Step into many dojos today and you’ll see students moving through kata and floor drills with a kind of casual rhythm. Their stances are loose, their strikes lack conviction, and their eyes drift as if the mind is somewhere else. The movements are performed, but the spirit is absent. This is not how martial arts…
The Forgotten Pillar of Self-Defense: Situational Awareness
In the realm of self-defense, there is one skill so foundational, so universally applicable, that its neglect borders on malpractice: situational awareness. Yet in far too many training halls, this essential concept is treated like an afterthought, relegated to a brief mention before the flashier techniques take center stage. Why? Because it’s not cinematic. It…
What is Missing
I’m not here to preach. I’m just an old martial arts instructor who’s seen a lot, too much. Maybe. I’ve watched generations grow, stumble, rise, and fall. But lately, something feels different. Not just in the dojo, but everywhere. In schools, online, in the streets. There’s a kind of emotional chaos that’s hard to ignore….
Crowds Can Kill: Riots, Protests, and Panic
We’ve all been in a crowd, a packed concert, a highwaytraffic, a rush-hour subway platform. Usually, it’s just an inconvenience. But a crowd has a mind of its own, and when that collective mind turns volatile, it can become one of the most dangerous forces on earth. In these high-density, high-stakes scenarios, the difference between…
The High Cost of Toughness
There’s a certain reverence in martial arts circles for the old-school mentality; the grit, the grind, the stoic endurance of pain. We’ve all heard it: “Push through.” “Pain is weakness leaving the body.” “Tape it up and keep going.” “Suck it up, buttercup.” “Walk it off.” Injuries, in this mindset, aren’t just inevitable. They’re worn…
Reflections on Aging in the Martial Arts
I turned 56 yesterday. That number feels different than the ones before it. Not heavier, but more textured. It carries decades of sweat, bruises, blood, breakthroughs, and quiet moments of clarity. It reminds me that I’ve spent most of my life in the martial arts and that the path I walk today looks different than…
What is “Re Tire?”
Recently, I shared that I’m beginning my 24th year with Chuck Norris’ Kickstart Kids. Twenty-four years of character-building, lesson planning, and watching young people grow into their best selves. It’s been a journey filled with grit, grace, and more than a few bruises. After that post, someone asked me a question I hadn’t considered in…
How the Martial Arts Build Essential Life Skills
As parents, we want our children and teens to succeed not just in school but in life. We sign them up for activities, hoping they’ll gain confidence, discipline, and maybe even learn a new skill. If your child is in martial arts, you might be focused on the physical benefits, the strength, coordination, and self-defense….
Still Going Strong: My 24th Year with Kickstart Kids
The ringing of the school bell. The odiferous scent of mats. The noise of the kids in the hall. For going on 24 years, these have been the backdrop to my life’s work as an instructor with Chuck Norris’ Kickstart Kids program. More than just teaching karate, I’ve been a part of a movement to…
Empowering Teens through the Martial Arts
I had a wonderful student years ago, and for our purposes here, we will call her Lisa, but that isn’t her real name. Lisa was not a bad kid by any stretch of the imagination. She did have some trauma in her life before she became my student. She also had some odd choices in…
I Love the Smell of Dit Da Jow in the Morning: A martial view at 55
I turned 55 at the beginning of October. I never had a thought that I would last this long, but here we are. As fate would have it, someone read an old post that I wrote when I turned 42, and in it, I wrote my thoughts on being an aging martial artist. I will…
My Take on Taekwondo
I’ve been very nostalgic lately. This post is a direct result of my thinking over the last few days. When I think of the 90s, especially the early to mid 90s, TKD memories tend to crowd out the more difficult things I went through. During my somewhat younger days and into middle age, I questioned…
A Teacher’s Reward Part 2
This is a repost of something I wrote years ago. Everything said here remains true. I updated where needed for accuracy. I started teaching martial arts a long time ago. When I started, my biggest passion was simply to share something I really love. For me and for many others like me, martial arts are…
Review: M-Tac Shoulder/Chest Pack
Today I will review the M-Tac Tactical shoulder/chest pack. I just wrote that in case you didn’t see the title of this post. I had been looking at cross body packs for concealed carry for a while. I looked at everything from garbage to insanely overpriced. In the end, I went with the M-Tac. I…
Be Here Now
It is a really simple concept in Zen, but it is terribly difficult for most people to pull off in reality. Be here now. I had a class working on a series of kicks using kicking shields. As I counted and the kiddos were “working”, they started talking about nonsense while kicking. There is a…
