Having picked up the blog again after the Christmas break, I’ve found I had a bunch of ideas for articles which, once I sat down to actually write the things, covered topics I couldn’t readily flesh out into a whole post, at least not without retreading old ground. So instead, I’m writing a Q & A of sorts, which allows me to give time to these smaller subjects, including answering some actual questions I’ve had over the years. Let’s begin…

Sparring - going toe-to-toe with another person and having a (controlled!) fight - is perhaps one of the most quintessential aspects of any martial art in the public imagination, more so even than katas and flashy demonstrations of acrobatic skill (Chinese long-sword optional.) However, it is also one of the most off-putting elements of martial arts training for the novice practitioner…

So, you've found Pentagon Krav Maga (excellent! That means I have satisfied the capricious Algorithm Gods that run Google), and you're interested in joining us. But you find yourself a little unsure of what to expect. Perhaps you've seen videos on YouTube of highly-trained man and woman in combat fatigues going ham on one another, or read articles extolling its ferocity, and find yourself thinking 'but I work a deskjob…!”

It is said there is a hierarchy of factors when it comes to survival, be it the in sense of being lost in the wilderness, to combat or indeed self-defence. People often fall into the trap of thinking that all they need are the right tools and they'll be just fine, an attitude known in some circles as 'all gear, no idea'.

Everyone comes to the wider martial arts community with a story to tell, and every business (at least small ones like mine!) is to a greater or lesser extent reflective of the values of the people that run it, which are themselves shaped by those people's stories. So, as the owner of a small business in the martial arts space, I wanted to discuss my story in a little more depth, so that you, the customer, can understand the values I attempt to live by, and subsequently seek to project through my work at Pentagon Krav Maga.

Type the name of any martial art into Google, and I can almost guarantee that before you're halfway down the page there'll be a question along the lines of 'is [blank] good for self-defence', usually leading to a blog post or forum thread extolling said martial art's virtue for self-defence (yes, the irony of this being one of those very same blog posts is not lost on me!)