My Top 5 Martial Arts Related Movies

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The Gift of Fear vs. the Price of Worry & Ignorance

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How Do Your Assumptions Hold You Back?

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The Zone Diet for Martial Artists - A Review

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Book Review: Zen in the Martial Arts

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Gun Kata?!?! Awesome!!! -- A Review of 'Equilibrium'

Tonight I saw the movie 'Equilibrium' for the first time, after having had it recommended by a number of martial arts buddies. I don't know why I didn't see it sooner!

The movie is largely a rip of Orwell's '1984' and doesn't offer much that is new plot wise, but the fight choreography and style makes the movie well worth watching. The combat system in the movie is based around a gun kata, which you can see in the video below.



I could have put some of the actual fight scenes from the movie in this blog post (there are a number of them on YouTube), but honestly, I really don't want to ruin it for those of you who haven't seen it. If you are such a person and you consider yourself an action movie aficionado by any stretch of the imagination, see it NOW!

UFC 94: Machida Shows His Roots

(**Spoiler Warning: If you haven't watched UFC 94 yet, I discuss the results in this post.) Last night's UFC was probably the most hyped UFC's of all time for its main event, a rematch for the welterweight title between BJ Penn and Georges St. Pierre. While I was happy that GSP won (I never liked BJ Penn because of all his trash talk and thuggish attitude), the fight that highlighted the night for me was the other main event, the match between Lyoto Machida and Thiago Silva.

Machida really impressed me. His ring style seems to encompass the idea: "Why take damage if you can take out your opponent without getting hurt?" While he is widely criticized for his evasive fighting style that doesn't engage as often as many people would like, I personally think that this is a smart way to fight, both in the ring and on the street. Fortunately, Machida used this approach last night with both effective and exciting results.

Machida defeated Silva by slipping and side-stepping his attacks while simultaneously delivering powerful blows and quick takedowns, eventually ending the fight by knockout. This was all done using his original martial arts style, Shotokan Karate. Machida has trained in Karate since he was 3 under his father, Yoshizo Machida, a Karate master. You can truly see Machida's Karate influence when he fights, with his low guard and well-timed use of punches and kicks. Rather than absorbing blows as he attacks, he uses his excellent sense of distance as his primary line of defense, moving in and out of the line of attack to deliver devastating blows.

Most MMA fighters these days train in various combinations of BJJ, wrestling, Muay Thai, and western boxing. Machida, on the other hand, brings us back to the roots of UFC by mostly using his primary style in the ring. And Karate is not exactly widely touted for its effectiveness in the octagon. I like his spirit for this very reason. That's not to say that he hasn't studied up on grappling/ ground game, having also trained in Sumo and BJJ to complement his Karate. You kinda have to to do MMA. But it's still nice to see a fighter who stays true to a traditional style and uses it effectively in the ring.

How to Get Your Gi Really Clean

After you've used your gi for awhile, you may notice that the arm pits and other key areas start to discolor from use. Today, I was introduced to the solution to this problem: OxyClean (no-name variants are fine too).

Now that I have 3 martial artists now staying under the same roof, my white wash is entirely for gis. One of them extolled the benefits of OxyClean for getting out those unbecoming discolourations, so I thought it worth a try.

You do your wash as usual and add a scoop of this stuff (2 for heavily soiled gis) and it works like a charm. It's not chemical-based so it's safe on pretty much any material. If you have any major stains, just give a scrub with a mix beforehand. It's inexpensive too.

So if you're tired of hiding those awful pit stains and such, give this stuff a shot!

An Invitation to Train with Robert Mustard Sensei

As many of you know, I like to learn what I can from a variety of martial arts, not just my primary style. When I can, I like to expose my students to instructors of other styles of Jiu-jitsu or other martial arts altogether. Since I had a little extra time on my hands, having been recently laid off, I decided to look into bringing in one such instructor. And that man is Robert Mustard Sensei, 7th Dan in Aikido.

I first heard about Robert Mustard Sensei from reading the book, Angry White Pyjamas. This narrative non-fiction tells one man's story of how he trained with the Tokyo riot police in an intensive Aikido training course that ran 5 days a week, 5 hours a day, for 11 months. Robert Mustard Sensei was one of the instructors. I won't go into too much detail about what the book said about him. I highly recommend it by the way, so if you can get a copy, give it a read. It reads more like a novel than a biography and it's highly entertaining. What I will say, is that Robert Mustard Sensei comes across as a tough nut, one who earned the respect of high ranking Aikido instructors the hard way, through innumerable tosses, cranks and slams. Check out this YouTube video of him doing a demo:



Ever since I moved to the Vancouver area, I wanted to go visit his dojo and meet the man, but I didn't feel comfortable just calling and asking if I could drop in, especially since I could never be a regular student. His dojo was on the other side of town from me and for a long time, I didn't even have a vehicle. But I recently discovered that he is willing to teach seminars at other martial arts dojos, and of course, I now have a dojo.

