Let’s see how scientific teams around the world have been putting an effort into demonstrating the benefits that martial arts can bring to any of us, no matter our age or physical condition. The benefits are out there, anyone can choose between martial arts and combat sports, that are classified into two groups, namely: ‘hard’…
The line between reality and fiction often becomes blurred in martial arts movies; on the one hand, the flying characters in 2000 classic Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon are not realistic, but the moves that they use are based on the real martial art of Wushu (or Chinese Kungfu). In seminal films like Bruce Lee’s Enter the Dragon or Jackie Chan’s Drunken Master, the protagonists are performing all of their own stunts and are accomplished martial artists. However, the storyline playing out around them is, of course, fictional.
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For a long time, women, pressed by social norms, always looked for activities that helped them look more beautiful which naturally kept them out of sports that could mess up their looks. But this tendency has been in decline for some time: Now women are much more oriented towards achieving strength, energy, security and well-being.…
The creation of the dan/kyu system as it is known today belongs to Jigoro Kano, founder of Judo, who had a dans system in his school divided into five grades. In 1883 he gave the first danes to two of his most outstanding students (Saigo and Tomita) and in 1920 advised to apply this system…
Let’s learn a few new words that will be omnipresent on this blog: First, Dojo (道場) that literally means “place where the Way is practiced” or “place of awakening”, it’s a training room for martial arts or meditation (zen). Traditionally it is ruled by a Sensei (先生) or teacher (this word in Japanese means “more…
Karate is a sports discipline that can entail some risks and the injuries derived from its practice can be diverse both in variety and importance. Regardless of whether you have just started or if you have been practicing Karate for a while, you have to consider that injuries are a possibility. Basically, the order of…
Usually, when someone approaches the dojo and asks if they can start practicing despite their age, the sensei automatically repeats that there is no age limit to start learning. It’s not uncommon to hear stories about some practitioners who started on this path after their 40th birthday, for example, and who managed to master the…