Here is a video showing a Drunken Style Master training and the demonstrating his moves.

Cyborg decimated Gina in their scheduled fight on August 15th. There was no doubt about who was going to win after the first minute of the fight. The reason that this win for Cyborg is a loss for female MMA is simple, where Cyborg is easily one of the best fighters in the world male or female she just doesn’t have the same pulling power Gina had. As I aforementioned the majority of people that watch female MMA watch it for the cosmetic factors, now I’m not saying that Cyborg isn’t attractive to some people but there is no doubt that she won’t nearly bring as many people to the sport as Gina was able to. It’s a sad fact that in this division of the sport, looks matter, arguably more than fighting skill which leaves the sport in a dire situation right now where the pretty lesser talented fighter has now fallen behind and the lesser attractive, better fighter is at the top of the heap.

But its more than just looks, its personality. Gina had a great charisma and was able to hold audiences attention for as long as possible, whereas things aren’t quite so great with Cyborg who can’t speak fluent English which could hurt her in the long run if she hopes to stay in the minds of western viewers. It really is a case of what if the personality lacking Joe Frazier had beaten Muhammad Ali and what it would have done to the heavyweight division in boxing. While Frazier did beat Ali the first time, he lost the last two times he fought Ali and boxing has flourished ever since, not to mention that at that time boxing had so many big names that it was OK for the best to take a hit. In this case it isn’t so easy to take as Gina and Cyborg are literally the only two well known female mixed martial artists around, so for one of them to potentially fall off of the radar and out of the sport could spell disaster for women’s MMA as a whole.

Hopefully the two women can rematch and keep the spark of the sport alive for a little while longer.

This is the basis of the legend of Shaolin, which is a temple famous located within the nine mountains of Fujian Province. The monks of Shaolin became renowned for their ability with kung fu – a martial art that both offers protection for the unarmed against brigands and also offers physical and spiritual awakening through adopting its highly stylized positions. During the Manchu (Qing) Dynasty (1644-1911 CE), monks of the Shaolin Temple came to the rescue of the emperor, who was threatened by rebels and, by virtue of their fighting skills, routed the enemy. However, rather than rewarding the Shaolin monks, the emperor listened to the forked tongues of dishonest mandarins who claimed the monks represented a military threat to the throne. Consequently, he had his troops descend on the temple and put it to the flame.

The monks were scattered and, subsequently, reunited to form the Heaven and Earth League, which was one of an innumerable series of secret societies that have stood up for the rights of honest people against unfair leadership. The members of these societies were obliged to follow the jianghu lifestyle and to abide by the yiqi code of honour (older readers might remember the television series ‘Kung Fu’ starring the late David Carradine, which adopted this tradition as its premise). They became folk heroes who had attached to them all kinds of good but unexpected deeds. So, anytime a damsel in distress was rescued from wrong-doers, a Shaolin monk might be credited and every time a bad person brought down from on high, then it was reckoned that one of the jianghu was acting secretly behind the scenes. Although this tradition has migrated largely to the realm of popular culture and, especially the cinema, there are still Chinese who wait for the arrival of honest outsiders to right the ills of the day. The idea that such people wait to rescue us from misfortune is a persistent and powerful one.

Dana has done great deals for the MMA world and he likes to agree, but does he really love MMA? I don’t think so. Dana loves “his” MMA, and has proven that in the past, his love for other MMA promotions? Not so much. He has been known to pull dirty tactics on other promotions that he feels threatened by, one of the most common is showing old UFC events at the exact same time as another organizations pay per view event. It’s these little things that shows the true mentality of the UFC owner, his love of capitalism is much greater than his love of MMA.

Fighters

The UFC fighters are notoriously made to sign ridiculous contracts that pretty much give the UFC complete reign over everything about them. Some of these stipulations are that the fighter must only fight for the UFC and the UFC alone, they no longer own their own image. Yes the UFC now owns their fighter’s images and is free to do whatever they want with them, for example, say Kenny Florian was to leave the UFC, he could be walking through Wal-mart one day to see his face plastered all over a lunchbox and see his face on a poster, to which all of the profit would go to the UFC. This is how fighters such as Andrei Arlovski, Tim Sylvia and Rich Clementi all appeared in the UFC video game “UFC Undisputed 2009″ despite no longer fighting for the organization.

