Here's another great post called Fighting Arts Alliance Forum from the excellent Epic Martial Arts Blog |

Some of you may remember the Q&A section Steve Morris had on the self-protection forum some time ago. This was a vibrant information rich section of the forum. In the end though Steve closed it because it was very time consuming, his responses were in depth and incredibly helpful. It’s fair to say he caused some debate. On Morris’s main site he has created a new section called Fighting Arts Alliance which will launch in the next month or so. There will be a forum involved, which will be heavily monitored by Steve, there’ll be no chance of silly internet forum games such as multiple identities etc. Simply it will serve as a great resource for people interested in the Morris Method. A few of us have joined up pre-launch to test out the features and to get some content up there. Steve has uploaded some previously unavailable video footage which looks very good. So far I have only been able to view a few videos, taken from a private lesson with a professional boxer. It’s very good, the boxer already has very good ability but Steve manages to get a lot more out of him almost instantaneously. This section [...]

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Here's another great post called Marks, get set, GO! from the excellent Epic Martial Arts Blog |

On your marks; get set; GO! The starters orders as a race is about to begin. These remind me of how to and how not to hold yourself in sparring or when addressing pads or involved in any type of training. The picture illustrates the phases of the start of a sprint quite nicely; preparing, ready, off! If we compare the ‘state’ of a sprinter in each of these three phases to those of a martial artist addressing focus mitts or a sparring partner we can pick the most suitable. You will need a bit of lateral thinking for this post, lose the literal thinking….. On your marks During this stage the sprinter is merely getting into the blocks, placing his hands and feet in the correct position. The athlete is not ready to race either biomechanically or psychologically, he is preparing. In the picture above the bird on the red pepper is on his marks. Get set Now the sprinter is in his blocks, hands are in position, the body is raised and the optimal posture to drive forward is assumed; biomechanically ready. He is focused, ready to explode; pyschologically ready. The bird on the yellow pepper is ‘set’. [...]

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Here's another great post called Speed 2 – Timing, part two from the excellent Epic Martial Arts Blog |

Part one used a highlight clip of Roy Jones Jnr’s exceptional timing as a kind of definition of what timing in fighting is. At Primal, Morris develops methods for learning the timing skill RJJ exhibits in the clip, which has several components.  This post will describe one drill which helps develop timing, that is the ability to see the opponents’ strikes/kicks/shoots etc coming and get your response in before it arrives. In essence it’s a drill to learn cues by attending to them with peripheral vision. As such a person should avoid staring at the shoulder during a jab feed, with central vision, or tunneling as Steve calls it. Rather the trick is to look at the eyes/face and to let the peripheral vision, which is set up to respond to movement, do its job. Firstly, it’s important to note that the drill is NOT a fight. It’s easy to get drawn into a bit of competitive ‘argy bargy’, but the idea is to strip the fight down to a level where all anxiety of being hit is removed so that both participants can get to grips with learning the cues preceding their opponents strikes. That is, in order to be able [...]

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Here's another great post called Thiago Alves’s circuit, greater intensity than the Tabata method? from the excellent Epic Martial Arts Blog |

Mens Fitness magazine seems to have an entire section dedicated to interval training circuits employed by UFC fighters. Interestingly, one of these is an abridged clip of one Thiago Alves has used. Designed by  Carlos Santana, famous trainer to the stars from the IHP (Institute of Human Performance). The circuit does look tough and comprises of a variety of exercises to be performed for a minute with 15 seconds gap between each. The idea appears to do as many reps as possible in the working minute, an alternative to the Tabata method perhaps. On the surface that sounds like a pretty tough workout and I bet it is. However, the question of how effective it is remains. If the goal is to develop explosiveness, which incidentally is one of the qualities Alves has in abundance, is the minute effort to 15 seconds work:effort ratio optimal for this goal? If we are to believe the abridged video of someone else performing at Alves’s is usual workout tempo then it is clear that he is not working as explosively as he could be. The first exercise is burpees, which are a great all round exercise, in the video the bloke is not [...]

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Here's another great post called Superfrau and more bow bending from the excellent Epic Martial Arts Blog |

As mentioned in the previous post, we ‘created’ a Superfrau strike. It’s not easy to describe, but I will try. The front (left) leg is on the toes, with the left side of the hip pushed forward and arm up, in guard, facing the bad guy. This position is adopted after moving from a fighting position that Steve Morris favours, which has the back in a concave shape. Meaning that the c-shape has been bent back on itself. The leg is thrust down and backward a little, ensuring the hip is pushed back on the left side. This action forces the shoulder and arm forward, driving the fist to the target. In essence, we bend the bow of the back George St.Pierre used a very similar action to fire in a jab in his recent fight with BJ Penn. At the start of the 3rd round with 4.50 on the clock he hits Penn with a Superfrau! Kinda…. Now, one person that benefitted from ‘bending the bow’ was Tyson, certainly in the early years. Here’s a clip of him training, there are a lot of instances when he’s bending and releasing the bows in his back and across the shoulders. [...]

