTLY WE'VE BEEN WRONG ALL THESE YEARS...BOARDS DO HIT BACK! 
 ___________________________________________________________________________________________

 THE JANITOR?  AT THAT PLACE WHERE THE CRAZY 88 FIGHT WENT DOWN?  HE DESERVES A BIG PAY RAISE
Can you imagine the amount of Lysol he's gonna go through?  He'll be mopping for days.  I recommend a snow shovel.  And a squeegee.  The kung fu guy with the rake probably has one you can borrow!
 

YET EVEN MORE ADDITIONAL RULES

We do some silly things in the martial arts world, don't we?  In today's world of instant messaging, I am ever so thankful that camera phones weren't around to capture some of my own embarrassing moments.  

But, just because I'm off the hook doesn't mean I can't point out some other whacky stuff.

So here are some more additional new rules for martial artists:
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YOUR KIAI?  IT'S NOT A WEAPON...AND YOUR WARRIOR FACE?  IT'S JUST NOT THAT INTIMIDATING 


...YOURS, ON THE OTHER HAND, MADE ME WET MY PANTS A LITTLE BIT

__________________________________________________

MARTIAL ARTS SCHOOLS ARE USING TOO MUCH MULTI-COLORED TAPE2 choices...less tape or longer belts.  
__________________________________________________

IF YOU'RE GOING TO WEAR BRIGHT SHINY UNIFORMS, OUTSIDE, IN THE SUN, YOU MUST FIRST DISTRIBUTE SUNGLASSES OR AT LEAST ISSUE A WARNING_________________________________________________

PUSH-HANDS COMPETITION?  SERIOUSLY, IT'S NOT THAT EXCITING.  

HERE'S SOME TIPS TO MAKE IT MORE ENTERTAINING:  1.  THUNDERDOME RULES!--2 men enter 1 man leaves.

2.  Everything's more exciting with chainsaws! 

3.  2 words:  REAL STEEL!
 4.  2 more words:  Ring Girls!  

__________________________________________________

YOUR CERTIFICATE IS BORING

...YOURS, ON THE OTHER HAND IS AMAZING!!
__________________________________________________
YAWN...BOARD BREAKING NO LONGER IMPRESSES US  

...I STAND CORRECTED

__________________________________________________

UNLESS YOU'RE THIS GUY, KATA PERFORMERS MUST EXPLAIN HOW SOMERSAULTS ARE USED IN COMBAT  
__________________________________________________

PLEASE, FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS HOLY, QUIT PUNCTURING YOUR SKIN!  

...I TAKE IT BACK...KNOCK YOURSELF OUT 
__________________________________________________

ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK
 FORBIDDEN DEADLY FIGHTING SECRETS PART 2How long does it take to learn to fight?  

 "Most people, normal people, do just about anything to avoid a fight."
― Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club

"Start a fight. Prove you're alive." ― Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club

"How many more times?"― Led Zeppelin

How long does it take to learn to fight?  

It's a fair question.  How many training sessions and how many hours per week?  For how many weeks?  How many years?  Three?  Five?  Ten?

And how many techniques will have to be mastered?  Dozens?  Hundreds?  Thousands?

If someone is really dedicated and willing to rock around the clock, how quickly can they learn? 

I know of one martial arts instructor who works security in a night club.  He reckons he has a couple of run-ins each night that he works, and he works almost every weekend.  He routinely has to stop fights, escort belligerent guests out of the club, turn away unwanted guests, and handle mean drunks who just want to fight.  That's a couple of hundred encounters a year!

Another martial artist I know works as a correctional officer in a prison.  As part of a team he has to extract hostile and resisting prisoners out of their cells, break up fights, and handle aggressive men who have a lot of pent up anger which is expressed as rage and physical violence.  He estimates he's been in hundreds of potentially dangerous encounters.

Vin Diesel's character, Taylor Reese, in the movie 'Knockaround Guys', seems to have it all figured out.  Right before giving a major ass whupping to a local thug, Taylor says, "500...500 fights, that's the number I figured when I was a kid. 500 street fights and you could consider yourself a legitimate tough guy. You need them for experience. To develop leather skin.  So I got started."

You gotta admit, they're onto something.  After hundreds of fights you're bound to be one heckuva street fighter.  If you manage to survive and are still able to move under your own steam, my guess is that you would indeed know a lot more about fighting than the average guy.  Plus, as Taylor understood, you'd have that key ingredient:  Experience.

First off, I'm definitely not suggesting that people should go out and start street fights.  The risks are much too high--risks to your own safety, as well as potential criminal and civil liabilities.  Plus, as a man of peace, I think avoiding violence and walking away from a fight when you can is simply the right thing to do.  

Many of my martial arts friends don't even associate what they do with fighting.  In fact, they believe that one of the main reasons they train in the first place is to avoid fighting altogether.  Their martial arts training is primarily about self-discovery and self-development.  

But some fights are inevitable and unavoidable, and aggression and violence are all too real.  In some cases because of where people live or travel, or because of the job they do, violence is simply a fact of life--including people in corrections and law enforcement, those who work in security, and members of the military.  They must learn to deal with aggression and plan and prepare for violent situations.

So with that said, what I'm getting at is trying to figure out how long it takes for someone to learn to fight without resorting to getting into a bunch of street fights.  And what are the key skills you need to know?



Let's start with the most extreme case:  Batman!  

JR Minkel in Scientific American(1), is pretty much interested in the same question as I am, and he asks 'How long would Bruce Wayne have to train to become Batman?'  Because Batman is depicted as taking on several bad guys all at once, Minkel determined that, "In terms of the physical changes (strength and conditioning), that's happening fairly quickly. We're talking three to five years. In terms of the physical skills to be able to defend himself against all these opponents all the time, I would benchmark that at 10 to 12 years."




So 10 to 12 years to learn how to take on a bunch of attackers?  That's a long time.  Surely it wouldn't take that long.


But according to Dustin Grinnell, "author Malcolm Gladwell, in his book Outliers: The Story of Success, cites work from expertise researchers on this matter and shows that there’s a consistent number every time. Whether its non-fiction writing, or wakeboarding, according to these researchers, you need to have practiced for 10,000 hours, or roughly ten years, to become a genius (or expert) at something."(2)


Wow!  10 years to be considered a genius/master level expert? 

Well, maybe not that long after all.  The U.S. Martial Arts Academy sees it this way: "It depends on an individual's effort. The average person can feel improvement physically and mentally within four months. It takes approximately three years to earn a black belt. Some people may need more or less time depending on how hard they train. By this time they should have enough self confidence and ability to defend themselves."(3)

So, 3 years, give or take, to earn your black belt.  And then you'll be able to defend yourself.  But what if you don't have 3 years to invest? 

The folks over at filipinofightingsecretslive.com have considered the question, and they've come up with a solid, sensible answer:  "The truth is that most students will not be with us long, and in order to make their time with us worth the money, we should give them real skills that they can use as soon as possible and save the 'attributes' stuff for the ones who will commit for the long term.  In other words, we should teach our students how to kick a mugger’s ass within 3 – 6 months."(4)

What if I just need to know how to protect myself against an attacker?  

JKD instructor Tom Cruse has a 3-DVD set titled:  "Building a Street Fighter in 40 Hours."  The DVD claims to help you "become proficient in all 5 areas of fighting... kicking, punching, trapping, ground fighting, and weapons."  

And Paul Vunak, who founded Progressive Fighting Systems (PFS), sells a 2-DVD set titled:  "A Complete Self-Defense Plan How to Become Assault Proof in Only One Weekend: (Sierra Summit I), claiming that "you can become a secure fighter in just two days."  


John Borter, 6th Dan, owner and head instructor of The Modern Self-Defense Academy in Albany, NY says that he plans to cut back dramatically on the number of core techniques which he teaches in Modern Self-Defense Concepts. "Let's face it," he says, "when the rubber hits the road...we all fall back to that core three, four, or five techniques that we have internalized and made our own. While I am as impressed as anyone else with systems that have 1,500 techniques, or a student that has to demonstrate 350 moves to get a black belt, rote memorization of a bunch of techniques is not going to help at the critical moment when instinct needs to take over. While I will expect a number of variations on those core techniques, and a deep understanding and application of the fundamental principles and concepts behind them, the actual number of those techniques is being decreased substantially."(5)

Some schools, such as Blankenship Martial Arts, believe that it's less about techniques and more about avoidance and simply not being where the fight is likely to happen:  "It is much more important that the student learn behaviors and functions which will greatly reduce the probability of being attacked than to concentrate exclusively on a repertoire of physical skills. The techniques contained in every martial art and self-defense system have some pragmatic benefit, but simply acquiring mechanical ability to execute movements has very little to do with one’s ultimate ability to protect himself."(6)

Jay Gatsby has culled miscellaneous video clips including some from the TV show "Human Weapon" to come up with 10 essential skills:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNWQnVHei9k

1. Krav Maga's 360 defense
2. Muay Thai's power angle kick
3. Ninjitsu's Hamukai arm leverage knife defense
4. Pankration's shoulder throw
5. Kung Fu's rear leg front kick
6. Sambo's and Marine Martial Art's rolling knee bar
7. Judo's outside leg reap
8. Grappling's rear naked choke
9. Savate's liver kick
10. Keysi Fighting Method's close quarters wall defense

Not a bad list.  I've come up with my own, using the Dirty Dozen concept, featuring 12 vital skills:

• Multi-directional boxer's style footwork skills
• Sprawling skills and move to control
• Double leg takedown and variations with secondary positioning
• Straight blast skills with barrage on the move
• Hook punching skills
• Thai round kicking skills
• Clinch 'swim' and clinching to smother and shut down punches
• Outside leg sweeping skills
• Mount escaping skills
• Headlock defense skills
• Knee striking and other tight quarters skills
• Guard skills including punch defenses and secondary moves

This is by no means a complete list.  Attributes are important as is a unique blend of fitness and conditioning requirements:

A fighter has to be explosive like a sprinter—to deliver that powerful knockout, a flurry of strikes or to attack with a takedown from virtually the other side of the cage. A fighter has to have the endurance of a long-distance runner to continue to perform at his peak for 15-25 minutes straight, with barely a minute’s rest between each five-minute round. And a fighter needs to be strong like a weightlifter, to grapple and move and manipulate an opponent as big as, or even bigger than, him.
BY KHURRAM AZIZ(8)


I would dig hearing from you to see your own absolutely essential skills for fighting. 

FORBIDDEN, DEADLY FIGHTING SECRETS
 Listen, do you want to know a secret?
Do you promise not to tell, whoa, oh
Closer, let me whisper in your ear
Say the words you long to hear...
McCartney and Lennon

I'd like to make an embarrassing personal confession...you see, I was a huge comic book fan when I was a kid.  Yeah, sure, so what?, everybody was, nothing weird about that at all.  But here's the thing, while I knew of course that the characters and their exploits weren't real, I pretty much believed everything in the advertisements.  EVERYTHING!

I was convinced that X-Ray specs really worked, and that I could buy a book that would give me the ability to hypnotize others and turn them into puppets who eagerly awaited my commands.  I just knew that with special shoes I could make myself look 2 inches taller, and I was pretty sure that sea monkeys lived cool, exotic lives in tiny little underwater kingdoms.  I didn't doubt that Charles Atlas used his patented dynamic tension exercises to get a real he-man's body, and I actually believed that I could get a Polaris Nuclear Sub big enough for 2 kids for only $6.98!

But you know what always intrigued me?  The Oriental fighting arts ads.


I really wanted to learn forbidden fighting secrets from those always-capitalized-followed-by-an-exclamation-mark arts: KARATE!, KUNG FU!, JUDO!, JIU-JITSU!, SAVATE!, and KETSUGO!, whatever the heck that was.  

 

In some cases the instructor in the ad would be wearing a Lone Ranger/Zorro type mask so as not to reveal his identity, which made perfect sense to me at the time--after all these moves could KILL!  Usually he'd be in some elaborate martial arts stance with hands shaped into menacing tiger's claws.


There was part of me that thought that these guys, the martial arts experts, were the REAL super heroes.  Sure, Spiderman, Superman, Daredevil, and the Fantastic Four could kick butt, that was a given.  I mean, c'mon...they had special powers.  It wasn't even a fair fight if they took on regular people, and so they had to take on super villains.  


But martial arts experts?  They used only the power of their own minds and muscles to defend themselves from thugs, criminals and bullies. That's one reason why I really liked "Judo Master" comics, (plus each issue featured an illustrated martial arts lesson!).




Now THAT's what I wanted!  I wanted to learn those forbidden, secret, deadly fighting skills.  Maybe even become part of a secret fighting society!!  My guess is they had their own special handshake, and you probably needed to know the password just to get in.


That's probably why I was so disappointed with a lot of my early martial arts training.  Okay, the judo classes at the YMCA weren't bad...at least there we'd get to throw each other around and wrestle a bit.  But that club didn't last long enough, and the karate classes just didn't do it for me.  We'd move up and down the floor in unison, punching and kicking nothing but the bad guys that we could conjure up in our imaginations.  Over and over again, in a regimented formation, we would practice special, pre-set sequences of movements in which we fought off a whole BUNCH of imaginary opponents.  But really all I wanted to know is was this:  Where are the real, actual opponents.  When do we get to fight?!

Somewhere along the way I realized that most of the classes that I took didn't reveal all the good stuff, the cool stuff, the stuff that they showed in those nifty comic book ads.  It was as if there was this big secret, and you had to wait years and years before you could take a peek behind the curtain.



Fortunately, I later had the opportunity to train with some no-nonsense guys at a gung fu school who believed in real, full contact fighting.  Guys who would put on boxing gloves, and mouthpieces and headgear when it was available, and just go at it.  The goal wasn't to hurt someone else, but it was inevitable that people would receive some minor injuries or get knocked out.  I loved this stuff, where the training felt like the real thing--fast, powerful and chaotic.

But where were the secrets?

Well, guess what?  There aren't any, not really.  A lot of instructors make you think that they have some secrets to share with you once you've made it to the upper ranks, but they don't.  Forget the mysticism.  Don't even think about that mind-over-matter crap.  Sure, they may have some more difficult, more challenging techniques, but those aren't secrets.

It really just boils down to some common sense tips.  Things that any really good fighter knows.  Though definitely not a complete list, here are some of the essentials to keep in mind:

• Keep your hands up, your elbows in, and your chin down
• Don't hold your breath -- try to exhale sharply when you strike and practice belly breathing
• Try to stay calm, and don't tense up
• Be ready to either grab or hit 
• Don't make the mistake of watching only your opponent's eyes  --  use your peripheral vision and monitor the elbows, the chest, the knees and the hips
• Keep your knees bent and be ready to move, keeping your weight balanced on both feet
• Find a fighting stance that gives you that fine balance between mobility and stability, usually a staggered, athletic stance
• Take sliding, baby steps and don't cross your feet
• Learn how to pivot on the balls of your feet
• Closing the gap and entering into an opponent's strength zone is dangerous but important -- be ready to explosively lunge forward and use distraction or force to cover that distance
• The hips are a source of tremendous power -- learn how to rotate your hips 
• Master boxing's jab, straight, uppercut, hook and overhand punches
• Work on accuracy and target acquisition -- practice hitting moving targets!
• Learn to counter-punch
• Know how to hit with fists and palm strikes too (as Hock Hochheim says, the head is essentially a bowling ball)
• Don't drop the hand after striking, but instead snap it back quickly
• Generally speaking when one hand attacks, one hand protects
• Learn key kicks:
• Muay Thai style round kicks to the legs and body
• Snapping front kicks
• Side kicks
• Stomping kicks and football kicks to a downed opponent
• Defensive kicks from the ground
• Combinations!...don't just go for a one-punch knockout -- 3 is a good number, but beyond 5 moves and it starts getting dangerous
• High and low, hands and feet...mix it up
• It's not all offense, you're gonna need defense too:
• Sidestepping and angling
• Slipping
• Jamming, checking and trapping (nothing fancy)
• Ducking and weaving
• Snap backs and step backs
• Don't drop your hands!
• Close range, in-fighting and clinch fighting are critical skills
• Learn and practice key tie-ups and hand-fighting skills and transitions -- collar, wrist, elbow, over and under, overhooks, underhooks, arm drag, snap downs and neck control
• Judo says:  When pushed, pull; when pulled, push; and Aikido says:  When pushed, turn; when pulled, enter -- both are right
• Be ready to use your knees and elbows in close range
• Understand and work on the 7 primary wrestling skills:
• Stance
• Motion
• Level Change
• Penetration
• Lifting
• Back Step
• Back Arch
• Learn basic wrestling movements:
• The hip heist
• The sit out
• Spinning
• Rolling
• Duck unders
• Learn a few fundamental takedowns and throws, and practice them religiously  -- and don't forget to work on defenses against the takedowns you're likely to encounter:
• The double-leg takedown
• The single-leg takedown
• The hip toss with variations
• The osoto gari or leg reap
• Getting them down is one thing, knowing what to do next is just as important
• A fighting position, standing, kneeling, clinching or on the ground, is essentially a launching pad or base of operations -- from these positions you launch your offense and are able to seek safety during defense
• Learn the primary judo and BJJ ground fighting positions and practice transitions and escapes:
• Side control
• The guard
• Knee on chest/belly (knee mount)
• The mount 
• The back mount
• Note:  The BJJ hierarchy of positions is a great concept
• Note:  The catch-wrestlers also understand how to transition from technique to technique, probing for weaknesses, exploiting opportunities, and improving the situation for dominance
• Learn bridging, shrimping, and hooking skills
• Learn how to quickly and safely move back up to a standing position from the ground
• Practice punches, kicks, knees and elbows while grappling
• Work defensive clinching to neutralize incoming attacks
• Chokes are extremely important...learn several versions and don't forget to learn some defenses, escapes, and counters
• Train smart -- avoid injuries, and use patient progression, adding chaos, speed and power to keep the training challenging
• Train safe -- use protective gear
• Spar with all kinds of fighters:  Big, tall, short, fast, stocky, aggressive, defensive, boxers, kickboxers, wrestlers and grapplers
• CHEAT -- If all of your fighting is rules-based, you may not be ready for the real thing where rules are thrown out the window
• Are there objects nearby you could pick up and use as a weapon or shield?
• Use walls, fences, tables, chairs, cars and curbs to your advantage on move so that you're not channeled or restricted
• Practice sparring and scenario-based training so that you can replicate real-world conditions
• Practice sparring in tight conditions, like an elevator or tight hallway
• Practice pre-emptive striking or getting in the first strike
• Don't always practice 'full frontal combat' -- sometimes work against attacks from the side or rear
• Be ready for the sucker punch and practice scenarios right after the sucker punch lands and you're stunned or hurt

This sounds like a lot and may seem overwhelming.  But it's not like you're practicing pre-fabricated, choreographed, stylistic movements.  Instead you're working on time-tested, battle-proven principles, skill-sets and concepts.  A good coach can put together a progressive plan to familiarize you with the key skills, and can help you drill them into your muscle memory.

