The Best of Urban Samurai Vol 1

2009 Neal Martin
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Table Of Contents
Welcome...........................................................................................................3
What You Can Do With This E-Book..................................................................3
Self Defense.......................................................................................................4
Chapter 1: Effective Training Methods For Street Self Defense........................4
Chapter 2: The Fence.........................................................................................11
Chapter 3: How To Survive A Violent Confrontation.........................................13
Chapter 4: Multiple Attacker Tactics.................................................................21
Chapter 5: Do You Know Too Many Techniques?.............................................24
Chapter 6: Are Grappling Moves Useless For Self Defense?.............................27
Chapter 7: Why Every Dojo Should Have A Bouncer.........................................29
Chapter 8: Are High Kicks Pointless?.................................................................32
Training Advice..................................................................................................35
Chapter 9: The Secret To Developing A Power Punch.......................................35
Chapter 10: 30 Days To Better Martial Arts.......................................................38
Chapter 11: Get Rid Of Two Common Martial Arts Fears Once And For All......41
Chapter 12: Dont Be A Mimic: The Right Way To Master Martial Arts............43
Chapter 13: The Forgotten Healing Arts...........................................................46
Chapter 14: The Martial Arts Demo: 6 Factors For Success..............................49
Chapter 15: Power Punching Revisited.............................................................52
Personal development......................................................................................55
Chapter 16: How To Cultivate An Indomitable Warrior Spirit...........................55
Chapter 17: Self Discipline: The Bedrock Of Martial Arts Training....................59
Chapter 18: How To Commit To Martial Arts....................................................62
Chapter 19: Shedding........................................................................................65
Chapter 20: The Value Of Persistence...............................................................67
Martial Musings.................................................................................................70
Chapter 21: Dojo Etiquette: To Bow Or Not To Bow?........................................70
Chapter 22: Black Belt Responsibilities: Are There Any?...................................72
Chapter 23: On Being A Warrior........................................................................74
Chapter 24: Martial Arts Competitions: How Useful Are They?........................76
2009 Neal Martin
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Welcome
I started the Urban Samurai blog in March of 2009
and since then it has gone from strength to strength.
It began like most blogs with no visitors to speak of
and no following but it has since picked up the pace
and gathered a good following and it gets a
respectable number of visitors each day now.
I published the blog because I thought I could help
people benefit from my experience within and
knowledge of the martial arts and going by all the
feedback Ive had so far, I think Ive succeed in this
regard. Im pleased to say that people find my
articles genuinely useful.
I have loved every minute of working on the blog (even if it is hard going at times) and I will
continue to work on it for a long time to come.
This is a compilation of some of the best articles I have written for the blog this past year or
so. You will find articles on self defense, training methods and advice, personal development
and my own musings on certain aspects of the martial arts.
I hope you enjoy the articles and if you have been following me this past year then I thank
you and I hope you continue to do so.
All the best,
Neal Martin
What You Can Do With This E-Book

You are welcome to share this e-book with pretty much anyone, reprint portions of it on your
blog or website, and basically do anything, except sell it for profit.
If you do reprint content from this book Id appreciate an attribution link to
http://urbansamurai.org.uk
2009 Neal Martin
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Self Defense
Chapter 1: Effective Training Methods for Street Self
Defense
For quite a long time in my training career I laboured under the illusion that the methods of
training I was using were preparing me to deal with actual violent encounters and combat
outside the dojo. For many years I trained in traditional karate and then Jujitsu, diligently
practicing techniques that I was told would help me if someone tried to attack me and I pretty
much believed this to be true. I thought that
if I practiced the techniques enough and
with enough intent behind them each time I
did them, then eventually I would be good
enough to handle anyone who ever tried to
attack me.
God help anyone who ever tried to lay a
finger on me because I would just react
with one of the great techniques I had been
shown and that would be it, the show would
be over and Id stroll on home feeling
particularly lethal and pleased with myself.
Thats how I thought anyway.
Then I got a job as a bouncer and realised that I would never be able to effectively use the
vast majority of the techniques I had been shown. Very quickly I realised that I had been
training away in a blissful cloud of ignorance, completely blinkered to the goings on in the
concrete dojo. There was nothing fancy about the real world of violence. It was brutal and it
was very goddamn scary. Very scary.
In that job, being somewhat proficient in martial arts, especially traditional martial arts, was
both a blessing and a hindrance. I wasnt the biggest bouncer in the world. Indeed I was a
light weight compared to most of the guys I ended up working with, so I wasnt very
physically intimidating and I knew this.
So I took confidence from the fact that I was better trained than most of the people I would
be coming into contact with. This allowed me to think I could do the job. It gave me just
enough credibility to get by. The rest I would get by proving myself capable of the job by
doing it right. So my martial arts training was a blessing in that respect.
I soon realised though, that it was also a hindrance and this happened when it became clear
that I would never be able to use most of what I knew. I got caught up in a nasty situation
one night that involved about eight big guys against three of us bouncers. I used a few
techniques that were no where near as effective as I thought they would be and the crushing
fear of the situation made me back away at times when I shouldnt have. On the whole the
experience was a complete eye opener for me. I had never felt such adrenaline- induced
fear in my life, a fear that rendered my oft practiced techniques almost useless.
I had never trained for such a situation. In the dojo the pressure I had previously felt was
miniscule by comparison to the overwhelming pressure I felt that night. In the dojo I felt calm
and in control, powerful even. That night, with the fists flying and the blood splattering, I felt
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like I was being controlled only by fear and that I was weak instead of powerful. Years of
training had practically come to nothing.
I stuck with the job for a while though because I thought the experience would be good for
me, both personally and as a martial artist, which it was on both fronts. The fear though,
never really went away. Although I got better at handling situations I never ceased to be
afraid. It wasnt until later, when I read Geoff Thompsons book, Fear, that I realised this
feeling of fear was completely natural and that everyone feels it. You just have to learn how
to control it.
I got in a few more scrapes while bouncing and after each one I got more used to the
experience (exposure training) though never completely. From a performance point of view, I
still needed a lot of work.
Injecting the concept of alive training into your martial arts is like coming up for air after being
trapped under water; its like a new lease of life.
Eventually I quit bouncing because of the unsociable hours and because at times it felt like a
prison sentence. A lot of bouncers get almost addicted to the job and when they quit they
wonder why they ever did it for so long. I was in that group. I dont miss it.
The whole bouncing experience though, taught me the very real need for different training
methods when it came to street self defense and actual combat. The traditional methods of
training in this regard had proved to be woefully inadequate. Thats not to say that the
training was a waste of time, it wasnt. The techniques just had to be modified to meet the
demands of a high pressure live situation.
So now I strive to make my
training as alive as
possible. More and more I
have tried to move away
from the static nature of
traditional training methods
(though not altogether as Ill
soon explain) and to make
the training much more
dynamic and realistic. My
new goal was to be able to
perform better, mentally
and physically, in a combat
situation and to not kid
myself that just because I
had trained extensively in
martial arts that I would somehow naturally be able to handle a real attack. I believe this is a
fatal assumption that many martial artists make and it takes a bit of humility and swallowing
of pride to actually admit this fact to yourself. It certainly did with me. I had to admit that I
didnt know half as much as I thought I knew when it came to effective street self defense.
Once you do make this mental leap however, you really do start to come on leaps and
bounds in terms of your training. To paraphrase Bruce Lee, you will be emptying your cup of
knowledge (what you think you know) to make way for new knowledge (what you should
know). Now you can really start to learn.
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Injecting the concept of alive training into your martial arts is like coming up for air after being
trapped under water; its like a new lease of life. You can finally shrug of the weighty and
unhelpful elements of tradition and feel a lot lighter for it. Suddenly you feel like youre
training in real life instead of still life. The shift is that transforming. I felt reborn as a martial
artist when I started to liven up my training and get creative. I felt like I was finally on my own
path instead of someone elses and that is a very liberating feeling.
Take a look at this video that illustrates the concept of alive training very well and its
importance in making your training more practical. The video will serve as a good grounding
before we go on to discuss different training methods to achieve this.
Training Methods
Before we get into talking about different training methods lets take a moment to consider a
few facts about real street violence. First and foremost if you find yourself fighting with some
thug out on the street then you can safely assume that your awareness and avoidance skills
have failed or have let you down.
Awareness is the number one skill you should
cultivate for protecting yourself against
violence on the street. You should train
yourself to be able to spot trouble before it
starts and also to avoid places that are
notorious for trouble and violence. If you go
and hang out somewhere that is full of
assholes then you only have yourself to
blame if one of them starts on you. Similarly, if
you act like an asshole yourself when you are
out then you cant expect anything different
when someone decides to challenge you for
being obnoxious.
The point Im getting at here is that self defense doesnt necessarily involve being a highly
effective fighter. Real street defense is 90% awareness and only 10% fighting. If your
awareness skills are defective then youll be taken out before you are even aware a threat
exists and then were will all your fighting skills get you?
No matter how good a fighter you are you can pretty much guarantee that there is someone
out there who is better. The only way to keep yourself safe from highly skilled street fighters
is to simply not fight them at all. Use your awareness skills to avoid messing with such
people. If you find yourself being confronted by someone use the fence technique, control
the distance between you and them with your hands, calmly talk your opponent down, and if
that doesnt work be pre-emptive and get in an effective first strike then take advantage of
the moment of confusion and run to safety. If none of that is possible then you obviously
have no choice but to fight and this is were effective training methods come in.
2009 Neal Martin
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Sparring for Combat

In the vast majority of dojos across the globe martial
artists tend to spar the same way, which is to say that
most of us tend to spar for competition purposes.
There are always rules to abide by and there are
many techniques that cant be used for either safety
reasons or for reasons of style. For example, when
sparring for kickboxing there is no grappling, only
kicking and punching and even these techniques are
done in a very stylised way. Even in MMA, which
many would argue (wrongly in my view) is a close
representation of street fighting, there are rules to
follow and there are safety measures in place to
prevent injury to vital areas. And once again, the
fighting itself is very stylised and nothing like the
chaotic nature of most street fights.
It is wrong to assume that because you are good at sparring that you will also be good in a
street fight.
It is therefore wrong to assume that because you are good at sparring that you will also be
good in a street fight. We can back this supposition up with a few more facts about street
fighting. Consider that:
Most street fights take place at close range, unlike most dojo sparring were the range
is long.
Real fights often involve multiple opponents and weapons, neither of which are
factored into dojo sparring.
Real fights are usually extremely fast, frantic and sloppy, nothing as controlled as
dojo sparring.
Real fights are never the skilled exchange between martial artists that we see in the
dojo.
In real fights there is no room for fancy or complicated techniques; things must be
kept simple.
A real fight could happen at any time and without prior warning. There is no bowing
or touching of gloves beforehand.
Aggressive dialogue often precedes any real fight.
Real fights are damn scary and extremely violent, no holds barred affairs. They are
therefore not enjoyable in the slightest (unless violence is your thing).
So we can see that dojo sparring is very different from real fighting and if we are to train for
the real thing then we have to change our methods of training and sparring. I am not of
course saying that traditional dojo sparring doesnt have a place. People train for different
reasons so all types of sparring have their place in the dojo. If you wish to train for real self
defense however, then you must make the necessary adjustments to your training methods
so you are better able to deal with the real thing.
No matter how real you make your sparring however, it will never be real enough, simply
because you have to incorporate certain safety measures into it. Making the training exactly
like the real thing just defeats the object of training in the first place. If we went all out then
every sparring session would be a potentially life threatening encounter. There still has to be
control and this is the fatal flaw when it comes to training for the real thing. Inevitably you will
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have to wear protective gear, eliminate the use of certain techniques like groin strikes and
eye gouges and probably train on comfortable mats instead of concrete.
These flaws and limitations dont present too much of a problem however, as long as you
are aware of them and you factor them into your training. If you happen to be wearing heavy
boxing gloves for instance, then be aware that in reality you wouldnt be able to cover your
face with them (because you wouldnt have them on) and your strikes would be much more
effective without them on as well. You would also be able to grapple without gloves. These
are things you need to be aware of when sparring for the street.
So you have to make these changes in your training to make it more realistic, you get away
from the usual form of dojo sparring and consider the conditions that exist in a real fight
scenario. Most importantly, you have to adjust your mindset and go from thinking about
scoring points or submissions for competition to thinking about properly subduing and
damaging a real attacker in the pavement arena.
Closing The Distance

When we see two martial artists sparring, the distance between them is usually greatly
exaggerated. We see a lot of circling round one another and a lot of feinting and general
game play, as you would expect from two trained fighters. In the street however, things are
much different. A real fight in the
street does not usually start from
such a distance; they usually start
from close range. A fight normally
begins with aggressive dialogue
and sometimes a fair bit of
posturing and shoving around.
When things do finally kick of then
they do so from a close distance,
having to follow on from the
aggressive lead up.
When developing sparring
methods for self defense
therefore, we have to keep this in
mind, we have to begin our sparring from a close distance and resist the temptation to start
from afar. So when sparring for the street, stand close to your partner and begin things from
there. Once you actually begin to spar resist the temptation to start playing around like you
would normally do in dojo sparring. No games or crafty tricks to illicit a response so you can
capitalise on it.
In a real fight things happen really fast. It starts fast and it stays fast until it is over. Real
fights are also highly pressurised, emotional affairs that dont allow any room for thinking.
The only thing you will be able to do is react and you must react fast. You wont have time to
consider doing the things you would normally do in dojo sparring so put them out of your
mind. Concentrate only on putting down your opponent or subduing him for long enough to
make good your escape. Remember that escaping the situation should be your main priority,
not getting into an extended punching match or showing your opponent whose boss- hit and
then run!
2009 Neal Martin
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Developing Close Range Skills

From such a close distance your short range
fighting skills have to be very good. There are drills
you can do to improve them. One drill I often do is
to have a partner attack you with a flurry of strikes
and you then have to parry those strikes while also
looking for an opening to counter them or close
your partner down. If you have trapping skills then
you can utilise these as well. The object is just to
defend against the attack and then counter and
then, guess what? Run!
If you are having trouble keeping the required
distance or your short range skills need work then
there is an excellent solution to this suggested by
Iain Abernethy in an article he wrote on combat
sparring. He wrote that Shihan Chris Rowen would simply use a belt to tie both partners
together and that would obviously prevent either one from moving away from the other.
You also have to remember that there generally is no backing of in a real fight. Both parties
normally go hell for leather at one another, neither one giving the other a chance to create
any distance. So constantly backing away to long range is going against the need for
realism, which defeats the purpose of this type of training.
Try tying yourself to your partner and see how quickly your short range skills improve.
Eventually you will find yourself flowing a lot more, you will more easily spot and exploit gaps
in your opponents defense and you will find new ways to attack and defend that you may not
have thought of before.
Upping The Pressure

Real fights are extremely emotional and highly pressurised situations and the more you can
do to mimic these conditions in your training the more beneficial your training will be.
To start with you can bring posturing and aggressive dialogue into the mix. Most fights tend
to start with heated arguing and a lot of aggressive dialogue and shoving etc., so you should
do exactly the same in training. Have a partner come up to you and begin to act
aggressively, shouting and cursing, really trying to intimidate you. The object here is to
provoke an adrenal response from you, to get you used to the feelings so you wont be so
overwhelmed when they happen in a real situation. You will recognise the feelings of
adrenaline flowing through you and you hopefully wont mistake them for terror. You should
be able to control them and still be able to act decisively.
There are two ways to approach this drill- from a purely defensive perspective or from a preemptive perspective. From both standpoints we use the fence initially to keep some distance
between you and your opponent. Dont let him get too close or hell start controlling you. So
put up your fence and then allow him to attack. The second he does, react quickly and either
absorb the blow with a block and then counter strike or else just strike straight away. It
obviously depends on what he does and how he does it. Experiment and see how things
pan out.
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The more hardship you endure in training the less hardship (and hopefully pain) you will
have to endure on the street if anything ever happens.
In a real situation if someone is being that aggressive towards to you then you can pretty
much assume that they are going to attack you at some point, so why wait for it? Despite the
fact that the law says we must react defensively (in other wards wait for the attack and then
defend) in reality it is very unwise to wait for an opponent to attack, simply because it is very
difficult, if not impossible, to block an oncoming attack.
In general, the first to attack has the advantage so that means if you wait for an opponent to
attack they will have the advantage and they will most likely defeat you. So if you sense an
attack coming be pre-emptive and put in a good first strike, preferably a hard punch to your
opponents jaw, something that will stop them in their tracks and give you enough time to run.
Practice that also while drilling this type of confrontation.
Incidentally, if you want to find out more about this type of adrenaline-inducing training then I
can highly recommend that you read Geoff Thompsons book, Animal Day: Pressure Testing
the Martial Arts
. In it Geoff explains the concept of Animal Day and its usefulness for pressure testing your
skills and testing your reactions under extreme duress. I must warn you though that the type
of training Geoff is advocating is pretty hardcore and not for the feint of heart. That being
said, real fighting is just the same and if you want to be able to fully handle it then such
training is necessary.
Surprise Attacks
It often happens in the street that
people are taken by surprise and
attacked when they least expect it.
Very rarely are we ready for such
violent confrontations, even when
we can sense them coming. You
dont even realise what is
happening until your lying on the
ground half unconscious.
Now the nature of surprise attacks
means you cant see them coming
so you obviously cant train for that,
but we can train ourselves to react
better when they do happen by
incorporating surprise attacks into
our training.
The following training method was devised by Iain Abernethy (thanks Iain!) and is an
excellent way of testing how you react to surprise attacks. Basically, during your training
session, whoever is leading the training will shout the word, Fight! any time they choose
and everyone in the dojo has to begin sparring with the person nearest them. Everyone in
the class has to be wearing protective gear from the beginning of the session and the
session will proceed as normal with everyone doing whatever it is they normally do, be it
drilling techniques, pad work or whatever. Whoever is leading the training can shout the
command to fight at any time, even after everyone thinks the training is over. Its a really
good way to introduce the element of surprise into your training and get you used to reacting
immediately when maybe you werent ready to do so.
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Surprise training in this way will really test your reaction times and it will also reveal any
weaknesses you might have in your defense since you wont have time to think about what
is happening. I suggest you try it, since it is very beneficial to your street defense training.
Its All About The Confidence

Those are just a few methods of training that you can use to better prepare yourself for
confrontations on the street. Im sure if you use your imagination you can devise other
training methods that do just as well, but the ones mentioned are tried and tested and as
such should be practiced first before moving on to anything else.
Whatever the method of training, the main thing is that the conditions are kept as realistic as
possible and as much pressure is piled on as possible. There is no sense in kidding yourself
that just because you react well under a small amount of pressure that you will therefore be
able to react just as well under the crushing pressure of real violence. You wont. The more
hardship you endure in training the less hardship (and hopefully pain) you will have to
endure on the street if anything ever happens.
You also have to approach your training with a high level of confidence. You have to believe
that you can handle whatever is thrown at you. Dont let yourself get too easily overwhelmed
by the circumstances, both in and out of training. Keep your inner opponent under control
and keep thinking positive. Dont give anyone (especially your inner opponent) the
satisfaction of seeing you hurt or humiliated. Approach your training with full confidence and
always give it 100%. At least that way, if you are attacked on the street, you will carry over
the same attitude and wont be so easily subdued or defeated.
Further Resources
Animal Day: Pressure Testing the Martial Arts
Chapter 2: The Fence: The Best Self Defense

Technique There Is
Usually when we talk about street self defense and tactics we talk about how to control an
aggressor when they actually attack you. What many martial artists dont often talk about is
what to do in the run up before the aggressor attacks, what to do when the situation is
hotting up and violence is about to rear its ugly head.
What if you could gain complete control of your opponent before he even gets a chance to
make any kind of move on you? What if you could control someone in this situation without
them even knowing it? Well, with The Fence, you can do exactly that. Not only will you be
able to control your opponent with this technique, you will also be in just the right position to
counter any attack that is made against you.
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Its All about Control

So in basic terms, the fence is all about control of your opponent, physically and
psychologically. This what Geoff Thompson, the creator of The Fence
concept, had in mind when he came up with the technique. He worked the doors for a long
time and he wanted a way to completely control a potential attacker and keep himself safe at
the same time, and to Geoffs credit, he has succeeded on both these fronts.
I have talked before about the three As of self defense, which are: attitude, awareness,
action. The Fence is brought into play at the action stage, when your attitude and
awareness havent allowed you to escape the situation at hand and you are left with no
choice but to stand and deal with it.
I have always advocated escaping potentially violent confrontations, by whatever means,
first of all. This isnt always possible though. Sometimes, for whatever reason (not for
egotistical reasons I hope) you have to stay and confront whoever is being aggressive
towards you. You simply dont have a choice and this is were The Fence comes in.
In a street self defense situation you usually have someone in your face, shouting and being
abusive towards you, building up to smacking you one. Most people react to this kind of
abuse and posturing by being abusive right back and getting involved in a stare of or
pushing and shoving contest before the fists start to fly. Reacting to aggression with more
aggression is only adding fuel to the fire. Not only that, it draws you into the red mist and
your thinking skills go out the window. When you get to the red mist stage you begin to
operate on pure adrenalin and rage. Tactics go out the window and all you want to then do
is beat down and dominate whoever is in front of you. You become an animal, in other
wards, and you dont want that, because animals dont have much control, which as we
know is bad in a self
The fence is all about control of your opponent, physically and psychologically.
defense situation, especially when you have to deal with the law after wards. I just lost it,
will not stand up in court when you try to explain how you went from defending yourself to
fighting. So we use The Fence instead, to control the situation and keep our cool. Without
your thinking skills still present the technique will not work because you have to consciously
control whoever is in front of you.
Now I can try and explain to you how exactly to bring The Fence into play and how to use it
properly, but I really dont think I will do it justice here. Instead I will let the man who invented
it explain it to you in the following two videos. I urge you to watch them and listen to what
Geoff is saying. I firmly believe that the technique is more important than any other self
defense technique there is and if mastered, can save you a lot of trouble if you ever get into
a street self defense situation were you have no choice but to stand up for yourself against
an aggressor.
Video 1
Video 2
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Get to Know The Fence

