I wanted to start the year with something a little special, so here is a free “audio book” (i.e. a long podcast! :-) called “The Martial Map”.
In the audio book I look at martial arts, fighting, self-protection and their relationship to one another. Many martial arts instructors see martial arts, fighting and self-protection as being one and the same with all distinctions between them being completely lost. Personally I think this lack of clarity to be highly problematic and it is arguably the biggest problem we face today.
We train most effectively when we clearly define the objective of that training. However, it is my view that most practitioners and instructors are unclear what they are training for. That uncertainty leads to ineffective and unfocused training.
This month’s podcast covers the always controversial subject of pressure points! In the podcast I give my own take on pressure points including my thoughts on chi, acupuncture theory and its relationship to pressure points, modern medicine vs. a traditional Chinese medicine approach, the relationship between power and accuracy, my five key places to strike, and my own “zone approach” to striking areas.
Welcome to the latest podcast! This month’s podcast is called “My Stance on Stances” and as you can probably tell … it’s on the subject of stances! I feel that stances are widely misunderstood to be something static, fixed and preparatory. I don’t see any of that as being true and in the podcast I’ll explain what I see as the purpose of stances and their practical function.
This new website makes it so easy for me to add new content that I’ve been able to put out this “bonus podcast”! I’ve called it a bonus podcast because this is not the scheduled “official podcast” – which will be on stances and be out in a week or so – but an extra podcast on 10 books that I recommend you read (not one of which was written by me … I’m assuming you’ve already got all those ;-).
Here is the latest podcast! It’s been a little while since the last one due to all the time being spent on getting the new website up and running. We are back on track now though and I have a few podcasts ready to record and roll out as we go.
Welcome to the longest podcast we have ever done! This month’s podcast follows on from last month’s on the grading system and the black belt. I received a lot of requests for more information on what I felt a syllabus should include and what a dan grade should be. So I picked up a copy of my syllabus and clicked the record icon on my laptop. The resulting “stream of consciousness” is this month’s podcast.
In this month’s podcast we discuss the always controversial subject of the grading system and the coveted black belt. On internet forums, message boards, and in the letters pages in the martial arts magazines we frequently find discussion on how standards are falling, the black belt does not mean what it once did and that there is no uniform standard anymore. So in this podcast I’d like to give my take on the black belt and the plusses and pitfalls associated with the grading system in general.