Much like Monkey Magic (Journey to the West), Martin Yan used to appear everyday on TV when I was just beginning to learn my ABC in Saseme Street. Right after the evening rerun comes a cooking host by the name of Martin Yan. Apart from looking like my uncle, this man have this really harsh foreign Cantonese accent barely be able to put proper grammar in any single sentences he ever said.
Like any great humble Martial Arts Master, they are master at hiding and deceiving certain things. After 20 long years I just found out that this man is actually an American born Chinese! I've been deceived by his accent for 20 friggin years!
However that is not the point. The point of me even talking about him is my memory of him. Yes he never appear in the popular Iron chef (not that i know of) but what makes him standsout in my memory in comparison with the rest is that, after learning to speak English in Saseme Streets, his cooking show taught me how to speak broken English!
Jokes aside, apart from his bubbly personality and many award winning shows, there is one other thing that he stood out. Martin Yan's Weapon of Choice....
Martin Yan's Signature Chinese Cooking Knife
Also known as a chinese cooking cleaver, or Chopping Knife. He uses such knife to do pretty much everything you can think of when it comes to cutting for food. Chopping, Skinning, Dicing, Cutting, Slicing, Bashing, uses as a mini-tray, Julianning.....pretty much everything. (I have yet to see him whisk an egg using that)
Martial Arts master understands the anatomy of a human. Martin Yan? He understands the anatomy of vegetables and meats. Aside from being such fast cutter and a fast stumbling speaker, his skills with his Knife and understanding the anatomy of food he can do incredible things. Like.....Cutting a piece of Chicken in 18 Seconds.
One day i'd like to find myself a weapon of choice
Martin Yan can do it so can you!
As mentioned in my previous blog 'Bas Rutten' is probably one of the most entertaining man I have ever seen in Martial Arts. Sure there may be some could be funnier but most probably because of the many 'Epic Fail' in attempt to show off some Martial Grace.
He may be funny but he is definitely no pushover. As you can see in his video tips in self defense.
Remember his case point. Bas Rutten's tips to save your own life.
1) Identify the threat - get out of the way (or run if possible)
2) Always be aware of your surroundings - you dont want to run into a dead end.
3) Find or create an obstacle/object to create a barrier & distance away from your aggressor.
4) Memorize the word - Slam, Stab, Throw, Kick in the groin, Boom right straight
5) Use the ambiance to your advantage and bounce their head on table
6) Use verbal diffuser like, "i dont want any trouble" or "Don...Dont you eveeer doo thiisss"
Jokes aside, his tips are general self defense concepts that can protect you. Some disciplines and concepts may not agree with Bas/myself, however , if you do not know how to physically hurt someone, you may not know how to defend/avoid from one. (hence why point 4 & 5 seems important too)
Internet is a powerful tool, everyday once in awhile we practitioners tends to come across some interesting things. Either some of us wanted to learn some moves ahead of Masters teachings, or review some lessons learned from their respective sessions, educate themselves, skeptics can call out fake or nots, or even to entertain themselves by watching great KOs or Epic Fails.
So as a form to provide bloggers to see some interesting stuff they might or might not missed out, BBQ quest for honor will start blogging new segments calls "The Epic ..........."
Without further ado, lets starts with our first The Epic.......!
In the honor of the 'Zhangief Kid' post, we shall now have it pit against with this - Epic Car Destroyer!
For those who didn't know, this Martial Cosplayer is actually reenacting a gaming segment from the video game Super Street Fighter 2. A bonus round segment where your character is to wreck a car to pieces before the time runs out. Some may think he is crazy some may think he has too much time in his hands. For people who simply loves wrecking things with their bare hand should check out the Pumprey Brothers in US.
The Pumphrey Brothers - aka Human Wrecking Balls
The Pumphrey brothers isn't your normal run down of a mill big people wrecking stuff, they are actual Martial Artist and Champions of in breaking stuff. People outside of the US are not usually familiar with competitions purely about breaking things and they are the champions in their field. (more on Wrecking Ball Brothers next Blog)
Here's a little something for what they are known for Courtesy of G4TV. Surely beats what that Ryu guy can do.
