I’ve was asked recently what your supposed to do for self-defense against a gun. The two answers that came to mind were kiss you’re ass goodbye and have a good insurance plan.  The instructors at my school always taught me that treat knives and guns like you would touch something that was on fire i.e. - quick touches/pushes so you don’t get burned. This way they cannot get a clear shot at a vital area.

The program Martial Arts Explorer explored this a little further and looked into a technique for gun defense. They also added several more rules that make this self defense more practically and I think it is something more people need to know.

1) Pose yourself the question “After this person gets what they want, are they still going to shoot me?” If the answer is yes, then you need to defend yourself. If they just want you keys, wallet/purse, or anything on their person, give it to them.  They can be replaced, you can’t.

2) Gage the situation and know if you have to shield. If you have you’re family with you , try to get them behind you and out of the way of the asailant. This hopefully gets them out of the way of any bullet fired directly at them before o during your disarming of the asailant.

3) Be aware of the gun. You are not going to use the same technique to defend yourself from a handgun as you will a shotgun most-likely. Additionally, you may use a different technique for a semi-automatic than you would a revolver.

4) Treat the gun as any other tool of the Martial Arts, with respect. This is as important after as much as before the attack. It makes perfect sense to know it while you are actually defending yourself. Most self defense for guns are designed to place the gun in the hands of those defending. With that knowledge you should NOT have you finger on the trigger of the gun if you are holding it. You SHOULD be pointing the gun towards the ground between you and the asailant.  Once you have control of that gun, you are the aggressor and are in an actionable state legally.  If that gun goes off and shoots someone in the chest you are responsible for taking a life. Also, as you back away from the situation, make sure to slide backwards as opposed to walking backwards because the last thing you want to do is to trip over something and have that gun end up going off or losing control of the situation.

Just a reminder, the first rule is the most important.  If someone points a gun at you and you engage them, a bullet WILL be shot out of the gun. It doesn’t matter if it misses you and yours by 10 ft or 1 inch, however, it is important to know some rules in regards to your protection before and after.

Maybe I should take a topless picture of me flabby and show it next to a 90 day image…or perhaps I’m getting a little bit ahead of myself. I should really call yesterday my first day as it was the first day I adjusted my eating for what I’m up against. Today is day two and it started out with a good training session, albeit early.  At 5:30 AM my alarm went off on my phone for the first of three times. After crawling out of bed and sleep walking to my bathroom I put life on auto-pilot, grabbed a uniform and knee wraps and headed to the school.  Today workout started out with two minutes of Jumping rope…and it was a bitch.

2 minutes of jumping rope used to be nothing to me.  However with the extra liquor weight, and the lack of hard training it might as well have been climbing up a mountain. It almost makes me sick to know that 4 months ago I was doing 5 minutes without a problem and now two minutes is kicking my ass. I did it though and I wasn’t going to be beaten by it.  Tomorrow will be two minutes and fifteen seconds.  The jumping rope will be done 3 - 4 times a week hope fully working up to 6 minutes in 8 weeks.the idea is to increase 30 seconds per week. Ideally, I’d one day like to go up to 15 minutes. The owner of our school equates that to about an hour of running and he tells stories of when he was on the national team jumping rope to entire ALBUMS of music.

The rest of the training was medium intensity. Trained forms kicking combinations and footworks…nothing too too bad. The plan is later today to head out to the Golf range and hit a bucket of balls. After this it is home to the showers and back out to the school for another medium training session.

Wish me luck people.

The past 3 weeks I’ve been readying myself for “The First Annual Deland Drink-A-Thon” or FADDAT for short. So as you can understand my weight and health haven’t been my main concern.  Couple those 3 to 4 drinks a day with less training over the past few months and I’ve realized that I’ve stopped taking care of myself in the way my body was accustomed to and now it is time to get my ass in gear.

So what is the plan you might ask… It’s actually simple, train and take in less calories than I output.  People try and complicate what weight loss is. That is not to say it is easy. My parents both ended up losing about 40 pounds each on a weight watchers diet where my father was allowed 1500 calories and my mother 1200. The problem was after they hit their target goals, the blew back up cus they actually started eating again.

You might ask…Marc aren’t you going to have the same problem. The answer is an assounding YES. But I should lose a good amount off the bat for a few reasons:

1. All those extra drinks in prep for a bing weekend are long gone…my liver thanks me (One of my friends is glad that this entire thing is over…he complained that his blood hurt)
2. I’m starting to beef up my training again so I will be burning more calories
3. My goals will allow my body to feel better, not just my self-vision as most people aim for

Anyway, the plan is to keep up the hard work and not get sidetracked by the usual obstacles people have when athletes start losing weight:

1. Injuries
2. Sickness
3. Depression

My plan for eating is simple.  High on protiens, low on the salt intake. Fats and carbs are GOOD and I will continue to eat them. Just time to cutback on the portions. I may also increase my physical output as I have been meaning to get into the gym to hit the weights. Anyway, everyone wish me some luck.  I’m out!!!

