Another year has ended and once again we are met with great and terrible combat sports moments. Title fights have been fought, legacies have been started, great legacies have ended. Today though, we’re going to look at the most ridiculous moments. The moments that make us all question why we even watch combat sports in the first place. From terrible business decisions, to fandoms divorced from reality, to the downright bizarre moments. The Jake Paul Hate Train I have spent an unhealthy amount of time writing about how Jake Paul, literally, did nothing wrong. Yet the hate train surrounding this man crossed the border into straight up delusion, when people in their droves try to claim that every Jake Paul bout is fixed. That every opponent he faces takes a dive, and that he will lose when he finally faces a ‘real’ boxer, ignoring Anderson Silva’s win over Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. Every time Jake Paul fights a new opponent, the goal posts are moved further. The hate train gets dumber, and the more it seems that Paul has some legitimate ability as a fighter. You can read more on this in “Well, It’s Time To Defend Jake Paul”. Aldo at Elevation Jose Aldo retired, leaving behind an unparalleled record at featherweight. Aldo fought all-comers and dominated the division in a reign that subsequent champions haven’t even come close to surpassing. Jose Aldo also struggles with cardio. Yet the UFC decided for his final fight, his retirement fight, that the entire bout should be fought in Salt Lake City, Utah, at an elevation of almost 1300 feet. Needless to say, cardio ended up being a factor, causing the great champion to retire on a wholly avoidable loss. Sean Strickland’s Gameplan vs Alex Pereira Sean Strickland should have beaten Alex Pereira, he had to do simply one thing, shoot for a takedown and best his opponent on the ground. We would soon learn that Alex Pereira could be outwrestled by a fellow kickboxer. So dedicated MMA fighter Sean Strickland could surely do the job, right? Instead Sean Strickland decided to strike with Alex Pereira, with his chin high in the air, and then was legitimately surprised that he was knocked out by the kickboxers left hook. Keep in mind, Alex Pereira is known for this power. During a press conference, Sean Strickland kept referring to Israel Adesanya, then champion, and seemed to be looking passed Pereira. The Champion, who had fought Pereira twice before, said plainly ‘he will sleep you’. And that he did. Anthony Joshua’s Passive Aggressive Meltdown After losing the rematch to Oleksandr Usyk, Anthony Joshua seemingly snapped. While emotions were understandably high, Anthony Joshua’s bizarre speech left everyone wondering exactly what was going through his head. He congratulated Usyk on his win and got the audience to ‘hip hip hooray’ him in a passive aggressive affair – said that Usyk’s work in the Ukrainian war was admirable, but spent most of the time talking about himself and how big and powerful he is. It for all the world looked like Joshua had prepared a victory speech, which he then had to re-work after losing. Usyk spent the whole time looking rather awkward and embarrassed, although whether it was for himself or Joshua is up for debate. DK Yoo vs Manny Pacquaio All outrage towards Jake Paul, should instead be directed towards DK Yoo’s truly ridiculous exhibition bouts. As a matter of fact, I put off writing this article purely in anticipation of this exhibition. I knew from the get go, that it would make it in. DK Yoo continues his weird exhibition boxing bouts, where he gets beaten up in an attempt to prove that his brand of martial arts is legit. His last bout against former UFC fighter Brad Scott showed that DK Yoo’s real struggle was less defending himself, and more understanding the rules of boxing. This fight was similar to the Scott match, in that Yoo essentially backpedaled and clinched as much as he could, while the referee did everything in his power to help Yoo out. Pacquaio was mostly sparring, until he wasn’t, would light Yoo up, the referee would step in for some arbitrary reason. Rince. Repeat. Terrible. You can complain about Jake Paul’s fights, but at least he actually fights , rather than avoiding the opponent the whole time, even in the context of an exhibition. These were just a few of the most headscratching moments for me this year. Although they are certainly not the only ones. We can only imagine what the next year will hold.

Time Magazine announced their prestigious year end awards . Tuesday and a name long familiar to martial arts movie fans was among the honorees. Michelle Yeoh, who first came to prominence teaming up with Black Belt hall of famer Cynthia Rothrock in the 1985 Hong Kong release "Yes, Madam," was named as Time's 2022 Icon of the Year . Though not originally trained in martial arts , Yeoh had a background as a ballet dancer and worked with various expert trainers for her roles in numerous kung fu movies, including training in wing chun for "Wing Chun" and tai chi for her role in the Academy Award-winning wuxia film "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." Over the years, Yeoh's appeared alongside many of the biggest names in the martial arts movie industry including Jackie Chan and Jet Li. Her most recent film , the critically acclaimed "Everything Everywhere All at Once," is a genre bending fantasy that includes elements of comedy, science fiction, animation and, of course, martial arts, which may earn her an Academy Award nomination for best actress.

In the nearly 50 years since Bruce Lee's death, there have been a host of theories as to what killed the martial arts star, everything from ninja assassins to smoking too much weed. But now a group of Spanish researchers claim to have uncovered the real culprit behind Lee's death: too much water. In a study published in the Clinical Kidney Journal , the researchers offer evidence that a condition called "hyponatraemia," an inability by Lee's kidneys to excrete excess water, was what led to his July 1973 death in Hong Kong. The official cause of Lee's death was listed as cerebral edema, a swelling of the brain, and attributed to an allergic reaction to a painkiller called Equagesic. But the new study notes Lee felt unwell before taking the painkiller - possible evidence of brain swelling prior to ingesting the drug - and that there were no additional symptoms of an allergic reaction present in the autopsy. Examining other possible causes of death, such as epilepsy and heat stroke, the study indicates these seem unlikely as well. Instead, the researchers said Lee had several risk factors that made him a candidate for hyponatraemia including excessive fluid intake (he appears to have been on what's described as "a fluid-based diet"), he had factors like marijuana usage that may have increased his thirst even more and he had recently been drinking more alcohol and taking several drugs which could have decreased his kidneys' ability to excrete water. As the paper notes, it's ironic that the man who popularized the motto "be water" may have died from too much of it.

