Category: Martial Arts
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Worldbuilding with Real World Martial Arts
The average author treats martial arts simply as a collection of techniques to be displayed in fight scenes. But martial arts is more than just techniques: it is a way of life, one that resonates throughout the individual and society. The superior writer recognizes that, and sees opportunities for worldbuilding and characterisation. Sigmund Ringeck’s Knightly Arts…
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Training for Life
When starting out in the martial arts, it’s easy to get caught up in the intricacies of technique. How to bend and break someone a dozen ways, a hundred ways to throw and submit an opponent, a thousand methods of defending and countering any and all attacks. In the training hall, a student narrowing his…
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Tactical Breathing in A High Pressure Situation
A few days ago I’ve had the misfortune of speaking with a most unpleasant individual. What started as an attempt at civil conversation degenerated into a one-way tirade of insults, hyperbole and outright lies. It reached the point where he uttered three lies in the space of a breath. I called him out on that,…
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Martial Mastery: From the Fundamentals to the Complex
Ikken hissatsu. One strike, sure kill. It is the standard karate practitioners aspire to: to finish the fight in a single blow. Combative oriented martial arts echo this principle. Jeet Kune Do aims to swiftly end fights with decisive strikes. Self-defence instructors advise students to defeat an attacker with three moves or three seconds.…
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Martial Concepts: Principles of Footwork
When people think martial arts, they think of stunning strikes, intricate grappling and dynamic takedowns. Footwork is underappreciated in pop culture. But footwork makes these techniques work. In some martial arts and sports, such as boxing and Muay Thai, it may be advantageous to absorb blows to less vital parts of the body in exchange…
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Martial Analysis: Mindset
Before the first punch is thrown, the fight is won and lost in the mind. There are many, many instructors out there discussing a plethora of techniques and drilling down into the finer points of how to properly employ them. There are likewise many teachers who stress timing, footwork and distance. Technique, timing, footwork and…