Archive for the ‘student’ Category

Many of you have been asking me where to find some great pressure point charts. Here are the charts I used to help me get started. I hope they help you as well.

You can use them to identify striking points when working on your forms or places to hit when doing your self defenses. Always think in the back of your mind “angle and direction.”

Angle and direction will guide you in knowing how to strike the point based on either the technique in the form or the technique described in your self defense.

Whether you are studying Tae Kwon Do, Kung Fu, MMA or Boxing, pressure points can help you better understand how the self defense works to your own advantage.

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Cardio Kickboxing Day Classes

I am very pleased to announce that starting in October we will start to offer Cardio Kickboxing classes during the day. Cardio Kickboxing is a fun workout routine that combines great aerobic activity with fun and easy to follow martial arts techniques. The benefits to our Cardio Kickboxing Day Program in Mount Vernon, Indiana is as follows:

• Great Stress Reduction
• Lose Weight
• Get In Shape
• Feel Great
• Easy To Attend Day Classes
• Perfect for Stay At Home Moms 

Day Time Martial Arts Classes for 3 year olds on up

I am happy to say that we are now offering Little Ninja classes during the day. These classes are great at teaching children the fundamentals of martial arts, coordination, confidence and is a lot of fun. Children learn in a fun game environment that helps kids role play and learn respect, confidence and self control. Little Ninjas that have participated in our program over a year have advanced successfully to our kids adult class. Many are ahead of other kids their own age simply because the experience they gain from this class.

This class is perfect for..

Kids who are age 3 on up
Mom’s looking for a fun activity during the day
Great for home-schooled, preschool children
Children gain confidence, build self esteem
Children learn the basics of modern self defense

If you are interested in any of these programs, please be sure to fill out the form below:

cforms contact form by delicious:days

Train your kids like you train your dog…could be the next advice you get

Parental Coach recommends what?

While perusing the news articles, I always seem to gravitate to the strange. It seems that a new book by Amy Sutherland suggests that you can use the same techniques used to train dolphins, wales, birds and every beast of burden…

On your husband!

Wow, that took me back. I was left scratching my head as I read some excepts and psychologist say things like, ‘if you can train a pigeon, you can train a man.”

I am sure that to some parents or wives for that manner, they are rushing to the nearest bookstore for the next dose of self help manuals that may just turn around the problems in the home.  So you may be one of those parents who struggle to find answers to the common questions of raising your kids. You can listen to the talking heads on television or the Mc Doctor who spurts out advice to increase books sales…

Or you can use common sense.

The interesting thing about the martial arts is that we dont’ focus on just ‘good behavior patterns.’ We focus on building the student within. We provide examples of techniques and movements to follow. We work to continue to improve and strive through areas of struggle. We build students within a mental framework of overcoming obstacles.

I don’t like this article or type of ‘training.’ To sum it up, they basically reward the good and neglect the bad. They believe that humans, like other animals seek to be rewarded and constantly want positive attention whereby we will forgo other things just to receive the positive attention.

I believe that life is about a journey of overcoming obstacles. I want students to believe that they can work through problems and come to right anwers. I don’t believe that spoon fed constant postive attention will help children overcome the struggles they face with peer pressure, and other dangers in this world. Life is harder than teaching a porpois to jump up in the air. What I see is examples of children like James who was a student of mine in Evansville. He came from a terrible environment where his mother was in jail and he didn’t know his father. Being raised by family, he faught peer pressure and the problems of being poor in a bad neighborhood can bring.

James basically lived at the school. You could see the transformation within himself as he made rank, it seemed he believed in himself more and more. James is a polite and upstanding young man. Even his grandfather said that without the positive influence of our school in his grandson’s life, he would probably be in jail like his mother.

If it wasn’t for Master Barnes and the other instructors, James would have been in a lot of trouble and maybe even jail.

So, I believe that you want the best for your children. I believe that beyond the physical benefits you might receive such as the ability to defend yourself or improved health, your child will gain much more. They will learn self discipline, self respect and respect for others. Children need leaders others in their lives that will not only encourage them but challenge them to be better.

