How To Register Your Hands As Deadly Weapons

Yesterday I received an email from a novice practitioner. I've included my reply.

Mr. Vesia, I've been following your blog and I have a question. Is it true that black belts must have their hands registered as lethal weapons? My instructor says his are, but I thought this was hogwash. I recently got bumped up to camouflage belt and I was just wondering. Does having a black belt mean I have to invoke the right to bear arms? Especially with the possibility of new gun laws and restrictions I want a backup plan, know what I mean? Thanks, Andy

Yes Andy it's true, at least in the US, newly promoted black belts have 90 days to have their hands registered lest you want to have the FBI breaking down your door. This is serious stuff that needs to be taken care of when the time comes. You have a few options to commit to this. One is with the International Lethal Defense Combat Organization that will send you a certificate attesting to your deadliness for $25.

Are there those who doubt your martial arts skills in karate, kung-fu, boxing, grappling, or street fighting, yet you are too well trained to physically display your skills and injure them?
Then join The International Lethal Defense Combat Organization, and receive a free personalized, frameable document which testifies that your hands are registered with the International Lethal Defense Combat Organization.

Here's an ad from a different outfit in case you're on a tight budget:

And there you have it. Congrats on your camo belt promotion, Andy. When you get your black belt in 3 or 4 months at the McDojo you train at write me again. Good luck!

Karate Characters

The ultimate aim of the art of karate lies not in victory or defeat, but in the perfection of the characters of its participants. - Gichin Funakoshi

I've previously posted about the pitfalls of competing. Some of the antics of participants through the years have been deplorable. In 2008 Cuban competitor Angel Matos kicked a referee in the head after he was disqualified in an Olympic tae kwon do bout. In a separate incident, Isao Nakamura Fushiki actually attacked a contestant in a karate match in which he was the referee.

This past weekend I watched a karate tournament that left me shaking my head in disgust. While the judging was fair and competent from my view, a few of the competitors (kumite, men's BB division) were arguing with referees on certain calls in a manner that I felt was quite disrespectful. [One liability of point-matches is the seemingly arbitrary nature of scoring points or ippon in a stop-and-go fashion, something that doesn't exist in continuous sparring events that allows full contact and KO's, a la Kyokushin or the K-1, but I digress.] Generally I'm in favor of sportive karate, but not when the players engage in disgraceful behavior. What's particularly bad is how this leaves such a negative impression on anyone who has to witness this kind of thing, especially novice and young practitioners.

Fortunately, nothing I saw came remotely close to this. Brace yourself:

Self-Defense For The Road Warrior

The following is a story taken from a news report dated 2/15/13:

A Newton man was held on bail after allegedly pulling a gun on another driver in an apparent case of road rage.

Byung Gin Kang, 21, of Newton pleaded not guilty on Friday after allegedly pulling a gun on a 34-year-old man. Police said the victim may have had trouble looking around a large snow bank and may have cut off the suspect. The two ended up pulling over and that’s when Kang allegedly pulled the gun.

“The defendant was confrontational. Both parties exited their vehicles and the defendant allegedly stated ‘Do you want to go?’ while pointing a handgun at him,” said prosecutor Alexandra Watson.

What Kang didn’t realize was the victim has a second degree black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and tackled the suspect near the corner of Dedham Street and Wendell Road in Newton, grabbing the gun until police caught up with Kang and arrested him.

Sources indicate the "victim" was MMA trainer Keith Florian. In addition to BJJ, Florian is also schooled in Muay Thai and wrestling.

There is so much wrong with this story I don't know where to begin. Florian and his flock may be crediting his martial arts skills with saving the day. Under slightly different circumstances Mr. Florian would've been summarily blown away. Miraculously nobody was injured.

Road rage is a by-product of the culture of disrespect we currently live in. Some tips that should be a no-brainer:

Give yourself time to get to work or your destination. Don't speed, weave in and out of traffic or honk at motorists.

If you're on the road and someone wants to mix it up with you, ignore them. Avoid eye contact, keep you mouth shut, and whatever you do, do not exit your vehicle.

Avoid talking on hand-held cellphones. Never text and drive.

Use common courtesy. Do unto others as you would have them do to you.

In summation, I would like to reference my father's sage advice on how to avoid highway aggression: "Idiots have the right of way."

The Way of Walking Alone

Miyamoto Musashi (1584-1645), the infamous ronin who bested sixty men in duels during Japan's Edo period also had a soft side as he created works of ink paintings, calligraphy and poetry. In his prime Musashi was a living terror, but in his later years became more introspective and philosophical. In what was probably his swan song he composed his Dokkodo - The Way of Walking Alone.

