SHAME ON YOU, McDOJO!!!!!

OK warning, this is a rant. So my wife is looking for a martial arts club to join to get herself back into shape after having two kids. In our town - Borehamwood - there is not a great deal on but it's there if you look hard enough. All she really wants is a simple turn up and pay kickboxing class. So we email around. There is one club in Watford. It is rather slickly advertised and the facilities look good. Nothing. She emails again. Nutta. So she turns her attention to a leaflet posted on the local sports centre advertising Muay Thai classes. She emails them and hears back...nothing. WTF??? I know these classes exist, so it's not like they have closed down. So why the stony silence? If you run a club, you answer your emails, it's a given. It's not just good business practice, it's damned courtesy.

A new customer, especially in these recession hit times, is like gold dust. They enquire, you do the sales pitch, they turn up and you treat them like royalty. After that, if your place is good, they are hooked. It's a remarkably simple formula. One that has served my own club very well these past 5 years.

So I sigh a breath of sadness when a martial arts, or indeed any organisation, feels that we are not worthy enough to be spoken to.

Onto more positive news. I finished my course of antibiotics and my chest is finally clear enough to allow me back into training. And it feels gooooood. Wednesday's session at BJJ looked at the sitting up guard.
I have seen this guard position used by some of the more senior guys but never really done it myself. When Nick showed a few simple sweeps using this guard, I realised this was something I could use as it really suits the little guy.
Sparring later that session was fantastic. Although I am still way too unfit to roll with more than a token amount of puff, I used the chance to play with some more technical positions and moves. But the highlight of the evening was rolling with ten-year-old Jay. This kid is a ju-jitsu phenomemon. It has inspired me to write another proper article about kids doing BJJ when I get the time. Speaking of articles, thanks to everyone for the kind comments and reviews made for my Jiu-Jitsu Sisterhood article..

byMeerkatsu

in martial arts

March 21, 2009

SHAME ON YOU, McDOJO!!!!!

OK warning, this is a rant. So my wife is looking for a martial arts club to join to get herself back into shape after having two kids. In o...

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Animal magic

Animals! Every gym has one individual who fights like an animal, looks like one and heck even smells like one. But seriously, the use of animals as a metaphor or training aid in martial arts goes way back to the origins in India and China. Off the top of my head, animal associations in classical martial arts include tiger, crane, snake, dragon, mantis, monkey and loads of others.
BJJ is no different. Animals are used to name some techniques and many instructors and fighters are given animal nick names. But the best use of animal imagery has to be the 'Animal Workout' as seen on the video below:

My BJJ instructor Nick has been doing a lot of this at the Roger Gracie Academy so he's got us all doing it at Mill Hill too. It's fun, fairly easy to do, and a pretty good work out as well. I can imagine a really long set of each would be pretty punishing, thankfully Nick keeps it to just one set per length of mat.
Thanks to JJ pal Dave who pointed out that our very own British Quarterstaff Association are teaching their techniques through the use of animal imagery. There is the fox, stag, boar, cat, bear and hawk. All very British. I reckon a good old 'stag' style quarterstaffer would teach a pesky White Crane Kungfu stylist a thing or two about fighting. Yeah!

byMeerkatsu

in BJJ, martial arts, video

March 04, 2009

Animal magic

Animals! Every gym has one individual who fights like an animal, looks like one and heck even smells like one. But seriously, the use of ani...

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Stickfighting in the rain

Unbelievable as it may seem, I do actually have interests outside of martial arts. Photography is one. But if they gave belt ranks in photography, I would be a white belt one stripe, ok maybe the one stripe is an over-promotion.
Regardless, I do appreciate good art, and they don’t come much finer than the image above, taken by top studio photographer Spiros Politis, and featuring our Escrima buddies Diana and Alex from the Doce Pares Filipino Stick Fighting System.
When Alex came to our JJ club a few months back, he showed us his full contact sparring and the big leap depicted in the image is no trick - he really does leap six feet in the air to attack you. It’s amazing to watch, and really scary to be at the receiving end.
I asked Spiros what inspired him to come up with the concept and how he managed to take the photo. He generously got back to me with his thoughts:


“I was playing around with the idea of doing a rain shoot for quite a while prior to knowing about eskrima. Inspired by films such as Sin City and The Matrix I wanted to create a situation where some kind of action took place in the rain.
I came across Alex and Diana purely by coincidence through a mutual acquaintance who is an eskrima practioner herself and having seen them in training several times approached them with the idea.
The set up was technically very complicated and needed a big studio and an elevated stage for them to perform their action on in order for me to capture them at their most dramatic angle. The addition of rain to the set up meant that it had to be lit in such a way that the light went through the rain and wasn't reflected by the rain whilst still being able to light the people.

Keeping the very powerful photographic lights dry and away from the water was also v important in order to avoid fried martial artists! We then had a collecting pool below to pick up all the excess water. Needless to say it was also a rather expensive set up!
Shooting martial artists really doesn't differ much from shooting other sports in action. Its all in the preparation of the photographer and the talent of the performer. Incredibly though at the very point of capturing the image I cant actually see it as the shutter goes up-so a modicum of premonition is always good.”

The full set of images appears in the October issue of Men’s Health Magazine and is possibly the most exciting visual depiction of martial arts I have ever seen in a long time. Thanks to Spiros for permission to use the images. In the meantime, I’m inspired to take photos of ju-jitsu myself. Sadly, the finger-over-the-lens, out of focus effect is not as striking as Spiros’s. But, as we say in the MA world, practice, practice, practice, then beat the crap out of it.

byMeerkatsu

in escrima, martial arts, media coverage, photography

September 17, 2008

Stickfighting in the rain

Unbelievable as it may seem, I do actually have interests outside of martial arts. Photography is one. But if they gave belt ranks in photog...

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In praise of Bullshido

I’ve recently been chatting to someone from the Bullshido forums about hosting a possible London Throwdown (more about that later), but it reminded me that I have been meaning to write about Bullshido for while.

For those who are not familiar, Bullshido is a website dedicated to exposing the myths and hype that surround some martial arts and some of their infamous charlatans. It is by far the most informative and entertaining martial arts website on the whole of the internet. Unfortunately, it has acquired a reputation as a bit of a style basher. In that if you do something other than hardcore MMA or BJJ, then your style is obviously rubbish. And in fact many forum threads and articles are heavily biased towards this aim. But if you read the excellent deconstructions of so-called experts and view the huge library of video clips, I can guarantee you will walk away better informed about martial arts in general. The aim I believe is not to debunk martial arts, but simply to ask the reasonable question of whether something actually works or not.

Like many things, there are cranks, weirdos and plain outright scammers in all fields of life. Alternative medicine, for example has a lot of suspect misinformation (check out Bad Science, run by Ben Goldacre for a worthy expose of alt medicine).

The martial arts are also no exception. Many arts claim to teach you techniques that have no scientific basis and cannot realistically be proven to work. You just have to take it as read. That in my mind makes it too close to a cult, blind faith or religion for comfort. There is also nothing to stop anyone from setting up their own school and claiming all sorts of martial art prowess. As long as there are people willing to believe and pay for such instruction, such practices will always go on. Which is why Bullshido fills a very important role.

On their website, notable targets for their ire include:
Frank Dux - the man whose 'lifestory' inspired Van damme to produce the film Bloodsport.
George A. Dillman - the self styled, Grandmaster of pressure point fighting.
Ashida Kim - The Ninja Master.

Read and be damned. Bullshido are certainly thorough in their search to find the truth.

I’m not saying my trad JJ style is immune to propagating a few suspect beliefs. Some seminars I have attended have veered dangerously towards talk of meridian lines, one-touch rescucitation techniques and other ‘interesting’ interpretations of how the human body works. I cringe when I have to hear these things. They are often explained as fact, with no offer of a medical or reasonable explanation. Just because someone says if you hit L33 along the upper 'lung' meridian then you will feel feint, how different is that to saying: and if you wave this twig and chant intoxicum collapsicum, you will also feel feint? The words placebo, suggestion and parlour hypnosis spring to mind.

Many years ago, I attended a large seminar where a very highly ranked European sensei (he may have been like a fifth or sixth dan) gave a demo where he lightly kicked just below his uke’s knee and his uke collapsed as if shot by a 12-bore. We were all agasp in amazement. When we all tried it, some of my colleagues also attested to feeling intense pain and a sudden collapse. But I could not get it to work , nor my uke on me, so when the high ranking sensei came over, he performed the knee point technique on me. I felt nothing, but (and to my intense shame) I felt awful that he would be embarrassed in front of everyone, so I feigned a collapse (nothing too hammy, just a modest buckling). Yep, I tricked myself into believing this magical pressure point actually worked. The sensei walked away happy, the crowd were in awe and I acted honourably in saving his face. But it has haunted me ever since. I vowed from then that I would always aim to provide clear, logical and non-mythical explanations to techniques.

Of course, it is good to have an open mind and gain lots of knowledge. But it is equally important to be able to filter and interpret that knowledge intelligently. Realistically, a technique should be something that is logical, provable and repeatable. That is how one gains experience and wisdom. But it is human nature to want to believe in stories. They make ones physical endeavours seem more worthwhile and perhaps add a little mystique and glamour to otherwise mundane everyday lives. It is horses for courses and if a more ‘spritual’ approach to martial arts is your thing, then go for it. But a word of caution - just watch the pseudo psycho-babble, it can seriously harm your karmic chi levels. Oh, and the boys at Bullshido may just catch you.

byMeerkatsu

in martial arts, websites

April 17, 2008

In praise of Bullshido

I’ve recently been chatting to someone from the Bullshido forums about hosting a possible London Throwdown (more about that later), but it r...

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How to Win Friends and Influence People

Another reason to regret missing SENI – my kickboxing instructors: John and Stuart Lawson were fighting at SENI. For John Lawson, it was his ‘comeback’ fight, his first since winning the WKA World title in 2001. Oh well, here’s a picture taken by Mrs Meerkat of John in action to make up for my missing the event.
As if the world needs another excuse to dabble needlessly online – in addition to blogging, web updates, myspaceing and instant messaging – Meerkat has just signed up to Facebook. What a fun way to be in contact with hundreds of virtual friends all at the click of a button and linked by the slimmest of shared interests, such as Living in London, or quite liking Kyra Gracie.

Actually, what red blooded BJJ male doesn’t like Kyra Gracie.
Of course in real life, I actually only have about two real friends, neither of whom would waste their time with something as trivial as Facebook, nor would ever have heard of the radiant Kyra.
Oh well, at least I have 5 hours of kobudo weapons training to look forward to tomorrow.

byMeerkatsu

in kickboxing, kyra gracie, martial arts

June 01, 2007

How to Win Friends and Influence People

A nother reason to regret missing SENI – my kickboxing instructors: John and Stuart Lawson were fighting at SENI. For John Lawson, it was hi...

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