Wim Demeere's Blog

Martial Arts, Self Defense and a Whole Lot More.

The reason why I’m so wordy.

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One of my students likes to torment me by Googling my name and sending me links to what people write about me. I’ve learned to fear his research (he pays for it during our training sessions…) and often click away after 2 seconds because there’s only so much I can endure. Every now and then, I reply to people but over the years this has become very rare. Simply because those discussions all too often end up as shouting matches.

The latest link he sent was of a forum discussing one of my blog posts. As usual, I was impressed by how people seem to read into my words something other than what I wrote or put words into my mouth that I never spoke and then argue about it amongst themselves (straw man anyone?) Disagreement is fine, even more, it’s necessary for any real growth to occur. But all too often, egos get in the way and the flame wars get started. That’s why I have pretty much stopped participating in forums, barring a few exceptions.

I’ve written about this ad nauseam but for clarity’s sake, I’ll repeat it here: Nothing I write is gospel. This is all just my opinion and it may or may not be valid for whatever circumstances you live in. I’m just a guy, like you, with his own set of faults and virtues. If you find a use for what I write, awesome. If not, that’s OK too. Let me add some more points to that:

  • I could be wrong. I frequently am (ask my girlfriend…) and it’s no big deal. I’m not married to my opinions; they change all the time. The only thing I try to commit to is a standard of reasoning as to how I reach my opinions. I try to make sense whenever I can. Doesn’t mean I’m right about anything though…
  • My books and videos don’t mean anything. Anybody can write a book or make a video; who cares? Being published doesn’t prove anything. I know tons of people who are hell on wheels to fight, but they never published anything. I’d put a small fortune on those same people if they were to go up against some of the biggest names in the self-defense industry. And vice versa: some authors aren’t all that impressive in their writing or on the screen. But I’ve met them and trained with them, I know how incredibly effective they are.

So all in all, I’m just a guy who shares his opinions on certain topics. I’ve been fortunate that a bunch of people seem to find them helpful and that keeps me going, but as I explained in my post about internet experts, popularity doesn’t mean anything either. So I say again, who cares?

If anything I write doesn’t make sense for you, then by all means just move on. There is nothing wrong with disagreeing with somebody. However, I believe there is something wrong if the discussion turns to name-calling and rhetorical tricks to “win”. When I see that stuff happening, I pick up my marbles and go play elsewhere. I’ve been on the internet for well over 20 years now and have seen all kinds of flame wars: I’m done with those.

If you want to have a meaningful discussion, I believe it takes a level of maturity and self-monitoring to get anywhere. I always liked this hierarchy of discussion tactics. The top ones are the “best”, the bottom ones are useless, except for pissing people off:

Funny thing though, what you see the most in forum discussions is the bottom three tactics along with pars pro toto reasoning. I’ll get back to that in a bit.

If you can’t have a discussion without those bottom three tactics, then I humbly submit you aren’t interested in discussing anything. Might as well quit and skip ahead to saying neener-neener.  If you are interested in exchanging ideas and debating a topic, then this flow chart is a good place to start: [Read more…]

Are you really an expert?

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This post is another one that is the result of a bunch of factors coming together. It started with the infamous Shane Fazen knife defense video from a while ago. Then there was a conversation about “internet experts” on a private mailing list I’m on. But what brought it all together was an exchange I had on Twitter with Pat Flynn. I’ll explain all of this in a bit and then try to bring it together into the point I want to make.

Let’s get started with the knife video. Take a look at this first:

First of all, I like Shane. I think his intentions are good; he always mentions avoidance and only fighting in self-defense. Second, the basic advice he gives in this video isn’t bad per se. It’s only when he shows that crescent kick that it turns sour. I’m not a big fan of critiquing other people’s videos but this one, I’m willing to step up and call bullshit. There are a number of reasons why I say so: [Read more…]

The anachronistic martial artist

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A few days ago, somebody asked me why I review books and videos by other people if I have my own to sell. Isn’t that just counterproductive?

