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The Battle to Functionalize Traditional Martial Arts, with Dr Mark Cheng

December 14, 2018 By Stephan Kesting

The Battle to Functionalize Traditional Martial Arts, with Dr Mark Cheng

It was a pleasure to talk with Dr Mark Cheng on my podcast today (The Strenuous Life Podcast). Mark is a lifelong Tai Chi practitioner who was featured in Tim Ferris's 4 Hour Body book and created the Tai Chen warmup and movement awareness training training for the P90X people.  But he's also done a TON of training in reality-based, pressure-tested martial arts, which gives … [Read more...]

Martial Art Ranges for Fighting

November 23, 2018 By Stephan Kesting

Martial Art Ranges for Fighting

There are many different ways to classify martial arts ranges, but one relatively simple method way to divide all combat up into 5 distances... Projectile range (guns, javelins, arrows, thrown rocks, etc.) Handheld weapons range (sticks, swords, handheld spears, knives, clubs, etc.) Striking range (punches, kicks, elbows, knees, headbutts, etc.) Clinching range … [Read more...]

Critical Weapon Drills: Double Stick Sinawali

March 7, 2018 By Stephan Kesting

Critical Weapon Drills: Double Stick Sinawali

To be a complete martial artist you need to be semi-familiar with how to handle weapons, including sticks, knives, flexible weapons, firearms, etc. After all, if you end up in a serious confrontation and there's a tool handy then you'd be a fool to duke it out empty handed. To help you with becoming better rounded let's take a look at one of the most important drills from … [Read more...]

What Are the Most Powerful Strikes with a Stick?

February 6, 2018 By Stephan Kesting

What Are the Most Powerful Strikes with a Stick?

OK, you're walking down the street and three guys jump out at you... You have to fight; you can't run, but there is a stick close to your feet. Do you A) ignore the stick and defend yourself with the third technique from the second kata, or B) you pick up the stick and start swinging for the fences? In 99% of cases the right answer the answer is B - use the bloody … [Read more...]

Standing Armlocks in Self Defense

November 4, 2017 By Stephan Kesting

Standing Armlocks in Self Defense

Standing armlocks are a staple in the martial arts, including Aikido, classical ju-jujutsu, and many modern self defense systems. They're usually practised something like this: your partner comes in with a lunging punch, you block and sidestep, control the arm, step in, and then apply pressure to the arm until he taps out. Here's what some of those standing armbars from … [Read more...]

Countering Made Easy, with Examples from the Filipino Martial Arts and Kickboxing

October 10, 2017 By Stephan Kesting

Countering Made Easy, with Examples from the Filipino Martial Arts and Kickboxing

There's a Filipino martial arts demonstration I saw once which really impressed me. A teacher and his student stood facing each other, and the student, armed with stick in hand, was swinging the stick in fast, powerful figure 8's in the air ahead of him.  The teacher stood just out of range and waiting impassively.  Then slowly - almost leisurely - he walked towards his … [Read more...]

Defanging the Snake – a Critical Concept in the Filipino Martial Arts

March 29, 2017 By Stephan Kesting

Defanging the Snake – a Critical Concept in the Filipino Martial Arts

I'm not saying that you need to be able to twirl double nunchucks or anything, but if you're interested in self defense then it's definitely a good idea to learn a little bit about weapons. (Most of the people you run into will have NO idea of what they're doing with weapons, so even a little knowledge will go a long way.) When it comes to handheld weapons like sticks, … [Read more...]

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Recent Articles

How Martial Sports Were Used to Train One of the Deadliest Army in History

How Martial Sports Were Used to Train One of the Deadliest Army in History

I listened to a really good podcast episode recently about how sports and games helped create one of the deadliest armies in history. And the amazing thing is that close to a thousand years later many of these same sports are still being practiced today! I learned about this on the Villains and Virgins podcast […]

Back Pain from Martial Arts Training

Back Pain from Martial Arts Training

Almost every martial artist experiences back pain at some point in their training. It hurts like hell and brings your training to a screeching halt. And in the worst case some people are even permanently sidelined by it. Understanding what’s causing your pain, changing your movement patterns to prevent it, and implementing ‘spinal hygiene’ so […]

Kime in Martial Arts is Mostly a Bad Idea…

Kime in Martial Arts is Mostly a Bad Idea…

The idea of ‘Kime’ is very widespread in Japanese martial arts like Karate, and is also found in Okinawan and Chinese Martial Arts. While the term can be translated as ‘intent’ or ‘decision’ the truth is that, most of the time, it’s used to describe that robot-like freezing used all the time in kata and […]

The Trap of Placating Your Ego with Terrible Form

The Trap of Placating Your Ego with Terrible Form

Over 40 years of martial arts training I figure I’ve done something like 500,000 pushups. Practice makes perfect, so with that many reps under my belt you’d probably think I’d be good at them, right? Sadly the answer is a resounding “No!” Or, more precisely, the answer is “Not right now” You see, 9 months […]

Recent Articles

  • How Martial Sports Were Used to Train One of the Deadliest Army in History
  • Back Pain from Martial Arts Training
  • Kime in Martial Arts is Mostly a Bad Idea…
  • The Trap of Placating Your Ego with Terrible Form
  • The Most Fierce Improvised Weapon – The Scythe!

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  • Advanced Tutorials (2)
  • Conditioning (7)
  • Featured (104)
  • Firearms (2)
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  • Lethal Force (6)
  • Martial Arts Mythbusting (6)
  • Mindset (19)
  • Product Reviews (2)
  • Self Defense Basics (84)
  • Self Defense Tutorials (5)
  • Striking (47)
  • Weapons (17)

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