In Part II we'll talk about some other important rules for real-world fighting.

EVEN MORE NEW MARTIAL ARTS RULES
If people never did silly things 
nothing intelligent would ever get done.
Ludwig Wittgenstein 

CHUCK NORRIS MUST EXPLAIN WHY HE HATES BIKER BARS.  Or bars in general.  Or people who drink alcohol.  He's busted up more bars than Elliot Ness.  You end up worrying so much about whether Chuck's gonna show up and start a bar fight that it's making it difficult to enjoy your 5th round of body shots off that stripper's belly.




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ALL MARTIAL ARTISTS MUST REALIZE THAT THEIR KARATE GI WILL NEVER EVER BE AS AWESOME AS ELVIS' KARATE GI!  Sure, your gi is fancy.  Bright colors, loose, flowing sleeves, and patches for days.  But does it have a floppy collar?  Bellbottoms?  Doohickeys on the legs?  Is there enough silk in your belt to make a dozen parachutes?  I rest my case.




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THE 70s ARE OVER.  NOBODY TWIRLS NUNCHUCKS ANYMORE.  IF YOU STILL TWIRL NUNCHUCKS, YOU NOW HAVE TO LIGHT THEM ON FIRE.  While riding a unicycle.  Blindfolded.  In the middle of a group of Real Housewives.  Somehow Honey Boo Boo and swamp gators will need to be involved.


 ------------------------------------------------------------------------

MEN MUST FESS UP...ROADHOUSE IS KINDA SORTA LIKE PORN.  Don't sit there and try to pretend like it's a good movie.


------------------------------------------------------------------------

MOE WAS A SERIOUS BADASS.  A take-charge kind of guy.  Fast hands.  Quick reflexes.  Could give as good as he got.  Huge repertoire of techniques, from slaps, to eye pokes, to ripping out hair.  Plus, he routinely took on 2 opponents at the same time!


------------------------------------------------------------------------

HOCKEY ENFORCERS MUST TEACH FIGHTING SEMINARS.  Have you seen some of the people traveling around teaching lame fighting techniques?  They wouldn't last a round with a hockey enforcer.  Forget tough and ruthless.  As they said in "Fistful of Yen", these guys are rough and toothless.


------------------------------------------------------------------------

TAE KWON DO MASTERS MUST GO AHEAD AND REVEAL THE SECRET THEY'VE BEEN HIDING FROM THE REST OF US ALL THESE YEARS:  GIANTS ARE COMING, AREN'T THEY? AND WE MUST ALL BE PREPARED. There is no other legitimate reason why they are always working on such high kicks.



------------------------------------------------------------------------

Someone must tell the Shaolin Monks they have to stop. At first we admired your zeal, your discipline and your dedication.  Now we just want to stage an intervention.
 

STICKING AROUND


WHY I'M A FAN OF FMA

"Speak softly and carry a big stick."
President Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt  

I first began training with FMA-type stick fighting in the mid 1970s.  Back then you just never ran into people who had stick fighting knowledge or skill.  Now there are more programs than you can shake a stick at.

I loved sword and swashbuckler movies, and I was fascinated with dueling, fencing and historic sword fighting.  I read as much as I could about James "Jim" Bowie and the wild Sandbar melee.  I had even learned that President Theodore Roosevelt did stick fighting in the White House.  It seemed that stick fighting worked perfectly as a way of developing sword fighting skills.



I had seen some articles in the martial arts magazines about Filipino martial arts (FMA), and I was intrigued.  Boxing, kick boxing, and grappling were always fun, but I wanted something faster and more realistic.  I also reasoned that I'd need to know what to do if somebody ever came at me with a weapon, and stick fighting just seemed perfect to learn a weapon's capabilities and limitations.  

To get started, some friends and I made several pairs of sticks out of different types of wood.  One of my buddies came up with the idea of using thin wooden dowels wrapped with padding and tape so we could use more contact when we fought.  We had some fencing headgear, some football padding, and some lacrosse gloves and miscellaneous padding.  So we began experimenting with fighting techniques, doing some simplified attack and defense drills and even some sparring.  With very few resources and very little information, our stick fighting was basic, simplistic, and free from fancy flourishes.

We learned quickly that hands, wrists and forearms were easy targets.  Fortunately the lacrosse gloves and forearm guards helped, but you could still feel the impact.  Even with the padding you'd sometimes get hit with a shot that would make you drop the stick.

The knees, we discovered, were also good targets.  We wore knee pads of course, but we also learned to keep moving.  Forget those long, locked-out martial arts stances you'd sometimes see in karate--we tried to be light on our feet like a dancer or like Muhammad Ali.

Sometimes we'd fight with a pair of sticks, but I mostly liked fighting with just one.   Occasionally we'd test out other weapons.  We fought stick versus staff, stick versus nunchucks, and even stick versus knife.  For knife training we used smaller versions of the padded stick, with the knife being about the size of a ka-bar.

This was the coolest thing, so we did more and more of this type of training.  Knife versus stick soon became knife versus knife and empty hand versus knife.  We went to an Army surplus store and bought some machetes.  We dulled the edges on my dad's grinding wheel, and we rounded off the ends.  This type of training was now my favorite.  When we sparred we would still use punches and kicks and take-downs, but the machetes added a whole different perspective to what we were doing.  It seemed to make everything more realistic.  

We came up with some basic rules for our weapons-based training.  Safety gear was mandatory, especially head gear, some padding for the neck and throat, and hand protection. We decided on limiting the sparring to two-minute rounds with 30 seconds between rounds for a quick sip of water or to readjust the gear and mop off the sweat.  Disarms were allowed as was grabbing the other guy's wrists, but if the match suddenly petered out while two guys just held the other person's wrists we would signal to separate and restart the fight.  If one guy lost his weapon due to a disarm or merely dropping it, the fight would continue.  We figured a real fight wouldn't stop at this point, or even if the fight went to the ground, so why not train for reality and allow clinch fighting and ground fighting.  Also we hated it when two guys just stood there gesturing and posturing and stalking around without doing much of anything, so we came up with a countdown.  If the action was dull we'd start the countdown at 5, and by the time we reached 1 the fighting had to start up again or we'd declare a draw.

This sparring wasn't really about winning and losing anyway.  We used a 10-point must system, like in boxing, but you didn't really need to intervene or do much judging.  The thud-thud-whack sounds pretty much revealed who was getting hit.  Really good shots to the head were fight enders anyway.  We figured you might be able to take some punishment to the body, legs and arms.  You could even switch hands if you had to.  But a solid whack to the head, we decided, would stop anybody in his tracks.

I felt like this training helped my hands and reflexes to get faster.  It seemed like the stick or padded knife or machete just went so much faster than a standard punch.  At least that's how it felt.  Plus we figured that the risk factor was elevated, because if a stick clobbered you in the head, or if a knife managed to get in with a vicious stab or horrible slash to a vital area, you were pretty much done for.  So this training seemed to bring a heightened sense of danger and realism to self defense training.

In the late 70s Nashville had a club called The Ringside Seat, (an ill-fated boxing venue and restaurant that once employed Steve Earle as a short-order cook *), not too far from the legendary Exit/In.  It was, as you can imagine, a boxing-themed bar and restaurant with boxing posters and gloves hanging up and a full-sized boxing ring right in the middle of the place.  On Friday nights the club would stage amateur boxing matches.  Once a month we would also bring in amateur kick-boxers, which was a real crowd pleaser.  Most of the fighters came from a martial arts school where I was a part-time instructor.  Occasionally we would have some up and coming fighters come in from other parts of the country to hone their craft.

We wanted to add something new, so one of my buddies and I held Nashville's first full-contact stick fighting match.  This was around 1979.  The audience really seemed to like it.

For a lark I got a whole bunch of sticks and went to the State Capitol building in Nashville one weekday afternoon.  Some buddies and I started doing a stick fighting demonstration which drew quite a crowd.  We handed out heavily padded safety sticks to some of the folks who were watching, and we asked if they'd like to learn stick fighting.  Quite a few said yes and before long we had a large group of people going through some basic moves.




I continued doing a lot of training with sticks and knives during the 1980s when I was stationed in Germany with the US Army.  I had a book by Dan Inosanto about FMA and another by Remy Presas on his art of Modern Arnis, and I studied these books a lot and practiced the moves during my down time.  After I got out of the service, I moved back to Tennessee, and in 1988 I got the chance to train with Remy. He was so dynamic and charismatic, and I just loved the way he flowed seamlessly from technique to technique.  At a Sunday morning, invitation-only session, Remy chose me to be his uke.  Although I was in agonizing pain during the weapons disarms and locking portion of the session, I was in heaven getting to experience the techniques in an up-close setting and realizing that what he taught really worked and wasn't just for show.



Around this time Al Dicascos taught a seminar in Nashville where instead of teaching gung fu, we spent 2 days working on stick fighting flow drills and combat applications.  His FMA was amazing.

I also went to Vanderbilt University a few times to watch their fencing club workout.  I got a few tips and tricks from them, and on one occasion I got to suit up and do some epee work with a State champion.

Leo Gaje, a prominent stick fighting expert, moved to Nashville in 1988, and I was able to train with him privately and in small groups at his house in Madison.  Some of his advanced students came to town, and my friends and I were amazed at how fluid they were.  They had some incredibly flashy moves, but when it came to sparring we realized they did pretty much the same stuff we'd been doing for all these years.  Nothing fancy or flashy, just a lot of mobility and simple, direct striking.



Leo hosted a martial arts camp and brought in Dan Inosanto, and for several days a dozen or so people trained in kali and JKD.  I remember thinking that Ringo was right when he shouted out in "Helter Skelter"..."I got blisters on my fingers!"

In the mid 90s I traveled several times to Ringgold, Georgia, not too far from Chattanooga, Tennessee, to train with Richard Bustillo.  These 2-day events were incredible.  We would do boxing, Muay Thai, BJJ and kali.  Richard shared all kinds of cool drills and combat applications, and I learned so much from him.



In the late 90s I had my first opportunity to train with Hock Hochheim.  Hock was in Gatlinburg for a 2-day seminar, and I had a blast.  Here was somebody who had trained in the Philippines with some legendary instructors, but who also had a modern, progressive, cut-the-crap mindset.  Hock was all about what worked, not what was sporty or merely what looked good.  I trained with Hock whenever he was nearby, and he even came to the Nashville area a few times.  Hock's hand, stick, gun and knife classes are superb, and I think they set the standard for modern combatives training.

Fighting with cudgels and sticks is part of the history of combat.  Hundreds of people per year are murdered with blunt objects like baseball bats and hammers. **  It just makes sense to learn how to use a stick and learn how to defend against it.  FMA teaches that learning stick skills can also enhance knife skills and can even be a safe alternative for edge weapons training.  The footwork is terrific, and learning the concept of angles of attack is foundational for progressive training.

I've been doing this type of training for over 40 years, and I still feel I've got a lot to learn.  But it's always fun and never boring.  I think FMA-type training will be sticking around for a long time.
 


 

  

ANOTHER SET OF NEW TOP TEN RULES
It's no wonder that truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense.Mark Twain 

I've been doing martial arts, self defense and combatives training for over 45 years.  I love this stuff.  But I also think martial artists can be some of the funniest, weirdest guys out there.  With that in mind, here is another set of New Top Ten Rules:


1.  NO REVIVALS:  WHEN A PRESSURE POINT 'EXPERT' 'KNOCKS OUT' SOMEBODY, THEY CAN'T RUSH OVER AND HELP THEM.  You've probably seen them...one guy, let's call him "grand master", gets a volunteer from the seminar to come up and stand there while he hits him 2 or 3 times.  The volunteer mysteriously falls to the floor like somebody dropped a bag of rice, and, quick as a flash, there they all are working desperately to revive the guy.  Like it's an episode of E.R. and the guy's flat-lining.  Okay, if we have to watch YOU intentionally knock a guy out, at least WE get to have a little fun watching him convulse and swallow his own tongue.

2.  YOU HAVE TO USE SOME OF YOUR BIZARRE, IMPRACTICAL KATA MOVES IN A REAL FIGHT.  I saw one guy put his hands on his hips, stomp the ground, and turn around several times repeating the move in different directions.  Like he's doing a one-man dance interpretation of "I'm a little teapot."  I asked him what he was doing, and he said he was blocking attacks.  I kinda sorta want to see that in action.  In fact, I'd pay good money to place him in a ring with a Golden Gloves boxer.  I'd even volunteer to mop up the blood.


3.  UNTIL THE MOLE PEOPLE HAVE BEEN IDENTIFIED AS A POTENTIAL THREAT TO NATIONAL SECURITY, ALL BIND FOLDED MARTIAL ARTS DEMONSTRATIONS MUST STOP.  


4.  IF YOU CAN FIGHT OFF 2 OR MORE ATTACKERS PROFICIENTLY, THEN YOU MUST BE ABLE TO DEFEAT ONE MEASLY MMA FIGHTER.


5.  YOU HAVE TO STOP SAYING "OSS" ALL THE TIME.  OSS has become the 'aloha' of the martial arts world.  It apparently means 'hello', 'goodbye', 'great technique', 'S-O-S', and 'hey, good looking, what's your sign'.  


6.  NO MORE FRUIT AND VEGETABLE SLICING.  I watched one guy take a sharp samurai sword and hack a watermelon to bits while it was positioned on a volunteer's stomach.  Another guy took a banana and put it on a guy's hand, while one crazy S.O.B. put a cucumber on a volunteer's throat.  At least the those crazy guys at Benihana occasionally work up some fried rice to go with their chopped veggies.


7.  YOU MUST STOP DOING DEMONSTRATIONS WHILE WEARING A NINJA OUTFIT.  It's not an authentic reference to a real, dangerous historic period, it's a Halloween costume.  Let's make a deal...if you get to wear a ninja outfit, then I get to wear rodeo clothes.  In fact, they have something in common...they both involve a bunch of bull.  But only one of them is in any real danger.


8.  THOSE GUYS?  THE ONES WHO LET PEOPLE PUNCH 'EM IN THE THROAT OR KICK 'EM IN THE GROIN TO PROVE THEIR CHI ARMOR?  THEY NEED TO STOP.  Either that, or we get to do it when they least expect it.  Like, when they get out of the shower.  


9.  QUIT CALLING WHAT YOU DO AN 'EXTREME' MARTIAL ART.  I went to a martial arts school that called itself 'EXTREME' one time, and the only thing extreme I noticed was just how extremely white their gis were.  Look, unless you're having a full contact fight while base jumping off a skyscraper or riding the loop-the-loop on a BMX bike, it's really not all that extreme.  Before you start calling what it 'EXTREME' ask yourself one question...would the guys from JackAss do it?  And where exactly would they place the sparkler?


10.  ANYBODY WHO HAS PARTICIPATED IN AN UNDERGROUND DEATH MATCH MUST LEAD US TO WHERE THE BODIES ARE BURIED.  You can trust us.  We'll get our brother in law, the one who's in law school, to draft up some immunity contract or give you a get-out-of-jail-free card to carry in your wallet.

NEW TOP TEN RULES
I love Bill Maher's "New Rules."  And I also love David Letterman's Top Ten Lists.  So I decided to combine them for a segment I like to call "NEW TOP TEN RULES."


1.  CHI MASTERS, PRESSURE POINT FIGHTERS AND NO-TOUCH KNOCKOUT EXPERTS MUST ALL NOW ENTER THE OCTAGON.  It'll be a breeze...easy peasy.  You don't even have to work up a sweat.  We'll let you teach Steven Seagal a few tricks.  I'll even be your corner man, (and if my calculations are correct we'll only need 7 more).



2.  MARTIAL ARTISTS MUST STOP DOING FLYING KICKS.  If they were used, as martial arts historians like to point out, to dismount attacking cavalry, then that is now their only legitimate use.  If our early detection military satellites begin to pick up giant hordes of invaders on horseback, I promise, you'll be the first ones we contact.


3.  MINIMALISM:  FROM NOW ON NO MORE BREAKING GIANT SLABS OF ICE...FROM NOW ON, YOU MUST SIMPLY PLACE ONE ICE CUBE ON THE GROUND AND SMASH IT WITH ONE BLOW.  AND WHILE WE'RE AT IT, NO MORE LYING ON A BED OF NAILS...YOU MUST LIE DOWN ON ONLY ONE NAIL.

4.  SANCHIN KATA MUST GO AWAY.  

If I want an exercise in which I stand there blowing out hot air while my blood pressure rises, I'll do what everybody else does--get a job blowing up party balloons.

5.  IF THE CLOSEST YOU'VE BEEN TO COMBAT IS PLAYING A HECTIC, SWEATY SESSION OF 'CALL OF DUTY', YOU CAN'T CALL YOURSELF A 'WARRIOR'.  




6.  NO MORE HORSE STANCES.  


Unless you're getting ready to perform your famous karaoke version of "U Can't Touch This" it just looks kinda weird.