I know Community Martial Arts can do just that.

Let me some it up in a few pictures…

You can follow dog training tips

Or... you can try this!

Never Limit What You Think You Can Do

Know Your Limits…

bleh. Reach beyond them

Due to changes in her school schedule, travel and time constraints our previous and wonderful yoga instructor sadly said goodbye to Community Martial Arts. Of course this left me in a conundrum. The Yoga class isn’t a huge class but has a few dedicated individuals who truly love being in the Yoga class.

I didn’t have a replacement.

But…I have done yoga for a few years personally and for several years it was a part of our training regimen for warm up before class in the adult program.

I could have said… well, this isn’t going well so we can just cut the class. But I know that there are genuine benefits to Yoga. It is extremely beneficial for so many things.

If you have never tried it before, you would be amazed at what Yoga can do for your body. Not only will you strengthen and tone your body, you will also lose weight and feel great.

A typical Yoga class involves slow gentle movements, holding postures, and finishing with a few minutes of relaxed meditation. All of which take the body gently step by step into a gradual progression of intensity and cool down. I always feel great afterwards.

As of late, I have had lots of digestive trouble. I have had to change my diet over to Vegetarianism which has seemed to do the trick. I also needed to add more exercise into my regimen. I could say that I am too busy. I could say that I don’t look like your average spunky supermodel-esque yoga instructor. It doesn’t matter. I am going to exceed my own limits and teach Yoga. You never know what you can achieve until you reach beyond yourself!

Yoga is hugely beneficial for martial artists as well! The Yoga program is a scientific sequence designed to improve martial arts and self defense movements with an emphasis on defeating the ego, your first opponent in any fight.

That is why I am giving away a HUGE SPECIAL to all my students…

Yoga is FREE FOR ONE MONTH

Just show up to classes on Monday or Wednesday at 5:30 PM

Invite Your Friends To Our Free Women's Self Defense Seminar

• Learn Real Self Defense Techniques
• Try these techniques against full-padded attackers
• Learn how to read dangerous situations
• Learn how to prevent rape
• Defenses against standard attack weapons
• Defense against standard attack situations
• Learn from highly trained martial artists with real ’street proven’ techniques

Women Need To Learn Self Defense

I read an interesting article today that while it is a ‘racey’ topic, I felt that the overall story was something to mention.

Exploited women in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu are learning self defense.

You can read the story here http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8093946.stm

What is interesting is that these women (prostitutes) are being beaten, taken advantage of unfairly, robbed and degraded. It saddens me that women still have to sell themselves on the street in order to make a living. However, I am happy to hear that organizations are standing up for them and giving them the much needed training they need in order to survive.

Here in the United States, women are still being taken advantage of. Aggression, lack of respect and degradation, along with unfair prejudice is still haunting the female population. Being the father of three beautiful girls, it pains me to think of what they will have to face as teenagers and young women.

With the rise of teenage pregnancy and a society that is more open to sexual contact as a form of ‘expression’ I feel that this leaves women at risk. That is why I believe that women need to be taught self defense. The problem is that people believe that once you ‘learn the moves’ you are alright.

What statistics show is that women who actively practice self defense are nine times more likely to survive an attack versus those who merely went to a couple of classes. You see that the difference is an active and continual ‘practice’ outweighs a few lessons.

If you know of someone who is at risk, or you have a daughter about to turn into a teenager, I highly recommend them getting into a self defense program. If you are in the Evansville or Mount Vernon Indiana area, I highly recommend my two schools (http://www.communitymartialarts.com).

Master Jeff Barnes

[youtube RCypeMzP0Mw Community Martial Arts January 26, 2009]

Tonight in the Evansville Community Martial Arts school we focused on self defenses. Master Barnes shows an example of overloading an attacker with pain causing them to ultimately shut down and collapse. The students learned simple and effective techniques from their basic techniques.