Martial Vitality

In this post I would like to share a few thoughts on self-publishing a book , in case anyone is considering that option. As I mentioned in my post on  burnout , one of my goals was to publish a book on a subject other than cyber security. A friend from my Krav Maga school, Anna Wonsley , learned that I had  published several books , and asked if we might collaborate on a book about stretching. The timing was right, so I agreed. I published my first book with Pearson and Addison-Wesley in 2004, and my last with No Starch in 2013. 14 years is an eternity in the publishing world, and even in the last 5 years the economics and structure of book publishing have changed quite a bit. To better understand the changes, I had dinner with one of the finest technical authors around,  Michael W. Lucas . We met prior to my interest in this book, because I had wondered about publishing books on my own. MWL started in traditional publishing like me, but has since become a full-time author and independ

Sunday I successfully passed my Graduate 1 ("G1") test within the Krav Maga Global system. I last tested for P5 in March 2018 . I wanted to share a few thoughts on how the test went. If you review the krav maga topic link on this blog you will find many posts about my training and philosophy. I started training in the Krav Maga Global system at First Defense Krav Maga in January 2016. My 2016 year in review and 2017 year in review posts document my Krav Maga training journey. As we near the end of 2018, however, I can note that as of this post I trained exactly 120 class hours at First Defense (29 prior to the P5 test and 91 prior to the G1 test), plus 3 hours during the summer in a seminar with master Eyal Yanilov . Thus far I am 6-for-6 with passing scores, having tested roughly every 6 months since starting at the school. The first exception was my P1 test, which occurred in April 2016, 4 months after I began training. The second exception was this G1 test. I had plan

Tuesday I was happy to attend another Krav Maga Global seminar by KMG lead instructor Eyal Yanilov. Master Eyal was visiting my hometown KMG school First Defense , which hosted him for their grand opening at their beautiful new location. I first trained with Eyal at the Martial Arts Supershow in 2016 . Eyal was my instructor for the Combat Mindset and Mental Conditioning Class later that year. I also trained with him at the fall 2016 KMG camp  and in the spring of 2017 . When I heard Eyal was going to teach a three hour seminar on countering active shooters, I knew it was a must-attend event. Eyal started the seminar with his perspective on KMG and active shooters. He talked about the inherent conflict between the three KMG missions -- self defense, protecting others, and combat fighting. In self defense, running away may be the best option. When protecting others, sacrificing yourself may be necessary. When fighting in combat, your goal may be to kill the enemy. Knowing the mission a

Today I attended a Jiu-Jitsu seminar by Professor Ryron Gracie, hosted by Professor Marco Moreno of The Basics Gracie Jiu-Jitsu . I want to share a few thoughts on the seminar for anyone who wants to attend one in the future. I always enjoy visiting Marco's school. I was last there in February for a seminar by Grandmaster Relson Gracie . Today I was happy to see several of my teammates from Professor Pedro Sauer's school in Herndon . Ryron offered three sessions for attendees. The first lasted 9-11 am, and focused on self defense. The second last noon - 2 pm and focused on cross chokes. Students who attended both sessions could attend a third session from 2-3 pm, where Ryron would roll with attendees. I decided to only attend the first session, which cost $70. I believe about 40 people participated. Ryron brought one of his purple belts, Jordan, to assist, although Ryron demonstrated techniques with a wide variety of people. I was surprised early in the seminar when he called m

It's been a rough few months! My last post talked about how I worked through a back injury and managed to pass my Krav Maga Global P5 test. I planned to get back on track in April, but I ran into more obstacles. More specifically, an obstacle landed on me. While on a business trip, I dropped a table on my left foot. How does such a thing happen? Take a weird retro table with three legs on wheels, what looked like a concrete top, and a thick carpet, and try to move it away from you. You quickly learn that such a contraption isn't stable, when it lands on your foot! I lost about 3 weeks of training time due to this accident. I returned to Krav Maga before trying Jiu-jitsu, because I could protect my feet with my wrestling shoes . My big toe still isn't healed, but it's manageable. I've been back to Jiu-Jitsu a few times, including 1 1/2 hours at Professor Sauer's spring camp last night. I'm glad I had decided prior to the injury to not try testing for my Jiu-J

Since returning to the martial arts in January 2016, I haven't suffered any serious breaks in training -- until this month. I wanted to share what has happened and how I've been coping with it. During the month of March (thus far, with only one week to go) I've only attended one regular Jiu-Jitsu class and one regular Krav Maga class. I usually attend 3-4 classes of each art per week. What happened? The first half of the month, I was managing a back injury. I suffered some strained muscles performing an awkward throw in Jiu-Jitsu with a partner who weighed at least 40 lbs more than me. I felt it the next day and I realized it would be a problem. The back injury caused me to evaluate how I would spend my time preparing for my Krav Maga Global P5 test . I attended one Krav Maga class 5 days prior to the test, but did no other exercise. The day before the test I had planned to participate in another 3-4 hour Jiu-Jitsu blue belt preparation class. However, I only watched and to

Sunday I successfully passed my Practitioner 5 ("P5") test within the Krav Maga Global system. I last tested for P4 in September 2017 . I wanted to share a few thoughts on how the test went. If you review the  krav maga topic link on this blog  you will find many posts about my training and philosophy. I started training in the Krav Maga Global system at First Defense Krav Maga in January 2016. My 2016 year in review and 2017 year in review posts document my Krav Maga training journey. Thus far I am 5-for-5 with passing scores, having tested roughly every 6 months since starting at the school. The one exception was my P1 test, which occurred in April 2016, 4 months after I began training. There were 5 people testing for P5, and we were the senior students. No one tested for Graduate ("G") ranks that day. As you can see in the picture below, we had a great turnout for ranks P1-P5. My partner was Josh, in the short-sleeved shirt in the top photo. Josh was the MVP

