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[B186]Baseball Bat Self Defense

by Yoshi Kundagawa, Yos

My wife puts up with a lot, and I love her dearly, and I'm always grateful for the utter lapse in judgement she had in marrying me, over the advice of her friends. She's appreciated that I do martial arts and that I write about it, and that makes us some money, but she's always kind of regarded getting thrown on a mat, or punched in the ribs as "A guy thing", if you know what I mean, so she's never really participated. It took a lot of promising to do the dishes, but I got her to sign up for the dojo's kickboxing routine as a fitness program.

We're trying to get students in at different times, and trying to appeal to a wider demographic. As a result, we've taken up teaching Thai Kickboxing as a kickboxing and exercise routine for body shaping and cardiovascular workouts. While Muay Thai is an excellent martial art for self defense, it also provides an awesome workout routine, building balance, flexibility, percussive strength and coordination, and it's an excellent fat burner, especially on the hips and thighs and abdomen. (Yeah, I know, it doesn't really do targeted weight loss - it causes you to lose weight over your entire body, but builds muscle there - it feels like targeted weight loss!) Since I have a pretty flexible schedule as a writer, I ended up being the teacher for the afternoon classes.

We've worked out a kickboxing routine that starts with stances, and stretches - we have all our students run in place for about 5 minutes to get their heart rate up, then have them stretch out. Getting the blood flowing early means that the stretching is more effective. I try to encourage all my students to take the stretching seriously - it should hurt a little bit as they're doing it...and I tell them a little hurting now will save them a lot of hurting later.

Then we go through the standard forms, with an initial open stance that's centered and low to the ground for punches, jabs and the front kick. First we have our students do it in front of a mirror, letting them work up a sweat. I walk through the line as they do it, correcting form here and there - even though I don't expect any of these women to ever use this as a martial art, I expect them to get it right, just in case. The entire dojo starts to build up some energy, with kiais and grunts.

The next part of the workout is to take them one at a time and get them into hitting the bag. This is actually the most difficult part of the process for my students. Karen, my first one up, actually pulls her punch before she hits the bag - even with the pads on. It took me two or three reps to get her to punch with all the power coming from her hips, glutes and midsection at full speed. And about ten more reps for her to actually do it on her own. A lot of people in America are taught "hitting is bad", and that's conditioning that has to be overcome, even when working out with a bag. It took me most of the first session to get all the women to hit the bag decently.

The last part of the session is cooling down - stretching and standing in position and letting the muscles unkink, working on the balance they'll need to do front kicks and roundhouses, which, at my guess, will be in about two weeks. All it all, it seemed like a pretty solid success, and I look forward to seeing my students later this week!

When you are in the middle of a fight your goal for the end game is to escape with as little injury to yourself as possible while destroying the bad guy. If you can't escape, your next idea should be to attack, going all out using every ounce of strength, stamina and violent animal instinct you have.

Part of fighting is being able to protect yourself and absorb incoming blows to your head, midsection, kidneys, your ribs and groin. In this article I will expose a technique on how to destroy your attackers fists when he throws a punch at you.

A very effective tip for protecting your head and face is to hold both your arms in a boxing position in front of your face obviously which is common knowledge.

But this is where my powerful technique comes into the equation!

When the bad guy becomes violent and throws a strike at you, have your lead hand bend backwards holding your ear in your hand to create a triangle for blocking and destroying his knuckles!

Once your assailant pulls his arm back to punch you raise this triangle with your arm, and you will notice the point of your elbow blocks your face and will destroy the knuckles of your opponent.

When your using an open stance, in a boxing position, be sure to keep your elbows tucked in protecting your ribs, but watch how effective the arm triangle can be! But also be alert to protect your other vital areas using these self defense tips

To protect your groin and lower half of your body keep your legs shoulder width apart and use your knees to block kicks and to protect your groin. Also use your feet to trap kicks before they happen and use footwork dodging and weaving, instead of being stuck in one solid position. As Bruce Lee said, staying fluid is essential in a fight.

You have to remember that destroying your attacker is the most essential aspect of self defense. Protecting yourself while creating and causing as much damage to the bad guy is very important. Follow these tips, use and remember them because they are essential to your survival.

Another key aspect to staying safe on the streets, is to be pro-active about joining self defense and martial arts classes to improve your over all skills. An important aspect also is to absorb as much information you can to improve your fighting knowledge.

Article Source : training for muscle definition

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Both Yoshi Kundagawa & Steven Gib are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.

Yoshi Kundagawa has sinced written about articles on various topics from Fitness, Recreation and Sports and Fitness. Yoshi I Kundagawa is a freelance journalist. He covers themixed martial arts industry. For a free report on visit his blo. Yoshi Kundagawa's top article generates over 18100 views. to your Favourites.

Steven Gib has sinced written about articles on various topics from Fitness, self improvement and motivation and Travel and Leisure. I have put together free reports, self defense books and martial arts advice over here: