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Sunday, 28 August 2022 15:51

My Favourite Hacks #2: 5 Tips for Leveling Up in Martial Arts... On Your Own!

Around 2014 I broke my right ulna quite badly in a training accident. I had emergency surgery, and my right arm was useless in training for the next 6 months. And yet, by the time I got back to boxing, I had improved tremendously in sparring despite not having sparred at all for 6 months. Many people asked me how I continued to improve and were surprised when the answer was ‘I trained by myself a lot’. 

Monday, 01 August 2022 10:25

Supercharging Your Progress - My Favourite Hacks #1: Critical Analysis

It’s been a while!


Over the last couple of years, writing has taken a back sit to, well, pretty much everything… family, work, training, work, studies, work, work, gym, work, video content, and, occasionally, more work. But I have missed writing dearly!

Over the next few weeks I'll share some of my favourite hacks for getting more out of your martial arts training. I chose to start with writing, because after not having ha time to do it properly for a while, I was reminded how important writing has been to my growth as a martial artist… and why it can be a catalyst for your growth as well.

Wanna know how?

Friday, 22 November 2019 16:39

Acceleration and Gauges: Thoughts on Less Commonly Discussed Aspects of Adrenaline Management in Self Defence

Adrenaline is one of the realities of self-defence. If you have never experienced violence, you are 100% guaranteed to be adrenalized if something happens. And even if you are very experienced in dealing with violence you are likely to experience adrenal dump – you are just likely to manage it much better.
There are a couple of factors that are not discussed as often when talking about adrenaline:

1. The level of adrenaline you are experiencing
2. The effects of adrenaline on other people (attackers, people you are protecting, bystanders, first responders)
3. The root cause behind the adrenaline

These are crucial pieces to understanding what kind of situation you are dealing with, whether it can be avoided or de-escalated and how far things might go if it deteriorates into a physical confrontation.

Read on to find out why!

Sunday, 06 October 2019 17:40

Perceptions and Reality, Pt 2: Language Matters

About 5 years ago I wrote this piece on how we perceive violence happens.


In the 5 years that have passed, many things changed, but what was discussed in that article still holds true.


Today I’m going to revisit that idea, and discuss how the language we use impacts our perception, and vice versa, and how that impacts our understanding of, and response to, violence and self-defence.


Below are some of common phrases that are often used interchangeably in self-defence classes. But are they really interchangeable?


Read on to find out!

Sunday, 08 September 2019 19:08

Trick Question: Where Does Real-World Violence Happen?

A fight is about to start. You know it. You tried to avoid and you tried to de-escalate with no success. The person is pointing at you, shouting that he is going to punch your teeth down your throat. He is closing the distance quickly and starting to angle his body, so you know a right haymaker is coming next.


You are not worried. You’ve practiced your moves in the dojo thousands of times and you know what to do.


As he closes the distance, you shift your weight and for a front kick to push him back, like you’ve done a million times in training…
… but you lose your balance and fall on your butt. He is right on top of you, and about to try and curb stomp you into oblivion.


Where did you go wrong? Read more to find out.

Sunday, 09 June 2019 15:59

Defending You from You: Self Defence, Defence of Self, and Defence From Self

So good to be writing again! It's been 3 long months. 

What does ‘self defence’ mean to you?

To most people it means being able to defend themselves or their loves ones in the event of a violent attack.

And yes, that’s a pretty good reason to learn self defence.

But there’s another part to the equation, that’s just as important. Want to know what it is? Read on!

Monday, 04 March 2019 18:23

Not Just a River in Egypt: The Most Dangerous Thing You Say to Yourself is...

$hit Happens. All the time. To everyone.

We watch the news and see a story about someone getting mugged, assaulted, sucker punched, raped, murdered.

But that stuff happens to other people. I lock my doors at night, and I have insurance. Besides, I don’t live in that part of town and I don’t associate with those sorts of people.

And then what do you say?

Thursday, 07 February 2019 18:35

The Flip Side: Traditional Martial Arts and Combat Sports ARE Effective for Self Defence...?

One of the things I discuss often is the separation between combat sports, martial arts and self-defence (if you don’t know what I’m talking about, read this).


Self-defence practitioners often exclaim that combat sports and martial arts are NOT the same as self-defence, and indeed there is plenty of evidence to support this claim.


On the other hand, combat sports and martial arts practitioners will always claim their stuff is effective for self-defence.


Me? I tend to sit right in the middle on this one. Do they overlap? Yes. Are there transferable skills? Absolutely! Are they identical? Absolutely not.


But can they be?

Monday, 17 December 2018 16:06

Don't Try This at Home: A Common Self Defence Mistake You've Probably Made

You walk into the dojo and tentatively go up to your instructor when you see he has a spare minute. In a hushed tone, almost apologetic, you ask the following question:


“I tried what we learned in class on my [boyfriend/girlfriend/husband/wife/mum/dad/friend] and it didn’t work. What was I doing wrong?”


This is a question I have seen and heard many times, and have also asked a couple of times when I first started training.
The people asking it can approach it in a variety of different ways. Some are almost apologetic, because they believe they didn’t do it right. Others are angry or upset, claiming that ‘it’ doesn’t work.


If you’ve ever tried something you learned in a martial arts or self defence class on a friend and it didn’t work, or if you’re an instructor who has heard this question, and you want to know what you did wrong, read on.

Sunday, 11 November 2018 18:16

Why Are You Here? Thoughts on Challenging Times and the Self Defence Mindset

At the start of 2018, one of my goals was to ensure I put out one blog every 2 weeks, which is output that I’ve been able to fairly steadily maintain in 2017. If you are a regular reader, then you may have noticed this has certainly not been the case over the past 6 months.
I’ve always found this hard to talk about, but a close friend and mentor has suggested I put this stuff out and hopefully it will help me sort some stuff out in my brain. I thought I’d share with you some of the reasons I haven’t been writing, and hopefully this will help me get some stuff off my chest and maybe help shed some light one how this also relates to training. This also leads to important questions about self defence and the survival mindset. 

Let’s start at the beginning.

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