This is our last installment on ¡°defining¡± the parameters of COMBATIVES.

The point, I am sure, will be missed by some but it must be emphasized that this material is historical fact and is accurate in substance and detail. It is an objective ...

The advent of World War One (the war to END all wars) brought warfare into a new and foreboding era of man to man killing and slaughter. Air power, mechanized warfare, chemical warfare and the general widespread use of machine guns changed the fac ...

¡°Combatives¡± from the root word COMBAT ¨C ¡°to fight in direct contact¡±, ¡°active fighting between enemies¡±, ¡°any fight or struggle¡±.

Well, let¡¯s see¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­..There is ONE singular glaring absence in the above definition. Notice it? Absolutely NO ...

1st Lady Assistant to Sensei Henry Ellis
\rEllis Schools of Traditional Aikido

I was born in West London in 1963, my father was very involved in the martial arts and a dan grade in Karate he was also a dealer in ancient Japanese arms and ...

¡°Nicky Bats¡± was an ¡°old school¡± kinda guy. He was ¡°street¡± thru and thru. He was a hard bark tough as nails S.O.B. He was a survivor. His definition of ¡°success¡± in life was dying peacefully at a ripe old age of natural causes, not dying on some ...

Over the next couple of day's I will writing an article of the history of Pre-WWII Japanese Jujitsu/Judo. I wasn't sure where to start, but here I am so let's get started.

I'm going to start with H. Irving Hancock, who in the early 1900's wr ...

It's a question that we went back and forth with for awhile ourselves many moons ago. The "how" and "why" of our conclusions may be of some interest. Whether or not anyone agrees with them, well at the least you'll fully understand the basis for t ...

Frequently, I get asked about certifications, systems or methods. We made a decision a long time ago of purposely staying away from things like this.

Obviously, it¡¯s a no-brainer, money maker and it¡¯s not that I don¡¯t want to make money; but ...

How many times do you practice techniques with your training partner and you stay in the same spot? Next time you are training, see how much you and your partner move. You will find you move very little or not at all. You see, when you are trainin ...

I was talking to a parent recently and they told me that their son was not going to compete in wrestling because they were afraid they would get frustrated when he lost. The parent felt the child was far too sensitive to handle the frustration of ...

Do not believe that practicing "by rote" 1-2-3,etc. type "responses" to street attacks is a viable or particularly useful training exercise. Example: He does this, I do that. For attack A I use Defense A.

Realize that in a street fight there ...

Note: I wrote this essay regarding the development of Tekkenryu jujutsu. However, I think it is applicable for all methods of self defense. It may also explain why martial arts are the way they are.

Catholic, by definition, means universal o ...

We all have a good foundation in the basic blows and combinations.

Think about adding the following drills to your basic syllabus.

These can be trained as "stand alone" combinations OR worked into existing "Defendu" combinations either ...