Please take a look at Articles on self-defense/conflict/violence for introductions to the references found in the bibliography page.

Please take a look at my bibliography if you do not see a proper reference to a post.

Please take a look at my Notable Quotes

Hey, Attention on Deck!

Hey, NOTHING here is PERSONAL, get over it - Teach Me and I will Learn!


When you begin to feel like you are a tough guy, a warrior, a master of the martial arts or that you have lived a tough life, just take a moment and get some perspective with the following:


I've stopped knives that were coming to disembowel me

I've clawed for my gun while bullets ripped past me

I've dodged as someone tried to put an ax in my skull

I've fought screaming steel and left rubber on the road to avoid death

I've clawed broken glass out of my body after their opening attack failed

I've spit blood and body parts and broke strangle holds before gouging eyes

I've charged into fires, fought through blizzards and run from tornados

I've survived being hunted by gangs, killers and contract killers

The streets were my home, I hunted in the night and was hunted in turn


Please don't brag to me that you're a survivor because someone hit you. And don't tell me how 'tough' you are because of your training. As much as I've been through I know people who have survived much, much worse. - Marc MacYoung

WARNING, CAVEAT AND NOTE

The postings on this blog are my interpretation of readings, studies and experiences therefore errors and omissions are mine and mine alone. The content surrounding the extracts of books, see bibliography on this blog site, are also mine and mine alone therefore errors and omissions are also mine and mine alone and therefore why I highly recommended one read, study, research and fact find the material for clarity. My effort here is self-clarity toward a fuller understanding of the subject matter. See the bibliography for information on the books. Please make note that this article/post is my personal analysis of the subject and the information used was chosen or picked by me. It is not an analysis piece because it lacks complete and comprehensive research, it was not adequately and completely investigated and it is not balanced, i.e., it is my personal view without the views of others including subject experts, etc. Look at this as “Infotainment rather then expert research.” This is an opinion/editorial article/post meant to persuade the reader to think, decide and accept or reject my premise. It is an attempt to cause change or reinforce attitudes, beliefs and values as they apply to martial arts and/or self-defense. It is merely a commentary on the subject in the particular article presented.


Note: I will endevor to provide a bibliography and italicize any direct quotes from the materials I use for this blog. If there are mistakes, errors, and/or omissions, I take full responsibility for them as they are mine and mine alone. If you find any mistakes, errors, and/or omissions please comment and let me know along with the correct information and/or sources.



“What you are reading right now is a blog. It’s written and posted by me, because I want to. I get no financial remuneration for writing it. I don’t have to meet anyone’s criteria in order to post it. Not only I don’t have an employer or publisher, but I’m not even constrained by having to please an audience. If people won’t like it, they won’t read it, but I won’t lose anything by it. Provided I don’t break any laws (libel, incitement to violence, etc.), I can post whatever I want. This means that I can write openly and honestly, however controversial my opinions may be. It also means that I could write total bullshit; there is no quality control. I could be biased. I could be insane. I could be trolling. … not all sources are equivalent, and all sources have their pros and cons. These needs to be taken into account when evaluating information, and all information should be evaluated. - God’s Bastard, Sourcing Sources (this applies to this and other blogs by me as well; if you follow the idea's, advice or information you are on your own, don't come crying to me, it is all on you do do the work to make sure it works for you!)



“You should prepare yourself to dedicate at least five or six years to your training and practice to understand the philosophy and physiokinetics of martial arts and karate so that you can understand the true spirit of everything and dedicate your mind, body and spirit to the discipline of the art.” - cejames (note: you are on your own, make sure you get expert hands-on guidance in all things martial and self-defense)



“All I say is by way of discourse, and nothing by way of advice. I should not speak so boldly if it were my due to be believed.” - Montaigne


I am not a leading authority on any one discipline that I write about and teach, it is my hope and wish that with all the subjects I have studied it provides me an advantage point that I offer in as clear and cohesive writings as possible in introducing the matters in my materials. I hope to serve as one who inspires direction in the practitioner so they can go on to discover greater teachers and professionals that will build on this fundamental foundation. Find the authorities and synthesize a wholehearted and holistic concept, perception and belief that will not drive your practices but rather inspire them to evolve, grow and prosper. My efforts are born of those who are more experienced and knowledgable than I. I hope you find that path! See the bibliography I provide for an initial list of experts, professionals and masters of the subjects.

