Martial Arts Report Launches Big Time!

Martial Arts Report Is Off the Ground!

Martial Arts Report is a unique newscast created by Alex Roderiquez and Daniel Martine. It deals with all manner of effective martial arts. In the works are programs aimed towards classical martial arts, Hollywood Martial Arts, and, of course, there is intense focus on Mixed Martial Arts.

The first program is out in podcast form. This is highly effective, as both Daniel and Alex are intelligent, quick, and highly personable. It will be extremely interesting to watch as these two professionals morph their method of delivery into full on video style broadcasting. The first official newscast is scheduled for February 1, 2012.

Daniel Martine is the chief creative officer of Martial Arts Report, and he is a long time martial arts practitioner. Interestingly, he has also spent some time in Hollywood, and the list of martial arts stars he has worked with or rubbed elbows with is quite impressive. We are talking about such luminaries as the late Steve James, Paolo Tocha, Benny Urquidez, Mathias Hues, Steven Seagal, Maurice Travis, Chuck Norris, Cynthia Rothrock, Kathy Long, Al Leong, Dennis Alexio, and Jean Claude Van Damme, among others. In addition to a hard core sensibility towards martial arts, he has some incredible stories to share.

Alex Roderiguez is the president and Chief Executive Officer of Martial Arts Report. Alex is expert in Hapkido, JKD, and is propelled by a life long love affair with the martial arts. This combination of Hapkido and Jeet Kune Do gives him a classical outlook, tempered with an innovative viewpoint. In the first podcast offered by Martial Arts Report he talks of the spiritual side of the martial arts, and how walking on to a mat is like walking into a cathedral. His passion is evident, and his love is plain. A man with this type and degree of passion is always interesting to listen to.

Martial Arts Report is a concept which is extremely timely. Martial Arts is the only genre in Hollywood which actually can support itself, the fan base is that wide, and that intense. Further, with the increasing violence in America, and the need for compassionate self discipline, this program is cutting edge.

Kung Fu Stops Suicide and Saves Lives!

Use Your Kung Fu Today!

Speaking of Kung Fu, I remember reading about a kid in China some hundred years ago. He was depressed with life, didn’t want to go on, so he hung himself from a tree. He’s hanging there, swaying, choking his last breath out, and some old fellow comes along and cuts the rope.

All Arts ascend, coast, and descend!

This was more than this kid’s lucky day, for the old fellow was a kung fu expert. He took the kid home and taught him the martial arts, and the kid went on to become quite famous, started his own system, and so on. This is a drastic example, but it is not alone. The martial arts are filled with tales of kids who were trouble makers being rescued by training in the martial arts. The martial arts, be them kung fu or karate or whatever, give discipline. Discipline that a child won’t accept at home, he will accept when it is self generated. Further, the no nonsense physical exercise gets a kid to feeling his body, and he/she suddenly realizes how much fun a body is. The mind then starts to get stronger, and the spirit follows right along. At the heart of the martial arts is the desire to survive. To live. To be in charge of the universe. This is at the heart of all life, so it is no wonder that the martial arts works the wonders that it does. Now, on the other side, pills don’t work. They unbalance the body, they don’t fix the body, and any gains are usually pretty temporary. So my advice, when you have a child who is miserable, and that means anything from lackadaisical, unfocused, meandering to hot headed or depressed or just generally unhappy, is get him or her into the martial arts. Don’t threaten, don’t cajole, don’t use the martial arts as a carrot or stick (if you don’t get good grades I’ll take away your martial arts!), they are a lifestyle that fixes, that enhances, that makes a person better physically, mentally and spiritually. I am quite serious when I say that good kung fu, or karate or aikidoi or whatever, stops suicides and saves lives.

Three Important Points of True Shaolin Kung Fu Training

The benefits of true Shaolin Kung Fu training are absolutely incredible. The key to gaining all these benefits, of course, are to do the training properly. After all, you could have the choicest hunk of meat in the world, but cook it improperly and you’ll have a charcoal mess.

