I’m proud to share this article as I’ve had the opportunity to train with Mr. DeWall and he most definitely deserves the medal. In addition to being a great athlete, he’s simply an all-around great person. DeWall is also involved bringing awareness to the blind community of his accomplishments by working with the Blind Judo Foundation.

DeWall’s wins earn bronze at Paralympics

By Staff Reports

Article Launched: 09/11/2008 12:14:24 AM PDT

Chico’s Greg DeWall won a bronze medal in judo at the Paralympics in Beijing over the weekend.DeWall, who is blind, lost his first match and then won his next three to win one of two bronze medals in the 220-pound and over weight class.

“I can’t say we’re all surprised about it but we’re very pleased,” said Karl Tenckhoff, DeWall’s coach in the Chico Judo Club. “He’s a tough kid and very skilled too.”

There were 11 competitors from all over the world in DeWall’s bracket, and he lost his first match to a Chinese competitor.

“In judo you have two bronze medalists, the one who comes up the one side of the bracket and the one who comes up the other side,” Tenckhoff said.

DeWall began his judo career about three years ago, and Tenckhoff said he was talented from the start.

“I’ve been doing judo since about 1966. It was obvious that he was very skilled,” Tenckhoff said. “His wrestling experience as a Greco-Roman wrestler gave him an advantage. He was a natural with the throws.”

DeWall “made up ground very quickly,” Tenckhoff said. “It took him about half the time it would take the average person to achieve a brown belt.”

At tournaments in the Bay Area, DeWall has gone up against almost exclusively sighted opponents.

“His brackets are anywhere from three to six guys and he handles them all quite easily,” Tenckhoff said. “I’ve had competitors say, ‘Are you sure he can’t see?’ It’s pretty amazing to watch.”

Tenckhoff said DeWall is an inspiration to those who know him.”That puts a hole in other people’s argument for not training hard enough,” he said. “I can’t see other people doing it.”

Click here for the article source.

I thought this was a great article about a great movement in Malaysia to utilize the martial arts - “besides developing and sharpening one’s fighting prowess, martial arts help develop self-discipline which was vital for nation-building.”

Click here to access the full article.

Read this article from the Clarion Ledgar, a local paper in Mississippi and thought I’d share the happy ending. Just remember that confronting a armed person is life threatening and would not be recommended by ANY reasonable instructor. To be honest, this person got lucky to walk away with more than the keys to his car.

A Jackson man who escaped an armed carjacking attempt credits his martial arts training with his rapid response.

Marvin Williams, 34, said he was in the parking lot of the Wal-Mart on Mississippi 18 Monday night when an armed man approached him and demanded his keys.

“I was thinking he was fixing to sell me something or beg,” Williams said today. “But as he got closer, I saw he had a gun. I gave him my keys but he wasn’t walking away.”

Williams studies the Brazilian martial art known as capoeira and said he used his skills to stay calm while he grappled the gun out of his alleged attacker’s hands.

Officers who were nearby managed to chase down the suspect after he fled.

Spencer Walker, 36, of Jackson is charged with carjacking, two counts of resisting arrest and two counts of disorderly contact.

Pankration fighters

Pankration was more than just an Olympic event; it formed the basis for all combat training for Greek soldiers - including the famous Spartan hoplites and Alexander the Great’s Macedonian phalanx. The techniques varied just as in the oriental martial arts according to ‘style’. Pankration systems were taught within families and many times by master teachers to students (pankratiasts). Forms or kata were known as Pyrrics and single blow challenges as Klimax; internal energy was developed through breathing exercises, the equivalent of ‘Chi’ in Chinese arts, known as Pneuma. Pneuma primarily denotes the wind (derived from the Greek word pneo which means to breathe, blow); also ‘breath’; then, especially the spirit. Punching bags (korykos) and wooded posts were used for striking practice and the hardening of the body and limbs. Herbal medicines were also used.

Pankration, as practiced in the ancient world, combined elements of both boxing (pygme/pygmachia) and wrestling (pale) to create a broad fighting sport similar to today’s mixed martial arts. A match was won by submission of the opponent or if the opponent was incapacitated. A contestant could signal submission by raising his finger, but sometimes the only form of submission was unconsciousness or death. Joint locks and choke holds were common techniques of accomplishing this. In fact, there were only two rules: contestants were not allowed to gouge eyes or to bite.

