Below the Belt

Martial Arts are full of myths.

2012-02-03T17:19:00.000Z

Take the legends that swirl around old masters. This one could kill a bird with his kiai, that one could defeat whole armies and that one could actually fly.

Of course those are exaggerations...a bit like the stories of masters.

Yes I’m sure they were excellent martial artists and had profound knowledge of their subject. But as I’ve yet to see a master of today actually fly or be employed as a country’s secret weapon (although maybe he exists as I wouldn’t know it being secret!). Nor have I ever read of one that could defeat armies in any other periodical other than Captain America.

Although they might have more knowledge I think the past master would often struggle against modern fighters simply because of modern training methods. They were, after all, only humans.

But that is not the only kind of mythology that is present in martial arts. For example, displays and exhibitions of martial arts abound with myths that are played out of the public. Take breaking boards and bricks and things. Yes you do need good technique, correct stature and that jazz, but essentially its good body mechanics combined with the willingness to go through enough of the object to set off a chain reaction of stress...

But it’s not a super human feat.

It’s the same with bending spears on parts of the body. Wouldn’t like to try it myself, so hats off for the pain-tolerance display, but have you seen how long the spear poles are? And how relatively thin they are compared to their length?

It looks impressive - and it is - but it’s not outside the laws of physics.

We create myth with our systems, styles and schools as well. This one’s the ultimate that one’s the bee’s knees as well as the dog’s bollocks. Need I say more?

And we turn ordinary people into heroes because of their sporting prowess or expertise, only to find usually that they have feet of clay. There is always danger in turning people into myths, especially living myths because the subject may start believing it themselves. I personally pity those instructors who act with regal majesty when amongst their adoring students down at the scout hut...

Is it really fair to Joe Public to weave these and other myths that surround martial arts?

Well, the public are sort of complicit in the mythologizing themselves. They want to believe, to a degree, that myths are real, that humans are capable of great feats and deeds etc, but essentially they know there’s a lot of hyperbole going on.

But is this true of kids? After all, most children, one suspects, join martial arts classes because they want to be ninja spies when they grow up. Is it a right to infect them with myths about what they do in martial arts classes or is really quite harmless at the end of the day? I mean, to find out later on in life that you are not destined to be a ninja spy but an office worker or a shop assistant could be quite damaging psychologically. I never got over it.

Will the myths disappear? I doubt it as it seems to be an innate part of being human to exaggerate events and put people on pedestals.

And, as a method to attract students, it has stood the test of time as a recruiting tool among the gullible...

For further information on DFM visit: www.dfmmartialarts.co.uk or e-mail Phil Doherty at phil.doherty@martialnews.co.uk

Cage fighting and the unconventional Duchess...

2011-10-01T14:13:00.000+01:00

Alnwick Castle, Northumberland

ALNWICK, England…

The Duchess of Northumberland, no stranger to controversy, is to stage a televised cage-fighting tournament in the grounds of the 1,000-year-old Alnwick Castle, the (London) Sunday Times reported.

On October 21, the Northern Free Fighters and Team Shotai Kai will slug it out, not in an aircraft hangar, a dingy social club or a smoke-filled pub, but in a stunning glass atrium usually reserved for elegant weddings, silver anniversaries and 60^th birthday parties.

This is not, however, a last-ditch fundraiser to pay the heating bills. Her husband, the 12th Duke of Northumberland, was ranked joint 248th in this year's Sunday Times Rich List with a fortune calculated at £315 million. Proceeds from the event will go to the Help for Heroes charity.

It is, instead, the result of the 52-year-old duchess' improbable love of martial arts.

"I've been doing boxing for years and it's great," she said. "Particularly after a bad day. You can thump away at something, imagine it's whoever has annoyed me in the last meeting and it's really satisfying. I've got a fairly good jab but the rest of

it is not great."

From boxing she has progressed to kickboxing and fighting with sticks, a discipline she describes as "tricky."

Her plans to stage extreme fighting at Alnwick, 30 miles (48km) north of Newcastle, have caused upset in some quarters. Two years ago, several volunteers walked out in protest during a smaller cage-fighting event.

"They said it wasn't what the garden was about," she said. "But excuse me, they couldn't have been more wrong. The garden was built for every age group and sector of the community. It isn't exclusively for 50-year-old-and-over women who like flowers."