‘m starting to get back into a consistant training regimen. The first thing people ask after they hear that you’ve earned your Blackbelt is “What are you gonna do now” or “Why train?” The answer is simple and automatic to me, “To earn my Second degree/dan.” Without going into an explanation on all that I still sort of find it odd that people ask that question.  I guess one of the things I learned early on in my training is that if you treat your body correctly and truly do enjoy training that you will endeavor to do it as long as possible.

So I’ve been getting back into a regimen as I earlier stated.  I’ve been training very lightly due to several injuries and I must say I was starting to get very lax in my view on training. In the past 3 weeks I’ve really started putting my nose to the grindstone and I can feel it in my back and knees. They are iritating but I won’t let them become deturrents.

Yup, I’m still crushing on the Mooto brand.  I ended up getting a pair of their Spirit shoes.  I’ve been interested in using a martial art shoe for training for a while and recently something convinced me to do it based on how frequently, or infrequently are school is cleaned by the cleaning service. I’ve been training with them for about a week and a half and I’m very satisfied. The material is solid and the shoes are extremely light, however, the shoes have a great feeling of support in the heal, instep and outstep. I’m still getting used to turning with the shoes on as I’m not used to the added grip they give you while you are training. I can say I get a little more used to it for everyday I train.

Anyway, I’m out peoples. Later.

In this blog I’ve explored a lot of things from belt colors and their meanings to injuries and how to work with/through them.

I don’t think I’ve really written about equipment. So when I say that the Mooto Extera uniform wants to make me throw away every single other uniform that I have and drop a whole bunch of cash on my credit cards to replace them should be taken in no small terms.

The Uniform Itself:
This is Mooto’s top tier uniform. Supposedly, Mooto, is a very large and long standing martial arts company that has supplied martial arts gear in Asia for a very long time, essentially a Century Martial Arts like company that we have here in the United States (large manufacturer of clothing, training equipment and weapons) They offer several types of uniforms for Taekwondo, Karate and Judo amongst training and demo supplies.

At first view of the product from a far away, this uniform looks just like all others:

The Extera is the top tier uniform they make for Taekwondo practitioners. The basic marketing they use to tell everyone about its pros are in the picture below (click for a larger version):

I will not joke around, this uniform is expensive. I’ve paid as much as 70 for an Adidas AdiChamp uniform (I know, I know… I got hosed). I urge you to make sure you do not have high blood pressure before reading the rest of this line because this uniform tops even that price having an MSRP of $99.95.

Impressions:
Everything about this uniform is screaming class, including the bag that it comes in. Instead of the basic clear plastic bag that most martial arts uniforms are put into, this has a design of silver among the plastic bag that sets it apart as a beginning. To the touch the material used in the uniform is cool and smooth and remarkably has an interesting elasticity to it. After putting it on the uniform felt a little big to me (I’ve got an interesting body shape so this is a usual feeling for me, however, I never had it with Mooto’s basic uniform).

After training with the uniform on I can tell you that it is amazing. The fabric does indeed stretch when needed so there is a great deal less resistance when moving. The material is unbelievable light and literally feels like wearing a very light sheet. Also, the material does a great job of not catching itself on other portions of fabric as you throw kicks and move. Again, this uniform makes me wonder why I would buy anything else.

An interesting note to this uniform is that the fabric used in the area of the shoulder/arm pit area is of a different texture that allows for more airflow. A very nice touch. Scene in the top right of the picture below (click for a larger version):

The End:
The real question people should ask when someone reviews a product is “why should I buy this?” I’ll tell you that if you have the means, there is no better uniform around, but does that mean that you should run to your closest Mooto sales person or their website and buy this uniform. It won’t make you run faster, jump higher, or be truly better as a martial artist (though Mooto does claim that it allows for a 0.1 second faster kick) so I really shouldn’t suggest that you purchase it for an everyday training uniform.

I know that I myself will be purchasing more of them because I do go outside of my school to spar and compete in forms competitions. I do also believe that this uniform will make a wonderful testing uniform because (and I can only speak from my experience) a uniform that wicks moisture, is lighter, and breaths is exactly what I want during my most grueling times as a martial artist.

My final recommendation is to grab one of these uniforms for your collection. If you are like me training more than 4 times a week and extra uniform is very nice to have around. One that has this much, function class and style is hard not to want to have…so why fight it?