How to Practice Self Defense
The word Ketsugo means combination. In essence it is a combination of the best and most effective self defense moves from the greatest methods of hand-to-hand combat ever devised.
Training and Condition
As Ketsugo is a physical art, training and condition are most essential. In considering your diet, it is wise to eat well, eat an abundance of high protein foods, stay away from an excess of sugar, starches and fats, drink plenty of liquids, avoid intemperate drinks and remember that your body needs the proper amount and types of vitamins. The proper diet is certainly the first step toward good conditioning.
In Ketsugo, it is not the muscular strength that is important, but the speed and accuracy with which a movement is performed that spells the difference between the success and failure of a defense. You can improve your speed and perfect your coordination with some simple techniques. Study these techniques and you will greatly increase your effectiveness in Ketsugo.
Suspend a rubber ball from the ceiling or door frame. This can be done by making a hole in the ball with a knife or ice pick, forcing a piece of string through it, and tying a knot at the end of the string so the ball will not slip off. Practice hitting the ball with light blows using both hands.
Then, practice hitting the ball while it is moving, remembering that accuracy and speed should be your only considerations – not power. In a similar manner, practice kicking the ball while it is moving, alternating your feet. Again, practice for speed and accuracy.
Jumping rope is, oddly enough, one of the best ways of improving your speed and coordination. Try this until you can jump without hitting the rope with your feet, continually trying to increase the speed of your jump and movement of the rope.
Glue a rubber sponge to the end of a stick. With your partner, practice blocking blows from the stick, having your partner increase his attack as your ability improves. Practice kicking and slashing, using force and speed as you progress.
An integral part of conditioning for Ketsugo are the warming-up exercises that should be done before each practice.
For a trunk-twisting exercise, twist your body as far as you can in circular motions in both directions, without moving the feet.
To loosen your joints, relax your muscles while shaking your wrists and ankles. Another good exercise for warming-up is called rabbit-hopping. As the name implies you hop up and forward like a rabbit. Increase your distance every day until you can hop and jump for a distance of 100 feet.
Another important part of conditioning is proper breathing. If you are an average person, you are probably not breathing correctly right now. Most of us take breathing for granted. However, it is important to note that correct breathing is an aid to the more active muscular coordination necessary for lightning defense.
In order to obtain maximum physical and psychological strength at a critical moment when a gasp for breath could put you at a terrific disadvantage, practice the breathing exercise. Stand erect and inhale very slowly. Then hold your breath for as long as you can without straining or becoming uncomfortable. Finally, exhale in a rapid, forceful style through the mouth so that the air gushes out. Repeat this exercise every day, holding your breath a little longer each time.
So far we have dealt only with the physical training and conditioning of your body. Now let us deal briefly with your mental well being. Since Ketsugo involves a direct encounter between two or more human beings, the psychological factors brought into play are very important. It is important to remember to be as calm as the surface of still water when facing an attacker.
If you are upset, you may miss the one weakness that may exist in an adversary’s movement. When you are attacked, never forget the finality of the enemy’s move. Watch carefully for an opening and apply the proper techniques.
Remember these principles and you will be well on your way to defending yourself.
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Who Else Wants To Know The History Of Karate
The history of Karate and other types of martial arts goes back thousands of years. For me it goes back to when I started to take karate classes in middle school after being inspired from watching a series of Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris movies.
There was nothing more exciting to me than to learn how to kick the crap out of bullying boys at my school. As I got immersed into the art, however, I found that there is a lot more to it than flashy self defense moves and seldom does it ever involve kicking the crap out of anyone.
Although Karate was around long before him, the most significant figure in the modern history of karate was Bruce Lee. Bruce Lee considered himself a true martial artist and did not limit himself to the study of just one discipline, but rather he studied many disciplines, including boxing.
Then he eventually developed his own brand of martial arts. But Bruce Lee was also a karate champion and his first real introduction to the world was an extremely impressive display that he put on at the1964 Long Beach Karate Tournament.
This tournament was not only witnessed by many prominent martial artists but also by one of the crew members of the then hit television show Batman. From there Bruce Lee wound up on Batman as the “Green Hornet” and the history of karate would never be the same.
There Is More To Karate Than Movies
Bruce Lee’s main focus was not to make movies, but rather to practice the martial arts, learn their histories, and develop his skill and fitness so he could be a perfectly physically conditioned machine. Unfortunately the only history of karate that most people in the Western world know is all they have seen on television or in the movies.
And nowadays unrealistic karate moves are the new fad. Jackie Chan does some quick moves in his latest movie and everyone thinks they just got a lesson in the history of karate. But karate was not meant to be a form of entertainment, it is meant to be a display of discipline and successful learning through hard work. Learning karate takes a lot of dedicated time and respect for its history and origins.
Karate is based on self defense and not aggression. Most karate classes are really great for enhancing mental focus, and discipline, as well as add the completive edge for those who like to spar in karate tournaments. That is why karate classes are so great for kids and adults alike.
Karate survives as a cornerstone of the martial arts and as one of the true vehicles of self control and the ability to look deep into one’s self and find your true inner person. Karate is a quest more than it is a lesson on how to punch and kick someone.
Self-defense classes are great for kids and your health and fitness, but as Madison Greene knows first hand, those techniques are no match for a viscous street criminal who is intent on taking your money, raping, or murdering you. Visit: http://www.HardcoreFightingSecrets.com
For Self Defense Is It Necessary To Know How To Kill?
Lets start with a couple of questions:
1. In this day and age, what could possibly be the reason to teach someone how to kill another human with his or her bare hands?
