Knives, sticks and karate...

As I type this week's post I'm sitting here aching from head to toe...

I have a nice little egg shaped bruise on my forehead, right on the hair line courtesy of training knife clash. I also have a graze on the opposite cheekbone and my nose is tender to touch.

My right knee is hurting just below the knee cap for some reason and my triceps are killing me... but it all comes as a result of a good weekend.

What?

"You got beat up and it's a good weekend?"

Not exactly.

You see this past Saturday was the Festival Ng Mga Kapatid in Los Angeles, California. It's an annual stick and knife fighting seminar and tournament that brings together loads of great competitors and fantastic instructors from different fighting systems from all over the USA.

The morning session included 3 hours of stick and knife training with some respected masters of the Filipino arts including Felix Roiles (2 x heavy weight stick fighting world champion). While the afternoon was filled with a truckload of different weapons events, and dozens and dozens of competitors, including yours truly. =)

As I signed up for the sparring divisions I noticed no weight classes - just beginner and advanced for the adults. I then read the events...

- Single blade

- Double blade

- Tactical blade

- Padded stick

- Live stick

- Mixed weapons

Cool... even though this didn't make terribly much sense to me. Although I've never competed in anything other than karate kumite and live stick events, I thought "What the heck!" and checked all the boxes in the advanced division.

This was gonna be fun, even though the ring looked smaller than most bathrooms. It must have been no larger than 8' x 8'. That's not a lot of room to move in anyone's book.

And of course since I broke one of my golden rules and didn't "know the rules before you fight", I really didn't know what I was getting myself into. Plus it didn't help that I was called up first. Nobody to watch before me to get a feel for what was being paid and how the matches would be run.

Stupid. Stupid!

No preparation whatsoever - Sun Tzu would be very disappointed.

The referee gave us each a pair of safety glasses and a training blade with the edge covered in chalk so that successful slashes and stabs could be identified on each other.

We bowed and the match began and then a couple minutes later it was all over.

Thanks to 20+ years of competitive karate kumite I was easily able to adapt many of the concepts I teach in my books and seminars , while I noticed my opponent made a lot of mistakes such as becoming emotional and frustrated when things didn't go his way.

He didn't take time to try to figure out what kind of fighter I was, nor pay attention to my strategy. He was just focused on blaming the referee's bad calls and was too busy getting angry.

When we clinched during the match I could sense his frustration. He was intense and was unknowingly giving me the edge.

(Don't ever do this! A savvy opponent will take advantage.)

By keeping a cool head I was fortunate enough to win the first 4 matches against different opponents and in the process figured out the scoring system. You get 4 points for a slash to the neck, 2 for the body and 1 for the limbs. First to 5 points per round wins.

When the buzzer went at then end of the 5th and final match the score keeper announced the score as 3-3.

Great...

That meant the match was going to "sudden death" with first to score, the winner.

Back on the line waiting for a restart and thoughts rushed through my head like a runaway train. What to do? Block and counter? Strike first? Fake then go? Rush in? Switch hands? Go high? Low?

When the match restarted we both waited patiently for the best time to attack, being careful not to do anything stupid. The next thing I remember is going for my attack while checking my opponent's attempted strike and making contact across his throat...

"STOP!", called the referee. "Judges, your scores please."

One red flag went up, one white, with the referee having the final say... 

I looked at the referee and saw that she signaled in favor of my opponent.

Although I'd checked his slash with my non weapon hand and made contact a split second later, the judges deemed his attack as a successful cut to my forearm - 1 point, and that's all he needed to win the match.

(Nice job by the way Ryan! Congrats.)

One division down and 5 to go... this was going to be a long day.

Over the course of the next 4 hours I would get hit more times that I care to remember, see other peoples fingers get dislocated and knees split wide open courtesy of the live stick (not my doing by the way), and the medics carry people from the arena.

On a personal level though I didn't win the single bladed event, I had my revenge in the double blade and live stick events taking gold in both. And one of my students, Mark also took 2 gold and a bronze.

So you see the bumps and bruises were worth it. Not in winning the medals... I couldn't care less. It's a good feeling however, knowing that what we practice and teach in karate kumite (the concepts of clean hitting, timing and distance) can be easily adapted for different fighting systems.

Thanks to the organizers, Gigie Alunday and Rich Verdejo and to the instructors who gave their time to teach. Special thanks to Master Felix Roiles for your continued support.

Great event, can't wait til next year.

Martial Arts Business Daily

Last year I told you about Mike Massie, author of Small Dojo Big Profits, which shows you step by step how to set up a successful and profitable martial arts business without ripping off your students. It's a must-have small business guide for the martial arts industry.

Anyway, last week when I was chatting with Mike he told me about a new venture he's just launched called "Martial Arts Business Daily" or MABD for short. Essentially it's a martial arts news portal - complete with blog and newsfeed. There's plenty of great content here that will help you in running your school and staying ahead of your competition.

