December 6, 2009 - Class Supplement

Great class everyone! I think everyone involved is making major steps and improving drastically. Jay's overall martial ability continues to improve, while Mark polishes his ground game and foot work. Joe seems to be a bit more of a natural puncher, but that doesn't stop him from striving for better abilities. Good job so far!

We are starting to round a couple of corners. Mark is in the sparing phase of his Western Martial Arts journey, Joe is getting ready to start sparing, and Jay finally represents a fighter when it comes to his skills. Won't be long now before we get gloves on everyone and let more intense drilling start!

One key thing that I think we all need to do is Jump Rope (notice I included myself in that). Jump rope makes you lighter on your feet and it's a great work out. I think jumping rope will help everyone with their footwork and movement abilities. Here are some videos to get you started:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4U57Q4XIfoM

More advanced...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qOIqhVWWxI

Extreem skill
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MfhJjbNNJE

Outside of that, I think everyone needs to be drilling on the heavy bag and working being light on their feet.

I recently recieved an article from Jay. As Jay noticed, it is more geared to law enforcement, but I think everyone can better understand a killer by this article. Enjoy!

http://www.stoppingpower.net/commentary/comm_cop_killers.asp


Hope to see everyone at class!

November 29, 2009 - Class Supplement

In class we covered several topics. I wanted to touch base on two main ones.

The first is the Elbow Block. The Elbow Block isn't used very often in modern martial arts. The reason is because the best part of the Elbow Block is that if you happen to catch their hand, you have a high likelyhood that you will break their hand. It is also a satisfactory way to deal with a weapon in a hand. The Greek's were big on elbow blocks and you can also find old boxing manuals that still cover them. This is shown in the first link on the posting http://historical-pankration.com/archive_item.html?archiveid=1023 . The second link I have is a trainer out of Canada who is demonstrating the elbow block. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVVVzz4tGzQ

I love the elbow block because you can really deflect attacks with it. No mater what kind of strike is comming at you, the elbow block will answer the call. With the amount that we use elbows in fighting, this should not be a shock to you that we can also use them to block.

Another issue we talked about in class is real life violence.

Real life violence is really nasty shit. I have a few videos showing what real life violence is all about. The first video I am going to show is a Asian gang murder. Yes, someone dies in the video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0C2Vr3AjI4c

The second video is from a group called "Felony Fights". Felony Fights is a group of people who go around to real life felons. They offer them a small sum of money to fight other felons. All of the fighters are real life bad guys, and are turned into brutal showmen. These are all very very violent, but it is important to see what kind of behavior is exhibited by all the people involved. Notice how violent and crazy the fighters are. Behind them are their "homies" who push them on to be more dangerous and violent. The fight promoters are perhaps the worst. They really stir the pot and cause chaos.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULOEYdKzZxI

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7WM7eES078

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAeV487jBW8

Remember, these are the safest street fights you could be in. These are KINDA sanctioned. Clearly you can see that there is nothing safe about a fight. To what extent will you go to not get caught in a dangerous situation?