As karateka, we often look at being on the receiving end of attacks, but sometimes we can overlook dealing with the defense of our attackers. From a philosophical view, it is easy to understand why this could happen. Most serious karateka are familiar with the concept of “karate ni sente nashi,” or “there is no initiating hand in karate.” […]
At UFC Saskatoon, undefeated Ukrainian prospect, Maryna Moroz, faced off against Canadian veteran, Valerie Letourneau. Although Moroz is not as well known as Letourneau, she was the favorite going into the fight, due to her snappy, aggressive fighting style and her recent upset of Muay Thai phenom, Joanne Calderwood. As it turned out, Letourneau was able to take the tough […]
Over time, it is natural for a martial artist to narrow their focus of study to specific aspects of their art–I mentioned this in my recent article on the development of martial artists. There are also some martial arts which are narrow in focus, to begin with. It is rather likely that those arts and styles are specialized because […]
As of the writing of this article, I have only been training for a little over 8.5 years, and I only just earned my shodan (1st degree black belt) last Summer. Even so, I’ve seen and heard of so many instances of the “shodan slump” to know that it’s real, and I feel grateful that I have managed to avoid […]
The word “udundi” means “palace hand,” and is used to refer to the martial arts of Okinawan nobility. Today, these arts are really only seen in Seikichi Uehara Sensei’s Motobu-Ryu Udundi, which you can see demonstrated in the video, above. As you can see, the techniques are very light and dance-like, relying heavily on Aikido-esque redirection and joint locks. Indeed, […]
