It’s no secret that bullying is a major problem facing our youth today. As a martial arts instructor, I hear stories about bullying on a daily basis.

So I wanted to see the movie “Bully” which is a behind the scenes style documentary about how bullying affects lives.

It is definitely worth watching, but I must warn you that if you’re anything like me then you will find yourself yelling at the screen.

We all want to help our children to feel safe at school, and quite frankly the responses from those in authority are quite disappointing.  It’s obvious that they do not have the answers, and that we must work to strengthen our children from within.

What I like about this film was that the camera simply recorded, and we are left to form our own opinions. Although this is certainly an anti-bullying movie, the filmmaker didn’t offer us his opinion or get up on a soapbox to try and sway our  minds in a political way.

What’s crazy, is that the students knew they were being filmed.  Due to the fact that the documentary was filmed over a long period of time, the students may have become desensitized to having the camera around, but it’s probably safe to say that the incidents would have been much worse if there wasn’t a camera around.

The movie is definitely thought provoking, and I’m curious to know what you think about the movie, and about the bullying epidemic in general.

Feel free to comment.

One of my friends shared this on Facebook, and I thought it was extremely creative and funny. It is an homage to both Bruce Lee, and the “Kill Bill” movies. I hope you like it as much as I did.

By the way, since it is a youtube video, I have no control over any of the banner ads that pop up.

Each summer we try to improve the look of our school.  Today, we received some additional red mats.  So we should have some more room to work when we practice takedowns and grappling.

We will continue to make further improvements, so stay tuned.

I was just watching the “Ultimate Fighter” TV show, and they played this Tapout commercial.

I really like it, and thought it was well done. The words of the commercial are great. The poem speaks of fighting for the things in life that matter.

In a time of instant gratification, where we as a society tend to get lazy and stay in our comfort zones; it’s nice to see a commercial speak positively of hard work and dedication.

A friend of mine posted this on Facebook.  This little guy looks intense.  I think I saw the same picture used in a Silat poster.