7.  NO MORE PATCHES ON YOUR MARTIAL ARTS 

UNIFORMS.  Seriously, I don't know if I'm supposed to bow to you or buy a box of cookies.  

BTW, those new Savannah Smiles™ are to die for.


8.  NO MORE ELABORATE TITLES.  The only person I call master is my dominatrix.  (She hurts me if I don't).


9.  STOP USING BRUCE LEE TO PROMOTE YOUR STYLE.  Lee was for freedom of expression and individuality.  He was most definitely anti-style, anti-regimentation, and anti-group think.  You wouldn't use Donald Trump to promote a seminar on humility would you?



10.  MMA FIGHTERS MUST NOW START TATTOOING THEIR FOREHEADS.

Look, we know it makes you look tough, and screams out to anybody who's watching that you can take a lot of pain, but you guys are starting to run out of room.  It's either that or your tongues.

TO TOUCH IS TO HEAL, 
TO HURT IS TO STEALA CLOSE ENCOUNTER OF THE CHI KIND

"It works when done across a room or across the planet. 
I stopped trying to analyze how a long time ago. 
It just works." 

Quote from a Reiki 'expert' as to how Reiki works

"Now you know it's a meaningless question
To ask if those stories are right,
'Cause what matters most is the feeling
You get when you're hypnotized"
Fleetwood Mac, Hypnotized


Bob Balaban, who played cartographer/interpreter David Laughlin in the Spielberg classic, "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," had a strange experience one night during that movie's production:

      "In his production diary...Balaban wrote that on the night of July 22, 1976, on the Alabama location shoot, some people thought they saw a UFO over the hangar. By the time everyone ran outside to look, the lights were gone. Spielberg later recalled that, at the time, he believed he had seen his first UFO and became depressed when he found out it was only an Echo satellite." (1)

If I was a betting man I'd place a wager that we've probably all witnessed something that we couldn't immediately explain, that we thought at first just might be a supernatural experience.   

It definitely happened to me:  It was a pleasant, partly cloudy springtime afternoon in 1988. I had been reading in the living room when I heard, or more accurately sensed, a sudden, sharp change in the atmosphere outside my back door. There was a crispness in the air, a vague metallic smell, and a faint taste of copper.  All of the dogs in the neighborhood began to bark and howl at the same time.  When I dashed outside to see what was going on there was a roiling dark cloud hanging so low that I could almost touch it, and my ears popped as if I had suddenly gained altitude.  The laundry hanging on the line was stretched taut and popping loudly in a powerful gust of wind.  A loud whooshing sound rushed past, and as quickly as it had appeared, the thick, black cloud began to dissipate.

I cannot explain what I experienced that day.  An unusual weather event perhaps?  A vortex?  To be honest, and I know that it sounds silly and naive, but my first gut reaction was that this was a close encounter.  

After all, I had seen Spielberg's movie years before, so naturally my mind grasped on to this memory before reason and a rational explanation finally settled in.  

I loved Close Encounters of the Third Kind.  I really thought Spielberg did a great job helping us feel Roy Neary's frustration in trying to come to grips with a startling experience.   

Dreyfus' character Neary is an Indiana power line technician, a man accustomed, we suppose, to routinely tracking down and systematically trouble-shooting problems.  One night he has a life-changing event, one that falls outside the normalcy of his day to day Midwestern existence. He sees flashing lights and floating orbs, and he feels sudden gusts of wind along with bright, burning heat.  He has difficulty convincing others, and his efforts to gather evidence or get others to believe him fail time and again.  His neighbors, and ultimately his own family, distance themselves from this man they know and love as he tragically succumbs to what they believe to be a mental breakdown.  

I liked the way the director has us see the shared vision of those touched by the experience, the way we discover the truth of what they saw, and the validation and ultimate manifestation of that truth.  We and the scientists who are present for that event at the movie's climax finally have the evidence we've known all along.  

Evidence was required.  Hard evidence.  Third tier evidence.

Evidence of Encounters

The very title of Spielberg's movie comes from UFOlogy and speaks to the kind of evidence one would expect from a bona fide UFO encounter.  Here's how the film's trailer describes it:

• Close encounters of the first kind:  Sighting of an unidentified flying object

• Close encounters of the second kind:  Physical evidence of a UFO

• Close encounters of the third kind:  Actual contact.

As Carl Sagan told us, "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence."  Thus the burden of proof is on the claimant.
How would we treat someone who made such a claim?  Imagine a hypothetical neighbor, let's call him Frank, who makes the following statement:  "A UFO touched down in my backyard last night, and I made contact with the beings inside it."  

When all of us say, "Really?  Seriously?  Okay, show me." Frank can't just say, "It was here, but it's gone now.  You'll just have to believe me."  Frank can't very well respond to our doubts by saying, "I saw what I saw, and I know what I know! Why don't you just prove that a UFO didn't land!"  

Unless and until Frank provides overwhelming evidence, all of us neighbors will remain skeptical.  

Now if Frank is a man of good standing in the community, is known for his honesty and integrity, perhaps has a career in which his powers of observation are key--let's say for the sake of our hypothetical argument that he's a law enforcement officer--then the neighbors might want to work with Frank a little bit, give him the benefit of the doubt. They'll come over, snap some pictures of the area, maybe scoop up some dirt and send it off to the local university for analysis. 

Maybe one of them will suggest a metal detector, or perhaps a Geiger counter...surely the ground will be different where the craft landed.  The grass and plants nearby will be burned to a crisp, or the earth itself or the vegetation may be bare or indented.  Somebody might suggest that we contact the authorities or the nearby Air Force base to see if anything was sighted and reported, maybe see if the FAA has any news.

But if they do all of this and still there's no evidence, then what's Frank to do?  He KNOWS what he saw.  He was THERE.  He EXPERIENCED it first hand.  Everybody else was at home sleeping.  

Frank will need to determine if what he saw was real. Perhaps it was all just a dream.  

In the well-known Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol," Scrooge thinks that indigestion is what's causing him to see the ghosts.  So maybe it was the greasy dinner Frank had before he went to bed.  Or maybe he took one of his wife's sleeping pills, and he just imagined the whole thing.

At any rate, the neighbors will have difficulty siding with poor old Frank until he can come up with something a little more solid than his personal experience.

Another Type of Encounter

This brings us to another hypothetical neighbor, whom we'll call Larry. Larry has been diagnosed with hypertension. Larry went to see his doctor, took the prescribed medication, tried diet and exercise, but he was still having problems.  In desperation Larry tried a healer.  He found a certified 'energy worker,' a practitioner who, after accepting a donation or fee, helps Larry to rebalance his chi/qi.  Within a few sessions Larry not only feels better, he is amazed to discover that his problem has gone away.  

So excited is he that he decides to become a 'certified healer' himself.  He attends courses, meets the requirements and receives his certification.  He now provides this service to a select group of patients.  He even trains others who are interested in becoming 'healers' themselves.

This is not that uncommon.  There are numerous such 'treatments' offered, and many allow participants to obtain certification so they themselves can become 'healers.'

Reiki

Be it cancer, diabetes, arthritis, muscle injuries, or a whole host of diseases, Reiki offers a similar solution.  A Reiki master, it is claimed, can help the individual heal him/herself.

"Really?  Seriously?  Okay, show me!" would be my response.

Reiki, according to scientific analysis, falls in the realm of faith healing and is no more effective than a placebo. People feel relaxed after a session and may even claim a sense of relief of minor symptoms, as would be expected. After all, if I feel bad, and if I have a friendly care giver who takes the time to try to help me feel better, I am sure that I would find comfort in their efforts.  A cool rag on the forehead, gentle reassuring words from someone confident in his or her skills, human kindness, a nice cup of warm tea...these things would definitely help me feel better, less stressed.  If that is all Reiki claimed, I would have no issue.

But that is not what claimants state.  Reiki, it is often claimed, is a form of healing that can manipulate an unseen life force that is within and which surrounds us all.   Health occurs, they believe, when this life force is balanced, in harmony, and flows correctly; and, conversely, discomfort and disease occur when that flow is blocked, becomes imbalanced, or improperly channeled or restricted.  

Let's remember our lessons from Logic 101:  Inductive and deductive reasoning, or what some people refer to as 'top-down' and 'bottom-up' reasoning.  

      "...the difference between inductive and deductive arguments involves the strength of evidence which the author believes the premises to provide for the conclusion, inductive and deductive arguments differ with regard to the standards of evaluation that are applicable to them...at its core, the distinction between deductive and inductive  has to do with the strength of the justification that the author or expositor of the argument intends that the premises provide for the conclusion. If the argument is logically fallacious, it may be that the premises actually do not provide justification of that strength, or even any justification at all. Consider, the following argument:

    All odd numbers are integers.
    All even numbers are integers.
    Therefore, all odd numbers are even numbers.

This argument is logically fallacious because it is invalid. In actuality, the premises provide no support whatever for the conclusion." (2)

So, Reiki starts with the premise or proposition that chi/qi exists.  If one disagrees with this proposition, then it is difficult to proceed with the argument and almost impossible to agree with the conclusion.  

The claimant at this point may then use psuedo-scientific language, claiming that chi/qi is 'bioelectrical energy' within us all, detectable with some standard scientific instruments. Chi/qi is the spark of life, they'll say, or chi/qi is energy vibration at the molecular level, in keeping with quantum theory.  It is the air we breath, the wind that blows around us, the life energy in the plants we eat.  It is real they tell us, but it is also unseen, difficult to measure, and tough to pin down.

Here's how it is described in /reikihealinginstitute.org:  "What is reiki? It is intangible, invisible, formless, not of the senses, a subtle field of energy, the essence of life, universal life energy.  In Reiki healing, you do nothing and achieve everything." (3)


Intangible.  Invisible.  Formless.  But it exists?
As Carl Sagan reminded us, "...what's the difference between an invisible, incorporeal, floating dragon who spits heatless fire and no dragon at all? If there's no way to disprove my contention, no conceivable experiment that would count against it, what does it mean to say that my dragon exists? Your inability to invalidate my hypothesis is not at all the same thing as proving it true. Claims that cannot be tested, assertions immune to disproof are veridically worthless, whatever value they may have in inspiring us or in exciting our sense of wonder. What I'm asking you to do comes down to believing, in the absence of evidence, on my say-so.” (The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark).

Sagan adds, “One of the reasons for its success is that science has a built-in, error-correcting machinery at its very heart. Some may consider this an overbroad characterization, but to me every time we exercise self-criticism, every time we test our ideas against the outside world, we are doing science. When we are self-indulgent and uncritical, when we confuse hopes and facts, we slide into pseudoscience and superstition."
The Origin of Reiki

So where did the concept of Reiki come from?  Well, in it is claimed that in 1922 Mikao Usui went on a 21-day retreat where he meditated, fasted, and prayed on a mountaintop in Japan for several weeks and “received” the revelation of reiki, the "keys to healing."  He referred to it as a spiritual awakening in which a mysterious, powerful light entered the top of his head.  He felt that his universal awareness was clicked on, and he believed that a great power now emanated from him.  Somehow he knew that this great power could be used to help and heal others.



How Does Reiki Work?


Let's let a practitioner explain it:

     "We are alive because life force is flowing through us. Life force flows within the physical body though pathways called chakras, meridians and nadis. It also flows around us in a field of energy called the aura. Life force nourishes the organs and cells of the body, supporting them in their vital functions. When this flow of life force is disrupted, it causes diminished function in one or more of the organs and tissues of the physical body.
 
     "The life force is responsive to thoughts and feelings. It becomes disrupted when we accept, either consciously or unconsciously, negative thoughts or feelings about ourselves. These negative thoughts and feelings attach themselves to the energy field and cause a disruption in the flow of life force. This diminishes the vital function of the organs and cells of the physical body.
 
     "Reiki heals by flowing through the affected parts of the energy field and charging them with positive energy. It raises the vibratory level of the energy field in and around the physical body where the negative thoughts and feelings are attached. This causes the negative energy to break apart and fall away. In so doing, Reiki clears, straightens and heals the energy pathways, thus allowing the life force to flow in a healthy and natural way. 

     "A treatment feels like a wonderful glowing radiance that flows through and around you. Reiki treats the whole person including body, emotions, mind and spirit creating many beneficial effects that include relaxation and feelings of peace, security and wellbeing. Many have reported miraculous results.

     "Reiki is a simple, natural and safe method of spiritual healing and self-improvement that everyone can use. It has been effective in helping virtually every known illness and malady and always creates a beneficial effect. It also works in conjunction with all other medical or therapeutic techniques to relieve side effects and promote recovery. (4)

One Reiki practitioner described his experience like this:

     "...negative energy (was) transmuted into white light and travelled down to the centre of the earth then returned up my spinal column and carried on into outer space to the centre of the universe and then returned back to me through the crown chakra and down the front of my body through the throat centre then the heart centre and the solar plexus, on to the genitals and in to the perineum, through to the centre of the earth and returned back up my spine and so began this new orbit of energy."(5)

Problems with Reiki

1.  Reiki cannot be explained as a natural phenomenon.  Unlike practitioners of legitimate, scientific medicine, a Reiki 'healer' cannot explain in scientific language what occurs at the molecular level during supposed treatment.  

When challenged, Reiki experts will tell you that science doesn't know everything, and that the nature of Reiki and 'energy work' is outside standard science models and not conducive to empirical research.  

Because a client/patient lies down in a dimly lit room with gentle, relaxing music as a calm, peaceful practitioner uses soothing words and a reassuring bedside manner, a Reiki practitioner will tell you that studies have shown that Reiki is 'effective.'  At healing?  No.  At feeling more relaxed?  Sure.  

Reiki is simply a new name for the concept of 'vitalism.'  As Steven Novella describes it:  "The concept of a human energy field is really just a new name to a several thousand year old concept. Most ancient cultures believed that there was some vital force, an animus which made living things alive, and distinguished them from non-living things. In ancient China this mysterious force was called Chi, in India it was chakra, in Greece animus, and in Rome spiritus. Today the concept still survives in traditional Chinese medicine and Indian ayurveda. Many modern alternative medicine disciplines have also adopted a vitalistic philosophy."

2.  Reiki cannot be shown to be any more valid than placebo.

3.  No evidence has been found for the existence of 'energy flows,' and thus there is no evidence that one can manipulate this invisible, unmeasurable, non-existent energy.  Novellas says that "Today the depth of knowledge of physiology and biochemistry is vast. At no point in any biology laboratory has anyone detected a mysterious force which is responsible for any aspect of life. Nor is there any deep and pervasive mystery about how living organisms function that requires the hypothesis of a life force to keep things going. The concept of a life force is completely without empirical evidence or theoretical need for its existence, and is therefore best viewed as an ancient pre-scientific superstition."

When put to the test, practitioners of Therapeutic Touch, a treatment similar to Reiki, performed no better than would be expected by chance.  In 1998 Emily Rosa, at that time 9 years old, was able to show that even those practitioners with many years of experience could not detect the presence of the HEF or "human energy field."

4.  Reiki is one of many so-called CAM (Complimentary and Alternative Medicine) treatments such as homeopathy, acupuncture, aromatherapy, Ayurveda.  Most of these do not require medical degrees or thorough knowledge of human anatomy, biology, or chemistry.  When questioned, Reiki practitioners switch gears whenever it's convenient.  Tell Reiki practitioners that they have to be licensed by the State in order to provide massage, and they'll tell you that they do not actually come in contact with the patient during treatment.  Tell them that they need to be licensed if they claim to be healers, and they'll tell you that Reiki is merely a spiritual practice and should be exempt.  Or they'll tell you that they themselves do not heal, but instead the patient him/herself does the healing.

5.  Although no evidence has been provided, and no tests have validated the claims, Reiki practitioners claim that it can be used as part of a 'holistic treatment' for cancer.  Some believe that this is both unethical and exploitative.  Here's a great point from Brian Hughes:  "when obtaining informed consent (an ethical requirement for any therapeutic intervention), do Reiki practitioners really inform their patients about Reiki? For example, do they inform patients that the cumulative research literature shows no treatment efficacy for Reiki with regard to any medical condition? Do they inform patients that the claim that vital energy can be redirected through a person’s body in a way that promotes well-being (or that such energy even exists) is made without any foundation whatsoever? If Reiki practitioners fail to mention such points then it is very questionable whether ‘informed’ consent can be said to have been obtained at all. Failing to obtain informed consent prior to treatment is simply unethical."

6.  Reiki is essentially a cult-like pyramid scheme.  Like the treatment?  Then learn to be a Reiki expert.  Want to share it with others?  Once trainess have payed to receive credentials, they may then go on to teach other trainees.

7.  Reiki is not, as philosopher Karl Popper demanded, falsifiable.  Instead it is a faith-based practice.  "One of the tenets behind science," says Martyn Shuttleworth, "is that any scientific hypothesis and resultant experimental design must be inherently falsifiable. Although falsifiability is not universally accepted, it is still the foundation of the majority of scientific experiments."  Popper stated that a scientific claim must be able to withstand the rigors of testing; it must be disprovable. (6)
I do not in any way suggest that therapeutic massage is not valid.  Nor am I suggesting that relaxation is not beneficial during the healing process.  But I do suggest that unethical, exploitative, costly, unproven, unscientific/psuedo-scientific treatments should not be considered as an option for anyone who needs valid medical treatment, either as a replacement for bona fide medical care nor as an augmentation of such care.  Scientific medicine knows so much more than primitive tribal healers and shamans.  It has unlocked the human genetic code, developed medicines and treatments to save lives, treat diseases, and promote longer and healthier lives.

Some people fear medicine or have a distrust of modern medicine.  They read the statistics about malpractice and severe health risks and even deaths which occur in hospitals as a result of negligence or as a result of a patient receiving the wrong medicine or incorrect dosages.  As a result of this fear and/or mistrust, or because many simply cannot afford the rising cost of medical services, CAM is often considered as a valid alternative.  I disagree.  I certainly contend that the current state of medicine is flawed and needs major reform.  But the science behind modern medicine is not the issue.  Most of the problems are a result of procedure, technology, inadequate training, and human error.