When I talked to him on the phone, he was very friendly and affable, and much like I imagined despite the tough picture that was painted of him in Angry White Pyjamas. He was very receptive to the idea of teaching at my dojo and welcomed me and my other instructor to come out to his dojo to take part in a class and meet him so we would know what to expect from him and his teachings. I set a date and am now looking forward to what I expect will be an interesting and enjoyable training experience. I'll be sure to let you know how it goes.

The Unbreakable Umbrella - A Review

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Fighting Science: A Book Review

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"Iceman" Book Review - An Inspiration for Fighters

Having grown up in Ottawa and trained in Can-ryu Jiu-jitsu, I have known the name "Iceman" for quite some time. I knew him as a kickboxing legend, but beyond that, little else. Recently, I read a biography on him, Iceman: Kickboxing Legend Jean-Yves Theriault and found the book and the story of his life to be quite inspiring.

Jean-Yves Theriault ruled the kickboxing world back in the 80s, having been a world champion for over a decade. And yet, I wouldn't say he's a household name that every average Joe knows. Theriault was not in the business for the showboating or the glamour, he just loved to fight and saw it as his destiny. He was and still is a kind, mild-mannered, and unassuming man, except in the ring where he becomes the "Iceman," blasting his opponents with devastating kicks and punches.

This biography tells the story of his development, his interpersonal life, his training methods, and the decisions he made over his long, successful career as a professional fighter. There are also a number of blow-by-blow accounts of his most exciting fights.

Filled with revelatory facts, detailed interviews with Theriault himself, those closest to him, and 5 other world champions, Iceman is a fascinating read and provides useful insights and inspiration to fans and especially to people involved in sport fighting. If every professional fighter went at their careers with the attitude taken by Theriault, the fight world would indeed receive a lot more respect.

L.O.C.K.U.P: A Self-Protection System Based on Simplicity

This past Saturday, I went to a training seminar put on by Lt. Kevin Dillon and Sergeant Geoffrey Anderson (shown here) of L.O.C.K.U.P (Law Officers Combat Kinetics for Ultimate Protection), an organization that teaches the most practical manoeuvres for law enforcement officers. Because of the simplicity of their system, the moves are equally useful for people who only have a limited amount of time to put into self-defense training. I'd like to impart some of what I learned.

Like in my style of Jiu-jitsu, this system focuses on protective manoeuveres that use only gross motor skills. Skills that require fine motor skills take much longer to learn, sometimes years, in order to be proficient enough at them for them to be useful in a high stress combat situation. That's fine for people who want to devote lots of time to martial arts training, but for people who only get so many hours to learn usable skills, simplicity is key.

The L.O.C.K.U.P system draws from a wide variety of martial arts, taking the most efficient, gross motor skill reliant techniques. One of the moves that was shown comes from Aikido. Because of its simplicity and dynamic nature, it can be used in a variety of situations. In the video below, I demonstrate its use against several shirt grabs that we practiced at the seminar.




One of the main principles of the L.O.C.K.U.P system is to react to the aggressor before they get their hold on as you can see in the video (unless they manage to surprise you from behind). As our instructors emphasized, it's easier to defend against a hold before the hold is fully applied. I wholeheartedly agree.

There was so much more imparted at the seminar about their training concepts that I can't cover it all in a simple blog post, but I can say that my students quite enjoyed the new material. I highly recommend the L.O.C.K.U.P. training courses to any martial arts groups and law enforcement organizations. I also bought their DVDs which I will watch soon and review here on my website.

'Redbelt' Movie Review

Ok, so I went to see this movie with a few of my students last night thinking it might be pretty cool since David Mamet, an award-winning writer and director that I like, wrote and directed it. I would never have expected that he was capable of writing such cliche-ridden crap.

This movie is one martial arts cliche after another with terrible lines like "I don't teach students to win, I teach them to prevail." The cliches were so stupid that I found myself laughing out loud more than I do for comedies. I'm not sure the other people in the audience got why I was laughing, but my students all shared a chuckle.

The movie's hero owns a self-defense focused school that is apparently a Brazilian Jiu-jitsu school. I'm sure I don't have to tell all the traditional Jiu-jitsu practitioners out there that BJJ is really unsuited for street defense because it goes to the ground so much. If you don't already know this, check out my post, "Why Grappling is More Effective in the Ring than in Reality." Then when you actually see the guy fight, he pretty much keeps it off the ground and uses stuff that is more similar to traditional Jiu-jitsu.

The whole premise behind the movie is pretty weak and it portrays the world of MMA in a highly unrealistic, very negative way, implying that some official fight organizations fix their fights. Oh and the ending is just mind-blowingly awful.

Anyway, I could go into more rants about this suck-ass movie, but really the bottom line is this: This movie wasted one hour and forty minutes of my life and I want it back! Stay away from it despite the fact that the critics seem to like it. They clearly know nothing about the world of martial arts.

