A TERRIBLE CLOSE QUARTER COMBAT TRAINING MISTAKE!

The mistake? Ignoring the successful moves. I could write a ton about this point and its unintended after-effects in hand, stick, knife, gun survival training and related, muscle memory. But, I’ll just leave this shorter essay here. The specific point of this is about misguiding mission, misguided training doctrine. This is about the training ignorance, … Continue reading A TERRIBLE CLOSE QUARTER COMBAT TRAINING MISTAKE!

Hock the Filipino Gringo of FMA

Okay folks. Bare with me. I have a few martial ranks through the years, (like a FMA, guro BB test in Manila). So, this is a joke but not a joke. I have a joke-meme I’ve passed around for years with two loaves of cut-open bread, a “white bread-brown bread” meme. The idea is that … Continue reading Hock the Filipino Gringo of FMA

The Quandary of FMA Training Stick vs. Stick, versus Stick Combatives

A Bigger Picture. In the martial arts world, stick versus stick fighting is most closely associated with the Filipino Martial Arts (FMA). A huge chunk of many FMA systems is indeed about the stick-versus-stick duels-events.   (Using-hitting a stick is an easy and fast training target, as with developing the smart fanning strike shown here … Continue reading The Quandary of FMA Training Stick vs. Stick, versus Stick Combatives

Martial Art Taproots Taking Your Money

Palace Intrigue Report #87: Taproots in Martial Arts Business (This essay causes me trouble, even among friends)   Is your instructor, system, art, tribe, etc. a negative taproot? Are you a negative taproot for your people?     No one ever said that all martial artists people were good business people. Usually they are not. … Continue reading Martial Art Taproots Taking Your Money

NLP in Martial Arts and Shooting – A Brief History

I was doing a seminar in early 1990s and an attendee approached me during a break and said, “I see you’ve studied NLP.” “No,” I said. “Oh, you use NLP methods. I thought you did.” In England years later, another guy said the same thing. I said no again. And then a host there said … Continue reading NLP in Martial Arts and Shooting – A Brief History

The Smiling Criminal

In the last decades or so, numerous self-defense people have been going around, reading off ”Pre-Assault Tips” lists, and been considered such “inventive geniuses” by virgin listeners. I first saw such a list in the early 1970s in the military police academy. This list, this idea, “ain’t new, it’s just new to you,” to paraphrase … Continue reading The Smiling Criminal

Worst USA Catastrophe Question? MLK Assassination!

Late last year I was interviewed for a martial arts book, and they asked opinion questions to a series of traveling martial-seminar guys like me. There was a series of standard ones and then some “different” kinds of questions that we were asked. And one question was (and I can’t remember the wording exactly) what … Continue reading Worst USA Catastrophe Question? MLK Assassination!

Mixed Martial Arts? Or, Mixed-Up Martial Arts?

MMA – Mixed Martial Arts? Or MMA – Mixed-up Martial Arts?   The tabulators tell me that 2021 this will be my 51st year doing martial arts – having started in Parker Kenpo in late 1972. I’ve always been looking for the best most realistic arts and systems through those decades, hunting for the next … Continue reading Mixed Martial Arts? Or, Mixed-Up Martial Arts?

Football “Hand-Fight” Exercises and Drills for the Martialist

A lot of American football coaches and players watch game films. I instead, have watched hours of football “how-to” training films to see how these players TRAIN. If you have ever spent time with me, you’ve heard me brag for years, decades even, on how American football training methods can be diced and altered to … Continue reading Football “Hand-Fight” Exercises and Drills for the Martialist

KISSING OFF THE K.I.S.S. METHOD

Growth. Finding new information and ideas is a never-ending, quest-job. Makes me think of the old line I never liked,   “Keep it simple, stupid.”   It’s a shallow line. Stupid really. (Usually known as the K.I.S.S. method) Simple and stupid are not synonymous. To me, that means “I am stupid, you are stupid and … Continue reading KISSING OFF THE K.I.S.S. METHOD