Alnwick made headlines in 2005 when, with permission from the Home Office, it opened a poison garden stocked with specimens of cannabis, opium poppies, magic mushrooms, tobacco and the coca plant, the source of cocaine.

http://msn.foxsports.com/boxing/story/Duchess-of-Northumberland-to-host-cage-fighting-tournament-092411

THE INDEPENDENT...

Widespread disgust met the release last week of footage showing two boys of eight and nine cage-fighting at a Preston working men's club. But don't assume this kind of behaviour is to do with class, for I can disclose that the Duchess of Northumberland, whose son George is a close friend of Pippa Middleton, is a fan of the sport. Indeed, she is a member of a martial arts club, and is hosting her very own cage fight in the grounds of Alnwick Castle next month to raise money for her garden. There is no suggestion that the practice is illegal, and only adults will compete at Alnwick. But it was an unfortunate moment for the duchess to begin promoting her event.

Asked whether it will go ahead in the light of last week's news, a spokesman says: "Yep, all still going ahead! The duchess is excited about inviting the cage-fighting crowd to the garden."

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/matthew-bell-the-iiosi-diary-250911-2360476.html

DAILY EXPRESS...

HER £50 MILLION garden nicknamed “the Versailles of the North” includes cannabis and opium plants, she collects stuffed dogs that sit among the Louis XIV furniture and paintings by Titian and Canaletto, and she says she would feel she had failed as a mother if either of her daughters had wanted to be a debutante (the eldest was a mechanic and a racing driver who makes parts for guns, the youngest is a tennis coach).

“I’m not someone who is interested in doing things the same way as every one else,” says Jane Percy, the Duchess of Northumberland. “I have a million and one ideas.”

The latest example of her resolutely unconventional approach to life is the televised cage fighting that will take place next month in the grounds of 1,000 year old Alnwick Castle she lovingly refers to as Hogwarts (her home was chosen to represent the school in the Harry Potter films).

A martial arts proponent and boxer herself – “there were times when you were really worried or really annoyed and to be able to hit something or someone was wonderful”

– The 52 year old wife of Ralph Percy, the 12th Duke of Northumberland, makes no apology for her cage fighting event.

“The garden was built for every age group and sector of the community. It isn’t exclusively for 50 year old and over women who like flowers.”

Her previous innovations would appear to bear out the truth of that statement. In 2005, with permission from the Home Office, the Duchess opened a Poison Garden stocked with specimens of cannabis, magic mushroom, opium poppies and the coca plant, the source of cocaine.

“I know that I was a difficult child to educate,” she explains.

“If I was a child the way to get my attention would be to say, ‘Do you know this plant has killed 500 people in really nasty ways – their body curls up and their muscles tear away.’ ”

So just who is this maverick, entrepreneurial Duchess whose focus and imagination have transformed her corner of England into a huge tourist attraction rivalled only by Kew and Windsor gardens – and who has divided the gardening establishment in the process.

“She is the antithesis of the stuffy duchess,” says Richard Compton Miller, author of society bible Who’s Really Who.

“I remember staying once at Belvoir Castle with the Duke and Duchess of Rutland and people were still calling them ‘your grace’. But the Duchess of Northumberland prefers to be just Jane.

“I wouldn’t describe her as eccentric but someone rather go ahead and a believer in blue sky thinking doing remarkable things. Because she’s a duchess she’s got the power and influence to do these things. It’s another example of the middle class marrying into the upper class with great prowess.”

It is a background that the Duchess shares with Kate Middleton, the new Duchess of Cambridge, who is already livening up the monarchy by being so refreshingly down to earth and self possessed.

There is also an intriguing link between the families, with some commentators wondering if the Middletons will one day find them selves in a “double duchess” situation.

Jane’s son George Percy, heir apparent to his family’s £300million fortune, is an old friend of Pippa Middleton, Kate’s younger sister. They shared a flat at Edinburgh University and Pippa was linked with him over the summer after he was seen out and about with her.

That his own mother is unashamedly populist is beyond doubt.

The stuffy gardening fraternity may criticise Jane’s ideas – which included planting fibre optic cables in among her waving bamboo fronds, building the largest tree house in Europe and positively encouraging children to run amok in the modernist waterfalls at Alnwick – but she is determinedly not trying to create a rarefied atmosphere.

A giant ice rink is planned as well as a huge relaxation facility for bus drivers to lure them into choosing Alnwick as their stopping point on trips to Scotland. If there is one word that sums up the Duchess it is inclusivity.

“I never wanted to make a beautiful garden for elite gardeners,” she said.

“A lot of my ideas come from Las Vegas and Disneyland Paris.”

