Masterlotus' Dojo

A look at martial arts from what I know as a way to educate and learn more about it. Wisdom and knowledge, they are a thing of beauty.

[ashagreyjoyed]

[anarcho-queer]

d0x on sophie-von-bayern

Name: Sophie Miriam Herold

Address: Avenue Baudouin 12, 6280 Gerpinnes

Phone Number: 71796759

Her blog was deleted but I might as well post the info.

[golden-zephyr-deactivated201401]

Finally she’s gone!

[punlich]

It would be great if someone could show her how it feels to be harassed.

[thisonefeelslikeagranolabar-dea]

Tables turned, eh?

[masterlotus-blog]

If you're wondering why this is here, it's simple. This person decided it was OK to steal people's private information. basically the information you see listed above and started a hate campaign. Not only is it illegal to steal people's private information in every single country in the world, but starting a hate campaign isn't considered OK under ANY constitution or charter or any document of the like. Freedom of speech doesn't give anyone the right to take away the freedom of safety, security and privacy. Equality, acceptance, and understanding: these are the qualities we should foster.  Do not let this person get away with trying to invade people's privacy and creating more hate in the world. Reblog and make them understand the consequences of their actions.

[carterena]

the letter is already written, so all you have to do is click send.

[forgotten-playground]

Reblogging for all you Canadians out there.

[birdlawyerapollo]

HARPER GODDAMN IT

[cognitivedissonance]

Son of a bitch…

[joienvasd09f8uxnj2l1309-xdsd]

“I’m a Canadian.

We’re a quiet bunch; prone to enjoying hockey, drinking stronger beer than our friends south of the border, and lovers of fries smothered in cheese curds and gravy.

We also, apparently, have an inferiority complex when it comes to being evil dirt bags, because we’ve decided to pass our very own version of SOPA up here.

Only better*

Meet Bill-C11. Formerly Bill C-32. (I think they thought if they made the number lower people would care less about it?)

{…}

But, as innocuous as it sounds, C-11 does a whole lot that SOPA did with a few extra twists you might not find in the Wikipedia write-up.

Like your PVR? You can’t keep it under C-11.

Like ripping CDs to your iPod? Say bye-bye.

Hey, do you want to be able to unlock your $500 smartphone and take it to a provider less dedicated to violating your wallet? That won’t be allowed either.

Did you get accused of internet piracy but no evidence has been presented and a trial date hasn’t even been set? Under C-11 your ISP will now be forced to terminate your internet access.

And people say that governments can’t be bought.

{…}

There are only 14 days left people. Get active.”

Send a letter to your Member of Parliament now. The letters are prewritten, you just need to click send.

http://www.ccer.ca/success/

Come on non-Canadian people, please signal boost this for your Canadian friends.

[masterlotus-blog]

This may not be Martial Arts related, but this affects everyone. SOPA and any bills of the like should not be able to be passed.  Media is a great way for someone who is just learning about martial arts to expand their horizons and gain knowledge they might not otherwise have been able to get.  Not to mention I'm pretty sure there are plenty of us that train and practice with our iPods blasting.  This is NOT something to sit on.  Please spread this like wildfire.

[masterlotus-blog]

MMA as a fitness option for kids

*sigh* OK so I turned on the news before the UFC event that was being held in Toronto and what do I see? A segment about how people think Kids using MMA as a fitness option is a bad thing.

Now in my earlier posts I said I wasn't comfortable with little kids training MMA and competing in MMA and I still believe that.  However after a certain age? Go for it.  I don't know what age  maybe around 12 or 13? At that point a kid has enough experience and understands well enough that their actions have consequences so it can work.  Lets also not forget the fact that MMA still incorporates a lot of MARTIAL ARTS, whose key philosophies in most case is SELF-DEFENSE!!!! and no MMA gym advocates violence at all.

Now about MMA as a fitness avenue: MMA fighters are some of the fittest, if not the fittest athletes on the planet.  They have the most rigorous and balanced fitness regiments that anyone has ever seen.  And before someone starts to argue that other organized sports are better....NFL athletes have switched to MMA and have had to up their cardio, some successfully and some not so much.....  Examples: Brendan Shaub, Marcus Johnson, and Matt Mitrione.  MMA requires both explosive power and long term stamina because you're moving at full steam for minimm 15 minutes.  And while that doens't sounds very hard.....I ask this of you: try it and see for yourself.....in a controlled environment obviously. Don't just start fighting with your friends in your living room or something :x 

So yeah MMA is a good fitness option.  There is an obesity problem in NA not just the US, but in Canada too.  This is an excellent way for kids to get into shape.  It's NEVER gets boring because there's always something new to learn, it's intense and the results can be seen and felt by the child immediately. they won't want to eat things that slow them down during workouts because it annoying to be able to do one thing and the next time not be able to. I've experienced it so I know for fact it happens.  MMA is a great tool for fitness.