Review: The Iron Claw (movie)
So, this post is a bit off of my usual topics, but the people who truly know me know that I grew up in a house full of pro wrestling fans in Texas. Hell, I spent years working in the business of professional wrestling as a wrestler and one failed attempt as a promoter. The…
Lessons from the Samurai
I was sitting in the emergency room. I had undergone a routine procedure early that morning and gone home. The surgery had caused parts of the outer wall of an artery to be torn off. I managed to tear the rest of it open through the highly dangerous act of eating chicken soup. As time…
Do Something Worth Remembering
We had to make the trek down to Houston today. Anyone who knows me knows that Houston is not my favorite place. I’m the guy who posted once that “Happiness is Houston Texas in my rearview mirror.” But since we had no choice about going, we decided to make the most of it. We drove…
Review: Springfield Saint Victor
Presented here is my review of the Springfield Saint Victor, first hundred rounds, as well as some thoughts for anyone considering an AR-15 purchase. The gun is an AR-15 platform rifle, 16 inch barrel, 1:8, a full-length 15″ M-Lok® free-float handguard, flat face trigger which is nickle boron coated, mid-length gas system, 5.56, spring-loaded adjustable…
Concealed Carry: Notes on 5 Years In
I had to renew my license to carry this year. Texas issues such licenses for five years, and it didn’t dawn on me immediately that I’ve been carrying for five years. I decided to share some of my thoughts on concealed carry now that I have been doing it for a while. License not required…
Shotgun or AR for Home Defense?
When it comes to facing the many choices available in terms of home defense, decisions can be difficult. What follows is only my opinion, agree or disagree, I am just putting this out there because I was asked. Handgun or Long Gun I would recommend the long gun in almost every home defense situation. With…
Old Dog, New Tricks
If you ever reach a point where you think there is nothing left to learn in your chosen field, you are only fooling yourself. I have spent decades in the study of self-defense/self-protection and this week I had an eye-opening moment during a presentation from a young instructor named Mike Pana, an instructor from the…
When Injury Takes a Toll
Through the years I have had many setbacks in training. I suffered some pretty serious damage to my knee in my early teens. This single injury resulted in several more injuries through the course of my life, and today I have what I call a bad knee, and a worse knee. Of course, the knee…
The Weight of the World
I had the chance to take some time away. It was needed, and it have me a new perspective. For a start, we went to the State that I long to call home, Colorado. We spent a few days wandering the awe inspiring sights around Colorado Springs. My new favorite place on earth is the…
Review: Martial Arts and Your Life
The following is a review of Martial Arts and Your Life, a new book by Lawrence A. Kane and Kris Wilder. Condensed version: I loved and believe you will too. Longer version: Last summer I got an email asking if I would be interested in participating in a survey for a Martial Arts book. I…
Review: Colt 1911 Combat Commander
Being a revolver guy, I never thought I could be turned into a 1911 guy. And, here we are. Today I will review the Colt Combat Commander in 45 ACP, first impressions, first 100 rounds, the Urban Carry Lock Leather IWB holster, and the Underwood Ammo .45 ACP +P 230gr. Jacketed Hollow Point Hunting &…
Top 5 Impractical Guns (That I Want Anyway)
This post was written mostly as a joke on a friend of mine who went from writing in SEO (search engine optimization) to actually speaking it. I say mostly a joke because I actually want these guns. Humble apologies for the annoying writing style. Today I am going to offer my Top Five Impractical Guns…
Why Are Pro-Gun People Against “Universal Background Checks”?
What follows is based on an answer I gave to a friend on why pro-gun rights folk are so dead-set against the cute sounding “Universal Background Checks” that are yet again being presented as a “common-sense” gun control measure that will “save lives”. Here is the basic rejection, we already have background checks on all…
EDC Knife: Smith and Wesson First Response
So the time has come to retire the Kershaw Black Horse. It has been my EDC knife since the 1980’s. It has been reliable, indestructible, and completely and totally badass since day one. But, it is dated, and there are designs that have since come out that are more appealing to me at this stage…
Kane and Wilder: 10 Rules of Karate
I wanted to give a quick review of the latest from Lawrence Kane and Kris Wilder called 10 Rules of Karate, the immutable path to victory. Here is what I wrote for the authors: “In your hands is a book that cuts straight through the chatter and gets straight to the point of unarmed self-defense….
