Blog Feed: The "What?", "Why?" and "How?" of learning and teaching Martial Arts, and their connections with Modern Life
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Ideas for visualisations
Published on 2012-12-30 16:15:00
Lori O'Connell recently blogged on
Promotions - December 2012
Published on 2012-12-16 03:05:00
Congratulations to everyone on your hard work for the year, and for those who graded, well-deserved promotions: Combined Monash Caulfield and Clayton recipients at Presentation Day Well done to everyone at both Monash clubs, and at the Honbu. Pe
Evolutionary movement
Published on 2012-10-25 15:19:00
Here's the first of an elegant three-part series in which the presenter, Simon Thakur, starts with small perturbations of the spine and expands into a swathe of whole-body movements: Well worth a look, especially if you are interested in improving your overall body awareness and quality of movement.
A jiu-jitsu demos from the 1980s
Published on 2011-07-18 19:18:00
John Coles of the Kojutsukan blog has posted a set of 3 videos of his instructor -- the late Greg Palmer -- delivering his impressive second dan jujutsu grading (under the late Jan de Jong) in 1985*. They feature lecture-style explanation and 'quick action' demonstration from Sensei Palmer and his students, including a young John. Each part is just over 10 minutes. The links are to John's blog, which give additional commentary and historical information: Part I Part II Part III *T [..]
Bartitsu: Sherlock Holmes's martial art
Published on 2011-04-23 14:06:00
In Arthur Conan Doyle's story The Empty House, Sherlock Holmes -- previously missing, presumed dead in The Final Problem -- explains to Watson how he was able to evade his nemesis's clutches on the edge of Reichenbach Falls, before disappea
Great advice for beginners
Published on 2011-03-11 16:50:00
Nev Sagiba, an aikido instructor, has written some excellent articles for Aikido Journal. Here are two aimed at beginners, not just in aikido, but in any martial arts: Training tips for timid beginners More advice for beginners And here's one of th
Ideas for theme classes
Published on 2011-03-11 14:22:00
This year I plan to do a themed class roughly every four weeks. That may be too frequent: we'll see how it goes. Where a regular class follows a standard format, allowing for repetition and reinforcement of foundational skills, with a couple of blo
Effortless jiu-jitsu and judo / first class back in 2011
Published on 2011-02-19 14:01:00
On Wednesday we had our first class back for the year with eight regulars on the mat -- what passes for a small class nowadays -- plus one prospective student. It was good to be back, even on a rainy night; never mind this Summer's floods and cyclon
A fun Judo kata
Published on 2011-02-19 13:37:00
Featured in Aikido Journal Blog
Published on 2011-02-01 00:26:00
A couple of days ago 2008 post of mine, The Broader Meaning of Kuzushi, was picked up by Aikido Journal and featured in their blog. Nice! Not only that, but one of their readers, Dan Rubin, was able to point me to the likely source of the quotatio
Slap in the face
Published on 2011-01-05 15:37:00
Freeze-frame: mid-slap Who would have thought that a slap to the face could rearrange it, albeit temporarily? Here's the video proof, in super slo mo. Of course, copping a water balloon in the face would be even more distracting!
The secret of a great turn-out?
Published on 2010-12-27 20:06:00
An anonymous poster asked "What's the secret of a great turn-out?" in response to a picture of a packed mat. I'd say that there are several elements, primarily: A great class A core group of regulars A good time slot A convenient location
Results!
Published on 2010-12-27 19:39:00
Congratulations to everyone who trained hard in the latter half of the year. Presentation day was on Sunday 19 December, and everyone who graded was successful. Well done: Lejoe: Orange belt (1 bar) in both jiu-jitsu and judo Damian: Orange belt (1
Full mat!
Published on 2010-10-22 22:04:00
The mat's looking pretty full nowadays. With a large class it's starting to get cramped during warm-ups: Warming up with some breakfalls And it's really full when everyone stretches out: The class at rest
Throw or takedown?
Published on 2010-10-09 15:06:00
John Coles is investigating the difference between throws and takedowns in the martial arts for his forthcoming book, and has written a couple of blog posts on the subject. John points to some discussion of the various takes on the difference this
Getting Things Done
Published on 2010-10-09 05:27:00
I haven't been blogging much in the last couple of months, and with good reason: a new job, complete with learning curve and travel, and consequently a paring back on other activities. A good friend told me that getting settled in to a new job typ
Wushu vs Chen Village
Published on 2010-10-08 23:36:00
This first clip is of a wushu competitor performing a (winning) Chen-style-taijiquan-inspired routine: And this is Chen Bing of Chen village doing a section of the actual Chen-style taijiquan cannon fist routine: Quite a difference!
Left-handed training
Published on 2010-08-28 04:26:00
Traditionally, jiu-jitsu is performed right-handed: "there are no left-handed swordsmen in Japan". The jiu-jitsu syllabus is large enough that for self-defence purposes ambidextrosity is not required for many techniques: need the left-han
Well done
Published on 2010-08-26 02:21:00
Congratulations to everyone from Monash Caulfield who presented for the mid-2010 gradings (all successful!): Anthony, Lisa, Lejoe, Damian, Ash, John, Lizzie, and Soksan.
Almost everyone graded in both jiu-jitsu and judo, and several did multiple g