Krav Maga and Self Defense Topics #2

Need to study this hand wrap technique.

Audio Interference: Teaching Self-Defense
“When I first took karate, I was already an activist. And I could see right away what this could do for women in the 70s.” — Annie Ellman

Good reminder of how privilege can be at play when we practice martial arts, with the luxury of multiple memberships (I'm guilty) and extended coursework (also). Great podcast featuring interviews with two groups that teach self-defense skills: Pop Gym and the Center for Anti-Violence Education.

Dealing with Strikes from the Guard
Practical self defense BJJ training. I'm always surpised how much sport jiu jitsu does not reflect the realities of fighting, so this is a refreshing change. Kind of a "no-duh" for Krav people, but good nonetheless.

Why Krav Maga is Different from Martial Arts
"A Krav Maga practitioner is not challenging anyone in their realm, or in any other realm. We are normal people living our lives. We are comfortable in who we are and confident enough to not have to challenge anyone in an ego contest."

Comments

Survival and Change #1

It was most certainly anti-climactic to emerge from the woods on a cool Sunday morning and walk into a well-appointed campground bustling with car campers making breakfast over Coleman grills and disheveled children wrapped in Disney character blankets, quietly playing with IPads. In that moment of familiarity and habit I almost forgot what I had been doing for the past few days as I picked at the continental breakfast laid out by our instructor to welcome us back to civilization. I wanted a shower, a change of clothes and much more than a grocery store muffin (which I ate anyway). I wanted my foods: the nut butters and trendy high protein "superfoods" I am so used to and have come to expect. Three days before, I was skinning a garter snake, awkwardly and squeamishly removing its guts, cutting it into one bite-sized piece for each of my classmates and adding it as the main part of a stew made up of pond water, wild garlic, a handful of tadpoles, a slug, a cricket, multipl...

Friday night: a visit to Ninja Cafe, where the waitress was very skeptical of my knowledge of Japanese. Then, we went to dba and had a few cocktails with the owner of some New Orleans websites for those with prurient interests. On Saturday, I worked on the pond, getting proper filtration set up for it. This will give us the opportunity to add more fish to it. On Saturday evening, I roasted garlic and we made some drinks with Red Bull and then we visited Rese and Kenneth in Rese's tony Henderson condo .

Starting Over

Reboot of the Blog I'm winding down my Facebook use. That whole destruction of democracy thing weighs on my soul. I know that it's probably impossible to give it up completely. Social media is like oxygen in our disconnected society as well as the general precarity of our jobs. But I am committed to using it less and less and definitely not getting my politics and news from it. So, I'm going to bring this blog back and start using it to corral some of the things that I am reading and share them out. I'll probably set up an email list too for anyone who's interested. I'm sorry that we're having to go back to walled gardens, but between foreign disinformation, surveillance capitalism and generally more challenges to social media use, it's going to have to happen. Even this blog content itself is product that someone is monetizing. I'm going to start using some of this extra time I'm now blessed with to explore alternatives to "free" ...

journal.melendez.org

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