Today’s Uniting the Arts fun fact source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pankration

Here’s a video of Pankration moves on YouTube from the History Channel’s Human Weapon show:

You might know this gentleman from the UFC or the commentator of IFL, Bas Rutten, a three time King of Pancrase. Pancrase is more of a modern form of Pankration:

It’s been a bit difficult getting back on track after my three week vacation in Europe. I’m still going through my pictures and editing them so will be glad to share once they are complete.

To get me back on track with the posts, I’m going to touch a little on my experience training in Judo after a little over a year training in BJJ (Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu).

After reading a post on the Sensei Camarillo’s forum, I thought it was interesting to experience the contrast of modern day Judo and BJJ.

Click here to go to that post

Today, I will go into more detail on my experiences with this phenomenon. My simple interpretation from Sensei Camarillo is that the lines have become blurred on what technique are Judo or Jiu-Jitsu in the modern time. Additionally, the lack of emphasis on the ground game (or newaza) in Judo is real.

Historically, Judo was developed by Master Kano’s background in Jujutsu. Sensei Camarillo points out what he’s learned about the evolution of Judo through his own martial arts career in addition to speaking with fellow artists. Here’s an excerpt from his post:

“From what I have gathered about the Judo in the past, is that
referees used to allow Judo to continue on the ground far longer
than it has recently (this comes from a talk I recently had with a
Turkish Judoka that doesn’t see much difference between the Jiu-
Jitsu of today and Judo of the past). The result is a lack of
knowledge that I have seen from today’s referees regarding ne-
waza. But again that is because of what they have been exposed
to, if you have a short time on the ground you will see less and
less attempts and techniques for attacking and defending in ne-
waza.

If you come from the camp that feels Judo’s ne-waza is the same
as Jiu-Jitsu, you are talking from a time that has past. Again this
is generally speaking. The Jiu-Jitsu of today, technically speaking,
is beyond the Judo of today on the ground, just like the Judo
of anytime, is greater in throwing techniques than Jiu-Jitsu. In Jiu-
Jitsu tournaments you see the opposite, a short time to throw an
opponent, and only one shot at it.

It is a simple matter of rules dictating the behavior of students
and instructors. Knowledge has been lost here and there and we
see the effects of this in the top two schools for Judo in the
country (the former OTC and SJSU). I have also seen this in Japan.
Again this is all related to the experiences throughout my career.”

As a pupil of both arts and starting in BJJ, I have to say I find the growing distance of traditional Judo to modern day Judo unfortunate. In the book Best Judo, Isao Inokuma explains how diligent mat training provided him with the gold medal in the 1964 Olympics.

“I also practiced my mat techniques very hard. My goal was to execute them quickly in combinationwith my standing techniques to ensure victory. By studying and strengthening mhy works on the mat, I managed to eliminate the anxiety I had felt about it and could thus cary out my standing techniques. Also, when the opponent attempted a technique, I would counter him and drag him down on the mat so that I could grapple with him there. Because I was confident in my mat techniques and because I was sure that I could fight on a a par with my opponent even if I was the one thown down to the mat, I was able to attack with my favorite seoi nage purposefully and without fear.”

As a beginner of Judo, I find it odd that there are black belts I’ve rolled with that have issues passing my guard. My guard is definitely nothing to brag about so that’s why I was surprised to experience that. During my time training under Sensei Camarillo (BJJ), brown belts would destroy me. I had expected this when entering the world of Judo as I knew that ground work was included. I just didn’t realize how much sport Judo is emphasized as I do now. Does it inject the idea to stop Judo training? Absolutely not. If fact, I plan to cross train in both in the near future. Currently, my work commute allows me to go to the Stanford Judo Club.

If you have not read anything about Guerrilla Jiu-Jitsu or the benefits of cross-training I can testify that it is needed. Many of the competition oriented arts will almost always lack an aspect of another.

…you can’t win by always fighting with the same patter of attack, technique, and strategy. In order to win and cotinue winning, you must study and work much harder than your opponent. - Isao Inokuma, Best Judo

With an arsenal of throws at your disposal, as well as a stealthy ground game, you will be able to take your opponent out of his comfort zone and dominate the fight. Although jiu-jitsu is one of the most effective martial arts on the planet, it has weaknesses just like everything else. I created Guerilla Jiu-Jitsu and this book to plug those holes. - Dave Camarillo, Guerilla Jiu-Jitsu, Revolutionizing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

