Month: September 2018

A Number Terrific Motives For You To Start Studying Martial Arts

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Just about everyone knows about the popular martial arts, such as Karate, Tae Kwon Do, Kung Fu and Tai Chi…some people have even thought about trying out a class. Bt have you ever actually done it? Do you need a reason?

Just about everyone has thought about taking up a martial art at some point in time. Maybe as another way to stay in shape. Possibly as a means to protect yourself from the school bully. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of reasons why people choose to take up an art, but I want to take a second to outline what I feel are the most important reasons to at least try a martial art. Maybe it’s for yourself, maybe it’s for your children…whatever the reason, all martial arts contain a unique wealth of knowledge and discipline that you simply can’t get anywhere else. My hope is that this article will inspire you to get out of your chair and into a school to see what martial arts is all about.

Self Confidence
As you train in martial arts, you will notice a lot if improvements, such as your physique, balance, awareness, flexibility, and many other physical and mental characteristics. Martial Arts will teach you how to combine these capabilities and use them to succeed in competitions, attaining higher belts, building friendships and protecting yourself if necessary. The more you can do, the more confident you will be.

Self Defense
One of the most common reasons to study martial arts is to learn how to defend one’s self. A number of schools may dedicate class time and/or offer a scheduled class that strictly goes over self defense tactics. Also, depending on the MA style or school, self defense can be a large part of the curriculum, which can be beneficial to those interested in “applicable arts” (arts you can use in everyday life) as opposed to “traditional arts”.

Self Discipline
Webster defines self-discipline as the “correction or regulation of oneself for the sake of improvement”. Whether it be trying to make a high school team or meeting company deadlines, once you learn the focus necessary to succeed in Martial Arts you can apply it to the rest of your life. Success is mental, and Martial Arts will teach you the self discipline necessary to succeed at anything you put your mind to.

Coordination
Martial arts does require a lot of hand, foot, eye, and mental coordination, but all of this is developed over time. If you consider yourself as an uncoordinated person, training in the martial arts will help you grow those skills. You’ll be amazed what your body is capable of doing! Even if you are a natural athlete, standing on one foot, while kicking with the other, and blocking with your hands is quite difficult and involves coordination.

Fitness
Martial Arts does not have to focus only on fighting or self defense as some styles are based more on fitness. Tae Bo and Tai Chi are two examples of this. However, those with an interest in the fighting & self-defense aspects of Martial arts will find their fitness levels quicly increasing as training not only develops various muscle groups, but flexibility and balance as well. One’s level of fitness can be just as important in winning a match as one’s skills and abilities.

Family Enjoyment
Most people don’t know that this is an excellent way to spend time together with your family! Some martial art schools allow families to train together and others separate classes by age groups. Regardless of how classes are segregated, families find themselves enjoying the time spent together. It is not unheard of having a family all test together for various ranks and black belts.

Meet New People – Martial Arts is for everyone…
Many martial art schools structure their classes into three age groups: Kids – usually ranging from about 5 to 11 years old, Teens – 12 to about 16 or 17, and Adults – usually starts at 18, but some schools make exceptions when necessary. Some schools also offer a “Little Dragons” program geared towards the 4 – 6 year old crowd. Age groups are then broken down into belt ranks allowing you to train with people that are relatively of equal skills and age. Often times people who begin martial arts together will develop a bonding friendship and even obtainin their black belts at the same time because they pushed one another during their tuff times.

Street Judo – Does Judo Work In Street Fights

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So, you may be asking yourself if judo is a worthwhile martial art to train for street fights. I can give you some examples on how street judo can save your butt in a fight in the dojo or in the bar or any other type of self defense situation. You must follow these strategies outlined below to decide if this art is practical for the applications of street fighting below:

Street Judo #1 – A very good aspect of street fights that applies to judo is the fact that fights go to the ground often. Which helps alot, especially if you are trained in a martial art like Judo. Being able to throw someone on the ground and having them land on their head is good, and being able to choke them out within 5 seconds is even better in a street fight. Judo may not have the fancy kicks or punches of karate or taekwondo but it when it comes to clinch fighting and submitting someone on the ground only jiujutsu can compare.

