Samurai Flash Game

~武德为首, Martial Art Virtue comes first

Collge Dorm Safety

From: Women on Guard

When most people think of college safety they picture the student that is out and about campus grounds. But what we sometimes fail to think about is the college dorm environment.

Students can be intruded upon while they are in their dorms as well as outside. If you are a student or a parent of a student in college, you should consider a small item to add to the rest of the college supplies for safety.

A college dorm room would be a safer place to study and sleep if it had a door alarm. There are a variety of affordable door alarms available on the market today.

One of the most popular is the Door Stop Alarm. It’s perfect for dorm rooms or even hotel rooms and apartments for that matter! It actually works like the old rubber door stops that were so popular years ago, but it also has an alarm that sounds if someone tries to come in. You just simply place it under the door! The Door Stop Alarm also has an on/off switch that prevents it from sounding accidentally and a sensitivity switch which prevents tampering. If an intruder attempts to open the door, the wedge-shaped design will prevent it from opening and activate a 120 db alarm.

Another popular dorm room alarm is the Personal Alarm with Flashing Light. This is mostly a 130db alarm that you can carry with you wherever you go, but it also has the added bonus of being able to be used as a door or even window alarm! It has 2 accessory pieces that when attached to the alarm allows it to be adjusted for different situations. One of the accessories is a cord that attaches to the alarm and is clipped to your belt, backpack, purse or wrapped around your wrist. If someone attempts to take it from you, the alarm and flashing light gets activated. The other accessory can be used on doors and even windows. When either of these entrances has the alarm connected to it and it is opened, the alarm goes off and the light flashes. This particular connector can also be placed under a laptop, for example, if someone tries to lift and take it, it also will sound the alarm and flash the light!

Lastly, a personal 116db alarm called the Sport Strobe Personal Alarm by Mace is also one to consider for safety. It’s features are similar to the previous alarm but the flashing light can also be turned on as a constant light by pressing a small button on the side of the unit.

All of these alarms are small, very affordable and easy to use. These door alarms deter any intruder from sneaking into a college dorm.

~武德为首, Martial Art Virtue comes first

Samurai Vs Baseball

~武德为首, Martial Art Virtue comes first

Twitter Suspension

Our twitter is suspended for the moment, please bear with us while we clear this up.

Meanwhile, this blog will still be updated as usual.

Help clear us up by tweeting and mentioning us "Please lift @martialartdaily from twitter suspension" or something like that.

Thanks all for the help

~武德为首, Martial Art Virtue comes first

The Value of Striking First

From: Ikigaiway

Last weekend I had the chance to train in DaitoRyu Aikijujutsu. DaitoRyu is a branch of the jujutsu family and was developed by Takeda Sokaku. One of the most famous students of Sokaku was Morihei Ueshiba, the founder of Aikido.

During our training the instructor presented us with various self defense situations, and from time to time would ask us to show him how we would react. During each event I did my best to apply solid techniques as quickly as possible.

Eventually the instructor said to me, “That’s good, but you’re making a lot of assumptions aren’t you? You’re thinking he’s going to stand that still, be that loose, and let you do these techniques without a rough struggle? You gotta hit him hard. bang! Loosen him up, then apply your technique.”

At first I was a little embarrassed because an aikijujutsu instructor had to remind me, a karate guy, to do some hitting. But then I realized that he wasn’t providing advice from a stylistic perspective, but from real-life experience, having dealt with conflict most of his life through law enforcement in the Bronx.

The Value of Striking

The art side of martial arts can be a bit ensnaring. With a skilled, cooperate partner, it’s easy to come up with extremely impressive techniques. Over years of practice, we can develop an almost “magic-like” effectiveness as we learn the exact buttons to push on our fellow practitioners. Unfortunately, this cooperation also leads to bad assumptions about how violence and struggle actually takes place.

When dealing with true conflict, you can never be sure of the physical or mental state of an opponent. An assailant could have steely arms which make wrist locks useless. They could be tweeked on mind bending drugs, nullifying any pain-inducing techniques. Their nervous system could be just a bit different than you expect, making your vital point strikes inefficient.

In unpredictable situations, you want the most reliable and simple techniques possible – and in most cases those techniques are going to begin with hard striking.

Starting With Strikes

The problem with beginning your self defense with wrist locks, escapes, throws, or other maneuvers is that you haven’t done anything to disrupt the mental rhythm of your opponent. As you move, there is nothing stopping them from adjusting and moving with you. Of course, your technique might still work, but you’re relying on the inability of your opponent to cope rather than utterly stopping their ability to cope.

A hard strike to a vulnerable part of your opponent’s body will immediately shift their train of thought from attacking you to dealing with the injury you’ve inflicted. As their brain is being fed alert signals from the damaged part of the body, you can swiftly move into your jujutsu, judo, or aikido technique since the overall strength and tenacity of your opponent is temporarily nullified.

The Importance of Location

Striking just anywhere isn’t going to do it. There are some individuals who are in such great shape that you can slam them as hard as you want in the pecs, abs, arms, and thighs and they won’t be slowed down by it. Instead, strikes have to come quick and hard to vulnerable locations like the throat, eyes, ears, groin, and joints.