Along with these ridiculous terms and agreements, fighters are also signed into agreements which could say something about having up to 4 fights inside the UFC. But all that is scraped once the fighter fails to perform as well as expected and can soon find themselves looking for somewhere else to fight. I’m in no position to scrutinize the UFC’s stance on contracts, but it is this sort of behavior that is hurting the sport as a whole.

Publicity

As the UFC grew to greater heights, as did Dana White and with that his personality has been shown more and more to the public and there have been a few less desirable traits shown. First was his public “smack talk” against other promotions, in which he would just spurt some crazy talk about the organization having no talented fighters or something along the same lines for example he publicly said that Fedor was in essence a nobody and would never been anyone and that Anderson Silva is a much better champion than Fedor could ever be. Obviously this is something someone in their right mind would not even think to say, but this is Dana White, the most powerful man in MMA.

He also said some rather hurtful things about Internet superstar Kimbo Slice. Such as saying that Kimbo was a bum and that he would never fight in the UFC, only to completely change his stance a while later saying that the only way Kimbo would make it to the UFC would be if he was to fight on The Ultimate Fighter reality TV show, and what a huge surprise it was when it was announced just a few weeks later than Kimbo would be fighting on the TV show.

And then there is Fedor, a man that Dana publicly insulted and called a nobody, then literally days later he was trying to sign him to the UFC! Never before has someone made their opinion known to so publicly only to completely change their opinion a while later, but that is the capitalistic world of MMA.

Keeping your arms in the right places can save you from getting punched in the face right away.  Hold one hand in several inches in front of your upper lip and use it to cover your face. Hold the other hand in front of your upper abs, your solar plexus. The hand that should go in front of your face should be the hand who’s foot you have held forward.

• Pull your punches back right away. If you throw a punch and leave your arm out your arm is going to be grabbed and broken, or worse. When you throw a punch have speedy retraction, bounce back to the combat ready position described above.

• Use your feet! Your leg muscles are way bigger than your arm muscles, you should use them! Kick low and hard, and follow the same retraction rule as with punches. Kicking low and to the groin can do a lot of damage, especially if you catch a knee wrong.
• Don’t be afraid to fight “dirty.” Go for the groin! Go for the eyes and face! Kick him when he’s down before he can get up and kick you! Fighting “honorable” is fighting stupid. In the first place, you should only be fighting when you have to, and when you have to you get to do whatever you want. Make sure you win that fight and all the future fights.
• Go for the face, not the body. Do something for me. Punch yourself moderately hard in the stomach, with your abs flexed. That wasn’t bad at all, was it? Now hit yourself with the same force in the face. I doubt you did it. How do I know? Because it hurts! You can take 10 body punches for every face shot, so go for his face! Take a body shot for one face shot if you must. The same applies for defending, defend your face much more fanatically than you defend your face.
• BREATHE. The average street fight lasts one to two minutes. Do you know why? People forget to breathe. You NEED to breathe when you fight, or you’ll get tired really quick. Try exhaling when you punch, you both get more power and remember to breathe. Don’t hold your breath!
• Watch your groin. Defend your groin with your knees. If you stand with one foot slightly forward and your heels turned out (a very uncomfortable stance, I know) you can actually deflect groin aimed kicks with your knees. Combine this with the hand positioning and you have yourself a basic martial arts stance. Practice advancing and retreating in this stance, keeping your hands as described above.

Below is a pictue of the stance, called “Sanchin Dachi” in some martial arts.

• Keep your cool. Breathe. Slow down. Don’t get scared or angry. As my Sensei said, “When you’re angry you fight in the past, thinking about what made you so mad. When you fight scared you are fighting in the future, scared of whats going to happen. When you are calm you are rooted in the present, and more aware.” Breathing helps.
• Don’t make a fist with your thumb in it. Most know this already. If you make a fist with your thumb in it and hit something you’ll probably break your thumb. Enough said.
• Don’t take a charge. If someone charges at you, sidestep. Seriously. Standing in front of that is like standing in front of a train, instead of bracing yourself just side step. But make sure you do it at the last moment possible, or the charger will just change directions. 