I hope after watching Geoff explain the fence concept in the videos that you can now see
how valuable such a technique would be in a real situation. If you can master controlling an
opponent in that way then you will have no need to get into drawn out confrontations
because you will have controlled and dominated your opponent even before they have
thrown a single punch. This to me is the ultimate self defense tactic and beats all others
hands down without a shadow of a doubt.
The only situation I cant see the fence working in is one were there are multiple opponents
involved, as you obviously cant control them all at once. Your options are severely limited
here. If you cant run the only option is the pre-emptive strike and to try and take out as
many of them first before they all crowd in on you.
Get to know the fence and its intricacies though. If any street self defense technique is worth
learning its this one.
Trust me, you wont regret the time you spend on it.
Further Reading
Fence
Chapter 3: How to Survive a Violent Confrontation

When the successful outcome of a confrontation on the street depends, 99% of the time, on
how well you manage the conflict before it gets to fighting stage, why do so many dojos
continue to teach students only reactive/defensive techniques that probably wont work very
well come the time anyway?
Actually allowing a confrontation to get to fight stage is disastrous and is the worst possible
outcome of any conflict. Once you have to fight then you are not in control anymore and
anything could happen. You could end up being seriously hurt or you could end up badly
injuring your opponent, to the point were you have to explain your actions to the police and
then in court.
In an ideal world it would be nice to be able to just defend only, to use our martial arts skills
in the way they are apparently supposed to be used, but the fact is we dont live in an ideal
world and I doubt we ever have. Defending against attacks in the dojo is easy because we
usually know which attack is coming and there is rarely any pressure under the
circumstances. Mostly, what we do in the dojo is art and not real self defense. If we were
practicing real self defense then we would also be practicing confrontation management and
all that that entails. We would also be constantly putting ourselves (and our techniques)
under extreme pressure to see how well we can really perform.
I of course understand that most martial artists practice an art and that they are, in most
cases, just following tradition and doing what practitioners of their art have always done. I do
this myself. However, most martial artists see themselves as being capable of defending
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themselves if someone tries it on out in the street, but I cant see how you could think that if
all you knew how to do was fight and react to your opponents attack.
Like I say, waiting to be hit is not good self defense. Good self defense is about controlling
the situation right from the start when an opponent first approaches you on the street, when
he verbally lets you know he has a problem with you. This is were conflict/confrontation
management skills come in, giving you the ability to read the situation properly and control it
accordingly. There is still risk involved, but a lot less risk than waiting for some seven foot
knucklehead with a bad attitude and an even worse haircut to hit you.
Obviously conflict management doesnt apply to all situations. In the case of ambush attacks
or surprise attacks you wont see the attack coming and there will be very little you can do
under such circumstances, especially if you get hit hard and fast. Unless youre very lucky,
its unlikely that you will escape an ambush attack unhurt and in some cases, with your life.
The only preventive measure against such attacks are stay aware at all times so that you
dont walk into any traps. Dark alleys and dodgy shortcuts across the park at night should be
a no-no. Try not to piss too many people off either. Pissed off people tend to come looking
for you, lying in wait so they can take you by surprise some night when you least expect it.
You should also make yourself a hard target. Carry yourself with complete confidence and
avoid any kind of victim mentality. Follow the steps outlined in my free e-book. Predators
should only have to take one look at you before deciding you are not worth the trouble and
they will move on to easier prey.
Prevention is always the best cure for violence but sometimes, despite our best efforts,
someone will try it on with us and we will have no choice but to employ a bit of conflict
management.
The Fence
Good confrontation management should begin with the fence. I have talked at length on the
fence in another article and most of you should be well aware of it by now, but I just want to
mention it again in brief, because it is particularly relevant to what we are talking about here.
The fence is a very integral part of successfully surviving any violent street confrontation.
If you do find yourself confronted by some aggressor then controlling the distance between
you and them should probably be your first priority. You dont really want them getting into
your face and so close that you wont be able to prevent them attacking you. This is why we
use the fence to create a gap in between that allows you to control your potential attacker
without them barely noticing. You can now be aware of all their movements and with your
hands you can feel out the situation and be ready to attack or defend as need be.
With a good fence in place a potential attacker now knows that they have to break down that
fence in order for them to land a successful attack on you. This makes them hesitate before
doing anything and puts them under your control somewhat. Without the fence in place there
would nothing to stop an opponent launching an attack at will, no barrier to keep them at
bay. You would essentially be an open target.
It is also advisable to keep your fence as natural as possible. It is not some rigid karate
stance that you adopt when someone gets in your face. Your fence should also mirror the
movements of your opponent, allowing for good rapport and subtle control. It must be
practiced to be effective.
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So with your fence now in place you now have two courses of action open to you:
1. Talk your way out of the situation. This can be done by means of verbal aggression
and lots of posturing or you can simply talk your opponent down and thus diffuse the
situation. Either way, no physical response is required and you should be able to walk away
unscathed.
2. Hit your opponent before he hits you. If you are near certain your opponent is going to
attack you at some point then you should probably try to land one good shot before taking to
your heels.
Both of these tactics can work very well, depending on the circumstances. It would be up to
you to judge your opponent and the situation wisely enough to make the right decision,
something which wont be easy when your old friend adrenalin is coursing through you and
you cant think too clearly. You just have to try and keep your wits about you and hope you
make the right choice.
Go by instinct rather than thought anyway. Adrenalin tends to close down most of the brains
thinking faculties so trying to think under such circumstances is slightly pointless, not to say
dangerous. Your decisions must be swift and based on good instinct, which in turn are
based on good practice and training. Theses types of situation should be drilled in practice,
over and over so that if you are faced with the real thing you wont have to think, youll know
immediately what to do and everything will be spontaneous.
A lot of people, when they are confronted by an attacker, tend to either freeze up or behave
in a way that is not conducive to resolving the conflict. Allowing a potential attacker to control
you from the start and dictate the situation (and thus the eventual outcome) is the wrong way
to go about things. Assuming you have done nothing to invite such aggression, why should
you allow yourself to be bullied and beaten up by someone who is probably just looking for a
soft target to displace their aggression on? Is it not right that you should stand up for yourself
and face down your aggressor in any way you can, even if it means having to confront your
own fears in the process? You have every right to stand up for yourself and your sense of
self worth should demand that you do.
It is obviously a frightening situation to be in when some thug decides to try and intimidate
you and potentially pick a fight but it should be your duty to not allow this to happen in any
way you can. This doesnt mean you should get stuck in straight away with all guns blazing
because that wouldnt be very smart move.
For a start you dont know who you are dealing with. Launching into a fight straight of the bat
could prove disastrous as your opponent could be a much more skilled fighter than you. In
fact, its safe to say that your opponent probably is more skilled, at least in street fighting.
Thugs who make a habit of such behaviour are more used to it than you are. They are used
to the pressure and fear and they know all the dirty tricks. Theyd probably beat you down in
a second, so why take the chance?
The Smarter Approach

Its much better to take a smarter approach to the situation that will allow you walk (or run)
away from the situation unharmed. As we discussed in the last article the first thing you need
to do is get some control over the situation by putting up your fence and maintaining a safe
distance between you and your potential attacker. Now, in order for any attack to happen,
your opponent has to get past your fence and they know this.
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I remember one of the first nights I spent on the door when I allowed a guy to get right into
my face. I had no fence up to keep him at bay and he was thus able to attack me before I
had a chance to react. If Id have created a safe distance between him and me, then he
wouldnt have found it so easy to attack and I probably couldve reacted in time if he did.
So maintain the gap and keep your fence as natural
as possible. Remember, its not a rigid karate stance
your doing. The idea is for it to be as natural as
possible, feeling out the situation and mirroring the
movements of your opponent if need be. Doing so will
create an unconscious rapport between you and them
that will allow for easier control of the situation.
So, your fence is up, what now? Well, as I said, you
now have two choices open to you. You can strike
pre-emptively, which we will look at in the next article,
or you can attempt to diffuse the situation through
verbal dissuasion, which we shall look at now.
Verbal Dissuasion
Using verbal dissuasion techniques means you can talk an opponent down or put them off
fighting with you altogether and there are two main ways to achieve this.
Calming Dialogue
You start this off by first using what is called a pleading fence which is putting both hands
out in front of you, palms facing away from you and held several inches away from your
opponent in a submissive stance. Once you have the fence up you can then use some form
of submissive, yet firm dialogue which makes it clear that you dont want any trouble: Look,
just stay back, I dont want any trouble hereJust keep away.
The fence, combined with appropriate dialogue and surprise action (hit or run) is
undoubtedly the best strategy for most violent confrontations.
I want to make it clear that dialogue alone is unlikely to diffuse the situation by itself. Your
opponent is riled up, theyve went out of their way to confront you with the probable intention
of smacking you and you will find it extremely difficult to talk someone down from that kind of
state. What this submissive tactic does do however, is throw your opponent off-guard by
making him think that you are a push-over and an easy target, which will therefore disarm
him somewhat. If dialogue alone is not diffusing the situation then you are ideally placed to
put in a pre-emptive strike before making your escape. Your opponent wont be expecting it
because hes thinks you are too scared to act. Or alternatively, you can use the deception to
make good your escape without having to strike first.
Aggressive Dialogue
Using aggressive dialogue is another option you have open to you if someone wants to get
physical. The idea here is to try and psyche out your opponent by making them think that
you are too much to handle.
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Again, we start with the fence, only this time we get aggressive and highly assertive. A good
tactic is to firmly shove your opponent on the chest to send him reeling back a few steps.
This has the double effect of creating distance and eliciting an adrenal response in your
opponent that will bring on the fight or flight syndrome. It is important that you shove hard
enough to send them back away from you. If you strike too softly it is very likely your
opponent will react by attacking you (again because of the adrenal response).
The shove should also be accompanied by very aggressive dialogue. The idea is to be as
loud and as aggressive as possible, using the voice as a weapon in much the same way as
a karateka would use the kia shout. GET FUCKING BACK! STAY FUCKING BACK YOU
FUCKING WANKER, STAY WHERE YOU ARE This is the type of dialogue you must use
in order to shock your opponent into submission and illicit an adrenal response that causes
them to freeze up. The louder and more aggressive
you are, the more expletives you use, the better.
Once you have shoved your opponent back and
created distance you then do what is know as
ballooning which is basically walking back and forth
in front of your opponent in a stalking fashion,
pointing your finger at him and continuing to use
aggressive and assertive dialogue. FUCKING STAY
THERE YOU FUCKING CUNTDONT MOVE! The
idea of the ballooning is that it provokes in your
opponent a very deep fear that we all still have left
over from our ancestors of being stalked by wild
animals. It will make him very uncomfortable and
coupled with the aggression and dialogue it should
put him off going any further with his attack. Its a
brutal response, but a necessary one.
No Guarantees
Of course there are no guarantees in these situations and there is always the chance that an
opponent could decide to attack anyway. If they do persist however, you have made it
possible for yourself to escape in the confusion or react to their attack with one of your own.
All these tactics should be practiced for best effect, just like any other technique. The more
you practice them the better you get at them and the more comfortable you will get using
them. Just drill them over an over until they become second nature.
The Pre-Emptive Strike

Taking the initiative and striking an opponent before they get a chance to attack you is one
of the most effective self defense tactics there is, for two reasons. Firstly, taking the initiative
gives you that vital element of surprise and secondly, by doing so you are creating a window
of opportunity wherein you can make good your escape. Lets look at these two advantages
in more detail.
The Element of Surprise

Having the ability to successfully utilise the element of surprise in a confrontation is a skill
that will greatly stack the odds in your favour when it comes to surviving any potential attack.
There really is no point in waiting for your opponent to strike the first blow, as many of us
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have been taught to do over the years. Waiting to be attacked by someone and then trying to
defend against that attack is not only very unwise, its madness.
Years of dojo training has lead many martial artists into a false sense of security in this
respect because they believe they will be able to successfully defend themselves against an
attack from another person if it happens. Now, I dont care how skilled you are, the chances
of you coming out on top after some determined opponent (probably fuelled by alcohol or
drugs or just plain anger induced adrenalin) starts raining down on you are slim, very slim
indeed. If you dont believe me, then set up a situation in the dojo. Get someone to attack
you, not in the formalised way that they have been taught, but in an animalistic street fighting
way The attack doesnt even have to be full force, a moderate attack will do. Now stand
there and try to defend yourself as your opponent throws blow after blow at you. Are your
blocks working? I doubt they are. Can you get a wrist lock, or even an arm lock? I doubt that
as well.
Now imagine how youd react if the same attack happened in a club or on the street,
possibly when youre half drunk and your adrenal response is making it hard for you to even
think, never mind move. You get what Im saying here? If you are as certain as you can be
that you are going to be attacked, why wait for the inevitable to happen, why wait for the
odds to be heavily stacked against you? Is it not better, if you know an attack is imminent, to
strike while the odds are still in your favour?
Another very good reason for utilising the element of surprise is this. If you properly hit
someone when they least expect it there is a better than average chance, especially if you
hit them in the right place, that you will put them down. It is much harder to drop an opponent
when they are expecting the attack because they are then ready for it and they will steel
themselves accordingly. It is possible to drop the biggest of opponents by doing a surprise
attack in this way, opponents who wouldnt ordinarily flinch if they knew your attack was
coming.
Now some people often ask, How can you be sure you are going to be attacked? This
question is usually motivated by two things. Firstly, by a lack of experience in reading people
and working out what they are going to do next and secondly, by a fear that if they hit first,
they will only succeed in making their opponent angrier.
To address the first reason, it is usually not too hard to tell if someone is going to attack. The
best way to tell if someone is going to make good on their threats is to feel them out with
your fence. Once your fence is up and you create that gap, your opponent shouldnt be
trying to step into that gap. If your opponent keeps advancing forward, despite your fence,
then you know they intend to attack. A good rule of thumb here is that if you feel your
opponent make contact with your hands (fence) two times despite your warnings to stay
back, then you can be pretty much certain
that they intend to attack and its time for
you to make your move.
The second reason why some people
hesitate is down to plain fear. They get
overwhelmed by the violent aggression
coming from their opponent, the adrenal
response kicks in and they begin to have
doubts. If I hit this guy hes only get
angrier and then he will beat the shit out of
me. If you dont hit then you will definitely
get the shit beaten out of you, its that
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simple. By not hitting, youre not giving yourself a fighting chance.

The fear induced by a situation can indeed be overwhelming, but it is imperative that you try
and keep a handle on it and do whats best by you. Allowing yourself to be overwhelmed (at
least to the point were you dont act) wont help matters. Ive been in situations in the past
were I have allowed the same fear to get to me, with the consequence that I didnt act when I
should have and ended up rolling round the floor with my attacker. This is far from being an
ideal situation to be in.
You also have to think of the aftermath. Will you not feel better knowing you did your best to
face down your attacker rather than stand there and take whatever violence they dish out? A
lack of action can often result in post-attack rage and feelings of guilt for not acting when you
should have. I have experienced such feelings myself and they are not pleasant and can
often last for weeks, eating away at you. At least if you were proactive at the time you can
console yourself with the knowledge that you did all you could to stand up for yourself.
The Pre-Strike Distraction

Before you actually proceed with any pre-emptive attack it is often best to distract your
opponent in some way before you do so. The best way to do this is to ask them a question
just before you strike. Asking questions will engage your opponents brain and force them to
think about something else other than attacking you. You dont have to be aggressive about
it. In fact the less aggressive the question the more it will throw your attacker. Hows your
mother doing? or I know your father/brother/cousin dont I? Asking these kinds of
questions will cause your opponent to stop and think, even if they dont want to. Its like an
involuntary reaction. When someone asks you a question your
Taking the initiative and striking an opponent before they get a chance to attack you is one
of the most effective self defense tactics there is.
natural response is to think of an answer to reply with. The adrenaline your opponent is
probably feeling will also cause him to freeze somewhat as well, because the question will
be so left field. As soon as you ask the question, follow up immediately with your strike.
What you will often find is that because you have engaged your opponents brain they will be
almost blinded to your attack and you can then make your escape in the confusion.
Should I Follow Up The First Strike With Another?

The short answer to that question is no, not usually. The point of the first strike is to create a
window of opportunity for you to make good your escape. There is no point in hanging round
for more, especially if there is a chance that your opponents mates could come on the
scene. There is also the danger that if you do move in to finish, your opponent could grab
you from the ground and pull you down there with him, which isnt somewhere you want to
be. If that happens (and Ive seen it happen before) then you have wasted the opportunity
that you worked so hard to create and youve given back control to your opponent. So
always run as soon as youve made your first attack. Your first goal should always be selfpreservation, not to punish your opponent or give your ego a workout.
What Strike Should I Use?

In the case of pre-emptive striking it is best to find a technique you are comfortable with and
stick with it. Like most people, I prefer to use the hands as my main weapon, simply because
they are already in place to attack thanks to your fence and also because punches are the
most reliable and probably the most effective technique to use for this purpose. A good right
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cross or hook of the back hand is very

effective, especially if you are able to
accurately target your opponents jaw. It is
possible to knock an opponent out with a
single strike to the jaw, or if not knock them
out at least distract them enough so you
can escape.
Just remember that you will usually have
only one chance to get it right, so make
your strike a good one. After that first strike
everything else becomes spontaneous and
you wont have the same opportunity to
target accurately or hit with the same
power. A moving target is much harder to hit as you probably already know. Trying to hit a
bobbing head could lead to you connecting with teeth (not good, hygiene wise) or breaking
your hand on an opponents skull (also not good).
Practice your single strike on the focus pads as often as you can. Look for maximum power
and focus in every punch when you practice and remember that you are going for a knock
out blow. Also practice the punch from different positions, from the ground, while your back
is against the wall, awkward positions that you may find yourself in while in a live situation.
The idea is to be able to generate power from any position.
What If The First Strike Fails?

If, after making your pre-emptive attack, you are unable to escape for whatever reason and
your opponent is still determined to continue with the assault then you should put your fence
back up and try to talk your opponent down from their rage by using dialogue. If you cant
appease them this way and the assault continues then your only option is to attack them with
everything you have until you can either escape or until your opponent has had enough and
they back down.
Pre-Emptive Striking and the Law

Many people are unsure about where they stand in relation to the law and this issue. The
law often tells us to only strike if you are attacked first and even then, to only do so with
reasonable force. Many martial artists have also been brainwashed into thinking that they
must not attack first because it goes against the code of ethics that supposedly govern the
martial arts, that they have to wait for an opponent to attack them first before they can
defend.
The fact of the matter is this. The law is quite open these days to the concept of pre-emptive
striking for street self defense purposes. If you can show that an attack on your person was
imminent and that you did all you could to prevent it from happening through initial dialogue
(witnesses should back this up) then your situation will be looked favourably upon. Indeed,
most police officers will tell you that pre-emptive striking is a valid response to a threat on
your person, despite what it says in the statute books. So keep that in mind the next time
you have doubts regarding this issue.
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A Final Word
I hope you can now see how important it is have some kind of grounding in conflict
management. Self defense is not all about standing there waiting for someone to attack you
before you take any action. Real self defense is about managing the situation, through use
of dialogue and pre-emptive striking, before it spirals out of control. Obviously things dont
always go according to plan and sometimes you will have to fight your way out of situation
and this is were your martial arts training will hopefully hold you in good stead. Whatever the
outcome, your attitude should always be one of intelligently taking control from the start and
not allowing yourself to be bullied or become overwhelmed by fear. This can be achieved by
constant training (the right training) and having a good understanding of the adrenal
response and how it affects a person.
Practice using the fence in the dojo, practice using dialogue to engage your opponent and
learn to hit as hard as you can. Master these three elements and you will have the best
chance of surviving any violent confrontation.
Chapter 4: Multiple Attacker Tactics

Multiple attackers are very difficult to deal with. Let me tell you a story that illustrates my
point.
As Ive mentioned before on this blog, my Dad is a bouncer as well as being my Sensei. He
has been bouncing now for almost twenty years and has been training in the martial arts for
nearly thirty years. Despite the fact that he is a couple of years shy of being sixty, my Dad is
in great shape. Hes physically fitter than most of the students he trains (including me) and
he has a bullish physique that makes him very strong and imposing when he wants to be.
Over the course of his bouncing career my Dad has had many, many violent confrontations
with people, as you can well imagine. Hardly a night goes by when hes on the door that
some kind of incident doesnt crop up that he has to deal with by getting physical with
someone. All in all hes not really a man to be messed with (as many have found out to their
cost) in any way, shape or form.
So two weekends ago my Dad is working the door as usual. Its a Sunday night and there
are only three bouncers working, including my Dad. Sunday nights at the club are slower
than Saturdays (there is usually a dozen or more men working Saturday nights) so the
owner cuts down on the staff.
Anyway, half way through the night a gang of fourteen guys enters the club. They were all
well known to my Dad and the other two bouncers as being drug dealers and general thugs.
These were bad people with not a conscious between them. Violence was their answer to
everything.
My dad and the other two bouncers knew straight away that there was going to be trouble
and as it turned out the motley crew was there because they wanted revenge on the head
doorman because of an incident that happened a few weeks before.
The head doorman was working that night along with my dad. He spotted the gang eyeing
him up from across the dance floor and his face drained of color because he knew what was
coming.
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The gang split into three groups and one of the groups began to mess around by the bar,
standing on top of the bar and generally creating a scene. My Dad knew it was just a
distraction but he had to go over and sort it out anyway. There were four big guys waiting for
him to come over. As soon as he approached they surrounded him and pinned him to the
bar. My Dad looked around for help and spotted the head doorman exiting the club, doing a
runner before the rest of the group could get a hold of him. The other bouncer was at the far
side of the club, trying to keep control of the other splinter group. My Dad knew he was on
his own.
The first punch when it came hit him on the side of the head and another connected with his
jaw. He went down and the surrounding thugs proceeded to lay into him, punching and
kicking him while he lay on the floor. All he could do was cover up and hope that they
stopped soon.
A few minutes passed and the thugs who were beating him showed no sign of abating their
attack and my Dad was helpless to defend himself. It took a complete stranger- a big guy
just out for a drink with his girlfriend- to step in and pull my dad away from the thugs that
were beating him, giving my Dad the chance to gather himself again.
Eventually, realising that their target (the head doorman) had left the building in fear for his
life, the group of thugs left themselves.
My dad and the other bouncer that was left were obviously not best pleased that the head
doorman had left them in the shit. They just looked at each other, my Dad bruised and
bleeding, his face rapidly swelling, the other guy not much better. Fuck this, they said and
they left the club, got in their cars and drove home.
The head doorman got the sack over his display of cowardice. The thugs returned the
following Saturday night to offer their insincere apologies (something that happens all the
time and a thing that really used to annoy me when I worked the doors) but were told in no
uncertain terms that they barred for life and not to come back.
My dad still works there. Just another night at the club for him.
How Do You Deal With Multiple Opponents?