Even for opponent’s who are enraged or on drugs, a balance inhibiting box to the ears or blinding jab to the eyes will give you an immediate advantage.

A Practice Tip

When learning self defense, even at a beginner level, always utilize some sort of distraction. Even if you are trying to learn a specific joint lock or throw, start off with something that will freeze your opponent’s mental state. Good self defense comes from good practice, and if you drill distractions into your routine there is a much better chance they will be there when you need it.

For non-striking practitioners such as aikidoka or judoka, stick to your curriculum but try to learn from other styles that do utilize striking.

~武德为首, Martial Art Virtue comes first

Fastest KO in MMA 3 Secs

~武德为首, Martial Art Virtue comes first

How effective are your blocks?

From: Ikigaiway

The quickest way to get hit by a good fighter is to block them.

Can you visualize what happened just a moment before this picture was snapped? The leftside downward block should give you a big clue. The kicker sold the defender completely on a low technique – probably snapping a front kick before rolling right into a high roundhouse.

The defender deflected the initial attack, but in the process hung himself out to dry for the follow up.

Independent Blocks Will Get You In Trouble!

So why exactly did our wayward defender get rocked? The answer is that he relied on independent blocking.

During basics training, we move up and down the dojo floor practicing our blocks. Left hand blocks high, right hand blocks high, left hand blocks low, right hand blocks low, etc. This drilling is critical to learning good technique, but can also leave practitioners disjointed if they never learn how to integrate it into more natural movement.

Skilled fighters will be able to notice disjointed blocking and capitalize on it immediately. Let me further explain through the magic of stick figure drawing:

As you can see, a disjointed block is really when one arm or leg moves to create a block without the rest of the body doing something useful.

Generating these kinds of openings is a huge staple of fighting, and tournament combatants have made entire careers on knowing how to do it. The more you are able to dictate the movements of your opponent the more you command a fight. What that means is, as defenders, we have to do our best to eliminate falling into these traps.

It is impossible to know what exactly our opponents are going to do. Furthermore, it is wasted mental energy trying to figure it out. If you are constantly trying to analyze and asses the intentions of your opponent, you give him/her the opportunity to dictate the essence of the fight. You will always be a half step behind. Eventually it will catch up to you and you will get overrun.

Fixing The Blocking Problem

In order to fix a problem with reactionary, independent blocking, you have to understand the nature of tactics. Tactics are designed to make you move in a certain way and dictate your train of thought. So that means if your opponent punches low, he wants you to block low in order to create an opening for his/her next attack (or if you’re not fast enough, to actually hit you low).

To nullify the effectiveness of these tactics you have to learn to cover zones and control centerline.

Let’s say you have one hand high covering your facial region, and one low covering your midsection. If the opponent steps in with a low kick or punch and you drop your high hand to block it, you must develop the habit of rotating your bottom hand high to cover the zone you just left open. By cycling your hands in this fashion, you never leave a clear opening even for a quick second attack.

In addition to covering your zones properly, you must develop a good sense of centerline (and distancing) to foil the intentions of your attacker. To use the same example as above, if the attacker comes in with a low kick, instead of blocking at all, you have the option of moving just slightly backward out of range and leaving your hands completely unmoved. At most the kick will graze your bottom hand, which is there to cover anyway.

At this point your defense is completely unaffected by the opponent’s tactic, which means his next attack will be very manageable and unsurprising to you. As he comes in with that high punch, your defense is still in place, which means you can gently brush the punch aside as you step in with your own attack.

This distance and centerline control is also critical when moving side-to-side and on the 45’s.

The key to beating a superior tactician in sparring is to not play the game at all. As they try to invoke movement in you, your superior control of distancing and timing combined with a calm mind can allow you to move in very small increments, and capitalize on openings created by their complex intentions.

Never move your guard unless you have to or unless you want to create an intentional opening. Many people are amazed at how much excess blocking and moving they do simply because their body tells them that they SHOULD block. If a kick comes grazing near your head but never touches you, there is no reason to block. If a person punches at you but is just out of range, no need to block.

Become an enigma of simplicity! Conserve your movement and wait patiently for the right time to be aggressive.

Training Tip:

Find someone in your dojo who has good control. Have them come in at you with attacks while you are in your on-guard posture. Make sure you are guarding your high zone and low zone, however it is you like to do that. Have your partner come in with various controlled attacks and practice avoiding the attacks with minimal movement. Keep your hands as still as possible, brushing attacks aside just enough so that they barely miss you. Don’t commit to blocking and don’t chase their attacks. Be as simple as possible and if you have to drop or raise a hand, make sure to cycle the other hand to cover the exposed zone.

This drill is all about feeling. Feel just how little you need to do to move outside, around, or in front of their techniques. Keep your legs underneath you and ready to spring backward, frontward, or to the side. With your body doing so little, your mind will be free to notice the cues the opponent is sending when they are about to attack (or are in a position of weakness), and since you are still in a position of strength, you’ll be able to act and dominate.

~武德为首, Martial Art Virtue comes first