Stuff We're Learning

To learn MMA, join a gym that teaches striking, wrestling, and jiu-jitsu under one roof, and go two or three times a week. Spend your first months on the fundamentals of each range, build your fitness alongside, and save hard sparring for later. That is the short version. I have [...]

Every martial art claims it works. Very few prove it nightly, at full resistance, against someone genuinely trying to win. Brazilian jiu jitsu does, which is how a family art from Rio de Janeiro became the fastest-growing grappling sport in the world. I have spent four decades in the martial [...]

Meditation and martial arts might seem like opposites—one still and contemplative, the other explosive and physical. Yet for centuries, the world's greatest warriors have known a secret: the path to true martial mastery leads inward. Through my four decades of experience in disciplines ranging from Isshin Ryu Karate to Aikido, [...]

Bowing in martial arts is a sign of respect, not of worship or submission. It tells your teacher and your partner that you are present, that you are grateful for the practice, and that you will train with control. I have bowed onto a mat thousands of times. First as [...]

Across cultures and continents, humanity has developed warrior traditions that test the absolute limits of physical and mental capability. From the sophisticated ground game of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu to the brutal striking of Kyokushin Karate, certain martial arts stand apart. They are the hardest martial arts to learn, and they can [...]

The roar of the crowd crescendos as two warriors step into the cage, each armed with a diverse arsenal of striking, grappling, and submission techniques. In the world of mixed martial arts, where disciplines collide and evolve in real-time, understanding the fundamental techniques isn't just academic—it's the difference between victorious [...]

In my four decades of martial arts training, I've witnessed firsthand how the practice can transform lives across all age groups. Low impact martial arts build fitness, mental clarity, and self-defense skills. They do it without the physical toll of harder, more combative styles. These gentler styles give anyone an [...]

Martial arts techniques represent the culmination of centuries of combat wisdom, with kicks standing as perhaps the most visually impressive and tactically diverse weapons in a fighter's arsenal. Throughout my journey in traditional martial arts and exposure to various fighting systems, I've come to appreciate how mastering different types of [...]

The world of combat sports has evolved dramatically since the early days of the UFC, transforming from style-versus-style matchups into the technical symphony we now know as Mixed Martial Arts (MMA). As someone who's spent decades immersed in traditional martial arts and witnessed MMA's evolution firsthand, I've compiled these MMA [...]

My four decades in martial arts have given me a front-row seat to the remarkable transformation of combat sports. What were once niche activities—kickboxing and mixed martial arts—have now become mainstream athletic pursuits, each with a distinct identity that often confuses newcomers. A nuanced way to think about the kickboxing [...]

Mixed martial arts (MMA) is a full-contact combat sport that allows a wide range of fighting styles. As a result, it can be challenging to know which mma moves are most effective. In this article, I share the top mixed martial arts moves you should know. After all, the world [...]