Now, given all of my dads experience, if someone like him couldnt adequately defend
himself against multiple opponents, how is the average person supposed to do so?
The average person (martial artist or not) has limited fighting skills, probably little or no
experience with violent confrontations and therefore no hold over their fear and adrenal
response. A confrontation with one aggressor would be pants-wettingly scary enough for
such a person, but what about a confrontation with two or three or four or even several
aggressors at one time? How is the average person supposed to handle a situation like that?
You may be thinking that such situations dont often arise in the life of most people, and this
would probably be true, especially if a person practices awareness and manages to avoid
trouble most of the time. But the fact of the matter
is, if you are confronted, especially these days, it will most likely be by more than one
person. The days of one on one, gentlemans rules are long gone. Thugs tend to hang out in
gangs. They like to surround a person and scare the shit out of them before rushing in all at
once to attack.
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Even if you do manage to get the better of some thug there is a better than average chance
that his mates will step in during or after the fight to finish you off.
So what do you do if you are surrounded by more than one opponent?
Before I attempt to answer that question, let me just say that there are no hard and fast rules
for dealing with multiple opponents, mainly because your options are so limited. There is
only so much you can do in such situations.
Tactics For Dealing With Multiple Attackers

Probably your first option, if confronted by a group of thugs intent on doing you harm, is to
run if at all possible. Run like your life depended on it, as it probably will.
The downside to running though is that
you will get chased. It becomes like a
hunt to your pursuers, a bit of fun to try
and catch their prey and try and catch
you they will.
I remember years ago myself and a
friend getting chased by about fifteen
guys, all intent on catching us and doing
us in. They chased my friend and I for
about two miles and followed us right to
the door of my friends parents house
where we ducked in for safety. The police
eventually had to be called and the gang
dispersed on seeing the squad car pull
up. We had a lucky escape that night, my friend and I.
Never underestimate the bloodlust that arises within a gang. Once the first dig is thrown
every one of them will follow suit and they wont stop hitting until you are either dead,
unconscious or something happens to interrupt them. The herd mentality takes over and any
fears of possible consequences (like jail or possibly killing you) go out the window, replaced
by the aforementioned bloodlust.
This also why trying to talk your way out of things will usually not work. A group of
determinedly aggressive thugs cannot be spoken too and they certainly will not give in to
your pleas for sanity in front of their mates. Bravado rules the roost here. Violence is
inevitable unfortunately.
So whether you run or stay and fight, you will always be taking a risk. In such a situation you
are caught between a rock and a hard place.
If you choose to stay and fight (more power to you) then it is absolutely imperative that if you
want to stand any chance of survival or escape, to take the initiative and hit as many of them
as you can first. If you dont do this and you wait for one of them to take the initiative then
you wont stand a chance. Youll get rushed and youll go down and there you will stay until
the paramedics scrape your bloody ass of the pavement and cart you of to hospital
(hopefully not the morgue).
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The only real advice I can give you here is to learn to hit hard. If you can knock a couple of
them out before they get a chance to act (or at least put them down) you will at least create a
gap for escape or, depending on how many opponents there are, finish them off.
You could also get lucky and scare the others into not attacking. Scream and shout, posture
a lot, make yourself out to be a complete psycho who isnt to be messed with. You will gain
nothing from coming across as afraid. The more imposing you make yourself, the more your
opponents will think twice about attacking you. At the very least your aggression will
(hopefully) fill your opponents with trepidation, which will knock their confidence and their
attacks wont be as effective.
When youre surrounded it all comes
down to fear and how well you can not
only handle it, but conceal it from your
attackers (which is obviously hard to do,
given the circumstances). You can give
yourself the best chance at survival by
being as aggressive as possible right
back at them. Their going to attack you
either way, so have them attack on your
terms, not theirs.
I realise all of this is easier said than
done and hopefully you may never be in
a situation were you have to test yourself in this way, but it is my belief that it is always better
to stand up for yourself than to bow down to your opponents attempts at intimidation. Like I
say, you are going to be attacked either way, so give yourself the best chance of survival by
being a survivor, not a victim.
Chapter 5: Do You Know Too Many Techniques?

As I have mentioned many times before on this blog and elsewhere, when it comes to
effective street self defense it is best to keep things as simple as possible and not over
complicate your responses too much. The key to good self defense is to respond to an
attack in the simplest way possible to stop or subdue the attack. Over-complicated
techniques will not usually be the easiest and best way to stop an attack. In fact the
complete opposite is often true. Trying to do over-complicated and difficult to perform
techniques while under pressure will prove to be counter productive and youll likely dig
yourself into a deeper hole.
I find it ironic that the martial arts, while offering people a means to defend themselves
against a violent attack, also offers people enough rope to hang themselves with by giving
them too many techniques to learn. If you spend years studying the martial arts then
eventually you will have hundreds, maybe thousands of techniques floating around inside
your head. Youll have a dozen different responses to a face punch, another dozen to a kick
attack and if someone grabs you by the lapels, well you have about twenty different
responses to that as well.
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The question is, is having so many responses to a particular attack a good thing? Does
having so many different responses make you prepared for anything as most styles claim to
be the case, or does knowing so many techniques merely lead to what is known as
technique log-jam and ultimately
defeat at the hands of your enemy?
The Consequences of
Technique Log-Jam
Let me tell you a story that may answer
that question. Some years ago when I
was bouncing I was attacked while
manning the front doors. The club I was
working in was quite small and there
was only three bouncers working there,
one of whom was me. For the past
month or so, things had been pretty quiet for a change and there hadnt been any real
trouble so our job had pretty much consisted of standing around and keeping an eye on
things. With no fights to break up or people to put out we started to get a little complacent. In
terms of awareness we had stepped down from a code red (high awareness) to a code white
(little or no awareness) and that as it turned out, was a big mistake.
On this one particular night a known drug dealer who we had barred some weeks before
came to the door and demanded to be let in. I obviously refused to let him, but he persisted
for some time and I continued to block his entrance. I was on my own at this point, with the
other two guys I was working with upstairs in the club. So when the drug dealer guy decided
he would attack me by punching me in the face, I was on my own with no one to help. After
the punch to the face he rushed through the doors and into the hallway where we started
tussling.
Like I said, I had gotten too complacent and the attack had totally taken me by surprise so it
wasnt until the guy had wrestled me to the ground and gotten on top of me that I finally
woke up and started to think about how defend myself against his sudden attack. So I made
the conscious decision to try and end this attack but a funny thing happened (maybe not so
funny at the time), I froze, not out of fear, but out of indecision. I had two or three different
responses in my head and I couldnt decide which one to go with. Meanwhile I had this guy
on top of me doing his best to hammer me with his fists.
Eventually I snapped out of my indecisive state and slapped my hands over his ears which
stopped his punches, and then I grabbed the back of his neck and put my elbow into the top
of his head. He rolled of me at this point and as I was about to get up and finish him of the
worst happened. Four of his mates appeared from nowhere and one of them grabbed my leg
and began to drag me out the door towards the street so they could all give me a good
beating. I now had five guys to content with and I was on my back getting dragged towards
the door. What the hell do you do?
Luckily one of the other bouncers came downstairs at the right time. My leg was released
and I got quickly to my feet. Between the two of us we managed to get my assailants out the
door before locking it so they couldnt get in again.
What the hell happened? my colleague asked me.
Dont ask, I replied.
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So What Did Happen?

What happened was I had too many responses in my head to choose from. My reaction time
was fatally drawn out because I couldnt decide on the right technique to use to stop or
subdue the attack. First of all I should never have allowed my attacker to catch me with that
punch. If I had known about the fence back then it would never have happened because I
wouldnt have allowed him to get that close.
I find it ironic that the martial arts, while offering people a means to defend themselves
against a violent attack, also offers people enough rope to hang themselves with by giving
them too many techniques to learn.
Second of all I should never have allowed him to wrestle me to the ground because I should
have reacted with a strike of my own immediately. A good front kick to the groin would have
stopped him in his tracks.
Thirdly, when he was on top of me, I should have reacted immediately by hitting him in the
face and rolling him of me before finishing him, but as it happened I had too many different
responses to choose from and I couldnt decide on which one to go with.
What I experienced was technique log-jam- I knew too many techniques and that was
detrimental to my response time.
Know the Difference between Art and Self Defense

After that incident I quickly realised that I had to make a distinction between my martial arts
training and my self defense training. I came to realise that traditional martial arts training
does very little to prepare you for what you will face in the street. There are just too many
techniques involved in most styles of martial art and while it can be good to have options,
you can also have too many options, to the point were you cant decide what to do next.
When youre in the midst of defending yourself against an attack, this can prove to be fatal.
You could find yourself being carted of in an ambulance wondering what the hell what wrong
and why you bothered with all that training in the first place.
When it comes to training you have to almost split your mind in two. When you are practicing
the traditional techniques and training for gradings and so forth, bear in mind that you are
practicing what is essentially an art form with its own physical, mental and spiritual benefits.
Practicing an art form will help you develop as a person, but it wont necessarily help you
develop as a street fighter. Traditional training is too formalised and there is way too much to
learn in order to truly master it. It can take a lifetime of training to get good enough to be able
to use those techniques for real, but what do you do in the mean time?
This is why I think it is much better to approach self defense training in a different way.
Narrow down the amount of techniques you will use to just a handful and then practice those
over and over until they become second nature to you. Also practice them under as much
pressure as you can create in the dojo by employing different training methods . Most dojo
training will not prepare you for the reality of the real thing and thats the bottom line.
Traditional dojo training overloads the mind and lulls you into a false sense of security and
unless you have the foresight or the experience to see past this, youll end up in trouble
when you try to use what youve been taught in the unforgiving pavement arena.
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When you train for self defense make sure you are in the right frame of mind. Be aware that
in reality youll want to stop the attack quickly and decisively and you wont have the time or
opportunity to pick and choose from your vast array of techniques, neither will those same
techniques work in a real situation. At least if youre training with that mind, if youre keeping
things simple and narrowing down your responses, you wont be caught out if you ever have
to defend yourself for real.
Split Your Training in Two

Do yourself a favour and make the distinction between art and reality. Split your training in
two and train for one or the other but not both at the same time.
Real street self defense training should be blunt and to the point and your over all mindset
while doing it should be different from when you are training in your art.
Making this distinction has actually helped me appreciate the traditional training more
because I can relax into it and not have to stress over whether what I am doing is going to
work on the street. I can simply practice the techniques and use the training to develop other
(perhaps more important) aspects of myself like my inner being and my spiritual self, all the
deeper aspects to martial arts that I had been previously neglecting because all I though
about was, Is this technique going to work on the street?
Free yourself from the traditional baggage when it comes to self defense training and youll
not only get better at defending yourself but youll also become a better martial artist for it.
Chapter 6: Are Grappling Moves Useless for Self

Defense?
Thanks to the rise in popularity of BJJ and MMA grappling moves have become very popular
amongst martial artists of all styles. Even traditional karateka are dappling in this art in an
effort to become well-rounded fighters, a phrase that I hear more and more often these
days. It seems many martial artists are feeling the pressure to introduce grappling into their
training these days, partly for commercial reasons (to attract more members) and partly
because they think they have to know what to do if they ever have to go to the ground in a
fight, a notion that is itself based on the dubious claim that most fights go to the ground. I
dont really understand where this notion came from because in my experience (and in the
experience of many others) most fights do not go to the ground.
So why are so many martial artists these days claiming that grappling is an essential self
defense skill? Its almost like they want to go to the ground. Why would anyone want to go to
the ground in a fight?
A Dumb Move
My father is a bouncer in a nightclub and he recently told me an interesting if almost
unbelievable story about a guy he had to put out of the club. This guy was messing around
and being aggressive with people so my father and one of the other bouncers went up to him
and asked him to leave. As usual with these people, the guy took exception to this request
and started to get aggressive. The other bouncer that was with my father took hold of the
guy to escort him out of the club but as soon as he did the guy dropped straight to the
2009 Neal Martin
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ground and took hold of the other bouncers leg, trying to pull him down to the ground. My
father stood there in slight shock, wondering what the hell this guy was doing. Then the guy
suddenly bit the other bouncers leg before quickly grabbing my fathers leg to try and pull
him to the floor. My father had had enough at this stage and he did a jig all over the guy on
the ground before hauling him up and throwing him out of the club. He laughed about it
afterwards with the other bouncer. Just another crazy night.
Anyway, the guy came back the following week looking for some kind of revenge. He
declared himself a professional cage fighter before going in for the kill once more, this time
trying to grapple my father down to the ground. My father, a 7th Dan in Kempo Ju Jitsu,
reacted quickly and put a few strikes into the guy before turning him and putting a choke on
him, dragging the guy out the door and dumping him on the ground. As my father turned to
walk away the guy grabbed my fathers legs, trying to apply some kind of ankle lock. Another
jig ensued and it was all over. The guy never came back after that.
It turns out this guy was indeed an MMA fighter and for some reason he thought that going
immediately to the ground was a good idea. His intention was to use his grappling skills, if he
had any, to tie my father up in knots and assert his MMA dominance. I laughed and shook
my head when I heard this story, as you are probably doing now. I couldnt believe that
anyone could be so stupid. Are there really grapplers out there who are so convinced of the
superiority of there style that they actually think it is a good idea to go straight the ground?
Does that type of brutal ignorance actually exist? Obviously, at least in this case.
Grappling and Self Defense

The story does serve
to illustrate the
attitude people have
about grappling
moves these days
though. Grapplings
effectiveness as a
fighting style has been
vastly over-rated
thanks to MMA and
BJJ. Under sport
conditions, it might
serve you well, but in
a self defense
situation it will only get
you in trouble. The
fact that there are MMA fighters and the like who believe otherwise only goes to show the
levels of ignorance and misunderstanding that permeate the whole grappling scene at the
moment. I think these fighters are so blinded by the notion that there fighting style is superior
to all others that they cant see the truth of the matter. Yes, grappling is effective in the ring,
but outside it is not. The conditions are completely different.
This is not to say that grappling moves dont have their uses. There will be times when a
fight does go the ground and you will have to grapple about a bit, but in these cases you still
have to follow the simple rule of self defense, which is KEEP IT SIMPLE. You go down, you
choke your attacker out or you snap one of his joints, then you get back on your feet as soon
as possible. End of.
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There is absolutely no need to know about the vast majority of techniques taught in
grappling these days, unless you happen to be fighting another grappler. The majority of
grappling moves are very technical and are based on the fact that you will be fighting
another person who knows the same moves, so it becomes like a game of chess were each
man is trying to counter the other.
On the street you wont have to counter anything because you wont be fighting another
grappler, you will be fighting some guy who probably only knows how to punch and thats it,
in which case he will be easy to manipulate with some simple moves.
Another thing to bear in mind is the fact that most fights are rarely one on one these days.
Why would you deliberately go to the ground with one guy if his mates are just going to
dance all over you? This is the fatal flaw contained within grappling that no one ever
mentions. Its only good for one on one. Against multiple attackers it is useless.
Grappling and Commercialism

Given all this then, its hard for to understand why so many martial artists are devoting so
much of their time to grappling now. Yes its enjoyable to practice up to a point, but really
you only need to know a handful of moves (if that) in order to defend yourself in the street,
and thats if the fight even does go to the ground.
We are back to the commercial issues that are putting pressure on so many clubs these
days. Grappling moves are not the be all and end all of fighting techniques, despite what the
Gracies would have us believe. It has its uses, up to a point, but it shouldnt be practiced to
the detriment of all else and it certainly shouldnt be considered effective for self defense.
Ill leave you with this piece of advice from my father when he is asked about grappling for
self defence: Never go to the ground if you dont have to and if you do get back on
your feet as soon as possible.
Chapter 7: Why Every Dojo Should Have a Bouncer

I believe that every dojo should have a bouncer -and I dont mean on the door to stop people
getting in. I mean one or more members of the dojo should work as a bouncer. If no one
there is a bouncer, then get a job as a bouncer yourself, if only for a few weeks. Why? Let
me explain.
If youre like most martial artists then you spend most of your time dealing in theory and you
havent pressure tested your martial arts. By that I mean, you learn all these great
techniques that work wonderfully well in the dojo with a willing partner under controlled
circumstances. But how can you be sure that your techniques will work in the real world,
against unwilling protagonists and under unpredictable circumstances?
The answer is you cant.
How can you stand up and say that a technique will work without actually testing it under
pressure, in a real confrontation with someone who cares not a jot for etiquette but only
wants to tear your head of and play football with it?
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The answer is you cant.

This is the cold, hard reality that many martial artists have to deal with throughout their many
years of training. It is an uncomfortable truth and one which a lot of people would rather not
think too much about. In a way, by sidestepping this issue all the time, martial artists are
deluding themselves into thinking that they can handle themselves in a fight if it came to it,
by virtue of the fact that they have put X amount of years into their training.
Are you experienced?

All the training in the world does not guarantee that you will be able to defend yourself
effectively if one or more antagonists decided one night in the bar that you had the perfect
face for punching repeatedly until it bled all over the floor and your girlfriends shoes. The fact
of the matter is that there are other factors involved besides being able to execute good
technique. Many martial artists, either through ignorance or self-delusion, tend to forget
about the psychological factors involved in a real violent confrontation, factors which are
more important than how good your technique is.
Put it this way. If you asked me who would win in a fight between a martial artist with no
actual street experience and a guy who gets in a fight every time he goes out for a drink,
then Ill put my money on the seasoned street fighter every time. Why? Because the street
fighter is used to fighting under pressure, he is used to getting hit and getting back up again
for more, he is used to the way his body and mind react under such circumstances, therefore
he will perform significantly better than a martial artist who has never experienced any
of that.
I have heard so many stories over the years, as Im sure you have, of martial artists -black
belts- who got their ass kicked in a fight because they didnt perform the way they thought
they would. And why would they? A dojo is just a playground, a place to pretend, a place to
ultimately feel safe and secure in.
And a place that is a million miles away from the brutal and unpredictable pavement arena.
So the next time you expertly throw someone in the dojo or score a point in sparring and
youre feeling pleased with yourself, just take note of the fact you are only play- acting. At the
very least be aware of this fact and choose to either ignore it or do something about it.
Ignorance
Just knowing the truth of the matter and being able to reconcile yourself to it is better than
not knowing the truth and living under a blanket of ignorance. There are many martial artists
out there who choose to train purely for the sake of art, for the sake of mastering something.
This is completely fine as long as you are upfront about it, especially when it comes to
teaching other people what you know. This fact should be explained to beginners and they
should be allowed to act on it in whatever way they please.
There are however, many instructors out there who teach people street self defense even
though they themselves have never tested out the techniques they are teaching, which
amounts to bad practice, in my opinion. Teaching people things that you only know in theory
is setting those same people up for a fall, for they too will come to believe that good selfdefence equals good technique. It doesnt.
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Good street self defense equals good technique plus experience of using that
technique under extreme pressure.
I am not of course advocating that you immediately run out and start a fight with someone,
but I am advocating that you should have some awareness on the issue, especially if you
are a teacher. If you just want to train for the sake of learning the art then go ahead. As I
said, there is nothing wrong with that (and its what most martial artists end up doing
anyway).
On the other hand, if you want to learn about real street self defense then Im afraid you are
going to have to move out of your comfort zone. If you want to know how to properly defend
yourself in a fight then you are going to have to start putting yourself under a hell of a lot
more pressure, and as far as I can see, there is only two ways to do this while still
maintaining some sense of control.
The first way is to have an animal day at your club. Geoff Thompson came up with this
concept as a way for martial artists to pressure test themselves under controlled conditions.
It basically involves two people going up against each other, no holds barred, anything goes
( things like eye gouges are allowed but you obviously dont follow through on such
techniques). In a dojo, this is as close as you are going to get to a real fight and it does
create a lot of pressure for the people doing it. More importantly, its unpredictable, just like
the real thing. Animal days are not for the faint of heart, so expect to get hurt in some way
(though not seriously). All participants are also expected to sign a waver as well, just so you
know what youre getting into.
The second way is to get a job as a bouncer in a nightclub. In this sort of environment you
will inevitably be given the opportunity to test out your skills
and more importantly, get used to the psychological effects of
violent confrontation and actually performing under such
pressure. I myself did a stint as a bouncer, not for the reasons
sited (I needed the money at the time) and I am glad I was
able to experience it, to experience what its like when you
have to confront bigger, harder people than yourself and ask
them to leave and then have to deal with them further when
they point blank refuse. The only saving grace you have (in
most places anyway) is back-up if things get out of hand, but it
sure does put your skills and knowledge (as well as your
character) to the test. For any martial artist seeking experience
in violent confrontation and testing themselves in this way, I
recommend doing this job for at least a while.
Test yourself
I f you are serious about testing yourself and your art then you should walk down this path of
self-discovery, not just for yourself but for any students you may have or will have in the
future. At least when you train you will be able to instantly discount certain techniques as
being unworkable in real circumstances; these techniques you will file under art, the rest you
will practice with the knowledge that they do work.
The martial arts are all about testing yourself in every respect possible. If you want to truly
learn the art of street self-defense it is necessary to step on to the battlefield and baptize
yourself in the fire violence and pressure test your martial art.
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There is no other way.

