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Peter Buckley

From the Daily Mail Online: Worlds Worst Boxer Throws In the Towel after 256 defeats. Here is Peter Buckley, 39, a guy who fights on almost a moments notice, and even fights so often that he has been known to show up for a fight with a black eye from the fight before. To enter the ring that many times, he has to have a fighting spirit like any champion. If you can understand the dedication that Buckley has for boxing, you have to be in awe of him. He has the guts to take the punishment and get back up again. The Daily Mail article also points out he has taken on many fighters in his career that have gone on to be world champions, among them Duke McKenzie, Scott Harrison, Naseem Hamed, Michael Brodie, Gavin Rees and Colin McMillian. He received an honorary ringwalk before his 200th fight in honor of his experience as a boxer while in Manchester. To the British boxing community, Peter Buckley is no ordinary guy. They wouldnt give him any honors just because he fights. He has held on to boxing long after greater fighters have faded away. Cheers, Peter.

Chocolate (“ช็อคโกแลต”)

We have a new angle on martial arts movies from the makers of Ong Bak, with Chocolate, a Muay Thai movie, with a female lead. Taekwondo expert Jeeja Yanin trained for 2 years to prepare for the part.

The movie is about an autistic girl with lightning reflexes and a talent for martial arts, whose skills come alive when she has to collect debts for her mother’s operations. Lots of action in this one. Her kicks are top notch. Make sure you watch the out takes during the credits to see how real the punishment on set was for this production.

More on Jeeja Yanin at: http://www.bkmagazine.com/feature/q-yanin-vismitananda

Torrent: http://isohunt.com/torrent_details/51033152/chocolate?tab=summary

The master featured in this video is a practitioner of Kiai. He claims to be able to defend himself against attacks by using non physical gestures. The kiai is the battle cry of martial arts, and it is also believed by these practitioners that it is possible to defeat an opponent with a kiai shout, or ring a bell.

While his is beautiful, wishful magic, he has only really succeed in hypnotizing not only his students but himself as well. Kiai wont have any effect on an opponent who doesn’t buy into it.

Here the master makes a wager of $5000 to any challenger who can beat him. A mixed martial arts practitioner takes on the master and defeats him quickly. Hope he didn’t hit him too hard.

This practice of bowling over an opponent with a gesture or a shout is not some simple fraud, however. A kiai shout from a serious practitioner of martial arts is to say ‘fear me, because I can draw on all the power inside me’. And if you know how tough a martial arts practitioner can be, you might have real reason to be afraid.

There is real power in how much someone is willing to believe in themselves. I have seen Qi Gong practitioners – everyday people from a course offered at a community center – break chopsticks against their throats, have their chests jumped on by a partner from a chair, and bend straight re-bar against their chests. Not for the faint of heart. And regular, ordinary people did it.

Something so right goes so wrong. We go here from a courageous acceptance of the inner power of self to the blind submission to something external, and …occult. I don’t know that inner power was ever intended to be parsed that way.

The demonstration above is related to a logical argument fallacy called ‘Appeal To Authority‘. He is the master – so he must be more powerful and wise than I am. Well, most of them are damn good at what they do. But I’m sure a good master really wants their students to be able to think for themselves.

Friday is the day for sparring. That is when I go to Versus 21 and try and put together what I learned there. It involves facing off against another human being and trying to get a good kick or punch in, and of course I take a few myself.

When I started sparring, I discovered what a huge challenge it was to apply what I learned in class on a heavy bag against a real opponent. Everything is changing. You have to pay attention. You get tired, sloppy, you miss, your opponent frustrates you, you drop your gloves or he or gets through your block somehow. Or maybe, the level of conflict escalates and its up to you how you want to respond. Its about taking responsibility for what you have learned.

I have heard a general criticism of martial arts before, that it is too much about an instructor at the head of the class, telling you want to do and you dont think for yourself as a student. To even warrant such a comment, there must be examples out there where that behavior is taken to an extreme, even parody. But sparring is the remedy for all that. You are put in charge of your learning.

And what a Its a huge shift it is from simply blocking that kick because the sensei told you to, and taking responsibility for it yourself. Its up to you to block that kick now. You dont want to block that low kick? Fine. Dont block the low kick. Feel the consequences. Because having the best sensei in the world wont matter if you dont take responsibility for the lessons you have learned. And by the way, it turns out that you lose less energy by lifting that leg and blocking that kick rather than leaving it on the ground and taking it.

Western Canadian Martial Arts Championships 2008

The 2008 Western Canadian Martial Arts Championships was the first tournament I have ever attended. I was really impressed by the size of the local community and how everyone could come together to create such an amazing event. There was a full range of events going on all day long, like a veritable martial arts festival. People of all age categories gathered to gain rank in Karate, Tae Kwon Do, Hapkido, as well as Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Kickboxing.

I was there as a part of the Versus 21 team to cheer on Adam, our entry into the kickboxing matches and Josh who entered into BJJ at the last minute. That was my first reason for being there – cheer on Team Versus 21.

getting ready to fight

But something else I saw that day was what made the greatest impression on me. For a while I turned and watched the juniors who were there to win higher ranking belts and challenge themselves. I remember seeing a young man, about 10 years old, in a Tae Kwon Do match. I saw him take a kick to the gut that knocked him to the mat. We all know that feeling, from one time or another in our lives. And when you are so young, its your whole universe that has just caved in. He lay there folded up for about 20 seconds. Then he sprang to life and bounced back to his feet with a Kiai shout. A good recovery by any measure. I dont recall if he won the match or not. Its not really the point. I was really impressed by how he found the inner strength to get up again when he was down and face off again. He meant it. He was determined. He will be able to draw upon that inner strength for the rest of his life. Years from now, when he is in a rut, he will think back to that time and use it to pick himself up and try again. Isn’t that what martial arts is for?

Versus 21 team: ali, sensei blake, adam, iman, and norm

It was humbling to see other people as well, who tried and failed. The students were there in their gis, representing their schools with pride. A few of those students took a heavy hit. Maybe it was a moment of inattention, they their guard down or maybe their opponent got in a lucky kick. They looked like they were knocked into next week, stunned, bloody nose and all. Of course first aid attendants were on hand to attend promptly to everything. But there is no first aid that can provide much comfort for the hurt deep in the eyes of those students. They believed in themselves enough to be there, trying hard for that next belt, only to have those hopes crushed. Lets hope they will come back and use that experience to face a new challenge and prevail.

sensei blake and adam

Martial Arts has its dark side as well as its light side. Todd Joseph (Joe) Krantz, gym and mma club operator lived in the dark side. Today the local news reports that “A well-known gangster from the Independent Soldiers who ran an extreme fighting club here was shot to death late Monday as he left his Clearbrook Road gym.” He also had weapons and drug charges. Seems like the gangs out there have developed a taste for fighting, except that with gang, weapons and drug involvement, these mma fights are nothing more than glorified human cockfights. The report goes on to describe the pile of firearms, ammunition, weaopons, drugs, found in his house, as well as the turf war between two gangs, the Independent Soldiers and the UN, who have been working to establish a foothold in Kelowna. Nothing spells trouble like gangs, drugs, weaopons, fights, and murder.