If you own a copy of Small Dojo Big Profits you know the quality of Mike's work and the detail of his advice. MABD is no exception - he's already posted dozens of articles full of helpful information for teachers and business owners. Heck, he surprised me by including one of my articles on his front page. Thanks Mike!

Anyway, if you want to stay aware of industry trends, keep informed of what's going on and get a ton of advice for running your karate school, visiting MABD regularly is a good habit to acquire.

http://www.martialartsbusinessdaily.com/

Enjoy,

- Jason

Planning Your Karate Year

Today I was contemplating the year ahead when I thought of that famous saying, "Fail to plan and you plan to fail."

So I went ahead and nutted out my major goals for the dojo for 2009.

This included just 2 things that I want to increase (student count, revenue) and one I want to decrease (working hours).

From these three major goals I worked backwards to develop tasks, sub goals and a timeline.

I then created a mind-map displaying a workable plan for 2009. If you're not familiar with mind mapping it's simply a creative way to organize, plan and overview your thoughts.

(Just use Google images and enter "mind map" and you'll see a bunch of examples)

So my mind map ended up looking something like this...

A circle in the center with the major topic - 2009 Dojo Goals. Then twelve branches extend out like petals on a flower, with the names of each month on each branch. Then each branch, branches again into the sub goals, and again to the weekly tasks.

This is a very clear way to map out exactly what needs to be done and when. Plus I can see it as a yearly overview, a monthly focus, and weekly tasks. It's like a detailed blueprint for a building, but I can follow my circular timeline week by week, month by month and tell if I'm on track.

At the end of the day goals need to be qualified and quantified - that is they must be defined and measurable. Without these two factors you don't know what you're aiming for and there's no way to tell if you're on target or not.

Mind mapping is an easy skill to learn and an extremely powerful one you can use to organize just about anything. I highly recommend "The Mind Map Book", by Tony Buzan which you can pick up at any major book store or online.

Have you planned your 2009 yet?

Remember, fail to plan and you plan to fail.

- Jason

Stick Fighting Seminar

I just returned to the U.S. after a two week visit to my homeland, Australia.

It's been 6 and half years since my wife and I decided to move from Melbourne to the southern California and while we've been back several times since, it had been 2 years since we were last there, so we were eager to see family and friends.

I often get asked in the US, "Wow, Australia. How long does it take to get there? I'd love to go there one day..."

The flight from LAX to Melbourne is around 15 hours or so, but this time we had a couple of hours in Sydney before heading to Melbourne, so the entire trip door to door was actually about 25 hours. We left Friday night and arrived Sunday lunchtime, with Saturday vanishing into thin air as we crossed the International Date Line.

The flight itself was fine and the vibration of the engines lulled our 7 month old daughter to sleep. She barely made a sound for the entire journey, so I guess we're lucky, as friends tell me horror stories of their travels with their little ones.

Anyhow Melbourne greeted us with a sunny spring day, and our challenge for the next couple of days was to adjust to the new time zone. At the moment the difference is 19 hours between Pacific Standard Time and Australian Eastern Standard Time, so arriving lunchtime Sunday was really about 5pm Saturday night PST.

Hello jetlag.

This time the reason for the visit was very different to the last time, in which I visited twice within a 6 week period to say my goodbyes to my father as he went through his final battle with cancer. This time my visit was much more fun despite getting the flu 4 days into the trip. This time I came to teach some stick fighting seminars.

In addition to teaching karate I'm also an instructor for the Pakamut system. It's the original fighting art of the Philippines. You may have heard of it referred to as Arnis, Kali and Eskrima, which are the Spanish names for the Filipino system. You can read more about the Pakamut system here (http://www.pakamut.com/).

In short, the Pakamut system is a complete system most often with stick or knife in hand involving short, middle and long range techniques.

In many way it's similar to karate with strikes, blocks, throws, locks and holds, and yet in other ways it's very different... mostly with it's circular movements versus the linear movements so often taught in karate.

While I've been practicing stick fighting for nearly as long as karate, a couple of years ago I had the good fortune of meeting Master Felix Roiles, head of Pakamut International.

Master Felix filled in the blanks, gave me the rest of the pieces to the puzzle, and now I'm happy to teach the system to anyone who likes to learn and further their knowledge - just like my friend Tim (above) who insisted that I choke him out.

Of course I was pleased to oblige. =)

This is just one simple choke in the system in which the stick braces the back of the neck while the forearms form the triangle choke. Very painful and very effective when done correctly.

Part of the course I taught involved some full contact sparring, which everyone seemed to love. There's something about putting on the armor that brings out the warrior within.

Unlike karate tournament fighting, targets include the hands, arms, body and head. Basically anything that is covered by armor is allowed to be struck with full force.

