tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90701689062624653562024-03-12T21:13:48.596-07:00Wolfgang Hammersmith's Martial Arts BlogWolfgang Hammersmith has 55 years of martial arts education and continuing studies experience. His martial arts training has helped him develop professionally, as the energy and chi flowing through a martial artist carries over to his other pursuits. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00898498179469323520noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9070168906262465356.post-11499853799685474002014-09-15T05:05:00.000-07:002014-09-15T05:05:43.259-07:00Martial Arts Blog 25AUG14<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Continuing on, what is a “real” martial art? I’ve seen 12-year olds awarded Black Belts in</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">several prominent styles. Indeed, lots of colored belts have been given to young children and adults</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">alike, all for the sake of commercialism. Can any of these “practitioners” fight a real martial artist</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">without losing their lives in the wink of an eye?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A real martial art used in lethal combat provides the skilled practitioner with reasonable</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">odds of surviving a physical life-or-death conflict against a similarly skilled individual where the</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">loser makes the first mistake.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Where does one find </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martial_arts" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">real martial arts</a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">? There are far too many places in the world where</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">people must still fight to survive and some nations allow death matches to be held officially or</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">secretly. Find a martial art that’s generally successful in lethal combat and you’ll discover that</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">unnecessary moves are absent along with colored belt ratings. People usually train without</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">uniforms, mostly in non-commercial settings, and sometimes in secret.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There are fascinating examples of how martial arts can get off track, devolving into dance</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">moves, but sometimes the true art remains hidden. In the Philippines during the long Spanish</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">occupation, practicing martial arts was punishable by death. Martial artists hid their amazing arts</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">within what looked like dances to the untrained observer, keeping Arnis, Kali, Escrima, Largo Mano,</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and other treasures developed over many generations alive. While effective, this necessity can lead</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">to false teaching practices.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s lucrative to erect a school and hand out publicly recognized ranks of achievement, such</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">as colored belts, to elevate the social status of students who are proud to receive an award for</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">dancing rather than dedicating thousands of hours of hard time enduring the painful, difficult,</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">frequently injurious training and special diets that develop a real martial artist.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So how can one tell what’s real? Most people trust what their teachers say. Unfortunately,</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">training hard doesn’t mean you’re learning anything significant. Finding a truly knowledgeable Sifu,</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">not a dance teacher, who is willing and able to pass on real techniques, is quite difficult.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One can ask three simple questions to determine if a martial art is true: Does it work only</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">against itself and not against other styles? Is combat over in seconds? And, is death the most</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">common result? If not, it’s probably a sport.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Next we’ll identify some real martial arts, explain myths such as blocking, and sift through</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">layers of sand to reveal some hidden techniques.</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00898498179469323520noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9070168906262465356.post-16379024927148034502014-03-03T16:16:00.004-08:002014-03-03T16:16:54.014-08:00Sneak Preview of "Comprehensive Knife Fighting"Creative journalist <a href="http://wolfganghammersmithmotorcycles.wordpress.com/%E2%80%8E" target="_blank">Wolfgang Hammersmith</a> is currently working on a comprehensive guide to knife fighting. Now you can view a sneak preview of the book with this excerpt of Chapter 1:<br />
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<a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/210392100/Comprehensive-Knife-Fighting-Chapter-01" style="text-decoration: underline;" title="View Comprehensive Knife Fighting Chapter 01 on Scribd">Comprehensive Knife Fighting Chapter 01</a> by WolfgangHammersmith</div>
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Learn more about Wolfgang Hammersmith and his writing by viewing what he has shared on <a href="http://wolfganghammersmith.tumblr.com/%E2%80%8E">his Tumblr</a>, as well as the photos he has shared on Pinterest: <a href="http://www.pinterest.com/whammersmith/">www.pinterest.com/whammersmith/</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00898498179469323520noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9070168906262465356.post-57699356966205132882013-10-31T14:49:00.002-07:002013-10-31T14:49:34.820-07:00B. Lee Quotes<div style="-x-system-font: none; display: block; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 12px auto 6px auto;">
<a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/180615283/Bruce-Lee-Quotes-pdf" style="text-decoration: underline;" title="View Bruce Lee Quotes.pdf on Scribd">B. Lee Quotes.pdf</a></div>
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You can learn more about martial arts aficionado <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/wolfganghammersmith%E2%80%8E" target="_blank">Wolfgang Hammersmith</a> by following him on <a href="http://wolfganghammersmith.tumblr.com/" target="_blank">Tumblr</a> or on Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/WHammersmith">https://twitter.com/WHammersmith</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00898498179469323520noreply@blogger.com0