MMA Gloves for Sparring

When students are first introduced to sparring, we have them use 16-oz boxing gloves. These gloves are more protective and, because they're bigger, punches are easier see coming plus there is more surface area with which to block. As students get better, however, they are introduced to 6-oz MMA gloves.

Because they're smaller, MMA gloves create more defensive challenges. When blows land, they tend to hurt more because there's less padding. Because striking to the head and face is allowed in my dojo, mouth guards are always worn no matter what kind of gloves the student is wearing. They help prevent mouth injuries, but more importantly, they reduce the shock to the head, helping to prevent concussions.

MMA gloves also allow students to use their hands for throws, takedowns and ground grappling if necessary. We do, however, try to encourage students to use ground grappling skills only as a means of getting back to their feet. Our dojo uses sparring as one way of helping develop self-defense skills and the ground is a bad place to be on the street, as per my article Why Grappling is More Effective in the Ring than in Reality.

While I think it's better to use the 16-oz boxing gloves at first to help students get used to sparring, MMA gloves are better for developing a wider range of skills and are excellent for use with more advanced students. We use the Primetime Level 4 gloves pictured in the above photo. These are the best gloves I've found out there as they have an ideal amount protective padding in the knuckles without being too bulky.

Yoga DVDs I Use to Balance Out My Martial Arts Training

As discussed in a previous post, Yoga and the Martial Arts, yoga is a great tool for enhancing one's martial arts training. But people often ask me how I find the motivation to wake up at 6:25 to do 20 minutes of meditation followed by 20 minutes of yoga. The secret is consistency... and having a few yoga DVDs to follow so you don't have to think.

The meditation part is easy. It's really only one step up from sleeping, though you don't want to fall asleep during your meditation. It kinda defeats the purpose.

As for the yoga, sometimes I'll pick out specific moves from The Martial Artist's Book of Yoga that work muscle groups I need to stretch out. But more often than not I'm not quite awake enough to think so much so I'll rely on DVD workouts. Sara Ivanhoe's 5-workout set Yoga Makeover: Gift Boxed Set is great because each of the 5 workouts are exactly 20 minutes long, making them easy to fit into my morning routine. Plus each workout has a different purpose or works a different muscle set. Rodney Yee's Abs Yoga for Beginners - DVD is also a good 20 minute workout. It gives a solid ab workout, which simultaneously relaxes you.

I also have a few other DVDs with longer workouts that work into my weekend rotation. Baron Baptiste's Core Power-Power Vinyasa Yoga is closer to 30 minutes long and gives a good all-over stretch in addition to a series of lower back and ab strengthening exercises. Sara Ivanhoe's Crunch: Candlelight Yoga (Full Screen) is a great 40-minute workout for beginners and people who just want a relaxing stretch-out to help recover from a heavy training day at the dojo. There is also a 15-minute energizer work-out that I use in the mornings when I accidentally sleep in an extra 5 minutes :P. Hemalaya Behl's Yoga For Urban Living has 3 nice workouts, a 30-minute AM workout, a 1-hour full-body workout, and my favourite, the 25-minute evening bath workout. The evening bath one is very soothing and leaves you feeling like an ice cube melting in hot water. One last one that I sometimes use is Ali MacGraw: Yoga--Mind & Body. This 40-minute workout is actually a little difficult for beginners, but if you're up for a more challenging workout and you can get past the very new-age feel of the production, it's a great all-over stretching and strengthening workout.

If you really want to use yoga to help improve your martial arts training, you should try to do it regularly. You can work in a few stretches while you watch TV or sneak in a quick 20-minute workout every other day. By doing it regularly your body will get used to the movements and you'll be better able to develop your strength and flexibility in the long run.

UFC 79: An Exhibition of What I Respect and Despise About the Sport

Last night I watched my first UFC event. What intrigued me most about it is the fact that it really was a tale of two cities so to speak. The best and worst that the sport has to offer.

The grudge match between Rich Clementi and Melvin Guillard thoroughly disgusted me. Not the fight itself, but the attitudes of the fighters. Guillard led the stupidity by walking to the ring wearing a mask in imitation of the Predator. Yes, the one from the movie. He even had the music from the movie playing. What was he thinking?!? Then when Clementi won the fight he told his opponent to "suck on it" complete with gestures. They had to hold Guillard back from attacking him. It's antics like that that denigrate MMA as a sport to the general public.

Fortunately, the event was redeemed by most of the other fighters, particularly the ones from the title fight, George St. Pierre and Matt Hughes. The title fight itself was a pretty amazing display of skill. I was amazed at the range of skills that GSP can use effectively in the ring. The neck throw from his offside was just awesome, not to mention the arm bar he used to submit Hughes.

All that being said, what impressed me most was their sportsmanship. They both hugged after the fight, clearly respectful of each others' abilities. GSP even whispered something to Hughes on camera. Something that made him laugh in appreciation. I would absolutely love to have been a fly on the mat to hear that remark.

Anyway, overall I enjoyed the show. Though I still think Dana White needs to get with the times and add at least one woman fight to the card.