Is The Coveted Black Belt The Ultimate Goal?

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So often it does seem to be that people treat the Black Belt is the end result, and this is something that both clubs and students are guilty of.

I think personally that this is wrong, don’t take this the wrong way achieving your Black Belt is huge, it’s a massive personal achievement. Even that is not particularly correct, it’s not just a big achievement for you the student, if your instructor is invloved and has an interest in your development then it is also a big achievement for them. However if you treat your training right then it becomes a by product of your ongoing development.

You get in there, you get learning specific techniques, then you develop the basic principles and some variations. It’s at this point you are starting to understand what you are doing more, it’s part of the development cycle. Somewhere in there you move up the grades, one of those is your Black Belt,It’s another stage that’s all really.

In many ways you only actually start to really learn it after your Black Belt, up until then there is always thoughts of Grading, even if you do want to focus on your training then gradings are always there niggling away in the back somewhere. After the Black Belt, then the pressure really is off, you can go back to the beginning and start to break it all down again from the start, using the knowledge you have aquired since your first steps through the door to delve into the inner workings of your first moves.

That’s were it takes real committment, a real desire to better yourself, but all too often that’s when people feel they’ve got there and quit….Why?

From the Instructors point of view, are these Black Belt Academy’s and a fast track Black Belt valid? Are they money making schemes? Will the person passing their Black Belt in a short space of time know the same as someone taking their time and understanding the principles and why, rather than just doing the steps because they’re told to?

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Tags: jiu jitsu, jiujitsu, ju jitsu, jujitsu, martial art

What To Look For In Martial Arts Gi’s

So you’re starting out in Martial Arts, what do you need, well in most traditional JuJitsu dojo’s, then you need a Gi.

But what to choose, there are so many.

Quite often for the first year or at least just to get started to see if you’re going to like it or not i suggest a light or medium weight Karate Gi, they work well enough as a start but aren’t strong enough in the material or stitching to handle JuJitsu.

From that Gi I’m really struggling to find a Gi I really like, some people like the double weave Judo style Gi, but it’s not to my taste, we don’t need that extra strength in the Gi that Judo people need, we don’t throw using the Gi, we throw and manipulate them using the body and body dyamics, though we do occasionally use the Gi.

Another thing we don’t want in a JuJitsu Gi is stitching at the shoulders, it just rips way too easily, no good for us. Some extra give in the gusset would be good too, because we can kick, and it also gives extra options and more room to move on the ground.

There are many manufacturers of Gis out there but not too many claiming to make JuJitsu Gi’s, usually Karate, TaeKwondo or Judo. Hayashi used to make a really good one years ago, the Jacket had re-enforced shoulders, no seams at the sleeves it was one piece material. But they stopped, Why?????

Are there any others out there I wonder,

Personally I’m looking to find:

One piece jacket, no separate material for the sleeve
Extra room in the gusset
reenforced knees.
Black and White

Not too much to ask is it?

What do I recommend, at the moment my favourite out there is one by Quality Martial Arts, or MAR. It’s only in white, but it has most of the other qualities I am looking for.

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Tags: jujitsu, jujitsu clothing, jujitsu equipment, martial arts clothing

Dojo Etiquette

Question - where does asking questions stopping being seeking clarification and cross the line into dis-respect?

I am a big big fan of making sure you understand what you are doing and why, and sometimes the only way to do that is to ask the questions, can you show me again? How was that? What angle are you moving at? and sometimes you do have to ask that awful question, why?

I say awful, because some instructors don’t like it, it can imply questioning of them, however if you ask right, then it can be valid, like why do you block like that, or pull down on the arm like that, then that the instructor should not fear and you should not fear asking.

However, and  this can be one of my bug bears, the “what if” question! So many times you get that yeah, but what if i did this instead? Well then, I’d be doing a different technique! Not every technique will work against every attack, it just doesn’t work like that.

Saying that though, sometimes, you can raise something yourself as an option, something you’ve just come up with by accident maybe, then from some people, dependant on the way they ask I am really open to this, it’s a good way to stimulate me aswell as them, but you do get people who have a bit of a cocky attitude when raising it, and that is not on, that is stepping well over the line to a point where I’ll walk away, and I’ve known some instructors who’ll physically put you back in line.

Be aware, you’re instructor has some degree of responsibility to you, in actual fact, they have a lot of responsibility to you. However, don’t forget, you have a responsibility as well, to your instructor, to your fellow students and the art, respect it!

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Tags: dojo, jujitsu, jujitsu etiquette, jujitsu training, martial arts

How To Back-kick And The Differences

I’ve been shown a number of different ways of doing this kick over the years and i’ll go through a couple of them now.

They both start out the same really, you step across on your base foot, this is your none kicking foot, it goes across your body and you use this step to set your distance for the strike. If you are further away from your opponent than stepping across with the front foot will allow for, then step forwards and across with the rear leg continuing to pivot round. It’s important that you keep your eye on your opponent for as long as you can, as soon as you’ve lost sight of them then they can do whatever they like and you can be left with the proverbial egg on your face. So turn quickly and turn your head even quicker, get your eyes back on your opponent as quick as you can. As you turn then use the impetus to start to generate the speed of the strike, some people like to use the blade of the foot for this strike.

