Most striking arts are taught as if fights happen at a fixed distance. The students practice punching and kicking combinations against a stationary heavy bag or a cooperative partner who holds pads and stays in the correct place. The techniques…
Geoff Thompson, the British self-defense instructor and author, developed and popularized what he called “the fence” — a pre-contact positioning concept that addresses the gap between formal martial arts training and real-world defensive encounters. The concept is simple, practically powerful,…
Most martial arts systems include some form of knife defense in their curriculum. Most of it is inadequate for real encounters with an edged weapon. This is not an indictment of traditional training — it reflects an honest assessment of…
Author: Master CincinnatusCategory: TrainingSchedule: 2026-06-11 14:00 MDT In most martial arts that include throwing, the very first skill taught is not a throw. It is ukemi — the art of falling safely. This sequencing is not arbitrary. You cannot practice…
Author: Master CincinnatusCategory: TrainingSchedule: 2026-06-11 08:00 MDT Watch any high-level fighter, from any tradition, and what you notice is not the hands. It is the feet. The head moves off the line before a counter is thrown. The body arrives…
Joint locks occupy a specific space in the martial arts toolkit — they are not the first resort in most situations, they require a different kind of contact than striking, and they carry a particular risk that strikes do not:…
Every serious martial artist reaches the question eventually. Usually it arrives after watching MMA, or after a frustrating kata class, or after a conversation with a training partner who has started wrestling or boxing. The question takes different forms but…