So there are your tips. Don’t get cocky, you aren’t an expert fighter, you just kind of know what your doing now. Go take some martial arts classes if you want to learn some more, or get the crap beaten out of you a few times. That works too. Good luck!

Nunchaku/Nunchiyaku = Twin Sticks

Nunchaku has several other alternative names like the Boatman’s staff or the Paired-sections staff or the Twin joined sticks or the Two section staff.

In past, it was used by farmers as a scientific instrument to thrash rice. But today, it falls in the group of weapons.

It is not considered as a martial arts weapon by many, because there is no official records on how to use it. As a medium class weapon, it is easy to carry, easy to handle, and easy to learn.

It can be used as a protective weapon but it is illegal to possess it in many countries.

It was promoted as a martial arts weapon in many movies. Bruce Lee was famous for using this weapon in his movies.

Requirements:

1. Two round light-weight wooden sticks (8 inch long and 1 inch wide)
2. One small steel chain (4 inch long)
3. Two loop headed screws (1.5 inch long)
4. Electrical glue tape
5. Wood Glue

Manufacturing process:

1. Drill one inch deep through the center of the two wooden sticks
2. Fill the two holes with Wood glue
3. Insert the loop headed screws into the holes made in the two sticks
4. Join the loop headed screws with small steel chain
5. Wrap the two sticks with strong glue tape from top to bottom. This wrapping prevents cracking of the sticks.
6. Your Nunchaku is ready

Early on she made it clear that she would not tolerate ever being on a leash. I would put the leash on and she would sit and give me a dirty look and no amount of coaxing, threatening, or treats would make her move until the leash came off. Fine I thought, nobody would be able to put leash on me either, but you better listen and obey, and she did. She easily learned how to come, either by calling, whistling, snapping my fingers, and, if she was looking at me, with a nod. If I said stay she would stay, heel, she would walk beside me, if I said ‘go scout’ she would run 15 feet ahead of me. She also learned to stop at every street and wait for me to give the ‘all clear’ before crossing. In short she was the best trained dog I ever had but even her training could not override her instinct, and that instinct was going to kill her right before my very eyes.

The park I would walk Miko in was just across the street. Traffic volume is low and occasionally some wannabe street racer would use the deserted street to floor it. I was taking Miko for her evening walk to the park and she had scouted ahead and stopped at the street as she always does. There is a treacherous bend in the road and oncoming traffic would not see you until they were quite a bit through the curve. I heard an engine rev and I could see headlights flashing off the trees in the distance. I knew someone was coming down the street at a good clip. As the car entered the curve at high speed the tires screeched. This sudden noise spooked an unseen cat that had been hiding in the nearby shrubbery and the cat darted out in front of Miko and onto the road. Now Miko was trained to wait at the side of the road, but a dog’s instinct to chase a fleeing animal will override my training and sure enough she leaped onto the road after the cat just as the speeding car entered the curve.

Now all good martial artists will tell you that when in a crises situation your mind will speed up and the perception of time slows down. Time slowed and I could see that the car would hit Miko and there was nothing I could do but watch the outcome. I knew that whistling or calling out would not stop Miko in time. It was then that as a last resort I decided to execute a Kiai. I focused on my abdomen, took an quick breath, and then projected my voice and let loose my Kiai. The sudden sound struck Miko like a sonic boom and she instantly froze and ducked. The speeding car missed Miko by mere inches but unfortunately killed the cat. The car didn’t even slow down.

The relief I felt was miraculous. Nothing else I could have done would have worked and I was certain Miko would have been killed. The martial arts technique I used to save my best friend was a Kiai.

Yelling is very important, because yelling encourages us, we yell at things as fires, and also at the wind and waves. Yells show spirit.

Miyamoto Musashi

Sonic Weapons

Anyone watching a martial arts class for the first time notice that there is a lot of yelling going on.  Yells and screams accompany almost every technique. Question any student on the reasons for the yelling and you will hear about its usefulness in focus and concentration. But can a yell stand alone as a viable tool, a weapon?

The answer is yes and here’s why.

Sound is transformed by the inner ear into a electro-chemical signal that travels through the auditory nerve to the brain. Since this signal is electrical in nature it creates what is known as an EM (Electro magnetic) wave.

