Brews, Barbells, Badassery, and Bohurt

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...

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...

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...