The Equivalent of a Ph.D?
A stereotype sometimes associated with Asian Martial Art Grandmasters, either because of their lack of proficiency in English or being from Asia, is that they are uneducated or lack formal education. For example, Balintawak Founder and Grandmaster Venancio “Anciong” Bacon was reported not to have…
Blitz Teaching
When I teach class, I often will cover two or three topics/techniques or concepts. In other words, I am blitz teaching. The idea is that the students will have sufficient time to practice each technique or concept. If you are not able to view the…
Resetting
Resetting is a method by which partners engage in a technique sequence to a finite end. At this point, they reset back to the beginning to repeat the sequence. This occurs most often in partner training or one-step sparring. In this post, I discuss this…
“Can’t” Gets You Fifty Pushups
Guest Blogger Cathy Chapaty is the author of No Pouting in the Dojo: The Imperfect Journey of Teaching Children Character through Martial Arts. A veteran martial artist, Chapaty has been respected as an empowering, positive teacher with a knack for helping children of all ages and abilities…
The Power of Similarities
I have encountered martial artists who like to focus on the differences between martial arts. I think these martial artists are done to distinguish their martial art from the “other” martial art. Often, it serves as the premise of an argument proving the superiority of their martial…
How to Fix The Wet Noodle
The “wet noodle” version of feeding a training partner is a fairly common problem encountered by martial arts instructors. I have seen variations of this problem among children and adults. In this post, I discuss the causes behind poor feeding and offer solutions on how…
4 Reasons for Teaching Beginners
Instructors and advanced students can benefit greatly from teaching beginners. Unfortunately, too many instructors have their junior or senior students working with beginners. Senior students often prefer to work with classmates of the same rank. While there is nothing wrong with working with fellow senior…
5 Problems With One Step Sparring
In the last post, I discussed three great reasons for one-step sparring. As noted in that post, this topic has been debated. While there are benefits to one-step sparring, some have argued that this training method has downsides. In this post, I will explore the problems…
3 Great Reasons For One Step Sparring
Many martial arts, such as karate and tae kwon do, employ a training method called “one-step sparring.” This training method has been the subject of a fair bit of debate. Some advocate it, while others deride it as impractical and unsuited to the realities of…
Simplicity
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. – Leonardo DaVinci. Simplicity is the key to brilliance. – Bruce Lee. My first formal introduction to Arnis/Eskrima was during a private lesson with Professor Florendo Visitacion, otherwise known as Professor Vee in the fall of 1989. I travelled to…