A strong auditory signal can literally drown out other signals. All cranial nerves carry a non-steady current, which produces magnetic fields that can both broadcast and receive EM waves. Because cranial nerves are densely packed together, when the auditory nerve is stimulated it generates an EM pulse that can be picked up by other cranial nerves through the phenomenon called Cross Talk. For example, experiments show that even mild and incidental noises cause the pupils to dilate. The auditory nerve can stimulate the optic nerve.  This is why watchmakers, surgeons, and others who perform delicate manual operations are so bothered by uninvited sounds; the sound causes their pupils to change focus thus blurring vision.  This also explains one reason why a warrior yells at the moment of attack, to create an instantaneous and uncontrollable disruption in the opponent’s nervous system.

In Japan the war cry is known as the Kiai which aptly means `Spirit Yell’. Musashi describes three types of yell; pre-attack, attacking yell, post attack yell.

The pre-attack yell is used to intimidate, and place fear and doubt in your opponent’s mind, `spooking’ the enemy. In self defense the pre-battle yell works as a deterrent by showing your determination to resist with force. In addition the yell may draw attention and summon help.

The attacking yell is loud and sudden to startle and confuse the opponent, by creating additional sensory noise which will prevent or confuse the enemy from making correct interpretations of his other sensory information. The attacking yell also helps you to focus your own concentration and energy into the attack.

The post attack yell is one of victory and release to dissipate excess energy and calm the nerves, ready for another possible encounter.

Another effective use is during close-in fighting. If being restrained or wrestling on the ground you are in close proximity to your opponent’s ears. When you feel the time is right for an escape, use a sudden blasting scream directly into the ear.

Human vocal cords can generate a sonic burst that, at close range, can cause pain, disorientation, dizziness, and even rupture an attacker’s ear drum. (Auditory pain threshold is around 115 to 130 dB the same range as a loud yell). While at medium range a loud yell can shock and disorient your attacker and upset his concentration.

I was at medium range when I used my Kiai and it succeeded in disrupting the instinct to chase and stopped Miko dead, or in this case, alive in her tracks.

How to Yell

The proper use of the voice, like all physical activities, needs to be relearned and practiced. Learning to yell properly is easy and also helps to develop a clear and powerful speaking voice.

To develop the voice you must determine the correct pitch, which is natural to your acoustical structure. To find out your natural pitch say ‘Uh-hum’ spontaneously and sincerely as though you were agreeing with someone. If the pitch is correct, you should feel a resonance or vibration in your facial `Mask’. The facial `Mask’ is a term used by voice teachers to refer to the triangular area designated by the nose and mouth area (The same area covered by an oxygen mask). By focusing the sound to the mask you are able to generate the most volume with the least effort since you are using your face’s natural acoustics. The frontal portion of the skull acts as a sounding board.

Another method is to hum while raising and lowering the pitch. At one point when the natural tone is reached you should again feel a vibration, a resonance in the facial mask.

Once you have determined your natural voice pitch, practice yelling softly while keeping the voice at that pitch and focusing the voice to project out from the mask. It is a common misunderstanding that to generate volume you must scream from deep in the throat. This can cause minute tearing of the vocal cords and cause permanent damage. Its easy to tell if you are yelling from the lower throat; your neck and shoulder muscles become tense and will begin to feel stiff. You may find your voice becomes hoarse and tired after talking for a few minutes, or you may experience pain in or around the larynx.

Vital in generating a powerful scream is proper breath control. Use the relaxed deep abdominal breath between yells, but when yelling you must consciously force the diaphragm up to physically push the air out. The faster the contraction, the louder the yell.

When you feel confident that you have the correct pitch, focus, and breath control, you can begin to increase the volume. Practice screaming any vowel sound moderately at first and then increasing the volume gradually while monitoring any increase in tension. It is best to practice only when you are alone with no one within earshot since the presence of others may cause you to feel self-consciousness that will interfere with your natural voice. Once you have learned what is your natural tone you will no longer feel self-conscious.

Aim to produce this vibration in the mask area any time you need your voice to carry, such as to break through the din of noise at the scene of an accident or disaster, or to disrupt an attacker’s nervous system.