These questions started a long, meandering conversation. I did my best to explain my reasons but I’m not sure if it all came a cross the way I intended, which lead up to this post. I’ll try to limit the meandering, but some is necessary as in my mind, it’s all connected. So please bear with me while I get to my point all the way at the end. There are vampires involved, by the way…

The anachronistic martial artist

 

It’s not about being awesome

First of all, these questions are valid and worth answering. I don’t see my way of doing things as a problem, but I understand why others might be confused by it. When I look at how many authors in the self-defense and martial arts niche do business, it’s often along the lines of “BUY MY STUFF! IT’S AWESOME!!!” That may or may not be true, but you don’t have to shout it out loud all the time. Also, the implied message is all too often that all the other products out there aren’t as awesome…

I’m generalizing to make a point, I know not every single author does that. Also, to an extent, my own publishers use ad copy that I personally wouldn’t write. So all in all, it’s pretty much the normal way of promoting products in this niche and I get that. There’s a need for marketing and good ad copy whenever you have something for sale, I totally agree with that. But there’s no reason why you have to go over the top with it. Nor do you have to tear down other products to show how good yours is, which brings me to my first point: [Read more…]

The big lie in martial arts

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A while ago, I was doing a consulting call with a martial artist with 10 years of training under his belt. He’d contacted me a while ago to help him advance in his training because he felt stuck and didn’t know which way to go. So we analyzed what he had already done, what his goals and aspirations were, time constraints and much, much more. Long story short, he wanted to learn a new style because he had outgrown the reasons why he liked his current one.

That is a completely legitimate reason to change styles: sometimes, you come to a point in your training where what you learned before no longer applies to who you are now and what your goals are. So I said I agreed with him that if he was unhappy with his current art, it would be foolish to continue in it. The only caveat I added was that he needed to be sure of that before abandoning it altogether. He said he was.

Here’s the thing: he wanted to specialize in a style that would have meant starting from scratch.

The style was from a different country of origin than his current one, had a totally different structure, different techniques and strategy but most importantly a completely new set of body mechanics. At that point, I cautioned him to take a step back and think it through.

I’ll tell you something else first to illustrate the point I want to make about this: [Read more…]

Martial Arts Myths: High kicks don’t work in the street

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“High kicks don’t work in the street” is another one of those blanket statements that has been making the rounds for decades on end now. Many people still say this today so I wanted to tackle it in this installment of my “Martial Arts Myths” series (if you haven’t read them already, here are article one and two.) As usual, I’ll try to explain my reasoning and back it up with examples. That’s why I included a lot of videos in this post, to make sure you can see all the factors involved.

Without further ado, let’s jump right in and get to it.

High kicks don't work in the street
High kicks don’t work in the street…

High kicks don’t work in the street

To avoid confusion, let’s start by clearing up our terms a bit concerning this statement. When people say that high kicks don’t work in the street, they usually mean the following:

  • The kick is aimed at the head of a standing opponent.
  • The kick is used in a non-competitive, self-defense context like a violent assault in the street or any type of physical altercation between two people.

So we’re not talking about kicking a downed opponent in the head. Nor are we talking about a muay Thai or MMA fight.

Now that we’re clear about what exactly is on the table, I’ll just cut to the chase and say it right away:

The statement that high kicks don’t work in the street is a myth.

I’ve done it.

Friends of mine have done it.

A truck load of other people I know in passing have done it.

Even more people I don’t know have done it too.

All of us have used this technique and it has worked for us. There is no denying this. Therefor by virtue of this fact alone, the “high kicks don’t work in the street” thing is a flat out myth. Now before you go thinking I am advocating everybody starts using high kicks extensively for self-defense, hold your horses. I said no such thing.  What I did say is that I (and a bunch of others) have done so, which doesn’t mean you have to try and do the same thing because there are conditions involved. Conditions that determine if you will be successful when throwing that high kick or not.

Let’s take a look at them. [Read more…]

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