Thursday I attended a Jiu-Jitsu seminar by Grandmaster Relson Gracie, hosted by Professor Marco Moreno of The Basics Gracie Jiu-Jitsu . I want to share a few thoughts on the seminar for anyone who wants to attend one in the future. Marco runs a great academy. It isn't huge but he has what appears to the plush green Gracie mats installed. I trained there once before, when Marco hosted a Rener Gracie seminar. Everyone was friendly and approachable. The cost was a bit higher than other seminars I've attended recently. It was $100 for two hours. I figured it was worth it to spend some time with a Jiu-Jitsu red belt who lives in Hawaii. I only had to drive about an hour to participate, which is cheaper and easier than a flight across the country and the Pacific! Relson taught a kid's class before my seminar. I did not see the class but I saw him interacting with the kids afterwards. It is clear he loves teaching Jiu-Jitsu and interacting with young people. We had about 50 attend

This post is mainly for those with access to  pedrosauertsd.com . If you're a student at a school that is an affiliate of Professor Pedro Sauer's association , you may also have access. I don't know how it works with affiliate schools, so I apologize if this post is for a very narrow audience! By chance I heard Prof Mike Horihan mention that he had loaded new fundamentals videos into the pedrosauertsd.com site. I remembered seeing Professor Sauer and Prof Jeff Curran posting to Instagram about recording these videos. Professor Sauer said one night in class that about 20 years had passed since he and Jeff had recorded the original fundamentals instructionals! I wanted to offer a few comments on what I found in the new videos. First, the easiest way to access the new videos is to select the "Fundamentals" check box in the "Programs" part of the web site, as shown in the first screen capture. Uncheck "Video Pool," "White to Blue," and &

Saturday I attended a Jiu-Jitsu seminar by Rigan Machado, hosted by Patrick Tray of Trident Martial Arts . I want to share a few thoughts on the seminar for anyone who wants to attend one in the future. The location was top notch. Trident is in Woodbridge, VA, and features two huge training areas. They are meticulous about mat hygiene. I've trained at Mr. Tray's school before, about 1 1/2 years ago for a great series on ground, striking, and weapons scenarios. The cost was very reasonable -- $79 for early registration and three hours. Saturday was a gi session and Sunday was a no-gi session. I could only attend Saturday. If I had paid at the door, it would have cost me $99. If I had registered early for both sessions, the cost would have been $149. In addition to Master Rigan, Master Marcos Santos from Texas  was present and helped teach material. Mr Tray and several of his black belts (like Mikey Custodio) participated and helped teach. Ben Gilbert, who is a full instructor f

I had a chance to apply Jiu-Jitsu in a striking class recently, and I wanted to share the results with you! One year ago this week I started practicing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu at Prof Pedro Sauer's school in Herndon, VA. Right away I started with the Gracie Combatives program, and mid-year I began regularly attending the Pedro Sauer fundamentals curriculum classes. Two years ago this month I began practicing Krav Maga at Nick Masi's school in Herndon, VA. Last week ground combat was the focus of the classes. I participated in the Thursday night "fight" class, which is several notches above the intensity of the Wednesday sparring class. Once in a while we go to the ground in a Krav session, but we tend to avoid extended ground contact or pressure. I had only done this sort of dedicated ground striking session once before, and that was in 2016 before I started Jiu-Jitsu. I did not perform very well. I'm 46, 5'9, and less than 145 lbs. If I have to depend on speed,

Since starting Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu last year at Professor Pedro Sauer's school , I've had to regularly do forward and backward shoulder rolls. Both are part of the KMG curriculum we follow at my Krav Maga school , but we don't practice as often. I've been trying to improve my backward rolls because they are part of the regular Jiu-Jitsu warmup drills. The instructors and many students can do them slowly, without building momentum. This was my goal, to smoothly roll backward over either shoulder. Recently I watched a video by Stephan Kesting titled 3 Most Common Backwards Shoulder Roll Mistakes . I paid close attention to his technique and took a series of screen captures. Something clicked when I watched him roll backwards towards the camera. The breakthrough for me was watching how Stephan twists his whole upper body off the centerline , and then swings his legs along the centerline . For whatever reason, that clicked with me. I tried focusing on those two elements an

A year ago I started learning Jiu-Jitsu at Professor Pedro Sauer's school, One Spirit Martial Arts , in Herndon, VA. I don't take the quality of instruction for granted. Having access to so many talented instructors is a blessing. It's particularly special when I can attend a class taught by Prof Sauer himself. I find myself in a catch-22 situation when Professor teaches. If I'm on the mat, I can try the techniques and concepts he is teaching that night, but I can't really record what he's sharing. If I'm off the mats, usually staying for a few extra minutes before heading home, I can record what he says. However, I'm not in the class, so I don't get to try the lesson. Thanks to a new set of video instructionals, I have found a way to have recorded access to Professor's wisdom and concepts. Last month Jiu-Jitsu TV began offering a set of 81 video lessons from Professor's 2017 seminar series in Australia and Singapore . I decided to take advan