Conclusion

In twenty-five years of martial arts training never have I had to strike someone. However my Kiai not only saved my best friend but has since prevented numerous crimes and disasters. Most recently I found a burglar attempting to break into a neighbor’s car. I had to laugh at how my sudden Kiai caused the screwdriver to fly from the thief’s hand. As he jumped on his bicycle in a frenzy to escape he was careful not to sit down on the seat, for reasons we can all guess.

To date there has only been a minimal amount of professional boxers that have successfully been able to transfer from the ring to the cage, one of those fighters is Ray Mercer. Ok so when I say “successfully transfer” take it with a grain of salt. Imagine if George Foreman didn’t make his triumphant return to the ring a decade after he retired, instead imagine he went off to fight inside the cage and not fair so well, that is the story of Ray Mercer. But instead of retiring Mercer would continue to fight inside the boxing ring, the kickboxing ring and the MMA ring at the same time. To say Mercer was bad would be an understatement. He lost his first ever MMA bout by submission to a man that knew nothing about submissions, Kimbo Slice, that is essentially like getting knocked out by a Jujitsu fighter who has never thrown a punch in his life. But he was able to score one big win over a man also over the hill, Tim Sylvia. Literally seconds into the fight Mercer would unload a huge right hand, knocking Tim out instantly and ending the fight, but that’s where his success would end.

But past the plight of the over the hill former boxing champion turned mixed martial artist, there is a name many would recognize that has transitioned well from boxing to MMA, his name is Marcus Davis. First let me touch on the professional boxing career of Davis. To say Davis was a successful boxer would be extremely kind to the American fighter, I’ve used the term “bum fighter” a lot but never has it felt so right than it does right now. Davis was a bum fighter through and through, possibly the best bum fighter in recent history, you know how great of a bum fighter he was? Well out of 20 fights, Davis only fought 4 men who had winning records. Yes, 14 of his opponents had either never fought professionally before or had more losses than wins. So Marcus was not really a professional boxer, more like a professional bouncer, beating up on drunkards and nobodies. While his boxing career was rather weak to say the least, Marcus did well when he transitioned to MMA. 3 years after he left the boxing circuit after getting knocked out by a nobody, Davis would find himself now fighting in a cage and he would do well. He would knock out Shawn Gay in the first round, but it would seem that his bum fighting tactics would follow him from boxing as Gay held a record of 2-10 at the time of the fight.

He would then take on a man with a much better record, at 4-0-0 Thiago Alves wasn’t nearly the fighter he was destined to be and Davis would end up losing the fight in a really close split decision. Things wouldn’t go well for his early career, Davis would hold a record of 3-3-0 in his first 6 fights which featured two fights and knockouts over the terrible Shawn Gay. But Davis would go on to carve a great career for himself, getting with the UFC early and sticking around for as long as possible. Davis had the potential to be a great mixed martial artist from the start. First of all the MMA weight classes helped him a ton, at 5′10, Davis was fairly short for a super middleweight fighter and the fact that he wasn’t a great, famous boxer gave him the fire he needed to become a great famous mixed martial artist.

To this date I’d have to say that Davis is the most successful boxer to turn to MMA, maybe I’m wrong and I’m missing someone out, but to this date it would seem that Davis has been the only professional boxer to have a successful career in MMA.

First and foremost, on the question of successful mixed martial artist’s turned boxers, there are none. While you have professional boxers like Marcus Davis doing well in MMA, you don’t see that on the flip side. It comes down to the old debate about who would win in a fight, a boxer or a mixed martial artist. At the moment boxers are looking to move in on the MMA turf, for them its a learning experience. For boxers to transition well to MMA they have so much to learn that at first it could be rather daunting and it’s not just learning but they have to “unlearn” or modify things they’ve picked up in the ring. Where they’d have to learn how to kick, grapple and submit they’d also have to learn to not duck and weave like they do in boxing or they could very well catch a knee or foot in the face, its very much the case of “ooh shiny new things”. Whereas on the other side it’s more a case of “can’t do this, can’t do that” so they are essentially being told that all those moves and strikes they learned are now useless. When your looking at years of training at up to $300 a month, you’d be quick to denounce the route of boxing as well.

