On February 1, 2012 one man’s dream to share Gracie Jiu-Jitsu to the world happened in Quincy, Massachusetts. They all came; men and women, young to old all showed up at an open house held at the Institute of Okinawan Karate-Do. The open house was an hour and half long consisting of an introduction to Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, history, philosophy and training.

Now more than a month into training after the grand opening. Only a dedicated group of individuals stay and train Gracie Jiu-Jitsu to its fullest. People here are just amazed of the self-defense effectiveness and the very enjoyable training Gracie Jiu-Jitsu has to offers.

Our group is excited to continue training and learning Gracie Jiu-Jitsu for a long time. Our goal is to eventually become a certified training center. So look out, the Gracies will be visiting the city of presidents soon!

http://www.gracieacademy.com/

https://www.gracieuniversity.com/

Eric Chadbourne (iokarate.com) and David Chan (instituteofcombativearts.com) take a look at the Boston Shaolin Kung Fu Center and sit down with Sifu Heng Zhen Shi to learn about his background and what inspired him to start the school in Quincy, Massachusetts.

Please go to http://sampan.org/ to read the whole interview.

I was very fortunate to team up with Eric Chadbourne from Sampan to conduct and publish this interview. It was just wonderful to experience and watch what is known to be one of the oldest forms of martial arts.

Would you know what to do if there was a sudden emergency? Learn to save the life of an adult, child and infant victim. This is a basic American Heart Association 2-year certification class and includes techniques for choking, CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) and AED (automatic external defibrillator).

Barbara Aguello, from Health Ed of New England is available to teach a class at a discounted rate.

If you are interested, hurry and reserve your spot in the class!

Contact: Denise by e-mail:

SouthShoreSafety2@gmail.com

Institute of Okinawan Karate Do
28 Chestnut St.
Quincy, MA 02169

Satuday, March 31, 2012

2 pm – 5 pm

Cost: $35

The Institute of Okinawan Karate-Do will soon host Gracie Garage Jiu-Jitsu meet-ups.

Grand Opening 

Institute of Okinawan Karate Do
28 Chestnut St.
Quincy, MA 02169

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

7:30 pm – 9:00 pm

For more information about Jiu-Jitsu meet-ups, contact David Chan by e-mail: davidchan857@hotmail.com

For more information about Gracie Garage go to:

www.gracieacademy.com

www.gracieuniversity.com

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 1,400 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 23 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

I have to say my all time favorite comic book superhero is Batman. With the movie releases of Batman Begins and the Dark Knight, I think these are the best Batman movies made. Now with Keysi Fighting Method (KFM), Batman’s display of fighting is better then ever.

Anyone with martial arts experience can tell that all of the Batman movies in the past consisted of simple martial arts choreography. The fight scenes in the past was reminiscent of the comic book “BAM”, “BOOM”, and my favorite “POW” style of fighting.

When the director/co-writer Christopher Nolan began working on the movie Batman Begins, Nolan didn’t have any idea KFM would be the fighting method of choice. Nolan did how ever wanted the violence on-screen to not lose its threat. Buster Reeves is a jujitsu world champion and was Christian Bale’s (Batman) stunt double for the movie. Reeves suggested KFM to be used in the movie. The fight arranger David Forman and the rest of the movie crew accepted KFM right away after a demonstration from the founders Justo Diéguez Serrano and Andy Norman.

KFM is a method of self-defense that is based on natural fighting instincts, martial arts and street fighting techniques, developed by Justo Diéguez Serrano from his fighting experiences while raised on the streets of Spain. The system was founded with the help of Andy Norman. Both Serrano and Norman are also instructors of Jeet Kune Do.

KFM is most recognized for the use of a tight defensive postures to protect the most precious part of the body, the head, and smashes and opens up the opponent for the finish using all ranges of strikes — punches, hammer fists, kicks, knees, head butts, and the sharp elbows to the opponent.

KFM is a close quarters fighting system, relying on understanding how people typically move or attack in a fight so that when striking, the opponent’s body moves to expose further targets. Another interesting aspect of KFM is its “360-degree” approach to multi-assailant attacks whether standing, kneeling, sitting or lying down!

I am so excited for the next Batman movie in the series, which is scheduled for release later in the year.

The great karateka Jack Summers Sensei celebrated his 85th birthday on November 5, 2011. The birthday party organized by Senpai, turned out to be a beautiful success.

Jack Summers Sensei is currently a Hanshi (Grandmaster title in Okinawan Karate), a 9th degree black belt in the Uechi Ryu style of Karate. Summers Sensei also had training in boxing and jujitsu, which really complimented him to be a great martial artist.

The party was held at a local bar, which filled up quickly for the celebration. It was nice to see all the people who attended. There was of course many of the members from our dojo, but was also nice to see people from other dojos.

What was really nice, a person from another dojo spent the time to contact all the different people who knows Summers Sensei from around the country, Europe, and Okinawa to send their regards. Most of which was printed from e-mails, then placed in a binder and given to Summers Sensei.

People brought sweets, ordered pizza and of course cooked hotdogs (Summers Sensei’s favorite). Good conversions were had and many alcoholic drinks toasted.

Happy Birthday to the greatest Sensei of my lifetime.

As a practitioner of shooting and knife fighting. I tend to criticize many so called self-defense experts demonstrating anything with guns and knives. I will give this article and video a thumb up.

I particularly like the duck under move used by Pincus, it provides some control in a better position.

Click the link below to read the full article and watch the video from Black Belt Magazine.

http://www.blackbeltmag.com/daily/martial-arts-philosophy/modern-martial-arts/combat-focus-shooting-expert-rob-pincus-discusses-the-not-so-picture-perfect-reality-of-self-defense-against-a-knife-attack-on-the-street/

During a visit with my oral hygienist, I started up an interesting conversation with her. She told me that she is really excited now that she is taking boxing classes. I asked her what is the name of the boxing instructor, and after telling me who it was, I told her to say hi for me. She was surprised that a karate guy would know a boxing instructor. I just said, us martial arts guys just know each other. Then she said, “Boxing is a martial art?”

I thought about this for a while, and realized that many people associate martial arts with arts from Asia. The truth is martial arts is probably one of the oldest forms of combative expressions. Martial arts exposure is all around us, whether we recognize it or not. Most kids in America have the opportunity to learn some form of it when they are young, like wrestling and boxing.

Wrestling and Boxing is more commonly viewed as sports here in America, but they are still a Martial Art.