Now, not being a particularly good kicker I’ve never been particularly good with this, I usually end up turning it into a spinning back kick rather than a straight forward back kick, purely because of the angles of feet and whipping the head round to look throws me out, the other thing was that I’d end up missing the target!!

Then my sensei showed me this next way of doing the kick and It finally started to make some sense.

The start is the same really, you can use either leg to step across, all depends upon your distance, now the difference starts, use your opponent as your guide, if you make an exagerated step with your foot placement and line it up down the outside of your attacker, then as you turn, if you thrust straight back with your leg, kicking with the base of your foot, you are pretty much guaranteed to make a hit, it’s the best method for me I’ve found so far.
One thing, you need to make sure you need to follow through and turn quickly, pivoting on your feet, so that you will finish in your fighting stance facing your opponent.

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Tags: jiujitsu, jujitsu, jujitsu techniques, jujitsu training, martial art

What Is The The Parent Art?

You so often here people comment on this is the parent art or that is the parent art of that, and in some cases there are definite traceable roots, ie, Judo from JuJitsu, Aikido from JuJitsu, but I read somewhere once that Kung Fu was the father of all arts.

How is that possible?

What is Martial Arts? Isn’t it the art of fighting basically?

People have been fighting one way or another since the dawn of time, on each corner of the earth thousands of miles from each other, so how can one fighting art be the father of them all?

I don’t get that? I wonder sometimes if my logic is flawed!

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Tags: jiu jitsu, jiujitsu, ju jitsu, ju jutsu, jujitsu, jujutsu

Sidekick, How To?

There are two ways that I do side kick, technically the execution of the kick is the same, it’s just that one is off the front leg and one is off the rear leg.

So I’ll go over the rear leg first; with your front foot, turn your toes out, now move your body weight through on to your front foot, turning sideways on to your opponent, keeping your guard up all the time.

Now bring your kicking foot up to your knee, push out your kicking foot towards your target thursting through and pushing with your hips right through. The key is your striking area, you are striking with the blade of the foot, thats the outside edge of your foot. A little trick to help you with this - push through with your heel, pull up with your big toe and push down with your little toe. Sounds odd, feels odd, but it does help you to get the right angle with your foot. A common target area for this is the knee, if you’re flexible and like kicking then I’ve seen people do this to the jaw.

The other version, is kicking with the front leg, from the normal fighting stance then this would be the front side snap kick, if you take a step back from a block, then you can do the side kick off what will now be the nearest leg, the technique is exactly the same, you will just lose some of the power. It can still work as either a distraction, or I used to train with a guy who had a knack for always getting you with it as you moved in during sparring.

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Tags: jiujitsu, jujitsu, jujitsu techniques, jujitsu training, martial art

What Are The Different Styles Of Martial Art?

Now this is a big one, it’s quite often asked, and I suppose to someone outside of the arts, it’s a perfectly valid and easy question to answer.

To a Martial Artist then this can be a huge question.

Martial Arts are everywhere, so to list them all and their differences would take a long time, there are books trying to cover it, and they only touch the surface.

I’ll make a stab at going through some of the major ones at least to give you a flavour.

JuJitsu
It’s my favourite, so I’ll cover it first, a Japanese Martial Art, around for a long long time, hard to trace exact origins, but can be traced back to Samurai and long before. Includes everything, pretty much, punching, biting kicking, knees, eye gouge, pressure points, whatever it takes to win a fight. Striking is not something that Ju-Jitsu covers as much as some other arts, due in part to the history, this was a battlefield art, to be used when the weapons had been lost, however seeing as your opponent would usually be wearing armour,hitting them was not the best option, but throws, locks chokes, strangles all play a part. To what level or degree you are taught some of these will be determined a lot by the school that you go to. Over the last few years, and by that I mean ten to twenty there has been a rowing resurgence in Ju-Jitsu, but largely focused on the sporting side, due to the huge success of people like the Gracies, but then there are those of us that like to cover all of the other bits as well, the stuff that a sports rules usually stop you learning. Essentially, if you want a good all round Martial Art, one that is highly practical, then this is a good one.

Aikido
Again a Japanese art. In general terms, quite a modern artFounded by O-Sensei Morihei Oeshiba,this is an art derived essentially from Ju-Jitsu, focussing more on dis-engagement safely though, utilises the circular motions heavily, very good at using an attackers force against them. There are a lot of “soft” schools out there, the “flowery” kind, while they have their place, they represent a different thing to the original thing, If you have ever been thrown by someone who really knows what they are doing in Aikido, then it’s not soft and it works. I used to think that people just jumped and went with the throws, like Kotegai ish, and to an extent they do, but that’s because if they don’t go with it a bit, they lose their wrist. A good flowing art, hard on the joints, especially wrists and knees, very traditional.