And indeed her newly appointed chief executive officer is Christian Perdrier, a Disney-trained executive who now enjoys a six-figure salary.

“I didn’t want Mickey Mouse or any of the themed ideas but I wanted customer service,” she says.

The Duchess admits that she has had her share of local detractors.

“My hairdresser often tells me I’m not flavour of the month because people think the town is too busy and they can’t find anywhere to park.

“But in one year alone 100 farmers applied for planning permission to turn their outbuildings into B&Bs and every one of them cited the garden as the reason.”

She was born plain Jane Richard, the daughter of an Edinburgh stock- broker and as a child her ambition was to become a professional figure skater. At 13 she realised she wasn’t good enough and went to boarding school in Kent instead.

When she was 16 she met her future husband Ralph, then a 17-year-old Eton schoolboy. It was love at first sight. She followed him to Oxford where he read history and she took a secretarial course. They married in 1979 when she was 21 and Ralph was 22.

Jane spent the first 36 years of her life never expecting to be a duchess, although the thought that her own social elevation would result should anything befall her elder brother-in- law must have occurred to her during the first 15 years of her marriage.

Then in 1995 the troubled 11th Duke was found dead by his valet, slumped beside his bed.

“For years Jane’s husband Ralph had been running Alnwick for his older brother and she was a loyal wife bringing up four children. But when her brother-in-law died at 42 Ralph became Duke,” says Compton Miller.

For Jane and her husband this meant moving out of their farmhouse in the grounds of Alnwick and into the castle. The move was not without difficulties as Jane hunted for a way to make her new calling her own. But find it she did.

After a long battle with English Heritage, who said she was responsible for the destruction of one of the greatest gardens in the country, her garden was expected to attract 60,000 visitors in its first year, in fact it attracted 330,000 and will draw more than 800,000 this year.

“She has done extraordinary things, of which cage-fighting is probably the most extraordinary,” says Compton Miller.

“But remember there is a link between the aristocracy and fighting. The Marquess of Queensberry, a Scottish nobleman in the late 19th century, lent his patron- age to the rules of boxing all those years ago.”

Perhaps the Duchess isn’t so unconventional, after all

http://www.express.co.uk/features/view/273759

For further information on DFM visit: www.dfmmartialarts.co.uk or e-mail Phil Doherty at phil.doherty@martialnews.co.uk

Blogs and film companies...

2011-09-16T11:53:00.000+01:00

I’VE got a new blog care of Bey Logan, the former editor of Combat Magazine and now Hong Kong film director and documentary maker.

The blog platform – where you can read blogs from the movie starts of the Hong Kong film industry as well as Bey’s own blog – is called alivenotdead.

Will be doing my first entry next week – so check it out and of course Bey’s own blog.

Sooooo busy…

Have you ever noticed how times flies – far too quickly!

As you might be aware we are launching a new online-streaming TV company alongside our partners 10th Legion and Dapper Grappler Film Company.

I’ve never been so busy in my life and seem to be surviving on only one or two hours sleep at night. But it will all be worth it to see the project come to life…

And once its running at full speed it will be a brilliant new outlet for the combat sports world.

We started Martial News because quite often the mainstream media just ignore martial arts, or at best oft treat them as some quirky activity to be treated in the same realm as Morris Dancing.

Now – along with our partners – we’ve set up a dedicated TV channel for martial arts and combat sports.

And it’s completely free!

If you want to support what we are doing then tune in and see the hot action…

For further information on DFM visit: www.dfmmartialarts.co.uk or e-mail Phil Doherty at phil.doherty@martialnews.co.uk

Welcome to our new blogs and a new blogger...

2011-08-18T08:19:00.001+01:00

PHIL DOHERTY: WELCOME to our new style blog platforms. As you can see the new blog platforms are interactive and you can now leave comments on the blogs. We hope that you will enjoy being able to talk to our contributors and discuss the issues, ideas and concepts they bring to Martial News.

We also would like to welcome Paul Green to Martial News. Paul is an American tactical defence systems expert who trains US police officers.

He will be discussing many different aspects of this field and has started his blog off with a perspective on what is known as the "Bystander Effect". This is a must read for any martial artist who teaches self-defence and something we all should be aware of.

The new blog platforms are being developed in stages and before long all our contributors will have the same ability to interact with their readers.

It’s all part of the continuing evolution of Martial News. As you may be aware we will shortly be launching a new internet live TV streaming company with our new partners the 10th Legion and film company Dapper Grappler. This will see the top MMA, Muay Thai, Kickboxing and submission grappling contests and shows being streamed live across the world.

