Author: charliedw

Mind, Body & Spirit! What Does That Actually Mean?

Posted on by charliedw

The inspiration for this post was actually a page on my website for my own martial art classes in Midsomer Norton. I have a “Why Karate?” page. Admittedly this page is a bit biased towards Karate, but then it is my school that I’m trying to promote, not anybody else’s. However, much of what I wrote on that page applies to all traditional martial arts, so I thought I’d expand upon it and share my thoughts here with the wider martial arts community!

Apart from the obvious need for self protection throughout history, there are many good reasons why martial arts have been around for thousands of years and are now practised by millions of people all over the world today. They’re a great tool for development of mind, body and spirit! But what does that actually mean. “Mind, body and spirit” is a phrase that we often hear associated with martial arts, but it is not often defined in any depth. It’s often a throw away line on promotional material, then seldom talked about again after somebody actually joins up! Continue reading “Mind, Body & Spirit! What Does That Actually Mean?” →

Comparison Of Bare Knuckle Boxing/Pugilism & Traditional Martial Arts

Posted on by charliedw

I was a little intrigued recently when I came across the picture below on Facebook depicting a bare knuckle prize fight that took place in 1877. What intrigued me was that the punch being delivered looks a lot more like a punch that we’d find in Karate/Taekwondo/some styles of Kung Fu, than it does a modern boxing punch! The back is straight, head up, legs are practically identical to our forward stance, hips turned square on and shoulder not turned in as much as a modern boxers. Even the non-punching hand is back on the hip (hikite) like a Karate/TKD punch.


Here is the description that came with it! Continue reading “Comparison Of Bare Knuckle Boxing/Pugilism & Traditional Martial Arts” →

Kiai/Kihap/Chi Shout - Is It Really Necessary?

Posted on by charliedw

Many martial arts, especially the Oriental ones include the practice of shouting at certain points in training. Japanese styles call it Kiai, Korean styles call it Kihap. I don’t know what the Chinese word for it is, but I have trained with some who simply called it Chi Shout. For simplicity, I’m just going to stick the Japanese notation of Kiai (as I’m primarily a Japanese stylist and it’s the version I’m most familiar with)!

First of all, what is it? Very simplistically, it’s a shout that comes from contraction of the diaphragm and feels like it’s coming all the way from belly. A shout that comes just from the voice-box, sounds more like scream. I have a simple way of teaching this, especially to kids. Though it’s not the nicest of explanations, it does make it Continue reading “Kiai/Kihap/Chi Shout - Is It Really Necessary?” →

Criticisms Of Karate

Posted on by charliedw

Having recently posted about why Korean martial arts are held in low regard, it seemed only fair to look at the criticisms levelled at my own primary art of Karate, and Shotokan Karate in particular.

Me, at 17 when I first started. Try not to laugh!

Back when I started in the late 70’s, there was nowhere near as many styles, associations or clubs as there are today and there seemed to be even more rivalry as people stuck more rigidly to their own style with less cross training then there is today. It was a bit more like little empires!

Anyway, Karate was one of the most popular martial arts of the day and of all the different styles, Shotokan was the Continue reading “Criticisms Of Karate” →

The Art Of Not Giving A S***! (Or . . . Accept As Is)

Posted on by charliedw

Many Oriental philosophies talk about mind, body and spirit; as they recognise that the 3 are all intrinsically connected. For the sake of this post, I’ll be mainly focussing on the mind and body.

If one tenses, the other tenses. You tighten your mind, your body will start to tense; you tighten your body, your mind will start to tense. Conversely, you relax one, the other will relax.

So when you make a mistake, or don’t perform a technique/kata/pattern the way you want to, or you get corrected by your instructor; don’t get upset about it. If you do get upset (even if its just with yourself), your mind will tense, then your body will tighten and the whole thing gets progressively more and more difficult. I have one student in particular who gets exasperated with himself every time I correct him. It’s not that he resents the correction in any way, he very desperately wants to get it right and his frustration is aimed at himself (rather than me)! Then it becomes even more difficult.