Street Judo #2 – Alot of the push and pull and weight distribution of this martial art apply to many street battle situations. If you are able to throw someone off their balance, toss them with your hip so they smash their head into the pavement as their first source of ground contact can win you the fight. I have used judo extensively as a bouncer for the past few years and can honestly say when someone is grabbing or pushing at you having these street judo skills is mandatory to escape the situation with the upper hand.

Street Judo #3 – Training in judo at the local dojo is good because it builds up your fitness and gives you actual skills you can use to fight someone off beginning with your very first white belt. It’s a great art to know and I personally suggest you cross train in other arts like taekwondo or karate to broaden your focus and skills to become a better and more well rounded self defense fighter.

Street Judo #4 – A wonderful tactic that street judo can teach you is: Knowing how to fall properly. I have had many serious falls including mountain bike accidents and even being hit by cars. I was never seriously injured because I was always able to tuck and roll or land properly, like they teach you in street judo. Follow these tips to get the most from your martial arts training!

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I will turn you into a deadly street fighter when you discover how to fight like a U.S. Navy Seal! Download amazing military martial arts here! Or you can get some more free self defense tips from my blog over here now!

Five Martial Arts Calisthenics To Make You Five Times More Stronger, Faster And Powerful!

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I was talking with a fellow the other day, and we were thinking about condensing body calisthenics into maybe a half dozen exercises. Think about it, five martial arts exercises that increase your strength, make you faster and more powerful. All you do is these five exercises, and that’s all you need.

So I researched a bunch of things having to do with Yoga, Tibetian exercises and even American things like Matt Furey. Here’s my initial work up on five exercises, and while I will probably work on them a bit, improve them further, I think they fit the bill. The extra added attraction is that they’ll be good martial arts class warm ups, no matter whether you do Karate, kenpo, aikido, or whatever.

First, and always, is stretching. Most body injuries come from the body being compacted, so to stretch the body out, whether it be splits or just hanging from a tree or over the side of a bed, will start the blood flowing and wake the body up. No set exercise for this, I just recommend researching a little yoga, isolating the movements you aren’t flexible in, and working on them.

Next, would be snaking. This includes such things as dive bomber push ups (doing a push up while worming the body), and covers basically the whole front bend of the body. There are a whole series of yoga poses, from dog looks down or up to child pose to rabbits pose, that could fit in this particular exercise.

The third exercise would be that staple from wrestling called bridging. There are many varieties of bridging, and they should be explored gently and on a gradient. Bridging from the neck, the hands, over a stool, all this covers the whole range of bending the body backwards.

You may have figured out that I am trying to explore every range of motion for the body, and you would be correct. After bending the body front and back, we have twisting the body laterally. While there are many yoga poses that twist the body in this manner, a general exercise would be if you just sit cross legged looking over your shoulder, then twist all the way up and then down to cross legged and looking over the shoulder on the other side.

Fifth and last would be being upside down. This should reverse gravity on all the inner organs, and be very beneficial. This would include frog stands, head stands, and eventually handstands.

So that’s it, my quick prescription for total body health through five body calisthenic, martial arts exercises. These exercises you will find in many other people’s regimens, and in the various body disciplines developed over the years. At any rate, try it out for a few weeks, and watch yourself get nothing but better and strong and faster.

Greatest Martial Arts Movies Of All Time

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After hundreds of movies, thousands of eye-popping fight scenes and millions of punches thrown…which ones are the best? Which ones have I been missing out on my whole life? Which ones must I have in my collection in order to not bring shame upon my family name?

We’ve scoured the internet. Reviews. Forums. Amazon. Postings. Bulletins. And this list is what we’ve come up with as the greatest Kung-Fu movies of all time and why you should watch each one. Pay attention to movies involving Yuen Wo-Ping as either director or action director, there’s a reason why half this list is movies where he was involved!

If you want to watch trailers of these movies, go to: http://www.experiencemartialarts.com/articles/movies.html

(you can also get directly to these movies in http://Amazon.com from this website)

#1 – Way of the Dragon (1979)

This is the only finished film to be written and directed by Bruce Lee. (Game of Death is the other one but is unfinished) We could write a lot about the plot, characters or fight scenes…but all you really care about is watching Bruce Lee fight Chuck Norris in the final battle.

