January 29th, 2012
Just about every serious style of martial arts has plenty of “knife defenses” and, depending on your intent (and intensity?), they seem to be of varying effectiveness. Apparently the “skilled, empty handed, martial artists vs. knife wielder” question got a little more evidence submitted, but unfortunately not in the “martial artist” column.
Guy Mezger, recognized as a more than proficient kick-boxer, boxer, and full contact karate martial artist, is perhaps most recognized as a former MMA champion fighter with UFC, and Pancrase, and PRIDE. He retired professionally in 2005 but still teaches at his gym in Dallas.
Last week (Jan 2012) he was shopping with his daughter and saw a guy beating up his girlfriend. He stepped in and took the guy down, but the guy came back at him with a knife. Mr. Mezger definitely “won the day” with the attacker seriously injured and arrested, but got one nasty cut on his hand from the fight.
Before you get cocky about your abilities and decide if the “run away” strategy might not apply to “you vs. knife”, check out the photo of his hand in the hospital (fair warning – it’s a bit graphic…): Ouch and keep in mind… He was a top level professional fighter…
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January 16th, 2012
This should make you understand how grueling an “old fashioned” boxing match from the not too distant past worked out… considered one of the greatest fights of all time: Ali vs. Frazier
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January 16th, 2012
OK, perhaps if you’re not a parent it’s not as fun, but this has got to put a smile on your face. Wicked sparring and powerful kiai’s!
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January 15th, 2012
Congratulations are in order for a diligent BJJ practitioner named Gene Pace who at the age of 78 was just awarded his black belt in BJJ after 15 years with his instructor, Mike Buckels, in Costa Mesa. Great to see both the instructor and “student” point out that being consistent is the main thing you need to achieve your goals. He never missed his “2 workouts a week” in all that time.
You can find a link to more info here and the school here
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January 15th, 2012
China Eastern Airlines is now training their flight attendants in Qin Na (a Chinese martial arts style that puts emphasis on pain compliance and control holds – though there are LOTS of different schools within the style).
They’re doing a pilot study now (oh geeze – like that’s the first time someone’s used THAT one for this!) with 20 employees and planning to teach all 2,600 attendants eventually. This is similar to the program started by Hong Kong Airlines that required new employees to “master” Wing Chun, though how thorough the training was is difficult to assess.
More on Qin Na here at Wikipedia
More on the actual plans from the airline here
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December 28th, 2011
Ran across a great picture from Natl Geographic of two martial artists (in the ancient and “purest” sense) practicing their art with swords in India: http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photo-of-the-day/martial-art-india/?src=delay2011pod
The photographer actually took the picture of the two fighters with a _kite_!
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December 27th, 2011
Ran across a great article on what the medical community is doing to study concussions. They actually talk about it in reference to MMA, but any martial arts style that might include contact is affected by this.
Obviously boxers have been dealing with this for a while (Muhammad Ali being the most famous example).
There’s a nice video on it here: http://mmaweekly.com/what-is-being-done-about-consussions-in-mma that you might want to checkout.
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November 28th, 2011
Two more ideas for getting stubborn blood stains out:
Hydrogen Peroxide
Splash a bit on the stain, wait for it to finish bubbling, wash in COLD water, repeat until most of stain is gone then wash in the machine with COLD water.
Thanks to Caroline for reminding us about this method (can’t believe we didn’t include it the first time).
Spit
Yeah, really – your own spit. If you have no soap handy, spit on the stain and wash it a lot with cold water (repeat until pretty well faded). Of course, if it’s your blood, you’re probably not in the mood to do lots of spitting. And no one else is likely to be worried about your blood stained uniform… but just thought we’d mention it…
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July 31st, 2011
While most of us here workout inside a studio, some people do get all crazy and do sessions outside on the grass. We’ve had several people ask how to get the grass stains off their uniforms.
Aside from the most obvious solution (wear a black uniform), we’ve found it best to try this:
Pour a detergent that contains bleach on the stain and leave it for 5 minutes. Then rinse well. If that doesn’t work, soak it in a bleach solution (2oz per gallon). If the stain’s still there after a 15-minute soak, learn to love it. Keep in mind that the bleach is going to be hard on the uniform, so best not to make a habit of this…
For normal “day-to-day” washing we recommend Liquid Tide With Bleach Alternative (note this is NOT a detergent with chlorine bleach in it).
Tags: cleaning, grass, stains, uniform
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May 5th, 2011
How do we (here at Piranha Gear) get blood out of our uniforms?
Hopefully the blood is still fresh? If so you have the best chance of getting it out. Soak your uniform (or the bloodied area) in COLD WATER. Not hot water – yes, we know this sounds backwards, but the hot water will actually “cook” the blood and make it set faster.
While soaking in the cold water, rub liquid detergent into the stain and scrub it. Then rinse the soap out (still cold water) and the wash it as normal.
If the blood stain has already dried, soak the area in warm water and soap – ideally it’s one of the soaps that uses enzymes for cleaning (lots of laundry soaps do). Then wash as normal.
After it’s been through the washing machine, but before you let the uniform dry, check to see if the stain is still there. Repeat the above process as needed (cold water soak, rub with liquid detergent). The only other choice is to run it with bleach in the washer, but keep in mind this is going to shorten the life of the uniform – by about 10% every time you wash it with bleach… Ask yourself how bad you really need to get the stain out before you use the bleach.
Of course the easiest solution is to wear a black uniform, but we understand that’s not always an option…
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