One of the never-ending controversies in martial arts is the role and influence of the combat sports. Some are ardent supporters and some see the sporting side of the martial arts as a heresy that should be challenged and slighted at every opportunity.
Those who would class themselves as “traditional martial artists” often see the modern sporting offspring of the traditional arts as an aberration that is a betrayal of the values, objectives and ethos of their non-sporting forerunners. Those who concentrate on civilian self-protection are also often quick to slight combat sports for their limitations, rules and lack of “realism”.
Welcome to the last podcast of 2013! This month we answer your questions! It’s been over a year since the last question and answer podcast so it’s about time we did another. Thanks to the many questions submitted, we cover a whole host of topics in a podcast that is a whopping 96 minutes long! Hopefully plenty to keep you entertained over the holiday period. Think of it as an early Christmas gift :-)
In this podcast we look at Street Fighting! In particular, I explore what the term actually means, the connotations it can have, and the confusion and dangerous thinking that can result. The podcast looks at the vital differences between “street fighting” and “self-protection” and explores the why fighting skills are not what is needed to deal with criminal violence.
This is not the latest iainabernety.com podcast, but a “bonus podcast” of my recent interview with MartialPreneur TV! It’s just over 50 minutes long and looks at my experiences as fulltime martial artist. In the podcast I am asked about how I came to be a full time martial artist, what lessons I have learnt along the way, what is my advice for those who similarly want to commit to the martial lifestyle, my advice for those looking to publish books and DVDs, and quite a bit more too. I really enjoyed chatting with Scott and I think that comes across. I hope you the podcast! I’ll be back with the next iainabernethy.com podcast very soon; which is on the subject of “street fighting” :-)
In this month’s podcast we cover two topics! The first thing we cover is “The Case for Kata”. The question is often asked if kata itself plays a meaningful role in practise. If kata is nothing more than a repository for bunkai, then why not just practise the applications and do away with kata? Does keeping the solo forms, and devoting time to their practise, serve any meaningful purpose? Naturally, I think the solo form does have an important role to play; and in the first section I explain why.
This new podcast looks at the ever controversial topic of money and the martial arts. In the podcast I share my views on whether it is right to take payment for martial arts instruction; what amounts to unethical behaviour; the different attitudes that exist to money; how people can unwittingly help unethical instructors; how to most effectively combat money hungry “McDojos”; how money can effect the teacher / student relationship; how money can further good quality martial arts; and more besides!
This month’s podcast covers one-step sparring; as well as the related practises of three-step and five-step sparring. Whist a very common form of practise in karate, taekwondo, etc. it is my belief that such training is a largely pointless. In the podcast I look at why I feel one-step sparring is a “dead-end” and why it does not develop any useable attributes. It is important to isolate techniques however, but this needs to be done in a way that can progress to live practise and free flowing application. I therefore also suggest what I see as better ways to isolate techniques.
This is not the iainabernethy.com podcast! This podcast is from RichardBarnes.com and it is an interview Richard conducted with me a few days ago. The interview mainly focuses on my journey through the martial arts and how I ended up teaching for a living. Richard is a good friend and I hope you find the interview interesting.
Welcome to the latest iainabernethy.com podcast! It’s been sometime since we last turned the podcast over to the listeners, so I’ve put that right this month. I asked for questions via the website, facebook and twitter and we did our best to cover as many of them as we could.
Welcome to the October 2012 iainabernethy.com podcast! This podcast is titled “The Masters Speak!” and it covers twenty-five or so of some of my favourite quotes from the works of the past masters. In the podcast we include the words of masters such as Itosu, Funakoshi, Otsuka, Mabuni, Motobu, Kyan, etc. What I hope these quotations show is that much of what is regarded as “traditional” today is not that traditional!