Link to No Nonsense Self Defense website

I've added another website under "Links to Other Martial Arts Sites" located on the right hand side of this blog. It's the "No Nonsense Self Defense" website maintained by Marc MacYoung and Dianna Gordon and it's packed with an incredible amount of information on topics such as martial arts, the legalities of self defense, the martial arts industry, knife fighting and many other topics. It's so packed with information that it could take days to get through it all. Enjoy !!

Happy Thanksgiving

To all my friends and family in the US and to Canadians travelling to the US for the holiday, HAPPY THANKSGIVING !! Be safe in your travels.

Very Ironic

in light of the entry I put up earlier today. While on break from my online job and networking efforts, I found out, through the CNN website, that the US Supreme Court has accepted a case involving the issue of gun rights in Washington, DC. This is significant since this may well mark the first time that the Supreme Court will rule on the broad constitutional question regarding the Second Amendment of the Bill of Rights. This issue has been so radioactive that the Supreme Court has ruled on the Second Amendment only once in its over 200 year history (a 1939 case which did not provide clear guidance and muddied waters instead).

Supreme Court

Prediction ? 10 years ago, I would have said that the Supreme Court would have found some kind of procedural wiggle out of this case so as to avoid getting into this mess. Nowadays, there appears to be some consensus among conservative and liberal (can you believe it ?) that the Second Amendment does confer upon individuals the right to bear arms. I think that most people would agree that the Second Amendment is not a model of clarity and is subject to different interpretations. As a practical matter, the facts on the ground will trump any abstract constitutional theory and lead the Supreme Court to a first ever broad constitutional ruling on the issue of the Second Amendment. Or I could be wrong. In any case, given the fact that the Supreme Court has ruled on this issue only once before, this could be a significant decision. We'll find out by next June, right in the middle of the US Presidential campaign !!

Here's a wikipedia article on this article and which includes the text of the Second Amendment:

Second Amendment

Self Defense in Canada and the U.S.

Disclaimer: this blog entry does not advocate any position with regard to guns, which is such a hot topic in the US. The focus of this entry is on the issue of “self defense” and no more. I am approaching this from the perspective of one who practices and teaches martial arts. It is my opinion that any martial art instructor worth his or her salt has a duty to inform students of the relevant jurisdiction’s laws on self defense. Furthermore, that instructor has a duty to remind students to integrate conflict avoidance into their daily lives. This is just a brief overview of the issue of “self defense.”

The topic of self defense is more widely discussed in the US than here in Canada, due to the prevalence of guns and the gun lobby. I have seen a number of changes in the states with regard to the right of self defense. For example, the State of Ohio passed a law several years allowing for carrying of concealed firearms, albeit with a permit from the local authorities and after a background check. The state of Florida recently amended their law on self defense to remove the “duty to retreat” and is now referred to as a "Stand Your Ground" law. Otherwise, a majority of jurisdictions impose a duty to retreat when confronted with a self defense situation. Wikipedia has a fairly good article on this topic. See:

Duty to Retreat

Federal law in Canada also has a “duty to retreat” provision. The following section is from a cut and paste from an online book/paper entitled: “Canadian Attitudes Toward Gun Control: The Real Story” by Gary A. Mauser. Ph.D and H. Taylor Buckner, Ph. D. (see Book)

“Unlike the United States, the federal government is responsible for criminal law and the provinces are generally responsible for enforcement - although most provinces rely upon the RCMP to act as the provincial and local police force. This introduces a further element of national uniformity. Despite disavowals by police officials, the Canadian Criminal Code does include the right of citizens to use deadly force to protect themselves (sections 34, 35, and 37).

In Canada, the key provision in the criminal code is that no one may use "more force than is necessary" and then only when "he believes on reasonable grounds that he can not otherwise preserve himself from death or grievous bodily harm." In section 35, the code goes on to require that one must show that, "he declined further conflict and quitted or retreated from it (the assault) as far as it was feasible to do so before the necessity of preserving himself ... arose." Moreover, the right to use physical force to defend nonfamily members is more limited than it is in many states, as are a Canadians' rights to repulse trespassers on one's own property, or to use force to stop the commission of serious or violent crimes (Sections 24, 40, and 41).

Self defense is severely circumscribed by more conditions than are typically found in the United States. A wide range of self defensive weapons (e.g., Mace, pepper spray, small handguns, tasers and stun guns) are prohibited, ownership is punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment. For all practical purposes, it has been impossible to own a handgun for self protection since 1977. Recent firearms legislation now requires firearms to not only be unloaded when stored in one's residence but must also be put under lock and key. Judging from news reports, many of those who use a firearm to defend themselves, are charged with one or more criminal violations unsafe storage, careless use of firearm, or possession of a prohibited weapon and then they have to prove in court that the firearm had been used in self defense.

