Okay, well, this is old news, but I’m kind of pissed about the results. I’m heavily biased and I think ninjas should’ve won… Those guys representing the ninjas were great martial artists, but I’m not sure they actually knew that much about ninjas.

Besides the obvious facts that the battle was imbalanced…

• Open areas
• Daytime
• Ninja jumping out of the tree made no sense

There were a lot of things wrong.

Unnecessary Acrobatics

Fights don’t usually end up looking that fancy.. I’m sorry, but they just don’t. They hired an acrobat for that sequence, and not a martial artist. He’s doing unnecessary flips over logs, and he’s doing kip ups instead of rolling with the momentum. Martial artists don’t go on their backs, they stand up.

Good-Looking, But Bad Fighting

The ninja had the upper hand kicking his shield, and he held onto the chain still after the spartan grabbed it. Why? No offense, but from what I saw the ninja team could use the weapons, but they lacked a basic ninjitsu principle… You don’t fight on the line.

What “the line” you ask? Well, the line is like this:

o           o
/|\       /|\
/\    | /\

That line between them, that’s the line. You don’t fight there. You fight behind the other person, or you get him while he’s down. YOU have the 90% chance of winning, and are in control of the fight. From that line you only have a 50% chance of winning… He took his chance, and died.

Another principle the ninja didn’t follow is that Your Defense Is Your Offense. He’s blocking, but without any real retaliation. He got the spear out of his hand, but he didn’t do any damage, he just let himself get knocked back by the shield. It’s basics. Spears are just like punches, they go right for you, but they’re easy to get around.

ie. Take two weapons, one weapon to parry the spear, and the black egg; after you parry the spear, the spartan is going to be trained to knock you back with his shield, but the ninja can just move with the momentum of the shield and throw the egg. To move the ninja, he’ll need to extend his shield arm, leaving an opportunity to throw the egg full of glass in it. If he was good enough at dissolving movement then he wouldn’t let himself get knocked down.

The ninja also kept running around, and always looked worried. He never capitalized on his opportunities, he just took off.

I can’t say if the spartans fighting was the best or not, but I’m absolutely sure that the ninja could’ve been better represented.

The Weapons

The weapons were fair enough, not too many thoughts on this, but I think if he had a full arsenal like in the show then he would’ve overwhelmed the spartan. Mastering a few weapons like the spartans is admirable, and effective, but I’m not 100% on how spartans would react to weapons they’ve never seen before.

Stereotyping

The spartan and the ninja look like they’re out of a comic book. I don’t know much about spartans, but at least he didn’t look like he was out of 300. But the ninja? Really? I wear a mask, but for fun. You don’t wear masks unless it’s specifically a stealth mission where you need to keep your identity secret, it obstructs your breathing. And in a time where bladed weapons exist, I don’t see why he doesn’t have armour on… Yes ninjas did happen to wear steel plating on under their robes.

How I Would’ve Fought

1. Well, possibly hiding in a tree like in the beginning
2. Shuriken to divert attention to tree
3. Dropping either black eggs or blowgun, probably both – black eggs in the eyes, obstruct spartans vision, blowgun to damage and possibly blind or kill
4. If spartan attacks me in the tree, he’s stupid since I have longer range weapons. I could just block or dodge.
5. Assuming I’m accurate enough, the black eggs have left glass and possibly chili peppers in his eyes, the blow darts have hit his arms and face, and now I’m moving onto another weapon already – I’ll stick to what the ninja uses in this fight.
6. Kusarigama. Weighted end to start pounding, sending the spartan into receiving mode (where he’s being defensive.)
7. Jumping out of the tree, still attacking.
8. Use bladed end of kusarigama, and ninjato. Attack spartan, spartan will try to block in some way. If with shield, I can deflect his spear while also dissolving the energy with a roll and sidestep in and stab or slash him. If with the spear, dissolve, sidestep the shield, stab or slash him — my goal is to sever his limbs.
9. I can’t say for sure what the spartan will do, but I do know he’s predictable… Ninjas are unorthodox, and they bring way too much to the table.
10. If all goes to plan, one of the spartans limb are severed, but he’ll still be eager to fight, and now he’s at a huge disadvantage. Proceed to use superior form to dismantle the spartan. Whether I need to sidestep the shield, parry the spear, or smash his helmet, he will be dead. Ninjas aren’t predictable and they’re highly effective, that’s their biggest asset, more-so than their formal weapons.