In the 1950s, Jack LaLane was a huge advocate for health and fitness on TV. ‘The Jack LaLane Show’ would feature LaLane as he talked about proper nutrition, exercise and how you could do it yourself at home. The irony was that at the time, LaLane’s advice of ‘exercise regular, eat lots of vegetables and cut out processed food’ was actually controversial. Doctors, who at the time were promoting cigarettes, were saying that LaLane’s advice was bad for your health. LaLane would advise women to lift weights, while the notion at the time was that lifting weights would make women look masculine, as though it were so easy. When LaLane opened the first chain of gyms in the USA, Doctors said that training like LaLane would just leave you ‘muscle bound’. While today, the phrase muscle bound is a compliment, at the time, the idea was that becoming muscular would actually cause health problems, making you slow and reducing your joint mobility.- something that martial artists still warn about today, despite it evidently being untrue. Why Do Martial Artists Avoid Weights? This is largely a problem in the US, as opposed to Europe and Asia, but the main reason simply comes down to laziness. In America when you step into a martial arts school, you’re going to see a lot of people with high-ranking belts that are seriously overweight. It’s not just the issue of McDojo’s but also the misconception that the US has about martial arts. In Asia, martial arts and fitness come hand in hand together. You must be working out in order to succeed in martial arts, a strong body leads to good martial arts. In the US it’s instead thought that ‘martial arts helps the weak beat the strong’ which isn’t really true in any meaningful way. This difference between ‘martial arts making you strong’ and ‘making you beat the strong’ is key here. It’s very easy to lazy people who don’t want to work out and become fitter and stronger to hide behind the illusion that they do not need to do it, and that their martial arts skills will carry them. We then have outdated beliefs, that training with weight will ‘slow you down’. There really aren’t two sides to this discussion, it simply isn’t true. When people watch bodybuilders slowly fail to fight, this gets attributed to them being ‘too big’, when in actuality it’s because the bodybuilder simply isn’t a trained fighter and it slower by default. Heavyweights like Alistair Overeem and Brock Lesnar were known for their huge size, and they were by no means slow. Why Martial Artists Should Weight Train? LaLane was known for his impressive lean muscle, in an era before steroids, and for his impressive feats of strength while swimming. Given the sort of life he led, it’s somewhat unusual that he wasn’t a martial artist. If he had been one, I can only imagine he would have been a success. LaLane spent time around professional wrestlers, as in the early 1900s there was a large crossover between bodybuilding, strongman lifting, and pro wrestling. Wrestlers were some of the only martial artists that were aware that lifting weights brought clear benefits. Weight training improved strength and joint health, which leads to more strength and power to move through different movements, whether its grappling or striking. There are direct cross overs between the three key lifts of bench press, squat and deadlift and any serious grappling art like judo, Greco, or Sambo. When it comes to striking, pulling exercises like deadlifts and rows train the lats which are key in delivering powerful punches, assuming you’re punching with correct technique. Squats will do the same, training strength and mobility in the hips to improve kick and knee strikes. The raw truth is that the most successful martial artists are not the ones who live in the world of hypothetical ‘self defence’ from the comfort of a gym. They are the ones that go out and actually compete, from Judo competition to Kyokushin knock down tournaments. All of these martial arts athletes use some sort of weight training, because the benefits are objective. If you want to be the best martial artist you can possibly be, that includes pushing the limits of what your body is capable of doing. Why you aren’t going to become ‘too big’ Another common excuse given for not lifting is the fear of becoming ‘too big’. This excuse has no place in reality. The process of building muscle and size takes months to years and even then, you will only see real changes when you’re training each muscle group twice a week and getting about 0.8g protein per pound of bodyweight. Most people simply will not lift enough to develop real muscle size and definition, but you don’t have to be bodybuilding in order to see results in your strength and fitness. If you want to body build, then you have to put in the conscious effort to actually do it, and if that makes you happy, you should do it – but for martial artists just lifting regular to improve strength and maintain fitness is more than enough.

Many of the worst injuries from street violence don’t result from the punch that knocks someone out; they result from the head hitting the ground when the person falls. A 6-foot-tall man’s head drops six feet to the asphalt, perhaps smacking a car, a curb or a trash can along the way. Ugh. Here are a few street-fighting tips that will prevent that from happening to you: Training Tip #1: Incorporate Contact Into Your Practice of Self-Defense Moves In the past, I’ve written about the importance of incorporating contact as a part of your overall training in self-defense moves. It reduces anxiety over being punched at and hit, it provides a controlled opportunity to test your “chin,” and it develops your mental toughness to fight through anxiety, fear and pain. Instructors who don’t include honest, real-time, reciprocal contact in self-defense training improperly lead their students to believe they can’t or won’t be hit catastrophically, that they won’t be hit multiple times as they execute self-defense moves or that every situation can be handled pre-emptively before getting hit. Most bona-fide medical authorities agree knockouts are caused in one of two ways: When the head is struck, it accelerates in a way that results in rotational movement of the brain inside the skull, or when the head hits something solid, it stops instantly, again resulting in rotational movement of the brain inside the skull. Training Tip #2: Guard Your Head It’s essential to protect your head, face and chin in a fight. Although you can take some serious punches straight to your forehead because of the resistance provided by the musculature of the neck, you’re far less able to resist rotational force applied to your chin from either side (hook punch), obliquely (cross) or from underneath (uppercut) because your chin provides more leverage to those strikes. Here’s a graphic visual image for emphasis: Imagine a Nerf ball with a pencil stuck in it. When you hit the ball, it moves away but doesn’t necessarily spin. When you hit the pencil, the ball spins. When you hit the pencil faster and harder, the ball moves away and spins, violently accelerating from rest to maximum spin. Make sense? Training Tip #3: Keep Your Hands Up Any striking coach knows that one of the most important first lessons is to keep your hands up and always protect your chin. Why? Well, partly because of what I just said but also because practitioners of the striking arts — in particular, boxing and muay Thai — actually hit each other. A lot. Consequently, they have to protect themselves from the very beginning of their training. In contrast, a lot of self-defense moves initiate from a grabbing attack or from being punched at, not necessarily hit. Sure, people get grabbed on the street (“yoking” someone up), so there’s a legitimate need to know how to break grabs, but grabbing usually precedes punching by milliseconds. Besides, nobody gets knocked out solely by being grabbed. Ever hear someone say about a fighter, “He’s got a puncher’s chance”? That means the fighter swings hard, wild and often, and he might catch his opponent on the chin, jaw or temple and knock him out. It happens all the time — one guy bends at the waist, drops his head and looks at the ground, then “swims” in at his opponent, swinging for the fences. The other guy stands tall, sways and moves straight back