Those who follows the phenomenon sports that is Mix Martial Arts (MMA) would have heard the name Bas Rutten. This man does it all, a Kyokushin Karate & Taekwondo blackbelt, Muay Thai Kickboxer, Jiujitsu and Mix Martial Artist. As a young boy he idolizes the legendary Bruce Lee after watching 'Enter the Dragon', he decided to start training for boxing even against his parents conservative wishes.
At the age of 20 he began competing in Muay Thai fighting 16 matches, winning 14 by 'Knockouts' - 13 of the winning in his first round; and his other two lost by TKO (technical Knockout). With outstanding record at a young age, his career began to skyrocket with continuous amazing winnings and to becoming the UFC champion.
His devastating punch to the gut makes his fellow fighter Proper Fear to fight him from getting hit by his punch
For being an extraordinary fighter wasn't what caught my attention to Bas Rutten. What REALLY caught my attention was his wild charismatic nature yet awkwardly and yet genuinely funny videos to coaching people in self defense.
Here's a summary clip of some of his self defense video
From what i believed after his retirement he uses his popularity and began to focus on his charismatic persona much like the wrestler "The Rock" to the immensely influential power of the media to shine brighter. Making an even bigger name through the forceful power of the Media, appearing on TV shows, Movies, talk-shows and even appearing in video games such as Grand Theft Auto....etc etc etc.
Bas Rutten is very outspoken and very hilarious instructional videos (floating in youtube).
Thanks to Bas, I was introduced the lighter side of MMA and began taking notice of the world of Mix Martial Arts. I was once a Traditional Martial Artist purist. I was once skeptical of the constant violent of brawling nature to think MMA is not proper martial arts.
Much like his hero Bruce Lee Bas Rutten is quickly to become an official name to be immortalize in the Mix Martial Arts Hall of Fame. My respects to you Bas and true to the nature of your humor I will not bow for you, instead ima' gonna break your leg instead.
Remember to use the ambiance when fighting - coz it hurts more
Those of us training in any form of physical contact martial arts or any form of physical sports where anything blunt slam into their heads they will see what looked to be the solar system projection in their brain. Its the phenomenon we see in comic strips, graphic novels, cartoons and even live action movies to name a few. It almost have the same before & after effect of consuming alcoholic beverages only that it doesn't require any money. Very affective for 'Cheap Bastards'who just wants to see stars in daylight for free.
Why spend all that money space program to see the stars right?
So what is it about getting smacked in the head, allows us to see glimpse of the milky way?
It's all got to do with your brain. Which is the on/off switch of everything for a living creatures. There is a part of your brain at the back of your head called the occipital lobe, that takes information sent from the retina and converts to the image around you that made sense. Imagine its like downloading por.....i mean martial arts videos like Zhangief Kid, the signals goes into your laptop that filters the information and converts it into Video & Audio for people to enjoy.
Now imagine whilst streaming your videos in the internet, suddenly a fat cat falls and knocked your laptop to the ground. The internal hard-drive was bumped and caused the hard-drive to freeze up as a safety measure, but when you view the viewing, it may have paused the video and the player maybe have created some weird jaggedy blurred lines.
See video below, courtesy of Fight Science by National Geography - (through youtube) explains how a punch can impact the Hard Drive in your head.
The video shows concussion, but if the punch is much lighter the brain does the exact effect brain playing bumper cars in your skull.
An Assistant clinical professor of neuro-ophthalmology at UC Irvine explains, "If you irritate the brain, it may create something like a cry vision, a response of distortion, particularly to lights from what the eyes are receiving. This is because retina only does one thing; it sees lights or it doesn't."
Those who wish to see stars in daylight, all we have to do is just rub our eyes. By putting pressure to the retina, it will send duped signal like an email title 'light!' but without text in the body. So that is what you'll get, flecks of uninformed light on top of the landscape that your brain can make sense of.
Kinda like when you have an un-smooth camera lense it creates a weirdly distorted images - except the brain is smart enough not to distort your girlfriend to a horse.....(unless your intoxicated with alcohol)
