January 24, 2015

It’s fun producing a podcast, but it’s hard to squeeze all the great martial arts content I see on there. That’s why I’m introducing my new feature, This Week in Martial Arts.

In case you missed them, here are a few cool – and fun! – martial arts videos and articles I found this week.

Worried about being attacked by a chainsaw? Read through this StackExchange thread for some tips, I guess. It keeps coming through my weekly digest, so it must be important, right? The highest-voted answer contains a real gem in it, I think: “If you find yourself in this situation,” he says, “you are likely going to die.”

“Try to not be an asshole sometimes.” Bullying takes many different forms. This Cracked video shows some instances where people meant well, but wound up coming off like jerks anyway. Think before you act. Try not to be an asshole sometimes.

Here are 10 ways you might not have known that Okinawan karate is different than Japanese karate. If you’re considering joining a martial arts program, look at Jesse Enkamp’s blog first. Or, if you’re like me, and you’ve only done one nation’s version of the art, gain a different perspective.

New to chin na? So am I. This book will help you get started.

Karate and wushu are looking to enter the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, according to Yahoo. Karate has lost previous bids for the 2012 and 2016 Games.

Every move in kata has a purpose, says Kris Wilder. If you train in forms, kata, poomsae, whatever, read this. This book (written with Lawrence A. Kane) opened my eyes to the depth and breadth of martial arts when I was 16 years old.

Master Ken is back this week to show us how to catch two punches. “Luckily, if you know Amerido-te, it ain’t no big deal.”

Rules can change styles. Jack Slack takes a look at styles such as MMA, sanshou, lethwei, and how their rules have influenced their development over the years. And if you don’t know what those styles are (like I didn’t before I read this), this neat article introduces you to them. (VICE’s Fightland)

I’ve been to two Iain Abernethy seminars, and during one of them, he talked about a martial artist doing a form that had a hop in it. Iain asked about the hop, which didn’t appear to have any practical self-defense application. After some investigation, he found out the hop was included because the person who developed the form had a pole in the middle of the workout area – the hop was to move away from the poll before proceeding with the next move of the form.

Rules can change styles, and so can environments, it would seem.

On my upcoming podcast, I welcome Sensei Jim Price. To be among the first to know when it’s published, subscribe for free to The Martial Arts Podcast.

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January 18, 2015

Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming’s Tai Chi Chin Na Revised: The Seizing Art of Tai Chi Chuan is exactly the type of book that Okinawan karate needs for its forms.

Over the past several years, I have been working with my karate instructor to develop extensions on the basic applications of each of the forms in my style. These extensions incorporate locks, holds, throws, chokes, sweeps and the like.

In Japanese terms, then, we are moving beyond the omote bunkai and into the ura bunkai and perhaps even the honto bunkai.

(Personally, I’m not huge on relying on a foreign language to describe martial arts techniques. I’ve read too many blogs and heard too many instructors say we as Westerners continue to fudge up the term when we translate it to English, hence we I’ll refer to “extensions” over “ura bunkai” and “honto bunkai.”)

All that is to say that the extensions in Okinawan Shuri-ryu karate, from my understanding, are not readily apparent.

This books gives clear options for a certain posture or set of movements.

For me, the most significant portion of this book is when Dr. Yang goes through the Yang-style tai chi chuan form. He shows the basic postures, then gives a few possible applications for each. Despite showing the pictures, often times the details are hidden in between frames.

Dr. Yang also explains and explains the eight basic moving patterns to give us possible chin na applications, and he also gives us some pushing hands exercises to try.

I have no doubt the applications would work. However, my only real complaint with the book is the attacker in the picture often looks like he would be in a position that doesn’t seem realistic for an aggressive person to be in. He’s got a deep stance and is generally square with the attacker. I’ve never been in a fight, but all accounts I’ve noticed point to them being messy affairs. In short, the pictures seem “too nice.”

I guess that’s why YMAA also has a companion DVD.

This book is a phenomenal resource for anybody practicing the Yang style of tai chi chuan.

(Disclaimer: I received a free review copy of this book.)