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How to Read a Potential Combat Situation
Learning the martial arts doesn’t only teach you how to better understand your own body, it helps you to understand both your environment and your situation. A good martial artist is always keen on the situation he’s in, and being able to read things like body language and the lay of the land will [...]
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How to Fix a Potential Fight Before It Happens
There’s a general principle that seems to stand the test of time, and it goes like this: prevention is better than repair. Many of the disciplines within martial arts take on this attitude – in order to cultivate a true method of self-defense, the wise person lives a peaceful life of confidence and [...]
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Why It’s Important to have a Personal Code
In martial arts, one of the thing many students appreciate is the self-discipline that comes from trying to improve yourself. Many disciplines of martial arts work to instill this kind of self-respect in its students. But why is that so important, and why is having a personal “code” so great? After all, [...]
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Should You Take Up Kickboxing?
When most people think about kickboxing, they don’t necessarily view it as a martial art, but virtually any type of active, physical fighting skills that are developed do indeed count as “martial arts.” So what exactly separates kickboxing from the other popular martial arts you’ve heard of, such as karate or kung fu? [...]
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The Karate Primer: Understanding the Goals of Karate
If you’ve ever seen a movie fight sequence, there’s a good chance you already know what the public perception of “karate” looks like. A hand chop here, a punch and block there; essentially, it looks like choreographed dancing. But in reality, Karate is more than fighting well enough that you look good; it’s about [...]
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How to Use Your Body Weight in Martial Arts
Understanding martial arts can often feel like a study in physics – understanding leverage, force, momentum, and yes, body weight, can make the difference between someone who knows his stuff and someone who’s destined to stay at white belt forever. If you’re a Newtonian at heart (Force = mass times acceleration), then this article [...]
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Three Ways Sparring Improves Your Confidence
In the martial arts, one of the most frequent ways to practice your technique is to introduce real-world fighting in a controlled situation: it’s called sparring. Maybe sparring isn’t always fought at the same intensity that a real-world situation might occur, but sparring is one of the most direct ways that you can [...]
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Five Impressive Facts About Judo
Many people have heard the word “judo,” but only know it as a martial art – how it is distinguished from the other martial arts isn’t clear to them. But those who study judo and other martial arts know that there is a great degree in difference between the fighting forms, and that judo [...]
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Understanding Confidence, Not Cockiness
In the world of martial arts, as with many other pursuits that involve a skill, people want to know the “tricks” right away. They want to know how to punch, how to block, and how to put their fist through a plate of wood. This is similar to an investor who’s just starting [...]
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How to Increase Your Mental Presence in a Sparring Match
Martial arts isn’t always about the kick and the punch: it’s about the mental capacity you have to intimidate and defeat your opponent. Self-belief is just as important as skill; if you doubt that you could ever beat your sparring partner, there’s a good chance you won’t. That’s why having a larger [...]
