I appreciate all 25 of you who voted on our latest poll which asked what genre of martial art would you like to see more of here on The Ground Never Misses. Results were as follows:
– 36% of you want to see more grappling
– 24% of you all would like to see more weapon based arts
– 16% of you were interested in seeing more traditional arts covered
– And then the last two groups of striking and MMA brought in 12% each
Clearly the majority of you want to see more grappling themed coverage here on our little blog, which is solid since my personal journey through the grappling world continues to develop new and fresh opportunities and I plan on dragging you along! Some great upcoming things to look for are 1914 Gi Review, tournament coverage, Roy Dean’s latest DVD on “Brown Belt Requirements,” Bad Boy board short review, exclusive interviews, and some exciting seminar announcements as well.
Surprisingly 24% of my readers are looking for more weapon based arts, which ultimately means more coverage on the arts of the Philippines (Kali / Escrima / Arnis etc.). I train Pekiti Tirsia Kali under Meynard Ancheta, and love the system! Unfortunately the amount of quality information out there is very, very limited and I am a bit…. picky as to what I include on this blog. By all means I pass along anything and everything I find online that is quality, but all too often the videos, articles, and info online are nothing more then goofy wanna be commando’s playing with sharp objects. This is the same reason you cannot find a ton of info from Tim Waid or GM Leo Gaje. They are very, very discriminate as to what they put out for the world to see, and want to ensure the utmost quality.
So please send me anything quality you find online from anyone. I admit my Kali-fu online is weak!
Unfortunately many of the “traditional” arts are in the very same predicament I speak of above with Kali (which is considered a Philippine traditional art) where the arts have been very watered down and poorly represented in many cases. I have been involved in the Chinese martial arts for over 15 years now, training with some of the best I could access in North America and Europe (never travelled to Asia). I see a handful of you wish to see more and to be quite honest I too want to report more on the traditional arts of China, Japan, Africa etc. The Chinese martial arts community is very fragmented and still rather stand off-ish, which in turn creates a very negative, ego based atmosphere where individuals are more concerned with the betterment of themselves then they are with the art as a whole.
I have continued writing as of late and you will see a handful of articles coming out in various martial arts publications this year including Kung Fu – Taichi Magazine, Journal of Asian Martial Arts, and a few others. What I ask of you out there in the community is lets start at the grass roots with your own individual practice and training. Lets start focusing more on quality over quantity. Lets test the limits of our knowledge, push our comfort zone mentally-physically-emotionally and raise the quality of all martial practice.
In closing I thank you all for your support and participation in the polls. I plan on continuing them and I hope to see participation increasing each poll, so please bookmark The Ground Never Misses and include us on your daily “rounds” if you will. 2012 looks to be quite promising for the blog and training, should be a great ride. I also have an exciting announcement coming up very soon!