Martial Arts and Fitness Journal - Latest posts

By Ido Kron

Researchers in the field of animal behaviour noticed an interesting phenomenon when regarding territorial fighting fish: these fish, the males to be precise, fight each other following a breach of territory. Researchers saw that a fish that has won several times in a row has a better chance of getting into an additional fight, as well as having a better chance of winning this fight. Conversely, and with even greater statistical significance, a fish that has lost several fights has a smaller chance of going into another fight and a greater chance of losing it or retreating in the middle (see reference no. 1). These phenomena have received the terminology "winner effect" and "loser effect" respectively.

By Yossi Sheriff

Many veteran practitioners already know our multi – personal work method: maintaining the last item on The AKBAN Code is too much for a single person – cooperation is needed. Cooperation among people is not some simple dance. It entails some heavy arguing and disagreement. I wanted to explain why this aspect should be documented, why arguing is necessary.

Martial art and AKBAN-Wiki
One of the reasons for creating the AKBAN-Wiki is the fact that we are not sure of the precision of our technique, we are not sure of our fighting conclusions and perspectives. It might be more correct to say that we are sure of some of the conclusions and techniques but tend to sanctify their discussion, and such discussion might refute some of them.

By Yossi Sheriff

There was once a naqshabandi who wrote on the mosque wall: "The idiot-teacher's corner".

He requested his students to watch people as they entered and responded to the inscription.

"A passer-by responding to the writing in a certain way is ripe for studies. Another who responds differently will not be able to sustain more than a brief period of studying", said this sage to some of his students, and asked them to be attentive.

By Yossi Sheriff

We have a saying: “don’t give steaks to babies”, this article is a thick steak. To a beginner who might read it, it would be unintelligible. “What is this all about?” he or she may ask, and we would reply “well, this is about something in the distant future. Now finish off your apple, you’ll eat this food many years from now – don’t worry”.

By Yossi Sheriff

Budo Ninjutsu is doing with the body, doing physical work.

Although Martial art helps us develop and maintain strength, power, speed, physical and mental health and ultimately becoming fierce warriors, most of these fade in time.
We can only hope for "something” to accumulate over time. This sediment presents itself to us under the Japanese mantle: Do.

By Ido Kron

One of the more interesting terms in the field of evolution is co-evolution, or, in other words, the evolution of different species that affect each other and evolve side by side. This field encompasses a wide range of species, having symbiotic, predator-prey or parasite-host relationships. The patterns in which these species affect each other received the term “Red Queen Hypothesis / Syndrome” (see reference number 1).

In the last few years we have been doing a lot of grappling and Brazilian ju-jitsu techniques, with references to our own Koryu tradition, though not all of us got the hints. Exercising combat sports is fun and helps us improve our stamina, strength and "clean submission" techniques. Through combat sports part of our team-mates became excellent sportsmen who manage to subdue their opponents in almost any ground situation.

By Yossi Sheriff
Recent years has seen the number and spread of video and surveillance cameras on the rise.
We can safely assume that the number is going to grow. The current terrorist fright that effected the western hemisphere since the September eleven attack, has given a green light to the explosion of surveillance and surveillance cameras. The state sanctioned videoing, and the fact that many cellular phones have video cameras, leads to a level of transparency unheard of: in youtube alone, 523,000 videos tagged with the word "street", 15000 tagged with the word "neighbor", 97,400 tagged with the word "violence".
What we do can become visible and recorded. Exposed Recorded Action (ERA) will be a feature of modern life.

By Kfir Mazaki

As a civilian security professional and a martial arts practitioner for many years I'm always dwelling on the ways in which we use power. The recurring questions arise: where are the boundaries and what amount of force should be used? are translated into particulars: should I storm forward the aggressor or just try to contain the situation?

By Yossi Sheriff 

The defense and attack positions in the Budo Ninjutsu are an internal state of mind that we project using the body. Like many things in our school, the meaning, the importance, are hidden behind tough physical work.

First the practitioner learns the mechanics: how to stand correctly, what is a straight back, how the feet stabilize the pelvis and the most efficient position of the hands in front of an opponent. When stances and the transitions between them are preformed well and become instinctual, the student is ready to learn other important parts of Kamae.