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Most martial arts don’t fit together easily. You take the circular hands of Chinese kenpo Karate and try to put them atop the linear stances of Japanese shotokan, and you are going to get an uncoordinated mish mash. Or, the quick and slick jabs of boxing might fit with wing chun, but the round house power punches don’t fit at all.

And, of course, there are arts that do fit together. You can put aikido together with pa kua chang, but it is going to take discipline and logic to categorize individual techniques. And, this leaves the creator with a problem of how do you teach the beast without confusing.

That all said, I was taking an Aikido class one day, I was a mere beginner in that art, though I had seven years of kenpo and karate and a bit of wing chun. So they asked me to partake in randori. which is the freestyle aikido employs to train students. And, it was a sad experience, at best.

I didn’t want to give them my punches, karate had taught me to lock down and become immoveable, and the result was that nobody could throw me, and the give and take of the randori exercise broke down. I blame no one, it was mixing apples and peaches, and one could argue they should have been able to make their art work, but I should have been able to work with them. Interestingly, it was what happened after that that became interesting.

Paul, one of the advanced black belts came up to me and wondered where the breakdown had been. Other black belts, lower ones, stayed away from me like a pariah, but he wanted to learn, and that was the mark of an advanced belt.

So I explained about l how I had been taught to lock down my stance, and we looked at that in conjunction with aikido techniques, and how things could have been different. Nothing was really making sense, until I asked him if he had ever heard of sticky hands. When I showed it to him the lights began to go on.

Wing Chun, you see, has more mobile stances, and we spent hours figuring out how to get the feet to go fast enough to keep up with the aikido centrifugal action. Slowly, we figured out how the feet were supposed to cross or circle with the action of the attack. We began to go into advanced techniques, Paul excited because of all he was learning, myself grinning, because I was getting a super advanced lesson in higher Aikido that the other fellows in the school, the lower black belts, would have died for.

It takes logic to put arts together, and very few people are successful at the endeavor. I succeeded wildly, and this because I always seem to run into people that are willing to look a little deeper, and willing to share what they learn. If you think you know it all, if you’re proud, if you look down on other students, then you will never open your mind and be able to ingest all the wonderful truth that flows so freely in the universe.

Want to learn some of the best kept secrets of martial arts moves that work great? I want to explore and share with you a collection of street self defense fighting techniques that will make you a better fighter. I have been a martial artist my whole life, and have fought in many dangerous situations outside of the dojo. From what I can tell you, these are the following best kept secrets of reality based self defense training:

Learn martial arts moves #1 – The kick to the groin. You can use the kick, or a knee strike to cause and inflict damage and mostly pain to a male opponent. This move is not just limited with kicks and knee strikes, you can elbow the groin, stomp, bite, squeeze, rip. It is a very painful and sensitive area on every male opponent and if you need to fight for your life everything is fair on the street. Remember that and use this move.

Learn martial arts moves #2 – Stab your fingers into their eyes. When I did years of training in Jeetkunedo Concepts I quickly learned that one of the best reality based self defense techniques I could ever use was none other then the eye gouge. It is a simple move and has devastating consequences to the person who is attacking you. It causes temporary or permanent blindness and extreme pain. If you need to protect yourself, try using this self defense move!

Learn martial arts moves #3 – Smash your attacker into his kneecaps. You can cause permanent damage or more specifically break his knee cap. It is an easy strike and what you want to do is smash through it with your foot and breaking his knee joint. If anything this will cause pain and hold back an attacker being able to chase you as fast and quickly as he could if not for you using this move.

Be sure that you memorize and use all these techniques and incorporate them into your street self defense and martial arts moves. They work in street based scenarios so be sure to practice and improve your training. Be sure to do daily physical activity and training to be prepared for violence! Continue improving your education and skill levels of martial arts. Be sure to eat properly and maintain your physical health. I hope you have learned something from this article.

He was one of the greatest kung-fu masters in the world, a direct descendant of the creator of tai chi, and he was asking me to show him a punch. It was an exciting moment but also nerve-wracking. Trying not to be nervous, I settled into the posture and prepared to show him internal power. Grandmaster Chen Xiaowang stood in front of me, watching carefully.

Trying to remain relaxed, I shifted my weight from my right to my left leg and my right fist shot out, fast, relaxed, and powerful. At the same time, my left elbow thrust backward and my left hand stopped at my ribcage.

