Brews, Barbells, Badassery, and Bohurt

Merry Christmas and Happy Armored New Year pic from  www.skotcher.com So, you have one of those crazy people in your life who like to play with swords and whack each other about in tin cans. Sure, we all know they are crazy. However, putting them in straight jackets and sending them off to some asylum may seem excessive. So, instead of giving in to your inner urges and screaming at them, here are a few ideas for shopping for your modern medieval warrior. One other point of clarification. I make no money suggesting these items. I am doing it so I can continue to hit others as much as possible. Is that too much to ask? 1. Forged Foam HMB starter set ($140). No matter what league you fight in, having a soft-kit training set is essential to practice fighting in a safe way. Nobody likes to fight alone, so here is a starter set for you and your favorite punching dummy! 2. Protect your noggin! Head protection is a must. I have been looking to change away from my normal dipped foam

Hello from your favorite bard of beardifulness  Did you ever hear that term 'mastering the basics' in high school or other team sports? I remember my dad drilling into me over and over the power of basics when it came to martial arts. Kicking, striking, moving, speed, and timing where yelled at me as I oafishly struggled to become the image of my father's design. I remember my high school football coach drilling us over and over until our reactions became instinctual. What really is happening, is that through drilling and practicing the basics over and over, you remove a lot of extraneous movements, along with mental distractions. You simply get to the point of doing what you need to do exactly as it was designed and taught. Once you have gained that mastery of precision, you can add additional knowledge, techniques, or processes due to the simple fact that those movements are instinctual and no longer need the amount of mental energy in order to perform them. Your

Hello from my sexy bearded self.... First of all, I am in no way a model of perfection. Do not look to me for tips on shredding fat, getting ready for summer bodies, or to look pretty for your Instagram photos. I literally do not have the expertise to get you there. Who am I before you take my advice: 40 years old,  Big, Bearded, Sexy 1995 Heavy Weight Kick Boxing Champion Masters Rank in Kung Fu, Tae Kwon Do Multiple other black belts Amateur Strongman Amateur Power Lifter Spartan Death Racer GoRuck Junky Endurance Sports Nut Job Ultra-marathon Runner (completed the Huff 50k, and Dances with Dirt Devil's Lake 50k) Spartan Racer and Trifecta Holder So be prepared, I am speaking from my personal experience as to what I am doing to make sure that I am perfectly healthy and capable of doing the crazy stuff I do. In particular, training for and preparing to fight on an International level in Steel Combat ( ACL  /, HMBUSA/   AMCF ). This type of sport is exciti

Bearded Awesomeness Two weeks post International Tournament of Chivalry and things are really ramping up. I have started to move my training from body weight focused back to getting under the bar. I haven't done any power-lifting for several months during this training cycle. Getting back under the bar this week, I was still able to hit 545 pounds for two reps on my squat. To me, there is nothing better than throwing iron around and meeting the challenge of making gains. While strength isn't everything in Knight Fights, for guys my size who won't be as fast or mobile in the list, it does allow us to the ability to hit hard and stand our ground. One of the big take aways from ITOC was that grappling is important, but furious striking combined with focused areas to strike gave the Russian team and other top teams and advantage. For the last two training weekends, we have combined the training concepts shared by the Iron Phoenix team, with the some of the ideas being sh

parade of fighters The International Tournament of Chivalry II was held in Springfield, IL on October 1st, 2016. I have been working really hard to prepare myself for this upcoming international tournament. Fighters came from Russia, Austria, Mexico, Canada, and all over the US to fight in singles, and 5 on 5 melee matches. I joined the Palmetto Knights and fought for the Rhinos. Hey Ma', I am a Rhino! This was my first experience fighting at this level and it was a true eye opener. Having been a successful heavy weight kickboxer, and martial arts instructor, I am used to fighting and full contact. However, putting on full armor, add weapons, and take away a lot of your awareness due to limited visibility, and all that training and experience doesn't adequately translate. I will say that I am hugely thankful for the armor I chose to wear and made over the given months to fight this weekend. I came away 'fairly' damage free. I have a few pretty bruises, a

Squaring off with the Canadian Durham Dragons member for the first time One week away and I will be traveling to Springfield, IL to fight at the International Tournament of Chivalry II . It is probably the biggest event of its kind here in the US and possibly the world. Here in another week, top teams of fighters from all over the world will converge in Illinois to determine who is the best team in the World. Pretty awesome stuff if you ask me. There has been a tremendous amount of work leading up to this weekend. I cannot thank my wife for the many hours she has spent bent over the sewing machine to tweak my gambeson, alter my fittings, and create new padded leg under armor after the first design just didn't work for me. padded legs with new belt is a much better design There are a lot of other people I have to thank as well. First I wanted to thank my mother in law Sue who has been a huge supporter of me getting in this sport. She has helped offset some of the c

