Charles B Stanley is still around

It is hard to believe that it was 2007 when I last posted here. My wife and I recently moved to the Mountains outside Linden Tennessee. I am still available to teach several martial arts on a private basis. It is easiest to contact me through Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100090456127010 I can aslo be contacted at makotokendo@yahoo.com. Note: several things have changed since my last post in 2007. My style was originally created under the name Makoto-Ken-Do and the organizatoin name was U.S. Kempo And Jujitsu Federation. About 10-12 years ago I changed the style name to Makoto-Ken-Ryu Kempo-Jutsu. I changed it from a Do to Ryu since Ryu better fits the style. Feeling that having the Organization name start with U.S. might give those new to my style the wrong impression as to what I practice and teach. It was never my intention to give anyone the idea that I had Americanized what I teach. I never have and never will. Please do not take it in offense, but I have always seen American styles as being things created by people that either think that the tradditional arts are missing something, OR they created their own style because they want to be in charge. As for what I teach, it has evolved as any art does, but is still based on teh same principles and concepts. The basic belief is that martial arts are for Adults only and were created as Life Protection arts. They were never meant to be competitive sports. I will argue with the the mindset of those that believe that, "a martial art that does not work in a cage fight does not work". While that mentality might seem valid at first consideration it ignores the fact that no competition in a cage or not is Real. By that I'm not saying that people can't be injured or killed. I'm saying that no one goes into such competition intending to really kill their opponent. Nor do they go into such competition beliveing that their own life is in danger of being lost. Also remember that all these competitions are governed yb rules and those rules are to prevent serious injury or death. A real fight is not sparring or competition. It is life protection, it has no rules and has a completely different mindset. All that said, I am hoping to build a Headquarters (Hombu) Dojo here on my 7 acres in the mountains of Linden Tennessee. There I will offere regular classes, private lessons and occasional Seminars on several topics not commonly taught in most martial arts. Finally, I am interessed in gettingin contact with former students and anyone interested in training with me.

Misuse of martial arts words, terms, titles

Another area if martial arts terms being mistakenly use are listed here.

Bo staff (Bo and staff mean almost the same thing. The word Bo or Staff is all that is needed)

Katana sword (Katana means sword, so Katana or sword is ok, but both together is incorrect)

Sensei XYZ (The correct way to use the title Sensei is to place it after the name, example: XYZ Sensei. The same holds true of any title. Example XYZ Shihan, instead of Shihan XYZ)

Proper pluralization of commonly used martial arts terms

Every day I see many good martial artists misuse martial arts terms. This is usually not their fault since no one has taught them the correct way to use the terms. A good example is the practice of saying, Senseis, to indicate more than one Sensei. This is incorrect. The word Sensei can be used as it is to indicate one or more people. It does not need to have an "s" added to it to indicate more than one Sensei. The same holds true of many other martial arts terms. Here are a few examples of words that need no "s" to become plural.

Sensei, Katana, Bo, Sai, Shihan, Kata, .....

There are many more,but I think you get the idea.

Best of Luck!

In Georgia now!

I moved to Cumming, Georgia last month. I like it here. As soon as I get things straightened out at home, I plan to resume training and teaching. I'm looking to take a few students as personal students. Only those that are serious about wanting to learn will be considered. I am willing to teach what I know, but not willing to play games with those that would waste my time. If you, or someone you know wants to train with me contact me by email.
Regards,

Stanley / Sensei

Moving to Georgia Soon

It has been a while since my last post. I've been busy getting my home ready to sell. The home is on the market here in Dumfries, Virginia. When it sells I will be moving near Alpharetta, Georgia. most likely close to Cumming, or Dawsonville, Georgia. Until I'm settled I won't have much time to add new post. I will however keep up with my email. You are welcome to contact me at: makotokendo@yahoo.com I'm looking forward to adding new post. I'm also looking forward to hearing from some of you. Regards, Charles

Does there seem to be something lacking in your training ?