I do need to go back to the issue of violence that people seem to think is inherent in MMA.  MMA is a super competitive sport so yes injuries do happen I'm not going to deny that. That being said however, MMA is less violent than a lot of other sports.  Oh sure there's blood but you can fall down and scrape your knees and there's blood.  Also I love how we'll go see motion pictures loaded with decapitation and heads flying off and blood spurting in every direction...but we see a fighter get a cut and all hell breaks loose.  Everyone gets cuts...they heal, end of story.  We are ok with our children watching watching real people getting their limbs lopped off but a fighter bleeds after taking an incredibly technical blow that takes years of skills it's bad......that makes no sense.  Pointless gratuitous violence and gore = okay but a person actually bleeding because of years of skill and practice = EVIL!!! something sounds wrong there. Just saying...that's weird.

Now another reason for putting kids in MMA that the news mentioned was because of bullying and some ignorant moron decided to say that we're teaching kids to react to being bullied with violence. UHHHH.....no :/ learn something please.  being bullied is a MAJOR issue and most bullies use physical threat so someone who knows how to defend themselves is LESS likely to be bullied.  Also no martial arts instructor especially MMA instructors ever tell their fighter to announce and flaunt that they're MMA fighters. The whole thing is INCREDIBLY low key. I have never heard of a MMA fighter in the news because they assaulted someone or sent someone to the hospital.  They are held to incredibly strict codes of conduct so anything like would result in at the VERY LEAST a very long suspension from the organization, denial or revoking of any upcoming fights and a hefty fine. So yeah, the sport advocating violence? don't buy it at all. It's completely counter intuitive to how the sport works.

MMA is a great anti-bullying tool because it teaches kids patience, control, self-confidence and courage. If a kid getting bullied snaps they're likely to cause major damage or take major damage, if the bully snaps a kid could end up in a hospital. So if the bullied has more self-control and restraint more likely that an altercation won't occur. If the bully snaps they kid is likely to themselves and STOP once the bully stops instead of going at them until they snap.  Also the confidence and the training makes them LOOK less likely to be successfully bullied. A kid that's self-assured and looks like their bite is worse than their bark will not be targetted easily.  We all know this because we've seen it happen and being someone who experienced it, I know this fact is true.

That was on my mind so I figured I'd blab.  Questions, comments, your opinions and feedback? I welcome them.

-Lotus

[masterlotus-blog]

Martial Arts Muscle Building: Calves

Calf Muscles actually break up into 2 smaller muscles: the Soleus Muscle and the Gastrocnemius muscle.  Together these muscles are responsible for 2 major things: your standing posture and your foot angle movement.

This muscle is responsible for keeping you standing and prevents you from falling forward.  It also control the angling for your foot which determines your walking, running, and jumping posture.  This muscle is also important for power jumps.

For exercises to build calves:

Click here - these are a variation of calf raises.

Click here - another variation

There aren't many exercises that work calves. Others would include running sets of sprints and jumps. Just remember don't just make them bigger with weights, use them to develop functionality too.

[masterlotus-blog]

Muscle Development Tip #1

I was jsut thinking about something I had read about a while ago and while I'm not sure if this is common knowledge or not I'm gonna throw it out there anyway.

If you're ever strength training and have a daily workout routine, keep this tip in mind:

Small muscles need 24 hours to recover and larger muscles need 48 hours.

What is the difference? While some may say it's obvious...it's not always. Biceps are small muscles, your Quads are large muscles, it's visible.  Your Shoulder Muscles or Deltoids are actually large muscles. they need at least 48 hours to fully recover where as your obliques are actually small muscles. your abdominal muscles are clearly large and your calves are actually large muscles, they should be given a few days to heal.

I realize I haven't listed all the muscles but that's because there's too many. These are just some examples.   Hopefully these tips help you when you train or workout.

Edit: Sorry guys, I did a little more research, Calf muscles are small muscles and can be worked out every day.

[masterlotus-blog]

Sorry about the hiatus

Hey everyone,

Sorry about suddenly disappearing for however long I was gone. Things just got really busy and I haven't had much of a chance to think about anything other than schol and whatnot so hopefully...this shall be my triumphant....or atleast more consistant return. The women in martial arts and the msucle misconceptions will definitely be coming back.

