With the addition of this cage to our club we have unparralled training facilities (full-size competition boxing ring, new MMA cage, matted floors, tons of training equipment and CrossFit training centre), and some of the most knowledgebable and experienced coaches in the industry. Point Blank is hands down the best functional martial arts and Combat Sport training centre in York Region and one of the top in Ontario.

While sparring, how many times have you witnessed an instructor try some complicated or intricate technique on an athletically built and capable new student and fall short of success? The answer for many is seldom and for most never. The reason why this is so is one of safety and unforeseen injury. High-ranking instructors don’t usually spar the new guys until they have been “trained” to fight “correctly”. New students often fight wild. They respond to being attacked in a random, uncontrollable, unpredictable and frenzied manner…naturally. Therefore, the caution displayed by the instructors is valid and to some degree understandable and necessary. Let’s face it, to learn a martial art, one must do so under the correct and controlled guidance of a qualified teacher. How else could one master the intricacies of techniques and concepts from a particular style without taking the time to train them in the proper atmosphere, with the proper method and manner?

But then a certain unmistakable fact arises. It is not in a dojo’s or kwoon’s controlled atmosphere that method and manner are ultimately tested with any real consequences. It is in the shock of the moment when actually confronted elsewhere that reality questions the trained practitioner. It is in the street that your personal safety is threatened and in the street that injury is not to be minimized but in a crucial instance, becomes the sole means to the end of the problem. Styles, their uniforms, gear, and regulations do not exist at this crucial point. It is here that adrenaline and its emotional counterparts, fear and/or anger come into play. The deepest regions of the body immediately urge you to fight or flee and not think. If the trained practitioner hesitates trying to mold and refine his or her reactions at this moment, whether beginner or master they simply end up the victim. This break in nature’s plan of response leaves them unable to function at all or very poorly at best. Their potential and creative force is stifled and made almost obstructive to their basic well being.

So for how long and how far do you train the individual? Tame him with form and repetition? Confine him to prearranged movements? Mold him with technique and pattern? Trained, as he may be, a guard dog posses no threat to a wolf or for that matter, the average black belt to the average seasoned product of the state penal system. The reason is that mankind or society has not domesticated either of them. Moral judgements aside, when it comes to they way they live, they are both predatory and wild. The word wild being defined as unbroken, untamed, and in the natural state. Though it is man’s wit, nobility, and grace that separates us and has allowed us to rise above this primal existence, struggle and the will to survive are aspects shared by all of life. Fighting is completely common to the wild, natural. It’s an innate survival response. Now, let’s return to mankind’s art of fighting.

We have witnessed the rude awakening of the martial arts over the past few years with reality based events and many instructors, justly so, have modified their training methods and concepts. But again, haven’t they simply misdirected the focus elsewhere? Haven’t many simply gone from building the mind and body for balance and focus to building them for sport? Where once they had classrooms of martial artist kicking, punching, and pin point striking away at multiple attackers in synchronized harmony, they now have one on one clinching, throwing, choking and locking. Where they practiced endlessly at breaking boards, bricks, and wielding all sorts of modified farming implements they now busy themselves bobbing, weaving, jab, cross, and hooking focus mitts, heavy bags, and themselves. Their once, very specific, ancient, and studied, breath (chi, ki, prana) work and its vocal projection has become the aerobic huffing, puffing, and grunting of being struck, striking, being slammed or slamming. All good and proven as all this is, isn’t it simply another part of a larger equation and solution, one written and inscribed since the dawning of life itself? Aren’t these extreme shifts in polarities forgetting they must ultimately balance and flow as one to benefit the other? Isn’t this just martial arts 101, surviving, finishing, and therefore escaping the fight with your life?