You like many other long term martial artists may feel that something is missing. Perhaps you are not sure just what it is, yet you have a strong feeling that something is just missing. If this sounds like you don't think you are alone in that feeling. I myself had that feeling for many years. At the time I did not know what I was missing. It was my intention to keep searching, questioning, seeking until I found what I was looking for. The answers I was looking for became to be evident after many years of looking. It turned out that there were several interrelated things rather than a single issue. So what am I talking about? Well the answer is not simple.
You may have noticed the modern trend that involves someone creating a so called "New" martial art. These "New" fighting arts are simply combinations of techniques from several other martial arts. Say of instance an instructor teaching a Japanese style feels that his particular style has a weakness. His training may have led him to believe that the style lacks effective kicking. So he learns Korean kicking and adds that to what he practices. Later he begins to feel that the style also lacks strong grappling techniques. Therefore he seeks to learn from grappling arts and then adds this to his style. Sound familiar? Although the arts being combined may vary, this trend has begun to sweep the martial arts world. So why now? Could it be that martial artists today have gotten so good at their art that they are now experts on their style and so are now aware of the shortcomings of the art that practice? I think not......... I believe that there are several major problems that have caused martial artists to seek to try to improve what they practice.
Is I look back over the years several things stick out. First the old masters in the history books had abilities that are rarely if ever seen today. Why are these types of abilities not common in todays martial arts. The reason is simple. We do not study what the old masters studied! We also don't train the way they trained! Although most martial artists will tell you that they study an art based on ancient fighting techniques, it is for the most part not true. How do I know this? It was not something that just popped into my head suddenly. Over many years I began to see small thing that did not add up. At first it was small things that others might not even have noticed. One example can be found in old photographs of the old masters. If you take the time to do your homework you will see something that might amaze you. It is rare that you will see pictures of the old masters (50 to 100 years ago) doing high kicks. You also will rarely see spinning or jumping kicks. While you may find a few there are very few pictures of these techniques. The reason is simple. The old masters either did not do these techniques or they did not feel that they were very important. Another thing that is curious is that many of the old karate books show mostly kata. If there is any self defense shown it is very basic in nature. So again you might ask why? It is easy to forget that the martial arts were originally developed as life protection arts. They were meant to be used only in a life threatening situation. If used it was likely that the result would be that someone would die. The arts were serious and deadly. they were not for sport or competition. As such the arts were not taught to groups of students. Back in those days a masters might only teach a few students during his lifetime. Many times in th early days the only ones taught were family members. Training was done in secret. Each master had his own special secrets that he did not want others to know. Foreigners were not allowed to even see these arts for many years. As time went on the western world became aware of these mysterious fighting methods. Westerners then began to seek out instructors that would teach them these arts. World War II played a big role in the spread of these arts to the western world. U.S. military men stationed in Japan after the war began to study the martial arts. Later upon returning to the U.S.A. they established schools to teach these arts to other Americans. Likewise, other arts were brought here due to the Korean War. So what's the problem?
We need to step back and consider this issue from the perspective of the Oriental masters. Japan is a good place to start. Consider that at the end of WWII we occupied Japan. We had just defeated Japan and Germany. If you were a Japanese master would you be willing to share your fighting secrets with foreigners? Especially those that you considered your enemy? Surely it is obvious that most of the training was not the best training available. this however was and still is in many cases what most martial artists have available to them.
The issue is even more problematic when you consider that many Oriental masters were not taught the true art themselves. Yes you read me right. We assume that Oriental masters of high rank must know the best self defense that their style has to offer. While in some cases they do many times the high ranked masters still have not been taught the secrets of the art they practice. Even when you find a master that has this knowledge, he may not teach it to his students. Those few that do usually teach only a small number of their most dedicated students. Those students have proven themselves by their many years of dedication and trustworthiness. These privileged few are usually taught in private. Not only that they will most likely not be allowed to share what they are being taught with others.
So what is boils down to is that for many years the highest masters have been very reserved in sharing the most effective fighting skills with their Oriental students. In turn those students are reserved about sharing it with their future students. Westerners have in the past been less likely to have been taught the secrets. As generation after generation of new students became instructors, masters, grand masters, the secretes became more and more rare.
At this point you may be asking yourself what kind of secrets am I referring to? Am I talking about some fantastic punch or kick that no one can defend against?....... No nothing like that. The real secrets are and always have been in the forms or kata. The kata were designed to be like a catalog of self-defense techniques. Kata appears to be routines that one would practice to develop the techniques of punching, kicking, and blocking multiple opponents. Yet anyone that has studied for a while knows that trying to use the techniques found in kata simply does not work in a real fight. Some martial artists believe that kata was meant only to teach balance timing and coordination. Again I think before accepting that notion we need to step back and look at the old masters and what they could do. If you believe as I do you believe that the old masters were deadly fighters. They were no nonsense students of effecient fighting methods. It is not realistic to believe that the old masters would spend much of their time practicing kata if they were only of small value. They old masters spent many hours practicing kata because they understood that within the kata were the true fighting techniques. Kata was not designed to teach how to fight multiple attackers. They were catalogs of many single possible attacks and deadly responses based on knowledge of the body and its weak points. Kata teaches how to grapple, throw, lock, pin, knockout, or kill. It dooes this by mapping out the pressure points of the body. not only that but it teaches the proper angle, and direction to access the pressure points for best effect. This was and still is the biggest secret of the martial arts. I say that it still is the biggest secret, because there are many martial artists that simply don't believe that there are secret applications in the kata. It is not surprising that this is common. If you have never seen the real applications or felt how effective they can be using very little effort, how could you believe. In some cases instructors have told their students that there are no secrets. Most students trust their instructors beliefs. So the lack of knowledge of the true art continues on generation after generation.
So now I will return to the so called "New" martial arts being created with increasing frequency today. These "New" arts would be un-necessary if the martial arts were taught fully. The old styles were complete fighting systems. for the most part each art taught methods for dealing with kicking, grappling, punching, locking, ground, fighting, throwing, ....etc. It is because most martial arts have not been taught completely that students are feeling a need to add techniques to fill in the gaps. Sad but true.

