Diary of a Martial Artist

Marines Martial Arts Demonstration

2013-05-15T13:58:00.004-07:00

One comment: "Sweet!"

Mindfulness: taking time out for you

2013-01-15T01:30:00.000-08:00

A great TED talk here from a guy called Andy Puddicombe about how we can bring meditation into out lives. It just takes 10 minutes a day! For me I often feel I don't have time for meditation. This video tells of Andy Puddicombe's story and gives a few tips about how to appreciate life, the present moment and how to make time for those ten minutes a day.

Mindfulness and being in the present moment is essential for the martial arts practitioner. Martial arts training can be really good at bringing us into the moment. Thinking of nothing else. There is nothing else, just the technique. Just the breath. Just the movement. No thought or at least a clear and alert mind. No thought I suppose is brain death! In this video Puddicombe highlights that mindfulness is about stepping back, with a "relaxed, focus mind". Nothingness can be a void…next step: sleep!

This constant training in the martial arts helps to relax and focus.

New Year, new resolutions...

2013-01-02T01:34:00.002-08:00

Exercise more this year…But is it worth it?

This BBC article claims that not everyone appreciates what level of activity or how often they should be doing exercise in order to see health benefits.

It also touches on Jamie Timmons' research into high intensity 3 minute weekly workouts. (Can three minutes of exercise a week make you fit?).

Whatever the health benefit I know I'll be back to a regular workout regime this year...because I like it.

We all have fighter's fists.

2012-12-20T00:15:00.000-08:00

You might not consider yourself a fighter. More a lover perhaps? Well according to researchers at the University of Utah we may have fists which have evolved for fighting as well as loving.

"They found that the structure of the fist provides support that increases the ability of the knuckles to transmit "punching" force."

Not being a scientist myself I can hardly refute these findings but I must admit it seems a weird way of going about research. Is the University of Utah in need of some self-promotion? It seems to me from reading the article that they measured the force of a fist strike and a palm strike and conculded that the ….

"force per area is higher in a fist strike and that is what causes localised tissue damage [in the opponent]"

I could have told them that. In this article it states that the force delivered by the open palm and the punch were equal (or at least not greatly different), but that the buttressing of the fist and the boney knuckle protrusions caused the damage.

Surely this is a side-effect of having a fist which can manipulate tools. A serendipitous (well, not for the punched receiver) effect.

Can we deduce that elbows evolved for striking because they're hard and boney?

I'm back...

2012-12-07T04:12:00.001-08:00

…in white.

“A beach body at 90 is no longer a dream”

2012-12-05T14:08:00.000-08:00

Goodbye Ninjas...

2012-11-23T00:39:00.002-08:00

Well, well. It seems the most secret of martial arts is finally hanging up its dogi. Or maybe that should be tabi. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20135674

It's an interesting article and accompanying video (apart from the obligatory Japanese silliness at the end) but I always thought ninjutsu was a fairly popular art now. I'm sure the folk at the local college who I see doing ninjutsu will be a bit disappointed. Any ninjas care to comment?

Drawing of a mother and her children at the Taekwondo Olympic Tournament

2012-11-20T00:04:00.000-08:00

Don't stop exercising, old boy!

2012-10-24T01:50:00.003-07:00

Exercising in your 70s may stop your brain from shrinking and showing the signs of ageing linked to dementia, say experts from Edinburgh University.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-20026099

Wished you had more time to execute a technique? You probably do...

2012-09-05T01:02:00.001-07:00

"Researchers at University College London have found that an individual's perception of time does seem to slow as they prepare to make a physical action."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19477623

Obesity hastens brain decline

2012-08-22T02:43:00.001-07:00

Always interested on physical health and how this impacts on our minds, here's an article about how a muffin top may be linked to dementia in later life….

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-19323061

Awareness in the city

2012-07-20T05:08:00.000-07:00

A big reason why I haven't posted much over the past year is that I've moved house. And city. And, in fact, country. No reason not to let my martial arts practice slip, but I need to prioritise get involved in a club I like with a teacher I respect and I think this takes some time.

In the meantime I've been thinking a lot about perception in the city: physical awareness and personal space in an urban environment teeming with people. Can you feel another person's energy, or intentions on a packed tram (By energy I mean stance, intent, strength…)? City life requires a different level of awareness; I remember seeing something by anthropologist Desmond Morris (Human Zoo) who says that the amazing thing about human city life is not that occasionally people come into physical conflict with others, but that it is so rare! After all there are a lot of emotions, egos and agendas walking around being surpressed in isolated cocoons amongst crowds of commuters.

So I've noticed something rather cool walking around and commuting in the City and that is I can be amazingly perceptive. I can feel people approaching from behind, I can see who I need to avoid and I can hear aggressive noises even above the normal hub-bub. I find that in itself quite startling in itself as there is so much to distract me such as other people's conversations, the muzak, adverts, the trams, the traffic…The rub is this though: I need to pay attention. If I don't and am not 'aware' (or awake if you like) then this ability diminishes. It doesn't disappear but I may perceive someone behind me when they're much closer than I would if I were calm, centred and aware.

I'm not advocating walking around in a constant state of alert like an urban Bruce Lee or a Buddhist monk, but knowing this can help us turn on our sensitivity when it's needed such as when it's darker, when you're alone on a tram or when you're walking through a ropey part of town. Maybe it's natural and we tend to switch on anyway at these times, in which case: all the better. If you have to work at it, here's a good technique which I read about in Dead or Alive by Geoff Thompson. If you want to stay alert in any environment make a running commentary in your head about what you can see and perceive around you (hear, smell, feel), thus 'switching yourself on'. For example it might go something like this, "pavement on left is broken, man walking dog coming towards me (big build, small dog), noise of jet overhead, I can hear a car approaching from behind and I can see a bus at the stop in front of me. Another pedestrian comes into view down the street; a woman with a buggy…." And so on.

