Many martial artists yell during the performance of certain techniques. The yell is called kiai (気合). Authors of books on self-defense love to explain that your kiai (気合) increases your courage while it at the same time scares your opponent. In karatedō, kiai (気合) is explained as your kime (決め) peaking. This of course raises […]

The Japanese, too, had a code of knighthood, the bushidō (武士道). It consists of seven virtues: gi (義): right action, duty; yūki (雄気): courage; jin (仁): benevolence; rei (礼): politeness; makoto (誠): truthfulness; meiyo (名誉): reputation; chūgi (忠義): honor. Why are these exactly seven in number? It’s like they asked to get assigned to the seven […]

Steven Franz on his blog complains about the advent of the YouTube superstar. I wondered who he meant. So I made a quick search and found that, besides roughly hundred people nicknamed as the karate superstar, there is a Superstar Karate channel. But it seems to have nothing worth any further second of precious lifetime. […]

Recently a Russian soldier got for applying self-justice sentenced to ten years in prison. This Russian soldier killed a woman because he thought that he discovered a spy and decided to let no secret leak. He identified the spy, who wanted to date him, by her espionage equipment. But this turned out to be a […]

Jesse Enkamp shows some great pictures on his blog. These demonstrate how early karatedō looked like. The first thing, which strikes me when I look at them, is those earlier times’ masters’ poor understanding of body mechanics or human physiology. Jesse Enkamp wants the audience to notice the relaxed cat stance. So I had a […]

While I still was a child, a friend told me that he was thinking about becoming a beggar. I made a sound of bewilderment, so he told me that he once watched what a beggar did in the evening. The beggar changed his clothes and got into a suit. Then a big Mercedes car arrived […]

Karatedō and Okinawa Kobudō are said to be brother and sister. The two martial arts shall be so closely related that the same stances are used in both. Though this could be true in the case of the one or other style, it isn’t in general. The stances in Okinawa Kobudō have different names because […]

Not only Jabez himself got criticized, but also Bruce Wilkinson for poor theology. The first issue would be that Jesus plays no role in his book. This is a very stupid accusation. The book is about the Prayer of Jabez and this is found in an otherwise completely boring genealogy in the First Chronicle. This […]

The yama-tsuki (山突き), on which I already extensively elaborated, isn’t the only technique, which imitates a Japanese Character. When I use the term Japanese Character, then I include the Japanese syllable characters instead of only the kanji (漢字), which are adopted from Chinese. Like the yama-tsuki (山突き) is also the yama-uke (山受け) as seen in […]

Not understood the title of this article? It is in Latin because it concerns all jurisdictions, which are derived from the code of law of the ancient Romans, which means most parts of the world. The expression ultra posse nemo obligatur means no one is obligated beyond what he is able to do. Equivalent expressions […]