When one is learning the movements one should make sure that the body is moved as one unit. Six Harmonies Boxing is fond of advocating that one should move the fist with the foot, the knee with the elbow, and the hips with the shoulders. This is sound advice, which tends to isolate body parts even as it brings them together.

As for the hands and feet, one should step or twist into a stance in conjunction with the starting and stopping of the hand movement. For the knees and elbows, one should properly align the body when doing any movement. For the hips and shoulderes, move them together and you will be putting all your body weight into whatever motion you are doing.

Second of the three points of Shaolin Kung Fu training is to use the waist when turning. This advice begins where the advice about shoulders and hips ends. The point here is to use the waist to turn the body, don’t turn the limbs first and expect the body to follow.

If you move the limbs first, the body weight is following, instead of projecting, and this tends to separate weight from action. Separating weight from action robs the strike or block of any real power. If one studies this concept, and applies it diligently, they will end up developing the chi power for which shaolin kung fu is so famous.

Last of the three advices has to do with proper breathing. There is a general rule that one should breath in when the body contracts, and out when the body expands, but there is more to it than just that. One must breath, and use that breath to guide awareness into the body part being used.

To make this happen one should ‘swim with awareness’ when moving the body. This means to push the hands as if moving great weights, sometimes looking like one is swimming through molasses. Of course, this last is more in tune with some of the internal manifestations of Shaolin Kung Fu training, but that is okay.

In conclusion, these are three very important items that many people neglect, or simply just don’t understand. Yet they are key to one’s real progress in the martial arts disciplines. Harmonize the body parts, use the whole body, and put breath awareness into your movements, that is the simple and obvious secret of true Shaolin Kung Fu Training.

Martial Arts Test Your Knowledge Quiz!

Take the Martial Arts Test!

This Martial Arts Test will let you know how learned you are in the martial arts. The questions cover a variety of martial arts, and instructions for grading yourself are at the end. Write the answer to each question on a piece of paper, and have fun.

Get smart the smart way!

Who was the Asian Superstar called ‘The Little Dragon?’  What was the name of the main art studied by the founder of Aikido? Who were the brothers responsible for creating a national chain of Kenpo Karate studios?

Who was the originator of the art wherein the students spends great amounts of time ‘walking the circle?’ Who was the first American President to study the art of Judo? What was the name of the movie that Bruce Lee didn’t finish before he died?

Which style of Karate received the official blessing of Gichin Funakoshi to spread his teachings (it was not Shotokan)? What is the name of the World Taekwondo Headquarters and home of the World Taekwondo Academy? Who was the Taekwondo instructor behind the martial arts in ‘Billie Jack?’

What is the name of the martial arts book written by the greatest Japanese Samurai to have ever lived (it is now used to train Japanese businessmen)? What martial art trains one in the use of the Parang? Who was the founder of Black Belt magazine?

How long did it take Bill ‘Superfoot’ Wallace to earn his black belt? Which famous athlete did Bruce Lee study the films of in a mirror to make sure he got the movements of down on both sides? What was the title of the first book Ed Parker wrote on the martial arts (according to wiki)?

Who was the CIA operative who wrote the first book on Shaolin to receive widespread publishing in the United States, and what was the name of the book? What was the name of the first Kung Fu Movie to receive widespread viewing in the United States? What is the name of the Chinese actor to defeat a villain in a Chinese movie made in 1979, and then play that same villain (not as a complete villain) in the American movie ‘Kill Bill?’

To find any answers you are unsure about do a quick google. To score your results simply take the number of questions you got right and divide them by 18. Don’t worry if you got any answers wrong, for you now have the answers and are a smarter person. 

Martial Arts Test on How to Deal with a Home Intruder

I first wrote up this martial arts test in my newsletter. I received such good comment on it that I decided to publish it here.

Can you survive?

Where you are, right now, you hear sounds of somebody breaking in. You’ve got ten seconds to get it together and defend yourself. So how many weapons can you find?

The clock is ticking. You can throw the computer. But you might want to leave this room, get the home intruder as he is coming up the stairs, especially if it sounds like there are more than one.

Eight seconds.

Pens and pencils can be used to stab.