There is also the fact that while mixed martial artist’s do have good punching, it can be argued that those skills are no where near the level of those of professional boxers. When a boxer turns to MMA he is already going in there with great punches which will serve him well and he could base his whole game plan around those punches by working on his take down defense. Whereas a mixed martial artist has to go into the ring knowing that their punches just might not be good enough to knockout men who take punches to the face for 36 minute straight.

So far the only well known mixed martial artist to tackle boxing professionally was Vitor Belfort, who knocked out a man making his debut in the first round. Maybe as time goes on more fighters from both realms will merge over and blend the lines between boxers and mixed martial artists.

To begin with, I think that it is worth noting that women competing in MMA matches have been around much longer than most people realise.  It is not the relatively new sport that people believe, only materializing to join its male counterpart in the last three or four years.  In reality, women’s MMA has existed for as long as men’s, and possibly even longer.  There have been competitions held in Japan and Latvia since 1993.  One organization, White Dragon, held three events in Latvia, featuring both men’s and women’s MMA bouts.  Their first show was held in October 1993, a month before the UFC debuted on the scene.

So why has it taken this long for women’s MMA to become mainstream?  If you ask many of the professionals, it is due to the fact that, until recently, fighting was not something that women were “supposed” to do.  In fact, to many people, it still isn’t.  It doesn’t take much research to find scores of comments criticising the sport.  Notable fighters such as Matt Hughes and Karo Parisyan have spoken out against women fighting in the sport, and comments like this do little to improve the credibility of these competitors.  The notion of men’s and women’s roles should be something that has long since become outdated, but this doesn’t seem to be the case.  Fighting is considered unladylike and brutal, which is currently causing more harm than good.

You must remember, however, that as men’s MMA became more main stream, it received a hail of criticism from members of the public, right up to member of the U.S. Senate.  Senator John McCain went so far as to call the sport “human cockfighting”. This was a comment that was echoed by the media and anyone else opposing the sport. It is only now, fifteen years later, that the sport has become more widely accepted, and Senator McCain has changed his opinion.  The same cannot be said for people’s opinions on female competitors.

The fact still remains, however, that women in MMA are genuine athletes and competitors just like men.  Regardless of people’s beliefs and morals, these women put in just as much effort as their male counterparts.  Due to the popularity of some of the female competitors, women in the sport are becoming more widely recognised, although in some cases it is more for the way they look than there fighting ability.  Some fans see these women as nice people to look at, but don’t really see them as fighters, which many women find offensive.  There are many interviews with fighters such as Gina Carano and Julie Kedzie, where the women almost plead to be taken seriously as an athlete.

In fairness, some people do take these women seriously.  Fighters such as Randy Couture and Josh Barnett have long been advocates of women’s MMA, training female fighters at their gyms and helping them train for fights.  Barnett often appears in the corner of his female fighters when they are fighting, and Couture even goes as far as training his wife Kim, and helping to find her fights to further her career.

It is fair to say that female MMA is becoming more widely accepted, but there is still a long way to go.  Companies like Elite XC are doing a stellar job of showcasing the talent emerging from the female side of the sport. Their Saturday Night Fights on CBS have done wonders for these women, especially their latest event featuring two fights with a wealth of talent. Gina Carano’s fame continues to grow with the help of Elite XC, and fighters such as Kelly Kobald-Gavin and Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos have become much more recognised with their help.

Companies like the UFC, however, refuse to embrace women’s MMA, with their President Dana White publically stating that the UFC will never fights between women.  This is a huge blow to the progression of the sport, as the UFC a household name in the MMA world, and their lack of support can only hinder the spread of women’s MMA.

So what is the problem with women’s MMA? Why is it not as popular as men’s MMA? The answer here is time.  Men’s MMA has taken more than fifteen years to become as popular and widespread as it is now.  Whilst women’s MMA has been present for the same length of time, it has not been as prominent and as well advertised as its counterpart, and this is what has caused the damage.  Given time, and the right promotion, women’s MMA could be just as strong.  If the marketing and publicity isn’t done as well as it should be, it could mean the end of mainstream women’s MMA, forcing it back behind closed doors.  The MMA world needs to think very carefully about their next move with such a fragile sport.