CAM treatments, such as Reiki, have no place in modern medicine.  









http://www.theskepticsguide.org/resources/logicalfallacies.aspx
http://www.reiki.org/reikinews/sciencemeasures.htm
http://rehab.ucla.edu/workfiles/Urban%20Zen/Research%20Articles/Reiki_Really_Works-A_Groundbreaking_Scientific_Study.pdf
http://thesciencebit.net/2011/03/18/reiki-cancer-and-the-problem-of-informed-consent/ 
http://www.theness.com/index.php/therapeutic-touch/ 
http://explorable.com/falsifiability

A MULTI-DIMENSIONAL MAN Interview with Personal Protection Coach Jamie Clubb
"I was born into a travelling circus family around street fighters and wild animal trainers."   A great opening line to a bestselling mystery suspense novel?  Nope.  A description of an action movie character?  Uh uh.  No, in this case, it's not a novel, and it's not a movie.  It's all true, and it refers to a unique individual.  Like the Chimera, the mythical composite creature that forms the logo of his martial arts program, he is a man of many dimensions--prolific writer, talented martial artist, and exceptional teacher--Jamie Clubb.

Don't just take my word for it.  Listen to what some of the world's top instructors have to say about Jamie:

"The intellectual dimension in reality training, putting brains behind the brawn."  Mo Teague

"...one of the most insightful martial artists it's ever been my pleasure to meet.  His direct methods and practical approach cut right to the heart of functional self protection."  Iain Abernathy

"...a great teacher and an amazing man of martial knowledge, I recommend him highly."  Geoff Thompson

I have been reading Jamie's articles for several years...detailed notes about his most recent classes, movie and novel reviews, insightful glimpses into history, and well-researched articles about modern, cutting-edge personal protection, training methods and nutrition.  

I was excited when Jamie agreed to an interview, and I think my readers will be taken with Jamie's passion, vision, and critical thinking approach.

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 Ron Goin:  YOU COME TO THE MARTIAL ARTS WITH AN INTERESTING PEDIGREE; I.E., YOUR CIRCUS/ENTERTAINMENT BACKGROUND.  WHAT UNIQUE PERSPECTIVES DOES THAT PROVIDE YOU?

Jamie Clubb:  Where do you start! Circus provides you with a fantastic microcosm of life. 
Firstly, British/European traditional circus, which is what I was born into, is multicultural. That provides you with a well-rounded insight into society. My family, on my mother’s side, has an alleged three century unbroken lineage of performers (when I did my martial arts act I became part of the eighth generation of performers). Our earliest ancestor was supposedly descended from the Huguenots who travelled over the Pyrenees and then made it into England to escape persecution. In 1984 a set of postal stamps were commissioned to commemorate the first recorded person bearing our family name who performed at the frost fair in 1684 when the river Thames in London froze over. 

So, when traditional, classical and quasi-traditional martial artists try to talk to me about my lack of insight into culture and tradition it brings a smile to my face. These martial artists often do this because of my rather modern approach to training and my often irreverence to what I see to be dogmatic, archaic and fundamentally flawed in martial arts practice. I understand and respect tradition, but I am not bound by its artificial trappings and perceived rules. 

Circus brings together people from all walks of life. Like many things in life and particularly the world of martial arts, it is a mass of paradoxes and contradictions. It has a long history of being patronized by royalty and the circus has more than its fair share of hierarchies and nepotism. However, many people gained middle-class status through pioneering circuses. Still more people came from working class and even poverty-stricken backgrounds to gain success. Circus was one of the first businesses to employ ex-slaves and people with perceived disabilities. Likewise there was little in the way of gender lines when it came to work. Women worked wild animal acts long before they got the vote, and one British woman was even the director of a circus before women received equal age voting in the UK. The circus way was if you can work, if you can take the hardship and prove yourself, you can be whatever you like in the business. My grandfather often showed off the fact that millionaire circus directors would make sure their children drove stakes into the ground and that they worked harder than the people they employed. My dad came from a wealthy family and was employed by a circus in a bid, by his father, to put him off his chosen career path (to become a wild animal trainer). 


So, I met all sorts of people and had a very wide range of experiences as I grew up. Many of the soft skills I now teach people in self-protection come from my upbringing on circus and being around circus people. My mother, like any circus mother was vigilant about making sure I was switched on and understood certain dangers. My grandfather used to throw things at my dad when he least expected it to sharpen his reactions. 

As for actual combat, most circus people have experience in fighting. Far more recently than many would like to admit, circus and fairgrounds (you call them carnivals) were indistinguishable. My family has both circus and fairground branches. Up until the 1950s many circuses travelled with fairs. Boxing and wrestling have a lot of history in circuses and fairs. During the turn of the 20th century boxing was often a part of a circus. The light heavyweight champion, Freddie Mills, fought on my grandparents’ circus in the boxing booths. Most of the males in my family learnt how to box. Due to often being the stranger in a new town and vulnerable to all sorts of enemy, circus people learnt how to “cor” through experience. 

Circus people have also been forced to be creative and resourceful with their physical training. Not having access to gyms they improvise all the time and the wide variety of different artists living on a show provides something of a melting pool of information once trust is won. Their basic work is hard honest labour – building up tents and big tops, swinging sledgehammers, carrying bales of hay and straw, putting up seating (what you would call bleachers) and sweeping up. That is before you get the actual performing, which requires human beings to be able to go far beyond what the average amateur athlete does in their chosen sport or physical activity. Circus people are also very used to training in all sorts of conditions. 

It is interesting to see the renewed enthusiasm for “functional fitness”. Much of the work, from the routines involving carrying unbalanced weights to the more sophisticated bar and street gym stuff, can be found on a circus. I am looking to bring in professional circus artists to provide more information; knowledge and experience to this area of training in order for martial arts athletes to greater explore these attributes. 

Finally circus has given me skepticism. Because our ancestors were largely involved in tricking audiences in one form or another, whether it was fortune telling or magic, I have learnt not to drink the proverbial Kool Aid. Critical thinking is a vital area missing from martial arts coaching. 

RG:  PRO WRESTLING…THE BANE OF MANY SPORTS FANS OR THE RAGE AMONG OTHERS…WHAT ARE THE SIMILARITIES BETWEEN THAT FIELD AND MA?

JC:  There is something very hypocritical about the way many martial artists look down on professional wrestling. If wu shu, stage fighting, musical forms/patterns and demonstrations are to be considered part of martial arts, then so is professional wrestling. Professional wrestlers are martial artists. They perform a combat art. I am not, nor have I ever been a professional wrestler. I ran a promotion and played a manager character that came from a martial arts act I performed in our show. However, I have nothing but the deepest respect for those who work in the pro wrestling business. 

If they are trained correctly, the professional wrestler or “worker” learns the catch-as-catch-can style first as part of their basics. They learn how to grapple with resisting opponents, understanding holds, positioning, throws, takedowns and submissions. Old school catch wrestling is much like submission grappling, but includes neck cranks. Stuntman and ex-professional wrestler “Judo” Gene LeBelle had his basic instruction in wrestling. He called one aspect of his training “grappling”, which he described as what I guess some martial arts marketing guru might call “dirty wrestling”. It included all the face-bars, finger-locks and illegal grappling moves. Few people realize that Ken Shamrock was a pro-wrestler first and a mixed martial arts fighter second in his career. The careers of Brock Lesner and Kurt Angle should also be taken into consideration. 

The “worked” nature of professional wrestling probably goes back further than many people would like to admit. It seems very likely that many of the old school catch wrestlers fought in matches with pre-determined endings and against “stooges”. They would have to in order to have a career where they might be fighting every night against anyone who decided they wanted to have a go. I would say that this included some of late 19th century music hall ju jutsu fighters and many of the circus/fairground boxers. The alternative makes a heroic story, but would be career suicide given the nature of non-worked fights of the time. This does not mean that these grapplers were not genuinely tough people who fought in legitimate bouts, but the same can be said about a lot of professional wrestlers today. 

RG:  I KNOW THAT THERE ARE ‘WORKED’, PRE-DETERMINED EVENTS, BUT CAN PRO WRESTLING TECHNIQUES BE MODIFIED TO WORK IN MA/ON THE STREET?

JC:  All the basic professional wrestling moves are legitimate combat techniques. Much of their positioning contains essential grappling tactics. The orthodox clothesline is a legitimate combat technique in many forms of fighting. Waist-locks, supplexes, ankle picks, headlocks, the top wrist-lock (comparable to the Americana or figure-of-four armlock) and fireman’s carry are all functional fighting moves. There are also grovettes (similar to the guillotine), various limb-locks, eye-rakes and “dirty” tactics. 

They might have “spots” with their over-the-top power moves, drop-kicks and high flying, but I ask you to then consider any high level aikido, traditional ju jutsu, hapkido, taekwondo or wu shu demonstration. On the more flashy side of things their short-clothesline is comparable to an aikido irimi/tenkan movement and the scissors takedown can be found in any number of viet vo dao displays. 




RG:  YOU SEEM TO APPROACH MOST OF YOU WORK WITH A REAL SCIENTIFIC ANALYSIS.  WHERE DID THIS APPROACH COME FROM?  WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO YOU?

JC:  I think initially my “scientific” analysis comes from a type of informally learned skepticism. See my circus education for the beginnings of that. Also I received a children’s book called “The Hamlyn Book of Facts and Fallacies” on my tenth birthday. I had always loved mythology and folklore, so this book opened me up to looking at the real facts behind them. It taught me formal critical thinking in a fun way. Being an avid historian I became meticulous about fact-finding and distilling them from legends. 

I don’t think I have what would normally be classed a scientific brain. I was terrible at maths and science at school; my mind was more drawn towards English, history and cultural studies. However, as I got more heavily involved in debunking misinformation and disinformation through my martial arts coaching and other pursuits, I kept finding that the scientific method was the best tool available to get plausible answers. I couldn’t deny it, so I became what Penn Jillette described as “A cheerleader for science”. 

Science, unlike any other method, is constantly progressing. Rather than pursuing the removal of error and comfort of certainty, science constantly seeks to disprove facts and embraces uncertainty. Such an approach, which has proven to give us all our advances in technology and discoveries about the world around us, seems perfect to better improve skills we might need to save our life.  

RG:  DO YOU FEEL THAT SCIENTIFIC/SKEPTICAL INQUIRY/DEBUNKING HAS MADE AN IMPACT ON MA?  DOES FRAUD CONTINUE TO EXIST/GROW, OR IS IT ON THE DOWNSWING?

JC:  Martial arts are comparable to any other subculture and we can see an ever-present struggle of science and reason against superstition, pseudoscience and dogmatism. Science has been embraced by martial artists at a relatively early stage. 18th century western boxing was referred to as a science. Martial arts used in a military context were often trained using scientific principles that go back centuries. We know warfare often progressed with science and therefore it follows so did the martial methods. In 20th century, traditional systems like karate have undergone scientific changes in their training methodology, such as those brought in my Shigeru Kimura in the shukokai school. General Choi Hong Hi of taekwondo fame was often researching sports science and included it in his literature. Similarly I recently looked over an old book - “The Complete Master’s Kick” - I got way back at the beginning of my martial arts studies, written by Hee Il Cho, that has an amazing amount of scientific information on the development of kicking techniques. It not only correctly identifies the muscle groups involved and the role they play, but also provides various exercises to help condition these specific muscles. Many instructors in American Kempo can provide you with intricate descriptions of the physics involved in their techniques, and the taekwondo offshoot, choi kwan do, is seemingly obsessed with body mechanics. 

It is not the presence of science that is the problem in martial arts. Rather it is the lack of a scientific method. Science has never been my strong point, and most martial arts instructors have better mathematical brains than me. Many others are qualified in sports science. However, I often have little difficulty finding faults in what is often being taught. This is because martial arts are institutionalized under the wrong objectives. They become comparable to cults in that they are either trying to progress an ideology or a business or both. 

Charlatanism became a part of many martial practices around the turn of the 20th century when they became more accessible to the general public. The suppression of martial arts also led to a lot of disruption in the effective training of combat systems. In order to survive against governments hostile to the idea of civilians forming militias it is understandable why in China and Japan many martial arts schools needed to change their objectives in order to survive. It is also understandable why the use of dance and ritual might be incorporated to hide certain strategies and tactics. 

Furthermore, I understand from my circus background just how jealously certain arts and skills can be protected. I have known wild animal trainers, for example, who trained animals using unusual cues so that anyone else trying to work these particular animals would not be able to get them to perform. Although I am dubious about many claims made about “secret” techniques and styles, it does follow that many families wouldn’t teach “outsiders” (in circus we used to call them “jossers”) everything. This would form part of the bad teaching practices. However, given what we know about human anatomy and physics now it begs the question just how much can really be hidden in the modern world. 

Then we have the commercialization of martial arts that occurred around this era. There is a lot of primary source material indicating the use of street entertainment stunts, including fakir tricks and acrobatics, in China that were used to promote schools to the general public. This was heavily criticized by Tang Hao. This man is an unsung martial arts hero who deserves more attention. This revolutionary –and I mean that quite literally – was preaching critical thinking in martial arts almost 100 years ago. He was openly critical of the flowery and unnecessary movements that were being taught in the more popular Chinese martial arts schools and advocated cross-training, working a lot in Japan. He was also a fan of pressure testing and his writings are comparable with any of those involved in what I called the “Reality Revolution” of 1990s martial arts.  

He wasn’t alone either. Throughout the 20th century we regularly come across martial arts rebels that challenged the current order. The same messages reoccur again and again with science often being used as the best method to get the right answers. These people do stand out, but they do so because they are a very loud minority and they are a stark contrast to the norm. Their presence is both encouraging and a reminder of the dangerous lure of ritual and certainty that appeals to most people. It also serves as a sobering response both to the quasi-traditionalists who argue that no one had any issue with certain methods until modern times. 

RG:  IS THERE A PLACE FOR TRADITIONAL MARTIAL ARTS IN THIS NEW 21ST CENTURY, REALITY-BASED WORLD?

JC:  Traditional martial arts, at their core, are no different to “reality-based” self-defence. Their original objective was to be an effective fighting system. True, some were developed in different environmental and cultural contexts, and for another era, but there are basic principles found in their roots that apply to any era.  Unfortunately their institutionalization and commercialization led to their descent into impractical training methods that no more prepare the average person for real-life violence than a dance or aerobics class. However, the same can be said for many so-called modern self-defence systems. It is not the system that is largely at fault, but rather how it is being taught. 

Your average traditional martial arts class does not teach effective self-protection. The school is teaching their personal interpretation of an art often enforced by the “party line” of the association. Whether they are being true to the intentions of that art’s founder is a matter for debate, but the objective of the class is to perfect techniques to represent the style rather than develop individuals to best find their unique way. They are trying to preserve an intangible commodity and will fall over themselves to justify their actions rather to question anything.  In this respect, I often find myself having more respect for your average battle reenactment person than the average martial artist. Both dress in uniforms from another era and both try to be as accurate as possible in their physical representation of said era. Both try to be as safe as possible in their recreation of something that was designed to kill people when it was used in this era. The difference is the reenactor is not really under any delusion. He does not pretend that his skills and practice has a direct relevance to the world that exists outside of his reenactment society. Even those reenactors who spar under pressure and fight to win know they are not equipping themselves for modern-day warfare or self-defence. 

However, I cannot be wholly dismissive of the traditional martial arts world when there are people like Iain Abernethy and Gavin Mulholland in karate, Alan Gibson, Andras Milward, Alan Orr, Dave Fenton and Mauricio Machuca  in wing chun, Stuart Anslow and Matt Sylvester in taekwondo, and several others out there teaching traditional martial arts as practical systems. The burden of proof is no longer on the shoulders of these people. Not only are they teaching very sensible methods for self-protection that are at least as good as the best modern combative programmes out there, but they have the verifiable evidence that what they are teaching is completely in line with the traditional roots of their arts. 




RG:  YOU SEEM TO BE COMMITTED TO TEACHING MA NOT JUST ‘HOW-TO’ BUT ‘WHY’…HOW IMPORTANT IS CRITICAL THINKING TO THE AVERAGE MARTIAL ARTIST?  CAN IT BE TAUGHT AS PART OF A MA CURRICULUM?

JC:  As wary as I am of the self-help movement, I put my hand up and admit that I was very impressed with Stephen R. Covey’s three components to creating effective habits: why, what and how. I start with “why” otherwise your training has no clearly defined objective. This is something I bear in mind when it comes to teaching martial artists my “Vagabond Warriors” cross-training approach. Cross-training is certainly nothing new. Just about every established combat form is the result of cross-training in some way. Coaches draw upon their personal experiences, which often includes information taken from outside the discipline they are teaching, and use it to mold their lessons. However, we live in an exciting time when information is more readily available and open than before, so students are accessing it without guidance. 

If they are going to do this, then they need to have a good mental compass installed set by the reason why they are training in another discipline. If we see their primary discipline as being a path then the cross-training experiences become diversions or slip-roads. The student goes into these diversions and with a clear and defined purpose. 

If done correctly, this tangent is an enriching journey that will greatly enhance the cross-trainer’s main skills. He will be able to take these experiences back to the main path. The judoka’s newaza will be greatly improved by his time training in Brazilian jiu jitsu. Likewise the Thai boxer’s punching will have become faster and stronger thanks to his time focusing on this range in western boxing. 

However, this process of taking tangents doesn’t come without its pitfalls. It is a perilous journey and in order to acquire attributes from another system one needs to immerse oneself in it and go through a period of detachment from the original path. The danger here is something I call “The Calypso Effect”. The cross-trainer can become so drawn into another style that he forgets his original path. Worse still, he invests so much into the new style that he starts to justify its practice as if it were the original path. 