2A: How to Help
I typically focus only on problems under my direct influence. There are an eff ton of issues going on right now that would stress me beyond the ability of my BP meds to keep me among the living. So, I place my attention on things I can control, makes my life easier. However, I have…
AR-15’s, Home Defense, and Politics
By now, everyone has an opinion on the AR-15 and whether or not civilians have any “need” for owning one. In this offering, I will be making my stance clear, and offering my reasons for taking said stance. But I will also take a look at how this has become a political issue and how…
Not Quite End of the Year Updates
Well, for having so much free time this year, I have not really done a lot of writing here on my beloved blog. In the words from an email from a longtime reader, “What gives?” I would like to say that the reason was the enormous interest in the Stand and Fight seminars, but the…
Home Defense Against a Mob
Since posting this, I have read more information on the events that occurred. I was unaware that the number of protesters was over 200 people, or that the sidewalk in a gated community is private property. I was also unaware that the protesters tore the gate down. I am leaving the post up because, regardless…
What Unites Us
I’ve spent a lot of time thinking. Stressing too! I managed to get my blood pressure all out of whack again, so there’s that. I don’t intend to get political here, no matter what I say in that realm, I will lose half of my audience. And people are on edge these days too. But…
Advice for New Gun Owners
With everything that has been going on, from pandemic to antifa, there are a lot of people who have been buying guns, and most of the recent gun sales have been to new gun owners, first-time gun buyers. Owning a gun is a pretty serious responsibility, and as such, there are some things that first-time…
How to Thrive in this Pandemic
 Photo by Edward Jenner on Pexels.com There have been a lot of questions coming in about surviving the current pandemic. I do not want this information to become too dated, I would like for it to still be relative for the future as well as now, so I will approach this about surviving the…
2A: Lessons from the COVID-19 Shutdown
My last post was about staying safe in the current situation with coronavirus and the shutdowns and all of the panicked buying going on, supply shortages, etc. As this thing is affecting all of us, I had hoped to assuage my beloved reader’s thoughts. This time around, I am looking at a specific action being…
Corona Virus: Common Sense
I do not take the needless deaths of anyone lightly. People have died from the Coronavirus or COVID-19. Having said that, there are some behaviors that are occurring that are truly bazaar, and some basic common sense that is not common practice, and some emails asking me about this entire mess, and I feel compelled…
Top 3 Concealed Carry 1st Gun Mistakes
Based in part from the questions I get from my readers, and in part from conversations with people who have told me of their own mistakes, as well as those I made on the way here, I have decided to put together my list of the top three 1st carry gun mistakes people make. As…
EDC: Colt Night Cobra
When I first entered into the gun community, I knew next to nothing about firearms and the many different things to consider when purchasing a firearm. I bought a revolver that was too big to conceal, and then bought a full-sized semi-auto when I was looking toward a carry gun. Being an absurdly large human,…
Kickstart Kids Sponsorship Drive
Would you like to help Kickstart Kids help impact the lives of our students? The annual Sponsorship drive runs through February 7th. Click here and order your t-shirt, an awesome shirt celebrating the 80th Birthday of Grandmaster Chuck Norris! It is as simple as clicking the link and placing your order! If you want to…
The Logical End of Gun Control Debate
After every mass shooting, there is an immediate push for gun control. This is a knee-jerk reaction for some people who fret about how somebody needs to do something. There are, of course, politicians who have their agenda. When faced with the fact that there are more privately owned guns in America than there are people,…
Lessons Learned: Sometimes it’s the Gun
Longtime readers will recall a few years ago, when I first purchased a gun and began my journey on learning about and becoming proficient in firearms that I really struggled with it. I documented here, and here, and here that I was having a ton of trouble gaining any kind of accuracy. As this was…
Welcome to 2020, Happy New Year
Happy New Year! Last year was filled with many events, challenges, triumphs, and pain. I crossed over into the 50 and up age group and realized that I had become one of the martial artists who seem to be the ones that, the older I get, the better I used to be. I released a…
A Church Shooting
There was a Church shooting in White Settlement, Texas, today. The currently unidentified gunman killed two and injured two before being killed by two members of security. I was asked about this, and my answer is this, in our day and age, if you are licensed to carry, and you opt to not carry in Church, you…
Social Media Pitfalls
As of this writing, it was about a week ago that I deleted all social media from my phone. I almost never use social media from any other device, so this was a pretty big step. The reasons I decided to do this were twofold. One, I was spending entirely too much time and energy…
5 Things Men Should Know by Age 50
I turned Fifty years old this week. Holy crap, if I had been given any clue that I would live this long, I would have taken better care of myself. I have lived a pretty exciting life, from my perspective. I am going to present here my list of ten things every man should know…
Stand and Fight
I don’t recommend that anyone study what I study. The people who study what I study don’t sleep. The people who study what I study stay angry. The people who study what I study know what people are willing to do to each other. We stumble across trends in violence. We see different groups of…
Who is Responsible for Your Safety?
