P.S. If you don’t listen to pop radio either, this song is currently number 1 in all pop charts everywhere.

Yes, 50 Shades of Grey is out, bringing BDSM practices – or at least conversations about them –  into the living rooms of North Americans, a second time in just a few short months.

If you live in Canada or within a radiowave distance of Canadian stations, you’ve heard of the Jian Ghomeshi, a former popular CBC host of a show Q, whose story and downfall broke out late in 2014. As of now, Jian is awaiting trial on a total of seven counts of sexual assault with a maximum possible sentence of life in prison. Ghomeshi claimed and is still insisting he practiced “consentual BDSM”.

That sounded immediately very iffy to me and to several BDSM bloggers who pointed out that BDSM submissives (subs) are usually very well aware that they are going to get hit, in fact, the preparation and discussion of boundaries goes on for a lot longer than for “vanilla” sex. The subs clarify when, where, how and for how long – and the dominant partner’s job is to play on the border, the boundary, balancing on the edge, never going over.

What had also come up in a public conversations that was just as interesting, is the law of consent to violence.  Apparently, “The Supreme Court has said that a person cannot consent to an assault that causes bodily harm. “ If the voluntary activity causes bodily damage, the person at fault can be charged!  The law was mostly meant to protect against “consensual” bar brawls, but has some far reaching consequences for the backyard martial arts groups. Basically, if you break your informal training partner’s leg, he is in construction, out of work for several months and he decided to press charges, the law is on his side.

How is your group dealing with this issue? What precautions you take while training in and out of the dojo?  Let us know in the comments!

P.S. And if you want to watch a good BDSM movie and not that pile of watery s*&^, try Secretary.

I really like these two demos. Not only because they portray talented martial artists who are able to engage with control and intensity, but because they represent two opposite ends of a spectrum. I like to call that that spectrum, skill acquisition vs skill application.

Kata, forms, and body-mechanics exercises, are great for developing and honing one’s movements. Especially for unfamiliar movements, slowness, sensitivity, and repetition is crucial. This is the same whether practicing with a cooperative training partner, or practicing solo. You can also study strategies and sequences within kata, historical “case studies” if you will, to expand your repertoire.

On the other hand, one can be fight-ready with very few techniques, by practicing with aliveness and spontaneity, and developing a fighter’s mentality. In other words, by “sparring”. But sparring too much can also be a distraction if that’s all you do. Having a narrow range of skills is like having a few “one-trick-ponies”. How far will that get you, knowing that any smart opponent will hit your weakest skill set first?

On that note, here are some veteran UFC fighters, testing their abilities for the first time in the US Marine Corps Martial Arts Program. The UFC fighters are the ones with the coloured helmets. (Scroll to the beginning if you want to watch the entire clip.)

You can only get good at what you train for… so, what are you training for?

The first 6 minutes covers 7 basic strikes that work well in a sudden or melee type of situation. I like to call these types of moves, one-hit-wonders because they’re straight forward fight-stoppers. Also, you don’t need years of advanced training to use them, though they can still be used with softer “more advanced” skills if you’ve got ‘em.

For another angle on sudden use situations, check out the video on The Fence in my previous article on Geoff Thompson.

A Repertoire of Strikes

You’ll notice that I’ve added two photos from Bruce Lee’s book, for a total of nine strikes. These last ones require more training and aim, but they still fit the theme.

Next, the fun part…!

For the second half of the clip, the role of the attackers is to grab and restrain the defender.

The defender’s role is to simply not get caught, while maintaining minimum distance. I’ve taught this kind of drill many times over the years (randori versions of “en no undo” & “sen no undo” in the Bujinkan), and it’s a great way to practice mindful non-attachment and being the observer. Eventually, you’ll become familiar and even comfortable with the swarming pattern, as well as be able to recognize openings and opportunities. Plus, the drill doubles as a great cardio workout!

When it’s decided, the defender switches from being purely defensive, to counterstriking with the methods listed above, or with whatever responses suit the moment.

You can also amp up the drill by allowing the attackers to strike and kick as well as grab, while varying the sophistication of the attacks.

I am not so sure…

Here is the link to Ido Portal post about  this side effect of their training program.  

Opinions?

If you don’t know what Ido Portal is, it is highly successful fitness movement based in Israel. Check our blog post about them here. 

