As part of your martial arts training, you learn effective self defense skills. Just how readily you will use these skills is totally up to you. With in Northstar we build a frame work of effective living that instills a moral framework around the self defense skills, enabling the student to disengage the ego and choose the path of avoidance, peace and tolerance towards others.
Surviving a knife attack
94 viewsApr 6 By Leave a Comment
Surviving a Knife Attack..
1. Pause, look and respond.
2. Do not fight fire with fire it will only inflame the situation even more.
3. Assume that there will always be a knife involved in a fight.
4. Don’t ever expect to see the knife, you will feel it before you see it.
5. While your attention is in front of you, you are vulnerable to attack from the side and from behind.
6. The instant you see the knife high drop everything and remove yourself from the situation.(if you can)
7. If you engage, expect to be cut. Whilst training in the Philipines with great knife fighters, they all had their cuts to show.
8. When the gap appears move quickly with full commitment, don’t stop until you are safe.
9. If you find yourself in where you have to defend yourself, grab the knife hand and control it…no matter what. If you can’t grab the knife hand, grab the knife.
10. Attend regular martial arts classes that teach practical and sensible knife defence.
Remember, there is no winner in a knife fight.
For more reading, see how Andy survived a knife attack…
Overcoming limitations.
551 viewsDec 7 By Leave a Comment
Martial Arts has always been a vehicle of personal growth for me. It has helped me to overcome many obstacles and limitations and many hardships. I can safely say now that the essence of the ability to be able to handle the ups and downs of life is in “how you think and how much value you give to what you think”. There can be no change through thinking alone. Real happiness and contentment comes from silently observing your thoughts and then letting them go. I realised that I was doing this through intense training and competition. I was having the thoughts but had to really focus on what was happening in front of me, there by not attaching to the thoughts. This is the first stage of taping into an eternal stillness and awareness that is ever present.
When would you use your martial arts in self defence?
1,598 viewsNov 11 By Leave a Comment
As part of your martial arts training, you learn effective self defense skills. Just how readily you will use these skills is totally up to you. With in Northstar we build a frame work of effective living that instills a moral framework around the self defense skills, enabling the student to disengage the ego and choose the path of avoidance, peace and tolerance towards others.
Team Work
1,088 viewsAug 31 By Leave a Comment
Working together towards a common goal or purpose. A team is not exclusive to sport or work. Partnerships are teams as are friends and family. Even though Martial Arts is a singular sport there can still be an essence of bonding and working together. At Northstar the teamwork is reflected in the strength of friendships and community amongst the members.
Excellence
732 viewsAug 23 By Leave a Comment
“Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.”
Staying on track at Northstar
445 viewsJun 22 By Leave a Comment
Every couple of months I have a personal session with my teacher and he checks the progress of my meditation practise. He reminded me that with in each meditation sitting each repetition of the mantram is a new beginning and new committment to the practise. The effects of this ancient ritual are not always immediate, and may only surface after years and years of consistent practise. Slowly and surely they seep into your being, and bring the deep well of presence and stillness closer to the surface.
The Black Belt and the Bouncer
259 viewsJul 8 By Leave a Comment
The first night I worked as a bouncer was at a popular night club in Sydney city in the early 80?s . At that time this particular nightclub was probably THE place to be seen when discos were at their peak of popularity. I did not need the money as I was working full time, I was just really keen to put myself under pressure to see how I would react. I was 22 years old, a black belt, and could handle myself pretty well?or so I thought.
I was sure that if it came down to it my fighting skills would get me out of trouble and I was so ready?. naïve but ready. [Read more...]
A FATHER?S STORY ON BULLYING.
255 viewsMay 18 By Leave a Comment
A FATHER?S STORY ON BULLYING.
This short story is about boys being boys I guess, but as a result of boys being boys, there quickly came a time when the behaviour of one of my sons so called ?friends? became really annoying and physically quite painful. I guess you?d have to call it bullying. For whatever reason his friend had been in the habit of walking up behind my son and grabbing him on each bicep, to the point where he was actually in physical pain with bruise marks to prove it. My son had tried lines like ?stop it, you?re really annoying me? and ?stop it, you?re hurting me?, but his friend simply kept on doing the same thing.
At this point it?s probably worth pointing out that he?s noticeably taller than my son, and I?m assured that he?s significantly stronger than him too.
I knew I had to do something to help my son eradicate this behaviour. His requests for the behaviour to stop simply weren?t working. My son and I needed plan B.
I don?t know the name of this move mate so forgive me, but I started by showing him the move where you clamp your arms tightly into your side, then squat downwards, do a reverse head butt, and then stomp on the attackers toes, but I wasn?t sure that he would be able to clamp the other kids arms tightly enough to perform the move.
The move he ended up using was the one where you twist your body at an angle of about 30 ? 45 degrees, enabling you to position one leg outstretched behind your opponent and then do the double knife hand downwards at about 45 degrees across their abdomen, causing them to fall backwards across your thigh. My son must have executed this beautifully, because his attacker fell backwards and in the process of trying to stop himself from hitting the ground he grazed his arm on a concrete pillar and then, before he knew what had happened to him he was flat on his back looking up at my son, muttering the words ?I suppose I deserved that??
There are several points to all of this. Firstly ? the Northstar system works. It?s a simple as that. The whole situation that had been dragging on and on, yet it was diffused quite literally ?in the blink of an eye?. The second point is that my son has proven to himself that he can put his skills to excellent use ? he tried to talk his way out of the situation, but when he needed to use force, he was ready. The third point is that it happened in the school yard and other kids now know my son can look after himself and he cannot simply be pushed around. All good outcomes if you ask me. I hope this short story will remind others just how powerful the Northstar system really is.
Vaughan
The day I was challenged.
202 viewsFeb 17 By Leave a Comment
Setting up my own martial arts system has had its challenges and it certainly attracted a lot of attention. Word quickly got that there was a new and interesting way to learn martial arts. I made many new friends and met many great like minded martial artists, but there was also a negative. I had to make sure that I was at the top of my game as I was constantly having to prove the system was effective and worthy to take its place as a new and modern martial art.
For further reading : http://bit.ly/du9p53
Follow Us!