Martial Arts Journey

There are many myths and legends around Aikido founders Morihei Ueshiba's, also known as O'Sensei's life. In this interview with leading Aikido figure Robert Nadeau Shihan, who personally knew Aikido's founder, we talk about how it is important to be grounded and simple in all aspects of life.

Failure is an essential part of any success. In this Martial Arts Journey Podcast I will be sharing something that I do on the side: share my ideas publicly as a speaker of the methods that I use in both my everyday and also work life.

In this Martial Arts Journey podcast episode I am joined by Nathanael Chawkin who is not only experienced in martial arts, yet has extensive knowledge and practice in leadership and coaching. In this interview he will be sharing how martial arts can be used as a tool to develop and better understand leadership and personal growth.

While personal growth in BJJ, MMA and martial arts is not always addressed, it is an important aspect that if approached in the right way can transform a persons life in the most positive ways. To understand better how personal growth works in these realms - I was lucky to once more have a chance to interview Matt Thonton, a martial arts legend - BJJ black belt, founder of SBG International. During the talk we will take a look at such questions as: what makes combat sports unique as a tool for personal growth, what values combat sports can enhance, how to make sure that your practice has a positive effect on your personal life, how to balance family life and your training, how to run a great gym and organization and how to be careful about not burning out.

4th degree Jujutsu black belt, 3rd degree Judo black belt, active police officer and SPEAR instructor Danny Tamblyn talks about some common misconceptions of self defense, the internet culture for addressing these issues and everything else related.

With digging deeper into self defense the question of how much combat sports will get you ready for a self defense situation kept coming up. To help find the answer this podcast features self defense expert, active police officer, BJJ black belt - Paul Sharp with his great, precise and simple answers.

It took me years to realize that what is self defense and what Aikido taught me are very different worlds. Yet this journey still continues as good answers need to be found to replace the old ones. In this journey Bruno Orozco a self defense expert, Aikido black belt will help me find answers to some initial main questions in understanding the differences between martial arts and self defense.

An amazing interview with martial arts legend Matt Thornton sharing how important is questioning your martial art and seeking the truth in it. Matt Thornton is a martial arts athlete, trainer, and founder of Straight Blast Gym International, an association of over 35 gyms worldwide engaged in training athletes in Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ), boxing and mixed martial arts (MMA).

In this episode Bruno Orozco a self defense expert/ Aikido black belt will share how some Aikido schools often lack critical thinking and falsely believe that what they are practicing is self defense. He will also share how Aikido can be a great tool for personal development by sharing his own stories. In the next episode we will have Matt Thornton - a martial arts legend, BJJ black belt and founder of SBG International where we will talk about aliveness in martial arts.

In this episode of Martial Arts Journey Podcast a well known martial artist Daniel Theodore also known as Dan the Wolfman is also well known for his YouTube videos where he shows Aikido technique applications in a combat sports setting with resisting opponents. I've sat down to talk with Dan and to ask what made it possible to make Aikido techniques effective and what is his take on the place of Aikido in the modern world.

As I continued to search for answers in what one needs to do to become functional in martial arts I've met Marius Tubis - an experienced fighter/security person with a degree in sports science. We had a great 25 minute talk which includes exploring how traditional martial arts can limit a persons development and how MMA exposed a lot of myths that traditional martial arts were often based on.

After the Aikido vs MMA video I was contacted by many people and realized quite a few Aikido practitioners already went through a similar journey, just never made it as public. Two such great individuals were Nathanael Chawkin and Francisco de Los Cobos whom I've interview to learn more about their experience of walking the path of pressure testing their Aikido. The result - this amazing talk.

Welcome to the second episode of Martial Arts Journey Podcast. This was the second recorded talk after the "Aikido vs MMA" video exploring the dilemma of whether Aikido can work in the context of combat sports or particularly MMA. The talk is with Ray Butcher, head coach of Balance Ireland Dojo in Dublin. Ray is a first degree BJJ black belt, fourth degree Aikido black belt and also experienced in Karate, Judo and MMA.

Welcome to the first episode of Martial Arts Journey podcast! In this podcast I briefly share some details about the podcast and what to expect from it. Also I share the first talk I had soon after the Aikido vs MMA video where emotions and discoveries where fresh in finding out what it means to get disillusioned with traditional martial arts together with Roy Dean a Brazlian Jiu Jitsu and Aikido black belt.