This basic sword training DVD reviews the fundamentals about the weapon, taking common techniques and drills that should be applicable to all sword training. As always, Dr. Yang’s teaching style is excellent; his Engineering background provides a logical approach to his teachings of his wealth of martial arts knowledge. There is much knowledge to be gained from each of his books and DVDs that I have studied, and, now including this one, I highly recommend them.
As with many of his other DVDs, the drills and techniques are shown with Master Yang performing them, then with students of a variety of skill levels performing them. Yang will sometimes correct the students. I found the different displays and the corrections quite helpful during my own review of the lessons.
An outline of the DVD follows: (more…)
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The same director and martial arts choreographer who did Tony Jaa’s Ong-Bak and Tom-Yum-Goong worked on this 2008 Thai film, which, like Ong-Bak has a sometimes difficult to follow plot, great fighting stunts and an unusual martial arts character. 
Zen (played by Nicharee “Jeeja” Vimistananda who was apparently discovered during auditions for one of the Tony Jaa movies) is autistic, her mother Zin is Thai, her father is a Japanese Yakuza gangster. Zin was formerly the girlfriend and money collector of a Thai gangster. Zin and Zen (yes, as confusing to watch with English subtitles as it is to type) hide in an apartment near a muay thai boxing school, where Zen begins to absorb and mimic their fighting style.
In excellent tongue-in-cheek, she also learns by watching both of the previous Tony Jaa films! (more…)
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My wife has won trips to the Super Bowl and the Atlanta Gran LeMans, among many other prizes. She does this with a bit of luck, but mostly 
through the daily hard work of an internet “system” she has perfected over the years.
So when she said we should drive to a casino in Louisiana on July 11 because it was “lucky 7/11″, and a certain casino was giving away additional prizes, I quickly agreed. We rarely if ever go gambling, but my wife’s instincts are almost always dead on.
The universe was talking to us…just not quite in the way we were expecting.
About a month earlier, my wife’s car, an ultra-dependable BMW X5, had died at the most in-opportune time - driving to the airport to pick up my daughter, with other relatives in town for my son’s high school graduation. The BMW dealership had supposedly fixed the problem, an air sensor which when faulty made the reliable car sputter, not accelerate, then die.
As we were driving along I-10, almost to Lake Charles, my wife took over the driving. She wanted me to look up slot machine strategies: finding and playing the loose machines, how to maximize the payback percentages. She was excited and energetic; I knew she was tapped into something.
Then the trusty Bimmer died in the same way…only this time it was while we were going 70mph up the bridge leading into Lake Charles. It coughed, it sputtered, it wouldn’t accelerate…with an 18 wheeler in the rear view mirror, accelerating to make it up the bridge. (more…)
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In the 2nd Xenon Pearl martial arts thriller from Mr. Rosenfeld, 
Xenon is presented not as the master martial artist of movie and legend, calm and reflecting inner quiet, but as a troubled human, spiraling like his art, but out of control and searching for a path, any path to self-control. A well written and sometimes disturbing look at a man on the cusp, of madness on one side and enlightenment on the other.
Beginning shortly after the end of The Cutting Season (the 1st Xenon Pearl novel), the story picks up with Dr. Pearl still banned from neurosurgery at the hospital, and trying to take care of his girlfriend Jordan (she was attacked and is now paralyzed in spite of Pearl’s surgical skills). Xenon is still fighting his inner demons, his other selves that force him to pick up his sword and right the wrongs that he sees. His cop step-sister Wanda tries to warn him off, taking him to a prison in a ’scared straight’ sense; Jordan tries to stop him; Xenon even tries to stop himself, by seeking out new teachers to try and take the martial arts his nanny taught him (an unnamed art, with no roots given). But he cannot quell the need to ‘fix’ problems with his sword; he manages to alienate Jordan, and anger Wanda. He also finds that some of his victims from the 1st novel have a lawyer building a case against him. (more…)
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A good martial arts movie doesn’t need subtitles or bad English dubbing to be enjoyed!
Martial arts movies can be campy or classy, too much wire or too much blood, short on story and long on boring fights. But we (the royal we, i.e., my son and I) watch Tony Jaa just to see what he will do next. He does not appear to use wires, and in his first films (Ong Bak and The Protector, using the American titles), his Muay Thai and athletic skills were entertaining enough to drown out meager stories.
I received a copy of Ong Bak 2 from my friend in Thailand (thanks Mark); (more…)
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Almost all martial artists will say that you need a good instructor. But 
having a video or DVD at home that can help you remember or get through the rough spots is very helpful.