In our time we have a lot of luxuries, things our forebears never even dreamed of having. World travel is quick, the temperature is easily controlled, and all of the information from the entire history of mankind is accessible from a phone. Our society is, relatively speaking, peaceful and safe. There are bad people, but…
Mass Shootings: Do You Really Care?
At this writing, there was a mass shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas yesterday, and another in Dayton, Ohio overnight. I am saddened by the shootings and disgusted by the public response. In this post, I am going to point out where so many people who think that they care are really showing…
RIPBianca: A Case Study in Safe Habits Online
I wanted to stay a little more lighthearted for a while after some of the more serious issues that we have discussed here, but fate’s big ol’ ugly face jumped in and changed those plans. I present this with a heavy heart as it is a terribly disturbing story, and it highlights some of the…
How Far Are You Willing to Go?
When it comes to personal safety, one of the things that I really try to bring home to my students is a simple concept. How far are you willing to go to ensure that you get out of the situation in one piece? This simple question will give you a pretty clear idea on whether…
Seeking Attention/Fame on Social Media
This post is a bit outside of my normal topic range. But seeking fame or even just attention on social media can put you in danger of a whole host of problems, from jail time to death threats. Today we are going to look at some social media attempts at fame that went wrong. We…
Your Own Worst Enemy
One of my all-time favorite movies is Oh Brother Where Art Thou. I have many times over watched it just for the music. But the story itself has always been something entertaining. It dawned on me the other day that there was something else about the movie that struck me, even though I had left…
Cold Steel 1917 Frontier Bowie
I have added to the armory (again). I have been looking for a high-end Bowie knife for a while. I own a good budget Bowie but I have never owned one that would be good in a survival situation. The one I have is razor sharp, but it is made of a somewhat thin piece…
The Phoenix
While I was born in Austin, in the Republic of Texas, part of my childhood was spent in Phoenix, Arizona. I was sick a lot as a kid and almost died from pneumonia twice before I was five years old during my time there. At some point in my life before anything left as a…
Why go there?
I was asked a question regarding the new book, The Blood of our Fathers. As it was something I had not considered prior to the release of the book, I decided to give a longer version of my answer here, just in case any of my readers had the same question in mind regarding the book….
An Open Letter to the Anti Gun Folks
To those who are against gun ownership, In the self-defense industry, we speak of an action called othering. This is an action, deliberate or otherwise, where we separate our humanity from that of someone who is different from us. We classify ourselves as the ins, and those other people are the outs. And never the…
The Blood of our Fathers
This post was written while I was in the final editing stage of the book. The Blood of our Fathers is available now. Click here. Been gone a while. I have been writing a lot, but not here. I am about to release a new book. I have been absent from this blog because of…
Home Invasion
In the United States, there is about one home invasion every two minutes. The fact that we have about 320,000,000 people in this country allows us the freedom to entertain the thought that this sort of thing only happens to other people. But what if it wasn’t happening to another person? What if it is…
Playing with Fire
It is impossible to take a look at the news without seeing people throwing tantrums, or threatening violence. I understand being frustrated with politicians. I get that some people do not like the people in charge. But I think that, regardless of political belief doctrine, things can and should be handled better than this. Throwing…
This Just in: MMA is Old School
Debates in the martial arts can range from really important ideas to silly minutia. One argument tends to be that old school was the BEST school. I admit, I am old school, and believe that old school training is far superior in many ways to anything offered in new school martial arts. Having said that, I…
Review: Survive a Shooting by Alain Burrese
Before I begin today, I want to first be up-front with everyone. I have known Alain for quite some time via electronic correspondence. Have not yet met face-to-face, but I know from his video instruction, as well as our in-depth conversations, that he really knows his stuff. He is just about as honest and as…
Cobra Kai!