Further and Recommended Reading
Animal Day: Pressure Testing the Martial Arts
On the Door: The Continuing Adventures of a Nightclub Bouncer
Doorman
Watch My Back
Working with Warriors
Chapter 8: Are High Kicks Pointless?

It would seem that high kicks are falling
out of fashion these days. Back in the
seventies and eighties when martial arts
movie stars were kicking heads left, right
and center the high kick was thought to be
the ultimate expression of martial arts.
High kicks were considered to be the
pinnacle of technique by many (mostly
non-martial artists it has to be said). If you
could kick someone in the head you were
a real martial artist, because only real
martial artists could kick that high. So the
thinking went anyway.
These days we know different. With MMA
dominating our media and TV screens the
low kick has made its presence known to many and it is widely considered to be the way the
go, especially in street self defense situations. The sentiment now is that high kicks are just
too risky and plain dangerous to use in fights, real or competitive. The one time symbol of
the martial arts, the high kick, has now been shunned by many and left out in the cold along
with the karate chop and the flying kick.
Is all this criticism justified though? I thought I would look at both kicks a little more closely in
this article and see which one comes out on top and to see if high kicks really are of little use
outside of the movies.
The low kick.

Lets start from the bottom up. The low kick can be any kick that is aimed below your
opponents waist. The legs and groin are usually targeted with this kick, but in different
ways. Probably the most popular low kick within the martial arts is the shin kick to your
opponents thigh, a kick which is now a staple technique within the MMA scene. This kick is
borrowed from Muay Thai and can be very powerful indeed, depending on how skilled you
are at doing it. Muay Thai practitioners are known for rolling glass bottles up and down their
2009 Neal Martin
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shin bone to raise and condition the bone itself so that it becomes tough enough to do real
damage. I have seen Muay Thai guys break several baseball bats tied together with this
kick, and thats breaking the thick part of the bats, not the thin end. If someone can do that
with one kick, imagine the damage they could do to your leg.
Other low kicks include the snap kick to the groin, the low side-kick to the shin or knee and a
straight leg kick (choko-geri) to the kneecap. All of these kicks can be quite devastating in
their own way.
What all low kicks have in common is that they are all excellent for street self defense
purposes. There are three main reasons for this.
Firstly they allow you to control the distance a bit more between you and your
opponent which means you dont have to risk stepping in too close for a punch or any other
short range technique and run the risk of getting hit. With a low kick, as John already pointed
out in his article, you can fire it out quickly, distracting your opponent and giving you the
chance to run of before your opponent knows whats happening. This is one of the best selfdefence tactics there is in my opinion because there is no messing about involved. You just
kick and run. And if you kick properly and with accuracy, targeting your kick at your
opponents knee or thigh then your opponent shouldnt be able to run after you, leaving you
enough time to get out of dodge.
Secondly, low kicks are very powerful, as Ive already stated. One good kick to your
opponents leg can be enough to end the fight. It can put them down so they dont get back
up again. This is especially useful if you are up against multiple opponents, a situation
were time is very much of the essence. You wont have time to land more than one
technique on any one opponent, simply because they would all be on top of you before you
know it. So a well timed and well executed low kick can be very useful for putting at least
one of them down and out quickly.
Thirdly, low kicks are the ultimate equal opportunities technique, meaning it doesnt
matter what size or build the person youre using them against are. A powerful low kick to
the side of the knee is enough to topple anyone, big or small, since joints are joints. They are
the weakest part of anyones leg. In fact, the bigger and heavier your opponent, the weaker
their legs are likely to be because they have to support so much weight. Given this, a small
person could easily cut down a giant with the right application of technique.
So low kicks seem to have all the bases covered. They
are fast, deadly and almost anyone can do them. Does
this therefore mean that the relegated high kick, the
former torch bearer for the martial arts in general, should
be phased out and reclassified as old-fashioned and
useless? Lets find out.
High Kicks
High kicks like round houses and side kicks to the head
used to be the kind of techniques that motivated people
to go into the martial arts in the first place. Who didnt
watch Bruce Lee movies and think to themselves how
awesome it would be to be able to kick like that? I
certainly did. In fact I made it my mission to learn how to
kick like Bruce Lee. Over the years, high kicking became
my favourite past time. I would spend many hours of
2009 Neal Martin
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practice just kicking the bag with high round house kicks, side kicks, hook kicks and spinning
kicks. I loved doing them and the better I became at them the more I relied on them in
sparring, more so than punching. To this day, it is still the case that I favour high kicks over
punching. I cant help it. I just love doing them.
Right away I should mention here that high kicks will only work if you are good at doing
them, if you know how to execute them properly. They therefore take a lot more practice and
overall skill than your average low kick. Get them right though and they are worth the
amount of effort you have to put into them to get them right.
Another point Id like to add is that there is no point doing them of the back foot. High kicks
especially must be thrown of your leading leg to avoid telegraphing them to your opponent.
Any kick done of the front leg is going to be significantly faster than one done of the back
leg. (I talked about this in a previous post that you should read if you are interested in
learning how to kick properly, especially high kicks.)
I think in terms of sparring in the dojo or competing in kickboxing matches, the high kick is
still extremely effective at catching opponents. I have had more success with high kicks in
this respect than I have had with any other technique. Again though, the actual effectiveness
of the kicks largely depends on how good you are at doing them. I wouldnt recommend
them until you are skilled enough at them, otherwise youll just be leaving yourself too open
to counter-attack.
Street Self Defense

Trying to use high kicks in a street self defense situation is not recommended for one simple
and very important reason: they are just too risky. There is no room for error in a violent
confrontation on the street. Make one mistake and it could prove to be your last. There are
so many things going against using high kicks in a real fight. You could easily loose your
balance for one. The clothes you wear on the street could also restrict your movement (try
doing a head kick in a pair of jeans- not that easy is it?). High kicks are also much more
difficult to execute compared to low kicks. Do you really want to be asking yourself why you
even attempted that high round house kick as your being driven to hospital in an
ambulance? Course not. So why take the risk?
This is not to say that high kicks cannot be effective in a street self defense situation. They
can. On two separate occasions I have used high kicks in a real fight to good effect, but only
because I didnt think about what I was doing. Sometimes you just react and thats all there
is to it. In my case, because I am a natural kicker the first thing I did was kick and luckily
enough it worked out. If I had time to think about my reaction I probably would have did a
different technique. John at My Self Defence blog has told me the same thing. He did the
door for two years and says sometimes he fought like he was sparring. You just do what
comes naturally to you and if that means firing of high kicks then so be it.
If kicking high comes to you that naturally then youre probably skilled enough to make the
kicks work. I remember reading an interview years ago with Master Sken, a Muay Thai
master, and in it he told a story about the time he was confronted by this big guy who wanted
to take him on there and then in a fight. Master Sken just smiled when he heard that and
then did a jumping spin kick that whizzed by just short of the other guys nose. When he had
gotten over the shock the big guy apologised and walked of. So you see, such kicks can be
of use in a volatile situation, but only if you are skilled enough at doing them.
High or Low?
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So it would seem that low kicks have the edge when it comes to self-defence. They would be
the kick of choice for most people in such a situation.
It would be foolish to write of high kicks as being useless however. Like all other techniques
they can be made to work if the person doing them is skilled enough and confident enough
to try them.
My advice is this: if kicking high comes naturally to you then do it; if kicking high is not a
natural thing to you then work to make it so or else do something else instead.
Just remember. No technique is useless, only the person doing it.
Further and Recommended Reading:

Real Kicking
Low Kicks: Aiming Low For Maximum Punishment In Unarmed Combat
Complete Kicking: The Ultimate Guide to Kicks for Martial Arts Self-defense & Combat
Sports
Combat Kick Techniques
Training Advice
Chapter 9: The Secret to Developing a Power Punch
correct hitting is invisible. The enemy should fall without seeing your hands.
Chinese Martial Arts Text
Punching is common to almost all
the martial arts. As a basic strike it
is unparalleled in terms of usability
and effectiveness. Almost anyone
can throw a half decent punch, if
not a power punch, no matter
what level of skill or experience
they are at, which is why the
punch is so popular amongst
martial artists and non martial
artists alike. It is probably utilized
more often than the kick or any
other technique for striking or
counter-striking. In self defence
terms, the humble punch could
probably take the prize for most
used defensive or offensive
technique since it comes so
2009 Neal Martin
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naturally to most of us.

Given how popular the punch is and how much it is used by martial artists it makes sense to
develop it as much as possible so that it can be used with full effectiveness. Lets now take a
look at how to do that and discover the real secret to developing a power punch.
The Three Levels of Speed

When it comes to punching there are three levels of speed that can be utilized to deliver
them, the last of which being the one we will most concentrate on here, since that is the level
that will allow us to execute super-fast punches.
1. The Untrained Punch. This type of punch is characterised by the wind up and throw
approach, most often resulting in the commonly seen haymaker punch as used by those
who have no training in how to punch. Thus this level of speed is where your average street
fighter would be at. The punch can be seen coming by any trained exponent of the martial
arts and thus can be easily countered with a block or another strike before the punch gains
any real momentum.
2. The Trained Punch. This type of punch is most often utilized by trained boxers and
karateka. There is no telegraphing with this punch and it is done with maximum focus of
power, with the emphasis being on the delivery of the strike rather than the preparation as in
the first type of punch. As effective as this punch is, it can still be blocked and countered by
a suitably skilled defender. Im sure you have successfully defended against such punches
many times in your training.
Im also sure that this is were you are probably at yourself in terms of your own punching
level. In most martial arts, punching technique is never usually taken any further than this. I
doubt most people are even aware that there is another level of prowess after this one. I
certainly wasnt until I happened to come across a book by Peter Payne called Martial Arts:
The Spiritual Dimension. A section of the book talks about hitting and the different ways to
hit and at the end of the section it mentions the type of punch we are going to talk about
now, the punch that represents the third level of speed.
3. The Whiplash Punch. Here the focus is not on the preparation or the powerful delivery
but is instead on the withdrawal. The punch is basically retracted from the point of impact
as fast as possible, with no real consideration given to the actual delivery of the punch. Such
a style of hitting will deliver a shocking, penetrating impact on to your opponent and if done
correctly, it will not be sensed or even seen coming. Your opponent will only see the punch
on its withdrawal, after they have been hit.
Now as I say, I had never heard of this method of punching before and it was a bit of a
revelation to me. I didnt think it was possible to level up your punching skills so dramatically.
I have tried to research the punch on the internet but I can find very little about it. My first
instinct on reading about it was that it sounded like a technique that would be used in a Kung
Fu or Wing Chung style, since most movements in these styles tend to be quite fast and
snappy as opposed to being stiff and powerful. Anyone who knows of this techniques origins
should let me know. Id be interested in learning more about it.
Practice
Regardless of were the technique comes from, it works and it will dramatically increase
the speed and power of anyones punching with a little practice.
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As I said, the emphasis, when practicing this punch, should be on the withdrawal as
opposed to the delivery, something which proves tricky to pull of at first, especially if you
have spent years, like I have, punching with the emphasis on the delivery like most karateka.
After a while though, you will soon get the hang of the change in emphasis and you will be
amazed by the difference it makes to the actual speed of the punch itself. When
practicing on a bag, I was struck by the penetrating power of the punch. Admittedly, at this
point in my practice, the normal trained punch is still more damaging, but I have no doubt,
with some more constant practice, that the whiplash punch will prove to be the more
powerful and devastating of the two.
The actual execution of the punch is not particularly difficult. The difficulty lies in
remembering which emphasis to use. In other wards, remembering to emphasis the
withdrawal part of the punch. At this point also, I would like to reiterate what Peter Payne
said in his book about safety precautions. Because the punch is so powerful and snappy,
speed must be built up slowly and great care must be taken not to lock the arm at full
extension otherwise the elbow joint can be severely damaged. Just take it slowly at first, like
any technique and build up speed gradually.
Although I cant verify this (yet) it has been said that this punch can extinguish a candle by
sucking the flame after it as it withdraws. It will even cause a freely suspended piece of
paper to sway towards you. Given such examples, you can get some idea of the tremendous
speed and power possible with this punch.
Other Applications
I am still at the early stages of developing and practicing this whiplash technique, but I have
no doubt that there exists the possibility to apply it to other areas of the martial arts. In terms
of kicking, for instance, the emphasis can also be changed to the withdrawal. I have tried this
with front snap kicks and again, it works. There is a noticeable difference in speed as
compared with the normal kicking method.
I have yet to experiment with other techniques like throws. Although it would be slightly
harder to work this method into throwing, I still imagine it could be done with a little practice
and experimentation. Perhaps you have already done so. If so, let me know the results. Id
be very interested in hearing them.
This technique also has good street self defense applications. Having the ability to hit an
opponent before he even realizes he has been hit is a good ability to have. For more on this,
see my other article, Why You Should be a One Hit Wonder.
Try It!
So there you go. The secret to developing a power punch. Try the whiplash method out for
yourself and see the dramatic difference it will make to your speed and overall power. Just
remember what I said about caution. Build it up slowly.
2009 Neal Martin
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Chapter 10: 30 Days to Better Martial Arts

When I first started blogging not too long
ago I knew next to nothing about it. In
fact I felt a bit daunted, not to say
overwhelmed by the sheer size of the
learning curve ahead of me (as I was
when I first started martial arts as well). I
was excited by it though because it was
something I really wanted to do and I
was going to make sure I did everything I
could possibly do in order to succeed at
it.
So I threw myself into the world of
blogging head first and I lived and breathed it for a few months (I still do, in fact) until I felt I
had at least picked up the basics, which I have now. A few months down the line and here I
am, a fully-fledged blogger with admittedly, still a lot to learn, but I have come very far from
the place of unknowing where I was once at.
Whatever success in blogging I have achieved up to this point I can put down to one simple
concept, and that concept is one called immersion, the act of throwing yourself completely
into something for a period of time until you have gained sufficient knowledge and
understanding of your subject, or at least until you have advanced considerably from the
position of blissful ignorance you were once at.
Most people, when they start something new tend to dabble in what they are doing, dipping
in and out as they please. The majority of people who do martial arts are dabblers, not
serious practitioners. The thing is, these people expect to be experts within a year, training
twice a week and then forgetting about everything they have learned in between times.
The fact is you will learn almost nothing if you take this approach, especially in something
like martial arts, were the learning curve is very steep. Id even go so far as to say that you
are wasting your time if you are only going to treat martial arts as a hobby because nothing
is going to sink in far enough for you to really understand it, to really know it inside out.
I have spent periods of my training career just dabbling, turning up for practice, going
through the motions and then going home and forgetting about what Ive learned until the
next session. After months of this I used to wonder why I wasnt making any forward
progress. Then I realised all I was doing was at best, simply maintaining the skills I already
had. I basically wasnt training enough or committing myself enough to gain any real
advances.
Put simply, if you want to be the best martial artist you can be (and thats all any of us should
expect from ourselves) then you have to really commit to the art you have chosen to partake
in. And by commit, I mean not just training as much as possible, but thoroughly making
martial arts a part of your life. You must make it a part of you. When youre not training you
should be thinking about training. This is the only way to get good at anything. You have to
immerse yourself in it and if that sounds like a step too far to you then perhaps you shouldnt
be training at all.
Now, I say immerse, I didnt say drown. You can drown in something if you get overly
obsessed with it. When you start doing something to the exclusion of all else in your life then
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that is obsession and nine times out of ten such behaviour is actually counter productive to
what you are trying to achieve. Fair enough if you have nothing else in your life and you can
get away with devoting yourself completely to it, but few of us have lives that are that devoid
of anything else. We have families, friends, jobs etc. that we have to devote time to as well.
Its the time you have left and the time you manage to create for following your endeavour
that matters, and what matters even more is how you spend that time.
Too often when we have a bit of time on our hands we tend to idle it away or waste it
altogether doing things that are not advancing us towards our goals. Im not saying you
shouldnt have down time. Im just saying dont, like me occasionally, take the piss. Stay
focussed is what Im saying and use your time wisely.
What it really comes down to is commitment. How committed are you to learning martial
arts? If you are reading this and you have just started training in martial arts then be aware
that to get anywhere near competent you have to be training for at least three to five years
and a lot more than that to get really good. If such a commitment is off-putting to you then
you are a dabbler and you are wasting your time so you might as well quit now and find
something else that you can commit to.
Not only does it take years of training to get good at martial arts, but as Ikigai pointed out
recently in an article he wrote, you also have to use that time wisely and get smart with
your training. Turning up for practice is not enough. The knowledge and skills will not sink in
by mere transference alone; you really have to work at developing yourself as a martial
artist. You have to really focus and set goals and do all you can to achieve those goals by
utilising such techniques as visualization and mental focus and also be prepared to go
deep inside yourself to do battle with the inevitable fears and insecurities that will surely
hold you back if you dont confront them head on and make a plan for dealing with them.
In short, by committing yourself to martial arts you are making the decision to make martial
arts training and development a part of your lifestyle. You must become someone who
doesnt just do martial arts; you must become someone who is a martial artist through and
through.
Put simply, if you want to be the best martial artist you can be (and thats all any of us should
expect from ourselves) then you have to really commit to the art you have chosen to partake
in.
Now getting back to the technique of immersion. Whenever I have tackled any new
endeavour in my life I have instinctively used this technique without really knowing I was
doing so. It wasnt until I read an article by the excellent Steve Pavlina that I was able to
give form to what I was doing.
Immersion is the only way to really learn anything new. You can make immersion as
intensive as you like. It all depends on how much time you are able to devote and what
resources you have at hand to help you. If its your goal to reach black belt level then you
can go all out and really immerse yourself for as long as it takes for you to reach that goal or
you can go all out for a certain length of time and then ease of a bit. Its up to you and how
much you can handle at the end of the day. The trick is to do as much as you can without
burning out and also to structure your time smartly and wisely so you make the biggest gains
possible in the shortest amount of time.
Just to prove to you the tremendous difference that the immersion technique can have on
your training I am going to throw down a challenge to you. The challenge is this: for the next
30 days I want you to live and breathe your martial arts, I want you to devote as much time
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to it as possible. This means you will keep up your regular training but you will also train as
much as you can outside of the dojo everyday if possible. On top of that you will also figure
out how you can make your training smarter by setting goals, increasing your focus and
optimizing your training sessions so you get as much out of them as possible. You will also
employ visualization techniques to help you along, you will meditate every day for the
whole 30 days and you will read as much as you can on the type of martial arts you are
practicing, by way of the internet or books or magazines like the excellent Black Belt
Magazine.
Now I realise this sounds like a lot to be doing. You might be thinking you just dont have that
much time on your hands. But the fact is most of us have more time on out hands than we
think. When you think of the amount of time we waste just sitting around watching TV or
sitting in the pub drinking or oversleeping then you begin to see the amount of time you
could potentially claw back and devote to your martial arts. Just keep reminding yourself of
the commitment you have made to get good and realise that this is the only way to get there.
If you go all out for the 30 days then I can pretty much guarantee you that you will be a far
better martial artist by the end of those 30 days. Your skills will have increased, your
understanding will have deepened and you will be much more focused.
One of the by products that I like about immersion is the fact that the more you get into
something -the more time and effort you devote to it- then the more you end up getting out of
it. Success builds on success and that in itself is enough to spur you on to greater effort and
commitment.
Just remember to not over do it. Do as much as possible without burning yourself out. In
saying that, also be aware that certain sacrifices have to be made in order to be successful
at anything. Thats just a fact and there is no getting away from it. In my pursuit of excellence
in martial arts, in writing and blogging, I have made quite a few sacrifices in order to get
whatever success I have so far gotten from these endeavours. Giving things up hurts a bit at
first but the hurt soon goes when you realise what you have gained in return which is usually
a lot more valuable than what you sacrificed.
Give of yourself 100% and life will give you back far more in return. It took me many years of
messing about to realise this fact and now that I have there is no turning back. Its all there
for the taking, whatever you want, you just have to reach out and grab it.
Try the immersion technique yourself. Take the 30 day challenge and see the tremendous
impact it can have on your training. Its hard work and it takes some getting used to but
believe me when I say that you wont be disappointed in the results and neither will your
instructor when they see the new level of your commitment. Thats another nice benefit I
forgot to mention. If your instructor notices how much effort you are putting in then they will
naturally put more effort into bringing you along as well. Thats the law of attraction at work
and you will soon notice many more such helpful things happening once you commit
yourself.
Just commit and all else will fall into place.
2009 Neal Martin
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Chapter 11: Get Rid of Two Common Martial Arts