Modern Day Knights Class I developed and started teaching a new program. Having a masters rank in Feng Xiao Zhang Kung Fu, and Sun Do Won Tae Kwon Do, and have a love for Western Martial arts (14th and 15 century); I created a program that mixes all my interests into one fun and effective self defense system. It truly is a fun class and has become very exciting as I am seeing new kids joining the program and having a blast doing it. Students will learn all the same great self defense and weaponless fighting techniques of most Eastern martial arts combined with the Western martial arts of longsword, dagger, polearm, and other fun Medieval Weapons. Kids will get physically fit, learn effective self defenses, learn to grapple and fight from the ground, and how to use a sword and many other weapons effectively. Our current website is:  Tactical Kung Fu and MMA I teach at Tactical Kung Fu and MMA in Durham, NC. It has the best training facilities in the Durham area and per

Me before stepping into the sweat lodge I have to say that I really, really wanted this to be a great experience for me. Since I was a child I was told by my mother that I was 1/16 Mohawk Indian. Being blonde haired, blue eyed, and mostly fat most of my life, at least I had some cool heritage to cling to.  Clearly tracing down my father's ancestry and other branches from my mother's, I am clearly English-Scottish (as accurate as we can tell from tracing the family tree WAY-WAY-Back).  Despite my clearly European characteristics, there was a warrior within. I wanted to be something despite my lackluster physical attributes. I wanted to be bad-ass. While this isn't a couch discussion and I am not going to talk about all my issues, it does however give you a glimpse as to why I did become such a high ranking martial artist and why I continue to pursue adventures and experiences. My pursuit of outperforming genetics, out shining my own God given natural talent, a

HSC Palmetto Knights at Dragon Con I finally got a chance to fight! After months of preparation, tons of money spent on armor, weapons, and training; I got a chance to actually put it all together. Just two weeks prior, I had got the final pieces of my armor assembled and ready to go. I fought six matches at the HSC Tournament at Dragon Con. Hosted by the Armory and the Palmetto Knights, fighters from all over came in to not only fight in a tournament, but put on a show for a huge crowd at the convention. For several of us, this was the first fight or tournament we have ever experienced.  I have fought my whole life. This is the closest experience to getting me amped up on adrenalin like I experienced with full contact kickboxing in the nineties. My heart was in my throat most of the time which made breathing even more difficult. Imagine trying to breathe your head being  in a caged weighing seventeen pounds. It was a well run event,  and a ton of fun.  I canno

So, I have put Strongman competitions on the back burner and now training really hard for Armored Combat. My local team the Durham Dragons is an ACL (Armored Combat League - www.aclknights.com ) Chapter. We have one person in full armor and three more will be in full armor by November. So Armored Combat is like MMA/ Football with full metal armor and real weapons. It is absolutely crazy and I love it. I am hoping my first competition will be on October 1st in Springfield, IL ( springfieldpc3.com/events-tickets/itoc.aspx ). Then in late October, there is a regional ACL competition. Then in November 12th, we will host the Louisville Wild Bunch which is another ACL chapter. This is a huge step for our local chapter and really helping us get the respected battle chops we need in order to get better at fighting and possibly work our way up to regional and national teams. Now on to my armor. I have my great helm which is a sugarloaf style great helm. I also have the gaun

The past two weeks have been a whirlwind. Traveling back to Indiana to visit friends and family as well as help my mother-in-law get her condo ready to sell has sure tired me out. We spent the early part of the week in Evansville. Cleaning the condo, meeting with realtors took up a lot of our time. We did however get a chance to hang with our fellow Illuminati ( www.weruneverything.org ) teammates and eat, drink, and play board games.  Once the apartment was settled, I tested one of my first students ever to attain her Masters Rank in Feng Xiao Zhang Kung Fu. It has been a pleasure to see her grow in the martial arts. Her test was one of the toughest I have ever given. She passed with flying colors and I couldn't have been prouder. Congratulations Master Anna Moll on your achievement and years of dedication to the martial arts.  After traveling to Indianapolis and visiting with Jennifer's sister, we traveled to Batesville, Indiana and met fellow teammat

Malifaux Dead Rider So, it has been a while. Since we last saw each other, I was living in Indiana. Since then, we have moved to North Carolina and started a whole new mix of adventures. For starters we found the love of war gaming miniatures. It was something I was always enamored with, but never had the money as a kid to play. Now, I have found a new love of it and the money to spend on something such as this. It really is the closest thing to drugs I will get to these days. My local group plays games at Atomic Empire in Durham, North Carolina. We just started a campaign series which gave me the opportunity to play a new faction. I started with Gremlins which has been a total blast, but for a new series, it demanded a challenge. Thus I turned to the second faction I had been interested in which was Resurrectionist. Hello? Zombies for the win right? The first three games I played, I didn't do so well. It is a new crew and I am learning the mechanics