Month: April 2020

Is Preserving Traditional Martial Arts A Good Thing?

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It is not uncommon to see martial arts adverts to the effect of “authentic such-an-such martial art”, or “we teach traditional such-an-such style, true to the teachings of the 34th Grandmaster of the whatever Shaolin temple”.

There is a certain logic to it. If something has been established to be effective, then by preserving it, theoretically you pass down something that continues to be good! If for example something has been tested on the battlefield (as many traditional arts have) and has been proven to be successful, then on the surface it would appear to make sense to preserve what has been proven to work rather than risk changing it to something that is unproven! Continue reading “Is Preserving Traditional Martial Arts A Good Thing?” »

Interview With Rob Jones, 5th Dan Karate & Founder Of Zenshin Dojo

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Rob Jones with his wife Kate

I first met Rob Jones round abut 2009 (I can’t remember the exact date/year). I’d been out training for number of years due to various domestic reasons and looking to get back into it. With the club that I’d previously been training with closed, I tried a couple of clubs in my area. During that search, I met Rob Jones and his club, Zenshin Dojo.

I didn’t end up training with them permanently as I was looking for a Shotokan club and Zenshin Dojo are Shotokai based. I’ve nothing against any other style of Karate and believe in learning from others; I just wanted to continue with my own primary style which was Shotokan.

However, I found both Rob and his members at Zenshin Dojo to be an extremely friendly group and very good at what they do. We’ve kept in touch over the years, I’ve been included in several of their functions both training seminars and social and I’ve even been invited to give feedback on one his students going for her 3rd Dan.

Continue reading “Interview With Rob Jones, 5th Dan Karate & Founder Of Zenshin Dojo” »

I first met Rob Jones round abut 2009 (I can’t remember the exact date/year). I’d been out training for number of years due to various domestic reasons and looking to get back into it. With the club that I’d previously been training with closed, I tried a couple of clubs in my area. During that search, I met Rob Jones and his club, Zenshin Dojo.

I didn’t end up training with them permanently as I was looking for a Shotokan club and Zenshin Dojo are Shotokai based. I’ve nothing against any other style of Karate and believe in learning from others; I just wanted to continue with my own primary style which was Shotokan.

However, I found both Rob and his members at Zenshin Dojo to be an extremely friendly group and very good at what they do. We’ve kept in touch over the years, I’ve been included in several of their functions both training seminars and social and I’ve even been invited to give feedback on one his students going for her 3rd Dan.

Continue reading “Interview With Rob Jones, 5th Dan Karate & Founder Of Zenshin Dojo” »

Ideas For Training At Home (Part 7): Mokuso (Meditation) In Martial Arts

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It’s often said that the most important thing in self defence is the mind. Mokuso (meditation) is often skirted over in martial arts training, seen as just something to clear the mind before training and calm you down again after training.

But meditation is a method of developing the mind which has martial applications as well as being for self development and health. It allows better connection between the conscious and sub conscious minds, enabling better instincts and intuition to develop. This can carry into all areas of you life, but having a improved intuition has obvious applications for self defence.

Unfortunately it’s usually only done for a few minutes at the beginning and end of the class. It teaches us to quieten the conscious mind and, more importantly, to observe the conscious mind. If we can then introduce this practice of observing our conscious mind into our daily life, we become a lot more aware of all our negative thoughts and how we react to things on autopilot without actually thinking about it. This observation and awareness can over time weaken these automatic responses, allowing us to make better decisions and overcome knee-jerk automatic responses, which might not actually be in our best interests. This can apply in any area of our life, not just self defence!

Whilst many of are stuck at home in self isolation, this is a great time to practice meditations a bit more deeply.

Ideas For Training At Home (Part 6 - Breathing: Isolating The Diaphragm)

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Diaphragmatic breathing is something I’ve covered in detail before, but it seemed a good time to revisit it with a lot of people self isolating and training from home at the moment. Correct breathing is very central to keeping you relaxed (hence fast) and generating high levels of impact. Some of this video may go against conventional wisdom, but give it a try and you’ll see it really works.