Fighting does not belong or limit itself within the confines of any art form. It is alive, virtually unpredictable, and spontaneous. It can and will change into a myriad of possibilities. This is its natural state. Natural not formulated or theorized. It’s not a stiker or a grappler, traditionalist or progressive. It is both and none, and all encompassing. It just happens. It does not concern itself with the right or wrong of angles, conceptual theories, or technique preferences. Nor does it care for the country of their origin, its people, and history. It lives in and at the moment with no regard for cultural biases or the ego’s own preconceived notions. Lastly, it is hard wired into the deepest recesses of our brain and evolution. It is the initial primal root and reason for us being here today. Fighting’s only real, honest, or natural purpose and source is survival. Its use for anything else is ego oriented and therefore not fighting.

Where do we go with this? Ideally we can cross train for technique, power and endurance. Perhaps perfect movements with controlled sparring and over time eventually gear up heavily for all out mock fighting against a myriad of different opponents. Add some open-minded research and psychological de-escalation tactics and we would have a more fight or flight oriented mechanism for defense. That would be the ideal. Realistically? We must first begin today by asking ourselves how far from that ideal we currently stand. Are we as martial artist really that which we believe ourselves to be? Are we both system trained and field-tested? Can we flow with nature’s chaotic surge for survival and do so with man’s added refinements? Answering these questions honestly can be the beginning of recovering the martial arts from its media fueled dilutions and rediscovering one’s place as a true martial artist. It’s coming full circle, back to the core of its ancient traditions, and towards the forefront of its purpose today in the modern world.

A seasoned practitioner doesn’t fear the amateur because he has accepted fear as part of the process and has mastered it and freed himself. He will recognize the strength of the amateur within him…the use and acceptance of the unexpected, the natural, and the untamed.

Allow me, if you will, to paint a little picture for you: You wake up one morning and before making breakfast, you realize that you need to go to the bathroom. So, out the door you go, across the lawn and into the outhouse. On your way back to the house you stop off at the woodpile to grab a couple of logs so that you can add fuel to the wood stove so that you can fry your eggs. Unfortunately, before reaching the house, the wood which you are carrying obstructs your view and you fall, opening a deep cut on your leg. The cut is bleeding quite badly so you wrap a cloth around it, hop onto your horse and head off to the doctor. Upon arriving at the medical clinic, the doctor appears quite concerned about the cut. Rather than risking infection he decides to treat the wound with leeches. 

Should I stop here? Are there still places in our country where we must use an outhouse and cook on a wood stove? Of course there are. Do we still use horses for transportation? In some situations, yes. How about using leeches in medicine? I was surprised to find that the answer is yes, in some situations we do use them. I don’t however think that there would be anyone reading this on their computer that could not see that technology and education have allowed us to move beyond these methods. 

How does this relate to martial arts, and specifically, your martial arts training? I am always astounded to hear about martial arts instructors who teach their students that some martial arts master had “it all figured out” a hundred or more years ago. How could it possibly be true that in every area of our life we have made advances, except in the area of martial arts training? The word “traditional” when combined with martial arts conjures up images for some people of “ancient secrets” passed down from the masters. Would you feel the same way if you brought your TV in for repair and the technician told you the he was going to use “traditional” methods for repairing it? How about if you went to the dentist and he told you that he had been treating his patients with “traditional” methods of dentistry? 

Do we, at Point Blank, teach “traditional” martial arts? In some ways, yes, and in others ways, ABSOLUTELY NOT! What I do value and pass on to my students are the traditions of honour, integrity, loyalty and spirit that some of our martial arts ancestors trained with. And when I do have students who are interested in the historical training methods of the martial arts past, I will share them. What I don’t believe in doing is teaching a student that the physical skills and training methods of the past are in some ways superior to current martial arts skills and that if they stick around long enough, they will “learn the secret.” 

Even now, the skills taught at Point Blank have evolved beyond what we taught just a few months ago and are light years beyond what I was taught when I first began my own training over 10 years ago. Next year I expect they will progress in the same way. Why? Because my staff and I are constantly learning, researching, training and testing our curriculum so that our students get the very best training possible. Point Blank students can rest assured that they are on the “cutting edge” of martial arts technology! 

Myth 2: You must teach your classes by having your students line up and grunt acknowledgments in unison. 