Six seconds.

A heavy object easy to throw with sharp edges on it.

Four seconds.

Shove the couch across the doorway.

Two seconds.

Look around, look around…

Zero.

So what do you have?

As for myself, I’ve got a folding knife on my desk, along with some pens. I’ve also got a mug which I can use to bludgeon and, when it breaks, use to slash and cut. Eight feet away I’ve got three swords. Alas, they do not sharpened edges. Curse me for wasting money on display swords! Twelve feet away, next to the front door, I have escrima sticks. Again. No edges. And, of course, I have lots of things I could throw, but not much that would make a dent in the heat of battle.

Now, mind you, I am not entirely helpless. After forty-five years of martial arts, there are some things I could do with a pencil that would shock you. Obscure the fact that I’ve got it until I can insert it in an ear or an eyeball or through the throat.

And, there are some grab arts I could do with some ordinary objects that would surprise most people.

And, last but not least (grin) I’ve got a dog. A big one. 120 pounds. And his teeth are very big and sharp and gleaming white! Normally he’s a big chicken, but I have seen him go to the door with a snarl and a bark that would frighten king kong.

But, the point of all this has merely been to assess a couple of things.

You will be attacked not when you are prepared, but when you least expect it. That is the law of the universe.

And, to the degree that you are prepared, to that degree you will survive.

So, do you have weapons? Can you make weapons out of anything? Can you use absolutely anything at all for a weapon?

I advise you to keep a sharp knife in every room. And have a machete at some central type of location. And have a sturdy pole, not just a broomstick, but some pole that won’t break.

And, most important, learn how to use them.

Check out the Blinding Steel page.

http://www.monstermartialarts.com/Blinding_Steel.html

Remember, anything and everything you touch is a potential weapon, and you have to know how to use it as a weapon. The thug who home invades may not give you the chance to use your cell phone, so your life will literally be in your own hands.

This has been a page about a Martial Arts Test.

 

Can You Make a Living Off a Martial Arts School

Making a living from a Martial Arts School

Interesting question, making a living off a martial arts school. So many want to do it, so few succeed. So what are the barriers to success in teaching martial arts as a living?

Bruce Lee started out teaching in a garage in Oakland!

First, sad to say, you have to treat it like a business. This means keeping track of students, reminding them on the phone, doing all the paperwork, collecting money, and so on.

The difficult thing isn’t getting students, the difficult thing is keeping them. Most people, in this enlightened age, are flakes. They get excited over something they’ve seen on TV or the net, and then something else comes along, and so very few people actually make a plan and stick to it.

You, as a martial arts instructor, have to sit down with the student from day one, and get him to make a plan.

And, on day two, you have to resell him on the plan.

And, on day three, you have to resell him on the plan.

And so on.

Someday he’ll ignite, start following the plan on his own, but it will take a lot of work to get him there. Heck, just getting students to turn off their cell phones during class can be a lot of work.

Interestingly, I estimated it takes about an hour a week to keep a student interested. So forty students would take forty hours, and then you get to spend maybe ten hours teaching them.

Of course, as time goes on, and you build a rep, and students actually start realizing what you are doing is good for them, these figures change. But, it takes time.

In the business world they say you have to run a business for a year at a loss before it starts to pay. This isn’t an absolute, but it does take an immense amount of work.

I know these things I’ve said here to be true because I have had a half a dozen different schools over the last few decades. And scores of classes at gyms and YMCAs and that sort of thing.

Anyway, I’ll write more about this later, address any specific points. If you have any questions or thoughts, use the comments below.

This has been a page about running a martial arts school.

The Martial Arts Zen Master, the Cleaver, and the Pot

Martial Arts Zen Master Training!

Speaking of a Martial Arts Zen Master, I drive my wife crazy.

We have these pots and pans, you see, like any family. And these pots and pans are old and dented, black on the bottom,need to be replaced, but I am too cheap.

So a few months ago a glass pot broke. It was the glass pot I used. My wife was kind enough  to buy me a new pot.

