Everyone needs to start a new discipline somewhere. Everyone can also improve what they’ve been doing for years. This article will layout the most useful foundation for fighting. Master these four principles alone, and you will be a great fighter. Master these four principles and others, you will be an even greater combatant. I’ll discuss […]

Book Review: Martial Arts Encyclopedia (previously published under the titles of Martial Arts: Traditions, History, People and The Original Martial Arts Encyclopedia: Tradition, History, Pioneers) Imagine — you might have to close your eyes because what I am about to describe will be difficult to imagine—imagine that you have decided to write a 400+ page […]

I generally don’t like “diets.” They represent a change to your behavior that by and large is not sustainable. This zero belly diet is not a diet, even though it’s called a diet…it’s the best life style plan that I have yet to uncover, and I have uncovered dozens. The plan simply says that for […]

Check out this great article from Outside magazine. Running, still one of the best forms of exercise for overall cardio vascular fitness, is essential to our martial arts training. If you want to be a fit martial artist, you need to run. Just resign yourself to that and do it. This article is awesome. It […]

Here’s one of many drills that will be posted on this blog. Feel free to use the diagram however you want. I created it as a .png so you photoshoppers can edit it to include your own drills in the grey boxes. Feel free to cut and paste any or all of the below. For […]

If you are a martial arts instructor and haven’t been educating your students about the importance of training the posterior chain for martial arts performance, then read on. This is a critical, yet easily understandable concept that will make you a better instructor and your students better as well. The posterior chain is an anatomy […]

Bruce Lee was well ahead of his time in terms of fitness knowledge and focus. He was doing plyometrics before it was even a term, literally. Plyometrics as a term was first used in 1975 and Bruce incorporated them into his training the 50’s and 60’s. Bruce was conceiving of training equipment and one of […]

Why do we do kata? Every instructor realizes that to new students, kata is fresh and interesting. To advanced students, kata is an essential part of karate training. But to the mid-level students, instructors know that kata can become routine, and, frankly, boring at times. They assume that doing a kata from start to finish […]

I’m not going to say much about tonight’s UFC Fight Night 96 in Portland because I don’t want to spoil it for you. I would just predict too accurately and take all the fun out of it. Ha. But I will talk about two of them: Lineker vs. Dodson–I like this fight because of Lineker. […]

Here’s an intentionally short video on the 5 striking surfaces of the foot. This really is a primer for a more elaborate video that I will do soon. Please share this with all beginning students…and with those senior students who take it for granted that they know how to kick, but can’t explain what parts […]

https://youtu.be/Aw4mXd6ptT8?si=OHKLc3HprqzuXvT0 Here’s another of my guerrilla videos (make sure you turn the volume way up to hear the voice over). This one is about how to make a proper fist. I have contact with hundreds of aspiring martial artists every year. Virtually none of them–and I would quantify ‘virtually none” as 1 out of a […]