Evidently you can't do this all the time but if you're feeling like an awareness switch-on in the big City, this might well be a good place to start.

Breathing meditation

2012-07-19T07:27:00.000-07:00

The easiest way to meditate and the way most of us in the martial arts first practice meditation is by focusing on one's own breathing. Check out this little introduction to breathing meditation. For beginners but also a nice refresher.

http://www.how-to-meditate.org/breathing-meditations.htm/

"Generally, the purpose of breathing meditation is to calm the mind and develop inner peace."

Shastar Vidiya and Nidar Singh Nihang

2012-03-23T02:22:00.000-07:00

Another great Shastar Vidiya clip.

Nidar Singh and The Chakar:

"OK, we don't need you to do that." Self defence claim as Teenager shot dead in Florida

2012-03-20T07:15:00.001-07:00

This article about a Florida man who shot a teenager, claiming self defence, highlights Florida's seven-year-old self-defence law, nicknamed the "shoot first" law.

It's worth reading this article and reflecting on how you feel about self defence and what you think might constitute it. Not only from a legal point of view but a moral one also. How would you have acted in this situation?

At one point when the neighbourhood watch volunteer who shot the teenager started following someone he said was suspicious, the police dispatcher talking to him over the phone said, "OK, we don't need you to do that."

Worthy of reflection, I think.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17438627
The fatal shooting of an unarmed teenager in Florida has prompted protests demanding the arrest of the perpetrator, who says he was acting in self-defence. How much force does the law permit?

Afghan female boxer at Olympics 2012

2012-03-09T01:36:00.000-08:00

Whatever happens at the Olympics, I think Afghan female boxer Sadaf Rahimi's already a winner…

The BBC site says, "Under Taliban rule, women in Afghanistan were forbidden from participating in any sports." Here's a BBC video about Rahimi's fight to the top

And another by Al Jazeera:

Shoulder pain: rotator cuff

2012-03-08T12:05:00.003-08:00

Having pain again so need to go and see the doc…this video was a timely reminder of how the shoudler *should* work…

Freaky martial arts EU video withdrawn

2012-03-06T12:33:00.000-08:00

Well they said it was withdrawn because it was deemed racist, but I say it just looks plain freaky!
Check out the banned video here:

Interestingly it features a Bruce Lee yellow leotard clad lady passively resisting a practitioner of a Chinese chuan fa, a Brazilian capoerist and a kalaripayattu master. (ref. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17276838)

Don't know what kalaripayattu is?
Check out….

And if you're not at all au fait with Indian martial arts you should also check out the following BBC article about 'Shastar Vidya' (thanks LQ) or the Indian Sikh 'dying martial art'.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15480741

Be the best you can be in your world

2012-02-06T00:34:00.000-08:00

Towards the end of a short video I saw on the BBC site entitled The art of boxing, I was struck by this quote by the boxer and artist Thaddine Swift Eagle Johnson. An inspiring short video, it looks at her life as a champion boxer and the challenges she faces but also touches on her philosophy and how to look at things when life seems bleak.

She says, "Be the best you can be in your world, or…someone else's world. Be that champion in someone else's world. Smile to someone on the street. You don't know what their day was like. That would make their day."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16880075

Kung fu piano playing

2012-01-30T07:58:00.000-08:00

Not as weird as it sounds. This pianist has developed an idea of continuous music and which necessitates long periods of piano playing sometimes culminating in 19 notes a second being played. Lubomyr Melnyk says that this requires a martial arts mindset: in order to achieve this speed one needs to turn one's body "into water".

"The technique is based on a martial arts, kung fu use of the body and the energy"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-16794606

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lubomyr_Melnyk

Be water, my friend…..

The Grand Master says, "she works hard, she can do it": Memoir of a female Kuk Sool Won master

2012-01-05T00:36:00.000-08:00

BBC News - Iron Butterfly: Memoir of a female Kuk Sool Won master

Nice little film from the BBC about a young female martial artist who follows her dream.
http://bbc.in/yuFmrc

"As a young girl growing up in 1950s South Korea, Choon Ok Harmon faced a dismal future as the youngest of seven brothers and sisters living off money their mother earned free-diving for shellfish in the ocean."

Also an interview by the publisher of the book and (ghost) writer:

Meditating our way into 2012

2012-01-03T02:59:00.000-08:00

What with the last few months being somewhat turbulent I need to stay focused on task when I'm busy, but when I have down time it's important for me to dis-connect from those issues. Meditation is a good way but for me it is hard to stop that buzzing in my brain (and I don't mean this lovely Belgian coffee)!

Possibly here….
http://www.diamondway-buddhism.org/default.asp?col=05&t=centerlist.htm&CenterID=287

New Year's Resolution for us all maybe?

2011-12-31T10:20:00.001-08:00

A diet rich in vitamins and fish may protect the brain from ageing while junk food has the opposite effect, research suggests.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16344228

Martial arts movie references in The Matrix

2011-10-10T14:27:00.000-07:00

Everything is a remix…check out robgwilson's take on the Matrix film's many martial arts references.
Cool and informative video.

Everything Is A Remix: THE MATRIX from robgwilson.com on Vimeo.

@openculture, @ChristofZuern

Shinto: Japanese belief system

2011-09-23T06:01:00.000-07:00

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b014qnld

"Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Japanese belief system Shinto."

Mentioned in the discussion:
Kami
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kami

Keyhole tombs, Japan (Kofun)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kofun