Wednesday, December 06, 2006
Count Dante. How it was back then.
Exposure to martial arts back in the '60's was through Wide World of Sport, Johnny Carson, Merv Griffen, or early Karate
Magazines. All of us bought comic books and this ad appeared in all of them. The history of this ad, and Count Dante ( John
Keehan) is a small, but, interesting part of American History. Years ago, over cups of java at Denny's after training sessions,
I spoke with people who knew John Keehan. It was very interesting. Here are some websites about a film being made on this
man.
The Search for Count Dante
Richard De Bordes and Harimau Silat
Richard DeBordes is a practitioner of Harimau Silat along with many other Indonesian and African Arts. His specialty is "Bela
Diri" or self defense applications of this art that he learned from the Hanafi family. He is traveling the globe training
many in his methods of personal protection and military hand to hand combat. As seen below in the video, he is a rather intense
dude. His web page is here LINK
Friday, November 03, 2006
Defendu and William Fairbairn
William Fairbairn is the father of combatives. He in some ways is responsible for the distillation of complex fighting arts
and making them modular, simple, and easy to convey to our fighting forces. His material was good years ago, and it is good
now. He studied both Jiu Jitsu and Chinese Martial Arts. He was a Royal Marine and a member of the Shanghai Police Force.
He had over 600 encounters outside of training. He based his Defendu art on what worked and what did not work during these
scuffles. He was recruited by British Secret Service and trained many, many, military teams in all facets of close quarter
combat. You can hardly go wrong studying these methods. Here is a pdf of his book, Get Tough!
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Herman Suwanda
I had the opportunity to attend a Herman Suwanda seminar some years ago with one of my silat instructors, Harold Koning. Pak
Herman was an incredible practitioner who held deeply the responsibility of helping his own people, and spreading his art
of Mande Muda (''new child, or new river''), to the Western world. He continued to train with many Guru's in Indonesian to
continue the growth of his art. Mande Muda is a systemic fusion of between 18 and 24 silat styles. Rather than be a practitioner
stuck in the past or clinging to tradition, Pak Herman would regularly grapple with Shooto and Brazilian Jiujitsu players
to sharpen his game. He would allow an entire class at the Inosanto Academy to cinch him up in their favorite submission,
only to wiggle out and ask for the next one in line. His father would have Herman engage in sparring and streetfighting against
more mature practitioners to expose his son to the reality of combat. You can check out the family history HERE. And below is a short clip for Pak Herman showing some silat groundwork and possible lines of movement.
HOW FAST ARE YOU?
Friday, October 13, 2006
ReWire Your Body
Fitness or any activity generally has a positive effect on the mind and body. I say generally since activity can injure,
or hamper movement. We need to understand that aging is closely related to a lack of movement. If our ancestors could not
hunt or gather, they starved. If you cannot get out of bed, you cannot eat. Lack of movement means a reduction in lean body
mass, and bones. It also changes HOW you move since walking, climbing, running, squatting, and lifting are skills and what
you won't or can't do,...you will not be able to do.
The opposite end of the spectrum would be excessive or forceful
movement. This can be part of daily life if you have an active occupation, or in the field of sports or athletic training.
The body can repair damage to an incredible degree, but the ability to dig down deep in the well finds a shallower and shallower
reserve as the years go on.
Smart training practices can be a panacea if they are started early enough. The foundation
of proper skills, joint mobility, flexibility, strength through a full range of motion, restorative techniques, and the use
of mental drills can minimize down time for the aggressive enthusiast. Remember, training should not cause injury, but prevent
it. Training practices that border on stupid, are just that,..stupid. Competition is different since you are quite often pushing
envelope of collagen and calcium durability. Injury is part of the game and you have to ask yourself if the glory of victory
or records is worth limping around in middle age as your "brisk walk three times a week" friend passes you on the par course.
It can be quite embarrassing to have that blonde bombshell bride as you marry in mid life only to be unable to carry her over
the threshold. The same goes for a wrestling match with your teen age sons when daddy has to tap out since his trick knee
is demonstrating 194 degrees of extension.
The body is an amazing tool, and the parameters of its expression are truly
remarkable. What if there was one more tool to keep it sharp? The readers of this article are no doubt information junkies
and try to keep up with all the latest strategies. This may include nutrition, rehabilitation, technical performance, and
many more. One area is using the nervous system. This can be a general term that covers both technical skills like a tennis
serve, or training your genetic boundaries of neurological efficiency to be working at their optimums. I am venturing into
some interesting territory here by saying it is time to Re-Wire your body.
Most people generally understand that leaning
a new skill a very important trick against aging. This can be taking courses, doing crosswords, painting, writing, learning
languages, or just new physical art forms like dance or sport. In the strength focused activities it can mean attempting a
new strength sport like Olympic Lifting, Strongman Competition, or Rock Climbing. It can even mean rotating a wide variety
of assistance exercises and pushing them hard to allow a type of cyclical adaptation effect. The brain and nervous system
has to adapt as well as the muscles. New 'rivers' are formed. Pathways of data are processed and your brain is reattached
to the muscle machinery in ways that are entirely new. You are essentially doing crosswords for your lean body mass. But lets
take it a step further. What do you do more in terms of volume, depress the gas pedal or squat? Walk or do bench presses?
Eat with a fork, or do chin ups? It is quite often everyday activities that hurt us the most. That thick wallet that jacks
your low back when you drive, or that bad chair at work that shortens your hamstrings. It can be positioning a carry on bag
over one shoulder continuously for years that creates that permanent neck ache. It is the small stuff that counts and as they
say, "It's always something".
Here is a list of tools and tips that is open ended. Please add to it. The idea is to
break the daily patterns, change up the small things and begin to add new lines of information to your muscles to shuffle
the neurological deck.
1. Climb stairs starting with your opposite foot.
2. Eat with opposite hand.
3. Cross
your legs in reverse.
4. Shave with the other hand.
5. Run part of your course backwards.
6. Pick up small objects
with your toes.
7. Put on pants starting with your other leg.
8. Balance on one foot while on the phone.
9. Use and
dial your cell phone with the other ear and hand.
10. Read magazines starting with the last article.
11. Change shoes
frequently.
12. Get down with children and crawl.
13. Use the computer mouse in the other hand.
14. Rearrange your
furniture every week.
15. Take a different way to work.
16. Use different grocery stores, Starbucks, and malls.
17.
Dial the phone and don't use the memory dial.
18. Squat to pick things up and don't bend.
19. Practice activities with
your eyes closed.
20. Write occasionally with your non dominate hand.
This is only the beginning, but let it be
the spark that lights the fire of innovation.
