March Article Excerpt

This is from the March article for Premium Subscribers to my site. It's based on the book, Extreme Fear, by Jeff Wise.

There are many points he makes which I believe are important for us as martial practitioners and teachers. Knowing that blood pressure rises under stress to better deliver nutrients and oxygen to the body is one. We know our mouth goes dry, but why? Some “unnecessary” systems are temporarily turned off under stress, such as the digestive system, thus the mouth goes dry.

As has been stated in other books, the object is to let the fear/stress rise to a level where it improves performance (and it does) and not beyond where performance deteriorates or the fear overwhelms you. It’s called the Yerkes-Dodson Law- “Increased stress leads to increased performance up to a certain level of intensity, beyond which performance gradually levels off and then declines.” This is why we stress students in the classroom, to get them somewhat used to how the body and mind react on the street. There’s a difference in the chemicals released into the bloodstream by physical stress versus mental stress. Having a student exercise (run in place, do push-ups) to induce stress works to a point but it’s just not the same.  

Premium subscriptions are $29/year and allow access to new monthly articles as well as the 100+ archived items. www.wedlakekenpotv.com/leewedlake to subscribe.

Texas Seminars This Weekend

I'll be at Oscar Steele's Kenpo in Coppell on Denton Tap Rd, near Dallas, this Saturday. Three seminars, one for kids, two for adults. The adult sessions will be on flow drills and two man techniques. I've been there before and it's a nice group.   www.oscarsteeleskenpokarate.com/

British Knife Laws

This is what our British friends have to deal with. Sent to me by Ed Bilski in Chicago.

https://www.gov.uk/find-out-if-i-can-buy-or-carry-a-knife

New Study on Brain Injuries

A Dec. 3, 2012 article by PBS names a study that shows repetitive head injuries are linked to degenerative brain disease. It's called Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CET). Thye show that atheletes such as footbal players who get hit in the head frequently appear to be susceptible.
Kenpo people like to hit each other and head shots are fair game, with control. Boxers, kickboxers, MMA people who take frequent hits should be aware of this. 4,000 former NFL players are suing the NFL about this.
Wear your headgear and watch your control.
Scientific paper at http://goo.gl/ZUrHc

Here you go...

When you call someone an idiot, imbecile or moron, this is what it means. And this was used in a proposal to eradicate them in our country.

Standing for Chris Kyle, Navy SEAL

South of cemetary, looking east

I received a notice from the Patriot Guard Riders that the family of Chief Petty Officer Chris Kyle had requested the presence of the PGR at his burial in Austin on 12 Feb. I jumped on my bike and rode to the meet point. Along the way, I-35 was starting to attract people along the road to see the procession coming down from Dallas. As I left Round Rock, the fire department had two trucks parked on the overpass at Hesters Crossing, ladders raised and flag between. Down the road most of the overpasses had emergency vehicles with their lights flashing and many citizens holding national flags. Kyle was a Texan and the people were showing their support.

Looking west. More bikes were on the east side, too.

 The ceremony started with full military honors, drums and bagpipes, gun salute, and as Taps was played two fighter jets flew over low.

East side.

PGR said 318 bikes showed.

West side.

 It took a half-hour for all the SEALs present to hammer their SEAL trident pins into the casket lid, a tradition they have. A man next to me counted them and said there were 120 of them. I was far away but I could see the lid covered with them.

Looking down at the area where the ceremony was.

The ceremony ended with the SEALs on one knee as Amazing Grace was played.
I've been to many of these but not like this one.