Fears Once and For All
Fear is something that every martial artist has to confront at some point, usually early on in
their training. In terms of physical confrontation there are two types of fear: fear of getting
hit and fear of hitting. Lets look at each in more detail and how to get rid of them.
Fear of Getting
Hit
Many beginning martial
artists have an innate
fear of getting hit. Such
fear is logical and
perfectly natural. It hurts
when you get hit, so it is
natural to try and avoid
this if possible. This
attitude will not help
your training however,
especially when it
comes to sparring. It is
vitally important that you
get used to taking a hit
otherwise youll just be
controlled by your own fear and you wont be able to make the right offensive moves; youll
just spend all your time being defensive and running away from your opponent, which isnt
going to get you anywhere.
When you first begin sparring the contact should be very light so that you gradually get used
to taking a punch to the head or a kick to the ribs. Eventually such hits will not even faze you
and you wont mind taking a few to get in on your opponent. Being able to take a hit will
make you a better fighter.
In self defense terms it is even more important that you be able to handle some level of
contact. In a street fight there is a better than average chance that you are going to get hit.
For you to hit the deck after one punch is not good. This is why we get used to taking the
punishment in training so that when we do get hit outside it doesnt come as such a shock
and we can carry on defending ourselves.
You can help yourself further in training by spending time conditioning your body, toughing it
up to make it more resistant to physical contact. Take a leaf out of a boxers book. Boxers
are very tough and physically resilient. They have to be because of the amount of hits they
take in a match. They thus spend a lot of time on physical conditioning and a lot of time in
the ring sparring. A head- shot is like water of a ducks back to a boxer because they have
taken that many. This makes them good street fighters as well, because they are hard to put
down.
Its a good idea for you to come up with training routines that involve a partner striking
various parts of your body as in the system of body conditioning found in traditional Goju
Ryu karate, a variation of which is seen in the video below.
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For our purposes the best routine to do would be for you to stand in kiba dachi (horse-riding
stance) and allow a partner to strike various parts of your body. So your partner would stand
in front of you and deliver twenty punches to your stomach before moving to the side and
delivering ten knee strikes to your ribs and then ten on the other side. Strikes to the jaw can
also be done with a knife hand strike. You can be creative here and make up your own
routine. Just remember to start of with light contact, only increasing the force as your body
becomes used to it.
The effect such conditioning has is to make you more resilient to getting hit when sparring or
when practicing techniques with a partner. It will also make your fear of getting hit a lot less
intense if not eradicate it altogether.
Fear of Hitting
A fear of actually hitting someone is a lot
more common amongst martial artists
than you might think. Again, this fear is
natural and comes from a logical
perspective in that you dont want to
seriously hurt or injure someone by
hitting them. This is all well and good but
you have to remember that you are
practicing a martial art at the end of the
day and it involves hitting.
Such fear is usually an indication that a
person is not in touch with their inneraggressor, the beast inside us all that
we need to bring out proper aggression
when fighting. If you cant be aggressive
then your moves will be totally ineffectual
against a determined opponent; theyll
just brush them of and bulldoze over the
top of you.
When I talk about aggression I obviously
mean controlled aggression. I talked
about this before in a previous article
and about how aggression is closely
linked with intent. To my mind, the two are closely linked. You need to have good intent and
good aggression to deliver that intent effectively.
Its also about finding the balance between no aggression and over- aggression. Having too
much aggression will make you and your technique uncontrolled and thus you will be just as
easy to dominate in a fight.
Fear of hitting in a self defense situation is not good either. Although someone with little or
no aggression could be effective in calming down a potentially violent situation by virtue of
their calm and poise, when the chips are down and the punches start flying such a person
will not be able to handle themselves if they are afraid of hitting back.
I have heard many martial artists say that they are afraid of seriously hurting someone on
the street with their techniques and developed power. This is fine but you still have to defend
yourself and that means hitting back. You can of course exert some control over how hard
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and where you hit, but you still have to hit and thats all there is to it. If you dont you get
beaten. Just remember that your aggressor is out to hurt you, perhaps seriously, so
why should you be worried about hurting them back? You just give as good as you get.
So you hurt the other person, so what? If they didnt want to get hurt they shouldnt have
attacked you. Its that simple. So there is really no point in holding yourself back or allowing
your fear to hold you back. You wont do yourself any favors by allowing that to happen.
You can practice getting touch with your inner-aggressor and controlling it by simply striking
a bag. Just imagine that the bag is a real person and put plenty of intent and aggression
behind your strikes but do so in a controlled manner. You can also do the same thing while
youre sparring. Be aggressive, but stay controlled and youll see a big difference in your
fighting effectiveness.
Training in the martial arts is all about confronting and controlling your fears. Master your
fear and you master yourself.
Chapter 12: Dont Be a Mimic: The Right Way to

Master Martial Arts
Just recently I read a very interesting article written by Matt over at Ikigai blog in which
he explained the subtle difference in meaning between the two Japanese words shirimasu
and wakarimasu, both of which seek to convey the concept of understanding, with
shirimasu conveying a shallow understanding and wakarimasu conveying a much deeper
understanding. (For a full explanation of these terms, read Matts full article.)
In the comment I left after reading the article I explained my own thoughts on the subject and
now Id just like to elaborate on those thoughts because I think the whole idea of achieving a
wakarimasu understanding is very important if you want to get really good as a martial artist.
Wrong Learning
First of though, let me explain the way most people learn
the martial arts. In a recent issue of Martial Arts
Illustrated, Peter Consterdine, a very experienced 8th
Dan and self defence expert, wrote an article suggesting
that most martial artists, especially those in the
traditional arts, are learning things the wrong way. Why?
Let me explain.
The nature of martial arts training (and traditional training
especially) is that you join a dojo that is overseen by a
high ranked Sensei/instructor and you basically enter
into the training regime on the grounds that you must do
everything the instructor tells you to do. You follow their
every move and you do your best to replicate the
instructors movements. You look at their posture and the
shapes they make and it is your job as a student to try
and replicate those. So in that context, being a good
martial arts student means being a good mimic.
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For most of my training career I was basically a mimic. I began in traditional karate training
and I was bound by the many Japanese traditions that go along with it. In particular, I was
bound by the early Japanese tradition of do as I say and dont question me. The same
ethos that still exists in many dojos across the world even today. You slavishly follow
everything your instructor does and says and eventually you become a qualified martial
artist.
I honestly thought that this was the only way to progress, by mimicking what others were
doing without really questioning it. After all, the martial arts were many hundreds of years old
and who was I to question what was right or wrong within such an established tradition?
But as it turned out, this form of learning held very deep limitations. If you had asked me why
a technique worked or why it was done the way it is, I would have just shrugged my
shoulders and replied, Because thats the way its done and thats the way Ive been
taught.
The Photocopy Revolution

The real problem with this kind of mimicry is that it just
perpetuates what Peter Consterdine calls the photocopy
revolution, were every succeeding generation of
students become a carbon copy of their instructor. But
just like with a real photocopier, each copy has a slightly
poorer quality image than the last. This means that years
down the line, what exists now in terms of technique and
what it is taught to students, is very far removed (and in
some cases completely removed) from the original
source material.
By propagating the photocopy revolution students are
not gaining the knowledge and insight that comes from
having a deep understanding of the very techniques they
are unthinkingly practicing. In order to have that essential
knowledge a student must engage with the techniques
much more, they must break each technique down into
its component parts so that they fully understand the
relationship between them all and why the technique works the way it does.
More importantly, by breaking down the techniques in this way, a student can see how they
work in relation to their
Slavishly following someone elses instructions constantly does not allow for proper martial
arts development or understanding of technique.
particular body dynamics. Throughout my years of mimicry, as I have mentioned before in
this blog, I laboured under the illusion that every technique I was taught would work perfectly
for me and if it didnt then I must have been doing something wrong. In actual fact, not
everyone is suited to the same techniques. I eventually learned that I had to personalise the
system to suit me, to either drop techniques that I found to be unworkable or else adapt
them to suit the dynamics of my own body.
Slavishly following someone elses instructions constantly does not allow for this kind of
learning. You have to be able to question what you are being taught in order to fully
understand what you are being taught and make it your own. Copying the movements of
someone more skilled than you is a part of the learning process, but only a part of it. If we
2009 Neal Martin
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dont pick the techniques apart and understand why they work on an intellectual level then all
we end up with is empty movements.
It is sad to say that a lot of martial artists around today practice only empty movements.
There is no intellectual content or understanding behind any of it.
Perhaps this a symptom of todays shallow society, but more likely it is because they were
never taught right and because they never took it upon themselves to seek out the
knowledge they needed to become truly expert in what they do.
This kind of training in empty movements can be seen clearly in the way a lot of martial
artists approach self defense. They think that because they have been taught a certain
technique and because they have been told by their instructor (who quite often has no street
experience to back them up) that it works, then it must therefore work. Even though there is
much evidence out there now that goes against this kind of training, people still do it
because they dont think outside the box.
The Challenge of Retraining

These days I am always in the process of
retraining myself and learning things the
right way this time around. Im not saying all
those years of training were a waste of time,
they werent, but I have picked up some bad
habits and I have since realised that I have
to take things to a whole new level in order
to achieve the level of proficiency that I
really want.
Its a certainly a challenge, having to retrain
yourself and I find it very difficult sometimes
even admitting that the way I do some
things is wrong. Its also a lot of hard work
intellectually having to break down
techniques and see why they work and how
each movement relates to the last.
But this is what we have to do if we want to become masters of our art. We have to look
deeper, we have to question things more and we just plain have to put the work in, which
means drilling and drilling things over and over until you get them right and until you really
understand how and why they work.
This is especially true if we are going to teach others martial arts. You need that authority
that comes from really knowing your stuff otherwise you will have little or no credibility and
lack of credibility is disastrous if you want to teach.
So as Matt said in his article, you have to keep striving for that deeper level of understanding
in order to develop wakarimasu understanding. Without that level of understanding you will
only be a mimic and never a true martial artist.
2009 Neal Martin
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Chapter 13: The Forgotten Healing Arts

Every man and his dog knows about the
martial arts these days. To the layman
the martial arts are a system designed to
basically hurt people, but what many
people dont know, including a shocking
number of martial artists, is that the
martial arts were conceived originally
alongside complementary healing
systems.
The origins of the martial and healing
arts are the same. They both evolved
from the need for humans to defend
themselves and to heal after an attack.
Historically martial arts teach a healing
art alongside the defensive arts in order to make the martial artist a more rounded individual
and to give them a better understanding of the whole or way of martial arts.
The Philosophy Of The Healing/Martial Arts

The combining of the healing and defensive arts are integral to the philosophy of most of the
martial arts that exist today, although this fact is lost on many martial arts practitioners,
mainly because the healing arts and their link to the martial arts are just not taught in very
many dojos anymore. These days especially, emphasis is placed almost entirely on the
fighting arts and the physical techniques within them. In most dojos practice becomes about
attacking opponents in some way, despite the fact that historically the martial arts were not
about attacking people. Historically speaking, the highest goal of the martial arts was
Tatakawa zushite katsu, or to win without fighting. The martial arts were used defensively
and then the healing arts were used to help either yourself or your attacker. The ultimate
goal however, would be the healing of any situation that might cause violence before any
violence took place.
In this way being able to heal your attacker has important philosophical ramifications; your
attacker is less likely to attack you again if you heal them or show them kindness whether it
be before or after an attack. Also in this way it is important not to hold grudges. As
Funakoshi said karate ni sente nashi(there is no first strike in karate). If you can heal a
conflict before it causes violence then that is the best outcome.
In Eastern philosophy martial arts would be considered the Yin (dark) part of the Tao (whole)
and the healing arts would be the Yang (light). Thus in order to be a complete martial artist
you need to understand both the defensive and healing arts in order to be able to grasp the
whole or bigger picture. This is also the do or way of the martial arts implied by the name
karate-do.
We can therefore see the importance of the healing arts and their intricate relationship with
the martial arts. To fully understand the martial arts we also need to understand the healing
arts. This fact will become clearer as we go on to talk about the two healing methods I am
most familiar with and how they can be used to improve your martial arts.
2009 Neal Martin
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Shiatsu
The first healing art I want talk about is Shiatsu, an
internationally known method of healing that was
founded in Japan in the early 1900s by Tokujiro
Namikoshi. Shiatsu comes from the words shi
which means the thumbs and fingers and atsu,
meaning pressure.
Basic shiatsu is a completely safe and natural
method of physiotherapy. Using the thumbs, fingers
and palms of the hand, pressure is applied to
various parts of the body by stroking and pressing. It
relaxes the nervous system and can help improve
health by stimulating the bodys recuperative
powers.
To perform Shiatsu on someone it is necessary to have them lay down on a massage table
or matted area so that they are laid out flat. You then apply pressure using your fingers,
thumbs, and/or palms in a continuous rhythmic sequence.
The whole body is generally covered throughout the session, though if there is a particular
problem area like the back, then you would concentrate your efforts there, applying pressure
with the finger pads rather than the whole palm like most forms of massage.
The basics of Shiatsu can be picked up quite quickly once you have tried it a few times and
a basic all over massage can have a good effect on whoever you are doing it to. In order to
learn how to target more specific areas of the body and how to manipulate them however,
then it is a good idea to take a course in the art so you can be taught by a professional.
Failing that, find a good book or DVD on the subject like the ones I have included at the end
of this article. Below you can watch a short video that will give you some idea of how Shiatsu
is performed.
Kuatsu
Kuatsu is slightly more relevant to us as martial arts because it is a system of recovery and
resuscitation that is used to treat people after they have been attacked in specific areas (as
in atemi-jitsu). Kuatsu is closely linked with Jujitsu and is something I had to learn in order to
pass my 1st Dan grading in Jujitsu. The same regions on the body the lethal techniques are
applied are exactly the same as where the healing takes place.
Kuatsu teaches us how to revive someone after they have been strangled or choked out,
how to realign bones after they have been dislocated such as finger bones, the nose bone or
the shoulder after it has been dislocated from its socket. A very simple technique that I have
used many times is one which treats that most common of training injuries, the bloody nose.
To treat a bleeding nose, have the person lie down flat and then, lifting each of their feet in
turn, firmly slap the sole of the foot with your hand. This will stop the bleeding.
To fully understand the martial arts we also need to understand the healing arts.
If you have choked or strangled someone out then you can bring them round by simply
massaging the sides of their neck until they are revived again, or you can simply move both
of their arms around in circles, which helps stimulate the respiratory system again.
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Basic Kuatsu is not too hard to learn

and I would recommend that all martial
artists learn it, mainly because it helps
to know how to treat the various injuries
that often happen during training. Before
you treat anyone though, you must get
their permission first (though obviously
not if they are out cold), especially
before you start to manipulate joints and
bones. Once you have their permission
you continue with the treatment before
taking the person to hospital. The
quicker a person is treated after the
injury the better it will be for them.
Sometimes you have to wait a long time
before being seen by a doctor at a
hospital, by which time the injury has worsened and become very painful. Treating an injury
straight away reduces pain and any chance of long term damage.
If you wish to learn Kuatsu then find someone who already knows it and get them to teach
you, since this is the best way to learn it. Failing that, find a good book on the subject,
though you may find it difficult to get such resources for there arent many out there, given
the little known nature of the techniques.
The Benefits Of Learning A Healing Art

As far as the martial arts go, delving into the healing arts can have many benefits for you as
a martial artist. Giving and receiving shiatsu can have a great impact on the martial artists
ability to train, recover, heal and perform movements. All styles of shiatsu have the aim of
balancing the human body whether that be through improving energy flow along meridians
or through the releasing and aligning of the muscles and body. Thus receiving shiatsu can
make training easier.
Shiatsu improves the range of motion of the body and makes it possible for techniques to be
performed with less resistance (by releasing tension within the muscles and improving
relaxation). This can lead (with regular training) to improved progress and technique for the
martial artist.
Shiatsu also enables the body to cope better with the demands of training. It improves
recovery time from strenuous training sessions and can also speed up recovery from
injuries. Shiatsu is best suited to treating chronic injuries and not acute (or fresh) injuries
for the first few days after an injury has occurred standard first aid is more effective in
treating the problem. Shiatsu can then be used to assist the longer term healing and
rehabilitation of the injury. For example a sprained ankle is best treated with rest and
relaxation for the first few days to a week after being injured. Shiatsu can then be used to
help restore mobility and function.
Also, by performing both Shiatsu and Kuatsu one learns which areas are more vulnerable to
pressure point attack. As one gets better at the practices, the painful and more
incapacitating points are easier to identify and locate on a person. This means that they can
be better targeted by attacks. This demonstrates the importance of training in both the
healing arts and martial arts you can learn to identify and locate the vulnerable points on a
person but without diligent training, you are unlikely to be able to strike (or seize, tear or
squeeze) the points in a combat situation with any accuracy, power or force.
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Training in Shiatsu and Kuatsu teaches the practitioner several things that are useful for selfdefence also. The most important of these is how to read the body. For example, the way an
attacker carries their body or holds themselves can reveal information that can be used
against them. A raised left shoulder might indicate a tightness on that side of the body, in the
neck or back for instance, and could reveal that the attacker would be more vulnerable to an
attack directed at that side of the body (the tension in the area would slow down their
response and add to the pain caused by targeting that area, thereby increasing the
effectiveness of an attack.) In this way a good understanding of the healing arts can lead to
better strategy in a combat situation.
Actually having Shiatsu performed on you can have very beneficial health effects such as
improved relaxation through stress reduction. A Shiatsu session soon after training is hard to
beat in terms of reliving the tension and aching muscles gained through hard training.
Shiatsu can also improve your mental focus in much the same way that meditation does, by
relaxing the mind and body and clearing the mind of extraneous thoughts and worries.
Again, good mental focus is essential to good martial arts performance.
Learn To Heal As Well As Attack

I hope you can now see the importance of healing arts
such as Shiatsu and Kuatsu in helping you improve as
a martial artist. This aspect of the martial arts has
largely been lost or ignored in recent years, something
I think is a great shame considering everything there is
to be gained by introducing such practices into training.
Especially these days, when everyone seems to be
doing strangulation and locking techniques (as in BJJ,
MMA etc) it would be a very good idea to at least learn
the basics of Kuatsu and learn how to deal with the
inevitable injuries that will occur during such training.
It is my opinion that many people have little interest in being able to heal an opponent these
days. People are only interested in attacking other people and causing as much damage as
possible. The healing arts to most (if awareness of them is even there in the first place) are
just another aspect of traditional training that has fallen out of favour and has little or no
relevance in todays environment. I therefore hope that this article has changed your mind
and shown you how relevant the healing arts still are to us as martial artists.
Chapter 14: The Martial Arts Demo: 6 Factors for

