Martial Arts and Alternative Facts

We are now in a recognised era of "alternative facts". Truth is the Martial Arts have been in that era for a much longer time. This is a very touchy and controversial subject but it would be remiss of me to shy away from it. To be honest  however, I have never actually cowered from it before, and have made my views fairly public about the misnomer that is "Self defence". At the foot of the page I will link a video for you to look at. I want you to appreciate that this is not an attack on any individual and by no means an attack on someone's level of skill. Infact the video I have chosen to highlight, does the opposite, it shows this particular practitioner to be very skilled indeed. In a previous blog post I have written about how it is important to distinguish between Martial Artists and Fighters. To be clear, I advocate any type of training regime over any type of non-training regime, but we must appreciate that people have a vast spectrum of motivations for engaging in Combat Sports. At one end of the spectrum we have self perfection at the other we have self protection. The vast majority of people seek to find a sweet equilibrium between the two. They are however very different,  although not mutually exclusive by any means. What you can watch at the foot of the page needs to be called out for what it is for fear of misleading. It's a very slick marketing device with fairly decent production values (it does feature interlacing artefacts, but I only spotted that because as a cinema technician that is my day-job). It is not reflective of self defence and should not be associated as such. Again I stress this is not an attack on a clearly skilled individual but be aware that it is a very skilled practitioner in "demo-mode" it is not reality. There is very clear compliance from the training partner allowing for the showcase of individual talent. There is also an element of rehearsal, which I'm not against that either, I've done enough demos over the years to appreciate the need to polish a performance for lesser educated eyes. Using the reference of Bruce Lee in the URL is a fairly callous method of affecting people into that weird submissive type of psychology that we all hold about ourselves ie Bruce Lee was a figure that illustrated physical potential that most of us aren't living up to. So we have this guy as a substitute and by extension a martial system that can make us that way. All fine and well until you understand that the silky fancy moves he executes are well practised and polished and affected as a scenario on a compliant almost docile partner. This for me in a nutshell is the problem with Martial Arts and the ranking system. You are supposed to perform various previously agreed upon scenarios to show how good you are, even though it may not only be contrived but actually detrimental to your health ie taking a gun from someone. It ultimately leads to a false sense of accomplishment and people putting stock in utter bullshit. Watch the video further, into the sparring portion. Again I feel I must state that him doing 1 min rounds against 65 people is admirable and certainly a challenge which illustrates his skill further but look at the the array of technique on display now in comparison to the mad shit he was doing before. It is not forthcoming, he has sought safety in the good old whacking and smacking. He has done this because it is the safer and more efficient method. Not only that but it is the default setting of real people! Through experience we  all learn that risk management, then threat management then (god forbid it be required) crisis management is the real challenge.  This is a much better three step process to safety that we should aim to understand moreover than performing highly adroit fine motor skills under stress. The latter doesn't fuckin' work. If you want to learn how to defend yourself, then learn how to fight. Spar and compete. Hand to hand, toe to toe, tooth and nail. Learn how to punch, learn where and when to punch and above all be prepared to develop the c*nt inside you! It is the vital resource which can tip you to victory. A huge list of techniques will amount to fuck all in terms of self protection. Find a few that work, drill them. Understand the concepts of genuine combative flow and it will serve you much better. Understanding concepts in turn will allow you more freedom of technique. By all means train as many techniques as you want, learn your martial alphabet and create new words but be aware that sometimes a simple "Fuck you" gets the point across perfectly well. Stay safe and don't get stupid!

The Bruce Lee of Krav Maga

A Sermon on Spirituality

Following on from last exciting instalment, I thought that tonight I would write about spirituality. Have you ever been on a night out with friends or a loved one when suddenly the thought occurs "I am actually at the end of my personality for today?" You are perhaps an introverted extrovert, or an extroverted introvert or maybe your soul is just looking for something else? That something else is what I call, your spirituality. I am not a fan of nomenclature as I may have written previously, and even less of a fan when it comes to labelling spirituality:  "I am a psychic medium soul retrieving Shaman, with level 10 skills in Rainbow sorcery"
Good for you. Keep up the good work, whatever that work entails. I am a very spiritual person and offer my respects to anyone who openly speaks of their spirituality but I suffer from internalised scepticism and statement like the one above, I usually find very hard to swallow. That is the problem with spirituality, it is easy to rubbish. That is why it shouldn't be thought about as a separate thing. In my experience and understanding, often the ones that talk so much about it; who easily define it, are either lacking a true understanding of it, or who are outright phoney (#notallmediums #notallshamans.)

I have followed spiritual teachings all my life, brought up by Christian parents I moved on to devour books about Buddhism, eastern philosophy, paganism then more modern philosophies, biocentrism for eg. I even battered around with Atheism for a while, but it didn't suit my desire for answers. I finally settled where I am now, which is not easy to define (see what I did there?) I have my practise which is both a moving meditation, in the form of Tai Chi and Boxing, and I have my still practise which involves surrendering my human sensorium to our more profound celestial nature. Fuck me, you might want to read that sentence again! Anyway, joking aside I use my spirituality to try to relate to not only others but to myself and my place here in our big glorious confusing as fuck planet. I do this because I see it as a catalyst for improving life and because I believe it to be absolutely inherent to our existence. I use my spirituality to also explore my masculinity. The idea of my spirit and the idea of my maleness for me go hand in hand. I have recently been reading Grayson Perry's "The Descent of Man" which allegedly tackles the operations of masculinity. I was told by a good friend that Grayson Perry is a very insightful artist/film maker so the book would be worth a read. It's not! It comes from the same repugnant idea that men are incapable morons that stumble from one disaster to the next, psychologically scarring people in our wake out of nothing more than insensitivity. There is no insight, only recycled misunderstandings of the things that drive a man. As a man I find safety and comfort in results. My exploration of spirituality and of combat sports has provided me with results. These results have made me feel comfortable in my masculinity and driven me on to explore more. Yes no doubt my maleness has pissed people off along the way, and of course I don't necessarily get it right all the time but I have aimed to do it with virtuous intention, both for myself and for others. It is natural for a man to want to fight, not toxic. It only becomes toxic when we fight for the wrong reason. Understanding spirituality gives you a better chance of having the right reason. Until next time, peace and love and have a look at this woman doing yoga at sunset! It has something to do with spirituality.........