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Immersion is The Only Way I am Gonna Learn Spanish…. And to Fight- Christun Erwin

During my senior year in high school my parents decided I was going to share my room with our new foreign exchange student, Fabia from Mexico (tagging you in this girl!); I was the oldest and the only girl of four kids at the time. What was possibly devastating to this moody and selfish teen very quickly turned into one of the sweetest and longer lasting friendships of my life. No, I didn’t learn a lick of Spanish through this, we will get to that later, but she was thrown into a large family with loud, yammering, dirty boys (she only had three sisters) and her rather stunted English became stellar within just a few weeks.   Outside of safe places to train, something I often get asked is “What is the best martial art for self-defense?” This question is so damn loaded, and beliefs run incredibly hot on this topic so to keep this simple, I am offering mine and because I have sloughed through this debate multiple times, I will say this with the most love possible, I am not gonna care ...
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The Day I was the Biased Buffalo- ECQC EIR

  This weekend I was biased. This weekend I forgot the root of why I started Healthy Buffalo in the first place. This weekend that reason was reminded to me gently by a gentleman, but not so gentle man. This weekend I felt shame. This weekend the lesson I learned will not be forgotten nor ever repeated due to the now seared brand on my brain.    My EIR’s (Ego Injury Reports) started out as a joke towards AAR (After Action Reports). Tactical-ish describes me better and I am constantly getting my ego trashed in the combatives world. Normally it hovers on the physical side, this weekend was no different. I could write ten other articles on how many different ways I fudged up a drill or evolution, however I want to point out that even when you think you do, you never seem to quite have it in the bag. Basically something I thought I knew and knew well, I managed to fail miserably and let my irritation take over.   I started Healthy Buffalo because I wanted to meet people ...
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No Ladies Your Husbands Are Not Likely Going to be Able to Save You

      I am going to assume here that most of us have likely seen the scene where Batman’s parents get murdered. They are walking down the street just coming back from an opera and even as a kid I questioned the decision making of ol Dr. Wayne here… He is worth gajillions, knowing this is an insane, diseased, crime ridden city, he is strutting down a dark alley with no witnesses and no easily accessible way out, he has no security, and thinks, hey sweet family let’s take a stroll at midnight we will be just fine… Unfortunately, as I type this, I am thinking that line of thinking is not that far off with the general public hence why I am writing this article.    To be fair the good doctor, despite his serious lack of judgment on situational awareness, does engage with the criminal quite well offering him money while trying to talk him down. I believe in some versions the mom gives her pearls or they just scatter later when she hits the pavement for a dramatic...
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Under Rug Swept- Victory MMA

  Like any self-respecting angsty teenager of the 90’s I listened to Alanis Morrisette. The angry girl music scene fed my self-proclaimed, artistically deep feelings, like sweat to the bacteria in my boxing gloves. The world was “Ironic,” I am pretty sure I didn’t even know what that meant at the time, so yeah, I really didn’t know (please tell me some of you got that joke)…   The world actually did end up being ironic as the 17-year-old vampire poem writing, art major with no childcare experience ended up taking and teaching martial arts in later years as she attempts to keep her nine children alive and kicking. And guess what? I still really don’t know.   But it’s like raaaaaaaaiiiiiin on your wedding day (okay I will slow with the Jagged Little Pill references) sometimes things seem ironic, you doubt the merit of it, and then are pleasantly surprised.   The Under Rug Swept title I am only using because it mildly fits in my brain where I am going to try and go with...
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It’s All Greek To Me- Westside Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Little Rock, AR

  In Ancient Greek there is a term called Aristeia. This would be used to describe a dramatic scene in poetry that was warrior based; it would be the pinnacle of a hero’s battle, the epic zenith showing all their glory and prowess. It would be magical.   Sunday this white belt 4-eva watched an open mat session with several much more seasoned practitioners after having her face smashed into the floor and between someone’s knees several times. I was slightly euphoric, definitely sweaty (I prefer the term glowing, but am realistic that this is not the case for me), but Aristeia is what came to mind while holding up the wall too tired to adjust my gi. It was a beautiful battle to frontline view seeing several black belts roll and even more spellbinding that one of them was a woman.   My friend Chris Crosby owns Combat Athletics near Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He is a BJJ black belt and Pro MMA fighter and whereas I haven’t checked out his gym (going to have to make plans now), I...
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Crotch In The Dirt- Christun Erwin

  There is a phrase used when taking Knife Control Concepts that, outside of flow, is kind of one of the more foundational concepts of the program. It’s rather crass so I will give you a more elegant version of it and let you use your imagination, “Keep your crotch in the dirt.” When teaching self-defense, I emphasize movement over moves because reaction verses response is more effective in my opinion. A person during an altercation is not likely to pull from their brain and execute productive exact moves to counter the other, at least not without a massive amount of repetition. If you throw in adrenaline dumps and freeze responses, “Flight of the Sword D,” against sewing machine stabbing is probably not going to fly. Pun intended. Its going to be an ugly scramble at the very least. That is why I love the KCC curriculum so much and why I am so pumped to see it in action with other things.   With Knife Control Concepts you are learning to use the other persons energy against th...
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Why Teaching Multi-Faceted Moves in Women’s Self-Defense is Dumb/ AKA Address the Freeze Response

  In every class I have taught I use a demonstration of calling on a random gal to come up to the front. I stand about 10-15 feet away and then start walking towards her at an even pace. Speaking in a harsh tone about my neck hurting, I use blame language, something like, “Lady it was you who hit my f*%king car!” To date there has not been one woman who hasn’t froze. They stand there wondering what the hell is going on and blink at me immobile.    I am 5’6’’, usually wearing a brightly colored T-Shirt with a stupid saying, they are in my course to become safer, and yet they are rendered stock-still. Mostly due to bewilderment, some to language shock (see my article here on why this is very important), some a bit of confusion, but that’s exactly it, these are all normal responses to even if I was a 200-pound man, same phrasing, walking up to them in a parking lot. In the end they are rendered stunned, and that person is in their space set up perfectly for a surprise blow w...
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