Another important difference between the United States and Canada is enforcement. Anyone who uses a weapon in self defense is likely to be charged in Canada and have to defend themselves in court, even if the attacker is not injured seriously. The charges may be "possession of a prohibited weapon," or "careless use/storage of a firearm," rather than "assault" or "attempted murder." The Crown apparently is determined to discourage people from forcefully defending themselves.”

Since the aforementioned article cited to the Canadian Criminal Code with regard to the right of self defense, here is a helpful link to the relevant statutory sections:

Criminal Code


As one can see from the above, the right to self defense is more limited here in Canada than in the US. I have to admit to being very surprised at finding out the severe legal consequences for using a firearm inside of your own home to defend oneself and family (long known as the “castle doctrine”). The issue of “castle doctrine” is fairly well explained this Wikipedia article and there are some useful links embedded in the article:

Castle Doctrine

I guess that the point of this blog entry is that those who are interested in self defense issues owe it to themselves to find out their jurisdiction’s laws on self defense, duty to retreat, and whether there is a castle doctrine defense available. By educating yourselves, you will ensure that whatever self defense actions you undertake will be legally defendable in court. Otherwise, if you violate a jurisdiction’s laws on any of the abovementioned topics, not only will you face serious legal consequences, you will end up with substantial legal bills, even if you “get off.” Lastly, it should be incumbent upon martial arts instructors to keep current with changes in the law in their jurisdiction and pass that information along to their students.

Finally, "ignorance of the law" is not a valid legal defense. That is, to claim that "I didn't know that I could not do this in a self defense situation" generally won't fly in court. All the more reason for folks to be aware of the law in the jurisdiction they live in. See

Ignorance of the law

Some Levity

Here are some laughs for those who are looking for some today. This video clip is martial arts related but screamingly funny.

Jim Carrey as Karate Instructor

Enjoy !

Martial Arts and Personal Safety

There are those in the public who mistakenly perceive that training in the martial arts will guarantee them a certain level of safety. Even sadder are those martial artists who believe that their training gives them some sort of "shield" and blinds them to reality. More specifically, their egos unfortunately become inflated due to their superb skills in relation of those of lesser skills. Every so often, we got a reminder that martial artists are just physically well trained human beings. One would hope that they would train their mind and spirit as well. Unfortunately, that is not the case in a number of cases.

A well known kick boxer in the San Francisco area had a storefront martial arts store. According to news reports (that I can recall), he was standing outside of the store when a pickup truck, driving down the street, sideswiped his car, parked by the curb in front of the school. The truck continued on down to the intersection close to the school. The kick boxer became enraged at this and ran down the street and caught up to the stopped truck. He went up to the driver's side of the truck and berated the driver. According to news reports, the driver rolled down the window and fatally shot the kick boxer in the head. Turns out that the driver was either a recently released convict or an escapee. Regardless, this is a very sad episode. This was discussed extensively on the internet and many martial artists questioned why the kickboxer hadn't just called the police and let law enforcement take care of matters. Naturally, the question turned philosophical and ended up reminding people of the limits of martial arts.

Another case involved a Systema instructor in the Chicago area. Apparently, he was a pretty well regarded martial artist. From what I read on the internet, he received a phone call late at night from a friend of his, who asked him to meet him in an alley behind a grocery store. This Systema instructor was found dead from knife wounds. The first question raised is why would he agree to meet someone in a suspicious area like a dark alley behind a grocery store late at night ? It wasn't a failure of martial arts skills that did him in; it appears to have been a failure of common sense that did him in.

I think that it was Marc "Animal" McYoung who said that martial arts should constitute only about 5 to 10% of your overall personal safety schema. I would have to agree with that. I would think that using your common sense and listening to your intuition (Read "The Gift of Fear" by Gavin de Becker....a terrific book) should provide plenty of personal protection.

Links on the Side

I have spent a bit of time fixing things up on this blog and have added a hit counter, links to video clips on YouTube of Professor Vee (founder of Vee JJ), of Professor Presas, the Grandmaster of Modern Arnis and one of Master of Tapi Tapi Ken Smith. I have also added links to various blogs and websites of people who have had an impact on my life. I hope to add more in the near future !! Take care !!

Martial Arts and Imperfections

One of the great things about martial arts is that it reveals imperfections in you and challenges your character. When you are faced with something you don't like, you have two choices, either face it head on or hope that it goes away. Obviously, hoping that something goes away will not work. The better option is to face the problem/obstacle/imperfection head on and address it. Lord knows that I'm not perfect and admittedly that has been aggravated by my severe hearing impairment (which I've allowed to affect my sense of self worth at times and led to many embarrassing situations over the course of my life. That is a work in progress) and my personality traits. I have not always been socially graceful as I often don't know what to do when faced with an awkward situation. I often react in a way that does not come off well. I wish that I was as socially graceful as others and am constantly working on it !

