March 18, 2024
The principle behind the Tiger Claw Set is simple: drop your attacker’s primary sensor system at the earliest opportunity before striking other various vulnerable targets until you can escape to safety. 5 Min. Read
March 5, 2023
“Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.”—Bruce Lee
January 8, 2023
Awareness is your ability to be cognizant of the environment and events going on around you.”
October 10, 2022
Unbeknownst to him, (Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming) his book (Shaolin Long Fist Kung Fu) had a great impact on me, pointing me in the right direction during those incredibly formative first years of training.
August 8, 2022
Martial arts, combat sports, and self-defense are different realms, and, while interconnected, they are not entirely the same.
The entire Tiger Claw combination should only take a few seconds to execute completely. With practice, you can deliver all four moves in less than three seconds.
When claiming self-defense, you are admitting that you are guilty of what would normally be a violent criminal action and that you did so intentionally and knowingly. However, you are also stating that your actions were justified under the given circumstances.
YMAA Publication Center author Joe Varady talks with Shaolin staff practitioner Gene Ching about his new video series The Art and Science of Staff Fighting, his method of cross-training many martial arts, HEMA (Historical European Martial Arts), and the reality of using long weapons (or a broom!) in real life defense situations.
What if we change our New Year's resolution to see if we can make some progress? What if our new resolution might be "Making Peace with Myself?”
Regardless of your physical condition when you begin your training and in spite of the hurdles you’ll encounter during it, strive to keep in mind that you are, underneath it all, an athlete. We all are, by virtue of 300,000 years of evolution.
YMAA Staff Writer Gene Ching interviews sensei Bruce Costa about karate and its many benefits, and the new book "Welcome to Karate".
With a preventive approach, we find a way to live well by following the ancient wisdom of “Going with the Flow.” Everything has two sides: the Yin, and the Yang. Going with the flow, we realize the Yin changes to Yang, and the Yang changes to the Yin. Everything turns out to be better eventually.
There are, however, a few key qualitative generalizations to be made about virtually all techniques. As you enjoy class training in kihon (technical fundamentals), you’ll want to continually check the following seven preliminary items to ensure they are driven deeply into your muscle memory.
As you bow onto the dojo floor, wake up to all that is around you. Strive to maintain that consciousness until the time you bow off the floor for the night. Your awareness should be at its utmost when you are practicing your techniques.
There is a public perception of adults who practice karate, borne no doubt of the movies our local multiplex presents us. America's favorite entertainment medium is the province of young athletic people who, in their quest to make right through might, produce skilled strikes that land accurately, rendering perfect unconsciousness in every opponent, and enable our hero to emerge uninjured after battling many wrongdoers. We in the practice know better.
As summer passes into autumn, the energy of Earth transforms into Metal, as related to fall. During the Metal phase, energy begins to condense, contract, and draw inward for accumulation and storage, just as the crops of summer are harvested and stored in autumn for use in winter.”
"...since karate training has stressed humility and overcoming oneself as fundamental principles from ancient times, even though one may not be aware of the development, it contributes substantially to the polishing of character."—Master Gichin Funakoshi from Rentan Goshin Karate Jutsu, 1925
By practicing qigong we can strengthen the Three Treasures. Because the jing, qi, and shen are inseparable, they support and fortify each other leading to better physical and emotional health and well-being.
Buddhism is an ancient religion based on the Buddha's teachings - the title given to the Indian spiritual seeker Siddhartha Gautama after he attained enlightenment more than 2,600 years ago. The Buddha's best-known teachings are the four noble truths and the eightfold path, which describe the nature of human suffering and a way to liberate oneself from the existential pains of life and reach nirvana.
Learning is a big part of healing, especially in the healing of emotions. We know our emotions influence our physical body. The brain's emotional center needs to be refreshed, nourished, stimulated, and balanced. When you start to learn things you are not familiar with, you start to shift your focus onto new knowledge, new approaches, and a new life. This sort of internal transformation can improve your situation in life. It is as if you are shifting negative energy to positive energy. The more positive energy you have, the better the chance you can be healed.
The most frustrating thing is that I have never seen the division in this country between people, between government, between races, and between families. Is this what we want? I don’t think so. As a holistic doctor and teacher for so many years, one thing I am continually teaching is that negative emotions greatly affect our health and life. This division can only create more negative emotions.
Inflammation in and of itself is not a bad thing. In fact, inflammation is a critical process in healing. It is the body's normal response to acute injury or infection. If you scrape your knee or catch pneumonia, white cells within your blood release certain chemicals. These are called inflammatory markers. These markers tell your body to increase blood circulation to the affected area. Your knee, for instance, will start to look redder and feel warmer following the injury.
In 2012, an estimated seventy million Americans suffered from gastrointestinal disorders. Illness that arises from these conditions can cause a wide variety of symptoms and can lead to decreased quality of life. The resulting ambulatory care visits, hospitalizations, procedures, and indirect costs such as missed work tallied $142 billion.
If long rounds of testing and different dietary modifications fail to improve gastrointestinal and metabolic conditions, healthcare providers are finally advocating examining underlying physical and emotional stress as a possible cause of these problems. We feel strongly that stress management should be addressed concurrently with dietary and life-style strategies.
A positive mind makes positive physical changes: relaxed muscles, reduced heart rate and blood pressure, balanced metabolism and blood sugar, and improved production of digestive enzymes. A negative mind produces negative physical results: tight muscles, irregular or fast heart rate, elevated blood pressure and blood sugar, low energy, poor metabolism, decreased enzyme production, and difficulty sleeping.