Another problem is something I call “welding techniques”. In this instance, the martial artist thinks he can take techniques from one system and apply them verbatim to the confines of a set system. Not to mix metaphors, but you get this weird patchwork of techniques that just appears awkward and is rarely effective. This is caused by a belief in “stylism” and a complete ignorance of attribute training. It is the attributes one gains from other styles that help him improve his primary skills. For the self-defence student, western boxing will give him better familiarity, fluidity and a stronger focus on the mechanics behind striking with the hands; wrestling will help his stability, provide him with tactile awareness and positioning when being clinched and so on. However, this is still superficial in my mind. The greatest education I have acquired came from teachers irrespective of their style or system. When martial artists start thinking more in terms of people rather than arts as if they were tangible entities I think we are going to see a better development of holistic skill. 

Critical thinking is one of three missing ingredients from most martial arts lessons, the other two being clarification and individuality. So many philosophies and religions have become installed in martial ways, so why not skepticism? Learning critical thinking puts a student in charge of his education. Most martial arts are about training individuals to take control. Skepticism is the best way to get someone to take charge. It puts them in that mindset. You should always question what you are teaching and what you are learning. It is the only way to keep you moving in a productive fashion. It stops stagnation. You hear a lot about people stepping out of their comfort zones, but nothing quite does that like critical thinking. I am not talking about being blatantly argumentative. That is not really skepticism, but often pseudoscepticism masquerading as critical thinking. Questioning anything is important, but your argument must have just cause, and if you are going to pose an alternative view you should appreciate that the burden of proof falls on your shoulders. 

I think a teacher of any discipline should do their best to take their student back to the base of what they are studying. All good English literature teachers have their students act the plays of Shakespeare and have them see how they are performed. All good science teachers will take a student through the experimental procedures of an established theory. As teachers we need to best replicate the lived experience of what we are practicing. A martial arts student needs to know where their training comes from and to feel what drives that process. In the beginning there was one individual who decided his methods were best and, in many cases, this was a direct criticism of an established system. Martial arts founders were skeptics. They critically questioned and came up with the solution they felt best addressed the flaws of the art that came before them. 

When it comes to teaching someone something that might save their lives I think it is a disservice not to promote critical thinking. Critical thinking is at the heart of what keeps people safe and the only way we can seek to improve. 

RG:  IF A STUDENT NEVER FACED OR NEVER WILL FACE A REAL WORLD, VIOLENT ENCOUNTER, WOULD MA TRAINING STILL BE AN IMPORTANT INVESTMENT OF TIME?

JC:  Define “important”. I see this question as having two parts. Firstly, what is the point of martial arts practice? Secondly, what is the point of self-protection training? 

To answer the first part, it would be so easy for me to become one of those instructors who tell you what fantastic value martial arts can give to a person’s life, but the truth is that there isn’t a single quality a martial art can provide for a human being that another activity cannot deliver besides dealing with violence. The unique quality a martial art provides is its study and practice of physical violence. 

Martial arts were either developed as combat sports used for dueling and any other form of alpha male or female contest, as military skills or for civilian protection. The success of martial arts as a means to better one’s self and build character is not something that is integral to the systems, but rather down to the fact that academics helped popularize it, and the self-improvement model aided the art’s survival under oppressive regimes. 

I appreciate that is a contentious view and it hasn’t been a politically correct one in the world of martial arts since the 19th century, but I haven’t seen a plausible argument against this simple fact. I agree, wholeheartedly, that martial arts has given me so much more in life than as a means for self-defence, and I fully endorse the promotion of its many other attributes. 

There is a lot a person can get out of a good martial arts class other than learning skills for combat, but I just do not see them as unique qualities. You want physical discipline then I challenge you to join a dance company. You want philosophy or to become “spiritual” then study philosophy or join a religion; both contain far more original ideas about introspection and the way we look at life than any amount of re-readings of “The Book of Five Rings”. You want healing then study medicine or therapy. You want to lose fat then monitor your food intake and take regular exercise; there are more than enough physical exercise routines out there that do not involve punching anything. You want to learn about virtue or integrity then go work for a worthy charity. None of these areas are either unique to the martial arts. Furthermore, they are by-products. 

As for the second part of the answer, my view is that self-defence, as defined as the physical or “hard” skills of self-protection, should be limited and be specific by design. The baseline of this is civilian self-defence, which everyone should know whatever their profession. However, this should be no more than the way a good and efficient First Aid course is handled. My experience has shown me that there is no set way of handling interpersonal violence although there are certain generic constants that seem to stand fast. A good self-protection course should be taught in 10 hours with additional research material. Your average civilian who has no desire to become employed in any form of security work need only to apply the soft skills they are taught, remain in good physical health, practice the low-maintenance/high percentage success rate physical tactics and attend refresher courses to be reasonably prepared for the unlikely event of having to face a violent human aggressor within a civilian context.   

As Dennis “Samurai on the Door” Jones - perhaps one of the most honest martial artists and self-defence experts I have met - once told me, everyone still alive is an expert on self-protection. What he meant was that whatever methods a person had used in life to get where they were the very fact that they remained alive verified the self-defence decisions they had taken. Many people have actively avoided physical conflict and never really been put much in the way of interpersonal violence. Who is to say they haven’t lived? I know plenty that have travelled the world alone and through a combination of common sense, intelligence and the correct attitude they have not put themselves in unnecessarily risky situations. Likewise I know any number of people who have been involved in physical fights all their lives mainly through general recklessness, bullying, a lack of self-control, substance abuse and a desire to commit criminal acts. They would be the last people I would want teaching someone how to protect themselves. Unfortunately the latter often get far more credit than they deserve. 

There is nothing wrong in training in an art for the sake of enjoyment, so long as you are not deluding yourself. I love the preservation of history and, art. Oscar Wilde once said “All art is useless”. If that is a fair definition then where does that leave martial arts? As practitioners we acknowledge those moments that don’t have a direct relevance to a sporting or self-defence purpose, and train them accordingly. There are many people who indulge in the perfection of completely archaic crafts that have no justification other than their place as art. And there is something very poetic and beautiful in that. I appreciate that training for performance does have a purpose, and I did it myself, but it was within that context that I really appreciated the enjoyment of exploring what could be best described as abstract martial arts.  

So, I am very supportive of the positive by-products of training in a martial art and I have nothing but admiration for anyone who seeks to perfect any art that grips their passion. However, do not patronize me with some wishy washy story about the central purpose of your art having nothing to do with violence. Even systems that have completely shifted their objective away from combat, such as boxercise, taebo or the “health-only” variety of tai chi chuan, have their roots in systems designed for handling and dealing out violence. I do not disagree in using a martial art or an activity derived from a martial art as a vehicle to achieve ends other than to deal with violence, but let us never lie about the original intended purpose. 


RG:  WOULD YOU CONSIDER WHAT YOU DO PART OF THE MIXED MA WORLD?  AFTER ALL, YOU SEEM TO MIX AND MATCH AND BLEND METHODOLOGY AND TECHNIQUES FROM A WIDE SOURCE.

JC:  Let’s be clear about what we are discussing. I am an eclectic martial arts coach. I am a cross-trainer. I teach and practice the sport that is most commonly referred to as mixed martial arts. I think it is time that the title “mixed martial arts” and its acronym should be recognized as the excellent combat sport it has become. It transcended being merely a rule-set. It has become an athletic art-form. I think it has earned that title, which is a damn sight more respectable than “cage fighting” or “no holds barred” fighting. We cannot really use the term “vale tudo”, as that title never really took on and belongs to a specifically Brazilian rule-set. 

I say this because there are many who claim to be teaching and training in MMA and they are not. They might be training in a mixture of martial arts disciplines, but they are not training MMA. This is misleading marketing for prospective students and distorts the public view of the sport and art. MMA is a combat sport that teaches stand-up, clinch and ground based on a framework that largely draws upon systems that either are or closely resemble western boxing, muay Thai, freestyle wrestling and Brazilian jiu jitsu. My opinions on this are better laid in detail in my article “Mixed Martial Arts and the Quest for Integrity”.   

I am very wary about attaching myself to any world. A few of my students over the years have gone on to compete successfully in a small degree, but I don’t run a gym or have plans to build up a stable of fighters. I only have a small regular class for children. All my other training comes in the form of seminars, workshops and private training. I use MMA and other martial arts methods as a means for cross-training to enhance self-defence development or as part of combat conditioning. In effort to categorize me, you could say that I train in MMA as an art rather than as a competitive sport, but I would hate you for eternity if you did. So, I guess the short answer is I don’t know; probably not. 

RG:  CAN YOU SHARE WITH US SOME OF YOUR MORE MEMORABLE MA EXPERIENCES?  ONES THAT SHAPED YOUR THINKING/BECAME THE CATALYST FOR YOUR CURRENT APPROACH?

JC:  Fantasy and escapism got me into martial arts. Having grown up in show business and experienced many of its different forms, celebrities did not hold the awe they do for most people. My heroes were martial artists. First they came in the form of the comic book ninjas from “G.I. Joe” (we knew it as “Action Force”), Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes, and then whoever appeared in “Combat” magazine. My intention was to create a martial arts act and return to the circus, but the combative nature of martial arts ensnared me. I bought into what I would later term “the by-product myth” and assumed the artistic skills I would learn automatically improved my ability to fight in real life. 

I lapped up the mythology and selectively believed the martial arts propaganda. Then I started reading articles written by a rising new star called Geoff Thompson. Thompson rocked the UK martial arts scene and, along with Peter Consterdine, really forged the way for the “reality-based” sector to stand alongside the sporting and traditional martial arts. At first I really hated what he had to say. I read everything he had to say about my beloved arts like a New Earth Creationist might read “Origin of the Species”. Then reality hit me, figuratively and literally. 

I agreed to a couple of sparring sessions with some untrained individuals. They worked for my parents’ company that, at its heart, is still very much like a circus business. I was 18 years old at the time, a black belt in sakiado and making my way to black in taekwondo. We used what protective equipment I had available – semi-contact pads – and within seconds I realized they had an entirely different approach to sparring than me. All had clocked up a lot of experience fighting outside of any area that could be considered a gym. They hit hard and fast, and had little observation of rules. Due to the sport taekwondo format I had got used to, my leg was grabbed and I was unceremoniously thrown to the ground whenever I kicked. In the end it just became milling and defaulted back to how I fought years before. I gripped one fighter’s tee-shirt and fired rapid uppercuts into him. My conditioning gave me the edge over these guys, but if the situation had been even less controlled I could have paid dearly for bad habits I had picked up. 

It is at this point I would like to point out that just as intelligence is no barrier against weird thinking, experience with real violence is no defence against martial mysticism. I had grown up knowing full well what a real fight looked like, but my fantasy world of martial arts presented me with a reality I wanted to believe. As I did well against other martial arts in a competitive context and rose to the top of classes, and impressed middle-classed kids who didn’t know any better with my flashy kicks, I had ended up believing a dangerous lie. Now the writings of Geoff Thompson resonated with me. I read them all again and immediately wrote to him, purchasing some of his books. He posted back handwritten letters, addressing all my concerns and offered me advice. I asked if I could attend one of his regular classes. He agreed, but it was not to happen until 11 years later. 

RG:  YOU HAVE WRITTEN A GREAT DEAL ABOUT FITNESS AND NUTRITION…WHY ARE THOSE FIELDS IMPORTANT?  WHAT HAVE YOU DISCOVERED ABOUT THESE FIELDS THAT HAS RELEVANCE FOR MA?

JC:  Martial arts are about physical performance. If you wish to improve physical performance it makes sense that you get your base material right. I contend that physical conditioning is very important whatever your martial motivations. The stronger, faster and healthier your body, the more conditioned your mind is to cope with extreme exertions stimulated by stress hormones the better prepared you are for dealing with combat. However, fitness needs to be specific. You wouldn’t train a tennis player as you would a swimmer. So, martial arts need to be focused on their objectives and their training should be reverse engineered from these objectives.

Training programmes must all follow specific goals. The grappler has to train certain muscle groups in certain ways and likewise with the striker. The student of self-defence not only has to condition his counter-offensive physical skills so they are instinctive to him when placed under pressure, but a strong cardiovascular system will give himself an advantage when it comes to fleeing a scene.  

There is an awful lot of nonsense spouted about nutrition, and it has inevitably spilled over into the martial arts world. The connection is obvious given the way most martial arts resemble religions, and so many religions have some sort of dietary rule. Controlling food, one of most basic needs for survival, is at the core of controlling people. Martial artists clearly get wound up both in the self-control aspect and sadly the control of others. 

With a lack of critical thinking, fad diets are taken on board with fervor by the dedicated martial artist who wishes to improve his training. And just as many have irrational belief in the supremacy of their chosen style, so they will invest themselves in whatever piece of pseudoscientific diet that appeals to their ideals. 

Nutrition is an important part of athletic performance. You need to feed the muscles you have broken down in training and then grow them with sufficient sleep. It is that simple. However, very few people can sustain a diet for the rest of their lives. This is pretty much an established fact, and yet new fad diets are still big business, and gaining support from all sorts of lifestyle and sports publications. When it comes to losing weight most diets work during the initial stages. This is because we are thinking about what we put in our bodies. We become mindful of our food intake. 

This is the crux of the matter. We need to be mindful of how we train and how we eat. When thought is applied, you have a better chance of success. Mindful training makes you question the validity of an exercise and better research your routines. You can measure your results in the efficiency of your physical martial arts skills rather than just jumping on the back of a semi-body builder type regime as most people do. Being mindful eating helps prevent “mindless munching”, helps you monitor your calorie intake and will make you think twice about excessive eating of sugar, fat or salt.  

RG:  TELL US ABOUT THE PROGRAM YOU NOW TEACH…IS IT A NEW ‘STYLE’?  WHAT MAKES IT UNIQUE/DIFFERENT?

JC:  If anything it is an anti-style. My syllabus doesn’t even contain any techniques. I am a bespoke coach that puts the individual at the centre of their training. Our only guides are those presented by pressure testing and science. I create activities and experiences for an individual to express their natural combative behaviours. This is not unlike the way animal trainers teach wild animals how to perform in a set way. Everything they learn is an extension of their natural behavior. I then cultivate these responses into natural techniques. This is the complete opposite to the usual way of teaching students set techniques, putting them into drills and/or forms and then putting them into live practice. I go in the opposite direction, eventually ended up with simple suggestions for solo practice so they can retain the skills they have begun to refine. 

My training is time managed. Everything is geared towards a purpose. Because I am less technique-led I am more interested in creating exercises that will help reinforce behaviours. This includes developing neural pathways and replicating the correct force vectors. Again, I notice this is more in line with circus training. Trapeze artists, for example, learn how to perform their skills through practicing a series of exercises designed to train the muscles in a certain way.   

I have various different programmes and services that can be roughly categorized under self-protection and martial arts cross-training. It includes children’s self-protection, work-specific self-protection, combat conditioning and my Vagabond Warriors programme. I have been booked out by a variety of clients both local and international. These include corporate companies, such as the Law Society, universities, close-protection (body-guarding) centres, various martial arts clubs, young people’s clubs, schools and many individual private students. 

RG:  WHAT FEEDBACK ARE YOU RECEIVING FROM YOUR CLIENTS AFTER TRAINING WITH YOU?

JC:  What many like is the overall service I provide. Those who have worked with other instructors like the way I individualize and tailor my coaching. My clients get online support in addition to the hands-on training. This happens prior and after their actual lesson with me. They like the fact that I bring them into an online community, and they are given access to a wide range of useful resources specifically chosen for their needs. Every lesson I run is written up as a report with additional notes included for maximum retention of information. Clubs also benefit from the extra exposure my reports provide. 

RG:  WHAT TRENDS IN MA ENTERTAINMENT ARE YOU EXCITED ABOUT/ENCOURAGED BY/DISCOURAGED BY? (I.E. FIGHT SCENES IN MOVIES AND TV, SPORT COMBAT)

JC:  My taste in fight choreography is very broad. I have been involved in show business all my life and also an ardent movie buff. My interest extends from the most fantastically aesthetic “wire fu” to the grittiest of brawls. I also have a particular affection for animated fight scenes be they stop-motion, CGI or standard two dimensional cartoons.  I have no personal preference so long as it is staged, directed and shot well with a strong storyline running through the sequence. Like any aspect of drama, the fight scene carries its own synopsis and you need to invest in the characters. We also need to be able to comfortably suspend disbelief. This should not be expressed through acting alone, but also the way the physicality of the scene plays out. 

My favourite fight scenes are those that are integrated well into the drama and are handled like any other scene. In this respect, the “Star Wars” franchise often produces wonderful examples of how to pace a good final duel. Irvin Krisner’s handling of “The Empire Strikes Back” is the pinnacle of this style of not only chopping between scenes, but also lengthy pauses and even separating the two duelists for lengthy periods of time to mount suspense again. However, this can go disastrously wrong as in the case of “Cradle to the Grave”. The end fight was a hugely anticipated square-off between the criminally under-rated and often badly cast Marc Dacascos and Jet Li. If you are going to cut between the action of such an artistically brilliant pairing of stage-fighters then do so with either a) a completely different type of action, b) with some decent comedy relief, or c) with comparable stage-fighters. The only juxtaposition the other two fights in that climatic scene provided was examples of bad action cinema. 

From a spectator’s point of view, I love most types of sparring-based combat sport. Even Combat 32 got me excited about point-stop fighting for a brief period and that is saying something. Like opera, watching more varied combat sports is on my constant “to do” list. I have admiration for anyone who is willing to strip back the apparent sophistication of our societal norms in order to face another person under the pressure of an audience of spectators. I am in strong agreement with my coach, Mo Teague, that competing helps a self-defence student better acclimatize themselves to the psychological pressures of combat. 