Dealing with an attacker who kicks...

Korean styles are very popular in the U.S. these days. The main characteristic of Korean styles is their frequent use of kicks. The logic is that the legs are stronger than the arms and longer. If you have ever been kicked hard you know that you want to avoid it if possible. For years I have watched others training. One thing is clear. Most defenders will back up when facing a kicking attack. Either they back up and block or the try to back out of range. It is human nature to move away from such an attack. On the practical side it is not the best course of action. When we are faced with a powerful kick we should move closer to the attacker. If you are are the correct distance when the kick makes contact you will receive the maximum power from it. By moving inside the kick you are able to deflect the kick, or jamb it so it does not develop its full power. Not only that you are in range to control the fight and end it quickly. A good example of such a situation is this. The attacker tries to execute a spinning back kick or spinning axe kick. As soon as the attacker starts to spin you should move in quickly. One effective method is to move in quickly and bump the attacker with your hip. Because you are inside the circle you are not going to get kicked. By bumping the attacker, you cause him to loose his balance. Now you can control the fight and end it quickly. To learn to do this is easy. It only takes an little practice. You do however have to be close enough to the attacker when he starts to kick. you also have to get inside quickly. If by chance you should make a mistake you will not get hit with the full power of the kick. Try it you'll like it. Don't be afraid of kicks. Learn to stop them before they can hurt you. By the way I love to work out with martial artist that kick a lot. It is really fun to watch the look on their face when I continually defeat every kick that they try. Most can't believe how fast they end up no the floor. After all if they have been training a while they are use to the defender being afraid of the kicks and trying to back away.

To block, or not to block.......