There’s a lot of scenarios I can go through, but in the end, I still think that ninjas would have prevailed.

I’m learning a lot of the science behind what I do, some of which I knew, some I didn’t. He’s really going at it right now, he’s talking about some 10-step method, and being very emotional about his grandfather. He’s kind of tearing up. Awesome.

Change Your Brain Change Your Body System

Anyways, I think what he’s doing is really interesting, it takes everything I do and put it into a very conscious system. It’s not just about changing your body (weight loss and exercise) but also boosting your progress and overall health and success with your brain. It’s pretty simple when you look at it… And also really obvious since that’s the title.

He’s using timeless principles and backing it up with a lot of steps, and with science, and can help people tailor their own process for success.

He sort of reminded me that sleep is pretty important, I’ve realized it a lot lately, especially since I got about 10 hours last night and about 15 hours the rest of the week. I’ll try getting at least 7 now, preferably 8.

Here’s a short list of things he’s talking about:

1. Sugar, coffee, sweeteners, and other bad things for you
2. SPECT tests
3. Peoples’ stories
4. Reversing/improving brain problems
5. How obesity is related to the brain
6. A lot of ways to help
7. Public television, and how I should buy his programs to help PBS
8. Overweight brain types
9. Not lying to yourself
10. Brain size relative to brain size

And way more… I just don’t remember everything, and I’m kinda lazy.

What I do, which seems to go hand-in-hand with this:

• Get morning exercise
• Managing stress – using meditation and sometimes forms of hypnosis
• Stay away from soda, candy, and desserts
• Eat healthy in general
• Infrequent drugs or alcohol
• Not getting hit too hard in the head
• Feel happier, and be more positive

Those are a few things I do, and so far I’m doing pretty well. I just thought it was interesting, and you should check out some things by Dr. Daniel G. Amen. No affiliate links, I’m not an internet marketer, I’m just sort of a fanboy.

Amen Clinics Site

Strikers don’t come up with new strikes apparently, while grapplers are always coming up with new ones? I’m probably being cliche, but I think they’re placing too much emphasis on both styles. Your fighting should be free from limitations. You can’t just accept a style at it’s face value because you’d be selling it short.

I promised myself I’d never write this post… I didn’t want to comment on Bruce Lee — ever — but I suddenly have a lot of thoughts about him.

On the one hand Bruce Lee was trained in Wing Chun at 13 years old, and he built his Legendary career as a martial artist and an actor, publishing 1 book while he was still alive and several posthumously from his notes, and before he became famous also had a small chain of martial arts schools open.

On the other, even though he has footage of him performing and acting unedited, he’s never been recorded in a real fight. There’s even been one story about him almost losing a fight, and trying to cover it up so he wouldn’t have to have a rematch.

Personally, I think he’s incredible, and inspiring. He’s worked hard, trained for years, and laid a LOT of groundwork in how I think about fighting… And life, in general. He wasn’t a perfect example of his own teachings, but everybody goes down a bad path sometime. Especially celebrities.

I also think it’s really hard to evaluate how well he’d actually do in a streetfight (or in the UFC) since its never been recorded I don’t think and the fact that it’s a hypothetical… I wouldn’t really expect strangers to think I’m an amazing fighter, and they usually don’t, which is sort of nice actually since I have less standards to live up to lol. Realistically I have to at least tell them about martial arts, and be able to give some demos.

And if Bruce is anything like me (obsessive at note-taking) he would’ve constantly learning, and analyzing, and re-analyzing movement in different situations and styles, and anatomy, etc… Which he has. Does that include wrestling, though? Or just grappling in general? I’m not sure.

I’ve studied at a Judo school, where I sparred personally with the instructors (which usually hasn’t happened in my other schools), practiced against a lot of guys who are bigger than me, I’ve gone up against somebody who got a top 20 placement for wrestling in my province, and I’m just naturally competent with grappling… I’ve always been a decent wrestler. The striking-type-stuff is what I needed work on. So I have been working on it (for about 2 years now… *Ahem*.)

I’d be a little surprised if Bruce hadn’t realized that you could grapple. His interceptions (he believed that your attacks are also defenses that intercept your opponents attack – the more you know) probably would’ve countered grapplers since they’d go in for a move, then he’d intercept it. He was also a streetfighter, apparently, and grappling in a streetfight isn’t your best move.