This is the first of my reviews section. I will be reviewing books, martial arts related shows (when they turn up), and various self-defense weapons and products. I have taken a break from some of the heavier topics I have covered lately and even taken a break from the news. Those projects are ongoing but…
Gratitude for Personal Safety
Have you ever hurt yourself and immediately said a swear word? *raises hand, looks around and sees everyone else looking at their feet* Oh. Well, some people respond to self-injury with loud profanity. I learned it at an early age. It was quite common on the construction sites that I grew up working on. So…
Politically Based Violence
It was noted by a longtime reader and email acquaintance that there has been a political undercurrent in my recent posts. I teach and write primarily to help people learn how to stay safe in a crazy age. There is a lot of political anger in our time, and I am not of the mind…
Time for a Talk
Time for a chat. Pour a cup o’ coffee and get comfortable. I am sure that underdeveloped critical thinking skills come into play as far as a root cause for today’s topic, at least to some degree for some people. To tell the truth, I am absolutely certain that the culture of instant gratification comes…
Concealed Carry Thoughts
While I was going through my emails, I saw a number of questions about concealed carry and my thoughts on different aspects of the subject. I would like to address some of that here. What follows is merely opinion and observation. Anti-gun people like to paint with a pretty broad brush when they characterize pro-gun…
Giving Yourself an Edge
There are a lot of questions that come in regarding knives for self-defense. Obviously, a gun is a better tool for self-defense overall, but different circumstances, perhaps restrictive laws, may make this more difficult, or impossible for some people. The next step down is a blade. Thank God I live in Texas where, if I…
Dangerous Times
I am not an alarmist and have been one of those calling out the self-defense instructors who try to gain students by exaggerating the threat we face in our day to day life. But, there are some things going on that need to be watched, and possibly toned down to avoid running off of a…
Social Media and Social Issues
I will do my best to keep this pretty generic, but many of my readers will know what I am talking about. Every week we seem to have a new cause, issue, or topic we are told to be enraged about. People who do not fall for the hype are categorized as heartless, stupid, and…
See the Good, Prepare for the Bad
I get emails from people who see the world in a way that is different from my own nearly every day. Most of the emails are kind and I love hearing positive feedback, even from people who disagree with me. It gives me hope that much of what we see from the media is the…
Three (not so) Little Monkeys
I read a lot. Sometimes my brain makes connections between what I am reading and what I teach. This is what I have for you today. It is not a theory of everything, it is not even a complete position. Think of it more as a point of departure. What follows is my brain droppings after…
The Texas Plan for School Safety
I took some time to really read the plan put forward by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, and, setting aside all of the craziness that followed its release, I looked at this in the spirit of searching for the best answers to a horrendous problem. Like anyone else, I looked at this and saw a lot…
Santa Fe, Tx School Shooting
I’m tired of this cycle. People are dying and the only response is virtue signaling and talking points. Here is what matters first: Secure the schools. Bring in armed guards, and secure the schools. Any so-called solution that you want to put forward that does not start with securing the schools tells me in no…
License to Carry Test
Today I finally went in to take the LTC (License to Carry) class, written test, and firearm accuracy test. It took the better part of the day to get everything done, and I want to share some of the insights I had today as things progressed. It was actually just a few years ago that…
Blame Game
The anti-gun crowd wants to lay the blame at the feet of every person who supports gun rights. They are using kids as puppets to beg for the removal of 2nd Amendment rights. They brag about the support for their cause from other countries as if such support matters. They blame NRA members for the…
A Case for the AR-15 for Home Defense
Due in no small part to the negligence of the news media and their failure in honestly informing the general public, the dreaded AR-15 rifle is probably the most misunderstood firearm out there right now. And lately, the mantra of nobody needs an AR-15 has been taken out, dusted off and given some very extensive…
An Open Letter to America’s Youth
To the Young People: Guns. I know that you have strong feelings on this subject, but if you would please humor me and read what I have to say here, this is from the heart. In the end, if you disagree with me, no harm done – disagreement is as American as apple pie and…
Defensive Ammo
