Month: October 2019

How to Choose a Mixed Martial Arts School

Arts blogger

There is not much that is complicated about the concept of mixed marshal arts. Different types of martial arts taught at the same facility. You can pick between the various forms of martial arts, such as taekwondo or jiu-jitsu.

This is a great idea because there are so many different types of martial arts. Especially if you are not familiar with each, choosing the right one can be confusing.

A mixed martial arts school will show you the various forms so you can choose among them. This type of help will be extremely valuable in choosing the right martial arts for you. Whatever kind you decide upon, you will gain physical strength, confidence and learn to defend yourself.

Which type of martial art will be a matter of personal preference. Find out which schools in your area have mixed marshal arts classes.

Then go and check them out yourself. You will learn a lot about the different kinds of martial arts that are available. How an instructor teaches technique is something to consider.

Watch how they lead the class. Are they just demonstrating, expecting the students to absorb the lesson? Or does he demonstrate and explain each part of a move so the student understands?

Many of those who are great at what they do are not great teachers because they cant explain things properly. Looking at how the class is taught will give you a great idea about whether it is good for you.

The next thing you should do is to talk to the proprietor or chief instructor. In any good school these people should be willing to openly discuss your potential instruction. Some may be good teachers but not able to describe their programs.

Remember that martial arts is a competitive sport. If you do not being in close contact with others, or especially in physical contact, make this known. Feel them out for their level of eagerness and if they think they are benefiting from the classes. If you notice that the students are very happy and enthusiastic about their lessons, you probably have hit upon a great school.

If you dont spend some time on this project, you may be dissuaded from studying martial arts. Dont be afraid to ask questions and learn as much as you can. Youll know the right one when you do.

Baking Arts Management Programs In Canada

Arts blogger

The job of pastry bakers is no longer limited to turning raw ingredients into baked treats. Instead it extends to quantity bakery production, labour cost controls, purchasing for commercial kitchen, menu planning, practices of nutrition, and human resource planning.

Traditionally, pastry bakers were expected to just bake pastries, cookies, breads, cakes and chocolates. However, times have changed. Now, the industry offers them more legitimate career options in the areas of supply management, hospitality management, human resource planning, and sanitation, hygiene and safety, marketing of baked goods, and kitchen management.

The professionals are now required to have excellent baking skills combined with strong business acumen. They should be able to work in state-of-the-art kitchens, while using the latest equipments and ensuring their smooth transition into the workforce. They are not only required to bake cakes and pastries, but are also expected to innovate and bring a new product or concept to the market.

Baking Arts Management Programs

Prospective pastry bakers in Canada are required to go through a formal and intensive training in baking arts management before entering the world of work. In fact, this is considered as the basic requirement to pursue an entry level job in the industry.

Previously pastry bakers were trained on-the-job and paid decently after several years of hard work. However, nowadays, structured post-secondary educational programs are available in Canada with the colleges of repute.

Bakery arts management programs are designed to provide students with the skills to effectively manage commercial bakery outlets. They learn to expand their knowledge of baking and produce commercial quantities of breads, muffins, cakes, pastries, pies, rolls, sweet dough and savoury. They also learn to mange product costs, labour costs, purchase and storage of materials, product marketing, hiring and managing personnel.

Program Details

Centennial College’s baking program runs for two years and offers a unique blend of classroom learning, hands-on baking lab and an individualized internship with industry partners. The program focuses on helping students develop pastry baking arts and business management skills.

The post-secondary program in baking arts covers a wide range of subjects including

– Baking and pastry arts theory and practical
– Hospitality accounting
– Sanitation, safety and hygiene
– Quantity bakery production
– Principles of food, beverage and labour cost controls
– Principles of hospitality management
– Purchasing for commercial kitchen
– Human resources management
– Marketing strategies
– Principles and practices of nutrition for culinarians
– Supervisory practices for Kitchen Manager

In addition, the program lays a strong emphasis on professional communication, report writing, mathematics for bakers, and knowledge in computers.

Benefits of Baking Programs

The graduates of baking arts programs are capable of

– Working on the latest baking equipments
– Producing baking goods in large quantities
– Managing commercial bakery outlets
– Managing materials purchase and storage
– Marketing baked products effectively
– Hiring and managing personnel at a commercial bakery
– Ensuring sanitation, safety and hygiene

They can find employment with hotels, restaurants, retail pastry outlets, bistros, resorts, camps, department stores, supermarkets, and other related businesses. The graduates can also start their own pastry establishment.