Karate
Depends on what you read whether it’s an Okinawan art, but generally considered to have developed from Chinese Kenpo. Predominantly a striking art, good for fitness, and flexibility, compared to Ju-Jitsu, or even Aikido, little in the way of throws, the nearest you’ll get usually is ShukoKai, although these days you do get some schools calling themselves Freestyle Karate, that try to cover things like this, not sure as to how well they do it, I guess, like anything it depends on the instructor.

Iaido
A Japanese art, usually slow and controlled, covers drawing the sword from the scabbard, striking or cutting the opponent, removing blood from the blade and replacing the blade in the scabbard. A lot of ceremony, I’ve had it described to me as a control freaks art, I hasten to add this was said by a 2nd Dan in Iaido!

Kung Fu
A Chinese art, that has many many forms, used a lot in Films, can be very flashy, but can also be effective if done right. It has become very popular over the past decade or so, thanks to films with Jet Li, Jackie Chan and then big tours by the Shaolin Monks were people have been amazed by the things they do. Good for fitness, flexibility, if done very very well, then it can be good self-defence

Wing Chun
A Chinese Martial art, legend has it that it was created by Yim Wing Chun, and it is excellent as a close quarter combat martial art. Good at close quarters self-defence. Good at the trapping distance where a lot of arts are let down.

Pencak Silat
An Indonesian colletion of Martial Arts, when seen or tried, then some of the movements can seem very similiar to some forms of Kung Fu.

Escrima
A Filipino Art, focussing on stick and sometimes swords. Most modern Escrima you see tends to focus around the stick work, very fast and impressive when done right. Good ofr the focus

Krav Maga
An Isreali art, focusing on close quarter work, looking at neutralizing any threat as fast and hard as possible and getting out of there, used by Isreali special forces, uses anything and everything to win whatever the cost. Nasty, but effective

Stav
A Nordic Martial art, that has been likened, not by me, and it was not meant entirely seriously to Tai Chi and Kung Fu. It has a healing non impact side to it, focusing on breathing and stances, hence the Tai Chi reference, and an aggressive combat style, hence the Kung Fu reference. I’ve only ever seen one person teaching Stav and it was not a good recommendation, there will be some good instructors around who can make something of this.

Tai Chi
A Chinese art, although these days it tends to focus on the healing, gentle non -impact style, it is worth remembering that it is still a Martial Art, and as such it’s moves if taught and applied correctly, are still there to actually cause damage. Though more and more this side seems to be becoming diluted and potentially lost. At least in the West. Good for those less mobile, looking at the discipine and health benefits

Jeet Kune Do
Bruce Lee’s art. Say no more!
Actually, I will, based on Kung Fu, Wing Chun, it was then developed to incorporate other areas, to attempt to make a “complete” art. So takes the “Trapping distance” that Wing Chun covers better than most others, for example, and develops it and adds extras from other areas. Pretty much the most modern art I’ll have listed here, by a long way. A good allround art

Taekwondo
Korean Martial Art. Again worth noting that proper Taekwondo is not what you see in the sports, like the Olympics, I watched a couple of bouts and turned over the TV! Proper Taekwondo is still a martial arts, most clubs you will find today will be focussed on the sport side. Light, fast, and high kicks, as already stated, usually focussed on competitions, around forms or point scoring sparring. Good for fitness and flexibility.

Thai-Boxing
Thailand, suprisingly enough!! Started life as a sport, then as unarmed combat on the battlefields became a rarer and rarer thing it developed into a sport, the main sport of Thailand. punches, knees, kicks and elbows are the main weapons, fast and hard. Very Good for fitness, very effective striking sport.

Kickboxing
Sport, Pretty much everywhere - Full Contact Kick boxing developed from Thai-Boxing and other Martial Arts influences, the first bouts being seen in the early 1970’s. These days however it seems to be lighter contact, and a big emphasis placed on light fast strikes scoring points.

Capoeira
Brazilian - commonly known as the art of dance. Developed in the 16th Century with people playing musical instruments and others in the centre moving around, faking headbuts, kicks, etc. It’s very much about free flowing movement, very acrobatic, very good for flexibilty and fitness. Not particularly common.

Judo
Japanese Sport - Developed by Jigoro Kano from Ju-Jitsu, infact it was originally known as Kano Ju-Jitsu. These days it’s all about competition, it’s translated as the Gentle Way, though quite often the gentle side seems to be forgotten and there is a lot of strength used. A sport focussed on taking your attacker to the ground with throws or trips then rolling around trying to immobilise your opponent with locks or pins. Good for Fitness, can be good for flexibility.

Sambo
A Russian Martial Art, that splits into different areas, it has a pure sport side, that whilst it has been demonstrated at the Olympic Games, has not been recognised by them. A lot of similarities to Judo. It also has a practical self-defence side as well.

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Tags: aikido, jujitsu, karate, kickboxing, kung fu, martial art