Grandmaster Chen was not impressed. He took my right hand in his left, my left hand in his right and told me to relax. Before I knew what was happening, he jerked the right hand out and pushed the left hand backward. I wasn’t quite relaxed enough and almost suffered whiplash in my neck.

Relax, he told me again, and once again he jerked my arms — hard — forcing one to punch and the other to return to my ribcage. For a minute, I was like a rag doll, completely limp as he repeatedly demonstrated how relaxed I was supposed to be when performing fa-jing.

It’s amazing how the internal arts of China — Tai Chi, Hsing-I and Bagua — have been distorted by teachers who take what they have read too literally. The subject of fa-jing (pronounced “fah-zhing”) is one example of how a simple concept is misunderstood and misinterpreted.

Fa-jing means “issuing energy.” Unfortunately, the people who desperately need to believe in the supernatural think that in doing fa-jing, you are shooting chi out of your hands or body. They take it literally.

It’s not magical or mystical. It’s a matter of physics, and in the internal arts, it’s a matter of body mechanics.

Boxers issue energy anytime they deliver a jab, a hook, or an uppercut. If you’re into karate, you issue energy when you break a board with your foot, and if you’re into MMA, energy is issued when you drive a knee into an opponent’s face.

In the internal arts, fa-jing — issuing energy — is more complex, but the end result is the same. You knock someone into next week.

Grandmaster Chen Xiaowang, whose ancestor,Chen Wangting created Tai Chi 11 generations ago, teaches that fa-jing is a matter of proper body structure (posture) and good internal movement. From there, he says you simply “step on the gas.” He likes using automobile metaphors. In other words, if you use good structure and mechanics and then add speed, you will create the unique relaxed power of the internal arts.

I’ve studied other martial arts and have found the body mechanics of the internal arts far more difficult and complex. For high-quality tai chi you must maintain ground strength, peng jin, whole-body movement, silk-reeling (spiraling movement through the body), dan t’ien rotation and opening/closing the kua. You must connect all of these skills through the body as you deliver the strike with speed, power, and relaxation.

It takes years to learn how to do this from an internal perspective, because we all bring bad habits to the internal arts and it takes years to learn the above-mentioned skills and learn to maintain the whole-body connection as you move. It takes years for us to lose the muscular tension that we’ve developed all of our lives.

When Grandmaster Chen worked with me on the punch, I didn’t have it the first few times I did the punch and he corrected me each time. Suddenly I understood, and the next time I punched I connected the relaxed power from my foot, through my body and out my hand, exploding and shifting my weight at the same time.

“Ahh!” he said, his face lighting up. “Good.”

As a martial artist, few things are better than getting a “good” from Chen Xiaowang.

A short time later, he astonished those of us attending his Washington, D.C. workshop by doing a series of fa-jing strikes.C. With each strike, it seemed his uniform was exploding in all directions. That type of power comes from being connected and relaxing — and from a lifetime of practice. When he does fa-jing, you can almost feel the energy even standing halfway across a room. It reminded me of being on the floor right behind the basketball hoop during a University of Iowa game. When the big players were slamming into each other beneath the hoop, you could feel the body heat and almost feel the energy as they collided. I’ll never forget it, and being close to Chen Xiaowang when he does fa-jing is very similar.

There are two myths about tai chi that all martial artists should put aside. One is that tai chi is a slow motion health and meditation exercise. In truth, it’s a powerful martial art that is practiced slowly so students can learn the body mechanics and later can speed up the movements and deliver amazing power without a lot of obvious effort to the untrained observer.

The other myth people should forget is about chi. Fa-jing has nothing to do with shooting energy out of your body. Instead of focusing on chi, which has never been proven exist in independent scientific studies and which is too often the focus of tai chi teachers, you should focus on proper posture and body mechanics. Do this and you’ll be closer to developing the relaxed power of fa-jing.

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Ken Gullette has practiced martial arts for 36 years and is best known for his high-quality instructional DVDs, his online internal arts school and his internal arts blog. He is dedicated to dispelling the myths surrounding tai chi, hsing-i and bagua, showing that the skills required for the internal arts are physical, not metaphysical.

Martial arts films have become a fairly popular theme recently. You might have noticed that there are already many martial art movies that have been created and released during 2010. A great way to share your love of martial arts films with others is to take some time to discuss the top 3 martial arts movies of 2010 and their impact on the martial arts community.