Success
Quite recently I took part in a martial arts demo to help raise funds for the club were I train.
The dojo floor badly needs replacing (I keep waiting for someone to get thrown and
disappear into the floor!) so we decided to organize a fund-raising night and as part of that
night we all put on a little show for the people who turned up. We were asking people to
contribute their hard earned money to our cause so they obviously wanted to see what the
club was all about and a martial arts display was the best way to show them.
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We spent about three weeks preparing for the night, which as it turned out isnt a lot of time
to organize a full demonstration, especially when you are using all grades, beginners
included. Some nights we would practice and I thought my sensei was going to pull his hair
out in frustration. No! he would often shout. Start again!
And we did. Many times over. We got there in the end though and we eventually compiled a
show that we thought would be entertaining and educational at the same time.
My sensei still had his doubts though. Its me this reflects on, not you guys, he said to me
nervously on the night. I laughed and told him not to worry.
Come on, I said. Whats the worst that could happen?
He replied with a stern look that said it all.
Come the night, things went exceptionally well. Everyone remembered what they had to do
and the crowd loved it. My senseis fears were put to rest by the sound of applause from the
audience. The club was cast in a good light and we raised enough money to fix the floor.
Success!
Martial arts demos are a great way to gain exposure for your club, attract new members and
also raise money for whatever cause you want to attach to them.
So taking what I have learned from that experience and the experience of seeing other
demos, here are five factors that will pretty much guarantee a successful martial arts
demonstration.
1. Showmanship. Whether as a group or

as an individual you have to exhibit a little
bit of showmanship. Or to put it like my
sensei put it: Youre a martial artist,
remember- look and act like one! This
means that you must show good focus
and intent right from the moment you walk
on to the mats in whatever venue you
happen to be displaying at. Dont just
casually stroll out on to the floor, walk
purposefully and look organized and
disciplined as a group. Never forget that
you are out to impress the audience and
the audience doesnt want to see casualness or half-heartedness. Be aggressive and as
realistic as possible with your techniques and if you are break-falling, do so hard, even
slightly exaggerate them. People love to see you flying through the air. It looks good, and
thats a lot of what a good martial arts demo is all about- looking good and representing your
art well at the same time. Pretend your in a martial arts movie, this will put you in the right
frame of mind so you give the audience what they expect and the audience expects to be
entertained as much as educated on the ways of the martial arts. In previous demos that we
have done my sensei has used a sword to cut a melon in half on the bare belly of a
volunteer (not from the audience!), held stones in one hand and broke them in half with the
other (after passing the stones around the audience to check they were real) and
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Demos are a great way to gain exposure for your club, attract new members and also raise
money for whatever cause you want to attach to them.
performed a Zanchin kata while some of us broke lengths of wood across his body to prove
how iron-like the body becomes during this kata. Those were all things that really impressed
an audience and made them glad they attended the demo in the first place. Im not saying
you have to get dangerous (no razor-blade nunchakus or anything!) but be inventive and
keep the audiences interests in mind.
2. Show-stopping techniques. Its okay to start a

demo of with some simple techniques that
represent what you normally do in the dojo. In the
demo that I did we started of with rolls and breakfalls before showing some block and blow routines
and some body conditioning. This sort of thing
gives the audience a true idea of what the martial
arts are all about. At some point though, usually
sooner rather than later, you have to put in some
show stopping techniques that are going to make
the audience sit up and take notice. For most of
them thats what they came to see. They want to be
wowed. It obviously depends on your style what
techniques you do but try and be spectacular. I
always find Aikido to be very well suited to this sort
of thing because the techniques are very showy,
with guys being flung around all over the place
seemingly with no effort from the person throwing
them. Techniques like flying arm bars, big throws,
flying kicks and the like all work well in a demo. And the harder and faster you perform them
the better they will be. Just make sure you are well practiced in them before you do them on
the night. Miscalculations that result in bad technique or even an accident will not come
across well to onlookers.
3. Self Defense Techniques. The average person, who knows little about martial arts, has
only one question on their minds when they go to see a demo: can these guys kick ass? You
have to show them that you can. Most people see self defense as a major part of martial arts
and a watching audience will want you to demonstrate this aspect for them. So come up with
some common self defense scenarios and show the effectiveness of your art in dealing with
them. This can be as simple as being attacked by one person or many people at once. I
think it is a good idea if your sensei takes centre stage at this point and expertly fends of
multiple attackers with some cool and effective looking techniques. The audience will
appreciate this as they generally want to view sensei as The Man, the martial arts master
who is not to be messed with. And obviously, the more realistic looking you make the whole
thing, the better. A nice way to round things of is for all the attackers to stay down after their
last attack, feigning unconsciousness so that sensei is left in the middle of the floor
surrounded by felled attackers. Then he really is The Man!
4. Weapons. Weapons look great in the hands of an expert and they look even better in the
eyes of a watching audience. How you bring the weapons into your demo is up to you. In the
last demo I took part in we had a couple of guys demonstrate some defenses against knife
attacks and also some stick techniques which went down pretty well. You can just as easily
do a weapons kata, it doesnt really matter. Introduce the weapons into your self defense
techniques or have two people fight with two different weapons, say a Bo against a sword or
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Sai against sword. Weapons give that added bit of extra interest to the audience and
prevents the whole thing from becoming too monotonous.
5. Girls! Im not suggesting you recruit a bunch of lap-dancers for the night (though some
might not object!) but if you have girls in your club then make them a part of the demo,
regardless of grade. Many people still consider martial arts to be a purely male pursuit so
prove them wrong and give the women audience members something to smile at by bringing
on the girls to kick the guys asses. We had two girls (one of whom was my daughter) act out
a little scenario at our last demo. We basically had four guys attack them and the girls threw
the guys and locked them up on the ground. The audience loved it and they got the biggest
applause of the night. They were entertained and shown that martial arts are effective for
everybody. Job done!
6. Free Fighting. For a bit of added excitement you can throw in some sparring to spice
things up a bit and keep the pace moving. Before I even began our last demo I had people
coming up to me saying, I hope we are going to see some sparring- thats why we came!
What can I say? People are easily amused sometimes. It comes from watching all those
cage bouts on TV. You dont have to go hard (though you probably will) but you do have to
make it lively and show of plenty of techniques. Even if you prearrange something were you
put a certain lock on your sparring partner when it goes to the ground or allow them to get in
certain combinations. Audiences feel like they are watching a real bout and its a good way
to round of the demo and finish on a high.
I recommend every club does a martial arts demo from time to time. Not only does it really
bring the club together it also really helps with publicity if you need it. Plus its a lot of fun!
Just incorporate all the elements just mentioned and your demo is sure to be a success!
Chapter 15: Power Punching Revisited

Before I started training in the martial arts a punch was just a punch, a kick just a
kick. When I started, a punch was no longer just a punch, a kick no longer just a kick.
Now that I understand training, a punch is again, just a punch, a kick just a kick.
Bruce Lee
At one time my favourite technique to use was the kick. I considered punches to be merely a
back up to my kicks and in a sparring context, this is mostly still the case, but in terms of
street self defense, the punch has now definitely become my technique of choice, for two
reasons.
The first reason is that most street confrontations begin with some form of dialogue, so more
often than not, things will kick off at punching distance. You are already in the perfect
position to use the punch, you dont have to step back or forward, you simply just throw it
from where you are. So if you already have the perfect range for attack, why would you want
to manufacture another range unnecessarily by stepping back for a kick or stepping in for a
throw or takedown? Its a waste of time to do that and it adds to the already high risk of the
situation by leaving more margins for error.
The second reason is the immense power that you can get behind a punch and with it, the
ability to accurately direct that power towards one of the most vulnerable areas of an
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opponents body, the jaw, which will

hopefully result in a knockout blow. You
manage that and its job done. No need
for follow-up techniques or struggling to
keep an opponent down after you have
threw them or locked them. You just walk
or run away.
In terms of simplicity and sheer effectiveness, the punch is hard to beat in a street self
defense situation and in many ways it is the perfect weapon when used correctly.
So lets now take a look at some of the ways in which we can increase the power and over
all effectiveness of our punching.
Proper Body Mechanics

When we talk about proper body mechanics we are talking about the practice of proper body
weight transference. Powerful punching has nothing to do with the size of the person doing
it. It is completely possible that someone of little size and weight could knockout an
opponent twice their size and weight simply by punching with their total weight behind the
punch.
The reason why so many people fail to generate enough power behind their punches is that
they often punch just with the arms and shoulders, forgetting to utilise the hips and torso in
the execution of it. This results in only limited power and nowhere near the level of power
that that same person would be capable of if they only used their whole body to punch.
To get maximum power from a punch it
is necessary to punch from the
stomach or the Hara (the one point), as
some people call it. In reality, this one
point is just the bodys centre of gravity
and to punch from here enables you to
use your entire body weight to put
behind the punch.
Correct use of hips is essential here.
The hip must follow the direction of the
punch, helping to transfer all the energy
gathered from the centre of the body
into that square inch of space on your
punching hand (the two big knuckles).
In terms of simplicity and sheer
effectiveness, the punch is hard to beat in a street self defense situation and in many ways it
is the perfect weapon when used correctly.
the hip travels too soon or too late then the power of the punch will be lost. Everything has to
be in perfect sync in order for the punch to be effective. This sounds simple, but in reality
takes a great deal of practice to get right. And as if that wasnt enough to consider, we also
have to consider the act of Kime (focus or body tensing), which we will look at now.
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Kime
As stated, Kime is the act of focussing all of your energy into a single point, in this case, your
punches moment of impact. For the punch to be effective all of your muscles must
collectively tense for a split second on the moment of impact. The hip thrust must also be
timed to happen in conjunction with this tensing of the body. Both Kime and hip thrust must
therefore be in time for the punch to be truly effective. If either one are out of synch then the
power of the punch will be lost and you wont get the knockout blow you were looking for.
Everything has to move in perfect synchronicity therefore. Once you achieve this then you
can be said to be truly punching your weight.
Travelling
Travelling is another means to add more power to your punches and it basically involves
adding a step or shuffle to the technique, thus adding momentum from your body weight into
the mix. Once again, timing is everything here. Your forward moving leg should land or still
be moving at the same time as the impact of the blow. Stop too soon and the momentum will
be wasted and if you step too slow you will telegraph the punch. Everything must be in
synch, step, hip thrust and Kime all happening as one. This is difficult to get right at first, but
with practice it gets easier.
The Double Hip

This technique was developed by Peter Consterdine and it is meant to be used at close
range (punching distance). Rather than thrust the hip just once, we do it twice to garner extra
power into the subsequent blow. So for example, if you are standing with left leg forward,
you would turn the left hip towards your opponent before quickly changing and thrusting the
right hip as you punch. Its like a whiplash effect, a quick one two thrust of the hips that has
the effect of adding a lot of power to your punch without you having to do much else. Its a
very effective technique, especially when you have little room to move. Try it on the bag or
focus pads. Use one hip thrust first, then both hips and compare and contrast. The
difference is amazing when done correctly.
The Element of Surprise

I have talked about the element of surprise before as regards to pre-emptive striking, and
although it wont add power to your technique per se, it will have the effect of seeming too,
simply because your opponent wont be expecting it. Your punch will have a much greater
effect if your opponent doesnt see it coming or isnt expecting it. If you expect to get hit you
will ready yourself for the impact and you will quite easily absorb most of it. If you get taken
by surprise however, you wont get a chance to prepare yourself for the impact so the blow
will have a much greater effect. In this way, a person of small build could easily drop a much
larger opponent, simply by utilising the element of surprise. Thus we have used great power
without actually physically generating it.
Further Tips for Power Punching

If you wish to have powerful punches then you must learn to stay relaxed. Too many people
think they have to tense their muscles to generate power in their technique when in fact the
opposite is true. The whole body must be relaxed, especially the shoulders, until the moment
of impact. Speed comes from being relaxed and power comes from speed, so make a point
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of freeing yourself from any tension when practicing punching (and any other technique for
that matter).
You must practice constantly as well. To get the most out of punching each punch must be
practiced thousands of times in order to master the many nuances involved and also to get
the timing right each time. For street self defense purposes, take one single punch that you
are most comfortable with and practice it over and over until you can generate the power
needed to knock down an opponent. At the moment I am working on my right hook because
thats my favourite punch and Ill keep working on it until Im satisfied its good enough, then
Ill work on it some more. It gets repetitive, but its extremely satisfying and also comforting to
know that I have a technique that wont fail me when the time comes to use it (and indeed it
hasnt failed me in the past). Just knowing this will do wonders for your confidence and help
in making you a hard target for potential attackers because they will sense your confidence
and be less inclined to bother you.
Further Resources
Real Punching (Real (Summersdale))
Power Punching
Knockout Punching: Theory and Practice
Personal Development
Chapter 16: How to Cultivate an Indomitable Warrior
Spirit
It is often said in life that it is the journey that matters and not the end result. We learn more
from being on the journey than we do when we actually complete it. In martial arts training, it
is also the journey that matters the most, not the rewards (the belts, trophies, certificates
etc.) along the way. We obviously need the rewards because we have to have something to
aim for, something to keep us moving along the path, things to help us continue on the
journey and cultivate a warrior spirit.
Along this journey we will inevitably come across many obstacles that are put there to
seemingly block our progress, pitfalls and hurdles with big stop signs in front of them that
seem to signal the end of things. In reality of course, these barriers to progress are not there
to grind us to a halt, but to test us, to test our mettle to see if we are indeed worthy of
continuing along the path we have chosen to travel on.
Many people, when they come across such obstacles, try to overcome them in a halfhearted manner, prodding the barrier a few times with a stick before deciding that they either
dont have the inclination to attempt to find a way forward (and therefore use it as an excuse
to quit the journey) or they simply feel they arent strong enough to overcome the seemingly
difficult or impossible odds.
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This quitter mentality stems mainly from a

lack of understanding as to the nature of the
journey itself. The journey was never
meant to be easy. It was never meant to be
something a person could sail through
unhindered. If it was we would all be on it
and there would be no problems. However,
there also wouldnt be any growth.
Personal growth and inner strength comes
from confronting these obstacles and doing
whatever it takes to overcome them. There
will certainly be a lot of discomfort in your
attempts to overcome them (the bigger the
obstacle the greater the discomfort) but
when you successfully do so, when you
break down the wall in front of you to open up a whole new vista ahead, you gain a sense of
enlightenment and personal growth. The bigger the obstacle you happen to overcome, the
more personal growth and enlightenment you will gain. Just understanding this fact alone
can help greatly when it comes to breaking down those barriers. All it takes is persistence
and a willingness to endure a certain level of discomfort and you will get there.
So given that, lets now take a look at some of the common obstacles and barriers to
progress that we often come across as martial artists and see what the best way is to tackle
them.
1. Injury. Martial artists, pursuing as
they do a very physical pastime, often
incur injuries of one kind or another.
Most of these injuries are often not that
serious, but despite this, they are
sometimes enough to put people off
from training any further. It is not usually
the injury in itself that stops people from
training, but the excuse syndrome that
comes with it. My knee is sore; I think
Ill take a break from training for a
while. Or My ligaments are playing up,
I need to rest. These are normally
excuses to back out just as the going
gets tough.
The fact is, most injuries can be trained around. You hurt your hand, you use the other one.
If your back is sore, dont do anything to aggravate it, do something else instead. Nine times
out of ten, there will always be some kind of training that you can still do. I have a sore back
most of the time, but it doesnt stop me from training. I know other people with crumbling
knees and loose ligaments that still manage to train.
Obviously, if the injury is a serious one then it would be foolish to keep training if you are
only going to make it worse. In that case, you should rest up. Even then though, you should
still visit the dojo often and stay in contact with your fellow martial artists in order to maintain
your interest and enthusiasm. Read; watch training videos, practice visualisation. Just dont
cut yourself off from training altogether because you wont want to go back when you do
finally heal.
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Training through injury is a character building process and is excellent for developing a
strong will and discipline to keep going through adversity (the warrior spirit), which is why
you shouldnt make too big a deal of it when it happens. Just pick yourself up and carry on.
2. Boredom. This is one excuse that really annoys me when I hear it, mainly because it
comes from a place of ignorance and a lack of understanding as to the nature of learning a
skill. When someone says, Im bored with the training, it means they havent grasped the
fact that in order to become anywhere near proficient in the martial arts you have to repeat
the same techniques over and over again until they become second nature. Thats how you
get
The key to working past these issues is to change your perceptions of them.
good, there is no shortcuts or other way around it.
If you look at any world class athlete, no matter what they do, be it shot putters, tennis
players, swimmers, whatever, they are all good because they practice for several hours a
day, doing the same movements over and over and over again until they have them as near
perfect as they can get them. This is what martial artists have to do as well; they have to drill
the same techniques over and over in order to master them. Its like the old adage says, to
master any technique you must perform it at least 10,000 times. It doesnt matter what youre
after- speed, power, strength, agility- you have to keep working at it. Yes, its going to get
boring, but thats the way it is. Once again,
working through the boredom is character
building and growth stimulating.
3. Lack of Enjoyment. Similar to boredom
in that people react to it in the same sort of
way (i.e. they begin to question their
commitment), a lack of enjoyment in training
does not signal the end of the journey by
any means. You cant expect to do
something like martial arts and enjoy it all
the time. At some point, usually during a
gruelling and painful training session your
inner opponent will suddenly perk up and
ask, Wait a minute, I thought this was
supposed to be fun, I thought we should be
enjoying this. This isnt enjoyable its painful. At which point you will say to yourself, Maybe
its time I tried something else a bit more enjoyableThis isnt fun anymore.
Martial arts training is a serious and at times gruelling pursuit, both physically and mentally,
but thats the point. Its supposed to take you to your limits, to the point were you almost feel
like quitting. However, the real enjoyment comes from seeing how much you have
progressed after doing all those hard sessions, it comes from realising how much further on
in your journey you have come. It is unrealistic to expect to get enjoyment from it all the time.
Many times in my training career I have lost that sense of enjoyment but I carried on
regardless, pushing through the pain, so to speak. Lack of enjoyment is just another barrier
to break down so we can become more enlightened. Stick with it and the enjoyment will
return.
4. Lack of Progress. Every other week I bemoan my own perceived lack of progress. I say
perceived because usually I am progressing and I just cant see it, though it often feels like
Im tracking through thick jungle, struggling in vain to find a way out and being convinced
there is none- basically getting nowhere fast.
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This happens to lots of people when they

are training. They train diligently for weeks
and months at a time thinking that they are
getting nowhere when in fact they are
progressing far more than they think. The
reason you think youre not progressing is
because you are checking yourself
constantly and when you do that you get
blinded to your own progress. If someone
actually watched you for one session and
then checked back a couple of months
later they would see a real improvement in
you, simply because they havent seen you for a while. Its possible to get too close to
yourself, too caught up in yourself, to the point were you become blind to your own situation.
The fact of the matter is that with every session you do improve. How could you not? If
youre not convinced then ask someone, ask your instructor and no doubt they will tell you
the same thing. You just have to trust in the process, thats all. Stick with it and you will
eventually get to were you want to be.
You should also understand that we improve the fastest as beginners. Its like bodybuildingyou make the most noticeable gains in the first few months. After that, although you still
make gains, you make them over longer periods of time so they arent as noticeable in the
immediate sense. Martial arts training is exactly same. The longer you train the less
noticeable your improvement becomes. Just remember though that although your
improvement isnt as noticeable, it is still there nonetheless.
5. Responsibilities. The higher up the ranks you go
the more responsibilities you tend to pick up along
the way. As you get better you will be expected to
teach other students, perhaps run classes and feel
the pressure of having to maintain a high standard of
technique in order to set a good example to those
below you. More than once I have resisted these
responsibilities, resenting them for eating into my
training time to the point were I was teaching more
than training. The black belt around my waist felt
more like an albatross around my neck at times and
like the Ancient Mariner, I thought about throwing
myself into the sea more than once, so to speak. I
considered quitting in otherwards, convinced my
journey had come to an end without realising that I
was just taking a new path to the same place.
I let my own selfish needs blind me to the fact that accepting and handling more
responsibility is just another test along the way, yet another character building exercise and
opportunity for further personal growth. Once I faced up the challenge of actually teaching
and looking after other people besides myself I was able to enjoy the sessions more
because they were now a chance to grow and understand the techniques better (teaching is
the best way to learn) rather than the dead-end I first saw them as being. I also realised that
if I wanted to maintain my own standards of technique then I would have to find other times
to train, times when I could concentrate solely on my own advancement. I now do extra
sessions when I can and train at home when I get a chance, just to stay on top of my own
training.
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Whenever you receive responsibility you shouldnt run away from it but instead see it as the
opportunity for growth and experience that it is. Walking away from training altogether
because things get a little bit more complicated is foolish and short-sighted. You owe it to
your club and yourself to stick with the process and continue to grow and advance along the
journey.
Change Your Perceptions

As I see it, those are the main barriers to progress that circumstance and our own
perceptions of things often throw up to try and halt our progress. The key to working past
these issues is to change your perceptions of them. Look at the bigger picture and see these
tests for what they are- opportunities for growth and a chance to further develop that
indomitable warrior spirit.
Further Resources
Way of the Peaceful Warrior: A Book That Changes Lives
The Warrior Within : The Philosophies of Bruce Lee
Mental Resilience: The Power of Clarity: How to Develop the Focus of a Warrior and the
Peace of a Monk
The Code of the Warrior: Daidoji Yuzan
Barefoot Doctors Guide to the Tao: A Spiritual Handbook for the Urban Warrior
The Warrior Athlete: Body, Mind & Spirit
Geoff Thompsons Masterclass DVDs
Chapter 17: Self Discipline: The Bedrock of Martial

Arts Training
Self-discipline is something that I have
struggled with quite a lot over the years and
Id wager that many of you reading this have
struggled with it as well. As human beings
we always have to push ourselves in order
to do even the simplest tasks. It seems we
have a predilection for bouts of laziness
were we refuse to do anything constructive
with our time and choose to wile away the
hours in front of TV or down the pub or
smoking weed or whatever your favourite
form of escapism happens to be.
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The problem with this predilection towards laziness and ill-discipline is that it doesnt serve
us very well in terms of achieving our goals and becoming who want to be. If you are training
in martial arts for instance, then in order to advance and get good you have the discipline to
show up to class and actually train on a regular basis. Showing your face only once in a
while is not going to get you anywhere.
Now Im not going to sit here and pretend that I have some kind of formidable iron will that
drives me to the dojo every single time I am due to be there because I dont possess such a
thing. Most people I know dont possess such an iron will. I still miss the odd session, though
admittedly this is usually through injury or good old fashioned tiredness through working hard
at my day job. Sometimes I dont feel like I have the energy, even though if I probably
pushed myself Id be fine once I started training but Ive already said I dont have the
discipline of a Shaolin monk.
Still, I have managed to keep training now for over twenty-five years, so that means I must
have some discipline. I have also carved out a career as a writer and Ive consistently stuck
at this blog for the last six months so Im not doing too bad. I could be better though. We
could always do better, couldnt we?
So in my quest for betterness I have looked in to improving my discipline and have come up
with some methods to achieve this that have worked for me and which I am going to share
with you now. You can thank me later when your instructor starts calling you by name
instead of stranger or mate.
Ways to Self Discipline