Students looking for better job prospects can also consider studying further by enrolling into advanced bakery arts program with associated universities.

Power Martial Arts Kicks In Five Logical Steps

Arts blogger

It makes no sense to let an attacker get close enough to punch. If he’s got a knife or club, or just a fist that is fast, the best strategy is to kick low and hard and keep him out of range. The problem is that many Tae Kwon Do schools do not teach the right way to use the legs.

A couple of things to remember before we get into making your kicks into powerful weapons. Practice kicking high so you have strength and flexibility, but keep your kicks low in a real fight so you don’t get a leg caught. And, the best strategy is to avoid the fight altogether whenever you can.

Practice kicking over a chair. This will train you to raise your knee high. When your knee is high your foot can go straight in and deliver the goods, and not arc up and scrape the body.

Turn your hips so they go into the action of the kick. Always turn, or tilt, your hips so that the weight of the hips is fully utilized. This will also give you a little more reach, and it will help commit the whole weight of the body into any technique.

Always try to kick with the ball of the foot. I know many people like to kick with the instep, but if they miss they end up spinning around out of control. Kicking with the ball of the foot forces the artist to be an artist, and it concentrates more weight into the smaller area of the ball of the foot.

Bring the foot all the way back. Snap that foot back so that an opponent can’t grab it. This also tends to leave more power in the target.

Practice planting your foot on your partner, then pushing him. This usually means you will alter the kick so that you can place the heel on the body of your partner, then push. This trains you to use the exact muscles that are actually used in a kick.

Kicks are your first line of defense, and this makes them extremely important, so don’t just practice your kicks ten or twenty times and forget about them, practice them hundreds of times a day for each kick. Whether you are training in Karate, or Tae Kwon Do, or Kung Fu, or whatever other art, a well placed kick cancan make the difference between winning and dying. So practice, and look at your kicks, study the physics of a kick so that your kicks are effective and end the fight before the opponent even gets close.

The 2012 National Black Arts Festival

Arts blogger

The National Black Arts Festival is an Atlanta festival that celebrates the art, music, and culture of people of African descent. The family friendly festival is scheduled from July 6-15 and includes activities such as literary, musical, and theater performances, fine arts exhibits, and an international market. Although a few events are ticketed, many of the activities are free.

The main weekend of the festival is July 12-15, with many activities taking place at Centennial Olympic Park in downtown Atlanta. Festival attendees can visit the International Marketplace, which will feature artisans from all over the world. Offerings will include paintings, sculpture, clothing, jewelry, and other items. In past years exhibitors have come from such diverse places as Jamaica, Haiti, South Africa, Senegal, Ghana, Brazil, Canada, and India. The kids will be entertained at the Childrens Educational Village. This years theme will be Destination Africa and Beyond. There will be musical entertainment all weekend from the concert stage. Local and international chefs will be giving cooking demonstrations at the Publix Healthy Cooking Pavilion. Attendees can learn to prepare healthy and balanced foods as well as enjoy tasty samples. All of these activities are free to the public.

Several other free events are planned during the festival. City Gallery at Chastain will present JOuvert: At the Devils Playground, featuring the work of Jamaican born photographer Radcliffe Roye. The exhibition, which celebrates the 50th anniversary of Jamaican independence, will run from June 14-July 28. An artist talk is planned for June 30 from 1-3pm. Pre-registration is required for the talk. Jah Music- A Celebration of Traditional Jamaican Music, featuring the Tallawah Mento Band, will take place on June 24 at the Auburn Avenue Research Library. The program is scheduled for 3-5pm, and pre-registration is required.

There will be two free screenings of A Raisin in the Sun at the Southwest Arts Center. This will be the original film version of Lorraine Hansberrys play starring Claudia McNeil, Sidney Poitier, and Ruby Dee. Screening dates are July 6, and a special screening for seniors and students on July 11.

The Hagedorn Foundation Gallery will host an exhibition of intimate photos of Michael Jackson by his personal photographer, Todd Gray. The Gray Room with Act 1 of the Performance Piece, Caliban in the Mirror is scheduled for July 6-August 31. The Coretta Scott King Book Fair will be held on July 11 at the Central Branch of the Atlanta Fulton Library. Attendees will meet award winning author Walter Dean Myers and award winning illustrator Michele Wood. The event is free, but pre-registration is required.

