Ikigai Mug Schwag
I hope everyone had a great holiday and is prepping up for The New Year. I wanted to share with you one Christmas present I received that I thought was pretty super cool:
My sig. other took this ethereal site known as IkigaiWay and turned it into something tangible. This mug swag is pretty hot and is very high quality.
The logo came out really nice, and I was surprised how well it transferred onto the mug. The company she worked worth definitely kept the style and font true to the website.
Did you receive anything cool this year? Perhaps something martial arts related? Let me know!
Christmas Self Defense
Two things occurred to me today:
1. There are only a scant few days left before Christmas.
2. It's been too long since I last flexed my flawless artistic talent.
Today's post is designed to address both of these issues!
Christmas is supposed to be a joyous time of year, but sometimes you run into people that are less than jolly. I'd like to provide a few last minute tips on how to defend yourself using the tools that Christmas provides. The following techniques were taught to me during my 3 year study at the North Pole Budokan. I obtained a seventh degree black belt and, not surprisingly, a white and red striped belt.
Of course I cannot reveal any information about my instructors, their experience, or the history of the style. But you can check out this certificate for verification:
Now that any worries you had are laid to rest, here are the techniques as promised. I have compared each of them to an existing style of martial arts just so we can all follow along equally.
Kobudo Self Defense
One of the biggest complaints about weapon arts is that "you'll never walk around with kama or sai on the street". Normally that's true, but what if you had a candy equivalent??
Anyone who has siblings knows what it's like to get stabbed by the pointy end of a candy cane. A clever martial artist will be able to take that one step further and use full-on kama technique.
In this scenario, the opponent makes an aggressive hand movement inward, and you parry the attack with one cane, pull the neck down with the other (thus dropping the weight), and follow up with a significant shot to the groin region.
I recommend oversized canes.
Ninjutsu Home Defense
Don't let home invasion ruin your holiday festivities. Utilize classic ninjutsu technique to neutralize the intruder:
As this grinch-like character makes his way for your belongings, be certain to toss a few choice ornaments in his direction. If he doesn't get the hint, you can choose more convincing locations to land your throws. The groin for example.
Bas Rutten's Street Defense
Don't kid yourself - Bas Rutten's been around for many years and he knows his things. When he gets into a tough situation, he's going to use everything he's got to get the job done.
So what happens when you are minding your own business, enjoying some scaldingly hot eggnog, when some tough comes up to you and starts flinging a toy train around like nunchaku?
If you're following the Bas Rutten method, you want to start off with your hands in a good, natural on-guard position. In this case, one arm is guarding the midsection as it pretends to be a rest for the other arm, which you are using to gently sip on your fine holiday drink.
As the attacker gets ready to make his move, BANG - you toss the drink in his face. Then dangada dangada dang, kick to the biz, and your done.
Aikido Self Defense
We've been pretty aggressive and impact oriented so far. What if we took things in an aikido direction?
Let's say you're having a Christmas party when all of the sudden some guy thinks you looked at him wrong and starts chasing you around. The aikidoka might do something like this:
Why waste all of that energy confronting the guy when you can use his own strength and momentum against him? By cleverly slipping outside, you can have him energetically slip on the ice and have his own body weight bring him crashing to the ground. And, to keep things consistent here, we'll toss a snowball at him where it counts.
Stay Safe!
I hope this valuable information helps keep you and your family safe this holiday season. If you have any questions regarding holiday oriented self defense, don't hesitate to ask - that's what I'm here for.
Real Aikido in Action
Recently I got to talking about Compassion in the Martial Arts. In my previous post I gave some examples of people expressing their ideas about life protection and compassion, and how those ideas can be misconstrued as weak or inappropriate in the realm of martial arts.
Facebook group member Brian Zitzow astutely pointed out that in that article I didn't mention anything about Aikido. He's right, and the reason why is because I was lacking a good concrete example like that of Shaka Zulu or Oyata Sensei. Luckily Brian provided me with something to fix that.
The following is a story about real Aikido in action. It is written by Terry Dobson, a very well known Aikido practitioner who also happened to study directly under Morihei Ueshiba. Enjoy!
"THE TRAIN CLANKED and rattled through the suburbs of Tokyo on a drowsy spring afternoon. Our car was comparatively empty - a few housewives with their kids in tow, some old folks going shopping. I gazed absently at the drab houses and dusty hedgerows.
At one station the doors opened, and suddenly the afternoon quiet was shattered by a man bellowing violent, incomprehensible curses. The man staggered into our car. He wore laborer’s clothing, and he was big, drunk, and dirty. Screaming, he swung at a woman holding a baby. The blow sent her spinning into the laps of an elderly couple. It was a miracle that she was unharmed. Terrified, the couple jumped up and scrambled toward the other end of the car.
The laborer aimed a kick at the retreating back of the old woman but missed as she scuttled to safety. This so enraged the drunk that he grabbed the metal pole in the center of the car and tried to wrench it out of its stanchion. I could see that one of his hands was cut and bleeding. The train lurched ahead, the passengers frozen with fear. I stood up...Continue Reading