Way #1: Practice being disciplined. Last year I read a very popular article by Steve
Pavlina entitled How to be an Early Riser. The article addressed an issue which a lot of
people struggle with, which is dragging themselves out of bed in the mornings. Now, I dont
know about you, but I needed a crane to pull me out of bed most mornings. Rising from bed
was for me like being forced to exit the womb all over again, complete with screaming match
and lots of foot stomping around the house until Id had my morning coffee. When I seen this
article I dove into it hoping to find a solution to a problem Id basically learned to live with
over the years.
Anyway, in the article, Steve advised that the only way to change the habit of hitting the
snooze button fifty times is to actually practice getting up when the alarm goes of
immediately. And how do you practice this? You get in and out of bed over and over again
until the habit of rising the instant the alarm goes of becomes ingrained. I did this. For a few
days I crawled in and out of bed for about an hour at a time until I was eventually able to rise
in the mornings without too much difficulty.
If you are having problems getting yourself down the dojo then practice doing it. Pick a time,
pack your stuff and walk out the door. Then go back in and do it all over again. Keep doing it
until you dont even think about what youre doing. When you see its time for practice you
just go into autopilot and head out the door.
Such behaviour may seem laughable to you, but take my word for it (as someone who
struggled to get out the door) it works. Its all about reconditioning your mind to react in a
certain way once its time for training. The key with this sort of discipline is just not to think
about it. Go into autopilot and cruise on down the dojo.
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Way #2: Create enough desire to motivate

yourself. Desire is important when it comes to
actually motivating yourself to train, as we seen
in the last article I wrote on commitment. If you
find your discipline waning it is usually because
your motivation is weak or no longer relevant to
want to you want to achieve in your training. A
strong motivation and well set goals that you
really want to achieve will help greatly in
spurring you into action, even at those times
when you dont feel like doing anything except
laying up on the couch.
If the lazy git inside you starts to talk you out of

training then just think about why you are
training in the first place and realise that you
have to train to get what you want. Override the
inner opponent with positive and motivating self talk until you feel ready for action.
Successful people know they have to keep working on their goals everyday, even if they
dont feel like doing so, in fact, especially if they dont feel like doing so.
Way #3: Stay focussed. Staying focussed means setting goals and devoting your time to
achieving those goals. A focussed mind is harder to dissuade than an unfocussed mind. An
unfocussed mind is constantly open to influence from whatever sources of distraction
happen to be around. I find it helps to actually write down on a piece of paper when I have to
train and what goals I want to work on in a particular session. Its harder to argue with
yourself when the task at hand is there in front of you in black and white.
Way #4: Work on developing yourself. Im very into personal development and I find that
constantly working on yourself to change negative behaviours and create more positive
habits has an over all affect on your sense of self-discipline. The more success you have in
your life and the more things you do in your life, the more motivated you become and the
easier it gets to be more disciplined with things.
I have found that success breeds success. There will always be things in our lives that feel
like chores sometimes but these things are easier to get on with if you know that doing them
will bring you success. Its about trusting in the process of achievement. Sometimes it feels
like a chore to keep updating this blog with new articles but the fact that I know that each
new article published brings me closer to my goals really helps me to keep working.
Way #5: Move towards discomfort. A lack of discipline tends to leave a great big hole for a
nice big comfort zone to develop. Its like moss on a stone, it only grows when we stand still,
so we have to keep moving and to keep moving we actively have to seek out discomfort and
move towards it. It is only in discomfort that we grow. There is no growth in remaining at
home in your comfort zone when you should be experiencing a bit of discomfort down the
gym or dojo. Discipline comes from not allowing yourself to sink into a comfort zone.
Accepting discomfort into your life and realising that it is necessary for growth will by default
make you more disciplined in yourself.
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Learning to Bite the Bullet

The crux of the matter here is that you have to keep working at things all the time. Discipline,
like most other qualities, does not come naturally or easily to most of us. We have to practice
at developing it. Just as Soctrates says in Peaceful Warrior, I practice everything.
Everything in life has to be practiced to some extent. In the case of discipline this means
continually pushing yourself to do what you have to do, no matter if you feel like doing it or
not. Moods, emotions, circumstances dont come into it. Thats what marks out successful
people from those who never achieve anything. Successful people know they have to keep
working on their goals everyday, even if they dont feel like doing so, in fact, especially if they
dont feel like doing so. I of course realise that this is easier said than done most of the time,
but then nothing worth achieving is ever easy,
is it? If it was we would all be raging successes
in our lives.
So the next time you dont feel like training,
block out the chatter from your inner-opponent
and remind yourself of why you chose to train
in the first place and then tell yourself that youll
never be any good unless you get of your ass
and get out the door.
Accept the discomfort and just do it.
Chapter 18: How to Commit to Martial Arts

A friend of mine got injured the other week while training at the dojo. Not seriously, Im glad
to say, just a minor groin strain, but painful enough to keep him away from training. My
friend, much like the rest of us, has had quite a few injuries of varying severity over the years
but it seems this one in particular was just one too many. It was the proverbial straw that
broke the camels back.
My friend was so fed up he talked seriously about hanging up his gi and calling it a day,
never to train in the martial arts again. I mean, here he was, in his mid thirties and training in
a highly demanding physical discipline more suited to someone half his age, allowing people
to throw him around like a rag doll and put at times ridiculous pressure on his rather
sensitive and over-yanked joints. If his sinews could talk they would probably scream for
mercy.
WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING? they would demand in a probably shrill voice. YOU
THINK THIS IS PLEASURABLE? YOU THINK THIS IS NORMAL, PUNISHING YOURSELF
IN THIS WAY? NO MORE, FOR GODS SAKENO MORE.
And so for once my friend listened to his bruised and battered body. Maybe he wasnt being
a sissy and over reacting after all, maybe partaking in such a gruelling pastime wasnt as
beneficial to his health as he thought it was. Maybe martial arts training was a hazard to
ones health, a danger to its participants.
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He began to wonder what the hell did he got out of it at the

end of the. A set of hard won skills that he would probably
never use for as long as he lived and if he did use them they
probably wouldnt work as well as he thought they would. He
would have spent years training for something that he would
ultimately fail at. Were is the rational in that? Weres the
sense?
A Crisis of Confidence
I recall having a similar crisis of confidence some years back,
shortly after I got my black belt. My commitment failed me and
I quit training with the vague notion that I had only quit temporarily, that one day I would
return to training when I was ready.
I did return to training (thankfully). Seven years later. It was a long break, during which I was
overcome by laziness, self indulgence and a complete lack of discipline. I never stopped
thinking of myself as a martial artist but I was too stuck in my own indolence to actually do
any training. I tried to return a couple of times but never lasted longer than a few months
before my interest level fell drastically away and I just stopped training again, seduced by the
comfiness of my sofa and the comforting glare of my TV. Inwardly I felt ashamed for wasting
myself in such a way. I felt dull inside, like I was on low grade sedatives all the time. I had
little or know conscious awareness. If I wanted to use stronger words to describe the state I
existed in most of the time during that period away from training, Id say I was dead inside.
I cant put all these feelings down to just being away from the martial arts because that
would just be over emphasising the importance of one aspect of my life. The martial arts had
played a big role in my life since the age of seven, but even so, other forces existed that
were equally as strong in terms of influence. I had little direction in my life back then and did
little of any consequence to fill my time. As the saying goes, the devil makes work for idle
hands. I exhibited behaviours that were not very beneficial to me, behaviours that had quite
a negative effect on me and my life in general.
Your goals and motivations will change over time and you have to recognise this in your own
mind so that you dont mistake a lack of motivation for a lack of commitment.
Luckily, I woke up eventually. At my lowest point I began to tap into my inner power again
and I began to take heed of the wisdom that was inside of me. I got my act together. I
reconnected with life and myself again and I have done my best to keep from looking back
ever since. Occasionally I cant help myself and I glance over my shoulder at the life I used
to lead and I feel depressed at the thoughts of slipping back into it again, only this time, that
was it for good, Id never be able to get
back out again. Id be stuck in a
soulless life until the day I died. That
vision is enough to keep me motivated
to stay on the path I am now on.
A Purpose to Everything
I believe there is a purpose to
everything that happens in this world,
no matter how small or big that thing
may be. Everything that happens in
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your life happens for a reason, even though you may not always be aware of that reason
and it would seem to you that something is just random or serves no real purpose except to
bring you misery. The dead years when I wasnt training in martial arts were a necessary
thing in my life. They had to happen to get me were I currently I am. I needed to live those
times in order to have the times I have now.
You may be wondering were I am going with all this? What does this have to do with my
friend about to quit martial arts? Did he leave or not? Well, Ill tell you in a moment if my
friend quit or not. The point of this post is to highlight the importance of commitment in the
martial arts and how difficult it is sometimes to maintain that commitment.
It is really difficult to keep training religiously week after week, year after year, like clock
work, doing the same sort of things over and over again with the amount of pain and
discomfort you feel apparently increasing along with your skill level. Its like you sacrifice
something more to the art with every session, be it sweat, blood, tears or just inordinate
amounts of pain. Perhaps Im exaggerating just a little. Perhaps the pain isnt that bad
(sometimes!) but you get used to it anyway, dont you? You realise this when newbies come
along and they grimace at the tiniest of pressure exerted on them. You realise just how high
your tolerance is and how much you can actually take. But I digress.
Commitment ensures you keep going through the pain barrier and any other barriers that
stand in the middle of your road towhat? Where are you going? Where do you want to end
up? You need to know these things so you can decide if what youre doing is worth
committing to. What are your reasons for training? Why do you keep at it?
When you know the answers to these questions you can then tap into the power of your
resolve and use it to fuel your engines and keep you motoring along. When your
commitment fails it means your motivation has failed. Rather than feel bad about how weak
willed you are, take a close look at your motivations and find a way to fire up your desire
again.
We have to keep re-inspiring ourselves through various means in order to really stick at
something. Initial desires and motivations often wane over time and they loose their power to
spur you into action. They need re-evaluating. You need to be really clear on why you keep
turning up at the dojo however many times a week. When youre completely clear in this way
then its just a matter of employing a bit of self discipline to keep you active. All the self
discipline in the world will not spur you into action if deep down, you really dont want to do it.
You really have to want to train in martial arts in order to do it. That may sound obvious, but I
suspect a lot of people kid themselves for whatever reason into thinking it is something they
do want when in fact they would much rather do something else completely. An honest
evaluation of your motives is needed for real commitment to take hold.
If youre motivated enough then you will find it easy to commit to training. If you find it hard to
commit, change your motivation, and if that doesnt work then maybe its time you spent your
time doing something else. Its that simple.
And by the way, my friend is back training. Despite the period of doubt he suffered his
motivation was strong enough in the end to keep him committed. No doubt his resolve to
keep training will be even greater now, as mine was when I decided to recommit.
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Renew Your Commitment

No one ever said it was going to be easy. You will always have ups and downs throughout
your training career, times when you will feel like giving up altogether. At such times the only
thing that will keep you going is your resolve and your commitment to your goals.
Your goals and motivations will change over time as well and you have to recognise this in
your own mind so that you dont mistake a lack of motivation for a lack of commitment. If
youre pulling away from training then its because the reasons you had for training before
are not resonating with you anymore, not because you are not committed to the training
itself. Rediscover your reasons for training and your commitment will come back again.
Training in martial arts is a journey you take and like all journeys there will be inevitable
complications and times when you will
feel stuck and you will feel like youre
not progressing at all. You need these
challenges in order to grow however.
Sometimes you fail but each time you
fail success will be come ever closer.
Overcome the challenges and you will
be all the more powerful for doing so.
Chapter 19: Shedding

Several months ago, just before I started this blog, I went through somewhat of an
enlightening experience. I was at quite a low point in my life, I wasnt at all happy with the
direction it was going in and I could see that I had to make real changes if I wasnt to get
trapped forever in a highly frustrating and highly unfulfilling existence.
So I started to examine all the different aspects of my life in order to get a clearer idea of
what I had to do to improve them and I made the decision at the time to really turn things
around and go for the life that I wanted to have for myself. It was a powerful moment, when I
made that decision. After years of bouncing around from pillar to post I was finally waking up
to the fact that I had to take full control of my life for the very first time and steer it in the
direction that I wanted it to go. Probably for the first time ever, I was prepared to take full
responsibility for everything that happened to me.
Shortly after I made that decision I started up this blog and in doing so, changed my life for
the better. Blogging is something that I found I was very passionate about and this has
obviously fed into my other passion for martial arts. Both passions feed into one another and
make the other stronger. At the moment, thats what my life is mostly about, blogging and
martial arts, that and trying very hard to develop myself on a personal level, which I realised I
very much needed to do if I was to achieve success in any of these two things.
A large part of my drive for personal growth and development entails embracing the concept
of shedding. Shedding basically involves stripping away and casting off the things that we no
longer need in our lives in a drive to become authentic individuals, rather like a snake casts
of its old skin in favour of a fresh new layer.
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Like most people I carried around a lot of baggage in the sense

that I harboured a lot of beliefs about life and myself that just
werent positive or useful to me in any way. I exhibited a lot of
bad habits that only served to drag me down and keep me from
moving forward. I also had some addictions that needed
addressing as well (still working on at least one of those). I had
friends that fed on me emotionally and a job that I hated. In
short, I had a lot of things to sort out and a lot of shedding to do
so I could rid myself of the stuff that wasnt really me and make
room for the things that are me, the things that will eventually
make me a totally authentic person. I liken the process to
discovering one day that you are not who you think you are at
all and suddenly you have to go out there and find out who you
really are and what it is you want to do with your life. Its a
process of cleansing, both inside and out and a very cathartic
one in the sense that you are letting go of a lot of negativity and
bad emotion.
I am currently going through the same process as a martial artist. I spent years just training
basically for the sake of training with no real goals or even any clear idea of where I wanted
to end up. I knew I wanted to be good, but that was
Years of blindly following someone elses agenda had previously blinded me to the fact that I
held a lot of preconceived notions about the martial arts that were inaccurate or just not true
at all.
about it, I didnt know how I was going to get good or what exactly I wanted to be good at. I
just showed up and trained, and then I went home and repeated the process so many times
a week.
Now that I have started to live my life far more consciously than I once did I am able to see a
lot of things in myself as a martial artist and also, in the training itself, that need shedding.
Years of following someone elses agenda had previously blinded me to the fact that I held a
lot of preconceived notions about the martial arts that were inaccurate or just not true at all.
Most of what I thought I knew about self defense was wrong, for example. I held the
traditional view on self defense that many martial artists still stand by but which isnt
anywhere near grounded in reality.
Besides all that I also discovered that I had picked up a fair few bad training habits that I just
wasnt awake enough to see at the time, not major bad habits but bad enough to make some
of my techniques look wrong. Im now in the process of retraining myself so as to vanquish
those habits.
Shedding ourselves of the things that hold us back is essential if we want to really progress,
both in life and in training and to do that we have to be able to live and train in a much more
conscious manner than we normally do. Its all too easy to become complacent and stay
within the comfort zone, but this doesnt lead to growth. The only way to grow is to cultivate
constant conscious awareness so that we can monitor all the time what direction we are
going in. If we dont have that conscious awareness then we end up slipping back into
autopilot and back into the pile of baggage that we worked so hard to shed. Its still a
struggle to maintain, but it gets easier as you go along. There will always be challenges but
you get better at facing those challenges.
Do you feel good about yourself as a martial artist? Do you have that feeling of excitement
that comes from constantly pushing yourself and testing your limits, knowing that with every
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move you are growing? Do you feel alive when youre training? If you dont, then maybe its
time you woke yourself up and did a bit of shedding. Youll feel a lot freer when you do.
Chapter 20: The Value of Persistence

You ever wonder why the drop-out rate amongst martial arts students is so high? Is it
because the training is hard? Is it because it is repetitive and at times hard to enjoy? Is it
because students realise that they really want to be doing something else? Or do they quit
when their dreams of being like Bruce Lee after three months training dont materialise?
The Value of Persistence

Most likely all of these things play a part in the high drop-out rate but in my opinion, the
reason that most people quit is because they lack persistence. They fail to see that success
can be theirs if they just stick at it but often times, their perceived lack of progress and
absence of faith in the learning process and the ways of the universe make it all too easy for
them to become pessimistic about what they are doing and their once strong resolve caves
in under the pressure of all that negativity and of course they quit.
To succeed in anything you have to be
persistent and tell yourself that you are
not going to give up until you do
succeed. It is essential to have the right
mindset or else your inner opponent will
systematically destroy any hope you
have of ever reaching your goal by
filling your mind with negative thoughts
and emotions. Once these destructive
thought patterns take hold it is very
difficult to see past them and sooner
rather than later they will fulfill their
promise of making you quit something
that you once optimistically thought you
would succeed in.
Many student drop-outs would have succeeded if they had just hung in there a little longer. If
they had realised that success was closer than they initially thought they would maybe have
persisted a little longer and got to where they once so badly wanted to be.
The Tipping Point

Im sure you have heard of the tipping point. The tipping point is a phrase created by
Malcolm Gladwell in his book of same name. Tipping points are the levels at which the
momentum for change becomes unstoppable. One never knows when one is going to reach
this point, it could happen anytime, so it is best to keep going, knowing that the tipping point
will happen eventually, its just a matter of time. All other factors discounted, sheer
persistence will usually get you to where you want to be. Its how most martial artists make it
to black belt level or master a kata or get good enough to win a competition, they just put the
time in.
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Consider this example. A person could practice a technique 99 times and still not get it right
so they decide to quit trying and they walk away having failed in their quest to master that
technique. However, unknown to that person, they had reached the tipping point, that fine
line dividing success and failure and if they had just practiced that technique one more time
they would have gotten it right. Just one more time was all it would have took. But that
person would never know this because they had quit too soon.
It is also essential to realise that the 99 times you did do the technique are what brought you
to success in the first place. The tipping point couldnt have occurred without first practicing
all those times beforehand and what made you practice all those times beforehand was
persistence.
So we never know when the tipping point is going to be but we know it is going to be at
some point, so it makes sense to carry on in good faith, knowing that success will happen
eventually.
Looking Down the Mountain

Not to get too clichd here, but success is very much
like climbing a mountain. Ive never climbed Everest
but I imagine the climb would be tough going and
many times during the assent I would feel like giving
up before I got to the top.
At this point it would be beneficial to ignore the
advice to not look down and to turn your head and
take a good long look at just how far youve come in
your journey. We quite often get so caught up in
striving towards our goals that we miss just how
much progress we have already made.
We quite often get so caught up in striving towards
our goals that we miss just how much progress we
have already made.
So if youre training towards some goal in the martial
arts and youre thinking that you are never going to get there, it really helps to pause and
look back over your journey so far. I think youd be surprised at how much progress youve
actually made. Give yourself some credit for getting as far as you have. Doing so really helps
to motivate you into carrying on.
Its been a year since I started on my journey to become a better and more successful
person and several times throughout the year I have thought about giving up because I
didnt think I was making any progress. I sometimes found the soul destroying feeling that I
wasnt making any headway despite working at maximum effort hard to handle. It wasnt until
I took the time to look down the mountain to see just how far Id come that I started to
appreciate the progress that I had made so far.
In the past year I have went from having no life goals to having life goals that I have either
attained or am working towards attaining.
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I began writing again and started this blog. So far I have published almost 100 articles
online, gotten published in three different mainstream martial arts magazines and published
two e-books that people seem to like.
I have also recommitted to my martial arts and have come on leaps and bounds in my
training. On top of that my understanding of them have increased greatly and I can consider
myself somewhat of an authority on the martial arts now.
As well as that I will also be receiving personal training from Geoff Thompson in the New
Year, one of the worlds top martial artists and the man who gave me the kick up the ass I
needed- through his books- to get my act together.
My personal and spiritual development is also coming along swimmingly and I feel that Im a
far more positive and motivated person than I was this time last year. I see potential in
myself now that I never saw before and I feel more connected to myself and the universe at
large than I have ever been.
Most importantly I have realised that I know longer need to define myself by what I have or
what I have achieved, but by what I am, and what I am is a manifestation of the creative
Source that makes up this universe of ours. I am Source energy manifested in a physical
body and my life revolves around maintaining my connection with that Source. That is my
number one priority now, to be completely at one with the Source of all things and to use my
talents and innate desires to help other people as much as I can because I know that is the
only way to live authentically, the only way to succeed in life. This is my spiritual
breakthrough, the one I have been seeking my entire life. Now I just have to live it and thats
what Im working on doing everyday now.
Less than a year ago, I would never have thought I could achieve so much. It would have
been foolhardy of me to quit at any of the times I thought about doing so.
Dont Give Up Your Dreams

