Commentary

Martial art is a large blanket term that captures many different activities. Everything from old people doing Tai Chi (purposely misspelled) in the park to people fighting in the UFC is labeled as martial arts. These are really different pursuits, and I honestly don’t know if they should be all [Read More]

Personal development is what many of us here at Martial Journal believe to be at the core of Martial Arts training. You learn a lot about yourself throughout your personal journey in the Martial Arts and no two stories are the same. Now, I am first to admit, this is [Read More]

A Little Girl Needs a Bodyguard I had a quiet night recently and decided to see what Netflix had to offer in the martial arts action sub-genre. I ended up picking The Bodyguard with Sammo Hung, in part because of the description. The story of a young child who needs saving, [Read More]

  A recurring theme in my articles is the interaction between traditional martial arts, combat sports, and self-defence. Questions I recently discussed here include: Are they interchangeable? (an emphatic ’no’ is my answer) Can and should they overlap and if so to what degree? How does the public perceives this [Read More]

Linking You to Positivity in the Martial Arts This semi-regular post will attempt to highlight positivity in the martial arts from around the world. Unfortunately, it is far too easy to find negative stories on the internet. Positive ones are harder to find. Let’s recognize and celebrate those martial artists and [Read More]

The Hubs and I were making small talk at the local pub with some other regulars a few nights ago, and inevitably, the topic of martial arts (and self-defense) came up. After some of the basic martial arts “small talk” – and the couple assuming that only the Hubs did [Read More]

Chances are, that if you’re reading this, you are or have been a student of the Martial Arts. You may have trained in a beautiful school with nice aesthetics, or perhaps you trained in a basketball gymnasium. Or perhaps even a dairy truck garage? Okay, that last one may seem [Read More]

Linking You to Positivity in the Martial Arts This semi-regular post will attempt to highlight positive stories about martial artists from around the world. Unfortunately, it is far too easy to find negative stories on the internet. Positive ones are harder to find. Let’s recognize and celebrate those martial artists and [Read More]

Last night, my son and I went to see “Birth of the Dragon.” Directed by George Nolfi (The Adjustment Bureau), this is a fictionalized movie based around the fight that changed Bruce Lee from one of Grandmaster Ip Man’s best pupils, into a bona fide martial arts legend known the [Read More]

Martial arts is a very large genre of diversely encompassing activities.  It is natural for people to try and break large groups down into smaller, more manageable groups or ideas.  It helps people get a better idea of what specific part you are talking about if you can say that [Read More]

So here we are, just after my wife and I got done binging the first season of Marvel’s The Defenders on Netflix, and miraculously, I am still conscious!  Despite the general mushiness of my brain at this point from watching the first four episodes until around 3 in the morning, [Read More]

It started with the realization that we needed this. We, the traditional martial arts community, didn’t have a place for people to contribute articles. We lacked a publication that really allowed us to share and learn from each other. Until now. I’d had the idea for this website for several [Read More]