BOXING: The Wisdom of Mike Gibbons.

My deepest thanks to marbleheadmaui of http://www.saddoboxing.com for posting this. Mike Gibbons was the older and smaller of the legendary Gibbons Brothers. Mike was mostly a middle and fought around the WWI years. How good was he? How about 110+ wins against a dozen losses and he was never knocked out. How good was the competition? Mike went 4-2 against HOFers including a win over a young Harry Greb. In other words Mike Gibbons was the real deal. He published several books on training and boxing technique the following is taken from...

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BOXING: The Wisdom of Charley Goldman.

My deepest thanks to marbleheadmaui of http://www.saddoboxing.com for posting this. Charley Goldman was a pre-WWI bantamweight. He stood 5'1. He had over 130 fights and was by most accounts a competent journeyman though he did get a shot at the bantam crown on one occasion. Goldman retired at 29 due to among other things, terribly brittle hands. But Goldman is far better known as the trainer of a series of undisputed champions. Middleweight Al McCoy, featherweight Joey Archibald and lightweight king Lou Ambers. Goldman is most well known...

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BOXING: The Wisdom of Jack Dempsey.

My deepest thanks to marbleheadmaui of http://www.saddoboxing.com for posting this. The Jimmy Wilde and Barney Ross books I summarized recently were both useful and insightful. But Jack Dempsey's "Championship Fighting: Explosive Punching and Aggressive Defense" is on another level entirely. It is far longer and absolutely full of insights, thoughtful approaches, sketches and explanations. It is a boxing tour de force. I was very surprised by two things. First, I think of Dempsey as a kind of raw offensive machine. It simply ain't true....

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BOXING: The Wisdom of Barney Ross.

Photo credit:  Wiki The greatest Jewish fighter of all time, the second man to be an undisputed three division champion and one of THE fascinating lives ever lived. Father killed in a robbery, worked for Al Capone, degenerate gambler, after he retired he joined the Marines and was a decorated hero on Guadalcanal and later ran guns to Israel. Shortly after he retired he published "The Fundamentals of Boxing." I'll stick to the high points....

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BOXING: The Wisdom of Jimmy Wilde.

My deepest thanks to marbleheadmaui of http://www.saddoboxing.com for posting this. I have been fortunate enough to find a wonderful source for old time boxing books. Mr. Clay Moyle. Moyle is best known for his recent biography of Sam Langford (which I recommend). From time to time I will provide book reports of sorts. The first is a short 1927 book by the immortal Jimmy Wilde entitled The Art of Boxing. For those unfamiliar with Wilde he is basically the man the flyweight division was created for. A Welshman, Wilde is p4p one of the...

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QUOTES: Bruce Lee - "To be rid of ego-consciousness."

To be rid of ego-consciousness. - Because one's self-consciousness or ego-consciousness is too conspicuously present over the entire range of his attention - which fact interferes with a free display of whatever proficiency he has so far acquired or is going to acquire. One should get rid of this obtruding self - or ego-consciousness - and apply himself to the work to be done as if nothing particular were taking place at the moment. Striking...

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Yamaoka Tesshu's Shoe "Tell"

Tesshu would tell his disciples, "When someone comes to the dojo for a challenge match, take a look at the bottom of his wooden sandals in the entrance hall while he is changing clothes in the hall. If the teeth on the bottom of the sandals are not worn evenly, you can be sure he is often off balance and not much of a swordsman." Budo Secrets - Teachings of the Martial Arts Masters By John Stevens pg 10...

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QUOTES: Issai Chozanshi - "Secret things are for the sake of beginners."

Have you ever wondered why there are "secrets" in the Martial Arts? Wonder no more! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Yet another in the group asked, "Swordsmanship is the mysterious function of the mind. Why then are there secret techniques?...

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QUOTES: Frank Shamrock - "The ego is garbage."

Frank Shamrock on Ego "Ego is an evil thing. Confidence is important,  but ego is something false. Humility is the way to build confidence, and ego is hugely dangerous in this sport, because if you're running on ego you aren't running on good clean emotions, or cause and effect. You bypass it to support a false idea. It's all garbage, the ego is garbage." The Fighter's Mind By Sam Sheridan pg ...

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Unprofessional Sucker Punch from NYC Bouncer against a drunk

Once they left the bar, the bouncers shouldn't have come out... there is the danger of the head splitting open on the concrete! Very unprofessional bouncer (not like I'm a professional bouncer).       &nbs...

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David Black Mastro - George Silver & The London Masters of Defence - Native 16th/17th century English Fighting Arts

George Silver & The London Masters of Defence - Native 16th/17th century English Fighting Arts By David Black Mastro The English of the 16th and 17th centuries had an especially rich martial tradition, focusing on weapons like the "short sword" (actually a basket-hilted broadsword/backsword with a rather long 37"- 40" blade), the "short staff" (aka quarterstaff - not particularly "short" either, being 8’-9’ of ash), and the dreaded...

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David Black Mastro - The Spear in Chinese Martial Culture

The Spear in Chinese Martial CultureBy David Black Mastro (aka TrueFightScholar) The spear has played a huge role in both hunting and fighting arts all over the world, and China, with her vast martial heritage, is no exception. In his excellent article, "The Spear: An Effective Weapon Since Antiquity", author Robert H. Dohrenwend, Ph.D., noted, "The most important weapons in the Chinese military were the bow and arrow and the spear...

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David Black Mastro - The spear in Japanese martial culture

The spear in Japanese martial culture By David Black Mastro (aka TrueFightScholar) In various martial cultures around the world, the sword is held in the utmost esteem--it is a weapon that has transcended its original role as a tool of war, and it is thus also seen as a symbol of power, justice, and so on. As the great European swordsman Sir Richard Francis Burton once wrote, "The history of the sword is the history of humanity". That...

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David Black Mastro - The dreaded Roman gladius: the sword that conquered the world

The dreaded Roman gladius: the sword that conquered the world By David Black Mastro (aka TrueFightScholar) According to Roman Army expert Peter Connolly in the book "Swords and Hilt Weapons", the gladius Hispaniensis (lit., "Spanish sword") was adopted by the Romans sometime during the First Punic War, when they saw this weapon being used to great effect by Iberian mercenaries in the Carthaginian Army. The Ancient Iberians were among the greatest iron workers & swordsmen of their day, and their genius in edged weapons design is thoroughly...

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