If you haven’t yet had the chance, I highly recommend buying or renting the movie “Ong Bak”. Tony Jaa’s athleticism is amazing. The fight scenes are great as well. If you don’t mind reading subtitles, I feel that the original Thai version of the film is better than the US version. In either case, the action sequences are the same, and this movie made Tony Jaa an action icon in the martial arts community.

The following is a short clip from the film. Let me know what you think of this clip, and of the movie if you have seen it.

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Below is a trailer for the upcoming documentary on Filipino Martial Arts entitled “Bladed Hand”. My instructor Guro Dan Inosanto and many of his students are in the film. (Including his daughter Diana, his son-in-law Ron Balicki, and Jeff Imada) I hope this film exposes the world to the efficiency and effectiveness of Filipino Martial Arts, and I can’t wait to see it. It will be interesting to see the reactions of our students as they see the techniques that they are learning in our Kali class being demonstrated.

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Copyright© 2012 Elite Martial Arts. All rights Reserved.

There has been a lot of talk and media attention lately with regard to the bullying of young children and teenagers. We all know that the local media has to sensationalize everything for the sake of ratings, but the fact remains that bullying is a real problem in today’s schools. If you’re a parent you are already painfully aware of this fact.

Bullying has been a problem since the dawn of time, so to look at it as a new phenomena is being extremely shortsighted. The flip side of that coin is that there are now more ways to bully then there has ever been in the past. Technology has opened up a whole new can of worms that has led to cases of cyber-bullying, whose end is just as bad if not worse than your every day run of the mill cases of bullying. For more information on this see our related post.

The problems with the latest statistics on bullying, is that they are so obscure that they mean nothing. In order to fight bullying it must first be defined. If we define it too broadly, it ceases to have any meaning. For instance, if we define bullying to include things like name calling, then every child can report that they are bullied 50 times a day. Though this type of name calling can be disruptive to childhood development; part of growing up is overcoming these obstacles and finding our self-worth. Therefore, we as individuals and as a society, should be a little more selective with regard to our definitions.

That being said, what can we do to help our children with this very real problem? I think the first thing that must be done is to increase the self-confidence of our children. Bullies tend to look for weakness, so if your child has good self-esteem, the likelihood of them being targeted by bullies goes way down.

Additionally, if they are picked on verbally, they will not be affected as much by the verbal abuse. This will make violent encounters less likely.

So how do we cultivate high self-esteem in children? If you ask 100 experts, you’ll get 100 different answers. Unfortunately, many parents think this means they need to shelter their kid’s from every negative influence. In my opinion, this only makes them feel helpless and weak, and eventually leads them to a victim type of mentality. Mom and Dad can only shelter for so long. Eventually, every child must go their own way, and we need to prepare them for that.

One of the best ways that I know for teachers to increase the self-esteem of children is to give them positive reinforcement for the things that they do correctly. Most children crave recognition, and they find a way to get it. They can get it for doing positive things, or for doing negative things. Way too often in today’s society, the consequences of both are way too similar.

For example, Little Johnny (5 years old) misbehaves in school. The whole class stops and everyone looks at Johnny. (He is now the center of attention.) The teacher talks to Johnny and gives him a lecture for 5 minutes. She talks to him like he’s 30 years old in an attempt to get him to acknowledge the error of his ways. Johnny seems to think it over, (all the while he doesn’t know what she’s talking about) but he’s happy that he’s in the spotlight. Johnny finally agrees with the teacher. The teacher expresses her joy that Johnny now understands the error of his ways, and that he will behave differently in the future. The teacher is pleased with herself for having “changed” Johnny. This pleasure lasts for about 10 minutes, until Johnny does the same thing or something similar again. This process is repeated over and over, and eventually Johnny gets labeled a “problem child.”

If on the flip side, the teacher finds something positive that Johnny is doing, and compliments him on it in front of everyone; then Johnny is the center of attention for the right reasons. He will be much more likely to repeat the good behavior and feel good about it. Furthermore, the other children want to be highlighted and complimented as well, so this changes the whole dynamic of the class.

While this may seem simplistic, over time it works. The end result is that Johnny now sees himself as an achiever and a contributor, and he will be more likely to be productive in the future. This is a far more favorable outcome than in the first instance. The added advantage is that the class continues to move forward and the other children aren’t burdened by the constant disruptions.

The above obviously deals with a classroom dynamic, but the concept of positive reinforcement is just as applicable at home. While negative reinforcement (correction) is also needed, it is important that we realize how important it is to praise our kids for what they do correctly; if we want to build their self-esteem and help them to resist negative peer-pressure and bullying.

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This is an oldie, but a goody. I came across it and thought you would enjoy it.

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Copyright© 2012 Elite Martial Arts. All rights Reserved.

If you liked the Kung Fu Panda, you’ll have to like this. It’s not an altered video. This is a bear that is in a zoo in Japan, and it’s a major attraction. Enjoy.

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From the time we were little kids, we were always told to have good sportsmanship. In the heat of competition, this is often difficult. The same desire that pushes us to win, is the same desire which hates losing and is often the cause of poor sportsmanship. Quite often, great competitors are notoriously sore losers.

This shouldn’t be the case, and this next news story is a great demonstration of a professional athlete’s incredible sportsmanship.

We can’t always control our circumstances, but we can control our reaction to them. I have nothing but respect for the way in which this young baseball player handled himself. I also admire the fact that the umpire admitted his mistake.

I hope you like this news story from ABC.

Click Here for the youtube video.

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Copyright© 2012 Elite Martial Arts. All rights Reserved.

If you like throwing leg kicks, but you aren’t spending time conditioning your legs; you might want to look at these 2 videos. In both cases the striker’s legs weren’t up to the test. A lot of guys like to block with their knees and the upper part of the shins. This is often referred to as a “spike”. So be careful, and condition your legs.

Warning: the following 2 videos are quite graphic, so be prepared.

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I just wanted to thank everyone who attended our UFC event this past Saturday. It was a packed house, and we enjoyed having you all there. The fights were all pretty good, with the exception of the main event.

The main event just didn’t live up to the hype. Typically guys that don’t like each other usually want to hurt each other. In this instance, it seemed like both guys were more concerned with not losing. This tentative approach resulted in a pretty sad match.

I don’t understand why an MMA fight has to be a title fight to go 5 rounds. In boxing the duration of the main event is not limited in the same way. In this instance, the short duration was a blessing, but in most cases it is not.

Well I guess all the fights can’t be great, but most of them were very enjoyable. The fighters showed a lot of respect, and I think it was a good night for the UFC.

On a more personal note, it was nice to see you all in a social setting. We saw many current students, and also many students that we haven’t seen in a while. It was really great to see you all again.

All-in-all it was a pretty good night, and I’d like to thank everyone that attended.

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