2. Do I actually advocate instructing clients in this very specific, lethal material?
The answer to the first question is that there are many reasons why it is essential one get this lethal knowledge. The answer to the second question is not only do I advocate teaching it but that I absolutely teach it to all my clients.
It is very clear that using violence is appropriate in very few situations. To use violence for any reason other than injuring a human threat who would otherwise maim, cripple, or kill you is extremely risky.
With proper knowledge of the physiology of the vunerable areas of the human body one can effectively attack any assailant, regardless of size, strength, or athletic ability.
So it is inconceivable that one could train a client for self protection yet ignore the subject of killing. If faced with a life and death struggle you need clear, concise information on how to systematically shut down the other guy’s central nervous system(CNS).
This is especially true for male on female violence, which females must treat as a lethal situation. Also any fighter facing a potentially lethal attack by a larger, stronger or faster human must be able to immediately shut down that human’s CNS.
Still, very few instructors teach this direct approach to using violence. Why is this the case? It has been my experience few actually have the skill and expertise to do so.
To hide this deficiency they state legal issues and spiritual reasons for not teaching such principles.
Yet many of the techniques they show directly result in potentially lethal outcomes something that is never pointed out to the client. In fact, most clients go through training with no clear knowledge of which strikes and techniques are lethal and what the impact is on the human body from these strikes and manipulations.
I find it far more dangerous not to know how to kill. When you consider the flip side of that knowledge is the fact that any time you put your hands on another human being to inflict violence you have no idea whatsoever how that person will respond to the strike.
A person built like Arnold Schwarzenegger in his prime may have a bad heart and your punch to the solar plexus to ‘teach him a lesson’ may, in fact, kill him. That is why I stress the difference between ego situations and life or death threats.
A few years ago you probably heard about the ‘Hockey Dad’ trial in Massachusetts. A man ended up going to jail for manslaughter over an argument with his son’s Hockey coach. By all accounts the smaller coach was a real jerk and made the kids do some useless and dangerous training on the ice.
This ‘Hockey Dad’ voiced his concern and the verbal exchange led to a fight. ‘Hockey Dad’ ended up killing the smaller coach by repeated blows to the head.
It was not intentional, both men were wrong. But the one common factor here was this: neither had any idea of the effects of those strikes upon the other! Both families lost their dads that day; one was killed, the other is in jail.
It is my goal with clients to give them all the lethal knowledge necessary so they can make the decision on whether or not it is worth the potential legal hassles to fight over an ego issue or to instantly be able to destroy the assailant’s CNS in a life or death threat.
It’s great to hear feedback I get from clients who have easily avoided the ‘Hockey Dad’ scenarios by having the clear knowledge of the appropriate use of violence. I value that feedback as highly as the ones received from those who used the very same knowledge to save their lives in a life or death threat.
Truly knowing how to kill another human places total responsibility on the trained individual, makes you a far better citizen and, in my experience, far less likely to use violence as an answer to any situation that is not life threatening.
Tim Larkin’s Target-Focus Training system shows you how to defeat a sociopathic criminal.To learn why TFT has you focused on injuring your attacker — not defending yourself — visit Larkin’s website at: http://www.targetfocustraining.com
Several Facts About Karate
Contrary to popular opinion, the martial art Karate was not invented in China. Rather, it has its origins in the island of Okinawa in Japan. The word “Karate” means the “empty hand” or the “Chinese hand”, and it has been given this name because it involves a rapid use of hands and legs in an extreme close combat.
It was sometime in the sixteenth century that Chinese Kung Fu fighters experimented around with their styles and formulated the “te” technique (“Te” means hand). The art grew in China and evolved from a very rough and simple fighting style into a hard, close-combat style.
Around the late nineteenth century, Gichin Funakoshi, a famous martial arts practitioner from Japan, blended new moves into the “Te” style and displayed his art to the Japanese martial arts masters in early twentieth century. This was the beginning of Karate, as we know it.
Karate kicked off with the original Okinawa style; later on, the Japanese patented their own styles, which are now appropriately called Japanese styles of Karate. With time, many karate schools all cross the world began naming their Karate after their school’s or master’s name, giving birth to many sub-styles.
The original style – known as the Okinawa style – is a very hard and external style. It employs circular means of defense while its attack is linear in nature. The physical condition is extremely rigorous, as compared to the Japanese style of Karate. The Japanese style of Karate is more stylistic and its movements are linear in both defense and offense.
Some of the important Karate sub-styles are: (i) Wado-Ryu style, which combines JiuJitsu movements with Okinawa karate techniques, and (ii) Uechi-Ryu style, which blends Okinawa Karate with Chinese martial arts tactics. The Uechi-Ryu style appears more Chinese than Japanese though it is a blend of both the cultures.
As you know, Karate is a fast-paced martial art that involves electric movements of the hands and legs. So, you need to ensure that you are attired in a comfortable Karate uniform.
As Karate involves close combat and can be lethal, you will also need to protect your head and groin by strapping on a head guard and groin protector, respectively. Arm, chest and leg guards are available too, and so are karate mitts and shin protectors. And, of course, mouth guards can be considered too, just in case.
To train for Karate, you will need jump ropes, breakable boards, a Karate training board and a Karate training system. To perform Karate exercises, you will need leg and body stretchers, mats, water training bags, punching bags and pull-up and push-up bars.
And, finally, before you go out there to practice Karate, do not forget to plug in a first aid kit in your bag.
Karate not only keeps your body fit, it also strengthens your mind and enhances your concentration. Only thing, you must learn to respect it and practice it seriously as an art.
Alex Olson is a professional journalist. Being interested in martial arts, she wrote some highly popular articles about karate and many more. You can find this information at http://www.bestmartialartsclub.com .