Martial Arts

Martial Art Belt Ranks – Where Did They Come From And What Do They Mean

Arts blogger

Martial Art Belt Ranks

Where did they come from and what do they mean?

There are many theories why present day martial art schools use belts and sashes as a ranking system and where the concept of using belts came from. We will discuss two philosophies, one that is widely accepted by many practitioners and another that can be considered as a legend, or story that was passed down by your grandfather. Please keep in mind that the belt ranking system has only been around about 120 years. Throughout this article, keep in mind that not all Martial Arts are the same, your school may have a completely different ranking system than discussed here.

One of the most common arguments comes from the founder of modern day Judo, Dr. Jigoro Kano. An educator and sports enthusiast, Dr. Kano used a black belt to represent his dan (highest-ranking) students in his school, the Kodokan. However, he later realized his kyu (lower ranking) students needed an outward tangible object to acknowledge their accomplishments and encourage their efforts. So he implemented the different colors to signify the progress that his kyu made over time.

Eventually, other Japanese martial art styles such as Karate, Aikido, Kendo, etc. incorporated the Judo belt ranking system when Gichin Funakoshi, an Okinawan karate master and considered as the Father of Modern Karate demonstrated his martial art style, Shotokan, at the Kodokan.

The other theory, known as the belt getting dirty can be considered as a martial arts folklore. When new students started their training they were given the rank of white belt, signifying a birth or beginning. Students were not allowed to wash their belts, therefore the belt would get dirty the more they practiced. In time the belt would become black, signifying the amount of time the student spent practicing and typically their level of skill.

As a new student in a martial art, you will most likely be given a white belt at the beginning of your training and will progress through a color system on your way toward a black belt. However, contrary to popular belief, the black belt does not signify the end of your training, but rather the beginning. In most arts, once you earn your black belt you are no longer considered a kyu, you are now a dan.

Dan have their own ranking system known as degrees. You are a first degree black belt when you first attain it, over time you can test for your 2nd degree black belt (or 2nd dan) and so on. Most martial arts consider a 10th degree black belt to be the highest level of mastery.

As you train in a martial art, don’t get discouraged if you are stuck on a certain belt for a long period of time. It usually takes many years to progress through the belts and this is actually one of the lessons that participating in Martial Arts will teach you. Progressing through the belts requires a great deal of time, dedication, self-confidence, patience and self-discipline. The skills you learn in your martial arts training will apply to almost every aspect of your life and will help you succeed in areas where you never thought Martial Arts would help.

If you would like to learn more about Martial Arts or are interested in finding a school in your area, go to http://www.experiencemartialarts.com.

How To Get The Gunfighter Mentality In Martial Arts!

Arts blogger

One of the most important things you can have, if you want to be a good fighter, inside the ring or out, is the gunfighter mentality. The best fighters, like Chuck Lidells and Anderson Silva, have this intuitively in their personality. The losers don’t.

Interestingly enough, the Gunfighter Mentality used to be central to learning the classical martial arts. I remember training back in the sixties, and everything we did was pointed towards building this ability. While there were many factors involved in the death of the Gunfighter Mentality in training, people like Bruce Lee probably drove home the spike.

Bruce Lee added circling and bouncing to the martial arts. The Gunfighter Mentality depends on stillness, being coiled like a snake, and here was this fellow acting like Mohammad Ali, circling and jabbing and destroying the mindset of the Gunfighter. Now Bruce Lee would have won most any fight anyway, but a generation copied him, and they gave up the deadly zen stillness of the Gunfighter.

Now stillness is the heart of true fighting, when it comes to the martial arts, and there are several good reasons or this. There was much interchange between karate and zen principles in Japan, and people who sat in the zen position for long hours began to see the benefits of sitting, waiting, and cultivating silence. In the silence one could better perceive, could empty themselves enough that their intuitive nature would take over.

