What is a paper tiger? A paper tiger is a martial arts school and or instructor that is afraid to engage in sparring outside of their own dojo. The term was shared with me last night at black belt sparring by a fellow black belt, who’s son trains at Jett Garner Martial Arts.  Here is the deal- Jett Garner Martial Arts hosts black belt sparring every Friday at our dojo in Westlake. We usually have a turn out of six to twelve black belts from all over Austin. Recently, I felt the Friday Night Fights have been getting a little stale. So, I took the time to invite other black belts from other...

Sparring is an excellent way to get in shape and learn to enforce your will upon another trained fighter. It also allows you to deal with a fight scenario with understood and known rules, without risking too much bodily harm. However, with sparring the occasional injury will occur. Does being a good sparring fighter or tournament fighter mean you will be a good street fighter? Absolutely not. Defending yourself on the street versus sparring in the dojo are as different as cats and tigers. Some vague similarities with a common genesis long ago, however the similarities stop there. At Jett Garner Martial...

People ask me all of the time about the differences between our Krav Maga and my traditional Goju-ryu Karate program. There are some massive philosophical differences. This would take an entire essay to sort through. But, even more stunning than the differences are the similarities. I see massive similarities between Martial Arts and religion. Most of the mainstream religions I have studied or practiced have differences in philosophy, differences in traditions, but ultimately have the same goals. Those goals include living as a good person, with good values, avoiding sin, and hopefully living eternally...

Jett Garner Martial Arts has had an opportunity to train with an active United States Marine during the last few weeks. He is on temporary leave as he and his wife are expecting a baby any day now. As most Marines, he has a desire to keep busy, fit, and engaged so to speak while on leave. So, for the last three to four weeks he has been training at JGMA.  He is ultra aggressive, very diligent, extremely committed to whatever drill we practice, and possesses a passion for kicking butt in class. This is the very mentality that we at JGMA try to attain for all of our students. He will be off to active...

We’ve entered our third month of being an Official Krav Maga Training Center. So far so good. Growth is good. The truly outstanding feature of this three month endeavor is the awesome work ethic of the Westlake Krav Maga students, and the level of commitment and passion they bring to their training. We’re slightly smaller than I had hoped we’d be by mid-July, however the quality of the members whom have signed up is extremely impressive.  We improve with every class. We get more fit and more confident with every class. We train harder with every class. Keep it...

I was asked by a student what that if a person only could learn one self defense technique- what would it be? Great question.  My first thought was the mind or more specifically awareness. Thus, I provided that answer. Said student then qualified the question as only one physical self defense technique. I pondered longer. Basically, my answer went like this- There is not a single sure fire money in the bag self defense martial art technique that will conquer every situation.  A system should be deep enough to cover the general spectrum of attacks, yet thin and simple enough that one’s mind...