Sticks – Kombat Instruments Limited

Several people ask me where I get my beautiful sticks, and I thought I would do a quick write-up. When I popped over to the Dog Brother gathering in 1998, I picked up a replacement pair of sticks from Nick Papadakis at Kombat Instruments. I got to use them the next day at some informalContinue reading “Sticks – Kombat Instruments Limited”

Debating American FMA: Perspectives from Experts

The above video is a great and excellent discussion on the following potentially sticky subject, with a tag line as follows: This episode featured guests Sifu Dwight Woods, Guro Mahipal Lunia and Guro Mark Stewart. In this episode, we discussed whether there is a legit argument for an American version of FMA. I would encourageContinue reading “Debating American FMA: Perspectives from Experts”

Enhance Your Martial Arts Training with KORA

This blog’s primary goal is to talk about the training we are undertaking in our KORA class and help people with their training journey from afar as best we can. The idea is to be positive and promote the benefits of martial arts. One of the reasons I started a blog was that I realisedContinue reading “Enhance Your Martial Arts Training with KORA”

Knife Attack Self Defence

One quick look at the UK news gives you a good indication of where the knife crime statistics are going. In South London, the local social media is littered with knife muggings, gang-related knife fights, and stabbing games.  “Data gathered and analysed by the BBC found there had been 55 fatal stabbings so far this year (10Continue reading “Knife Attack Self Defence”

The Hustler- Book Review

The Hustler – Sword play and the art of tactical thinking is a beautiful book written by Maija Soderholm. A lot of the book focuses on deception in combat, and it’s funny because this book slipped onto the market quietly, and just how good it was has spread by word of mouth among the FMAContinue reading “The Hustler- Book Review”

Effective Grip Training Methods for Martial Artists

Fangs for the memory… Most of history’s warriors accepted that you needed skills in stand up, clinch and ground to be successful. It’s been a core concept in my KORA curriculum since it was a mixture of Combatives, Muay Thai and Judo over thirty-five years ago. Whether we seek it or not grappling happens, andContinue reading “Effective Grip Training Methods for Martial Artists”

Traditional Dances of the Labourdin Carnival

From this blog: Le carnaval labourdin (patrimoinepaysbasque.com) The kaskarot are the main characters of the ploughd carnivals. They wear hats adorned with flowers, ribbons and colorful decorations on their costumes, and hold two sticks in their hands. Organized in groups of eight, they perform makila-dantza (dances of sticks), as well as danced jumps, marmutx (dance of small sticks), xinple, kontra-dantza (contredanse), soka-dantza, fandango andContinue reading “Traditional Dances of the Labourdin Carnival”

Boost Your Sparring Skills with Lonely Dog’s Instructional Downloads

Tired of getting walloped by your training partners in sparring? You may like to invest some coin into Lonely Dogs instructional downloads. Benjamin is a great fighter and coach. Go here for instructional downloads go here: Lonely Dog (gumroad.com) Lonely Dog in action

Boxing Meets Rugby: Learning from Teddy Thomas’s Performance

I trained people for Boxing, Thai Boxing, full contact stick fighting and MMA but the greats always had something special. Its not only doing their job well but also with flair. It’s not enough to just win, it’s about doing so whilst demonstrating amazing skill. Teddy Thomas is a great example of this on theContinue reading “Boxing Meets Rugby: Learning from Teddy Thomas’s Performance”

KORA Virtual Reboot

It’s been over a year since my research group, and I got together to train. Due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, face to face training is still not on the table for a while, but I had the idea that we should start slotting in regular zoom classes once a week. The purpose is toContinue reading “KORA Virtual Reboot”