Martial Artists: Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris
Director: Bruce Lee

#2 – Shaolin Temple (1982)

Depicts the amazing history of the Shaolin Temple, the focal point for Chinese Martial Arts. Think of the Shaolin Monks as Jedi Knights (an elite group of fighters) and the rest of China as the messed-up universe that Star Wars takes place in (people who are afraid of the elite fighters and want to take them out of power). Much work to do, you have, young Jet Li. *picture Yoda’s accent on that one* Define Irony: A movie shot at the site of the Shaolin Temple, telling a story about the fall of the Shaolin Temple, sparks so much public interest that the temple was re-opened shortly after the movie released.

Martial Artist: Jet Li (His debut movie)
Director: Chang Hsin-Yen

#3 – Ong Bak (2003)

Raw action without wires, Tony Jaa brings a new martial arts style to the big screen and does so in style. Muay Thai (Thai Boxing) is stronger and more direct than the Chinese styles you’re used to seeing with Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan, giving a new look to how a martial arts movie can be done. You’ll be seeing more of him…guaranteed.

Martial Artist: Tony Jaa
Director: Prachya Pinkaew

#4 – Iron Monkey (1993)

Doctor by day, thief by night…Iron Monkey is your classic Robin-hood meets Kung Fu. It’s an action packed flick that can’t go 5 minutes without an excellent fight scene. It all comes down to a battle between Iron Monkey (ie Robin Hood) and an ex Shaolin Monk (remember, these guys are like the Jedi Knights of Chinese martial arts…they’re elite). Remember that guy Yuen Wo-Ping I mentioned? Well he’s the director in this one, so you know it’s good!

Martial Artists: Yu Rong-Guang, Donnie Yen
Director: Yuen Wo-Ping
Action Directors: Yuen Cheung-yan, Yuen Shun-yi

#5 – 5 Deadly Venoms (1978)

No room form “martial arts beauties” in this one, there’s so much blood and action that they only cast male actors. Exit the traditional elaborate costumes and enter the muscular, skin-bearing, bloody martial arts style that would become a trademark for director Chang Cheh. Each cast member is trained in an art resembling one of 5 venemous creatures (Scorpion, Snake, Centipede, Gecko, Toad) with the 6th cast member being trained in all 5. Six main martial arts actors = LOTS O’ ACTION

Martial Artists: 6 Martial Artists (yes, 6 main characters)
Director: Chang Cheh

#6 – The Seven Samurai (1954)

One of the greatest classic kung-fu movies of all time and arguable Kurosawa’s best work. Some Samurai of the time were down on their luck (homeless) and willing to do anything for a meal. A village under attack by bandits recruits a group of seven such Samurai warriors and asks them to help defend their village. The movie is about the Samurai teaching the village how to fight and culminates in a massive battle between a village and almost 50 attacking bandits. The acting is superb, the emotions run high and Kurosawa keeps you hooked from beginning to end.

Martial Artists: 7 Martial Artists (all names you won’t know since this movie is so old)
Director: Akira Kurosawa

#7 – Legend of Drunken Master (1994)

Some will say this is the greatest martial arts movie of all time because of it’s balance between plot-line, comedy, drama and amazing kung fu sequences. Probably Jackie Chan’s best martial arts performance. You’re going to love the final scene where you learn what Drunken Master really means. We’re talking box-splitting, fire-spitting craziness!

Martial Artist: Jackie Chan
Director: Lau Kar-leung

#8 – Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (2000)

Based on a Pentalogy (yes, that’s 5 books) written by Wang Dulu, this movie covers mostly the 4th book. Critically acclaimed to cross international borders with it’s amazing character development, intricate plot, martial arts ideals, stunning special effects and quicker-than-the-eye fighting scenes, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon set a new standard for martial arts movies. Telling Zhang Ziyi (the lead female character and an amazing martial artist) to get back in the kitchen would likely cost you 50 punches to the bags. Be ready for subtitles, cuz turning on the English track is like watching…uh…like watching a kung fu movie in English.