This myth long associated with the more traditional martial arts stems from teaching methods derived from military. What most traditional Japanese martial arts consider to be Budo training methods, are nothing but. During the era of Samurai and warrior class of Japan, men and women trained in a very efficient, aggressive, and by today’s standards, what would be considered “informal” way. When World War II broke out, Japan no longer had an exclusive military class. What they were in need of was a large military force. In order to create such a force, soldiers would have to be drawn from all segments of society. The Samurai, who never needed to be yielded at or prodded to train for combat, were replaced by merchants, farmers and tradesmen. Budo (the warrior way) was replaced by drill sergeants, straight lines of soldiers repeating the same moves in unison, yelling, titles of rank and a military style of teaching designed for people who were thought of as too inept to learn the traditional way. It is time to throw all this away! There are better ways to teach! 

Myth 3: You must not give your students too much information, too fast, because “if you sell all the merchandise on your shelves, no one will come back to the store.” 

This is perhaps the stupidest myth associated with “martial” arts. It may apply to a teacher of forms and techniques, but should never be a concern to a Fighter. If it is, then you lack the most valuable commodity a martial artist can have: Imagination. How can you run out of an art that has no limitations? If you believe this asinine myth, quit teaching the martial arts now. You are in the wrong occupation! 

Myth 4: You must teach a lot of information at once or your students will get bored. 

This myth is true if you are teaching a crop of students who measure their progress by the accumulation of techniques and the size of their note books. 

“I was taught movements and concepts from Rickson Gracie in the art of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu two years ago that I am just beginning to apply and use now. Imagine if I logged those movements in my notebook and then said to Rickson ‘OK, I know these now… show me more’. I am sure he would just laugh. However, with arts such as Kali and Jun Fan students learn a double stick pattern, or trapping combination, and then quickly request more variations and techniques to add to their notebook. The attitude of ‘I have 27 double stick patterns and you only have 12′ becomes common. The thought ‘can I apply any of this?’ does not seem to even occur.” Matt Thornton. 

When teaching people who are interested in learning how to really defend themselves, it is not necessary to teach a million techniques. Teaching the fundamentals well, and showing drills for their application, will always be greeted with enthusiasm. The seminars of Rickson Gracie prove this point. 

Myth 5: You must not associate with your students in an informal way or they will lose their respect for you. 

The kind of students who would lose interest in training because they realize that their instructor is a mortal human being, are not the kind of students we want at Point Blank. We believe that you must know your students well in order to motivate them well, which is why you will frequently see our staff organizing and participating in social events such as picnics, baseball games, movie nights, etc. 

Myth 6: You should refer to people differently depending on whether they are “senior” or “junior” in your art. 

Are you the kind of student who is impressed or motivated by titles such as Master, Soke, Kyoshi, etc., or by your instructor’s claims of being a “23 degree Black Belt?” If so, you are typically not the kind of student who is attracted to Point Blank. Myth #6 demonstrates the dramatic difference between the beggar’s humility and warrior’s humility. The beggar will bow down and scrape the floor for any man he deems to be greater than him; but at the same time he will demand that any man he deems to be lesser, bow down and scrape the floor for him. The warrior bows down before no man, and allows no man to bow down before him. At Point Blank we strive for the humility of a warrior and shun the humility of a beggar. 

Myth 7: In the martial arts, men’s and women’s classes must be separated. 

There is nothing farther away from the truth than this! For most women, the primary goal for training in the martial arts is not competition, but self-defense. They want to be able to stop or divert a potential aggressor (usually a man) in a “street-fighting” situation. For women, solely training with other women might be a nice social or athletic event and gives good fitness conditioning too, but from the point of view of self-defense against an aggressor – man, it is useless. Why? Simply because men are usually larger than women and they don’t fight the same way as women do. So, to develop skills useful in real “street-fighting” situations, women have to train in similar conditions – with men, at least part of the time. There is also an important factor of psychological conditioning. Women training with men are not going to panic or be impressed by the larger size and aggressiveness of the male aggressor as they have been exposed to it many times before! 

