Did you ever read one of those ‘make your own ending’ books? I used to love them as a kid. I also love video games where the story unfolds and changes based on the decisions you make. Think of your training journey, and consider the following two ‘endings’:

The instructor just finished demonstrating a particular drill, and asks you to find a partner. Everyone in class is quickly paired up while you are still looking around trying to find someone who is on their own, and quickly notice gazes being averted when you try to make eye contact. You eventually manage to corner someone and now have a partner!

Or

The instructor just finished demonstrating a particular drill, and asks you to find a partner. Before you get a chance to look around, 3 people approach you. They are all smiling and when you pair up with the nearest one, the other two smile and say ‘how about next round?’

Which one do you find happens to you more often?

I’ve had a few conversations recently with fellow school owners and martial artists about certification and rank, and about participation, talent and effort.

Especially in light of the recent inspirational Krav Maga and BJJ gradings that took place at CAIA I feel that it’s important to explain what those things mean to me as a martial artist and teacher.

Criteria for grading changes from style to style, instructor to instructor, school to school. And so it should. That being said, I have been, and continue to be, openly critical of things I see in the martial arts world that I feel ultimately hurt the industry and the art.

Chief among those things is the focus on the acquisition of qualifications or awards over skill. This is not directed at anyone in particular, but rather my own assessment of things I have seen and experienced.

Is it bad to have many certificates and qualifications? Of course not!
Is it wrong to celebrate your achievements? The opposite is true – you must celebrate your achievements.

This becomes a problem, however, when there isn’t a clear understanding of how effort comes into the equation. Here are 3 bizzare, funny and, I think, sad stories that illustrate this.

Gershon Ben Keren recently published a fantastic article about reading and masking intent in martial arts and self-defence. You can read it here.

It illustrated beautifully the importance of being able to mask one’s own intent while reading an opponent’s intent (or that of a potential attacker) as key to successful attack and defence. Everyone who has engaged in combat sports is familiar with the concept of telegraphing, both physically and otherwise.

We can conclude from this that intent plays a key role in success in the martial arts. Intent is what allows you to predict and avoid attacks, as well as land your own. But this does not relate only to physical movements.

Let’s take a detour and look at confidence, machismo, honour and respect. As the old saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Martial arts teach us confidence, honour and respect when done in the right environment, but can also come with a certain amount of machismo, or ‘fake honour’. Conflict over perceived insults or disrespect can arise, when intent is not well understood.

So how do we get better at reading intent?

There is an old adage in martial arts:

“Those who have attained mastery of an art will reveal it in their every action”

While I certainly don’t consider myself a master - what is ‘mastery’, anyways? You can find some thoughts on that here - I do train a lot and have had the privilege of training with some of the finest practitioners in the world. More importantly, I have an overactive imagination and an extremely curious and analytical mind, which is both a blessing and a curse. The result of this is that I hardly ever sleep because my brain doesn’t stop turning. And this means I spend most nights up thinking about random things, which inevitably end up circling back to martial arts. And being obsessed with training, to me everything circles back to martial arts. Martial arts are the way that I relate to everything in my life – my relationships, my career, my community, my views and thoughts, as well as many random other things. If you are the same, you may find this interesting…



A little while ago I wrote about why you should love training what you hate. You can read it here. I’d like to continue from there and talk about why loving what you train can be a dangerous thing. Not sure why? Then read on!

How clean your desktop is could indicate how likely you are to survive a violent attack! Not sure why? Read on!

A while ago I discussed the ‘Dojo Syndrome’. I received some very positive feedback about the first three articles (you can read them here, here and here), with many instructors saying ‘this is exactly what happens!’ and had a few requests to post some more tips. I hope this helps you with your training!

There is a very common misperception in the martial arts world, that the sensei is always the best fighter and technician in the dojo; they are unbeatable and will never lose a sparring match to a student! 

This is often very far from the truth... And here's why.

There's an old samurai maxim, which says 'a man who has attained mastery of an art reveals it in his every action'. While I do not consider myself a master, I am obssessed with martial arts and so I am always looking for parallels I can draw from training to pretty much everything else. While my experience in art revolves around music and martial arts, I believe that these principles apply to every other art, as well as to business, life, the universe and everything. Recently someone on Facebook shared this post about being a professional session musician. I was instantly amazed at how relevant this was to being a proficient martial artist, especially one who is interested in multiple disciplines and styles. I'd like to share my thoughts on this with you in the hope it helps you with your art, whatever it may be!

'Principles of Pugilistic Propulsion'... Say it 5 times quickly!

The theme for our Krav Maga classes at CAIA this coming month is striking. Personally, I’ve been on a journey over the past 2 years specifically exploring the pugilistic martial arts styles for my own enjoyment and personal growth.

As we are going to focus on these over the next few weeks in greater detail in class, I wanted to share some of the principles of effective striking that Dr Gavriel Schneider highlights. Please note that I am only reiterating and interpreting material here.

So… what are the secrets for generating power in your strikes?