to get away but lifts his chin in the process and — bang! — he catches one on the jaw and drops like a stone. Oops. You get the opposite outcome when someone swims forward but the other guy stays cool and covers, protecting his chin, then angles in and unloads an uppercut or cross to his chin. Boom! The swimmer face-plants, unconscious. Training Tip #4: Keep Your Cool Don’t succumb to your emotions when you get jumped or hit. Anger and rage are useful to fuel ferocity, to cement your resolve, but don’t lose your cool. That’s when you’re likely to forget you have a chin and need to protect it. Can you “condition” your chin? I don’t know, and I don’t know that anyone else knows, either. There’s data to suggest strengthening your neck muscles helps somewhat — although no authoritative source is able to quantify how much or how it would affect outcomes when executing self-defense moves. Training Tip #5: Use Your Best Judgment Beware of questionable advice like “Dude, you need to take repeated shots to the head to get used to it.” Even more familiar and accepted advice like “Learn to roll with the punch” (moving away from a blow while snapping your head away to bleed off energy) is easier said than done, given how fast punches are thrown and that you probably won’t see them all. On the street, without the benefit of headgear and gloves that effectively double the surface area of your hands when you block, you’re better off being evasive and avoiding getting hit, or covering up and putting as much mass as possible between fist and target. Work on developing an effective, dynamic guard with similarly motivated partners. Video your practice of self-defense moves so you can identify your shortfalls. It’s a great way to avoid waking up on your back, looking up at a streetlight and wondering how the hell you got there. About the Author: Kelly McCann has studied and taught combatives for 25 years. He provides training to U.S. government, law-enforcement and military personnel. He is the author of the best-selling book

Last month I wrote about how to use Muay Thai for practical self defense . I still maintain that as far as a pure striking art goes, Muay Thai (along with boxing) are the most practical for self defense, because they are the simplest and emphasise sparring with those simple techniques. However there are several harsh truths about self defense that I need to talk about today. This article will likely not make me any friends, but I’m not writing to please people. I’m writing to state the truth. Self defense is a matter of life and death, and far too many martial artists delude themselves into believing and promoting unreliable and dangerous ideas when it comes to the street. Today we’ll be going through these harsh truths one by one and explaining them. This article will likely annoy many martial artists, but it all has to be said. Harsh Truth 1: Your martial art is USELESS unless you practise regular hard sparring. If your martial art cannot stand up to pressure testing in the context of MMA, or some other full contact sport, your martial art does not work. The only way you can know if you are able to take a punch, is by taking one. The only way you know you’re able to land a punch is by doing it, over and over again, in a live environment. Drills do not prepare you for self defense. Kata does not prepare you for self defense. No martial arts practise that relies on a hypothetical will prepare you for self defense. The only thing that can prepare you to defend yourself, is actually having to do it in a live combat situation, and the closest you will get to that is in real hard sparring where you do run the risk of getting a broken nose. There is no other alternative, anyone who claims otherwise is wrong. Combat sports cannot fully prepare you for a fight on the street, as there are so many variables at play – but they train more reliable, high percentage techniques that are guaranteed to work for you in a fight. Harsh Truth 2: Knife and gun disarms to not work in real life. There are many ‘self defense programs’ or ‘street martial arts’ that will train you to disarm a weapon bare handed. These techniques do not work. In real life an attacker with a knife does not make a deliberate swing at you, which you can then grab and disarm. In real life a knife wielder lunges at you and will stab rapidly, dozens of times. You will not be able to stop them all. You will most likely not be able to stop even one, as knife disarms teach ridiculous hypotheticals in which you’re able to stop the knife and then turn it on the opponent. These drills also imply that you already know the attacker has a knife. In real life it will likely be concealed until the last moment. Attempted to disarm a knife will get you killed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBBahcNMSDI&ab_channel=UFPRO There is ever so slightly more leeway with guns, as a gun is only dangerous if the barrel is pointing at you. For the most part though the principle remains the same. Harsh Truth 3: TMA ‘Illegal Techniques’ do not work in real life The excuse that TMA practitioners always give for why their martial arts have not been successful in combat sports, is that their techniques are ‘too deadly’ to use in competition. The eye poke is banned, the finger break is bad, the throat punch is banned (a particularly silly one as head kicks nearly always actually land on the neck). If these techniques are ‘too deadly’ to use in a sport, then that means they are too deadly to be used in training. Am I to believe that these deadly banned techniques, are so dangerous that you cannot use them in competition, but that you would practise them for real against a partner in training? This is ridiculous, what happens in real life is that illegal throat chop is practised in super slow motion, against a compliant partner, and no one is hurt. That technique is NEVER trained full contact and as a result is useless. There are some martial artists who have build their entire egos around their martial art being so deadly that it can’t even be used. If it can’t be used, then that means the practitioner has never used it. That means that it doesn’t work. If the martial art does not have a thriving combat sport where bones can be broken for real – the martial art is not worth using – and it will certainly not save your life in a street fight. Harsh Truth 4: Women’s self defense courses do not work. Here is a sad truth, while men are statistically more likely to be the victim of a violent crime, women undoubtedly fear it more. It’s a completely reasonable fear, after all women are typically smaller and weaker than men and as a result will look into self defense options. Unfortunately, the reality of women’s self defense classes are nonsense courses that effectively teach a woman how to get assaulted. They will teach aforementioned bogus techniques like eye gouges and finger breaks, or God forbid those same knife and gun disarms. Of course, there is no full contact sparring either, as these courses want to create a ‘friendly’ environment, even though that friendly environment teach bad practises that can lead to death if used in an emergency. Women who want to learn self defense, need to learn in a proper combat sport. Whether its muay thai, judo or boxing – the only way to learn to defend yourself is to learn how to fight for real. A Word on ‘Opinions’ This article is harsh, and it is harsh for a good reason. As a martial artist, as a teacher and as a writer, I need people reading to know what is real and what is fantasy. Which is why my piece on how to use Muay Thai for self defense always emphasized de-escalation and running before any proper combat. There is a common fallacy, that every opinion is equally valid. This is not true. This is not my opinion vs the opinion of other equally knowledgeable martial artists. The sort of martial artists, and self defense “gurus” who encourage the very ideas I have fought against in this article are wrong . Which is why Bas Rutten is such a good person to listen to. Being publicly very critical of self-proclaimed defense gurus who encourage dangerous practises. https://blackbeltmag.com/bas-rutten-disses-dale-brown There are opinions, and there are facts. These harsh truths are based in fact. Train hard. Train safe. Be aware of hucksters.