[masterlotus-blog]

Kids and MMA

I just saw the Tapout commercial that had all the little kids learning MMA.   I....don't know how to feel about that.  MMA is an extremely competitive and...very....the word I'm looking for isn't violent or bloody because it's really not. Aggressive I think is a good way to put it. 

You will get hit, you will get hurt and you will bleed. Doesn't matter how much gear you wear or how you easy go, the nature of MMA is to go all out and win.  While I want to put my kids in martial arts when I have them, I don't thing MMA is at that stage as a sport.  I think sports have a few stages.

The first stage is when it's introduced to the world and the rules aren't solidified and the sport sky rockets like crazy and a lot of changes take place.

The second stage is the rules become solidified for competitions and then all age groups get involved and you hear about incidents of really bad injuries...so more rules change for the masses I guess you could say.

The third stage is when the sport is solidified in all the rules for competition and for non-professional consumption.

I think MMA right now is in stage 2.  While I love the sport, I don't think it's a good sport for kids yet.  It's still hyper competitive and rules are STILL changing.  Plus given it's about finding any and every way to beat the opponent....it's actually a possibility that the strength and ability that comes with MMA training could make kids be bullies.

Does this mean the kids will become bullies for sure? no it won't but bullies are people who usually have power and use it to compensate for something. Competition could be what they use the strength to compensate for.

Now people will say: "Yeah well!! what about other martial arts tournaments or Jiu jitsu tournaments and stuff?!!?!?!?"  Those tournaments are very different depending on the age group there are very strict protective gear requirements. We're talking head gears, gloves, foot gear, Basically all the MMA gear plus more.  So for kids its safer to be in those sports.  Plus they have stricter age brackets and rank brackets and things.

MMA the only thing you can really do as of right now is maybe age and weight. There's no way to really differentiate skill level. That's where kids can really get hurt.  So while MMA is a great sport that's good for physical development, I don't think it's quite at the stage where children can start learning it.  There's no safe outlet for competition yet for them.  I think once that becomes established then it'll be a better idea.

If parents really want to put their kids in MMA, they can always pick a discipline like Jiujitsu, wrestling, or a striking art and let them develop that aspect of the MMA game and slowly transition them into the others if they want to as they get older.  But taking them to MMA gyms? I still think it's too early for that.

[masterlotus-blog]

Hey guys

sorry about the tea post spam. I was supposed to respond on my personal blog....but....fogot to change the title.  Water however is the best hing to have during training though. Keeping hydrated is indeed very important.

[flynnscowlick]

[masterlotus-blog]

justaquestionmark:

masterlotus:

justaquestionmark:

I used to have a cabinet that looked like this.  Now it is a shelf.  One day, it will be back. : D

Please we got WAAY better flavours AND packaging

That isn’t water!  Those are additives!

Sorry Lotus.  Tea is superior. :3

By that logic tea is an additive to water too!! tea loses!!! :3

[flynnscowlick]

[masterlotus-blog]

justaquestionmark:

masterlotus:

justaquestionmark:

Lets not forget the pretty teacups. :D

oh yeah? well, we got pretty bottles too. and they hold more! and they stay cold~!! AWW YEAH!!!

It’s called a thermos. :B  We have those too, ohohohoho~

Yeah which exist because people wanted cold water BEFORE they wanted hot tea!!! MUWAHAHAH~!!!

[flynnscowlick]

[masterlotus-blog]

justaquestionmark:

I used to have a cabinet that looked like this.  Now it is a shelf.  One day, it will be back. : D

Please we got WAAY better flavours AND packaging

[flynnscowlick]

[masterlotus-blog]

justaquestionmark:

Lets not forget the pretty teacups. :D

oh yeah? well, we got pretty bottles too. and they hold more! and they stay cold~!! AWW YEAH!!!

[faerie-floss]

[masterlotus-blog]

justaquestionmark:

killthebabies:

a-romeo-that-loves:

peter-fucking-pan:

LOL The jehovahs witness one.

LOL, I have not seen this picture in a long time. oh my god.

This is beautiful. Except atheism doesn’t make sense - I’m atheist because of shit so it’s like - atheism: Life is shit

(Too shitty for a god.)

The fuck is this?!  How can people find this funny?

REALLY?  TAKE A HOSTAGE?  REALLY?  Maybe you should learn what people believe before you make fucking jokes about them.  I get it, y’all are atheist.  That’s great, but do you have to make fucked up jokes like this?

I just can’t even.

Now this is not what I normally post but as someone who is constantly mocked for being in martial arts because I'm scary and have had to repeatedly answer insulting questions and justify my faith most of my life, I agree with Questionmark.  This is not funny. Not in the least at all. The muslim caption is INCREDIBLY unfair not to mention a lot of the other ones also.

