A Warrior's Thougts on the Martial Arts

The other day I was analysing a [Shinergy bout] that took place at the Shinergy[battle] autumn 2011. In that bout, one of my students got knocked down by a wild, uncontrolled haymaker. Now usually I'd say that kind of strike is absolutely no threat to a fighter. We know how to deal with that. Blocking and countering a swing on the outside line is probably the first thing a fighter learns to do. This is not because those attacks are particularly common when facing an experienced fighter - learning how to deal with haymakers is the first step because it's so easy. Then again, I've been knocked down in my career. I've been knocked out. I was hit by mediocre strikes that should never have so much as touched my skin. Sometimes it's the unorthodox fighters and their "inferior" technique that pose the biggest threat to the black-belt martial arts practitioner. "Reality based" self defense styles take that into consideration and expand their technical a...

In today's outdoor session, I explained the concept of what we Shinergy-guys call "flow sparring". Before I get into the concept, let me tell you a short story. In 2005, we had just a handful of veteran fighters (particularly Tom and Harry) on the team, the rest of us was pretty green. Still, we decided to compete in the Open TaekwonDo World Championships in Cardiff, UK. Now don't get me wrong, when I say green, I'm not referring to athleticism or technical skill. We were doing fine in those areas. However, Shinergy looked and felt quite different back then. We were doing lots of Wing Tsun Chain strikes and none of us had an idea about proper boxing footwork. In fact, those open tournaments had a great effect on our style and curriculum. That's one of the things I love about Shinergy: it's an open-minded style, we adapt when things don't work out. However, I digress. Coming back to the topic, our problem was not an issue of athletics or technical skill...