You may have heard the saying, “when you put 2 people together you have a disagreement, when you have 3 or more people in the same room, you have politics”. The same can be said for martial artists; if you ask ten different people how a certain sequence in a Continue Reading
Look at Things From the Other Perspective
Before I was passionate about martial arts, my main hobby was music. The first job that I wanted was to be a rock star, so I began playing guitar as soon as my parents let me. I played in a handful of bands over the years, learned from many different Continue Reading
Dating Advice for Martial Artists
It can be easy for those that are immersed in martial arts or any other niche hobby or lifestyle to fall into the trap of thinking that they need to date someone that follows that same lifestyle or does the same activity. After all, how can our significant others really Continue Reading
Sometimes People Would Rather be Right Than Correct
Martial arts is one of few unique activities where you have to put your complete trust in someone else to teach and evaluate you. Sure you can watch videos online of how to do strikes and techniques, researching the exact way it’s supposed to be done. But you won’t know Continue Reading
What is The Purpose of Breaking Boards?
Last month, I published an article of my answers to commonly asked questions (Link here). Shortly after that, I realized that I left one out, “Can you break a board or a brick?”. The answer is yes, but most people don’t understand why we do this. Outside of the fact Continue Reading
Stance Work Makes the Skills Work
Stances have been the bane of many beginner (and veteran) practitioners; there are many times I’ve told students (and been told myself!) to “bend your knees” or “get lower” in their stance. One of my instructors would walk around with a shinai (bamboo sword) to help “adjust” student’s stances and Continue Reading
A Fact About Good Leaders
I was reading The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John C Maxwell, and one thing that he mentioned in the course of the book really stuck with me. He mentions that bad to mediocre leaders have followers underneath them while good to excellent leaders have and create other leaders Continue Reading
Does tradition still matter in the 21st century?
We are closing on nearly a century of when Japan began to export its martial arts of karate, judo and aikido to the wider world and much of their customs have become widespread. Whatever art or organization you associate with, it has been several generations since the modern era of Continue Reading
Just Get Started: The Importance of a First Step
One of the most daunting things in life is starting something new. It can be starting a new martial art, starting a blog article, or starting a project at work. While getting started and taking the first step is easily the most difficult thing to do, it is the most Continue Reading
How to Workout with Different Footwear
In my previous article “Different Training Floors and How to Adjust to Each One” https://urbanmartialartists.com/?s=training+on+different, I talked about how one can adjust to different training surfaces such as wood, asphalt, and so on. In this article, I would like to discuss what the different kinds of footwear are and how Continue Reading