I was always taught to respect other people not only in my personal life but also with all the people I train. A lot of them are very good friends and amazing people. So this? This is offensive and fuck. Not only to Muslims, but Hindus, Bhuddists, and I get annoyed when Witness' knock on my door too but I'd never disrespect them like this. It's shit like this that makes me incredibly angry and really wonder about the world.

[masterlotus-blog]

Women in Martial Arts - Miesha "Takedown" Tate

                               We've all seen those movies where the girl joins the guys' sport team and ends up dominating right?  Meisha Tate's done that in real life.  She started wrestling in high-school on the boys team and eventually went on to win the State Championships and the World women's wrestling trial.

Since then she has evolved leaps and bounds.  Currently she's training with team Alpha Male started up by Urijah Faber.  If you know anything about that team you know how unbelievably tough they are, and if you don't know, then oh my god are they tough! Urijah Faber himself is tough enough that he ate leg kicks for 25 minutes against Jose Aldo and could not walk...but he finished the fight.  Why is this important?

It's so people understand the caliber of her training partners.  That camp has confirmed in interviews that she is one of the toughest there and can "beat the boys".  Her wrestling pedigree is top-notch and she hits extremely hard.  She's currently ranked 4th by MMA Rising among the best female pound for pounds fighters in the world and 1st by Unified Ranking the women's 135 pound fighter rankings in the world.

And now for the fight I watched with Marloes Coenen. Coenen's professional record is 19 wins, 4 loses. 14 wins were submission and 3 by KO. That means she's finished 17 of her fights  and about 75% of her wins are due to her submission abilities.  Tate is a wrestler, her strength is taking people to the ground and she was up against a beast of a submission artist.

The fight itself was incredibly action packed. Coenen was throwing some good shot but Tate would drive through her right into the cage and take her down. she attempted 1 take-down in every down and she got every single one.  That is NOT easy thing to do. Even fighter's like Josh Koscheck and Chael Sonnen who are known for their amazing wrestling haven't done that. Tate on the other hand did. For 3/4 rounds she was in control and she was on top of Coenen smothering her and taking away her stamina.  In the second round Tate got back mounted with a body triangle.

A body triangle is whe the person on your back has one leg across your stomach and lock the foot or ankle behind their other leg's knee.  This puts tremendous pressure on your abdomen making it incredibly difficult to breathe or move. Tate managed to survive the the remainder of the time, which was a little over 3 minutes with one of the best submission artists on her back.

She was the first one to submit Marloes Coenen who had much more experience on the ground to get the win. That's not an easy feat at all and Tate accomplished it wonderfully. Tate got her in a wonderfully set up arm triangle and while Coenen tried to defend Tate was the superior grappler and choked Coenen out by trapping her arm by her jugular and squeezing tightly until Coenen tapped and gave Tate the victory and her belt.

The 135 pound division is incredibly dynamic because the fighters are smaller, lighter, incredibly agile and incredibly well conditioned.  This was one of the most high paced fights I've seen in that division. When people grapple, a lot of the audience assumes it's simple or boring and that nothing is happening. This is not the case. I'll make a proper grappling post to explain this to those who may not know the finer points.

But, if you're looking to be a grappler and you want a good example on how to use takedowns, Meisha Tate is definitely a good template. Her take-downs and ability to move opponents and grind them is top-notch. I highly recommend watching her most recent title fight.  If you would like me to post where to find it please let me know and I'll post the link.

[masterlotus-blog]

Something that Needs Highlighting - Women in Martial Arts

Another thing that has always bothered me since before I even started was this misconception that Martial Arts is an all boys club.  The only women involved in martial arts look like this:

This is complete and utter bullcrap. When I start Martial Arts one of my mentors and now best friend was a female. She worked harder than anyone I knew and she hit faster and much harder than majority of the people there.  My SO is also into Martial arts but unlike me, she specializes in weapons which lets me learn about a lot of things that I wouldn't be able to learn in hand-to-hand combat. So I'm very thankful for that.  So!! in their Honour I'm going to a series posts about the women in Martial arts. To show it's not an all boys club and women are a part of it...and they can hit harder than men in the club.

So the first one will be The newly crowned Strikeforce Women's Bantamweight Champions: Miesha Tate.

  Now, bear with me. while it has been bothering me I'm still researching a lot of things about the subject. I'm going to try to do one post a week on the topic for as long as I can. If you have suggestions or would like to recommend someone for a post I'm all ears.