Think the armor absorbs all the pain? Think again. But for those who think armor is for the weak, sometimes we just spar with head and hand protection - no body armor at all. If you watched shows like "The Human Weapon" or "Fight Quest", and caught the stick fighting episodes let me tell you those bruises are real. And they hurt like hell.

All in all the course was well received with over 60 people attending the two seminars. And I've got to say I had as much fun teaching as the students did learning.

A special thanks to everyone who attended and those who made it possible. Keep practicing what you learned and I'll see you next year for more!

- Jason

Toughing it out

On the weekend one of my 9 year old juniors was kicked in the face while sparring. His immediate reaction was to become instantly immobilized, clutch his face, and start crying.

I didn't see the kick so I can't validate how hard it hit him, but from his past reactions to pain (sorry, make that perceived pain) I leaned towards the side of "it wasn't very hard". There was no swelling, no mark and no blood.

In this instance like many before, I believe he was being overly dramatic, and seeking attention.

I took a quick look at it and said, "You'll be ok. If this was a real fight you wouldn't be able to stop and continue it later, so unless you're really hurt badly and can't continue, put your hands up and continue the fight."

He sobbed and stood there in the same place making a mediocre attempt to raise his hands.

Clearly this wasn't the reaction he wanted from me. He wanted me to console him some more, ask him if he'd like to take a seat, apply some ice and probably give him a hug for good measure.

Sorry, but that's not going to happen.

With superficial injuries (and non-injuries) it's extremely important as instructors that we don't make them something they're not. Martial arts (even for kids) is about toughening up mentally, emotionally and physically.

And every time a non injury is validated as an injury, the child (or adult) concerned is reinforced with, "it was a big deal". This teaches students that next time they get hit, to subconsciously act the same way for reward (attention and coddling).

But when that reward ceases to be given, the behaviour will change.

After my student finished his fight I told him, "Good job. I'm proud of you for keeping your hands up and continuing the fight."

This now became his reward (recognition for being tougher) and teaches him for the future, that's what we do (complete what we begin).

Do you have any students who could toughen up a little?

What's up with the Bruce Lee noises?

Why is it that people feel compelled to make Bruce Lee noises when they walk past your karate school? Then proceed to pound on your windows, or yell louder until they get your attention...


From 10 year old kids to 50 year adults...



From punk teenage gansters to fully grown men with tatoos...



Common sense would suggest that mouthing off to people who study and practice fighting everyday might not be in their best interest... yet they still do it.



I used to take offense, but then I'd end up on a road I didn't want to go down. I'd ask them to take a hike and tensions would rise... to the brink of DEFCON 1 before the enemy decided to back down.



Other times I tried ignoring them, but they just seemed to keep at it...



Then one day I tried a new approach...

As two 40 something year old guys walked by making stupid faces with accompanying Bruce Lee noises, I responded with a well timed "whooo-yaaahhh" with one eye shut and both hands held up as if I was about to do some kind of double karate chop...

They laughed histerically, mimicked the actions I just made, made a couple more noises and gave me a wave goodbye.

Sometimes all it takes is a little humor to turn a situation on its ear.

Adding new classes to increase revenue

One way to generate more income from your karate school is to add more specialty classes to your schedule.

For example, I teach karate as my #1 focus which brings in around 80% of the school's income. However I also teach other RELATED specialty classes.

On Saturday mornings I teach Escrima for an hour and have students both who are in my primary karate class and also other students who do this class only. Students who already do karate get a discount on the Escrima class and those who do it only pay the regular price. From adding this one class the school makes an extra few hundred dollars per month.

Contrast this to the old way I used to teach this with Escrima being an irregular part of my karate classes.

1) It wasn't often enough for students to retain their knowledge
2) Was drawing away from the learning time for the number #1 reason people train at my school (karate)
3) And it wasn't helping the financial situation as we weren't charging any extra to learn it.

Every 3 months or so I teach a 4 week women's self defense class on a Saturday morning. It's right after my Escrima class and goes for 90 minutes. Again this adds an extra few hundred dollars for the month. I also run other specialty classes and seminars from time to time for both my students and also for people from other clubs. These special classes add an extra 5-10% to the bottom line without any external advertising. I know if I got aggressive with this I could easily double those figures.

The point here is that adding RELATED specialty classes can increase your revenue and help you pay your rent, buy new equipment and make a few extra dollars. The good thing is that if you do it right the reward will be worth the extra effort.

The benefits of adding a related specialty class (or more) are these:

1) It adds to your bottom line.
2) It gives your school more exposure through the extra classes available.
3) It's a good marketing tool to bring in new students and other family members.
4) Increases your depth as a teacher and increases your perceived value as a teacher.
5) It doesn't take away from the learning time of your core class.

Now the key point is to make your extra classes related to your primary class. For example you don't want to add a class on yoga or gymnastics. People come to you for karate/self defense, so teach things closely related, otherwise you'll lose focus for your school and you'll decrease your perceived (and paid) value as an expert in the martial arts.