Over the months I have used that pot for everything. Mush to meat, I cook, and the pot, oddly, stays shiny. In fact, it looks new; you can’t even tell that it has been used.

Drives my wife crazy. “Why can’t you make the other pots and pans shiny?”

Because I began my Martial Arts Zen Master training after the pots were bruised.

There is a story about a Butcher who was a zen master. Year after year he chopped meat, and he never went to get his cleaver sharpened. He chopped bones, sunk the blade into the chopping block, and it never got dull.

One day the local blade sharpener asked the butcher why he never needed his cleaver sharpened.

The butcher replied, “I chop with awareness.”

And, when I cook, I cook with awareness. Awareness built by decades of Karate and Kung Fu and Tai Chi Chuan practice. Don’t turn the flame too high. Don’t cook too short or too long. Do this, and other small actions, by observing what you are doing. Build awareness in the small actions of your life, and your life will become larger.

To be truthful, I don’t claim to be a zen master, rather a zen beginner, but I am making progress.

When I start to get  frustrated with a task, I calm myself down and look for the small pieces that are unsetting the larger whole.

When I write and the words are becoming disjointed, I go back to the beginning and look for the one word, in the one sentence, where I turned left instead of right; where I left the intent of my written communication.

When I do a martial arts form, I never go faster than I can become aware, and I examine the form or the technique for the small movement that derails the whole sequence.

It’s in there. If things aren’t going right, then I made a mistake, and I just have to slow myself down enough to look for it.

And, heck, if I can keep doing this, and even get better at it, then maybe I, too, can become a real, live Martial Arts Zen Master.

Bruce Lee Workouts And Developing Real Strength-Part Two

Bruce Lee Workouts!

When people do Bruce Lee workouts of some sort they have no idea what they are getting into. They see the movies, they read the books, but they don’t know what Bruce Lee was really capable of. They don’t know just how powerful he really was.

You see, it wasn’t just that he was a martial arts fanatic, a physical cultist, but that he could actually do superhuman feats of strength. I’ve listed a few of the things he could do here, and you should consider them seriously when you do your Bruce Lee workouts routine. It’s more than just push ups and sit ups, you see, it is going beyond the limits of the body.

First, the sheer speed coming out of Bruce Lee training routines is astounding. He could deliver a punch in five one hundredths of second…that’s 0.05 seconds. Try timing that on your stopwatch!

Second, Bruce Lee could hold a 75 pound barbell straight from his body-arm horizontal to the ground-for several seconds. That is a massive feat. Go ahead, pick up a simply kitchen chair and hold it arm’s length, and that is only a few pounds.

Here is your magician’s trick-The Little Dragon could snatch a dime from your open palm and deposit a penny. Man, that is faster than a banker forecloses on a widow! It’s hard enough to just grab a coin from somebody’s palm, let alone leave some change!

Fourth, think you can do a pretty good push up? Try doing one with just the thumb and index finger! His fingers were stronger than your whole arm!

And this one will send the posers packing, Mr. Lee could do 50 one arm chin up repetitions! Let me say that again…that’s FIFTY one hand pull ups. How would you like to have a python as strong as his arm wrapped around your neck?

Sixth, and this is for all those tough guys out there who think that kicks are for kids, Bruce Lee could kick a 300 pound kicking bag and make it hit the ceiling! Now that is rocket launching power! Interestingly, it’s tough to find a 300 pound martial arts kicking bag, and Bruce special ordered his.

Seventh and last, Bruce could hold an elevated V-sit up position for 30 minutes. I would think that that would actually qualify him as a yoga master, in addition to all his other accomplishments. At any rate, think about some of these things when you are doing your own brand of Bruce Lee workouts.

The best way to build a chiseled and strong physique is <a href=”http://www.monstermartialarts.com/Yogata.html”>Yogata</a>. Head to <a href=”http://www.monstermartialarts.com/Yogata.html”>Monster Martial Arts</a> to find out more.

The Unbelievable Bruce Lee Workout Routine (Part One)

The Bruce Lee Work out Routine was an amazing accomplishment, and it resulted in Bruce being able to do superhuman feats of strength. (See part two of this article for a list of these accomplishments.) That Bruce Lee did it day after day, month after month, year after year, describes a human toughness that is amazing.

