Rodney's Personal MA Blog
Rodneys Personal MA Blog
The personal blog of Rodney King, Founder of the Crazy Monkey Defense Program

  • Why Men Really Do Martial Arts (Part 1)
    By Rodney King RSME Martial arts in the 21st Century are a interesting phenomena. I would suggest that out of all the people who participate in some form of martial art training today 99% are most likely men. If the statistics on our YouTube channel are anything to go by, then this is a very accurate figure. Why don’t woman seek out the martial arts the way men do? Are woman not as concerned about their safety as men are? We can argue that woman are in far more danger from physical violence than men are, yet the numbers of woman who are attracted to martial arts tend to be very low. Most men who practice martial arts will never use it outside the Dojo. Yet each week they gather together in groups with mainly other men and ritualistically go through sequences of moves both in attack and defense. They all intently stare up at the Master, who they see as the holder of the secrets to physical powers they so desperately want to possess. After training they all sit around in a circle talking about what each other would do if they had to use what they had learnt for real or swap war stories. This brings me to an interesting conclusion. My conclusion is that the pursuit of martial art practice by many men has little or nothing to do with self-defense proficiency as they proclaim. I believe that pursuit of martial art skill by most men has little or nothing to do with attaining physical skill. These are simply metaphors for what they truly seek. Their pursuit of martial skills goes far deeper, into the hidden and often forgotten crevices of the male psyche in the 21st century. These crevices are the real male needs to express their masculine energy. It’s about trying to find ways to discover their masculinity. In martial arts some of this need is met through games, exhibitions of strength and the use of strategy to outwit other men. I believe the need by men to express their masculine energy through martial arts is about finding a way to become strong- not physically but spiritually- a way to confront their weaknesses and overcome them. It is a call to the hero’s journey- stepping into the unknown, taking the risk, being guided by a mentor, fighting the dragon and ultimately winning the prize.

  • CMD’s Heroes Journey & The Emergence Of The Embodied-Warrior
    By Rodney King RSME I'm full of fire, full of anger, and full of hate. I'm haunted by the dreams that keep me up late. I'm full of love, full of happiness, and full of joy. But I still am confused if I'm a man or just a boy. FROM THE POEM MY NATIVE WARRIOR BY MIKELA JONES What is the healthiest form and expression of what it means to be a man in our postmodern times? The question of what it means to be a man today or the role of the masculine principle in society is rarely spoken about. During the shift from the modern to the postmodern era, a lot of traditional male structures where called into question by the emergence of the women’s movement and the liberation of feminine principles (Often for very good reasons). In doing so however I feel it has gone to far by denying that there are any inherent traits that define men as different to woman, and that these unique traits do not need to be expressed at various stages of a mans development. While it has been widely acknowledged over the past years the importance for woman to clarify a new and more evolved sense of their own identify, men have been feminized and their uniqueness in my opinion has been lost in a confused state of overkill. This is largely due to the attempt to define everything as a construct of social culture or that we have finally transcended masculine and feminine differences.

  • Evolution, 'Extreme' Martial Art Expression & CMD’s Solution!
    By Rodney King RSME Why do so many men, especially young men (18-24) hook into the extreme reality based martial art schools even though, most will never find themselves in a position to use what they have been taught outside of the Dojo? The answer I believe is evolution. From an evolutionary standpoint our brain and its extension of mind, evolved to survive in a world full of danger. The primitive ‘mind’ of our ancestors was essentially a ‘don’t get killed device’. Our brains did not evolve to feel good or tell jokes but rather to be very skilled at predicting and avoiding danger. One can imagine that our primitive ancestors spent a lot of time predicting, avoiding, assessing and judging danger. These where very useful mental tools to have in a world full of danger around every corner! Even a cursory look at testosterone- which men are often accused of having way too much off- is a necessary evolutionary requirement, as it affects key cognitive functions such as attention, memory, and spatial ability. Preliminary evidence for example suggests that low testosterone levels may be a risk factor for cognitive decline. Without these evolutionary adaptations of the brain, one could surmise that human beings would no longer be on this planet and although we have evolved higher brain functions, our evolutionary primitive brain still remains. Along with all its adaptations.

  • Three kinds of martial artists
    I have always felt there are three kinds of ‘martial artists 1.Those who practice it 2.Those who use it to feed their neurosis 3.Those who live it through positive action Those who practice it do so out of curiosity. Maybe they are looking for a way to drop some weight, get in shape or even manage their stress. It’s more like a hobby to them, they come to lesson and then they don’t. They are often hard to motivate and to get them to see the bigger picture of what martial arts can truly offer them. Some of them do cross over to the bigger picture of martial arts in time if exposed to a martial arts life approach, but more often than not go on to dabble in other sports or extramural activities.

  • I Need To Test My Skills!
    If a tree falls down in the forest and nobody hears it did it make a noise? This question has long held philosophical debate and central to the argument of consciousness. The question is really asking, that if you where not present at the falling of the tree, would it still make a sound? What does this have to do with martial arts? I am using this question analogous to another similar phenomena I often see in the world of combative sports. One of the things I often hear from those wanting to compete in mixed martial arts, boxing, submission wrestling or kickboxing events is “I want to see how I do against people from all over the world”, “other gyms”, “I want to see my skill for myself” or “I want to test myself”.