Where should your focus be? These days, people seem to use the term “self-defense” as a catch-all. It’s become so overused that it has lost its meaning. We can google “self-defense” and discover thousands of classes that claim to teach self-defense for women, children, grandparents and even dogs.This kind of instruction is important and valid, but it can miss the key concepts of self-protection, concepts that are designed to help you avoid conflict in the first place. People often discuss self-protection and self-defense as if they’re interchangeable. They are not. And the difference could help save someone’s life. As a mom, a daughter and someone who was kidnapped at a young age, I can say without a doubt that self-protection has kept me alive. Let me explain how. When should we rely on “self-defense” vs. “self-protection?” Let’s dig a little deeper into the meanings of the two terms and why it might be important to teach our loved ones and students the difference. Self: “A person’s essential being that distinguishes them from others, especially considered as the object of introspection or reflexive action” (Oxford Dictionary) When we are afraid, we become self-centered. All animals share this characteristic. It’s an important survival mechanism. What we do with this self-centeredness is key to our survival. Defense: “The action of defending from or resisting attack” (Oxford Dictionary) Defense often involves machines, tools, guns and tactics for defending one’s home — as in warfare. We can trace some forms of self-defense back to our hunter-gatherer ancestors. Protection: “The action of protecting, or the state of being protected. A person or thing that prevents someone or something from suffering harm or injury” (Oxford Dictionary) Here, the word “protection” invokes planning ahead, which can include preparing borders around one’s home, learning forms of self-defense in case they’re needed, understanding the attacker’s intention before he or she attacks, and ultimately avoiding conflict. As martial artists, we know that it takes years of practice to master self-defense moves. These can include pressure points, strikes, joint locks, kicks and weapons techniques. To know where to grip a joint, apply pressure on a nerve or execute an effective kick takes years of discipline. They require masterful teachers and embodied techniques. The purpose of these techniques is to fend off an attacker. They require knowledge of a skill set that understands which technique to execute when. For example, if you have developed your wrists and fingers to choke, you understand that you must be in close proximity to the attacker to execute such a technique with a chance of success. For the vast majority of the population, joint locks, pressure points, weapons, and hand and foot techniques are not in their toolbox. When one attempts to engage in self-defense without proper training, it can fail — and it might be too late to redirect the attacker at that point. On the other hand, every one of us can include forms of self-protection in our toolbox. For example, one of the most important techniques of modern self-protection is to know your surroundings. When you’re walking alone, are you aware of the space behind your body and to the sides? Do you ever pause to assess your surroundings? In Jungshin Fitness, we use the technique of directional-momentum sword training to teach the body and mind to maintain awareness of all elements of spatial distance (strengthening our proprioceptors). Other techniques that help train people in self-protection include the following: • Energy manners: How do you walk into crowds and engage with others? Are you invasive with your personality and energy? Do you allow your ki (internal energy) to spill over into the public domain? We can contain ourselves by making ourselves small or big depending on the situation. • Meditation: It aids in the ability of the brain (an organ) to react quickly if needed. When the mind is clear, the response can be immediate. • Good nutrition: A body weighed down with gluten and sugar causes the nervous system to be less aware than when the body runs efficiently with enough water, breath and healthy foods that support the internal organs. • Regular training in forms (kata): Kata are a type of “moving meditation” that keeps the mind focused, calm and aware in all directions. If I had not studied martial arts for 30 years, I would not feel comfortable with a choking technique as my go-to move for self-defensive. I would never want to get that close to an opponent. I still don’t! That is why I focus on self-protection. Knowing how to stay in my own zone and practicing the aforementioned techniques form the most important skill set you need to avoid conflict. The next time you’re rushing, shopping or getting the kids out of the house, see if you can apply a pause technique and notice how your surroundings respond. This small step in self-protection will have a huge impact. I hope incorporating these techniques into your practice contributes to your journey on the path to your best protected, but friendly, self. Be the warrior you are!