Before one even thinks about doing a Bruce Lee work out, one should understand that the Bruce Lee Workout Routine depended upon one simple principle. The mind is stronger than the body, and can make the body go through anything. In spite of doctor’s words, Bruce pushed himself through his regular work outs with beyond human intensity.

From seven to nine every morning Bruce would work in abdominal exercises, flexibility, and running. From eleven to twelve he would do weight lifting and cycling. This was the core of his physical training, and he would spend odd times throughout the day working in specialized techniques.

In the progress of his weight lifting Bruce would practice things like squats, push ups, reverse curls, concentration curls, reverse wrist curls, wrist curls and French presses. He would regularly focus on fast twitch and slow twitch muscle movement. Interestingly, in the beginning Bruce believed that bigger muscles were stronger muscles, but later on, towards Bruce Lee’s death, he came to believe that this wasn’t so.

He was a true believer of the highest order when it came to doing abdominal exercises. He worked the abs every work out, but he also did them at odd times through the day and into the night. He believed in sit Roman Chair exercises, ups, crunches, V ups and leg raises.

Another favorite exercise with Bruce was running and cycling. He would regularly run two to five miles, usually in fifteen to forty-five minutes. He would also ride a standing bike for 45 minutes, usually putting in 10 miles.

Some of Bruce Lee’s secondary exercises were totally beyond belief. He loved jump roping, and after doing the stationary bike he would do as many as 800 jumps. He also loved to thrust his bare mitts into buckets of sand, and he would do as many as 500 repetitions of this ancient toughening drill.

In conclusion, one should be careful when trying to do a work out such as described here. Remember that even Bruce Lee worked up to a level, he didn’t just blast it and put his body at risk. Once you have worked up to a high level of the Bruce Lee Workout Routine, however, you should be capable of superhuman feats, too.

Would you like a strong punch like <a href=”http://www.monstermartialarts.com/The_Punch%21.html”>Bruce Lee</a> had? Head over to <a href=”http://www.monstermartialarts.com/The_Punch%21.html”>The Punch</a> at Monster Martial Arts.

Martial Arts Violence and the Occupy Wall Street Bunch

 

Martial Arts Violence, is that the answer to Occupy Wall Street Violence?

 

I detest Martial arts violence, but over the past few months I have seen police wailing on Occupy Wall Streeters, I have heard of Wall Streeters throwing objects (urine? Fireworks?) at the police, and I wonder what the individual solution is going to be when the Fit hits the shan.

 

And, if you believe what the Wall Streeters are saying, it will hit the fan. You see, a full 31% of the Occupy bunch have stated that they are willing to get violent over their beliefs. Check out this video if you don’t believe me!

 

31% is a revolution! And what is even more startling is that this ‘revolution’ is actually encouraged by the President of the United States! Him and the other Marxists in the White House (the red house?) have stated that the Occupy bunch are legitimate movements.

 

What would you do if you were caught in escalating mob violence, if people started going through your neighborhood looking to bop a few police on the head? What would your martial arts solution be?

 

You don’t want to fight back with fists, because they will likely not use just fists. No, you would look for something easy to swing, and yet which has enough weight to do some serious damage.

 

Should your weapon have an edge on it? Like a spade, or a machete? That’s tough, because the police would likely arrest you for carrying weapons, or worse, if you had to use it, for assault with deadly weapons!

 

My serious hope is that this all goes away. See, the Wall Streeters don’t realize that Wall Street creates more jobs than they destroy, and the white house (red house?) destroys more jobs than it creates. That’s the simple truth, as proven by many statistics.

 

Has the government ever managed to do anything right? That is a legitimate question!

 

Anyway, I recommend having a couple of spades within arm’s reach. Make sure they have sharp edges, and learn a few kung fu moves so you know how to use them effectively, and, hopefully, without having too damage a few loose nuts and bolts.

 

That’s my advice, but i hope we never have to resort to martial arts violence.