From the first first lesson in any martial arts we are taught to block an attack. We spend a lot of time learning to block. Obviously we don't want to get hit. We also want to be able to counter attack so most of us are conditioned to block an attack and then counter attack. On the surface it seems like the best way to deal with an attack in general. The problem is that things are a little more complicated than that in the real world. When blocking we attempt to deflect the attack punch or kick away from its intended target. A straight punch for instance might be blocked to the side in order to prevent the punch from hurting us. If that was the only threat then that would be a good thing. But in the real world an attacker is not likely to give up after having his attack blocked. He is likely to continue to attack us. So where am I going with this??? I thought you'd never ask. My point is this. If we simplify things and attacker can attack with either his hands or feet. Our goal should be to take away as many of the attackers options as we can as quickly as we can. At the same time we should try to increase our options. Simply put we want to close with the attacker and neutralize the attack and control the situation. A good way to do this might not be to block. Instead of blocking (read as knock the punch to the side), we might want to redirect the punch and grab or trap it. By doing this we have defeated the punch and taken one of his four main weapons away. Once we have control of his arm we don't want to let go of it. We now have accomplished several things. First we have defeated the punch, Second we have taken away one of the four main weapons. Third we have given ourselves more options. Fifth, we are in range to counter attack. Sixth, we can now control the attackers balance. So what I'm saying is this. We do not want to block but control. If we only block we are only safe for the moment. The attacker will attack again. Each time he attacks he has a little more knowledge about how we react so he is better prepared when he attacks again. Each time we allow another attack we risk getting hurt. Why keep rolling the dice. The sooner we put a stop to the attacker the more likely we are to come out of the fight unharmed.
So lets get back to what we should do..... When someone punches we should not back up or just block. Instead we should redirect the punch and grab it. Many martial artist have been conditioned for so long that they do not have the skills to do this safely. This is a serious weakness that could get you killed. If you don't feel comfortable with this concept you should start training to overcome that as soon as possible. When teaching my students learn from the first day to re-direct and control the attack. Once you get a hold on the attacker continue to be in control. Finish the fight on your terms not the attackers.

Rooting and Up-Rooting an attacker

In many martial arts it is common to use joint locks and throwing techniques. What many martial artists either are not taught or have forgotten is that any joint lock or throw either roots or up-roots the attacker. To explain consider this. if you use a hip throw, you are in effect up rooting your attacker. An even better example is seen by some joint locks. Lets say you apply a joint lock that causes the attacker to stand up on his toes due to pain. This is a good example of up-rooting. Not only have you tied up one of the attackers limbs, you have taken much of his balance away by causing him to stand up on his toes. Although his strength has not changed, it is very hard for hime to get the leverage to use his strength against you.
Rooting is just the opposite of Up-Rooting. If you apply a joint lock that causes the pressure to be downward, you not only create pain, you may cause the attacker to bend his knees and squat or lean slightly. A good rooting technique many times makes it hard for the attacker to use his legs to kick. It is helpful to keep the concept of rooting and up rooting in your mind when you are training. Take time to look at every technique that you practice and look to see if it roots or up-roots the attacker. you may be surprised to see how many times your techniques incorporate this concept. By identifying those techniques that use this concept, you are better able to correct your own techniques. At the same time watch others when they are doing the same techniques. You may see small errors in the way they are doing the technique that will be helpful to them.

Train for realistic combat

For more than forty years I've studied the martial arts seriously. Not for competition but for self-defense. There are many good martial arts available for study. There are many things that I see that I see practiced often that really should be done differently. I say this not because the methods used are incorrect, but rather because I see good martial artists do some really risky and downright foolish things. To illustrate my point, consider this generic situation...... Two martial arts students are practicing self-defense techniques like this. The defender successfully responds to the attack in a way that causes the attacker to fall or be thrown to the ground. Then the defender steps back and assumes a defensive posture in case the attacker should try to attack again. This really makes no sense if you think about it. In a real situation you should never give the attacker a chance to attack again. The concept should always be, "Neutralize and Control". In other words if you come into control of the situation, keep control of it. If you are faced with a life threatening situation, don't risk your health by allowing the attacker another chance to harm you. Think about it this way, If you successfully stop an attacker and then allow the attacker to attack again you have just given them another chance to kill you. If on the second or third attempt the attacker kills you, you might as well have been killed by the first attempt. You have gained nothing by defending yourself only to become a victim. As martial artist we need to constantly look at our training from a different perspective. Often we get into routines that just don't make sense. We train hard to learn to defend ourselves. By stepping back and taking a good look at what we are practicing you may find that you are doing something that could put you at risk. Get out of the practice of defending and then moving back into a defensive position. Instead defend yourself and then continue to control the attacker until you are certain that you won't be attacked again. How you accomplish this depends on the situation. Remember having good self-defense skills are not enough. You also need to use good judgment and good common sense. Only in this way can we be truly prepared to defend ourselves.