For better or worse, your mind is powerful. It can be the mighty blade which helps you cut through the obstacles of life or it can be the debilitating handicap freezing you in place during a stressful event. Over the years, many intelligent people have come up with methods and strategies to better understand and manipulate this tool we call the human mind. From these, there are two major concepts that have risen to prominence within the world of self-defense and martial arts. Want a quick way to build your awareness? Want to stay a step ahead of your assailant? This article is here to give you the mental keys to exactly that. A Colorful Language White, yellow, orange, and red. These aren’t just the colors of Bob Ross’ Sunset Aglow, these are the colors that will help you understand your mind and stay alive. These are the colors with which late Marine Lt. Colonel Jeff Cooper cataloged peril and the readiness of a person’s mind. In one of the most useful ways for those dealing with life and death situations, he described the mental states as such: ● White = Unaware ● Yellow = Relaxed awareness ● Orange = Focused attention ● Red = Engaged and ready In the White state, a person is oblivious. In an era of social media and non-stop entertainment on our wrists and in our palms, this is a common and deadly mental state to be in. A person wandering around downtown at night with AirPods lodged in their ears and painfully unaware of their surroundings is prime picking for a crime.Just as you are most susceptible to injury from the punch you don’t see coming, you are most susceptible to crime in the environment you pay the least attention to. In Condition Yellow, you are at ease yet also present-minded and aware. You aren’t living in paranoia, you are simply attentive to your environment and the people around you. There may not be a certain threat yet, however you are better equipped in this state if one does arise. Consider this to be the mindset of a bodyguard or bouncer when not occupied with a current situation. In Condition Orange, things get more interesting. You are alert to a more specific potential threat. A person is getting too close for comfort or a corner of the room seems to be getting too rowdy. At this point, you should be taking pre-emptive steps to set yourself up for safety. Perhaps you orient towards an exit or ensure you are in a posture which will help you stay balanced and protected. In Condition Red, it’s go time! As the alarms are blaring in your head and the situation is unfolding, you are primed to do what needs done. In this phase, you are engaged with the threat and have to take action. You fight, you flee, you do what needs to be done in order to stay alive. A fifth Color Code, Condition Black, is sometimes unofficially added in to further denote combat in progress or a freeze response (i.e. immobilized by panic or overwhelm). In this case, a distinction often gets made between the readiness to act of Condition Red and the decision to act of Condition Black. Regardless of the number of conditions, these Cooper Color Codes are a helpful way to train your mentality for self defense and martial arts training. It isn’t about assessing the danger a situation may provide, it is a method that enables you to break yourself out of an oblivious or reluctant mentality. Lifesaving action requires a proper mentality. If you are freaking out or frozen in a mental loop, your chances of survival seriously dwindle. Heck, even Traditional Chinese Medicine says that the Yi (mind/intention) is an essential element in the process of manifesting Li (muscular force). Throughout your day, you can ask yourself what Cooper Color Code you are in. Try not to fall into Condition White. People in this phase aren’t just social zombies, they are the most likely to lose their money and lose their life. Of Flying Footballs and Fists Watch out! If a football comes hurtling towards you, what are you apt to do? OK, Tom Brady – you caught the ball (or at least tried to). Good job. But that’s not really all that happens in that type of situation. According to the late United States Air Force Colonel John Boyd, whenever we are in the midst of an interaction or unfolding circumstances, we run through a four-phase cycle: ● Observe ● Orient ● Decide ● Act First, we observe. We receive the stimulus that alerts us to change. In the example given early, you simply saw something hurtling towards you. Easy enough. Second, we orient. From the stimus you received, you processed it in your brain and assessed what it was and what it meant to you. Was that object hurtling towards you a football or a thrown pie? Is this person getting ready to punch you or giving you a knuckle bump? How you interpret the data presented to you is based on more than just your current environment however – culture, previous experience, and more can affect how you view your happenings. Next up, we’ve gotta decide. Do I try to snatch this football slicing through the wind out of the air or do I sidestep and avoid it? This can be a tricky piece of the puzzle for martial artists – if we care too much about just collecting techniques and tactics, we are apt to stay frozen trying to pick the perfect one for the situation. At some level, any decision is better than no decision. In a life or death situation, the last thing we want to do is be frozen like Han Solo in carbonite. Fourth, is action. We finalized our decision and now we commit it to action. At this point, we are actually moving to grab the ball or avoid that punch. Mind you, this is a cycle. Our action causes a ripple effect. We have changed our position and likely incited a reaction out of our opponent, meaning we are right back at the beginning of observing what changed, orienting to the new situation, deciding a next step, and making it happen. This OODA loop is a lil’ waltz that continues between you and your attacker until the situation is resolved in whatever way. Action and reaction, assess and commit. How Does That Really Even Help Though? The OODA concept pairs very, very well with the Cooper Color Codes mentioned earlier. You can think of the OODA Loop as being the noteworthy times on an analog clock. Observe starts us off at 12:00, Orient is found at 3:00, Decide is 6:00, and Act is 9:00. A person scouting for a victim has already made it pretty far into his day. By the time he is making his move on you, he is already at roughly 9:00 while an oblivious person’s day is still just getting started. In other words, if you don’t see him until the last minute, you have some serious catching up to do. Action beats reaction. However, if you stay out of Condition White and instead see the threat and begin to focus and prepare for him, you have fast-forwarded your clock to be matched much closer to his instead. Awareness begets better action. At the end of the day, your mind can be your most powerful ally or debilitating opponent. Rather than let it wander and keep you inattentive while a problem is preparing, keep it broadly ready and prepared for action. Stay alert.

In teaching self-defense, there is a great fear of giving students false confidence. We do not want our students to believe they can use skills they do not have and put themselves in danger. Many self-defense seminars do a terrible job of this, especially those directed at women. I understand why such seminars have a bad reputation in the martial arts world. However, we need to be realistic and realize that not everyone will be able to devote years to training Muay Thai or Brazilian Ju Jitsu. We must find ways of bringing simple self-defense techniques to the general population in a more limited time frame. I try to balance the two. While I hold two-hour self-defense seminars, I hope the people in the class will taste the joy of training and want more. I try to boil down the principles I teach to be effective and efficient, focusing on de-escalation, awareness, and asserting boundaries. When I work on strikes and escapes, I don’t allow students to feel that this will be easy to overcome if it happens in real life. My classes require students to train realistically under pressure, never allowing them to become comfortable. I always work to make drills simulate attacks as realistically as safely possible so that they understand that using self-defense will be difficult and they must give everything they have for it. I am also honest with students about how dangerous specific techniques are and how they need to accept that they are attempting them because their other choice is damage or death and that it will not be like the movies. If they try a knife disarm, there’s a very high probability they will get cut. However, as teachers, we cannot be so afraid to give our students false confidence that we crush their spirits or make them fearful of the world. Self-defense must be taught rationally and factually. While we may be at the wrong place at the wrong time and encounter terrorism or violent crime, much of the dangers we face can be avoided by staying aware and using common sense. We can turn down the music on our Ipods so we can hear the world around us. We can plan our route to avoid areas we know are more dangerous. We can feel warning signs when our gut instincts tell us we are no longer safe, and we can act accordingly. These principles can be taught in a short amount of time and can save many lives. Sometimes, basic security measures could have prevented even the most terrible incidents. The 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre was one of the most horrifying events in sports history. For twenty hours, Israeli athletes were held hostage by terrorists who had infiltrated the Olympic village. Sadly, after a failed rescue attempt, all eleven were brutally murdered. This attack succeeded not because the terrorists were exceptionally clever but because of the failure of the Munich Police to demonstrate situational awareness and common sense security tactics. To discuss all of the security failings of the 1972 Olympics will be a feature-length article of its own, but here are the major mistakes in brief and the principle behind them. ●Munich police were stripped of their authoritative uniform and dressed like retirees jogging around the park. ●Munich Police were not armed with weapons, including a personal protection side-arm weapon like a pistol. They could not use force to back up their authority. ●The fences around the Olympic village lacked basic security. Athletes routinely climbed the fence without consequences, and the police never stopped them. No IDs were required. The terrorists themselves were able to easily able to get in. Drunk athletes helped in half, and the other half could walk through an unguarded gate and climb over using a stool left behind by the guards. The terrorists had cased the area and knew they had a soft target. There was no deterrence blocking them; therefore, they didn’t hesitate to strike. Had the terrorists know that the gates were manned by uniformed armed guards who would have arrested them, backing up their authority with force? Imagine if any attempt to climb the walls would have sounded the alarm and locked down the buildings. Eleven lives would have been saved. All of those principles are ones I could cover in a two-hour seminar with time to spare. We may not be able to teach our students how to survive every single violent crime. But we can teach them how to walk with confidence and not look like easy victims. We can teach them how to be aware of the world around them. We can teach them how to maintain boundaries and how to spot danger. We can teach them how to deter many predators in our society who are seeking soft targets and easy victims. This will save them from many of the most common forms of violence. It may save them from some more uncommon and terrifying ones.