But we will also be filming top traditional Karate, Taekwondo, Kung Fu and other styles competitions and streaming these live as well.

And - as the TV develops - we will be running programmes on seminars, history of martial arts and top instructors and much much more besides.

For further information on DFM visit: www.dfmmartialarts.co.uk or e-mail Phil Doherty at phil.doherty@martialnews.co.uk

Evolution of Martial News

2011-08-11T17:26:00.000+01:00

THE evolution of Martial News is continuing.

You may have noticed but we now have direct email on site on a number of pages including the contact page, advertising, and comment among others.

This means it is now easier than ever to send stories directly to us.

The Cage Fight Night section - which we have put up for you to have a looksy will be going fully live at the end of this month.

On the third weekend of every month this will be updated with fight updates, results and features of kickboxing, MMA, Muay Thai and submission grappling.

We will be running new MMA rankings on the Cage Fighters page that will feature fighters from first the North East of England and then the rest of our patch. So if you want to see yourself in these ranking then email us using the contact page.

It will start with the top fighters in the region but will include all fighters from pro to amateur.

Martial News is also joining forces with the biggest fight units in the UK in an exciting new project that we cannot yet reveal...but watch this space.

The Combat Store will follow this. Here you will be able to buy equipment at discount prices if your club comes from our patch areas of Scotland and North of England.

For further information on DFM visit: www.dfmmartialarts.co.uk or e-mail Phil Doherty at phil.doherty@martialnews.co.uk

Universal Truths

2011-08-11T17:25:00.002+01:00

HAVING been in the martial arts game now for more than 25 years I'm still struck by how much the different arts have in common.

We often get caught up in "our style" that we forget there is far less that separates us than we imagine.

Now seasoned martial arts instructors who have trained in various systems will already know this through experience.

But often beginners, or those with few years in the arts, imagine that the styles are very distinct from each other...and superficially they may appear that way.

After all, Taekwondo does not look much like Aikido, for instance. And Capoeira doesn't seem to share much in common with Kali.

But if you look more carefully there are more similarities than you may think.

For example, in the Filipino arts there is the escala - a grid if you like where you can practise the art of angling for defence and attack using sticks, weapons and empty-hand techniques.

And if you ever get a chance to look at Capoiera or Wing Chun you will see similar uses of the same angles, albeit done in a different way. Instead of a grid that shows the directions to strike...you can lie it on the floor and have grid for footwork...

This basic grid is also found in other systems - again done differently - but essentially it’s the same grid. It’s known in swords arts and I've seen it in Ju-jitsu syllabuses.

And the interesting thing about this grid is - if you change it from being a foot pattern and impose it on the person, it becomes the lines of attack which weapons flow through. So now there are multiple lines of attack and evasion in three dimensions.

Shift the X-angles inward so it forms a tight roman X and those are the basic sword cut angles you can strike with using a Katana (V).

Now as a foot grid it become the eight angles of evasion...the ways you can evade an in-coming attack, or the angles of attack which you can angle along to put yourself at the best position to strike.

Are those known to Karate? Yes - think of the katas and you will see them being employed there also. Take the beginning of the pinan katas (heian) and you see moves... to the left, then to the right, then a 90 degree turn to the rear followed by a 180 degree turn to the front.

And it’s known to just about every art - it might not be taught as such - but if you look closely you will see played over and over again regardless of the system.

In Aikido those are the points you will move to albeit using a circle to get there instead of directly going down or back on them (although Aikido DOES go down and along those lines on the floor usually by stepping out with a foot before it commences or as part of the circular motion, for example).

That is because those lines are a basic universal truth whether they are used on the floor as a foot pattern grid or as angles for weapons or empty-hand strikes. A roundhouse kick to the head...simply shift the centre point of the escala to the head and a roundhouse kick then follows either an X-angle or a Cross-angle, depending on the way the roundhouse kick is done...

In Filippino arts they use basic foot patterns, some which are described as asterisked A's.
V shaped and then inverted the other way so the ^ now stands on two legs (there are many of these foot patterns and I'm using the most basic here). Put those together so they join where the lines point and you've got the X-angle again...

But it’s not just something as basic as those eight angles that are universal truths.

A friend of mine Master Robert Brooks is an expert in western swords. He kindly showed me some very old texts which western sword arts were explained. In the texts were many sword disarms.