Martial Art-esque Techniques

Caveat: This post is mine and mine alone. I the author of this blog assure you, the reader, that any of the opinions expressed here are my own and are a result of the way in which my meandering mind interprets a particular situation and or concept. The views expressed here are solely those of the author in his private capacity and do not in any way represent the views of other martial arts and/or conflict/violence professionals or authors of source materials. It should be quite obvious that the sources I used herein have not approved, endorsed, embraced, friended, liked, tweeted or authorized this post. (Everything I think and write is true, within the limits of my knowledge and understanding.)

I was surfing around some FB walls when one photo stuck out. It was a photo of an kata bunkai and since it was staged for instruction it had the karate-esque look to it and that made me ask myself, “In a real conflict with physical violence, is it even possible to assume such a stance and apply such a technique or group of techniques?”

The quick and dirty answer is, “No.” Even in most tournament and/or kumite contests the participants rarely and barely assume any kind of stance or kamae that is karate-esque/karate-like. 

I used to think in the early days that if what I applied didn’t look, feel or appear to match or at least closely match what we were learning and practicing in basics, kata and rarely kumite then it wasn’t karate, it wasn’t martial arts. That created a consideration on my part as to why we bother with all of that drills, practices and other karate-esque stuff if we are not going to use it in self-defense.

Wellll, it is like this, we aren’t actually supposed to “make it work” exactly or even closely like our kata, the karate techniques/applications, etc. The karate we see in kata and so on are not meant to be applied “like” it is practiced and if we try hard to “make it work” just like it appears in the kata, drills and such then we may be missing the boat. 

Remember, I often speak of kata as a method of transferring knowledge from teacher to student to teaching to students and so on so it will be passed down. I also state clearly that until those practitioners actually make it work in conflicts and violence they don’t know nor should the implement changes until that experience is achieved. One reason why remaining in contact with and having seniors, with appropriate real life experience, continually assess and modify training and teaching is so important. Until you experience violence and until you accumulate enough of it to make such decisions you have to assume you just don’t know. 

Martial Arts as a whole are simply a collection of experiences from those who came before that provide tools that we use to learn and encode things like physiokinetics along with their supporting theories, philosophies and techniques to achieve a level of body, mind and spirit ability to make our actions work especially in violent situations. We learn things like structure, like posture and like creating and applying power that often will not and never will look martial-esque or karate-like. 

When we are in a violent encounter we don’t assume seisan stances, we don’t chamber our hands to the waist and we don’t do the sport oriented fakes and dodges and the testing of an adversary’s abilities, we end up applying explosive, fast, hard and close actions that will meet our overall goals in self-defense - what ever they may be to each of us. 

What we should be getting out of our karate or martial arts is not how to make it look just like karate but how to make the underlying principles work when we are stressed, adrenal flooded, in pain, experiencing fear and apply an act of will tantamount to overcoming the brain lock, the freeze and trigger our “go button” so we don’t succumb. 

This includes seeking out those reality based no bullshit type of training environments that will expose your skills to the adrenal induced stresses and manifestations - mental and physical - that tend to make strict karate kamae not work. Things in the world of conflict and violence don’t adhere to such things, it is chaotic, messy and very, very dangerous. 

Remember that everything karate-esque is not necessarily the way it will “get-r-done” but will contribute a whole lot toward our ability to “get-r-done!” It is not a matter of right or wrong, good or bad, or even karate-like or not karate-like, it is about survival in conflicts and especially violence. 


If that kind of stuff actually exists it only exists in the movies and on television and in seminars and demonstrations. Really ….

As far as my experience, no one actually fights like this.

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