Such was the case involving my earlier post regarding my martial arts biography, which was truncated in the first place. I was confronted by a student of Master Dan McConnell who indicated that she perceived my section on Modern Arnis to be insufficient. I have since then substantially expanded the martial arts biography to give a more full account of my entire martial arts journey. My reaction to this student was not very good. Admittedly, I was on the defensive and did not react well to her comments and revised the post without acknowledging said revision. It was done with the best of intentions and did not come out this way. I should have handled it better and apologize to all those concerned.

Episodes such as this serve as a reminder that we are not perfect and to try to own up to mistakes, as painful as that may be. I hope that others look at life in this way as well.

Cross Training

A simplified early history of martial arts in the US and in Canada (1940's, 1950's and 1960's) is that one could only train in one martial art style or otherwise be seen as deviating from the truth or be seen as betraying your sensei/guro/sifu/teacher. Along came Bruce Lee who advocated cross training in order to shore your weaknesses and strengthen your overall martial repertoire. His views were not well received by many in the traditional martial arts community at that time. Bruce was probably influenced by two things: (1) the atmosphere of the 1960's where conventional wisdom was more or less thrown out the window; and (2) the cultural freedom in the US to explore and investigate different martial concepts, as opposed to the traditional society of Hong Kong. He was probably greatly influenced by the American idea of seeing what works.

The idea of cross training has constantly been on my mind for many years. One has to be careful when cross training. One would have to keep in mind the cliche "jack of all trades and master of none." I think that to make cross training work, one would have to do so in an intelligent manner. One cannot just study several martial art systems, cherry pick a technique here and there and give it a new name. I think that you must have an overall strategic idea of what you want to do. First, I think that it is imperative that a student have a base art. I would go so far as to say that the student should have at least a black belt, or a substantial experiential equivalent, in the base art before embarking on a cross training journey. That presumes that the student and the base art fit each other well. For example, a tall lean flexible person might be better off studying TKD and achieving black belt before cross training.

Setting that issue aside, once a student has sufficient experience in the base art, he or she must decide how to approach cross training. It is my belief that every martial art system has a weakness. Don't buy any of that "ultimate" system crap. There isn't one. To use the above example, the TKD person might decide to pursue different avenues depending on his or her preferences and needs. The TKD could pursue a system that emphasizes ground fighting, or one that emphasizes joint locks (aikido or small circle ju jitsu, for example) or one that emphasizes in close fighting (such as wing chun or JKD) or a weapons based system (such as iaido, kendo, or filipino martial arts) There are many choices.

Here is the tricky part. I really do believe that once a student starts cross training, one should stick with the system he has chosen (after an investigative phase to determine the next course of study, of course) and take the time to integrate it into the base art. In my case, I started out with Cooper Ryu Vee Jitsu and have concentrated on Modern Arnis for the last decade. These two blend very well. There are other aspects of the martial arts that I would love to study....such as groundwork and pressure points. However, I am not in a rush.

The best martial artists that I have seen out there are those who have cross trained. Why ? Because they are more well rounded and are better prepared for any contingencies. Just look at the MMA scene. The best fighters are those who are equally adept at kicking, punching, kneeing and the ground game. If you are weak in any one of those areas, your weakness will be brutally exploited.

I could write more on this topic but I will stop for now. To summarize, cross training, done properly and intelligently, can be extremely beneficial, not to mention expanding your martial horizons. Yet, at the same time, you do not want to become a jack of all trades and master of none.

More Thoughts on Good Instructors

A recent conversation that I had with a martial artist whom I hold in extremely high regard centered on the issue of an instructor who pushes his student to higher levels of performance. More specifically, we were talking about a martial arts master who is extremely technically proficient and comes from an impressive and long time martial arts background. My friend noted that, while this master was very good at what he did, he was not pushing his students much at all. Indeed, that was reflected in the performance level of his students. That got me thinking about this particular aspect of what makes a good instructor.

It is not enough that an instructor is ultra talented. It is my belief that a great instructor is one who not only is good at what he does but who also produces very high quality students and creates a culture in which higher performance level is expected. It is no wonder that some of the all time great martial artists left behind high quality students. For example, Professor Remy Presas not only left behind students such as Kelly Worden, Sishir Inocalla, Tim Hartman, Dr. Schea, Ken Smith, Chuck Gauss, Brian Zawilinski, Dieter Knuttel, a good number of very high ranking arnisadors in the Phillipines (Rodel Dagooc, Bambit Dulay and scores of others) and scores of highly skilled players. This is a testament to Professor's unrelenting push for excellence in his students. Likewise, look at the quality of students turned out by Dan Inosanto, such as the Dog Brothers, Brandon Lee (Bruce's son), Cass Magda, Burton Richardson, Paul Vunak, and Ron Balicki, among others.

The point being that unless the instructor has taken it upon himself to push his students to a high level of performance, then he/she has to ask himself why he/she is teaching in the first place. I would rather have an instructor who pushes me to become better and to push myself beyond my limits. I would regard that type of instructor quite highly.

Till next time !