Ninja Assassin has been one of the main films that everyone has been interested in. The plot is based in Berlin and focuses on an orphan who lives with a clan of ninjas. The orphan experiences violent and rough training throughout his life so that he can become a ninja and assassin, though this is different from who he actually wants to be. In reflection of this, after all of the cruelty he experiences and the amount of freedom that he is denied, he betrays the clan one night and focuses on becoming independent.

After he has betrayed the clan, the group of ninjas begin to search for him in order to avenge his betrayal. In the process of avoiding them, he meets a government agent who is also interested in the case and they eventually become friends while working together. The film showcases many martial arts scenes that are very memorable, which is likely why it has become so popular.

Another popular film is known as Ninja. This film begins with some good historically based scenes about ninjas throughout the ages. Here, you are allowed to see some beautiful examples of martial arts. However, the storyline then progresses very quickly to situation where the main character and the villain of the film fight each other because they like the same girl. There is then a storyline about ninja heirlooms and a plot unfolds in the process. While this film is good for some martial arts scenes, it is possibly more bloody than it needs to be.

There is also a film that has not yet been released, which is already very popular. This film is the remake of The Karate Kid. Generally, it would seem that the reason this is so popular without a release even happening yet is because people want to know if this movie will be as impressive as the original. If you haven’t seen the original yet, then it is recommended you should see it first and then see the remake. This way, you can judge for yourself which film was better and which had better martial arts scenes.

However, the original film itself was a great example of martial arts. Additionally, it was safe for younger individuals to watch. This allowed for many younger people to become curious about martial arts and want to learn more about it. If the remake is any reflection of this, then there will again be younger generations that are curious about the practice and want to know more.

Most of these films were released in the earlier part of 2010. Because of the amount of films that have already been released, it isn’t unusual to wonder how many more films will approach as the year continues. More positively, the martial arts community can use this to interact with as many interested individuals as possible. But likewise, the films would be better if there was less of a focus on ninjas and pointless gore.

These are aspects you might want to consider and mention during your discussion of the top 3 martial arts films of 2010. There are still many films that need to be released in the period of a year and it’s undoubted that there will be more films to discuss. But in the meantime, you can use some of the above films as examples and conversation starters.

There are 3 things you must do every week – and sometimes every day in every class – to make sure your martial arts school thrives. Those 3 things are:

Bring in new students
Retain the students you have
Get more from your students

It is critical to the survival of your school that you block off time every week to focus on these 3 things. This might be 1 hour or 1 day. It might be to create a new class, new marketing program or for education in martial arts management to make sure you are growing as a martial arts school owner.

Marketing
You should be setting aside time every week to work on growing your school. This does not mean you have to create a brand new marketing plan every week. One week each month you can focus on education. Just like learning martial arts – you are constantly learning new things, right?

The same applies to marketing. Pick up a book, read a blog, read the business section of the newspaper. You have to learn the basics and continue to learn and grow in marketing as well.

Student Retention
Student retention is vital to any martial arts school. If you get 3 new students but 4 leave then you have not just gone back by a count of 1 youve actually gone back by 4 because had you retained those students you would now have a total of 7 students.

Each week you should be doing things to ensure your students are going to stay in your program as long as possible. This could be sending out birthday cards, writing a school newsletter, offering special workshops, learning more about the student and their family to build a stronger relationship, the list is almost endless.

Internal Marketing
The last item, internal marketing, is one that is often forgotten. Yet it is critically important.

What most small business owners, and most martial arts school owners, fail to understand is that it takes a whole lot more effort and money to find a new client then it does to sell again to an existing client.

To get a new student you must spend a lot of time and money finding them and convincing them that your school is what they are looking for and need.

It takes much less time and money to sell your current students on a Saturday workshop, or sell them a T-shirt, or get them to take private lessons.

You Are Not Alone
You do not have to take on these tasks all by yourself. There are many places you can get information to cut down your learning curve or save time and money by using existing materials.

You can get books on marketing, you can ask other martial arts school owners what they do, you can join online forums in places like LinkedIn, or fan pages on FaceBook, you can purchase materials from martial arts business or management companies.

International Martial Arts Management Systems, (IMAMS) is one such place. We offer a system that is created of training modules that consistently brings in 4, 5, maybe 10 students every month. We have modules for student retention and many many ways to help you with internal marketing.