The festival also includes several ticketed events. Those events include a gala fundraiser and tribute to actress Ruby Dee on July 14. The play Guess Whos Coming to Dinner? will run July 10-29. There will be an exhibition of the art of Vivian Schuyler Key at the Hammonds House Museum and the exhibition Rise Up: Hale Woodruffs Murals from Talladega College at the High Museum of Art. A benefit event for the National Black Arts Festival, Slavery By Another Name: The Dialogue is planned for July 12.

Martial Arts Equipment For All Styles

Arts blogger

In the “old days,” it was not unusual for jugs of water, bags of rice, and buckets filled with sand to be incorporated into a number of different workout programs. Nowadays, we’re fortunate enough to have access to an excellent selection of martial arts equipment. Because of the effective usage of such equipment, it becomes possible to achieve the most from a structured class or private training.

Of course, this could raise questions regarding the type of martial arts equipment is necessary for the “average” workout. Again, there’s enormous variety available. Below is a brief overview of the martial arts equipment you’ll commonly encounter. Nearly all of it is a must for virtually every martial arts practitioner regardless of style.

Certainly, the common punch bag is a clear must in a dojo or training hall. Punching bags not just give you a definitive target to direct your blows towards. Such bags enhance the possibility to develop solid endurance and cardiovascular conditioning. You can find great variety among the many different punching bags available and they include:

Standard Boxing Size: These would be traditional boxing bags that mimic the shape and size of the torso. They’re primarily for the purpose of punching but mid-line and high line kicks are generally effectively trained on these bags as well.

Banana Bags: Most are thinner punching bags which are the size of the human body. The lower region of the punch bag permits the effective training of leg kicks, knees, and also other strikes.

Light Bags: Light punching bags are low weight (about 1/3 the weight and size of a punching bag) and are designed mainly to give resistance to jabbing style punches as well as hook and uppercut line blows. Some even make use of a lightweight punch bag to train headbutts!

Punching bags may be hanging bags that are affixed to various “hooks” in the ceiling or they may be freestanding. Freestanding bags are, essentially durable base mounts. Such bags are significantly more expensive than a number of the traditional hanging bags but they are much easier to move and store.

While hitting the heavy bag is really a must for effective training, you really do need to hit it in as safe a manner as possible. This will likely require the proper protective gloves essential for hitting an impact target. Including all manner of impact targets – heavy bags, focus mitts, shields, and Muay Thai pads. The knuckles inside the hand are quite small and fragile bones. For this reason reliable gloves – whether they are traditional 12oz, 14oz, or 16oz boxing gloves, boxing bag gloves, or mixed martial arts lightweight finger free gloves – must be worn when hitting a heavy punch bag. For those that enjoy sparring with “point karate” gloves, be mindful of the fact that such gloves aren’t manufactured for hitting impact targets. They will not provide you with the adequate protection you require for such training. Stick with using them for light contact sparring instead.

As most martial artists realize, the hands are not the only area that require protection which explains why a substantial amount of martial arts equipment will provide protection to the feet. Shin pads and point fighting footwear are two of the most common. Some may assume that such equipment is only used in sparring. In actuality, wearing when hitting impact targets is advisable too since this can protect the lower extremities and nerve endings from damage. Really, the perennial running theme here is that most martial arts equipment is intended to enhance safety. Obviously, you can also get some items that serve other purposes as well and they’re well worth a look at too.

Stretching devices can be employed to help you extend the range of motion in the leg ligaments. This will definitely prove helpful for people who would like to enhance their kicking flexibility. Similarly, the “old school” Eagle Catcher is a perfect spring action handheld device designed to build up a great level of gripping stretch. The classic makiwara pad has long since been used to toughen the hands in traditional karate training. Similarly, the kung fu wall bag is a fantastic asset for developing strikes common in the Chinese martial arts. Such older and more traditional training aids definitely have their place in a modern world which is becoming more and more noted for its sportive approach to training. But, whether you are practicing for competition or traditional self-defense, you will need equipment that helps facilitate your goals.

Regardless of the type of martial arts equipment you purchase, you want to make sure it is from a reputable name brand manufacturer. Some will make the error of buying more affordable equipment from a “no frills” manufacturer. Rarely is such equipment worth much of anything. Not only will cheap equipment not deliver on expectations, it can put the user at an injury risk. Certainly, that would not be helpful in any way whatsoever. Keep with reliable name brands for your martial arts equipment needs. Such an approach will assuredly prove significantly more helpful in the end.