You have to try to the best of your ability to do it right, but when you don’t, you have to learn how not to Continue reading “The Art Of Not Giving A S***! (Or . . . Accept As Is)” →

Interview With Mark Winkler, Systema Teacher & Self Protection Expert

Posted on by charliedw

I first got to know Mark Winkler back in 2010 when I was organising a charity martial arts festival. I had 12 styles have about 15 minutes each to demonstrate their style and we raised about £2000 for charity. Along with the usual well known martial arts, Karate, Kung Fu, Taekwondo etc; I wanted some arts that were less well known and not necessarily from Eastern Asia! My search lead me to Mark Winkler and the Russian martial art of Systema, which up to that point I’d never heard of before.

Mark Winkler, System Teacher

I found Mark to be a very knowledgeable martial artist. Before turning to Systema, he was a 6th Dan Karate. Very few people get to that high level, then change styles. Take up a second style maybe, but seldom do they change altogether. So I was intrigued about this Systema and what a man such as Mark had seen in it; especially as he has over 40 years training and has worked in the security field so has real life experience. In short, he knows Continue reading “Interview With Mark Winkler, Systema Teacher & Self Protection Expert” →

Techniques Will Occur When A Void Is Found: Gichin Funakoshi

Posted on by charliedw

There are many quotes attributed to Gichin Funakoshi, but I come across this one the other day in his book, Karate Do Kyohan: The Master Text. Near the back on page 248 (if you already have it), he says;

“Techniques will occur when a void is found”.

This is not often quoted, yet has very deep philosophical undertones. A void is defined as, “completely empty” or “a completely empty space”.

Master Gichin Funakoshi

Master Funakoshi was an educated man and clever with his choice of words. He was the one who initiated the change Continue reading “Techniques Will Occur When A Void Is Found: Gichin Funakoshi” →

Question: Why Are Korean Martial Arts Held In Low Regard?

Posted on by charliedw

Before anybody jumps on me, this is NOT my statement, this is a question I received on the Bunkai Jutsu Facebook page, from Seth Boggs:

“I’ve practiced Tang Soo So and TKD in the past and am confused and dismayed by the lack of respect given to Korean martial arts especially when you consider that TKD was developed for the military besides Olympic TKD why are they held in such low regard”?

I can’t do the question justice with a short answer so I thought I’d do a full post and share my thoughts with you all.

Before going any further, this is going to be an emotive subject Continue reading “Question: Why Are Korean Martial Arts Held In Low Regard?” →

Russell Stutely Pressure Point Defensive Tactics Seminar

Posted on by charliedw
Russell Stutely and I

A month ago (10/11th June) I had the pleasure (and pain 🙂 ) of attending a Russell Stutely Pressure Point Defensive Tactics Seminar, which I can thoroughly recommend.

First of all though, there has long since been a debate about whether or not pressure points work or not in real life, with arguments being made that:

  • They are ineffective if the opponent is pain resistant due to drink, drugs or being highly adrenalised.
  • They require a lot of accuracy which is not always feasible in the all out melee of a real fight.

This is something that I have Continue reading “Russell Stutely Pressure Point Defensive Tactics Seminar” →

Coming Up: Goju Ryu And Shotokan Kata Bunkai, Plus The 5th Bunkai Bash!

Posted on by charliedw

Two great event coming up this month. Sadly I can’t attend either as I have a very busy month ahead 🙁

Firstly, John Johnston, 7th Dan Shotokan and Max Beddow, 5th Dan Goju Ryu get together for a joint seminar on Saturday 8th July. All the details are on the poster below so I won’t repeat them here, other than to say that I always like to see different styles train and share together.

What I think is going to be interesting is that these are probably Continue reading “Coming Up: Goju Ryu And Shotokan Kata Bunkai, Plus The 5th Bunkai Bash!” →