Since the dawn of civilization, men needed to develop their physical and spiritual abilities in order to survive. Since their beginnings, apart from being a defensive tool, martial arts have been used to calm ourselves spiritually. It will show how they are actually the first line of personal safety and that their knowledge will bring only advantages, no disadvantages. They have hugely contributed to personal as well as social safety. Martial arts represents a system of exercises based on traditional postulates that, primarily, include preparing the body and the mind for combat. In comparison to other sports and physical activities that usually focus only on physical training, martial arts also require the development of the body and mind. According to that, every martial art is not a martial sport, however, every martial sport is a martial art. Martial sports can be sorted into contact sports in which both athletes are fighting each other by using techniques and rules depending on the type of martial art. Various studies show an improvement of physical health of those persons who practice martial arts. It leads to a decrease in depression and sleep disorders, better anger management and management of stressful situations, it brings the feeling of prosperity and happiness. Training martial arts represents a type of competition with oneself. The person is evolving and is fighting his/her weaknesses, laziness, fear, pain etc. Apart from maintaining physical and mental activities, martial arts teach us life values such as sincerity, perseverance, bravery, compassion, humility, respect towards others, gentleness and responsibility. This develops individuality, builds character and fair judgement. The goal of martial arts is to, first and foremost, create a peaceful society. Because of today's lack of information and knowledge, martial arts are considered to be just physical combat that holds a negative character. But this opinion is incorrect because martial arts are a product of an entirely positive context. Martial arts build a harmonious individual who tends to preserve human dignity and create a peaceful community desirable for life. Martial arts have an educational character, their purpose includes a pedagogical and practical sense in all aspects of life. The Japanese samurai Miyamoto Musashi once said: "The true meaning of martial arts is to know how to practice them in a way that they can be helpful at any time and to teach them in a way that they can be helpful in everything.” His saying reflects best the true worth of martial arts. Men have been practicing martial arts for centuries. The reasons for this have changed through history and in accordance with social changes. Today, people start to train martial arts primarily because of self defense, but also because of their competitive character. Also, by training martial arts, the psychological character of the person develops and builds his/her self-esteem, self-efficacy and personal wellbeing. Martial arts have a long history and an important role in building character of defense forces such as the military and the police. In today's world, learning martial arts is one of the disciplines that all police academy attendees need to pass. Self-defense as well as attack techniques are learnt by all police officials. Defense forces also use different martial arts knowledge, although some martial arts have been used less than before. Martial arts consist of many rules and techniques that can be used for every man's welfare. It has been seen through history how different styles have developed and that all have one thing in common- building a well-rounded man, including his physical as well as psychological states. Through martial arts characteristics, we can see that its practice is beneficial for both sexes and for all age groups. It is very important to make people conscious of and show them the benefits of martial arts. They bring only good, whereas the bad is fenced off right from the beginning. Although they can evoke certain negative terms such as combat or conflict, they can have a very positive purpose if not misused. We live in a world where conflict and dangerous situations are a part of our everyday lives. Such situations need to be recognized on time in order to avoid them and, if they cannot be avoided, we need to know how to defend ourselves. Most often, the endangered groups are women, children and the elder population. We often see physical as well as psychological attacks on those vulnerable groups in our society. Although the general opinion is that they cannot defend themselves, it is important to note that this is due to lack of informness. Violence over women is part of every society, but a very small number of violence is being reported. Besides violence experienced in their families, women are often attacked by unknown persons. In that moment, they feel weak and helpless because, sadly, they do not know how to reciprocate. Although they memorize the face or some characteristic, they are afraid to report the perpetrator. This usually happens because of lack of trust in institutions, long judicial processes, feelings of guilt and fear from the offender. The system may also be partially guilty because court processes may last for years and people do not place any trust in the system and, consequently, do not wish to report violence because they will carry its effects for years to come. Apart from women, most vulnerable groups include children and older generations. Children are a powerless group because, thanks to their age, they have very little knowledge about life as well as dangerous situations which they can become a part of. They often fall victims of bullying from their peers as well as family members. Children need to be shown and explained how and why to use martial arts so that they can identify dangerous situations and defend themselves from them. Also, the elderly are often the target of violence and abuse. Just like children, they are very fragile and weak and, in those situations, they often let themselves be abused because they do not know hot to avoid it. This is why it is very important to educate our citizens, especially those three groups- women, children and the elderly, about martial arts and their advantages. Women often, thanks to other people's advice, carry self-defense spray (pepper spray) in their bags. It is a very useful mode of self-defense, but it is important to inform women that they can achieve more via martial arts. They will know how to defend themselves in a moment and prevent further attacks. By practicing martial arts, women learn self-defense techniques and types of conflicts that they are most often faced with such as: verbal conflict, physical violation, hitting attempts or grabbing by the hair, pulling attempts etc. During training, women learn how to neutralize an unpleasant situation but also, thanks to mental training, how to control their reactions during stress and give the right decision under pressure. Older people represent a specific, vulnerable and sensitive group and their share progressively increases. Violence over this type of people, sadly, is more and more present. Violence and abuse over the elderly is manifested through neglect as well as physical abuse. Such persons are fragile and cannot reciprocate, mostly because of they are frail and in fear from their opponent. Every type of elderly neglect, in terms of care about nutrition and welfare, is thought to be a form of violence against the elderly. They can be mistreated from familiar people as well as total strangers. Older people are often a target of thiefs and burglars. They get attacked in such situations and they do not have the ability or the knowledge to defend themselves. The consequences of violence over the elderly can be huge for them, from damaging their already dissipated health (physical and mental) to losing that small bit of material safety that they already had. The problem of violence against the elderly is still not entirely explored. Because of their lack of ability and the impossibility to reciprocate with an attack or self-defense, they are often the target of violence. Although many believe that age is a problem when it comes to