Thats why Im saying to you now, dont give up
on trying to achieve your goals. I recognise that it
is sometimes a great strain to carry on in the face
of seemingly insurmountable odds but these
obstacles are character building and give you the
inner strength to handle the success when you
get it.
So the next time you feel like you are not making
any progress in your training, or indeed in the
achievement of any goal that you have set for
yourself, take the time to look back and to see
how much you have achieved already.
Sometimes this retrospective look over your
shoulder can be enough to rekindle your
motivation. If it isnt then remember the tipping
point. Success could just be around the corner.
Tomorrow or the next day or the day after that
could be the day that everything falls into place and you get the breakthrough that you need
to propel you into success.
2009 Neal Martin
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Your dreams are there for the taking but you have to take them.
Further Resources
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
The Secret of Success is Not a Secret: Stories of Famous People Who Persevered
Martial Musings
Chapter 21: Dojo Etiquette: To Bow or Not to Bow
When it comes to dojo etiquette I am somewhat of a traditionalist. I believe a certain

amount of etiquette in the dojo helps to foster good relations and the proper level of respect
between practitioners. It is good to know that there still exists a place in this habitually bad
mannered society of ours where you can go and be afforded a decent level of respect. To
my mind that is no bad thing. Some may say it is false, that the bows are just empty gestures
by people who have been indoctrinated into the ways of a culture that they largely no
nothing about except that the art they are practicing comes from that country and this is what
they do there. Which is fine if you are a part of that culture, so what possible meaning could
such gestures have to people who have no connection what so ever with that particular
culture except that they happen to study a particular aspect of that culture.
It is fine to say that, of course. Etiquette in the dojo can be seen to be a pointless exercise in
one respect, but that is only one way of looking at the matter. Looked at from a different
angle, etiquette can be viewed as being of great benefit to those who practice it, simply
because it fosters discipline in people. Discipline is the reason that etiquette has been so
carefully maintained throughout the whole history of the martial arts, that and the fact that all
the ceremony sets it apart from other pursuits, effectively elevating it into artistic status.
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Martial arts without the etiquette are not really martial arts to me; its just combat training like
you would do in the military, cold and regimented.
Every time I bow to someone, be it my sensei at the beginning and end of class, or to my
fellow students before sparring or whatever, I am always reminded of the fact that I am doing
a martial art, that Im not just molding myself into some trained killer. There are other aspects
of the practice that I want to engage with, the higher ideals that too often lie buried beneath
the masses of techniques that we try so hard to learn. I enjoy looking into that side of the
martial arts just as much as I enjoy the physical side of it, the practicing of technique, the
training with other people.
The more time I spend in the martial arts the more
inclined I feel to explore its more esoteric and artistic
aspects and to see if I can apply some of the concepts
that make up those aspects to myself as a person, to
see if the martial arts can help be a better, more
enlightened person as well as a good fighter.
I believe the key here is balance. The practical and
artistic sides to the martial arts must be cultivated in
unison. Too much art and youve just got your head in
the clouds; too much combat and youre just a trained
machine or worse, a thug. The same goes for etiquette.
Too much etiquette in the dojo can feel forced, almost like youre living in some kind of make
believe environment where everyone is rushing round bowing to each other like little polite
robots. All meaning is lost when this happens. I know of a dojo that teaches Ninjutsu. Inside
the training hall there hangs on the wall a massive Japanese flag that all students, upon
entering the hall, must bow to. I dont know about you, but this is taking etiquette and the
idea of following other cultures traditions a bit too far. These guys are Irish for Gods sake! I
doubt very much that somewhere in Japan there exists a dojo that teaches Savate and all
the students there have to stand in front of a French flag and sing, with hand on heart, the
French national anthem. The idea is totally ridiculous. Things can be taken too far.
All joking aside however, I still believe that etiquette has a place in the modern dojo, now
more than ever. We live in a world where basic manners and respect are quite often
undermined by peoples fear and general lack of concern for anyone but themselves,
behaviour that is reinforced by a domineering media who would rather broadcast images of
two guys pummelling one another in cage as opposed to anything that could be deemed
more representative of what the martial arts are about (the excellent Way of the Warrior
television show from back in the eighties is a rare exception to this rule), or indeed anything
of any real substance at all. It is any wonder that some people still cling to tradition -to
etiquette- as one of the last bastions of decency that still exists in todays world?
I believe etiquette to be of special importance to the younger people coming into the martial
arts -to the young kids- because it can do a good job of fostering a certain level of discipline
and respect in them at a time when they are most open to such things. Kids will normally
gravitate the other way if left to their own devices so it is good that the dojo exists as a place
where they can learn to treat other people in the proper manner, even if they dont learn the
same lessons at home. Especially if they dont learn the same lessons at home.
Personally speaking, I will always observe good etiquette (but not pantomime etiquette) no
matter what dojo or training hall I happen to be in. Likewise it will always be one of the first
things I teach to new students and I will always make sure they continue to adhere to it for
as long as I am teaching them.
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A little manners and respect never hurt anyone.

A bow never hurt anyone either.
Chapter 22: Black Belt Responsibilities: Are There

Any?
I came across this very question in a
forum recently and I was more than a
little surprised at some of the answers
that were left in response to it. What
surprised me most was the apathy
towards such a question, like it didnt
matter if someone in that position within
the martial arts had responsibilities or
not. The worst answer that came up was
someone who said a black belt had no
responsibilities at all, a reply that I found
to be short-sighted and ,quite frankly,
bordering on stupid.
Like it or not, if someone spends years attaining the coveted martial arts black belt and
thinks there are no responsibilities that come along with it then they dont deserve to have
one. Thinking otherwise is, in my opinion, showing a total disregard for the art they practice
and the many traditions on which it is built.
If you have spent all that time reaching that level then why not take it seriously when you get
there?
Even pushing the traditions to one side for a moment, there are still responsibilities that must
be upheld if one is to hold the rank of black belt.
Below are some of the responsibilities that I think go along with being a black belt in any
style. No doubt you will disagree with some of them or feel that I have neglected to mention
some things. In that case leave your comments below. Id be interested to hear some of your
opinions on this one anyway.
1. Responsibility to Your Art. First and foremost I believe that if you attain a black belt or
sash in any art then you have a responsibility to uphold and maintain the traditions of that
art, whatever they may be. In general, this means staying true to the style you have been
taught by continuing to learn and perform the techniques within that style as they have been
taught to you, not as you think they should be performed or taught.
This also holds true for any other traditions that are held within your style like etiquette and
dress code, both of which you have a responsibility to maintain. I am not of course saying
that you cannot try to affect positive change, and indeed doing so is another responsibility
that I think you should take on at black belt level, but well get to that in a minute. For now,
realise that the art you are training in made it possible for you to get to were you are today
2009 Neal Martin
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and so you owe it to your art to maintain its integrity as much as possible so that other
people may benefit from it in the same way that you have.
2. Responsibilities to Your Students. Reaching this stage in the martial arts will inevitably
mean that you are required to take on teaching responsibilities. In effect, you become an
apprentice instructor and it should be your duty to learn as much as possible of your head
instructor/s about how to teach a class and how to deal with students. This does not mean
that you should strive to become a carbon copy of your Sensei but that you should learn all
there is to learn from them and then try to forge your own style of teaching from that
knowledge, which you will inevitably do anyway, for all of us are different.
Fundamentally, black belt training is about building relationships, with your students, with
yourself, with your art, and the deeper you can make these relationships the better and more
fulfilling your career as a martial artist will be.
3. Responsibility to Yourself. I believe the biggest responsibility you have as a black belt is
the one you have to yourself. At this point in your martial arts career you now have the tools
and relative experience you need in order to take yourself to the next level, so to speak.
After so many years of hard training and learning the basics of your art it would seem foolish
to just rest on your laurels and dupe yourself into believing that you have made it to the
pinnacle of your career and you dont have to do anything more except maintain what you
already have.
It is tempting to believe that when you reach black belt stage that you have nothing left to
learn and that the only thing you have to do now is grow a long beard to stroke
contemplatively while dishing out sage advice to your adoring students. As ridiculous a
notion as that sounds, some people actually believe that. The reality of the situation
however, is that when you get to black belt stage the real learning begins in earnest.
The responsibility you have as a black belt, at least towards yourself, is to strive for a deeper
and more profound understanding of the art you are involved with. This means not only
getting a better grasp of technique, but also beginning to personalize those techniques to
some extent so that they are entirely suited to you as an individual. I dont mean you have to
start dismantling things to create your own style, I just mean you have to find the techniques
that are best suited to you and make them your own by studying and practicing them hard.
There are so many techniques available to you that it would seem to me silly to think that
you are able to expertly grasp them all. I think its better to try and master the techniques you
are comfortable with since your ease with them will make it easier to do so.
Thats not to say you should shun those techniques you are not comfortable with or dont like
doing. I still believe you should have a good grasp of such techniques, to the point were you
can at least perform them correctly for teaching purposes. Dont forget your duty to your
students. Teach them everything but let them choose which ones they want to make their
own.
By personalizing things in this way you are very much forging your own path in the martial
arts and taking some responsibility for your own progress and understanding of your art. To
me, this is what being a black belt is all about, finding your own voice and discovering things
for yourself.
Its obvious then that there is more to being a black belt than power-tripping round the dojo
and lording it over your students. Fundamentally, black belt training is about building
relationships, with your students, with yourself, with your art, and the deeper you can make
these relationships the better and more fulfilling your career as a martial artist will be.
2009 Neal Martin
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Chapter 23: On Being a Warrior

You know, these days, when you use the word warrior
in a sentence, especially to describe yourself or
someone else, people tend to throw you a funny look
as if to say, What are you talking about warriors for?
This is the twenty-first century; there are no warriors in
the twenty-first century. I dont see you or anyone else
riding around a battle field on a horse wielding a large
weapon about to chop some blokes head off. Warriors.
Please, go entertain someone else with your machodriven fantasies.
I think people largely misinterpret what it really means
to be a warrior. For some reason, in peoples minds,
only historical figures like Gengis Khan are allowed to
be called warriors. In order to be a warrior, the
standard thinking goes, you have to have shed blood,
preferably the blood of many on some horrendously
brutal battlefield. You must be of impressive physical
stature and your body must be crisscrossed with battle
scars sustained from endless physical confrontations with other equally battle-scarred
warriors.
To me that is a very simplistic, not to say ignorant, interpretation of what it means to be a
warrior in modern times. It is possible to be a warrior without having shed a drop of anyones
blood. Your acts can be equally brave and trail-blazing; your personality can be equally as
hardy and tough without actually having to hurt another fellow human being. To say that you
must shed the blood of others and bask in physical violence to be a warrior is to debase the
very notion of the warrior concept itself.
Dont confuse violent acts with bravery or confuse consistent fighting with warriorship. The
two are not mutually exclusive. To devote your life to physical and mental confrontation with
others, while certainly courageous in some cases (stupid in others), is only the choice of
someone who enjoys violence for the sake of it, for the thrill of it. Liking violence, being good
at dishing it out, does not by any means make you a warrior in itself. At worst this behaviour
makes you a thug; at best it makes you a misguided soul.
Following a path of violence is ultimately fruitless. It only leads to hurt in the end. Being a
true warrior should be about facing up to negativity in all its myriad forms and steadfastly
refusing to be influenced by it. It should also be about bringing as much value into the world
as possible, value that will have a positive impact on those who receive it and whos lives will
be changed for the better after receiving it.
Being a warrior is about nurturing life in yourself and others, not taking it away.
It is really hard to see how violence of any kind can have a positive impact on anyones life.
Even people like Geoff Thompson, who I interviewed recently and who actively sought out
violence for many years in the belief that doing so made him a warrior, finally had to admit,
after thousands of physical confrontations, that he was following the wrong path and that in
fact being a warrior was more about avoiding violence and waging a different kind of war, a
2009 Neal Martin
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war on himself, a war he likes to call the inner Jihad, the act of fighting down your demons,
facing your fears and creating something positive and genuinely valuable out of all that
inner-turmoil.
Actually working to make yourself a better person can make you a warrior, for it is ultimately
harder to fulfil your potential than it is to hit someone in the face. The only person you really
hit at the end of the day is yourself. How does that make you a warrior?
Speaking of Geoff Thompson, he recently wrote a very good post on his blog lamenting
the decline of the warrior in the world. Let me share with you this quote from that article
which to my mind, succinctly sums up how a real warrior must act:
Be a warrior. Do not let life kick sand in your face. Stand up to it. Stoics see adventure and
growth in every life situation, even and especially the tough life situations. It is in adversity
that warriors are made. Be a hardy grafter, an industrious inventor and a pioneer. Do not
settle for second best or complain about the fact that you would do more if things were not
so difficult. Life is hard for everyone, no one can escape the human condition, but it does
not have to be dull and mundane; it can be exciting-hard and colourful-hard. You just need
to give yourself a change of perspective, stop seeing what you have not got, and start
looking at what you have got.
So being a warrior has nothing to do with inflicting violence. Thugs inflict violence. Soldiers
inflict violence. That alone doesnt make them warriors. Being a warrior means engaging
with life, standing up to it, overcoming the difficulties, making the most of what you have
been given and using it to spur yourself further on. Being a warrior is about challenging
beliefs, especially limiting ones, and expanding the reach of your consciousness to enable
you to see further into yourself and the universe around you.
Being a warrior is about nurturing life in yourself and others, not taking it away. It is a choice.
As the quote at the top of this blog states, no one is born a warrior, just like no one is born
an average man. We make ourselves into one or the other.
Ive made my choice and Im happy with it.
Have you?
Further Resources
Way of the Peaceful Warrior: A Book That Changes Lives
The Book of Five Rings (BushidoThe Way of the Warrior)
Sacred Journey of the Peaceful Warrior
Wisdom of the Peaceful Warrior: A Companion to the Book That Changes Lives (Millman,
Dan)
Peaceful Warrior (Widescreen)
2009 Neal Martin
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Chapter 24: Martial Arts Competitions: How Useful

Are They?
I decided to write this article for three reasons. Firstly I read Wim Demeeres treatment of
the subject recently and I wanted to add my own thoughts on it. Secondly, my friend lost a
cage fight at the weekend, and thirdly, Im thinking of competing in a sport Ju Jitsu
tournament next year. So I thought now would be a good time to consider the pros and
cons of competition fighting.
In the Beginning
I never began martial arts training with the intention of ever taking part in any kind of
competitive tournament or match. I began martial arts with the intention of learning the art of
fighting and in conjunction with that, learning how to defend myself if the need ever arose.
I started my training proper in traditional Kempo Karate and right from the start sparring
practice was a big part of that training. It wasnt long therefore, before I began to wonder
what it would be like to spar competitively in a proper match.
You know how it is. You have a notion that you arent half bad at this sparring lark and that
maybe youd like to test your skills against a complete stranger in a more competitive arena
than just your dojo. Your ego, and to a lesser extent your insecurity over whether you are
any good or not, begins to take over and pretty soon you find yourself really wanting to jump
in to the world of competitive martial arts with
both feet just to see what youre made off.
So eventually I decided to enter my first
kickboxing competition when I was nineteen.
I was nervous as hell in the run up to it but I
entertained notions that I was going to make
a big impact, that I was going to win in style
and that people would be awed by my
abilities and I would become the next
kickboxing sensation. That may sound
ridiculous, but thats how competitions make
you think. Your imagination runs wild, to say
the least. Wishful thinking isnt the word for it.
Problem #1
This illustrates my first problem with
competitive martial arts, the glory factor. When you go down that road you cant help but
allow the glory hunter in you to come out and make itself known. Its pure ego and has
nothing to do with what the traditional martial arts are all about. The glory hunter makes you
think that you are better than you actually are (dangerous enough in itself) and your thoughts
suddenly become shallow and centred around your ever expanding ego. The values of the
traditional martial arts become less important, replaced by thoughts of glory and becoming
the next big thing. The imaginary sound of applause begins to drown out your initial
motivations for training in the first place. Everything becomes centred on the upcoming fight;
all training is necessarily geared towards it. The ego steps up and takes control of the
proceedings, terrified at the thoughts of getting beat.
2009 Neal Martin
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The values of the traditional martial arts get pushed out by competitions, replaced by
thoughts of glory and becoming the next big thing.
You can see the ego on display if you go to any martial arts competition. The first kickboxing
match I went to I was struck by the arrogance of many of the fighters taking part. Some of
them were walking around like over-muscled peacocks, practically screaming, through their
demeanour and body language, Look at me! No one is better than me!
You see this type of attitude a lot
amongst cage-fighters these days. They
come across as wannabe rock stars.
Most of them are probably okay guys,
but the competition seems to bring out
the worst in them. I personally know a
couple of semi-pro cage-fighters and
they are nice guys, but they are
complete glory hunters. They love the
attention, the cheering of the crowd, the
ego boost when they win. Is this a bad
thing, to love those things? Maybe not,
depending on your point of view and as
long as you recognise how fleeting those feelings are and how ultimately unfulfilling they are.
At the end of the day, I dont see how such pursuits can make you a better person inside.
After my first kickboxing match I was on a high for a few days. I knocked my opponent down
in the first minute with a side-kick to his chin and the fight was stopped by his corner. So I
won my first match. I obviously felt elated and my ego was super-pleased because it got the
boost it so desperately wanted.
At the same time though, I was left feeling empty. In the aftermath of the fight I felt distinctly
underwhelmed. I thought to myself, Well, Ive done it. What now? I was back to were I
started. Its like taking drugs (not that Ive ever dabbled in such things!). You feel elated for a
while and then you come down and youre left wanting the next hit, the next high. I didnt feel
anymore superior and I hadnt suddenly become some kind of martial arts master. The
training was still there to be getting on with, waiting for me to return to my senses. The
serious martial artist in me was saying, Okay, you got that out of your system now? Can we
get back to the real reason why youre training now please?
Problem #2
And therein lies my second problem with competitions: what do they prove? Really, they only
prove that you performed better on the day than the other guy. Winning a competition does
not always mean that you were more skilled than your opponent. Sometimes the other guy is
more skilled and you just held it together better than he did, or you made fewer mistakes
than he did. It doesnt always mean that you were the better fighter.
Take a look at this video. Its off a fight I did about a year and a half ago. I was back training
about six months after a long absence and I felt the need (or my ego did anyway) to test
myself, to see if I still had the skill to compete. As it turned out, I did and I was very happy
with my performance, but I lost the fight due to disqualification as youll see. If I hadnt of
gotten myself disqualified I would have won on points easily, which only goes to prove my
point. The winner isnt always the best fighter.
2009 Neal Martin
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Conclusions?
So what can we conclude from all this? Well, competitions do have their uses. To an extent,
they allow you to test your skills against people other than those who you normally train with
and to do so whilst under a fair bit of pressure. In the absence of any real pressure in your
normal training, competitions can be a good way to experience such pressure, especially if
you have any fears or hang-ups regarding confrontation or getting hit. One or two fights can
help you overcome that fear pretty quick.
Full contact fights (either in the ring or cage) can also be a good grounding for self defense
because they allow you to feel what its like to get properly hit and also what its like to hit
someone else properly. Im not saying such competitions are like real fights (too many rules)
but they are as near as youre going to get without actually getting into a street fight. At the
very least they will teach you how to take a punch or kick.
Overall, I see martial arts competitions as novelty events, a break from normal training. They
have some useful aspects but they are ultimately unfulfilling and not worth, in my opinion,
the amount of training and mental focus you have to put into them. The preparation far
outweighs the rewards. In the end, by entering them, you are pandering to the glory hunter in
you and they represent a workout for your ego.
Does this mean I will never do another one? Well, like I said at the beginning, Im thinking of
doing one next year. Havent quite worked out exactly why I want to do one, probably for a
number of reasons, but mainly to prove to see how I perform. And Ill do this, despite the fact
that I know Ill ask myself why I bothered straight after wards. Full of contradictions me.
2009 Neal Martin
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2009 Neal Martin
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The Best of Urban Samurai Vol 1

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What You Can Do With This E-Book

2009 Neal Martin

2009 Neal Martin

2009 Neal Martin

2009 Neal Martin

Sparring for Combat

2009 Neal Martin

Closing The Distance

2009 Neal Martin

Developing Close Range Skills

Upping The Pressure

2009 Neal Martin

2009 Neal Martin

Its All About The Confidence

Chapter 2: The Fence: The Best Self Defense

2009 Neal Martin

Its All about Control

2009 Neal Martin

Get to Know The Fence

Chapter 3: How to Survive a Violent Confrontation

2009 Neal Martin

2009 Neal Martin

The Smarter Approach

2009 Neal Martin

2009 Neal Martin

The Pre-Emptive Strike

The Element of Surprise

2009 Neal Martin

2009 Neal Martin

simple. By not hitting, youre not giving yourself a fighting chance.

The Pre-Strike Distraction

Should I Follow Up The First Strike With Another?

What Strike Should I Use?

2009 Neal Martin

cross or hook of the back hand is very

What If The First Strike Fails?

Pre-Emptive Striking and the Law

2009 Neal Martin

Chapter 4: Multiple Attacker Tactics

How Do You Deal With Multiple Opponents?

2009 Neal Martin

Tactics For Dealing With Multiple Attackers

2009 Neal Martin

Chapter 5: Do You Know Too Many Techniques?

2009 Neal Martin

2009 Neal Martin

So What Did Happen?

Know the Difference between Art and Self Defense

2009 Neal Martin

Split Your Training in Two

Chapter 6: Are Grappling Moves Useless for Self

2009 Neal Martin

Grappling and Self Defense

2009 Neal Martin

Grappling and Commercialism

Chapter 7: Why Every Dojo Should Have a Bouncer

2009 Neal Martin

The answer is you cant.

Are you experienced?

2009 Neal Martin

There is no other way.

Chapter 8: Are High Kicks Pointless?