The real Tai Chi self-defense

Tai Chi is a Chinese martial art that is practiced primarily for its health benefits today. Traditionally, the art would adopt fighting styles that were practiced in slow-motion so that when practitioners entered a fight, their reactions would be faster as they have had the time to focus on every inch of movement beforehand. Today,…

All it takes is one punch

It’s Saturday night down the pub and you and your friends are asking questions that nobody knows the answer to. Can pigs look up? How many beers fills up a stomach? Can you kill a man with just one punch? Well the jury is still out on the pigs, and the last time I tried…

A Soviet System of Martial Arts

The old KGB fighting style, Systema, is making a comeback in both Russia and their neighbouring countries after a revival swept the country, giving way to some of the best Systema trainers idolised like times gone by. Systema, which simply translates to ‘the system’ in Russian, is a little-known combat style that can be traced…

The return of Umbrella Martial Arts

For hundreds of years, the umbrella has been a useful gadget to both protect us from the rain, and in the case of emergencies, protect us from attackers too. As early a the 1800s, fancy men were batting away ruffians and beggars with their fancy umbrellas, often drawing their flintlocks and shooting right through the…