The MartialBody Blog

When we take a higher level view of the hundreds of practices that encompass the Martial Arts or Combat sports we see that, regardless of origin, cultural background or goal, they boil down to our ability to produce or deal with forces. Even largely solo training methods like Iaido are reliant on a refined understanding of forces in our body to produce smoothness and clarity in the methods. This higher level view of the Martial Arts, peeling away the layers of context from them, gives us an oppo...

Training is a constant search for effectiveness and results, it doesn’t matter whether we are a bodybuilder, a martial artist, a violinist or the purveyor of any other skill. When we train or practice, we are searching for some type of improvement and aiming for our method to be as efficient as possible.To maximise the effectiveness of our practice we must be aware of its effects. We could measure our progress via external means with our results in competition, our ability to defeat a trai...

In this article we will be exploring a phenomena that naturally arises when interacting with someone who has highly developed body skill. This is the feeling that your own efforts are returned to you, or that when trying to apply effort in a specific direction it makes another area tighter or closer. The experience is one that can be frustrating, disconcerting and exhausting to be on the receiving end of.Here we introduce a few of the reasons for this strange sensation to lay a brief groundwork ...

Name : Riantsoa Tsu RasolonjatovoDescribe a little of your martial background or related practices.Martial artist and practicioner for 20+ years, I started my martial journey with Yoseikan Budo, a Japanese « mixed » martial arts, when I was 15 years old. As I grew older, I felt that I was training more for competition than for efficiency. Therefore, I started looking for a more « traditional » martial art. By chance, I was lucky enough to find a 8th dan Aikido shihan in m...

‘We don’t do sport, sport is limited’ … ‘traditional arts are not realistic’ … ‘How would you use that flipping stuff in a street fight!?’ …. ‘Why would you want to fight on the ground’ …. “there are no rules in a street fight” … “ we train for self defence not to fight professionals”If you are a martial artist, the chances are that you have considered these positions, responded to th...