I am headed to LaSalle today for a DDPYoga workshop. I’ve been doing it for about 20 months at this point, and this will my be first event I’ve attended live. Part of me kind of hopes DDP walks around giving Diamond Cutters to everyone for three hours.
Plugs and Upcoming Events
If you’re headed to Indianapolis in April, I’ll be teaching a yoga seminar of my own at the USA Martial Arts Hall of Fame.
I’m also competing in Galesburg next month. I’m going to push myself to compete with a form I’ve rarely or never performed for competition.
Now, let’s take a look back at this week in martial arts.
This Week in Martial Arts
Mitt Romney will attempt to box Evander Holyfield. The Salt Lake Tribune reported this week that the former Massachusetts governor and 2012 Republican presidential nominee will face Olympic medalist and one of the most decorated boxers in history.
“It will either be a very short fight, or I will be knocked unconscious.” -Mitt Romney
The match will be part of a fundraising event for Charity Vision.
How do martial artists break concrete blocks? One of the most impressive feats of any demonstration – one put on during your town’s local fair or a high school motivational speech, for example – is a person slamming through a stack of concrete blocks. Slate, by way of Quora, revealed how it’s done. I’m sure some old timers are gasping in horror that a “martial arts secret” has been lifted – similar to how some wrestling fans and performers lament the death of kayfabe – but the truth is that martial arts boil down to science. And this Quora commenter knows far more about force the engineering of a concrete block than I do, so enjoy hearing how it’s done. (Side note: Many people have asked me if I’ve broken concrete. When I say yes, it’s like they think I parted the Red Sea. Breaking concrete with your body alone can be intimidating, but with practice, you can do it.)
Let’s learn judo with Vladimir Putin. While Putin isn’t the first world leader to learn martial arts (see here), he does appear to be the first to have released his own instructional video on a martial art. FIGHTLAND’s Sarah Kurchak reviewed the 82-minute video this week. Sarah’s final review?
You’d probably get more from watching any other judo instruction video on YouTube on mute than from watching this.
Watch this monkey kick a pad. Thanks to my friend Karl for passing that along. Karl and others have been sending me videos lately, so I’ll be including them in these posts.
Here are 16 self-defense tips. Cracked may be one of the most unlikely sources for this information, but it’s all practical stuff. In what appears to be a crowdsourced article, the contributors make plenty of good points you’d typically hear in a martial arts class – keep your kicks low, strike hard weapons to soft targets (and vice versa), the importance of breath and shouting, and more.
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