The medical professionals have a saying: “not dead until warm and dead”.

Anna Bagenholm

In Sweden in 1999 Anna Bagenholm spent 80 minutes under ice of a frozen waterfall where she was pulled under the ice during a skiing accident. Two rescue teams were called to the top of the mountain, the second one had to bring a pointed garden shovel to break through the ice.

She was taken to the hospital where her condition was described as “She has completely dilated pupils. She is ashen, flaxen white. She’s wet. She’s ice cold when I touch her skin, and she looks absolutely dead. ” Anna was then successfully warmed up and revived by a “ a team of more than a hundred doctors and nurses worked in shifts for nine hours to save her life” and contunied to live her life “with minor nerve damage to her hands and feet”

Lincoln Hall

In 2006 Australian climber  Lincoln Hall became sick and delusional during his Everest climb and was pronounced dead by the expedition leader and left on the mountain to allow his sherpas to descend safely. His family was notified of his death.

The next morning another team was on their way up. This is what they saw:

“Sitting to our left, about two feet from a 10,000 foot drop, was a man. Not dead, not sleeping, but sitting cross legged, in the process of changing his shirt. He had his down suit unzipped to the waist, his arms out of the sleeves, was wearing no hat, no gloves, no sunglasses, had no oxygen mask, regulator, ice axe, oxygen, no sleeping bag, no mattress, no food nor water bottle. ‘I imagine you’re surprised to see me here’, he said. Now, this was a moment of total disbelief to us all. Here was a gentleman, apparently lucid, who had spent the night without oxygen at 8600m, without proper equipment and barely clothed. And ALIVE.”

“Death is not as black and white as it seems,” Mr. Hall told an audience in Sacramento, Calif., in 2008. “In Tibetan Buddhism, death is interpreted as consciousness leaving your body in separate stages over a period of time. It’s different if you’re run over by a truck, but if you’re just dying, say, on Everest, there are stages of death. I ticked the first two of those eight stages, and for some reason that process reversed. So I think saying I died is probably more accurate than saying I didn’t.”

Donna Molnar

Donna Molnar, 55. Ontario found after laying several days in the snow, She went shopping for groceries in her vehicle, then became disoriented in a snowstorm and was found three days later with “..only her face and neckline exposed, and there was little snow underneath her.”.  Snow had acted as insulation until a police dog and it’s handler found her face sticking out from the snowbank. She asked where her purse was – that’s what I would say the first thing too See full story here.

Well, it looks like cold and dead is better than hot and dead! I say bring on the winter!

Jaroslav Flegr says that a single-celled parasite in the protozoan family was subtly manipulating his personality, causing him to behave in strange, often self-destructive ways. And if it was messing with his mind, he reasoned, it was probably doing the same to others.

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/03/how-your-cat-is-making-you-crazy/308873/

Here’s a video that’s currently holding top position on YouTube’s homepage. It just passed 10.2 million hits, in only 4 days. (update: 34 million hits after six months)

It’s interesting to compare the reactions of the people in the elevator, though I really wish the prankster wasn’t able to call “time-out” as soon as he felt personally threatened.

A few observations:

– If someone seems cool, casual, and is laughing, it doesn’t mean that she/he doesn’t feel threatened.

– It’s a natural reaction for people to close their eyes, or turn their backs [which is the easiest way to get stabbed, dragged down, or choked out], unfortunately.

– Confusion may leave people open to suggestion and instruction — even from their assailant if the assailant is charismatic, has a good sense of timing, and puts on a good act. Just like a hypnotist or a con artist, (or a pickup artist).

– Crazy behaviour and unusual leaps of judgement can occur — at one moment, people could be in a highly adrenalized fight-or-flight state… and 2 seconds later, they could be exchanging high-fives, hugs, back slaps, handshakes, and snapping selfies. (I saw these in other videos by the same guy).

– Instead of directed verbal aggression, screaming is a surprisingly common response.

– The people who responded better claimed their share of the elevator floorspace right from the beginning, and the people who didn’t respond well gave up their floorspace right from the beginning. This was actually a predictor of how the prank was going to go down.

– Some people are more ready to respond than others.

– So much operates on instinct!

Thoughts? More observations? Is fouseyTUBE’s laugh getting on your nerves yet?

Please share!

(related link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortal_Kombat)