“Yī’, èr, sān, sì, wǔ, liù, qī, bā, jiǔ, shí!” “Ichi, ni, san, shi, go, roku, shichi, hachi, kyu, ju!” “Hanna, dul, set, net, dasot, yasot, elgob, yadol, ahop, yol!” For those of us in the martial arts, there are, I would imagine, very few of us that cannot count to ten in the language… Continue reading Fighting Words: The linguistics of martial arts.
Greetings all! It has been quite a month thus far hasn't it? As COVID-19 rages across the world, many us are now sheltered or quarantined in place. That often means limited space for activity, especially weapon based martial arts. But fear not! There are still many things one can do to honor ones skill while… Continue reading Saber workout for quarantined saberites!
Greetings everyone! COVID-19 is in full swing here in the States. As such I have cancelled all classes requiring shared equipment or contact between participants. We have also had to postpone some of our travel plans, as is very common right now. https://youtu.be/jJDcOT6hKeM I simply cannot keep the shared equipment and gear clean enough to… Continue reading Coronavirus 2020: COVID-19 news
Greetings all! We have our next video on the official FFE rules for Lightsaber combat that we are going to be certifying people in starting this year. This video talks about some of the common questions folks have concerning the unique rule of "arming". Arming is not done in other forms of lightsaber sports. This… Continue reading The Finer Points of Arming: ASL-FFE Lightsaber Sport
The keyboard warrior. The eternal "expert". Mr. Know-it-all. In martial arts we have all had our run ins with these types. From belt collectors who brag about their multiple month long training sessions with specific martial arts to the Armchair Quarterback explaining the game to you, as if they knew better, they are quite annoying.… Continue reading Why do non-fighters think they can fight?
The third entry from Mao Yuan Yi's ChaoXian Shifa 朝鮮勢法 (Korean Stances) we will look at is the "ban tou" or Leopard Head Strike. The technique is familiar to a great many arts and find a number of iterations within the Wubei Zhi. Ban tou is related to two previous entries, Ju Ding and Zuo… Continue reading Ban Tou: Leopard Head Strike
Fitness, and especially martial arts, is replete with sayings and training koans. Many of these sayings are rather suspect, sounding good on the surface but not standing up to scrutiny. Others are so counter intuitive, they foster resistance to them to this day. One of these sayings is “Slow is smooth and smooth is fast”.… Continue reading Slow is smooth and smooth is fast
Are you enjoying the Witcher on Netflix? I am. I think you should watch it. It does some big things very right. But, not according to idiot Andrew Klaven: “Immediately I was put off by the fact that there’s a queen in this who fights like a man,” he declared. “There’s a couple of scenes… Continue reading “Women Can’t Fight with a 10 Pound Sword.”