They resemble many of the techniques you can see in Ju-jutsu, Aikido and Ninjutsu, Chin Na Karate, Kung Fu and on and on.

In Aikido there is a technique known as Kotei gaeshi. But it’s not peculiar to that system and is found just about every other system in one form or another. In Ninjutsu its gyakudori ura, in Karate (beginning of Passai) its known as kotei and in Ju-jutsu as kotei ura and so on and so on (it often has different names from style to style even in a particular system such as Karate).

It is also seen in old western sword schools...why? Because it’s a universal truth - if I bend your wrist and twist you will - because of body mechanics - be either thrown to the floor or, at the very least, be severely unbalanced.

Is it known to kicking arts such as Taekwondo? Well, yes...it’s in the books written by General Choi...but whether it’s in sport Taekwondo is a different matter as the focus for those schools is sport not the original self-defence methods first envisaged by the style's founder.

I've used those examples as just that examples...there are many other universal truths between the different arts.

What makes the systems different is merely the emphasis. In Karate its punching and kicking, in Taekwondo its kicking and punching, in Ju-jutsu its throwing and locking...

But the universal truths are there if you look for them...the similarities that thread through all the combat arts and link them altogether.

You merely have to open your eyes, your heart and more importantly your mind to truly see them.

For further information on DFM visit: www.dfmmartialarts.co.uk or e-mail Phil Doherty at phil.doherty@martialnews.co.uk

Coloured Belts

2011-08-11T17:25:00.001+01:00

I was reading the other day a website dedicated to selling martial arts belts as well as other sports gear.

On that website there was a product where you can proudly display all your belts in a plastic, see-through display with pockets to place your treasured belts in order.

At first I thought: "My God - people would actually put their belts on display! How sad is that!"

I mean, would you? Could you put your belts in display for others to admire? Personally I used to give mine away to those coming up the ranks behind me to save them a couple of bob. At the same time those above me would do the same thing...well until they got their black belts...

But then I'm getting old (err!). I forget that when you are a child you like collecting things and showing what you can achieve. Especially boys...they like to put things in orders, collect things and admire those collections.

I know I did and so to do my two sons.

And why shouldn't a youngster be rightly proud that they've stuck to something, persevered and learned the self-discipline we all talk about?

We forget as we grew older and more jaded through life's experiences what it really means to achieve something in our lives for the first time.

It’s all relative - when you're a child gaining a belt in martial arts is as a big deal to them as winning a new promotion at work is to us, for example.

And if it encourages youngsters to keep taking those grades...because at the moment boys especially are under a lot of pressure in society.

Schools are so female orientated, especially primary schools; that boys are now lagging behind in education. They are vilified through the media, viewed with suspicion on the streets and generally treated as if they are a problem.

But the youngsters of today are not the enemy as they are our tomorrow. As a society we all need to let the youngsters of today know they are capable of success and that they are valued.

This is something martial arts are very good at. It builds kids' confidence, self-worth and gives them a clear structured goals in the form of grades which they can attain through hard work while teaching them the virtues of perseverance and self-discipline

So go and display your belts my little young friends - you've worked for them and deserve them...

For further information on DFM visit: www.dfmmartialarts.co.uk or e-mail Phil Doherty at phil.doherty@martialnews.co.uk

Let Your Inner Child Out to Play

2011-08-11T17:25:00.000+01:00

Martial arts are a funny old business.

There is always something new to learn. Yet there is always a danger of getting caught in your own style or system and closing your mind to new ways of expressing what we collectively do.

After all a punch is just a punch, a kick is just a kick and block is exactly that a block.

There really isn't a "true" way of doing things because they all are simply different expressions of the same thing.

Yes, there are those who believe if you aren't doing it their "way" they you are not doing it correctly. This, of course, is blinkered thinking.

How can you cast judgement on something if you've never done it, never tried some other system or even understood the basic principles underlying a style?

Yet the martial arts abounds with "masters" who will tell you that this "wrong" that's "not right" and that's "doesn't work".

And to one degree or another we all do this because we all carry our own baggage around with us. We are all human.

There is an old adage that its best to look at things as if through the eyes of your inner child. Children do not have blinkered views on things because everything to them is a new experience. They are open-minded.

Maybes we - who are adults - should allow our inner child out more often when confronted with other styles and systems. Maybes we should all be less judgemental and more playful in body, mind and spirit.

For further information on DFM visit: www.dfmmartialarts.co.uk or e-mail Phil Doherty at phil.doherty@martialnews.co.uk