When considering your choice of defensive ammunition, there are a few factors to keep in mind. Much like your choice of firearm for self-defense, the ammunition you use is important and you have to keep certain things in mind. In my .357 Magnum, the defensive load I keep is the Federal Premium Personal Defense. I…
Mat Chat: Try a Little Kindness
I had a talk with my students today. We are working on finding ways to make acts of kindness. I thought I would share some of that here today, with a little extra because most of my readers are grown adults. If you stop and think about it, there is probably at least one person…
The Real Issues
I think it is cute how when you try to point and get your dog to look at something, they look at your finger. We tend to project our ideas and intent so well that we assume that the dog knows we mean Hey, look over there. When a dog does it, it is very cute…
Mass Shootings and U.S. Media
Do you ever ask why we never hear much about those times when a bad guy breaks into the wrong home and gets blown away by an armed homeowner? Does it ever cross your mind to think about how in the event someone is killing innocents and is killed by the proverbial Good Guy with a Gun that…
Parkland Florida Thoughts
Once again an armed attack on a school has brought out the worst on both sides of the gun debate. Lives were lost, and people were still learning what had happened and who the victims were when the talking heads start prattling on about gun control. I have been asked, and here are my somewhat…
Home Defense Firearms
A lot of email inquiries come in about choice of firearms for home defense. There are a lot of choices out there and a lot of things to consider. If I am to respond honestly, I will tell you that anytime anyone answers this question, they are merely giving their opinion. My answer here is…
Caricatures of Characters
A while back I wrote a few posts on people assuming digital identities and from the safety of home, acting out in ways which were totally unlike their actual self. Lately, I have been concerned with another issue. This has to do with the way in which people are approaching real life, actual reality as…
On Bullying
There have been several highly publicized news stories on people who were bullied and ended up committing suicide, even one that I read was only 10 years old. There was also a viral video online of a parent interviewing her crying son on the subject of his experiences of being bullied. I am going to…
NICS: Flaws and Solutions
Due in large part to the way in which people are assuming roles as if they are in a movie, my correspondence after shooting events such as Sutherland Springs, Texas tend to be one extreme or the other. On the one hand, I hear from people who say, how does it feel to advocate ownership of firearms and…
Common Sense Gun Laws
I had a family emergency which resulted in my extended absence from this blog. I have not been ignoring the questions and emails which have come in, I was just not in any shape to do anything. While things have settled, this is a situation that cannot be cured, only endured. Those who know me…
Vegas: Conspiracies, Doubts, and Lies
After a good number of questions coming in following my thoughts on the attack in Las Vegas with an up-front lean toward accepting one or another of the many conspiracy “theories”, I have opted to put some thoughts together on this, and hopefully in some small way get people focused back on the truth instead…
Left-Handed Shooting in a Right-Handed World
There are many guns on the market that have certain ambidextrous features. There are some that have interchangeable options for the left-handed shooter. And there are some designed specifically for lefties. Those guns designed for the left-handed were far and away out of my price range. Nothing that appealed to me had the left-handed options….
The Lies of the Gun Control Crowd
**This is a post I started before the attack in Las Vegas. I have made some edits to it since then and present it here* By default, what follows is political in nature in the U.S. The issue of firearms and gun control has been so distorted by politicians that well-meaning and intelligent people are…
A Lie Agreed Upon
In the aftermath of a tragedy, such as the horrible attack in Las Vegas, we seem to all agree upon a lie. Our politicians and our media are clearly disconnected from the facts of our everyday lives. They do not see what is in plain sight of everyone willing to open their eyes and see….
Las Vegas Attack
I woke up this morning, the occasion of my 48th birthday, to read about the terrible events which happened in Las Vegas last night. At about 10:00 PM the shooting began. Just before 11:30 the Las Vegas Police gained entry into the shooter’s room and found him dead of a self-inflicted shot. During the elapsed…
New Book Project Taking Shape
I want to get a quick update out for those who are interested. I have been a bit removed from this blog, but not from writing. I have three books and my first crack at writing a novel in the works. But recently I have had some pieces fall into place that have allowed for…
Wallace Smedley 