The elevated fight scene in the British film, “Sky Fall” excited me a lot. It is the best example in a long time of the harmonization of the aesthetically pleasing with the illusion of realism, and the fighting was consistent with the characters. The fight sequence was comparable to some of Connery’s greatest moments in the early James Bond films and I see it as the fruition of ideas that were put across by Brandon Lee in “The Crow”.

I loved “The Crow” for so many reasons, but only the other day I really appreciated the wonderful film’s juxtaposition between the fantasy element and grittiness. Arguably some of this minimization of fantastical fight stunts and action might have come about by Lee’s sudden death during filming, but the physical theme throughout the film remains consistent. Unlike, say Catwoman in “Batman Returns”, which came out only a few years beforehand, the newly magically empowered Eric Draven character didn’t suddenly pick up trained skills. Lee is often under-rated for the creativity he brought to fight scenes. He cited John Woo a lot as his obvious inspiration in his films, but few acknowledge the ideas Lee brought to fight scenes. 

I was really looking forward to seeing some matured stylistic choreography coming out after the success of “Ong Bak” and the even more impressive “Warrior King”. Not being the biggest fan of “The Matrix”, I never warmed much to the whole bullet-time trend that infested action movies in the late 1990s and early 2000s. This is not to say there weren’t some good examples of this, but it was overplayed and often left cold. Therefore, it was nice to see an emergence of a backlash with fight scenes that had no or minimum wires, digital effects, ‘70s style under-cranking and John Woo-style over-cranking. I was hoping for a type of Dogme 95 for action films, at least as an experiment. 

In this vein the Japanese film, “Black Belt” showed real potential, but failed to cause a stir.  “Black Belt” more than hinted to the golden days of the great Kurosawa, and it was even made in black and white to emphasize this feel. The storyline was simplistic, but the characters contained enough depth and complexities to hold my interest beyond the action. However, the fight choreography just missed the mark. Rather delve deeper into bunkai we received rather stilted exchanges of techniques. Having said this, there was some good pausing and a good use of scenery in the final duel. 

The animated fight scene between the two bears in Disney’s “Brave” was quite good too and almost trumped the drama that was put across in “The Fox and the Hound”. On the subject of animated bear dust-ups, I have to give a nod to “The Golden Compass” and the polar bear capture motion that was taken from my parents’ trained polar bear. I thought the drama in that sequence was beautifully executed. 

The transference of sporting styles to fight scenes is not always a success, and I say this with the hit and miss appeal of MMA in fight scenes. Boxing seems to have done so well because of the great directors and cinematographers that has paved the way. This comes from the fact that the boxing is part of a strong drama and storyline. Unfortunately most other martial arts films are exploitation flicks and I think the fight scenes often suffer. We get past the point of “wow he is doing martial arts” and people want to see a continuation of the drama. Screen and stage fighting is an art unto itself. In the latter’s case, we know the great Shakespeare understood this fact in his drama, this evident in his later plays; see the stage direction for Hamlet’s fencing match against Laertes as an example. It’s not simply a case of combatants engage and one side prevails. Professional wrestlers understand this fact more than most and use what they term “psychology” to get the audience going for or against individual fighters. American kickboxing was a very poor transfer despite the huge craze that took place after Van Damme’s “Kickboxer”. You often either ended up with good screen fighters who weren’t kickboxers at one end trying to portray kickboxing, or actual kickboxing fighters executing poor fight scenes.

Grappling sports actually do transfer well, particularly if you are trying to portray grittiness. “Red Sun” was a great early example of how well this could be done. The end fight scene from “Lethal Weapon” has its own type of stylistic yet gritty Brazilian jiu jitsu aesthetic, which I saw again in Van Damme’s surprisingly good “Maximum Risk”. 

In the world of actual spectator sports, I am very disappointed at seeing both versions of wrestling dropped. Wrestling is an excellent sport that never fails to impress me. The foundation for good MMA fighting is largely based on a strong clinch game. This has allowed fighters to progress the sport, giving them strong positioning for striking and also skills to defend the takedown. From a self-defence perspective it provides excellent attribute training with its emphasis on staying on one’s feet and forward pressure. As a sport, I have yet to find one, including MMA, that was as scary to practice. Wrestling seems inherent in all cultures, and there needs to be more work done to give it a wider appeal. 

Having said this, judo seems to be transforming itself into a jacketed version of freestyle or even Greco Roman wrestling. New rules are reducing the amount of newaza and limiting the throws. Whether this is to do with safety issues, supposed improvement of aesthetics, or a desire to distinguish itself more from Brazilian jiu jitsu is a matter for debate. It is a great shame as this sport was such a comprehensive grappling style. 
  
I have had similar reservations about muay Thai, a sport I really love to watch and train. When I did my judging course back in 2004 I was very disappointed with how much had been cut out. Years on and matters appear to be getting worse. Clinch work seems to be suffering as more coaches look towards K1 as a more profitable route. Again, this is a great shame, as I enjoy watching the distinction between the two sports. There is a lot of quasi-traditional nonsense about muay boran being peddled too, but that is another issue. I think we have a lot to thank the Dutch in particular with regards to the development of better punching in the sport. Then there is the whole odd thing regarding the rules. A lot of the way fights are run in Thailand is based on the betting, and I often ponder its significance in the west. 

I have little to criticize in the MMA world. In order for it to become a mainstream sport it needed to change and, on the whole, I think the right decisions have been made. I would like to see more groundwork, but I like the pace of the bouts. Training in this sport is still really exciting, and I love the way coaches and fighters will hungrily research anything to get that edge. For those who want more vale tudo, there is always Rio Heroes and, for somewhere in-between, we have Fin Fight and other more niche promotions. 

I would love to see more events showcasing the different combat sports. It never fails to amaze or excite me when I discover yet another fighting sport. From a cross-training perspective I feel the restrictions set by different rules provide the opportunity for the development of many different attributes. 


RG:  WHAT WOULD YOU SAY ARE THE CORE NECESSITIES FOR SOMEONE WANTING QUICK TRAINING IN SELF DEFENSE?  (WHICH STYLES, TECHNIQUES)

JC:  Styles and techniques are not favourite words of mine. Both imply the opposite way I teach my core approach to self-defence and martial arts. Styles provide us with a base often taken from one person’s expression of combat based on their unique experiences, research, ideas, cultural bias and genetics. Techniques are the crystallization of certain moves found in a style. I neither want to be stylistic in my teaching or technique-led. Both ultimately lead to a teacher-pleasing mentality – a top down approach.  I put the individual at the centre of their training and work out what benefits them best under pressure. This is not to say I don’t teach styles or techniques, but I look at them later in a person’s training. I much prefer activities and concepts. 

We define self-defence as the physical or hard skills a person requires for a counter-assault. Personal security makes up the larger picture of self-protection and addresses the soft skills, such as attitude and awareness. This must be in place and underline the self-defence skills. 

The first concept a civilian needs to learn is active escape. Identifying and being able to access an exit is not only in line with the law of most countries when producing a case for self-defence, but it also makes the most sense. You should look at a violent encounter through the pessimistic eyes of a risk assessor. Engagement in violence should always be a last resort and only as a means to best attain escape. Fleeing from a scene is a skill unto itself, as the French system of Parkour demonstrates. We don’t need to go to those lengths for a basic course, but a student needs to understand tactical running and to maintain awareness when they are trying to get to safety. The only exceptions in a non-professional context is when you make a judgment call to prevent or stop a crime that isn’t directly affecting you. 
   
Next we need to address pre-emptive attacking. Here a student needs to understand when to attack first. Selecting what to use for pre-emption will be determined by the individual and the circumstances. The next concept is constant forward pressure and incidental combinations. In other words, once you begin the attack to constantly deliver an uninterrupted flow of attacks, allowing the targets to dictate your weapon choice. A student needs to be able to apply these choices from as many ranges as possible and understand how to transition. Next we need to consider recovery options, which include covering, anti-grappling and combat grappling. Other factors, such as multiple attackers and weapons can be layered in, based on these principles. 

I make no apologies for my apparent vagueness. This is how I teach. A right cross might be a wonderful selection for an adult male fighter like me who has thrown countless numbers of them in various contexts, but what relevance has it to a child facing an adult? I do have certain guidelines backed up by a general consensus of opinion and experience, but it is always open for argument. I advocate striking over grappling as a rule, I teach untrained people open hand strikes over punching, I am not in favour of any tactic that works on the assumption a target will respond to a level of pain or psychological trauma, and I teach people to get to a standing position as quickly as possible if they are not already.  

RG:  CAN YOU DESCRIBE A TYPICAL JAMIE CLUBB FITNESS WORKOUT?

JC:  No such thing! I very rarely repeat the same routine unless I am working on developing a specific skill. When it comes to general conditioning – developing strength, coordination, speed, aerobic fitness and flexibility – I find it more beneficial to keep varying my routines. 

My training regimes can be measured on a rough scale with extreme high intensity at one end, such as the tabata method, and heavy weight lifting at the other end. In-between there are various routines that are a mixture of raw strength and cardiovascular training, often leaning more one way than the other. A clear objective is always at the heart of the workout and I prioritize exercises that are more relevant to that objective. I time-manage my training and am not in favour of lengthy gym sessions unless I am learning something new or working to perfect a certain skill.

Typical workouts will include bag-work of some sort, which are often at the very beginning to make the most out of skill development. I isolate boxing, kickboxing, takedown drills, top game transitioning and bag climbing, and also put them altogether. I am a big fan of resistance bands, which can make up the bulk of the workout or at least be used as a type of active recovery or warm-down. I also like using tyres, barbells, dumbbells, kettlebells, medicine balls, skipping ropes, plyometric soles and a lot of asymmetrical training equipment. Bodyweight exercises are also very important to me, as I feel they provide a good body-to-mind connection and help develop what I call honest strength and fitness. 

I don’t do much lengthy roadwork anymore despite always being quite a natural long distance runner. I go for short jogs that incorporate footwork and hill-sprints. However, long runs just take up time that could be better spent developing more relevant exercises. 

RG:  HOW IMPORTANT IS RANK, CERTIFICATION, HIERARCHY TO MA?

JC:  The martial arts world has little in the way of standardization. A martial arts certificate really has no credibility outside its awarding body, and sometimes not even by its respective system or style. It shouldn’t be this way, and there are many who are doing their best to at least get their own houses in order by having their instructors qualified in various accredited disciplines outside the world of martial arts.

If martial arts are to be taken seriously then they need to have a far more transparent method for certification that can be traced back to the same bodies that govern other qualifications. Over here it is often a shambles. We have had many attempts, but few instructor qualifications get properly taken up or accredited. I am a vocational qualification assessor, but there seems to be ongoing problems with these qualifications. Interestingly NVQ seems to have had a history of attracting “cowboy” providers that is every bit as jaded as that of the in-house black belt factories. I jumped on the BTEC advanced certificate in self-defence instruction as soon as I was made aware of it being available. Otherwise I only get instructorships and qualifications in martial arts if they are at least recognized in the corporate sector or by instructors I have I hold in the highest regard. Sadly the last decade has seen the market saturated with meaningless instructor programmes that have only served to further undermine the integrity of the martial arts world. 

The system of martial arts hierarchies is part of the problem why many of them cannot really move on convincingly and often struggle with a type of cognitive dissonance. They largely resemble religions with appeals to authority, tradition and antiquity being used to prevent any type of meaningful progression coming from anywhere but the top. This is the top-down approach, and it stifles progress. Times are better in many respects now that clubs have been forced to be more open and cross-training is getting readily embraced, but there is still a very long way to go. The trouble is that a club may seem open to an idea on the surface, but I don’t see a lot of evidence of them really taking on new ideas. To be fair, it isn’t always the guys at the top that are to blame. Many traditional instructors want to change, but their students are stuck in the system and are scared to change so fast. 






RG:  WILL MMA SUPPLANT BOXING/PRO WRESTLING IN POPULARITY?

JC:  I have heard rumours that MMA is waning, but I have seen scant evidence. We have been told that it is a passing trend, but it’s been two decades now since the first Ultimate Fighting Championship. Before that it was already an institution in Brazil and was gaining momentum in Japan. There have always been pockets of No Holds Barred Fighting going on in official capacity or otherwise, so I think it addresses a basic human desire.  I think it is being managed well and is growing in mainstream consciousness all the time. The magazines are published to a high standard and written by professional journalists. MMA fighters are colourful, and the sportwear companies are influencing fashion more and more. MMA’s strength has been in it eclecticism, and this means it has easily partnered with other sports, which has helped grow its respect amongst those seriously interested in improving sports performance. Looking back over the past two decades since the UFC debuted, I see a sport that has constantly adapted and learnt from its mistakes. The marketing has improved, and it has a fantastic fan-base. 

Sadly the ascent of this sport, which is improving all the time, has coincided with the mainstream decline of boxing and professional wrestling. Both haven’t attracted my attention much in the past 10 years. The last exciting fights in boxing’s heavyweight division occurred in the early years of the 21st century and even then it felt like an epilogue to its last era of sports “superheroes”. Some of the lighter divisions started showing promise, but there just wasn’t any interesting rivalry; only the odd single individual. 

I love boxing and have studied its history for years. As a form of attribute training it should be at the top of most cross-trainer’s lists. It has so much to offer the individual, but I am not that keen on its current evolution. Boxercise was one thing, but now we are beginning to see commercialized gyms going completely against the art’s individualistic nature by training large numbers of students in rows with everyone working to a precise form. I was fortunate to have received training off some great coaches that actively encouraged flexible and adaptive boxing, taking into account the wide range of different opponents.  I really hope the sport does not continue down the road it is going, as there is so much potential out there. There isn’t a scarcity of good coaches either. In the UK I have had the privilege of knowing the likes of Red Corner’s Glenn Smith and seen the quality of fighter he produces. I also briefly trained under Tommy Thompson, a senior coach of the famous Brendon Ingles gym, and was very impressed by his forward thinking coaching methods.  

As for professional wrestling, you really have to look to the independent scene to see any hope, and even then there are some depressing trends. In the UK you often either have poor impersonators of the WWE or these bizarre gimmick-less promotions featuring rather sickly looking youths that are reminiscent of watching someone’s little brother putting on a show in their garden, but without the imagination.   

However, I don’t believe all is lost. My old co-promoter, Stu Allen, continues to run the promotion we started, EWW (Extreme World Wrestling, formerly Extreme World Warfare) with undeterred enthusiasm. His promotion, a very select few others in the UK and across Europe, a few independent promotions in America and, of course, the major promotions in Japan represent genuine innovation and creativity. They embrace all sides of the show business and provide depth along with spectacle.  However, WWE and its imitators are what mainstream society sees as professional wrestling. As an art-form, I think they started losing their grip on the proverbial ball a couple of years after the “Attitude” era and when they bought out their only real competition.   
  
RG:  CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT SOME OF YOUR RESEARCH INTO CARNY CATCH WRESTLING/EARLY BARE KNUCKLE FIGHTING?  IS THE ADAGE ‘NOTHING NEW UNDER THE SUN’ STILL RELEVANT/TRUE

JC:  The days of boxing and wrestling booths were over when I grew up in the circus. However, it was an obvious fascination for me, especially when I kept encountering it during my martial arts studies. Carny or fairground catch-as-catch-can wrestling seems to have been an amalgamation of British folk wrestling styles, Greco Roman wrestling, maybe some Indian wrestling and probably a fair amount of Japanese ju jutsu/judo. Its founder is credited as J. G. Chambers in 1870, and its popularity grew out of the strongmen acts found on fairs (carnivals) and circuses. Of course, the strongman acts later evolved into the sports of bodybuilding and strongman competitions. 

Bareknuckle boxing or pugilism, the immediate predecessor to the modern sport of boxing, emerges as the unarmed component of a sport that also compromised of backsword fencing and fighting with a short-stick or cudgel. Catch wrestling and both bareknuckle and gloved boxing made their way into fairs and travelling shows in the 19th century. Up until the 1920s it was not uncommon for a circus artiste to not only perform several acts on the show’s programme, but also fight a volunteer or a member of his own family at the end of the show. Children as young as eight would be involved in such bouts. 

Politics, pride and cultural issues have made it quite difficult for us to see exactly what really happened in the careers of the wrestling greats of the late 19th and early 20th century. However, I grew up in an old circus family, so I know the nature of secrecy when it comes to show business and preserving the entertainment factor. Therefore, it was of little surprise to me when a noted British historian confessed his belief that the “worked” wrestling matches had a far older tradition than is commonly thought. 

Anyone who has attended a seminar of a Brazilian jiu jitsu black belt – where it is sometimes customary for the teacher to submit every attendee in a succession of bouts - can easily buy the story that experienced catch wrestlers would be able to dispose of any number of lesser trained opponents on one day. However, there were several other pressures that we must consider. Firstly, these undeniably strong and hardened fighters would have not only been fighting several unknown opponents in a day, but virtually every day. The risk of injury back then would have been high and the consequences of which could spell financial disaster. Balance that with the increased need to make the matches more entertaining and the evolution of the pro wrestling of today is pretty easy to see. 

Sir Atholl Oakley, the first British heavyweight champion of the sport often talked disparagingly of the emergence of the “worked” scene. I am not taking anything away from Oakley’s undeniable fighting ability, but I find it hard to believe he wasn’t already a part of this scene. As time went on the matches became more flamboyant, and successive generations of professional wrestlers have often been berated by their predecessors for not being as tough as they were. Oakley was criticizing worked wrestling in the 1950s. There is an episode of the comedy radio series “Hancock’s Half Hour” called “The Grappling Game”, recorded in 1958, where it is an established fact that the sport was completely worked. 

To bring matters forward, we have “Judo” Gene Le Bell, a very successful 9th dan judoka who also worked as a professional wrestler, discussing his professional wrestling bouts as if they were legitimate contests. Le Belle was working in the 1960s. 