Georgia Seminars

I was at Keith Mathews Karate in Canton, near Atlanta, this past weekend. Keith has been with me for years through Robert Ray-Wallace, (who is now back in Spartanburg, SC).
The turnout was good, we had people from Georgia, Florida, Alabama and South Carolina there. I met some new people who are teaching in Georgia that I hadn't known about such as Robert Ray, Damon Excell and Joel Ellis. Shane Thomas came down from SC, he's in the Sepulveda lineage and teaches there.
After lunch at Sal's on the square in Cumming (love the food there), Friday night we kicked off the weekend with a class for youth and covered some escaping principles based off grab and hug attacks.
   The Saturday seminars were on Defending the Third Person, a concept I like to teach and am working to expand. The idea is based on what if you have to step in to protect another person who can't or won't defend themselves. I address the decision chain, the eight angles and third person perspectives, physical tactics that come right off the technique lists and use of the "soft" weapons, such as voice.
   The second seminar was on the four standard gun defenses. I illustrate how they can be used for two-handed grip approaches as well as the "thug" grip. I finished off the day with a small black belt class where they asked about a variety of techniques. I know these kinds of small sessions were valuable to me as I was coming up and I'm glad to do them.
  My thanks go out to Mr. Mathews, his wife Kim, and the helpers who made this happen. Kim and the ladies set up a lunch for everyone, which makes it really convenient and lets us talk a bit between sessions. Talking with Miss Meredith, the psychologist, was interesting along with some airplane stories from one of the guys. Meeting up with Damon Excell was cool, as he had trained in California and attended some of the Friday night classes at Pasadena. We must have crossed paths there years ago. Shane Thomas from AKTS always supports and is a fine representative of the Sepulveda lineage. I got some time with my guy, Tim Walker, out of FL and got caught up with him.
  My luck held as I went to the Atlanta airport and there were NO lines for check in or security. Imagine that. An upgrade to first class on Delta capped off a nice weekend.
  Thanks for the Southern hospitality!
    

More on Hits to the Head

The Dana Foundation newsletter had this article linked in it about concussions. As we learn more about them it concerns me that they always mention football, lacrosse, boxing and other sports but don't seem to have gotten around to karate. This article is long but worth a read, especially when he gets to addressing how important it is to protect our children. He's got some scary figures in there about mass and acceleration as related to children's growth proportions.
http://dana.org/news/cerebrum/detail.aspx?id=40424
You can subscribe for free there at the www.dana.org.

Another Caution for Instructors

One of my black belts told me he'd been sick and was having muscle and joint problems. After a few doctor's appointments they figured out it was a parvovirus infection and that you get it from children.
Being that he's working with kids at his studio, you can see how the possibility is fairly good that you'd catch something. Kids are germ factories and we always kept some of that antbacterial gel on the mat for use at any time, particularly after class. One of the guys called it "kid shield".
   Take a look at this link to the Mayo Clinic about it. I had never heard of it before and thought some of you who teach children might want to know. Click thru to the symptoms and so on, too.
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/parvovirus-infection/DS00437

February Article Posted

Premium Subscribers to my website will see the February article posted entitled 10 Inches From Disaster. Here's an excerpt.

"In my seminars I’ve said that the faster you get past the “this isn’t happening” phase and get to doing something that will likely get you through the situation is advisable. I say this because it’s what I’ve done to get myself and crew out of some rather bad situations such as fire in the cockpit or instrument failure in the clouds where you can’t see out the windows. You can’t “freak out”. In aviation you’re the pilot-in-command and it falls to you to pull it together and do the right thing, and use your crew or passengers if possible. You can see where this applies to a possible street situation like a mugging with a gun pointed in your face. Being cool and letting training kick in is what tips the scales in your favor.  So, Mr. Lee, can you really do what you teach?

There’s another saying I like that goes “We are all acolyte warriors until we are tested in combat.” I’ve been in situations that required Captain Cool to be present and one came up again recently. It was very instructive, and I’d like to pass what I learned along to you."

See www.wedlakekenpotv.com/leewedlake to subscribe. It's $29/yr. for a new article every month and access to over 100 archived items. More excerpts elsewhere in this blog.

New t-shirts available

I have produced a limited run of shirts with the cover art from my book, Kenpo Karate 601. They are available in sizes small thru 2XL and in either stonewash blue or a light color tan. They're $20 and you can order at www.wedlakekenpotv.com/leewedlake/store