Whether Bruce Lee was for real or not is sort of a mystery, but I know he’s changed the way millions and millions of people think about fighting. Including me. And I honestly thank him for that because I express myself through martial arts… If I didn’t have this macho sport, I’d be playing soccer or something. He’s helped me become a better student, and a better teacher.

I may/may not achieve the same amount of fame and success that he had either. But I’m a few steps ahead of him, I’m still young and I have the concepts of Jeet Kune Do to work with, as well as better technology and science. He’s left a lot of clues already, so I can pick up the pieces and make my own sort of masterpiece. It’s helpful to learn from people with more experience, it saves a lot of time.

That’s about it I think. At least for now.

20-1-1! Get ‘Er Done!

We got 3 teachers to come up to a stage and talk about us (1 more later the next morning). Any other class literally couldn’t have possibly gotten all of them speak… It’s a long story, but in short, St. Joe’s Elementary alumni kick ASS! And we’re just great students in general.

We’ve had a lot of students drop out one year, only to come back… Or in my case, my classmates cared so much about you that they actually convinced me to stay! That’s love, dude. We even have new students joining us for the grad year, which I’m really happy about. And I don’t wanna put the down the people who left our class, but honestly some of them just weren’t good people. At least not since the last time I’ve seen them. Maybe they’ve changed?

But there’s no huge animocity for people anymore (or at least not like it used to be…) We were at each others’ throats — vicious. Rumours were spread, I’ve been embarrassed and humiliated, people fought, and were depressed, and I always noticed that people were always really angry, and bitter… I still sort of notice it. Our school sucks, but the 20-1-1 class is just impressive.

No class is can top ours. It’s impossible. We have more unique, insightful, talented, intelligent, compassionate people than I’ve ever seen or heard about… And plus we’re more fun to hang out with. Seriously, lots of people are just boring. They don’t do anything, and they complain about how stupid things are. If you’re gonna complain then at least have a good reason, and stop being a douchebag.

I’m glad I stayed with this class… I’m not abandoning them. I’ll always have their back, and I know they’ll have mine too. They could just call me up, and if someone’s bothering them, I’ll go up to that person and give ‘em a swift kick to the nuts! They probably deserved it.

So, in short, no class can top the 20-1-1. Or is ever going to. Or ever has. We’re just the best.

Somebody would.

But what if you got attacked, and they were with you? You’d say, “Whoa!! Thank God you had that gun with you!” Why is it okay then?Nowww you’re thanking them, you just criticized them for having it 2 hours ago.

Guns aren’t used by most people… Even violent people. Maybe if they’re hard criminals, or cops, but I know a lot of streetfighters who don’t ever use guns. The most preferred weapon is a switchblade knife. Personally, they’re not my favourite, but I have carried one before.

And from a martial artist point of view, would guns be cheating or unfair? People are still taught to use swords, or sai, and otherweapons. I don’t think it’s completely necessary to bring those, since you couldn’t conceal a lot of those kinds of weapons too easily. But then again, my favourite weapon is a pair of nunchucks, but I have my own methods for being able to have those around me.

People think I’m crazy for having a pair of nunchucks sometimes, even if I tell them that I like to practice and street perform from time to time. I’ve almost needed to use them before… I lucked out because my cousin knew the guys. One of the guys he knew was carrying the BIGGEST switchblade I’ve ever seen, and then we get into this discussion about weapons and stuff. Funnily enough, my cousin brought up I had nunchucks on me, which I was kinda pissed about since I had them concealed — as in I didn’t want people to f’ing know about them.

I don’t think guns are bad, and I don’t have any problems with traditional martial arts weapons. But I think that they need to be accepted as a legitimate option at some point. I’ll probably get gun training whenever I can, I’ll start looking into it, and learn how to use them and get one.