Myth 8: Women should not grapple, especially not with men. 

Well, this is more question of a personal choice. In martial arts there are as many men as women who enjoy the long-range combat (punching, kicking…) but who don’t like to be in close (clinching or grappling) range with their opponents. That’s fine. But there is one thing which makes it different for women. As said before, most women do martial arts in order to gain some experience in self-defense. Attacked by a man, there is much higher probability for a woman to be taken to the ground than there is for a man. That’s a simple question of size and strength. And in that situation, it is of crucial importance for a woman to know how to defend herself. When fighting with a larger and stronger male on the ground, the use of proper technique is her only chance to escape or even save her life. The technique does not come by itself, it must be learned during the realistic training. So, grappling with larger male partners has its important place in women’s MA training. Many women realize that and would like to learn some basic ground fighting. However, there is something else to stop them. The society. The common view of any closer contact between two opposite sexes as something which should not be encouraged. Well, grappling is a close contact, there is no doubt about that! Any woman (and, by the way, any man, too) can feel uncomfortable in such a close range the first few times. But, as she (or he) progresses, she finds very quickly that in martial arts people are not divided to men and women. All of them consider themselves “only” as human beings on their way to find and improve themselves. The martial arts way is the way of respect for each other. 

Anyone who has ever been in a fight, a real fight where both people are trying to hurt each other and their adrenaline is pumping, knows that it’s completely unpredictable. There is absolutely no way to know what your opponent is thinking much less anticipate his or her next move. The nature of a physical confrontation has countless variables, meaning that no two confrontations will happen the same way. Fighting is “alive”, free from patterns or restrictive techniques. In true or real fighting, anything goes. So, if fighting does not play according to rules, regulations, or a fixed way of acting, fighting sports aside, than why train in a martial arts systems that have a specific “way” or a set pattern of pretending to defend yourself.

In martial arts, or fighting, timing is everything. You cannot understand timing through a fixed series of punches, kicks and blocks, better known as forms or katas. You can practice fighting techniques for 15 years and show this technique to other people over and over again, but without a sense of timing and distance you can never hope to be able to execute these techniques. Take a baseball player for example. Imagine being shown how to swing a bat properly with all the right mechanics, but never having a pitch thrown to you to swing at. Do you think without the practice of swinging at real pitches that you would ever gain a sense of when to swing? Can this concept be truly understood without experimentation? I don’t think so. So the baseball player learns timing in his batting game by using a batting cage with real pitches. This is aliveness training for a baseball player. Doing the real thing versus pretending or imagining doing the real thing. A baseball player does not wait until the big game to swing at an actual ball pitched to him. The same is true for a martial artist wanting to develop a sense of timing and spacing between his or her opponent.

A martial artist must learn any techniques through the same process of experimentation. Techniques must be practiced against resisting opponents to gain a sense of how techniques work when it counts, and not waiting until the big game. Aliveness training is the only way to accomplish this. To be alive is to move. It is not fixed positions. It is not pretending to be in different scenarios. Without timing, energy, motion, contact and consequences, the martial artist will never truly understand how techniques will help him or her when it counts.

How do you discover what is a practical technique and what is a flowery technique rooted in tradition and style? The answer is – aliveness training. Aliveness training is movement. Aliveness training is not a static fixed or ‘dead’ pattern drill. Aliveness training is as simple as performing ‘Isolation’ drills where both “athletes” are working towards certain objective (attempting to pass the guard for example), or sparring with resistance and realism. Aliveness training is the only way to progress to a greater sense of timing. Aliveness training is accomplished by performing drills and sparring in all ranges of combat, in an isolated environment or where anything goes. Regardless of which range you isolate or if you train all ranges simultaneously you must do so through aliveness. Only through aliveness training can you ever hope to discover what you are capable of doing in a self-defence situation or in the ring.

Traditional martial arts training ‘will not’ prepare you for the reality of combat and self-defence.