Debating Martial Arts topics on the interwebs

This morning I got pretty aggravated by some tool that made the statement

‘We can safely say that martial arts started when Bodhidharma travelled
from India to China and taught some emaciated Chinese Buddhist monks
some exercises to stay healthy’

This kind of thing really riles me. In my opinion the Shaolin story is full of shit, propagated by the Chinese government and old skool kung fu flicks. Why do I think this, because of things I have read and researched.

Now, does this really matter a toss? Really? the answer is definitely no. It’s my opinion, should it be other people’s opinion too? who gives a toss, it doesn’t matter. Does it help my training if indeed the first person to ever throw a punch and teach his mates was some Indian Yogi? not at all. So why debate it?!

The martial arts are about training to be good at fighting, you cannot put a gloss on that. As a side effect of deep study in any practical field, you will also, after time, develop a scholarly side and start researching the martial arts and related fields. If your inclined that way you might even develop the internal aspects of the arts as well. It’s really no big shit! don’t get all excited about it!

I’m not sure if this post makes much sense, but in summary:

• Don’t be a tool and just spout shit on the internet/real world – At least try to do some research first before showing your ignorance.
• Debating esoterica, vague history etc. is fully pointless and will not make you a better practitioner. The main part of that word is practice, so when you feel the urge to spout off, can it and get to the gym to do something useful (I’m clearly not following my own advice here with this rant!)

NB: For a much more eloquent expression of what I am trying to say look here and here

Learning Japanese – It’s 2008: Use technology to help!

I said a while ago that I moved, well, part of that has involved learning a new language. Following the martial arts maxim,

Do not seek to just blindly copy and emulate your teachers, instead seek what they sought.

I set about trying to find the tools and strategy that worked best for me to accomplish the goal of learning a new language quickly and well.

I found that the king of SRS (spaced repetition systems) and Japanese language learning tools is the humble PDA

So, First go to http://www.japaneselanguagetools.com/ and get an Axim loaded to the gills with Japanese – English dictionaries. Then get bazillions of example sentences from ftp://ftp.cc.monash.edu.au/pub/nihongo/jp_examples.fpw.tar.gz and stick that on the PDA’s SD Card (get a big one, the bigger the better)

Once that’s done you have a Japanese-English-Kanji-Stroke order-readings etc Dictionary that easily outperforms any of the commercial J-E ‘Wordtank’ kind of dictionaries,you can add further pimpage too by adding the worlds finest SRS　on it by adding PocketStackz from http://www.stackz.com/Stackz/ppc/ppc.htm
after that’s installed add the vocabulary files from http://www.stackz.com/Stackz/Archive/Archive.php

That’s well on the way to being the King of language learning helpers, but adding Declan’s voice flash cards (Yes: VOICE, they speak the words at you!) and the Kanji software will quite honestly put you over the edge!! get them from here -
http://www.declan-software.com/pocket_pc/japanese/index.htm

The Declans and Stackz site has files for all the JLPT levels and quite frankly, any words you’d ever need!

Free trials are available for all the software listed above (Obviously not the Axim)

Good luck!

NB: I am in no way affiliated with these sites, but I do fully recommend the products.

Latin Quotes from the Oldskool

Nihil aliud scit necessitas quam vincere – Necesssity knows nothing else but victory. (Syrus)

Nemo timendo ad summum pervenit locum – No man by fearing reaches the top. (Syrus)

Mens agitat molem – The mind moves the matter. (Vergil)

Maior risus, acrior ensis: quadragesima octava regula quaesitus – The bigger the smile, the sharper the knife: the 48th rule of acquisition

Facilius per partes in cognitionem totius adducimur – We are more easily led part by part to an understanding of the whole. (Seneca)

Facilius est multa facere quam diu – It is easier to do many things than to do one for a long time. (Quintilianus)

Fas est et ab hoste doceri – It’s proper to learn even from an enemy. (Ovid)

Homines, dum docent, discunt – Men learn while they teach. (Seneca)

Gladiator in arena consilium capit – The gladiator is formulating his plan in the arena (i.e., too late) (Seneca)

Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto – I am human, therefore nothing human is strange to me

Ut desint vires, tamen est laudanda voluntas – Although the power is lacking, the will is commendable. (Ovid)

Veni, vidi, vici – I came, I saw, I conquered. (Julius Caesar)

Video meliora proboque deteriora sequor – I see the better way and approve it, but I follow the worse way

Vis consili expers mole ruit sua – Brute force bereft of wisdom falls to ruin by its own weight. (Discretion is the better part of valor) (Horace)

Vitiis nemo sine nascitur – No-one is born without faults. (Horace)

Aequam memento rebus in arduis servare mentem – Remember when life’s path is steep to keep your mind even. (Horace)

Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero – Seize the day, leave as little as possible to tomorrow.(Horace)

Wisdom is not wisdom when it is derived from books alone.(Horace)

Tai Chi reduces tension headaches apparently!

As part of the study, the researchers conducted a 15-week Tai Chi
program and found that participating patients improved on a
quality-of-life based measurement called SF-36 and also on a test
called HIT-6TM designed to capture the effect of headaches. A 15 week
intervention of Tai Chi practice was effective in reducing headaches.
The patients also reported improvement in energy levels, emotional well
being, social functioning and mental health.

More Here

Qigong Improves Concentration in School Children

Claudia Witt, MD, and associates from the Institute for Social
Epidemiology, Epidemiology and Health Economics at the University of
Berlin, did a study on 140 students to determine the result of a
six-month program of Xianggong (”fragrant qigong”), movement
instruction for the students’ health and behaviour.

More Here

Evolutionary Fitness

I’m looking into this at the moment, sounds pretty interesting

http://www.whywenothithard.com/2008/02/review-evolutionary-fitness.html

More science than an undergrad course, but simple and easy-to-apply
principles make this a superb all-around diet/fitness system. May not
be ideal for high-level athletes though.

Advice: Beginning BJJ / MMA / Martial arts in general

Lately it seems like I’ve been seeing threads pop up left and right from new grapplers who get upset at how quickly they get tapped, or who wonder how they can get better faster, or who simply think they suck. With respect, frankly its starting to get tiresome.

From the Colonel over at Sherdog

Another Meditation Article

In 1985, the meditation team made a video of monks drying cold, wet sheets with body heat. They also documented monks spending a winter night on a rocky ledge 15,000 feet high in the Himalayas. The sleep-out took place in February on the night of the winter full moon when temperatures reached zero degrees F. Wearing only woolen or cotton shawls, the monks promptly fell asleep on the rocky ledge, They did not huddle together and the video shows no evidence of shivering. They slept until dawn then walked back to their monastery.
Read it here

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Furious Angels – Boondock Video

Furious Angels – Boondock

The finest MMA highlight video I have ever seen.
Blood, emotion, glory and crushing defeats; it touched me.
So much more than the uneducated and ignorant view that ‘it’s just two men fighting’

It may be, and perhaps should be, difficult to accept the notion that a prizefighter’s work merits the same kind of attention we lavish on an artist’s, but once we begin attending to and describing what he does in the ring, it becomes increasingly difficult to refuse the expenditure. The fighter creates a style in a world of risk and opportunity. His disciplined body assumes the essential postures of the mind: aggressive and defensive, elusively graceful with its shifts of direction, or struggling with all its stylistic resources against a resistant but, until the very end, alterable reality. A great fighter redefines the possible.

Meditation Books UK

A bit of an experiment in making a website of books that are relevant to this blog.
If you fancy a look at some meditation and chi kung books then have a peek at Meditation Books UK