When one is silent, just sitting, when one just relaxes, the senses begin to work better, and the world begins to open up. Try it, just sit in a chair comfortably and just relax for a while. The world will start to make itself known, tell you things, and you will become brighter, sharper, calmer.

Once the student begins to appreciate that his perceptions will work better, the true martial arts can be developed. In the silence we learned how to set our stances, to sink them into the ground, and search for the angle set of the leg, the best position to spring from. In the silence we would examine the position of the foot and the turn of the hips, trying to make every single part of our bodies into responsive and explosive machines.

Freestyle matches, instead of dancing around and wasting energy, would be subtle shifts of the body and edgings forward. Instead of throwing a hundred punches, many of which would miss, we would set up to throw one punch, but every ounce of our might would be instilled in that one punch. And, most important, we walked away from the dojo as different people, aware people, patient people.

The Gunfighter Mentality in the martial arts pretty are much dead, and it is unfortunate. Because I believe that if the fighters of today began developing the Gunfighter Mentality the Martial Arts would take a turn for the better. This might not be good for mixed martial artists in such places as the UFC, however, as the techniques might become too deadly.

Jump Training for Martial Arts

Arts blogger

Are you a Martial arts practitioner looking to add some form of workout to heighten your training? Plyometric (jump training) will supply an extreme cardiovascular workout that incorporates power and agility while working the entire body. All you need to do is add a 20 minute plyometric routine three times per week to improve strength and quickness.

Jump training incorporates the way the muscles work with elasticity and uses it to produce strength for the athlete. When your muscles get stretched to capacity they automatically contract. When the athlete forces this movement, the muscle reacts by creating a faster contraction, loading the power, and giving the individual the added benefits of the stretch.

Plyometric training with a rope is the perfect way to incorporate the use of the legs and get an amazing workout. The right way to perform this exercise is to barely jump of the floor and land on the toes softly. This movement will be done repetitively and various jump movements can be done to change it up. Begin slowly and aim to go for 5 minutes 3-4 times a week until you can work the time to the goal you have set.

Doing a push up with a clap will focus all the resistance on the top part of the body. Begin in the push up position, bend your arms and bring your chest to the ground and forcefully push yourself up to make your hands leave the floor. Brace yourself on the way down with your hands and return to the starting position.

Slamming a ball is an exciting way to get a plyometric workout. There are many variations that require you to slam the ball to the ground, against a wall, or toss it up in the air. The key to this particular movement is maintaining good form and continues motion to get the greatest benefits.

If jump training is not trained properly, this form of exercise can cause injury because of the amount of stress put on the muscles and tendons. You must be at the proper level of fitness to start a plyometric training regimen. This will not be an issue for most martial arts practitioners because of the physical routines performed in their type of discipline.

How do you reach a level of fitness to start jump training? A workout designed to build strength and cardio endurance is the proper program to follow. Stick with basic body weight exercises and use free-weights such as a barbell or dumbbells that will require you to use coordination in order to balance the weight as you lift and lower it. Sprint training is the best and stay away from long distance run: they are counterproductive to the type of conditioning needed for plyometric.

Guidelines to follow when performing Jump training:

Stay in control and keep good form. You want to execute the moves quickly as possible, but don’t flail your body around.

Wear proper footwear and don’t do jump training barefoot in order to prevent permanent damage to your feet.

Protect your joints by landing softly with knees slightly bent.

Incorporate upper body plyometric training into the circuit to work the whole body.

If your are looking to increase explosive power and strength, then adding plyometric training is the best exercises for you. Perform plyometric training two to three times a week and watch as you become quicker and explosive with movements during your regular martial arts training.

Do Martial Arts Academies Need Sparring

Arts blogger

Sparring is something that all martial arts classes utilize. There are various combat sports, such as boxing and wrestling that use sparring as well. It is a very useful tool, aiding students become better by having their combatting techniques as well as additional skills they have studied. By practicing against other individuals, students learn the system quicker and become more accomplished at performing the methods rapidly as well as effectively.