It is always titillating to find exact techniques in old and even ancient forms of a combat sport that also appear in their modern-day equivalent, especially if said modern sport is not a direct descendant. From my own approach to coaching I have observed that certain techniques are primal, and humans will express a version of them under pressure if the conditions are correct. Martial arts history is often heavily tainted by a confirmation bias towards nationalism or stylism. This is not surprising given the religious-like way many arts are “preserved”. Some follow a view that all arts have a single origin with a traceable line, often beginning in China or in India or in Greece. This view often uses the appeal to antiquity to argue their art as being the superior one due to its age. Others take the opposite view and argue that their particular art is pure and either came directly from the experience of its founder or is completely indigenous to its native country. 

To this day, there is a confusing argument over the origin and lineage of Brazilian jiu jitsu. The Gracies and their supporters have long maintained the argument that their art comes from Japanese jiu jitsu and not judo. Judo’s reputation as a sport does not appeal to those who wished to promote their art as an effective form of self-defence. However, the truth is more a case of semantics. Judo was interchangeably referred to as jiu jitsu when it was being imported to the west. Many Filipino martial artists like to put forward the theory that their native panantukan influenced the way western boxers carried their hands at the turn of the century. The argument goes that the high guard adopted by fighters of that era came from the weapon-influenced guard of panantukan. Borrowing the guard from panantukan and putting it into western boxing supposedly occurred during the occupation of the Philippines. It is a romantic notion, but the turn of the century was also the time gloves (Broughton’s famous “mufflers”) became compulsory in western boxing, which greatly encouraged more striking to the head and prompted fighters to raise their guards.       

I could go on forever providing instances of hyperdiffusionism in martial arts history, but I guess the best examples are the creation myths. The most elaborate one is that all martial arts come from ancient Greece. This story puts forward the unsubstantiated hypothesis that Alexander the Great’s invasion of India influenced the natives to train in Pankration and other Greek martial arts. The systems they developed then travelled with the Buddhist monk Bodhi dharma to China and became the basis for Chinese martial arts. This follows the assumption that Bodhi dharma was a martial artist and that the Shaolin temple was the hub of martial arts activity in China. There is little evidence to support either claim. Chinese martial arts certainly had an influence over Japanese and Okinawan systems. The katana’s origins can be traced back to the Chinese broadsword, and Okinawan karate is a merger of indigenous systems and Chinese styles. However, it is a big stretch to claim that the shoulder throw found in judo can be traced back through China, India and eventually to Greek grappling methods. 

Then you get systems laying claims on lineage to dead arts. “Gypsy” bareknuckle fighting, for example, which my grandfather and various other circus people took part in when they fought Gypsies or Pavees over temporary residence on a land, is not the continuation of pre-gloves boxing. It is better described as an off-shoot of gloved boxing. The fights do not follow the rules of the 19th century, which permitted grappling above the waist, and rounds were ended when one fighter hit the ground. Essentially Gypsy boxing rarely has rounds and has no grappling.  

This is closely related to the other type of hyperdiffusionism argument, which denies influence from foreign systems. After World War II taekwondo did its best to distance itself from its undeniable roots in Shotokan karate. A lot of the history was reworked, and the art’s tenuous connection with the Korean combat sport of taekyon was overemphasized.  

So, it is all a very complex issue. I would argue that similar environments and the limitations provided by the human body can mean that similar combat methods can occur independently of one another. In many ways it justifies the efficiency of certain primal techniques. However, when you start seeing certain structural stylistic qualities there is reason to investigate the influence of an older art. I don’t hold with the one source argument, but I also don’t like to deny connections if there is apparent evidence.   

RG:  WHERE DO YOU GO NEXT…WHAT OBJECTIVES/GOALS/ASPIRATIONS DO YOU HAVE.

JC:  I look forward to promoting my upcoming book, which is going through the same publisher who prints the works of the great US combatives teacher, W. Hock Hocheim. In fact, I was very honoured that Hock asked me to put together a collection of my articles. All my works have been re-edited and updated, and Geoff Thompson, another legendary combatives teacher, has written a foreword to the book. The book revolves around martial arts skepticism and covers a wide variety of topics such as my children’s self-protection methods, martial arts history, personal reflections and my approach to martial arts cross-training. It will contain completely new photographs that will reflect a more abstract feel to the work rather your usual standard martial arts manual action shots. 

In addition to the book, I have a few video projects in the pipeline that I am organizing. These will hopefully coincide with more international bookings. I have taught in several European locations and I look forward to running a series of seminars on your side of the pond in the near future. My clientele continues to grow and continues to be varied, which is what I want. I have taught large national institutions for professionals like the Law Society and small activity clubs for youngsters. Other clients have included close protection and security schools as well as martial arts clubs. My services include self-protection for children and adults and is also work or ability specific. I am also getting a lot of interest in teaching combative conditioning and mixed martial arts. However, my pet project is “Vagabond Warriors”, which provides martial arts students with a guide to cross-training. I feel my strength lies in being what martial arts actor and teacher, Rob Ho called me: “a bespoke teacher”. 
   
Every new client presents me with a new challenge and allows my approach to teaching to be tested and to progress. The last thing I want is to be teaching a crystalized system.  I don’t want perfection. Perfection is an illusion - a type of aesthetically beautiful stagnation - and it is also a potentially dangerous absolute. Progress allows for continued improvement. Show me the broken, the experienced, the sceptical, the aspirers, the dreamers and the ambitious. Don't tell me what your idea of perfection. Show me that you will endeavour to improve.  

LISTEN UP PEOPLE! 
I remember an iconic TV commercial from the 70s and 80s where there'd be this young, well-dressed professional at a dinner party or a tennis match or some event, who would casually remark that his stock broker was E.F. Hutton.  At this point all conversation and activity would come to a complete stop, and all eyes would turn to this guy.  Then the catch-phrase, "When E. F. Hutton talks, people listen."

This reminds me of Dave Aiton!

Dave Aiton has had a prestigious 22 year career with HMF Army, he retires as a Warrant Officer after a varied and distinguished career.

He is the Director of Training for Defend International Ltd and is responsible for the direction and delivery for BTEC accredited Conflict Management/ Resolution, Physical Intervention and Handcuff training courses for NHS staff, Education services and Security Industry personnel.

Dave is also a search awareness trainer and personal safety adviser who is regularly requested to provide consultation, risk assesement and training needs analysis on matters of security and staff safety for local council authorities and private businesses.

His presentation and coaching abilities are regularly in demand due to his previous experience as a coach and instructor with the military. These attributes make him a much valued asset as a trainer and adviser for organizations seeking assistance and consultation in matters of security and safety.

I recently read some of Dave's comments about one of my favorite subjects, personal protection training, and I was blown away.  I asked Dave if I could feature these comments on my blog, and he graciously accepted.


So listen up, people...Dave Aiton is speaking!  -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Teaching Martial Arts for Self Defence

Is it just me or is anybody else tired of hearing about the multitude of martial arts systems and organisation’s that claim to provide the “ultimate solution” to all of our self defence needs. For those of us who are a little bit more worldly wise than your run of the mill “enthusiastic novice” there is normally an air of caution when it comes to engaging with groups such as these, this might have something to do with the direct debit instruction you might be asked to complete on attending your first class, or the “10 week course” that you are obligated to sign up for in order to learn the basics before you can attend normal classes. It’s a sad but true fact that a lot of martial arts organisations see students as a source of income rather than someone with whom they can invest time and effort.

The truth is some martial arts are simply not as effective as we might think when it comes to training students to defend themselves in real combat situations and in most cases seem to create a “false economy” that’s guaranteed to be nothing more than a fast means of relieving us of our hard earned cash and more importantly has the potential to be a real eye opener for anyone who may be unfortunate enough to find themselves in a real violent confrontation, and suddenly finds out that everything they have worked hard to achieve in practise fails miserably when confronted with reality (or suddenly finding out that “it doesn’t do what it says on the tin”) .

There are some misconceptions that a lot of these so called “martial arts/self defence experts” would like us to believe are the right reasons for adopting their systems as our own. Although some of the qualities mentioned (listed below) by those organisations may sound genuine and fit for purpose, they are a byproduct of training and not the primary objective for learning a martial art for self defence.

Misconception 1
The purpose of martial arts should be to build discipline and improve physical fitness enhancing individual strength, flexibility, balance, and cardio-respiratory fitness. Building personal courage, self confidence.

Wrong. The primary objective of a martial art should be to improve the combat-effectiveness of the individual, specifically, to teach the individual to become comfortable with the level of conflict required in a real-life self-preservation situation.

Misconception 2
Safety must be emphasised at all costs to the point of stressing no striking or only simulated strikes to vital points such as the head, neck and groin area. If you strike at all, you should stop short (pull your punches) to these vital areas so that you maintain safety above all else. Only "light blows" should be made to other areas.

Wrong. The primary focus of a true self defence program should not be to prevent the maximum number of injuries during training but to prevent the maximum number of individual injuries during a real violent confrontation. Bumps and bruises do come with the territory when applying reality-based training, unless of course you want students to experience a false sense of security and misplaced confidence. The only confidence worth obtaining in a true martial arts/self defence program is achieved through successfully employing combat-effective movement and technique.

Misconception 3
Most fights end up on the ground so ground-fighting should be where you place most of your emphasis.

No. This way of thinking is extremely flawed. The ground is the last place you want to be in a real-life situation. We aren't training for the UFC or a grappling tournament; we train for a successful life preserving outcome. Too many variables can happen to you on the ground on the street. For self-defence, preventing the maximum number of individual injuries is the goal. Therefore, knowing how to stay on your feet should be a much greater concern.

Misconception 4
Locks and holds are the best way of incapacitating an attacker.

False. Striking is entirely more effective in a realistic environment than holding or putting someone in a lock or a hold. Your goal in a realistic situation must be to incapacitate the attacker in the quickest way possible. Striking is much quicker, a lot simpler and has the potential to be much more devastating to an attacker.

Misconception 5
Training in kickboxing and/or wrestling will make me ready for the street.

Wrong again. Approaching a self-preservation situation with a sport mentality gives the individual a false sense of confidence. Training for realistic self-defence is entirely different from training for a rules-based combat sport.

But this only my opinion folks, its up to you to decide what type of training is right for you, but try to bear in mind whatever you choose needs to be fit for purpose, if its not then look somewhere else.

All the best - Dave Aiton

WHEN YOU WISH UPON A STAR
"Always remember, your focus determines your reality."
Qui-Gon (Star Wars:  Episode 1-The Phantom Menace)


In Space No One Can Hear You Scream
ALIEN (1979)

The universe is ancient, (estimated to be 13.7 billion years old, having formed from an ultra-hot, ultra-dense singularity), and it is freezing, (temperatures in space can dip down to 2.73 Kelvin or -270 celsius).  There is still so much that scientists do not yet understand about space.  Are there multiple universes?  Does the death of one universe lead to the birth of another?  Much of the matter in the universe is "dark matter," invisible to our eyes and to our high tech instruments, and the greatest amount of energy in the universe, an energy which pervades all of space and forces the galaxies away from each other at increasingly greater and greater speeds, is mysterious "dark energy."

So the universe is big and getting bigger, it's cold and getting colder, and it's old and getting older.  I see the universe as a lifeless, uncaring, unsympathetic, unimaginably vast and almost empty space.  

But here's what's got me confused:  Some people actually believe that if you will "throw out vibrations" into the universe, the universe will respond.  People travel the country, appear on talk shows, and write best-selling books teaching others how to get their wishes fulfilled with help from this cold, mindless universe. 
  
It's called "The Law of Attraction," and, dig this, the Universe can even help you decide what's for dinner. 

How does it work?  Well, says askingtheuniverse.net, "The Universe delivers manifestations in the form of insights, hunches and coincidences. It brings you together with just the right people at just the right time.  Your Universe is here to help! There are big things, little things and all manner of other things that affect your life. But you have the power of your Universe to help guide you through the maze. If you want clarity with a foggy issue, ask the Universe. If you need strength to carry on, ask the Universe. Even if you can't decide what to have for dinner, ask the Universe." 


Here's how Bob Proctor explains the Law of Attraction:  "This is an orderly universe. Nothing happens by accident. The images you plant in your marvelous mind instantly set up an attractive force, which governs the results in your life." 

Melody Fletcher says that "The Law of Attraction states that you manifest anything you give enough focus to. By giving your attention to a thought, you activate that thought's vibration, and the Law of Attraction will cause more vibrations like it to be drawn to it. Once enough energy is gathered, the vibration becomes physical."
 

Chris Ankele says you don't just ask...you can command the universe to give you what you want.  All you have to do, says Ankele, is "Close your eyes, live your experience, breathe it, see it, pretend it is real. Remember to be as specific as possible; do not hold any details back even ones you would be afraid to admit that you included. That will start the vibrations and you are on your way to bending the universe to your demands."

If this all seems just a little silly, consider that it may just be a matter of coping with the ugly truth of reality.  Eugene Subbotsky says that it's "much more comfortable to think that your fate is written down in a constellation of stars than that you're one of a certain group of intelligent animals who are lost in frozen space forever." 


Psychologist Carol Nemeroff thinks it's nothing but magical thinking.  She says that we all subscribe to it at different levels, "Most of me doesn't believe but some of me does."

Maybe magical thinking--mystical hunches and intuitive decisions, superstitions and fear of the unknown, the search for talismans, signs, and omens, trying to read the thoughts and intentions of man and beast, the use of ritual words and actions and the use of incantations or sacrifice to placate or seek the favor of the gods, attempts at discerning the future, and the belief that we are all powerless against fate--were all aspects of our early survival.  Care givers before the advent of modern medicine may have intuitively understood the importance of suggestion, and faith healing like other placebo treatments, may help a patient feel better and recover sooner.

"Survival requires recognizing patterns," says Matthew Hutson in Psychology Today, "night follows day, berries that color will make you ill. And because missing the obvious often hurts more than seeing the imaginary, our skills at inferring connections are overtuned. No one told Wade Boggs that eating chicken before every single game would help his batting average; he decided that on his own, and no one can argue with his success. We look for patterns because we hate surprises and because we love being in control."

Wishing and hoping seems to be the most basic form of magical thinking.  We cross our fingers as the contest winners are announced, we shout out the horses in the Kentucky Derby urging them to run faster, and we wave our hands in the air when we release a bowling ball as if our thoughts had energy and force.  We want to give ourselves what David Ropeik says is the "illusion that we have some control over what is going to happen, a reassuring sense that we can in fact steer our flimsy boat against the stormy winds and currents of fate."

Sonja Lyubomirsky has even considered an experiment to show that the supposed effects of the Law of Attraction are not that miraculous at all.  Here’s how she describes the potential study:  "Half the participants will be asked to practice faithfully the law of attraction. The other half will be asked to practice an alternate 'law of attraction' that we have randomly scrambled and reversed beyond recognition. All will be given a reasonable-sounding rationale for why their assigned exercises should work."

Her prediction?  "Both groups of participants will become happier over time and more successful in obtaining what they want – simply because they believe in what they’re doing, because they expect to succeed, because they are putting effort into the strategy, and because they are pursuing it in an engaged and committed fashion."  

In Part 2 we'll take a look at how magical thinking and aspects of the law of attraction have entered into the dojo and our martial arts training. 
 

GREEN ACRESROUND TRIP PART 31

Green Acres is the place for me.
Outdoor training is the life for me.
Land spreading out so far and wide.
Keep your fancy gym, just give me that countryside.

So last night my son Shane and I did an outdoors workout at the park.  Sure, it was hot and muggy.  Of course there were copious squadrons of bugs.  Good source of protein, we joked, each time they flew into our mouths.  And the ground was uneven.  And we got mud all over our shoes.

Out here you get to see trees and grass, and you get to try to avoid a land-mine-like field of dog pooh.  (Come to think of it maybe that wasn't mud on our shoes after all).  


There's just something majestic about an outdoor workout.  My hay fever was acting up because EVERYTHING is in bloom, so I sneezed like 8  times in a row, my nose ran like a faucet, and my eyes were redder than the people at a Phish concert.  But, yeah, majestic.

We amp'd up our workout, adding more reps with the kettlebells and the dumbbells.  We have a long, heavy piece of iron pipe that we use to perform samurai-type sword swings.

After about 20 minutes of that we did a lot of FMA...mostly siniwali double stick work with some applications.  Stationary, then forwards, then backwards, then circling left and right.

Then some cool, fast knife work.  Some super quick reaction 'sewing machine' type stab drills, followed by some combat scenarios of knife/counter knife, then unarmed against the knife.

As tough as these were the drills at least gave us a chance to catch our breath, which was needed because then it was on to the dreaded hill sprints.

We lengthened the distance of the runs considerably, and added a dog-leg path, jogging for about 30 yards on a relatively flat trail, then cutting quickly to the left for a steep 30 yard all out sprint.

On the last rep we added a pair of dumbbells.  Soon we'll add even more weight, and maybe even bring Tito (my grappling/ground 'n pound dummy) to the park for an outing...maybe see if we can take turns carrying him up the hill!!

It was a tough workout, but just beautiful outside.  Springtime in Kentucky is amazing!

But the heat was intense, and I'm afraid the summer's gonna be brutal.  If Mr Haney shows up with some lemonade, you bet your ass I'll pay him top dollar for a cold glass.  






 

GETTING MY CAR AN ATTUNEMENTA PARABLE
We all need the human touch.Rick Springfield

I think my car needs a tune up.

It's idling kinda funny, hesitates a bit when I accelerate, can be a little sluggish out on the road sometimes, and my gas mileage is not that good.

My old mechanic, Dave, retired last year and closed up his shop so I gotta find someone else.

Looking on line I found somebody that apparently does amazing work.  He gets rave reviews, and people say that they drive away from his garage with their cars performing better than ever.

I decide to try him out, so I set up an appointment.

Dave's garage always reeked of gas, oil, cigarette smoke, and hydraulic fluid.  The floor was grimy with bits of what looked like kitty litter spread around everywhere.  The calendars always featured scantily clad women holding big shiny wrenches.  The pneumatic tools gave off high-pitched noises, and there was always somebody making off-color jokes, banging on metal, and coughing, lots of coughing.

