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.

History of Principles and Methodologies

Blog Article/Post Caveat (Read First Please: Click the Link)

Although these two concepts seem new and modern they are in truth ancient and historically relevant to modern times. The difference is in how they are presented and explained. Modern times and modern studies especially with the advent of the Internet has provided an unpresedented ability to articulate, verbally and by written word let along through video media, the terms and concepts that in the past were convey through the spoken and written words of great men but from words created to the times and to the materials such as books used but afforded only by those with means to purchase and study, the upper classes. 

As time passed and progress achieved changes were created, synthesized, from an analysis of what had passed before, much like sensei holding knowledge from perceptions and experiences, that didn’t actually change those ancient beliefs and knowledge, they just changed the way they were written and spoken so that greater clarity could achieve greater results. It came down to literally teaching through new by connecting that to the old and paying honor and tribute to those who came before by adding to the clarity of their teachings for the future making their teachings timeless much like the modern translations of the ancient classics like Sun Tzu’s Art of War. 

Example: Indirectly the mechanized use of tanks gained acceptance when it was connected to and heir to the armored horsemen of ancient times and is a natural means of reviving the decisive role the calvary played in past ages. This technique was used to connect the Huey Helicopter to the Army’s Calvary by connecting the new ride into battle with the old time honored ride into battle on horseback, the Huey the new horse to take them into battle.

Principles and methodologies have always existed and have always been an intricate part of learning martial arts and karate for defense/offense, protection, combatives and in training, the contests between practitioners. It isn’t anything new, often many of them were taught through demonstrative teachings rather than the spoken word, this from the cultural belief systems of Asian sensei. It is now a matter of bringing those ancient some what secret teaching methods out into the light so that modern practitioners can better understand and therefore better analyze and create, synthesize, their unique perspective and practice of the ancient disciplines of karate, in ancient times called Ti or Toudi in Okinawa, and martial arts of Japan. 

Because the teaching methods of those times involved kata, kata became the articulation of methodologies and principles such as the form taken, kamae, where sensei would touch, strike and create resistance so that he could check things like structure, alignment, balance and other physiokinetic sub-principles but by the demonstration and inherent understanding that the mind perceives unconsciously vs. the conscious understanding we in modern times and western cultural belief systems rely on to learn, study and understand. 

It is not about right or wrong, ether the ancient teachings or the modern. It is about understanding the indirect methods of teaching and understanding the teaching methods that are from another culture vastly different from our own. In our culture we strive to understand but from more of he senses than the eyes and the actions of the body. We need to see, to hear, to touch and to experience as a whole so that our minds understand so that our bodies more readily achieve progress in a way conducive to our learning and applying the knowledge to real-life situations be they normal or that of violent conflict. 

When the teachings use such terms as physiokinetics or multiple methodologies it is to expose the hidden foundation of the techniques, drills, kata, and tactics taught that are what we see as the cover of a book but to expose the more depth and breadth that comes from reading between the books cover. 

Liken it to reading the art of war where the Chinese characters are strange and undecipherable to our culture and mode of communications, to have experts “Translate the material” so that it is understandable to our communications model, our culture and our belief systems. 

If you cannot fathom the old then you cannot make use of them for the new because the new is not new since nothing under the sun is new. It is about taking the old, analyzing it by breading it down into its parts and then creating something seemingly new from the old when put together in a way that makes sense to our culture and way thus synthesizing what seems new but is rather a more relevant old-new way to reach goals and to win and so on.

For those who practice karate, remember that before karate it was Toudi and before Toudi it was simply Ti and now due to analysis and synthesis, terms never used before but the same as how they manifested new for their times, we have a plethora of systems and styles all derived from that one, wholehearted, system called Ti. The only way to pass on the old is to create a new-from-old that is not truly new, just another way of looking at the old and making the old work for the new - modern man and modern times. 


Bibliography (Click the link)

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