practicing a specific type of self-defense, they are wrong because it only needs to be introduced into everyday practice of an older person. By practicing a suitable type of martial arts, the elderly will gain more strength and flexibility in their frail bodies, gain a feeling of calm, prosperity, harmony of the mind and body and will be able to defend themselves in certain situations, or at least avoid an attack. Violence against children has become today's problem. Children are in more and more instances the target of violence in their families as well as in schools. Practicing martial arts during childhood has a large pedagogical role. Children are taught self-control as well as how to avoid potential attacks. Children who practice and train certain martial arts are often perceived with fear because of lack of knowledge. The child isn't training in order to learn how to punch others, but in order to control and build himself/herself. By training martial arts, children learn how to recognize potential dangerous and conflicting situations, how to solve them, avoid them and protect themselves. By training, children learn how to defend themselves and others as well as how to control their stress and fear in a dangerous situation. Through play and fun, children develop social, mental and physical abilities. They learn healthy life habits, develop concentration and discipline, gain confidence, the habit to help their peers and respect older people. Martial arts are practiced and used on every continent, in every country in the world. Small children need to be taught the basics so they can overcome larger obstacles later on. Every martial art has its own special rules that need to be respected. Using the martial arts practices and techniques against weaker persons in one's free time, except if they haven't started it first and are being used as self-defense, is chargeable and regulated by the Criminal Law. It is desirable to use self-defense knowledge when you really need to defend yourself, but all in good measure. To misuse those skills is unwelcome and culpable. The use of martial arts is not legally described- only its consequences in Criminal Law, The Law on Protection from Domestic Violence, The Offenses against Public Order and Peace Act, Act on the Prevention of Disorders at Sports Competitions and certain other acts and sub-legislations. Law regulations for martial arts clubs where those skills are being taught are regulated by the Law on Sports, Act on the Prevention of Disorders at Sports Competitions and other numerous regulations that those clubs use themselves. There are over 200 different martial art types and disciplines existing in the world, each with their own training characteristics and philosophy. Knowledge in martial arts such as aikido, judo, krav maga, jiu jitsu, BJJ, kapap, systema, karate, tae kwon do, sambo, kung fu, escrima and others is of great use in self-defense. Here's a bit about them. Krav maga means "contact combat” in Hebrew and is the official system of personal defense and close combat of the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), the Israeli national police and other security services. The founder of krav maga is Imi Sde – Or Lichtenfeld who built the system and formed the martial art skill. Krav maga is an ideal mode of self-defense for men, women, the young, i.e. people of all age groups and physical fitness. Systema is a Russian martial art that stems from Cossack systems of combat. It represents a complete system of self-defense, breathing movements and health. It is a martial art which develops motor skills, coordination, condition and coping with unfamiliar situations through a complex system and unarmed combat. All of its tactics are based on instictive reactions, individual strength and characteristics, specially designed for fast learning. The history of systema is scarce. Because of its secrecy and misinformation about the skill, very little evidence has been documented. What was publicly available was called "sports” and "militant type of sambo”, i.e. sports comeptitions and self-defense without weapons. Systema can also be found under another term – "Know Yourself”. Brazilian jiu jitsu is a martial arts focused on grappling and particular combat on the ground aimed at gaining a dominant position and using joint levers and choking in order to force the opponent to give up. Brazilian jiu jitsu developed from a modified version of judo (judo = the gentle way, its founder is Jigoro Kano) and was practiced during World War II along with classic jiu jitsu techniques. It is based on the principle that every person, especially of a weaker build, can, with the use of balance and technique, defend oneself from a stronger attacker. The founder of Brazilian jiu jitsu is considered to be the Japanese judo master Mitsuy Maeda. The skill that Maeda taught to the Gracie family wasn't called judo, but jiu jitsu. The term karate comes from the Japanese word "kara” which means "free and empty” and signifies a hand or fist. It represents a militant self-defense and counter-attack skill without the use of weapons, but rather hand punches (with the edge of an open palm, fist or elbow) and legs (feet, heel, knee). Although the term comes from Japan, its beginnings are believed to come from India and China. Karate was passed on from generation to generation and was first called "To – de”. Gichin Funakoshi later changed it to the term we know today- karate. Tae kwon do is a Korean martial art formed in the 1940's by fusing various Korean martial arts and Japanese karate which was widely practiced at the time. The name comes from the words tae= to kick with the leg, kwon= to punch with an arm and do= the way. Allegedly, the name tae kwon do was first suggested by General Choi Hong Hi's associate in 1955, but it wasn't accepted until 1965. The skill itself was derived from the need for self-defense and its concept was made by General Choi Hong Hi himself. Sambo represents a Russian martial art and its name is an abbreviation from the Russian phrase "self-defense without weapons”. This martial art is very similar to judo. It was founded by the Soviets. It was developed during the 1920's by the Soviet Red Army and is mostly connected to its intelligence services and special forces. Kapap denotes an Israeli martial art, i.e. a survival and self-defense system. It was coined in order to inspire an individual to use whatever he/she feels natural with, all with the goal to self-defend oneself. Kapap is an acronym for "Krav Panim el Panim" which means "face to face combat”. Kapap is often mistaken for krav maga, but they are not the same. Krav maga functions under specific principles, it prepares persons for specific situations they can find themselves in. In comparison, kapap teaches that you should always expect the unexpected and remain calm in all situations. Practicing martial arts is a crucial part of training for all military and police services. They teach how to control oneself, as well as the opponent. In such institutions, trainees do not learn only how to attack someone, but to defend themselves and how to utilize a specific martial art technique in such situations. Martial arts have become more and more popular in today's sports and recreational purposes, but we need to emphasize their importance in the self-defense of the most vulnerable groups of our society. Experts stress the fact that the purpose of martial arts is not only fighting with the opponent, but also a deep spiritual and humane character. Almost all martial arts speak about the relationship between a man's mind and body. Also, we often need to work on updating regulations that prevent violence but also to popularize martial arts. The public needs to be informed about their positive purpose and this is perhaps how we will start living in a community with less violence because people will know how to recognize dangerous situations and defend themselves from them. We can conclude how martial arts are not practiced because of their negative goals, but because a person wishes to build himself/herself as a human being. This is also how we will help others on this path and secure a safe, natural and humane space for all humanity.

