‘Articles’ Archives
The Internet as Medium of Self-Defense Instruction
Do you keep an open mind? You shouldn't. Let me explain. I had a conversation recently with someone who took issue with my publishing approach to The Martialist. I hold in very high regard the "marketplace of ideas" concept that characterizes the best philosophical and political debate. One of my favorite magazines used to be Liberty, [...]
Unreality-Based Self-Defense
There is no shortage of criticism to be found on the Internet. Stating any opinion in this medium invites the ignorant pontification of a legion of armchair experts, most of whom are woefully misinformed on the topics about which they choose to comment. Articles here at The Martialist have spurred a great many responses, some of which I found [...]
A Critical Look at FM3-25.150
Use by some branch of the military is often held up as the ultimate "street cred" for a martial art, combative system, or fighting technique. As anyone familiar with the process of selecting firearms for the military can tell you, however, the military is a bureaucracy first and foremost. Any weapon and any program related to a weapon owes as [...]
Complexity and Efficacy in Personal Combat
How simple is too simple in the martial arts? How complex is too complex in pragmatic personal combat? This is a topic of frequent discussion, particularly among combatives exponents. While practical, realistic fighting must indeed be kept direct and functional, I believe it is possible to ingrain through training useful techniques and [...]
Combatives and Martial Sports
I read recently a polemic written by a traditionalist judoka very concerned about issues of "credibility" in the martial arts. He rightly drew a distinction between martial sports, practiced for "personal development," and more modern, more pragmatic, or nontraditional arts whose focus remains the delivery of force. Believing that the least [...]
A Lesson in Confidence
An effective fighter, a man or woman capable of facing violence in a society full of predators, must acquire and train many attributes. One attribute necessary to self-defense, and which self-defense training encourages, is often neglected in martial literature and philosophy. That attribute is confidence. One of the first lessons taught to me [...]
Brief Thoughts on Preemptive Strikes
A while back my local paper reported a disturbing incident. At a local bar, a dispute over access to a pool table turned ugly. Two men got into a "fight," if you can call it that: One of them punched the other just once in the jaw. The guy who got punched died. Just like that, from a single blow: he's dead. The same thing happened [...]
Tiny Knives for Self-Defense
Firearms columnists have defended "mouse guns" more than once on the grounds that a pocket-pistol in your pocket is more effective than a .45 automatic locked in your safe. A diminutive, small-caliber firearm may be the only handgun you can carry concealed, these columnists argue, making these less-than-ideal, underpowered popguns far preferable [...]
Reality Check: Traditionalism?
Me? A traditionalist? Recently someone told me that I was "relentless" in my desire to see traditional martial arts taken seriously as combative systems. This surprised me. I don't consider myself a traditionalist in any sense of the word, nor am I particularly tied to or invested in a specific martial tradition. I do hold in high regard [...]