I was given a copy of the DVD Simplified Tai Chi Chuan featuring Master Liang, Shou-Yu for Tai Chi Day (thanks Barbara). It is an excellent companion study guide, well organized and detailed on both the Simplified 24 form and the Standard 48 form.
An outline of the content is below: (more…)
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SFSignal.com has posted an interview I did with Jonathan Maberry, martial 
artist and author of Patient Zero, a techno-thriller. Patient Zero is a fast paced read, featuring Joe Ledger, a no-nonsense, no-hesitation fighter who is recruited for the Department of Military Science (DMS) to fight a new threat: a bio-terrorism agent that affects its victims in a way that makes them resemble zombies.
But this is not a Zombie book: there is science and reasoning behind the action. The interview covers the research Mr. Maberry did, his martial arts background, the current threat of terrorism, and more.
There is also realism in the fighting, based on Mr. Maberry’s martial arts expertise. Here is an excerpt that describes his background:
LARRY: Did you pattern Ledger after a particular experience, or type of martial artist that you have observed (or been)?
MABERRY: Joe’s reactions are based partly on my own views and teachings in martial arts, and on the kinds of reactions and reflexes I’ve seen in men I’ve met who work in SWAT and Special Ops. Immediate reaction without hesitation is a prized skill, and very often it’s the dividing line between those who can hack it in Special Ops and those who can’t. It doesn’t make someone more or less of a good person, but it does qualify them for a certain kind of work.
I’ve been practicing and teaching martial arts for 45 years and currently hold an 8th degree black belt in jujutsu and a 5th degree in kenjutsu (the art of Japanese swordplay). Both arts grew out of the fighting sciences of the Samurai, and immediately reaction and appropriate response are core skills. It’s what the samurai trained for and what I learned.
I was able to get a lot of practical experience with this while working as a bodyguard in the entertainment industry. I’ve taught martial arts and self-defense to a number of special needs groups, such as abused women, school kids, college women, the physically challenged, the elderly, and so on.. Until recently I was also CEO and chief instructor for COPSafe, a firm that provided arrest and control workshops for all levels of law enforcement including SWAT.
What Joe Ledger does is not superhuman. It’s the end result of good training coupled with the sharpness of mind that someone in Special Ops would necessarily have.
The full interview is here.
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My son grew up watching Dragonball and Dragonball Z, which means, of 
course, that I watched a lot of it with him (yeah, yeah, I play video games and watch cartoons with my kid, and probably will when he leaves for college this summer). And I find that he and his friends, unlike older Western people of my generation, have no problem accepting the concepts of chi/ki/qi.
Films such as Star Wars introduced an earlier generation to “The Force”, a thinly veiled version of the concept of chi. But manga TV shows such as Dragonball, Bleach, InnuYasha, readily available on YouTube, Hulu and cable’s Adult Swim, have brought Eastern philosophies, and in some cases easier acceptance of those concepts, to our very Western kids.
The contrast between Eastern and Western perceptions used to be quite radical, as shown in this excerpt from the 1997 book The Root of Chinese Qigong by Dr. Yang, Jwing-ming: (more…)
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There are four well known styles of so-called “internal” Chinese martial 
arts: Taichiquan, Xingyiquan, Baguazhang and Lin He Ba Fa. While I have only practiced Taichiquan from this group, this book on Baguazhang gives particioners of other martial arts an excellent grounding in Bagua, and frankly gives motivation for further study.
In a long list of excellent books on Martial Arts from Dr. Yang and his YMAA, this book covering Baguazhang is one of the most thorough I have studied. In the style of most YMAA books, the book covers a genral introduction, a translation and discussion of ancient texts on the subject, fundamentals of the style, barehand form and weapons form.
Contents include: (more…)
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Sunrise Tai Chi provides an introduction to Tai Chi Chuan, with easy to 
understand descriptions of the history and principles, plus visualizations to help with the hard-to-understand breathing/mental disciplines and a short “Sunrise Tai Chi Form” that should prove a quick learn for beginning and advanced students.
More advanced students will find benefit from the visualizations provided for focus and energy. The concepts of qi/chi and Eastern concepts of energy are difficult to grasp, especially when described in flowery languages that are unfamiliar. Mr. Rones (an advanced student of Dr. Yang, Jwing-ming, whose martial arts books are among the best I’ve read) provides a different perspective for these visualizations which should help all students look at energy flow in a different way.
The book is broken down into the following sections: (more…)
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