This garage is nice though.  Subdued lighting, some candles giving off a nice aroma in the corner, gentle New Age music playing in the background.  Lots of certificates on the wall, none of them seem to be about car repair.

He's not like other mechanics I've known.  First off his hands look delicate, not used to hard work.  No dirt under the fingernails.  He wears a clean, white, billowy shirt and doesn't have one of those grease rags hanging out of any of his pockets.  He does not wear a name tag or have his name embroidered on his shirt.  He tells me his name is Timothy (not Tim for short, he corrected me).

He invites me to sit down on some pillows on the floor.  He sits cross-legged, perfect posture.  Me?  My knees won't take that kind of strain so I just sort of awkwardly recline.

We're going to start off with a brief conversation, which seems kind of odd.  My old mechanic, Dave, used to just have me start the engine and throttle it a few times.  He'd check out some fluids, use some instruments, and run some diagnostics.  He did the work while I sat in the waiting room watching Judge Judy and drinking what was either the strongest coffee I've ever tasted or some new type of experimental transmission fluid.

But Timothy?  He offers me some chamomile tea and wants to know what I hope to get out of the session.  

Timothy says he wants us to build rapport.

Session?  Rapport?

So he asks about my driving habits.  Where I like to drive.  How I handle curves, how quickly I go when the light turns green, what top speed do I travel.  Do I often go on lovely country roads, or do I pretty much stick to busy, ugly interstates.

He doesn't take notes.  He just nods now and then, speaks in a quiet, somber voice.  He explains that he's going to perform an energy scan to pick up energy disturbances in my car's energy field.  That's where most of the problems begin, he says, and this is necessary so he'll know where to direct his own energy.

I ask him if I can ask some questions.  He agrees, but lets me know his time is limited, and their are other patients to see.  Okay, I ask, have you actually studied automobile mechanics?  Ever torn an engine down, rebuilt it?  Ever changed a timing belt or installed a new trannie?

He smiled.  You know, he says, lots of people come home at night and put their dinner in the microwave and turn on their TV's with no knowledge at all of how those things work.  The universe, he says, is full of wonder and mystery, but, he says, everything is connected.  And the glue that connects us all?  Energy...the vibration of atoms.  Einstein, he says, pretty much proved all of that a long time ago.

So, now that that's settled, shall we get started, he asks.
Sure, I say.  Want me to start 'er up?  Rev the engine?
He looks at me funny.
No, he says, no need for all that.

He doesn't even need me to raise the hood.  He just needs the payment, so I give him my credit card.

He prints me out a receipt, and he starts at the front bumper.  His eyes are closed.  His hands hover about 3 or 4 inches above the surface of the car.  I start to ask what he's doing, but he opens his eyes and does one of those shushing hand gestures, vertical finger in front of his lips.

He moves around the entire car, doing both sides, and ending up at the muffler.  Everything was done on a purely energetic level, with no actual physical contact between his hands and the car.  

He's done in about 20 minutes.

What happened?  I ask.

He's not exactly sure, he says.  His goal was to help the car feel that it was wrapped in a warm, nurturing light and that this loving light was flowing throughout the car's various mechanical systems.  He is hoping that the car feels more balanced, calm and centered.

But you fixed it, right?  Gave it a tune-up, right?  I ask.

Please keep in mind, he says, that there are no guarantees. However, he senses that the car was open to his energy therapy, and he sincerely believes that the car's problems have been healed.

I'm a little confused...What if I still have problems? 

He assures me that I can come back again for another session.  The energy pathways may require persistent treatment. 

I start the car and back out of the garage.  Timothy waves goodbye and closes the garage door.

I drive away, listening to the engine, hyper alert to how it sounds, how it rides.

You know how sometimes a car just seems to ride better after you wash it?  Well, it's kinda doing that now.  Oh sure, there was a slight hesitation at that 4-way stop sign, but I'm convinced that's just a minor hiccup.

Now I'm heading out to the interstate so I can open 'er up and see what this baby can do!

RUN LIKE HELLEVER-VIGILANT

 "Well, they call me the Hunter, that's my name, Call me the Hunter, that's how I got my fame."
Led Zeppelin

"Humans today may retain behaviors tied to our ancestors' likely past status as prey rather than predator."
Jennifer Viegas 

"You'd better run!"
Pink Floyd, "Run Like Hell"


In a recent HBO comedy special, Louis CK discussed the stress of modern life.  Daily living is tough for a lot of us, he says, just dealing with work, family life, and trying to make ends meet.  But he imagined that it would be a lot more stressful if we faced the same threat our ancestors faced, the threat of being attacked and eaten by wild animals.  Not only would you have to deal with over bearing bosses and  backstabbing co-workers all day, but getting off the subway and heading home, you might have to run for your life as hungry cheetahs try to run you down.

Can you imagine having to live with the fear of predation all of the time?  You'd have to remain hyper-vigilant, never relaxing completely. 

After an enormous amount of reading on the subject I am convinced that it was the fear of being attacked and eaten by wild beasts such as wild dogs, big cats, hyenas, eagles, wolves, cave bears, snakes, crocodiles, (and--get this--maybe even carnivorous kangaroos), that helped to apply specific selective pressures in shaping our species.  Although it's not entirely clear which pressures these predators placed on our early ancestors, researcher Kirsten Jenkins says that they affected "behavior, group structure, body size and ontogeny (the life cycle of a single organism)."

We are who we are, says Rob Dunn, "thanks to ancestors who only just barely got away."

Looking at one site containing "de-fleshed, chomped and gnawed bones" from an early primate ancestor of humans, Jenkins said, "I have observed multiple tooth pits and probable beak marks on these fossil primates, which are direct evidence for creodonts and raptors consuming these primates."

According to National Geographic, Agustin Fuentes and other researchers "believe that early humans were a prey species hunted by bear-size hyenas, saber-toothed cats, and many other large carnivores.  Early humans survived while other primate species died out because our ancestors cooperated to alter their surroundings, and this cooperation deflected the risk of predation onto other nearby prey species, which became more vulnerable because early humans weren't as easy to catch."

Anthropologist Robert Sussman found that "our ancestors from three or four million years ago, Australopithecus afarensis, had small teeth, lacked tools, and were about three feet (one meter) tall.  Lacking size or weapons, this early human species most likely used brains, agility, and social skills to escape from predators, the anthropologist says."

The predation rate, according to Sussman, was about 6 percent.

"Predators remain a powerful force in the lives of many of our fellow creatures," reports Olivia Judson.  "It’s not just that they kill. They also change what their potential victims get up to. In short, they create a landscape of fear."  

Much of our mental activity seems to have been impacted by these old fears:  preoccupation with remembering salient, life-threatening events from close calls with danger in the past, keeping track of the myriad rules for survival that we have been taught, and being attuned to potential threats, and imagining threats in the future.

When taking a look at one aspect of survival, foraging for food for example, predation must be factored in.  Where are the predators?  When do they like to hunt?  How many of them are there?  A high-quality foraging area with energy-rich food may also be right out in the open, far from quick escape routes.  This means that foraging may have to take place in areas where food is less plentiful or where the quality of the available food is less than ideal.

Behaviors are shaped by such considerations.  You can't easily scan the horizon looking for predators while at the same time focusing on the ground for nuts, fallen fruit, bugs and roots.  Cooperative foraging in groups, with someone always on the lookout and ready to sound the alarm, may have been an early strategy.

"Foragers," says Regan Berkley, "must make trade-offs between foraging efficiency and security from predation. The modifications they make to their behaviors have consequences that may affect their nutrition or their survival."

Will Cresswell notes that "Predators can affect individual fitness and population and community processes through lethal effects (direct consumption or ‘density’ effects), where prey is consumed, or through non-lethal effects (trait-mediated effects or interactions), where behavioural compensation to predation risk occurs, such as animals avoiding areas of high predation risk."  

The lethal effects are obvious...we get eaten.  But the non-lethal effects are a key factor as well, with some researchers concluding that, while similar, non-lethal effects were as much as 85% of all effects.  Reduction in foraging, slower growth rates, lower reproductive rates, can impact behavior and morphology, determine the overall population and impact group dynamics.   

“During any given day, an animal may fail to obtain a meal and go hungry, or it may fail to obtain matings and thus realize no reproductive success, but in the long term, the day’s shortcomings may have minimal influence on lifetime fitness. Few failures, however, are as unforgiving as the failure to avoid a predator: being killed greatly decreases future fitness."  Lima and Dill (1990)
 

I have come to the conclusion in my own reading on this subject that individual behaviors and thought processes in humans were deeply impacted, and modern man still carries within himself these behaviors, abilities and innate responses.


One such ability is imagining.  Here's how neuro-scientist V.S. Ramachandran describes it:  "The capacity to plan open-ended scenarios and try out even improbable scenarios entirely in the mind by juggling images and symbols (especially when) linked with episodic memories, enables you to see yourself as an active agent doing things in the future..." 

"In the developed world, we live in the most peaceful, healthful time in history," says Rob Dunn. "The murder and violent crime rate is dropping; we are vaccinated against the most deadly diseases of previous generations; our houses protect us from most storms; relatively few people go hungry. The average lifespan is longer than it has ever been. Then why do we walk around so anxious, so full of fear? The answer is not terrorists, TV, Republicans, or Democrats. The answer is our legacy of ancient fears, the result of having spent millions of years running from predators. Our fear response is more influenced by the ancient species we struggled to escape than any modern challenges. We live in a demon-haunted world."

"When biologists consider the effects that predators have on their prey, they shouldn’t just count the number of individuals consumed. According to University of Rhode Island ecologist Evan Preisser, they must also examine the effects of fear."  So another impact would be what Brown et al. (1999) referred to as the ‘ecology of fear’ "to describe how in mammalian systems, where behaviourally complex predators hunt behaviourally complex prey, populations may be limited by the ‘fear’ of predation..."

The ecology of fear doesn't necessarily mean the species or individual experiences fear all the time.  Instead it means that the species has an "evolved tendency to manifest adaptive trait changes when exposed to cues associated
with heightened likelihood of mortality." 


 biologists consider the effects that predators have on their prey, they shouldn’t just count the number of individuals consumed. According to a University of Rhode Island ecologist, they must also examine the effects of fear.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news138381419.html#jCp      "Predation risk is usually a composite of several interacting factors, and so it is often difficult to quantify simply. Predation risk (death rate) for an animal is a function of attack frequency and its probability of being caught when attacked. Attack frequency (attack rate) incorporates the reaction of predators to the behavior of prey, for example, a functional and numerical response. All of the behaviors that a prey can adopt to modify its risk of being targeted and caught when attacked comprise prey vulnerability. The key variable in determining predation risk is probably prey vulnerability because predators that are foraging optimally will select the prey that give the maximum energy return for energy invested in capture, that is those individuals of a prey species that are the easiest to catch." (Stephens and Krebs, 1986).  

I contend that this fear of and worry about predation has manifested itself in modern times by certain traits:

• Wariness, and enhanced and increased vigilance 
• Pattern and movement detection 
• Alertness to the signals of predation
• Cognitive complexity 
• Jumpiness and misplaced anxiety
• Fear of fear itself 
• Creation of fear-based scenarios and a systematized methodology to evoke fear
• Creation of a virtual, malleable self-concept of 'manhood' 

In part 2 we will look at how martial artists, combat coaches and defensive skills instructors use the concept of fear as intrinsic motivation and justification for the way martial arts are taught.
 

THE HILLS ARE ALIVE
(With the Sounds of Screaming)ROUND TRIP PART 30



You know what they say:  It's all fun and games until somebody coughs up a lung.

Hill sprints.  

     At my age.  

          I must be crazy.

My son Shane and I set out a little path on a nice hillside in a lovely green meadow at Louisville's Cherokee Park, a park designed in 1891 by Frederick Law Olmstead who also designed New York City's Central Park.  

The course for our sprints was only about 50 yards long, but it got pretty steep as we neared the top.

We ran up to the top, and then we jogged back to the bottom.  Over and over (and over) again.  

It went on for hours!  

Well, technically it was only about 10 or 12 minutes or so, but it FELT like hours.

We did this at the end of an already tough workout, which started out with a thorough kettlebell workout, variations on squats and lunges, a dumbbell workout, and a long series of boxing training drills.  So we were already a little tired.

I think hill sprints are fantastic for building leg strength, core strength, explosive power and endurance.  

I hate them.

But I guess that's why we need to do them.

Starting next week week we add on extra time and/or extra laps.  Soon we'll move to the notorious dog hill, a long, steep hill just perfect for wintertime sledding, but hellish for sprinting.

Once that is accomplished, we'll probably add some weighted back packs.

But, a journey of a thousand miles begins with some preliminary cussing.

So, you da@#ed hill, here we come!  If you hear blood-curdling screams, don't worry, it's just me, coughing up that lung.
   

LET THEM EAT CAKE  ROUND TRIP PART 29



I am drooling.  

I am standing there in the bakery section of Whole Foods lusting after pies, tarts, donuts, pastries, bear claws, and strudels.  I've bitten thru my bottom lip.  Other shoppers have very obviously given me wide berth.  Kids are pointing.

See, I've pretty much eliminated most carbs from my diet.  Especially the bread carbs.  No buns, no cornbread, no croissant, no scones, and no sweet rolls.

No soft tabs of butter melting on a golden stack of pancakes.  No fresh from the oven Southern biscuits.  No straight from the can cookie dough.

Also, and this is probably obvious to most of you, but I'm also not supposed to eat candy, ice cream and other ever-so-delicious treats.  That stuff is definitely not on the approved list.

I oughta know...I checked....several times. 


What would I do for a Klondike Bar?  You don't wanna know. 

Those scenes in the movies where the guy's crawling thru the desert?  And all he wants is a drink of water?  That's pretty much me, but I'd like just an ever so teeny tiny spoonful of the icing they put on a Cinnabon.

Fortunately I have been blessed with an iron discipline.  Okay, it's a little rusty I admit, but down deep it's still there.  I have come this far.  I have used mind over mattress to get me up and moving in the morning, forced myself into the gym to sling some weights around, and challenged myself to beat up Tito, my grappling dummy.

Aside from a few minor setbacks I have stayed at it consistently.  But now it's time to ratchet it up.  Stoke the fire.

Starting this week I am severely restricting calories.  Say 'NO' to carbs.  I will increase the amount of water I drink each day.  I must add more cardio, and now that warmer weather is here I have no excuses.  Some power walking perhaps, or maybe some hikes on the trails near my house.

Maybe add some weight to a backpack? 

The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.  So now I must step away from this sinful, seductive bakery section.  Get thee behind me.  Honestly I don't even remember walking over here.

But now I gotta go.   Besides, somebody's complained to the manager.  
 



  

DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN
 ROUND TRIP PART 28

For many weeks now my son Shane and I have been working out in the basement.   Boxing drills with the focus mitts, Muay Thai kicking on an old tire tied to a support beam, ground and pound work and stand up striking on our life-sized grappling dummy (Tito), and lots and lots of footwork and conditioning exercises.   We work out...hard.  

Arms bruised, perspiration dripping down, heart rate racing like the Wipeout drum solo. And that's just me trying to put on my sneakers!

This past week I decided to do both...hit the gym AND continue with the basement training.  Thank goodness I still have a cane.  And some pain killers left over from that knee injury.  And a muscle relaxer.

Actually the two types of workout blend together nicely. I'm hitting the gym on Mon, Wed and Fri, and we work out together in the basement on Tue and Thur.  The workouts compliment one another, and I feel like I am getting stronger and faster than I've been in a long time.  We use the GymBoss round timer, and some nights we do 2 minute rounds with 15 second rests.  Other nights we do Tabata--20 seconds on and 10 seconds rest for 4 minutes per exercise or a complex of exercises.   Other nights it's continuous work for 12-15 minutes or so before we take our first short break before doing it again.

Working out with Shane has been a blast.  Shane and his brother Cody have been around martial arts all their lives. They took some classes at a traditional school when they were kids.  Watched a gazillion martial arts movies with me. They both have a critical eye for what's b.s. and what's real. Can name the styles, can critique technique.  Play a lot* of games (*an understatement by a factor of 50), many of which involve fighting and hand to hand combat.

But we really haven't seriously trained together all these years.  Working with Shane, seeing his interest grow, watching his speed, power, and skill improve is exciting as hell.  It reminds me of my own quest for combat knowledge, a quest that keeps me enthusiastic to this day, and not once has ever been boring.

The adventure continues, reminding me of so many training sessions from my past--memory flashbacks to hundreds of hours of solo training, countless training sessions with a good buddy.

Iron sharpening iron.

Next week we start with stick fighting.  My old sticks were in bad shape, so Shane ordered us some fresh, new rattan sticks. Where once I used to hear the pitter patter of his little feet, now I'll be hearing the click clack of sticks.

He's funny, but so focused.  Doesn't want to screw up. Knows that mistakes are a natural part of learning, but hates it when he gets it wrong.  I told him the other night that it's just so natural for us to berate ourselves each time we cock it up. "You idiot," we say so easily to ourselves, "you dummy.  What's wrong with you?"  I then asked him what would happen if we didn't reinforce the negative...what if every time we got it right or close to right we told ourselves, "Good job. Way to Go. Keep it up." 

It's like deja vu all over again...it's pretty much the same advice that my first gung fu instructor gave me.





I know I'm biased, but he's actually coming along nicely.  He's got a good flow, lots of intensity.  Fists feel like hammers.

He got me in several good chokes the other night.  Felt like a python or anaconda wrapped around my neck!  I think my eyes bulged out of their sockets like one of those little squeeze toys.
I'm looking forward to our next workout.  Looking forward to getting a whiff of burning rattan.  Looking forward to getting bruised and battered, stretched and sweaty.  

I'll teach him everything I know, or at least everything I can remember.  

Well, maybe not EVERYTHING.  After all, I'll need some tricks up my sleeve in case he gets better than me.