1. Accept everything just the way it is.
2. Do not seek pleasure for its own sake.
3. Do not, under any circumstances, depend on a partial feeling.
4. Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world.
5. Be detached from desire your whole life long.
6. Do not regret what you have done.
7. Never be jealous.
8. Never let yourself be saddened by a separation.
9. Resentment and complaint are appropriate neither for oneself nor others.
10. Do not let yourself be guided by the feeling of lust or love.
11. In all things have no preferences.
12. Be indifferent to where you live.
13. Do not pursue the taste of good food.
14. Do not hold on to possessions you no longer need.
15. Do not act following customary beliefs.
16. Do not collect weapons or practice with weapons beyond what is useful.
17. Do not fear death.
18. Do not seek to possess either goods or fiefs for your old age.
19. Respect Buddha and the gods without counting on their help.
20. You may abandon your own body but you must preserve your honour.
21. Never stray from the way.

When Buddhists Attack

Donn Draeger once referred to Japanese martial arts as "plastic Zen". To really understand the Japanese martial ways (budo), says Draeger, one is required to appreciate Zen. When Buddhists Attack: The Curious Relationship Between Zen and the Martial Arts is a study in the historical parallel between these two rigorous undertakings. The goal of Zen is an understanding of one's true nature called satori. This is known to happen in an instant, either through comtemplation of a koan, meditation, or even mortal combat. There's nothing like someone trying to lop your head off to put things into perspective. For the archetypal Zen Warrior, compassion and ahimsa (non-violence), hallmarks of Mahayana Buddhism, take a back seat to fighting skill, keen awareness, and a disregard for death.

Author Jeffrey K. Mann, a longtime Goju-ryu karateka and accredited religious scholar (Ph.D), composes this work with authority and concision as he gives us a brief background on the life and teachings of the original Buddha (c.500 BCE) to the 28th patriarch, Bodhidharma, who arrived in China from his native India (or perhaps Iran) in the fifth century. Legend has it that when Bodhidharma brought the Buddhist gospel (Ch'an) to the Shaolin monastery he found the resident monks to be listless, so he devised a regimen of exercises to shock them out of their meditative stupor. These exercises eventually morphed into quan fa (unarmed self-defense). Ch'an Buddhism (Zen) and Shaolin quan fa began concurrently, though the credibility of these events and the very existence of Bodhidharma is cast in serious doubt by historians. Zen eventually found its way to Japanese culture from China in the thirteenth century.

The heart of Zen is meditation. The classical Japanese warrior practiced a form of seated meditation called zazen to develop present-moment awareness and the various mind states that most practitioners of traditional martial arts are probably familiar with, such as mushin (no-mind), zanshin (remaining mind), and fudoshin (indomitable mind), which are covered at length in the book. Dr. Mann points out that the majority of samurai, Japanese soldiers and budoka were not strict adherents of Zen, nor was Zen the only spiritual practice that influenced budo. Furthermore, the entanglement of Zen and the martial arts has been romanticized and exaggerated by pop culture and even academia. Still, the influence of Zen in the martial arts, both historically and in the present day, cannot be dismissed, nor should it be overstated. The book is a quick read at 208 pages. Sections include "Overcoming Self, Overcoming Others" and "Budō as Religion."

Never Bring A Gun To A Swordfight

Patterson's post on gun violence includes an image of a street sign proclaiming that "Real Men Use Fists" with a slash through a revolver that made me think of firearm use by samurai during feudal Japan. When relative peace finally emerged during the Tokugawa period (1603 - 1868) firearm use had come to be seen as ignoble. Maybe "real men" of this time didn't like to use guns, but the Way of The Sword was held in high regard. Budo culture now took root and swordfighting schools flourished. Kenjutsu skills were honed not primarily for combat, but as a means to develop character and inner self-control. Two major treatises were written during this period: The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi, and The Life-Giving Sword by Yagyu Munenori, both of which delve into philosophy, psychology, and combat strategy (heiho) while giving little regard to any technical explanations.

Swords presumably cannot inflict the mass harm that a sidearm can, let alone an assault rifle. This didn't stop Sokaku Takeda from downing a group of Japanese laborers with his sword following a verbal altercation in the late nineteenth century. After he was acquitted, Takeda wised up and focused his efforts on the weaponless art of aikijujutsu.

In Western lore, the sword was the weapon of choice for the duel before pistols became fashionable. A pre-presidential Abraham Lincoln was challenged to a saber fight that he deftly wiggled out of*. A younger Lincoln, however, did manage to compete in a number of no-holds barred grappling matches^†, none of which ever resulted in a falality.

A while back I saw a review on a book describing actual swordfighting techniques called Street Sword: Practical Use of the Long Blade for Self-Defense. I haven't read it, nor do I plan to. For now, I'll just stick to hand-to-hand combat. Somehow I feel safer that way.



* Steven Pinker 2011. The Better Angels Of Our Nature: Why Violence has Declined. The Penguin Group.
^† Glenn J. Morris, Ph.D. 1998. Martial Arts Madness. North Atlantic Books.

A Worthy Cause

The Karate for Life Foundation is a registered not-for-profit corporation whose aim is to promote life skills development and battle HIV/AIDS in Uganda and beyond through the mental and physical training inherent in the practice of the martial arts. If you go to their website and make a donation of 25 dollars or more they will send you a "Ask Me About My Bruises" t-shirt.

(h/t to Enter The Dojo)