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Here's another great post called Kids and Karate from the excellent Epic Martial Arts Blog |

There’s a lot of stuff out there concerning kids karate and Martial Arts training. I’ve only recently started teaching my kids karate class, but I’m enjoying it more and more with time although it can be a little testing at times. When I started I wanted to make sure that I didn’t teach them bad movement skills. Often with kids karate training, and adults for that matter, people end up moving like robots, this is through overuse of three-step sparring and the like. The difference in movement efficiency when kids karate involves that sort of training compared to when they run around freely in play is marked and frankly scary. Why on earth would a teacher/coach/sensei want to replace movement efficiency with a vastly inferior model? I can see no reason. Please,  feel free to let me know via comment if anyone can. Movement in Kids Karate One of my first aims, when starting to teach kids karate classes, was to shape inherent efficient movement skills into something martial. We ‘play’ Zombies and the ‘bashing game’. These are adaptions of adult drills that get the kids moving around one or more opponents. In simple terms they run around avoiding other [...]

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Here's another great post called Power Punching Tips: Throwing the Kitchen Sink from the excellent Epic Martial Arts Blog |

We recently had a BJJ session with a very young coach who put together a great session for us. He really is a young man and is tiny, weighing only 50 kilos. His assistant told me how strong the coach was despite looking like he wasn’t. I mentioned that no-one would like to be hit with 50 kilos. It’s an important point but is often forgotten when considering how to increase punching power. When looking at a 50 kilo, 5 foot 6 high bloke most of us would be forgiven for thinking he would not pose much of a threat but anyone that size still has the potential to cause damage. Power Punching Tips – using your mass/weight If you were in the way of a 50 kilo anvil travelling toward you at speed you’d be keen to move out of the way! Similarly, if stood on the top of a high building and said anvil was attached to your neck then thrown from the top of said high building you would probably follow it! While 50 kilo anvils pose little threat as they are usually restricted to cartoons, a person of equivalent weight also fails to impose a threat, [...]

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Here's another great post called Imagery 1 – use in sport from the excellent Epic Martial Arts Blog |

In professional sport the use of vizualisation or imagery is pretty widespread. It’s usually used to imagine successful performance of a particular technique, race or whatever. Sport Psychology categorizes imagery into internal and external types, from the of perspective of the person imaging, i.e. you are either observing yourself performing the technique or actually doing it. The recommendation is to get the images as vivid as possible and to be multi-sensory, to include sight, sound, smell, touch and even taste. Importantly, imagery gives the user a chance to rehearse skills when they are not actually practicing. Imagery works by activating the neural networks in the brain that are used during actual practice, thereby reinforcing these pathways. Recent work in brain plasticity confirms this long held belief through fMRI scanning.That is the actual structure of the brain can be altered through the use of imagery! When I was at university I took part in a number of studies involved with imagery, and really there wasn’t a lot more than that explained above. Practice involving imaged and real performance is more effective than just real practice which in turn is better than imagery alone which, of course, produces greater improvements than no [...]

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Here's another great post called More on your marks from the excellent Epic Martial Arts Blog |

Lyoto Machida has taken the MMA world by storm. He has brought something a bit different to the table, his fighting style incorporates his Shotokan and specifically sport karate background, which along with his other martial arts training has helped him fight his way to the UFC Light Heavyweight Title. He has had the karate forums buzzing due to the success of one of their own. For non-karate background MMA fighters he has proved a tricky customer, his illusive counter attack style is unusual in the UFC and has helped him to some great victories. While successful does Machida’s style support the use of ‘traditional’ stance training, such as sanbon kumite or the like? I’d argue against this assumption. If you refer to earlier posts (e.g. Marks, get set, GO!) I contend that this training begins from a position that fails to support positional movement, something akin to the sprinter preparing for a blocks start in response to the ‘get set’ order, when he/she should be set! However this view is not held by everyone, Dan Djurdjevic, from ‘The Way of the Least Resistance‘ argues that stances are points of transition; they are snapshots in a continuum of movement. Yes, [...]

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Here's another great post called From Khan’t to yes he can! from the excellent Epic Martial Arts Blog |

One year ago Khan lay battered, knocked out in under a minute by Colombian Breidis Prescot. Destroyed and despondent Khan sacked his trainer, picked himself up and searched out one of the best trainers in the world, Freddie Roach. Roach trains Pacquiao so at the very least Khan had good training company! Pacquiao has improved hugely under Roach and Khan could expect to also. The recent clip I posted of Pacquiao training gives a little insight into at least some of the methods Roach uses. Intense training with fresh sparring partners coming in to test the fighter. Amir Khan is now WBA World Champion after he beat Andreas Kotelnik with a landslide unanimous decision showing a lot of improvement in terms of workrate, defence and movement. Clearly, Roach’s strategy to avoid a repeat of the Prescot debacle was to make Khan harder to knock out. By keeping Khan working, throwing an enourmous number of lightening fast shots makes him difficult to be hit, this coupled with improved movement and defence frustrated Kotelnik. Although not completely illusive Khan managed to bob, weave and side step his opponent, even becoming Mayweather-esque at times!! Kotelnik probably expected Khan to run out of gas [...]

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