• It’s very fluid, and never stops moving.
• It’s constantly moving, adjusting to the environment it’s in.
• It fills in the cracks, and can freeze, cracking it even more — maybe even shattering it.
• It’s basic… it’s part of life, and it’s constantly recycled, and restored, and renewed.
• Entire oceans can be affected by the moon.
• Humans are about 74% water.
• Have you ever thought how we might be affected by the moon?
• If we want a glass of water, it’s not going to fill itself necessarily. You can hope for it, pray for it, wish for it, try imposing your will on it, or visualizing the water going into the class… But in the end, you need to fill the glass yourself.
• The glass can be half full, or half empty.
• It can save us from dying, or cause us to die.
• We need to have the right amount, and at the right times.
• It can be flavoured, and mixed, or blended, or bland.
• It can turn into vapour, breathed out through the mouth.
• The glue that holds together a castle of sand.
• It slips through your fingers, but sticks to your skin.

Speaking just about Tony’s products, here’s what I heard… Impartial list, no huge research done on all of it yet. So bare with me.

• Don’t eat carbohydrates and proteins at the same time
• Don’t eat meals with drinks, or immediately after
• Don’t have dairy products
• Oxygen prevents cancer

Eat meats, fish, bread, pasta, fruits, veggies… etc. Drink milk, water, natural juices.

And no, I’m not going to talk about how a lot of fighters are just bad, or how their moves aren’t very effective/legal. Or about how you’re supposed to train in a gi. Or even about how some are scams, and take your money… Or about how they brainwash you into thinking you should only study one martial art…

I’m talking about how static they are.

They’re predictable.

They like to train students a certain criteria, and attempt to make perfect clones like the person should be a martial arts robot.

And they train their students just the fighting, and not any mindset… The mindset is more important, in my opinion. Everything sort of comes down to the thoughts you have, and the decisions you make, which lead to what actions you perform.

It’s a Martial Art, and it should become a real art. It should really resonate with the Artist, and they should be allowed to stray from the curriculum.

What works for you, might not necessarily work for the guy next to you… Some people like Pepsi, some people like Coke, or if you’re like me you like both but try staying away from soda (uggghhhhh… it’s so good, but so unhealthy).

You don’t need to stick to just one martial art, or be very rigid with the way you do yours, you should make it your own.

If I go up against somebody trained in a school, I can almost always predict what kinds of things he’ll do, unless he’s really clever.

I’ll show you how easy it is to defeat a martial art…

Tae Kwon Do translated means:
“to strike or break with foot”

Karate translated means:
“empty hand”

That means a lot to me. That means that I need to mainly block kicks from the Tae Kwon Do guy, and maybe pick up a weapon against the Karate guy. And I also know how their movements works, since I’ve trained a little in both of them.

Tae Kwon Do is a Korean form of Karate, and they’re very direct. They like to use moves that move very straight. TKD has a certain stance, and a way of moving. So does Karate.

Kung Fu, on the other hand, means “hard work”. And they like very circular moves. However, they also have a shitload of branches, which I love. They have many stances, and ways of moving. I happen to know a lot of them.

MMA guys usually like to grapple, and have submissions, and study Muay Thai. Well, the trick is, don’t let them get you in a hold. Their stances very, but it’s usually just two fists by the face.

Krav Maga has a couple different stances, and I trained in it so I understand it more. It’s a very brutal martial art.

Judo/Jiujitsu. Judo is very grapple heavy, and jiujitsu is too but they have strikes.

Tai Chi is very flowing, and is done as a sort of meditation, but it can be applied to fighting really sneakily.

Capoeira is very extravagant… To say teh least.

Muay Thai/kickboxing is very direct. I understand a little more than that, but you get the point.

Some martial arts like Kyusho, and the one with the Dim Mak (death touch) try using arteries and pressure points. I don’t recommend them!!!

Ninjitsu is among my favourites, along with Kung Fu. Ninjitsu is all about being un-predictable. Their stances, and moves are so effective, and under-utilized! Aaaannnnndddd… Best of all. They’re not static.

They have an understanding of the human body and use it to their advantage. They understand the situation, and don’t always just try to brawl. They’re sneaky.

There’s a certain stance that makes you look like the victim. You can get arm-barred easily. There are nerve strikes. There are death strikes.

I met a guy whose Ninjitsu school invented a NEW kick – a counter to the roundhouse. They used it in a tournament against other martial arts, and it was undefeatable because nobody had ever seen it!

There’s just so many martial arts out there, and so many variations, you can’t just ignore them all. You should understand how it all works, have the basics down, and be able to adapt to any situation.

How do you counter something you’ve never seen before? Exactly.
Be aware of every move.