If you’ve been following my “tweets” on Twitter you’ll know that I’m on vacation in Spain and I send updates via my Blackjack 2.
My cousin and I have checked in to the Barcelona international airport and wanted to grab a bite for breakfast (apparently not big in Spain). We were walking toward a restaurant and I look to see a gentleman walking with three dirty blonde kids who looked just like Royce Gracie. If I had to guess the children’s ages I’d say they were around seven. I’ll have to look at his stats later but if it is him, he’s pretty tall (close to 6 ft.). I did the double take as I passed directly next to him, he looked back at me and did a small head nod.
I got a little excited and told my cousin that I just saw Royce Gracie. I was going to ask him as he was looking at the departure screen but decided to leave him be with the three kids.
We’re on our way to Rome now, maybe so is Royce Gracie…

In part 1 of my entry on Twitter and MMA dojos that can be found by clicking here, I explained three easy ways to apply Twitter. My main focus was on promoting and marketing from an owner/instructor perspective. Here’s the list I provided but just note I elaborate in the original post so be sure to read that first.

Benefits of Twitter in the dojo

1) If I want to make announcements about a canceled class,
2) To promote a sign-up special I might consider offering the public, I can post that on Twitter
3) Twitter can provide micro-interactions with my community

I’ll expand on a couple more from the original post after some references to what Twitterfone is.

Now, ALL this can be done even simpler using an awesome service from the folks over at TwiiterFone. Providing updates to the community can’t be any easier; literally all you do is make a phone call, you’ll be prompted to leave a message, speak and then hang up. The message is converted to text and posted on your Twitter account. The link is also provided so that the viewing user can play back the audio.

If you can handle the shaky cam, this guy gives a quick demo on TwitterFone.

This blog post references some similar services. I’m giving Jott a wirl but still have to give it some time. I feel that a service like this is great for those of us who travel and train. If I found a great place to train while on travel I can simply call it in. If I have an emergency as an instructor and can’t access a computer, I can just use my cell phone to call in and make the announcement to the students. Here’s an example of my tweet from which I used Twitterfone to call it in.

Benefits continued…

4) Announce guests so students will not miss out. I’ve often seen in dojos like AKA or Cahill’s where practitioners of their respective styles will come and just participate in the session or even provide instruction. As a student, I definitely do not want to miss those days as it provides techniques that others potentially use around the world.
5) Provide any feedback post workout. Perhaps you had something philosophical come to mind only AFTER practice is over. How to get that thought to your students? Call up Twitterfone and the students learn even outside the dojo.

I really don’t know how it could get any easier so there’s no excuse for you owners and instructors to save some time. One thing I’m curious to know is whether these services can be used for the blind? Being flashed based I’m assuming that the readers that are available do not work so great with flash. If there’s anyone out there who has text-to-speech (aka readers) sotware that they can lend me for testing on this, that would be great. If anyone can use a service like this its definitely those who are visually impaired.

I responded to a post from a dojo blog with the title above. You can find that by clicking here.

From a pupil’s perspective, that is a very strong statement (your title) for such generic information. I’m not here looking for drama but if you’re going to label yourself the best school in the entire state I had hoped to read about a little more substance.
As a student, anyone who tries to imply this would make me walk right out the door. Of course, that’s just me.

This is the first time I’ve read a blog from this instructor but feel that martial arts instructors especially should be accountable for such claims. I read on the blog that he’s up for nomination for the U.S. Instructor of the Year and wish him luck on that. Bottom line is that you’re NOT the best.

If an instructor really is that great, then let others speak on it. Link to student’s blogs that claim you are indeed the greatest instructor they’ve ever come across. If the instructor trains professionals, link to those events or profiles. Link to other blogs that describe negative aspects that a student may experience and explain why you are different. Simply stating that you’re the best with absolutely no backing is simply ridiculous.

My intention is not to point fingers at Mr. Boggs’ but simply to share a perspective from a pupil of martial arts.

-UPDATE-

July 2, 2008

Looks like some time between this week and last, Mr. Boggs had the title changed. Good to see he’s making the effort to portray the proper image within the martial arts community. Thank you for considering my feedback.

Developed Renzoku Jiu-Jitsu in 1993, Renzoku combines traditional Japanese Jiu-Jitsu with some of the more effective ground fighting strategies made so popular by the Brazilians

This is a style specifically tailored for cage fighting competition.

Today’s Fun Fact source

I’ve dropped the ball on posting the last couple of weeks. Between my day job, training and commuting, spare time is scarce. You can always get micro-updates from the Twitter feed. I’ll try to pick things up later this week