I’m in a tournament. Any tournament; it doesn’t matter. I’m faced off against my opponent in a stick point match. Live or padded stick; again, it doesn’t matter. I hear the call “LABON!” and I approach my opponent. We swing at the same time. He hits me with a nice downward strike on my forearm. A half second later, I hit him with a full power shot to the side of his head as a continuation of…

I hear the term "streetfighting" so often, yet I'm never sure what is exactly meant by it. Maybe it depends on the person using the expression. My first thought is of a rowdy bar/pool hall, where some drunk who thinks bench press = tough guy starts a fight. Maybe he breaks a beer bottle or a pool cue, but he is not very skilled in using them. Sometimes I think of prisons, where the inmates are incredibly sneaky and clever and vicious, but have to fight much more…

Before anything else, I need to put in a few disclaimers. First, I am new to martial arts training and FMA in particular. Yes, I have a number of years of practice, but barely a year of formal training and the discipline that goes with it. When I post a blog or reply or comment, I am never TELLING anyone how things are. I am too inexperienced and too new and too unqualified to TELL anybody about anything. But I do have many years…

I wonder about this because I see a distinct difference in how people train with padded sticks vs. "live" sticks. My first experience with this was a few weeks into my training last summer. I had been practicing my strikes and blocks, and I was ready to unleash some laser guided padded strikes on my first sparring opponent, who was about my age and experience level. Well, as I struggled to locate him in my crosshairs, he blitzed me with a barrage of thumps that resembled…