If you are studying martial arts in a dojo, you ‘ll discover sparring to be extremely fantastic as well as useful to your instruction. The instructors are going to be overlooking proceedings as well as guiding students, making sure that no one becomes hurt. Students generally apply safety equipment, including headgear, to make certain the sparring session is safe throughout practice.

Depending on the talent level and the particular martial art class you are attending, you might end up sparring without protective gear. When students get to a sophisticated stage and are extremely skilled they will not normally want protective equipment. At this phase, their sparring abilities as well as approaches are such that they can easily go a few rounds by having more skilled students as well as not make any detrimental contact at all.

Martial arts such as Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, that focus on grappling, make substantial usage of sparring, as it is needed to correctly execute the procedures against a resisting opponent. Martial arts that focus mainly on grappling use joint locks as well as submission methods, which will certainly desire to be extensively practiced before they can be utilized effectively during a rivalry or in a self defense situation.

Throughout sparring, students go back as well as forth, remaining competitive with each additional and testing talents. Timing of the rounds will differ, although most last several minutes. Students will even obtain guidance as well as insight from their instructors to allow them recognize how they are doing and if they need to alter just about anything. This also provides instructors a prospect to see simply exactly how well you are progressing in instruction as well as what areas you want to function on.

In some cases, sparring can easily be done by yourself, without anybody else working by having you; shadow boxing! If you are sparring by yourself, you might utilize equipment such as punching bags, tackling dummies, or other forms of hardware that will certainly help you by having the martial art. The foam or rubber dummies are most frequently utilized by having grappling approaches or for ground as well as pound drilling, as they render the opponent that you are attempting to pummel into entry.

Sparring is an impressive much to practice the skills you have learned against hardware or other students. Students are fun to spar against, specifically if they are at a greater level of skill than you. You can easily use sparring to your benefit, studying what others do as well as how they react to the movements and approaches. The longer you spar as well as practice your moves – the better you will certainly get in the instruction, speed as well as the execution of the skills. Martial Arts classes are unfinished without this excellent instruction device.

Martial Arts for Four Year Old Children in Keller and Fort Worth Texas

Arts blogger

At Peak Performance MMA we offer classes for children as young as three years old all the way up to as old as 65 years old. One of the amazing things about our 3 to 6 year old program is seeing the motor skills develop in the children. They are able to move and react to things that most children their age wont be able to do.

I highly recommend if you do your child whos 3 to 6 years old to get involve on the martial arts program so they can get a head start on life! They can learn how to react with body movement, how to counter their weight balance, how to move and how to balance. One thing we do in our program is we do a lot of games with the 3 to 6 years olds that so they can learn how to move, develop hand eye coordination, timing, balance and the list goes on and on. We play a lot of fun games so the kids dont realize their actually learning basic jiu jitsu, muay thai and mma technique. When they progress to our 7 to 12 years old classes, they have a huge head start and also for when they play other sports like football, baseball, basketball and wrestling.

I highly recommend you enroll your 3 to 6 years old in a martial arts program. Of course make sure its a black belt school, certified instructors and make sure they have a life skills program. Make sure the kids are learning not just self-defense but also how to act in life, how to meet people, how to greet people and how to be respectful. When they go to school gives them huge advantage because there are saying yes sir, no sir, yes maam, no maam and the list goes on and on so make sure get your child enrolled in the 3 to 6 years old martial arts program today if you have a child in that age group.

You will learn Self Defense, Gain Confidence, Discipline, and Get in Amazing Shape! We have lots of programs to choose from, please enjoy our website and call us today at 817-614-9325 to set up an appointment for a Free Private Lesson & Consultation to see how we will help you reach your goals!

Peak Performance Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu & Muay Thai Kickboxing LLC http://www.peakbjj.com 133 Sports Parkway Suite H Keller, Texas 76244