Though martial arts cinema hasn't always been taken seriously in the movie industry, that changed this weekend as the genre-bending sci-fi/martial arts romp "Everything, Everywhere All at Once" and its lead actress, kung fu film veteran Michelle Yeoh , dominated at Sunday's Academy Awards. The tale of a harried, middle-aged, immigrant mother who suddenly finds herself traveling through dimensions as a martial arts superhero, "Everything" won seven Oscars including the awards for best picture, best actress, best director, best supporting actor and actress. Though originally trained as a ballerina, Yeoh broke into movies working in Hong Kong kung fu films for which she diligently trained in martial arts and did many of her own stunts. Kung Fu movie legend Sammo Hung, who recalled giving Yeoh her start in the industry, meanwhile spent his weekend receiving the lifetime achievement honor at the Asian Film Awards in Hong Kong. Yeoh, perhaps best known to western audiences for her role in the 2001 Academy Award-nominated martial arts film "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," commented to reporters Sunday on the glass ceiling for Asians in Hollywood, "I kung fu-ed it out and shattered it.”

Recently a friend, David Abdullah Muhammad aka Brotha Newz https://youtu.be/o0FNaWDqB1U started posting vintage martial arts movie posters for an upcoming album release and reminiscing about movies that I watched as a young adult. Most of these are not what you would typically think of like Enter the Dragon. Most of them were from the 80's which I consider to be the golden age of the martial arts movie genre. You had movies like A Force of One with Chuck Norris and Bill Wallace, Blood Sport with Jean-Claude Van Damme, and Above the Law with Steven Seagal. These movies had some of the biggest martial arts stars of the time and really pushed an explosion of martial arts related movies into the next decade. Today's movies feature action stars with huge stunts, but they are generally far more related to car stunts or explosions than pure martial arts as it was in the 80's. There are still many martial arts fight scenes in certain movies but unless you were alive in the 80's or 90's you probably don't realize the number of films in the genre that were being produced at that time. I love all of the old Bruce Lee films, but what Bruce started was then expounded on by the stars of the 80's. Its not just the actors you know that were the giant stars of the time but cult classics like The Last Dragon, Best of the Best, and even Big Trouble in Little China that captured the essence of martial arts movies of the time. The reason I bring this up is that I feel like many young martial artists have started to lose touch with the people that paved the way for them not only in movies but also on the tournament side. Many young martial artists know Richard Plowden as being Avery or Morgans Dad, or the USA head of WKC, but when I was a young martial artist Richard was one of the top fighters on the planet at the time. I remember reading Sport Karate Illustrated and seeing Richard, Billy Blanks, or Steve "Nasty" Anderson being talked about all the time and wanting to emulate them. Its not just previous generations of martial artists that don't get their due at times. I had a student years ago that was talking to some others in class about a new band that she had discovered, when I finally heard the song she was talking about I had to laugh. The song was "Rock and Roll all Nite" by Kiss, when I told her that it wasn't exactly a new band and that the song was from the mid 1970's the puzzled look she gave me was classic. The reason I think this is important is because as the Maya Angelou quote says, "you can't really know where you are going until you know where you have been". One of my many influencers and mentors over the years was Mike Stone. Mike was a legend in the early days of karate in the United States and won many of the tournaments in the 1960's. Although Mike was known by many for his days in the ring, he was probably even more famous for the company around him that included Ed Parker, Chuck Norris, Bruce Lee, and Priscilla Presley. During this time-period Mike wrote some of the screen plays and acted in several of the movies of the era including Enter the Ninja and the American Ninja series to name a few. While many martial artists from my generation know who Mike is and what he has done I hope to get the younger generations of martial artists to reach back into the time vault and explore some of the roots from which they have sprung. I know that some of the younger martial artist on the circuit today do watch some old footage from previous years such as Jackson Rudolph who constantly impresses me with his knowledge of martial arts history. I was even shocked a few years ago in Tulsa, OK when I introduced myself to Bailey Murphy, who many consider one of the best point fighters today, and he actually said he felt like he already knew me from watching old NBL Super Grand videos of fights I refereed, so some of today's fighters do still study history and watch old videos. With the explosion of the Cobra Kai on Netflix I hope that it reinvigorates the interest in movies from that era and people learn a bit more about the martial artist that paved the way for them today. So, what is your favorite martial arts movie that maybe people will know or maybe you can turn them on too? David Clifton has refereed over 1,500 MMA, Kickboxing, and boxing matches. He has also been the center official and training official for WAKO USA, NBL Super Grands, World Sport Karate Federation, World Karate Commission (WKC), and many Naska national events.