Overcoming the Fight or Flight Mechanism: the most vital training you can do!
Southern Praying Mantis Kung Fu Blog
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3y ago
I’ve talked about this before but I really need to talk about this in depth.  The fight or flight mechanism is real and it must be brought under control or you will panic in a confrontation. What brought this to my attention lately had nothing to do with martial arts but was concerned with cold water training.  A friend had told me he was doing the Wim Hof cold shower exercises.  I asked him about the breathing exercises and how he was doing them.  He wasn’t, he was just taking cold showers.  In essence he entirely missed the point of the cold-water training, totally o ..read more
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Developing Core Awareness
Southern Praying Mantis Kung Fu Blog
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3y ago
We are all aware of the mind/body separation that we are supposed to overcome in our training. We want to calm the mind during duress and become one with the body. Through diligent practice we hope to meld the two as one.  We see this as a psychological process that emanates from mental focus to bring the two in harmony.  I think it this awareness goes beyond cognitive practice and is much more prevalent in daily life than you might expect. In the extreme examples of this there is the reaction of some men in war time situations where under the direst circumstances they suddenly becom ..read more
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The Jab:The Bane of Traditional Martial Arts
Southern Praying Mantis Kung Fu Blog
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3y ago
  When I would spar with folks and start jabbing, they’d often reply, “Oh, a boxer, eh”?  I’d tell them no, but I do incorporate it into my fighting.  Most often they would have no idea how to handle it.  For some reason in the traditional arts there is this great disdain for the jab. So, let’s think about this and what the reason for jabbing is.  If you have a stick and a dog is barking and approaching you do you swing at it or poke it?  If there’s an animal lying quietly in your way do you go up to it or poke it with a stick?  You poke it if you have any s ..read more
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Can You Defend Yourself, Really?
Southern Praying Mantis Kung Fu Blog
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3y ago
 “Defend yourself”! “I choose not to”. “You made a statement, now defend it”. “No”. That might sound a little funny to you but this is an actual conversation I had with someone recently. They had made a very strong assertion that I knew to be completely wrong scientifically and I was challenging it.  They would not engage in the discussion and walked away. They had their belief and that was that. This really got me thinking about the idea of self-defense. Self-defense…. The meaning seems obvious right? Just to defend one’s self, your body, right?  But why does that just mean phy ..read more
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The Chinese Dilemma of Mian Zi 面子
Southern Praying Mantis Kung Fu Blog
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3y ago
Here is where societal norms, tradition and culture clash with reality.  In many places in the East saving face is extremely important and affects everyday life from the smallest village to the largest city.  No one ever wants to look like a fool and we want to be respected. There needs to be a balance between ‘I made a mistake’ and “I can’t/shouldn’t be wrong”.  In a society where few people have any true status, just due to the vast numbers, saving or having face, mian zi (面子) is extremely important in everyday life.  This happens to an extreme that most of us westerners ..read more
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The Dichotomy Between Being a Fighter or Martial Artist
Southern Praying Mantis Kung Fu Blog
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3y ago
“There is a difference between a fighter and a martial artist. A fighter is training for a purpose: He has a fight. I'm a martial artist. I don't train for a fight. I train for myself. I'm training all the time. My goal is perfection. But I will never reach perfection.”  Georges St-Pierre Now adays there is this swirling rhetoric about MMA vs traditional arts and the validity of training in either.  There is no doubt that there are a lot of traditional martial artists out there who can’t fight because they never trained in actual fighting.  However, this does not invalidate t ..read more
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My Observations On What Happens When You Actually Start to Fight....And Lose
Southern Praying Mantis Kung Fu Blog
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3y ago
Many martial artists go through their entire training career with having never truly tested in a real fight. They spend their lives in blissful ignorance and a false sense of security believing in their ability because it has never been actually challenged.  They have a very strong belief in their teacher and the effectiveness of their art.  Some believe that their skill level is so advanced that they cannot spar because they would kill their opponent.  That may seem farfetched but I have experienced that first hand myself.  “Dude, I’d spar with you but my level is so advan ..read more
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Once Again I Stress the Importance of Sparring.....Hopefully More Convincing This Time
Southern Praying Mantis Kung Fu Blog
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3y ago
I was flying back from working fights in Vegas recently and reflecting once again on the role of sparring and martial arts, particularly kung fu.  I have often stressed the importance of it and how it trains the mind for the type of stress that only real fighting brings.  You don’t need to be bashing each other’s brains out to get this but you do have to bring on real pressure and threat, though controlled. I have tried many times to bring this home to people but just always seem to fall short.  But here I am on an airplane looking at the cockpit door and voila! It hits me.  ..read more
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You Do Not Win Attacks/Fights, You Survive Them
Southern Praying Mantis Kung Fu Blog
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3y ago
A few years ago I was having a conversation with Eran Bert, who is an Israeli martial artist who trains the military and elite body guards in Israel.  We were talking about the distinction between sports fighting and real life and death attack.  He made the comment that in real life confrontations ‘you don’t win fights, you survive them.’  This really made me think. This is a very important distinction.  A fight in the ring ends with a decision or a KO and the goal is to win. If you don’t win you go home to train again.  In a life and death battle you either survive it ..read more
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Should You Spar?  Absolutely Not.......unless you actually want to win a fight......
Southern Praying Mantis Kung Fu Blog
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3y ago
After almost 50 years in martial arts I can tell you that I am vehemently against sparring……when you first begin training. Why?  Because until you learn to control your flinching and fear reflexes you are not really gaining anything you're just doing everything you can to protect yourself and not get hit.  You don’t learn in this situation. I’ve seen many schools start sparring within one or two days of enrolling.  This is insane.  You don’t start football on the gridiron or swimming by jumping in the ocean.  You start in a controlled safe environment as you develop th ..read more
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