Main Martial Artist: Chow Yun-fat
Other Martial Artists: Zhang Ziyi, Michelle Yeoh, Chang Chen, Cheng Pei-pei
Director: Ang Lee
Action Director: Yuen Wo-Ping

#9 – Kill Bill vol. 1 (2003)

You’re going to want your home theatre room for this one. It’s tough to beat beautiful women beating the crap out of each other in fast-paced, action-packed, make you cringe, bloody, gory, cut-’em-up (more buzz words go here) movie jam packed with as much martial arts death as possible. Tarantino expertly uses every camera angle and a plethora of special effects to deliver a better-than-real visual experience that gives this blood-and-guts thriller an artistic feel you’ll appreciate at the end. Did I mention is has Uma Thurman in it?

(Kill bill vol. 2 brings closure to the set, but hey…we had to choose one movie. Say Five-Point-Palm Exploding Heart Technique 5 times fast.)

Actors: Uma Thurman, David Carradine, Lucy Liu, Daryl Hannah, Vivica A. Fox
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Action Director: Yuen Wo-ping

#10 – Fist of Legend (1994)

A classic story of Chinese vs. Japanese martial arts, Fist of Legend is actually a remake of the original Bruce Lee movie, Fist of Fury. If Bruce Lee is like the original James Bond, Jet Li is the Pierce Brosnan. He’ll never be the original, but the modern film-making and larger budget bring the entertainment value just a hair above the original Fist of Fury. (The ghost of Bruce Lee is probably going to strike me down for writing that) The Yuen Brothers are known for amazing action choreography, and they totally deliver on this one. (Casting Jet Li may have helped them a little too.)

Martial Artist: Jet Li
Director: Gordon Chan
Action Directors: The Yuen Brothers

The fun doesn’t stop there.

We tried to stop at only 10…really, we did. But we just couldn’t control ourselves.
“Once it hits your lips, it’s so good!” – Will Ferrell in “Old School”

To see the movies that deserve “Honorable Mention”, go to http://www.experiencemartialarts.com/articles/movies.html

Whether you enjoyed this list or think we snuffed your favorite movie, we’d love to hear what you think. Post your comments at: http://www.experiencemartialarts.com/blog/archives/16

Martial Arts Dhoby Ghaut For Your Kids

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In no doubt, a lot of kids are desired to be as a superhero fighting crime and bad guys. Then they attempt to act out this in a playful and fun way with friends and siblings. While this may seem innocent, it can result in the problems at school and at home if they are not instructed on what it is they are watching on TV. While most parents would see Martial Arts Dhoby Ghaut for younger kids as a glorified babysitter , this is not the truth at all. It is never too early to start teaching children discipline, social skills, recreational skills, and gives them a sense of self worth and belonging.

It’s very necessary to think about the strengths of your kids together with the goals you have in mind for them when you are selecting a martial art. Such a variety of martial arts available will focus on different facets of competition. Judo and Aikido are heavy in grappling and redirection of an opponent, while Karate and Taekwondo are primarily striking styles. Use the web to search for martial arts schools which are conveniently located for you and ascertain what martial arts styles those schools teach.Then you will do research on the selected martial arts to find out what their history is, what they focus on. Even what you’ll want to determine and the general style is suitable to you and your kids.

There is nothing which cannot deny the fact that martial arts dhoby ghaut are great for the body. Scheduled training toughens and tones the muscles and adds flexibility. You get a full Cardio workout by training in martial arts. You can expect to tremendously boost your stamina and strength and increase your hand eye coordination. It’s obvious that martial arts is an effective weight loss program because it involves a complete system in which healthy diet is a part when it is unified with the intense physical activity, gives the assurance of proper weight loss.

You may know that the boxing training gyms can teach the kids about martial arts dhoby ghaut. It has gradually gone into the mainstream. The place is becoming the largest enrollment in some countries. Those gyms are also helpful for young women who want to develop their muscles and learn how to punch, but not necessarily in that order. Boxing can provide a lot in terms of an all-around workout. It really can help your kids develop stamina, with the requisite roadwork, and the jumping rope. It also helps make for more flexibility.