Hurricane Harvey hit Texas and flooded the southeast portion of my home State. I have read reports that the rainfall totals broke continental records. Since such totals have been recorded, there has not been this much rainfall on the North American Continent. What I will be looking at today is something that caught my attention as events…
Charlottesville: Hard Truths
At this writing, we are a few days removed from some terrible events in Charlottesville Virginia. I have been asked for thoughts and advice, and that is the only reason for this post. I do not want to touch this subject at all and will try to keep things within the confines of the intended…
Martial Arts Cults
There are martial arts groups and organizations that engage in some borderline cult behavior. There are some that push things much further. Today I want to look at some of the characteristics that should be red flags that you are participating in a martial arts cult. Cult status is going to require more than proclaiming that one…
Start Where You Are
If you are one of the lucky people who are a classic natural, congratulations, but you don’t need to read this one. This is for those of us who are imperfect and full of flaws and shortcomings. Many people make unwarranted assumptions. For me, it is often assumed that because of my enormous size that I…
A Texan walks into a bar with a sword on his hip…
…and gets arrested. There has been a lot of talk about the changes to Texas law concerning larger knives. I wrote an article recently on the subject, as I am excited that in Texas, the Bowie knife will no longer be considered illegal. Mostly. We have been allowed to purchase and own them, but we…
Tacti-cool or Practi-cool
A couple of years ago, my Wife purchased a cane for me. I didn’t need one at the time, but it was a safe bet that I would like it because it was no ordinary cane, it was an ax cane! The edge is sharp as heck and the polymer construction makes it very sturdy….
Prioritize Reality
Recently I wrote an article and mentioned, just as an example, the way martial artists will bicker over minutia such as the proper way an attacker will hold a knife. This led to some follow-up emails. Most were friendly, some were whatta ya mean by this? So, I want to address this in a little more…
Protecting Your Kids
Today I will be answering the questions which came to me from many different people via email that all boiled down to one thing – How can I keep my kids safe? To give a really blunt answer, you can’t. There is nothing you can do that will keep your child 100% safe from all possible…
Is Any Training Better Than No Training?
I had a person this week find offense with something I say quite often – Any training is better than no training. It is a statement that I am willing and prepared to defend. And so it will be our topic this week. It is often ignored in the martial arts that a person with no training can seriously…
Gun Control: Lullabies, Legends, and Lies
There was a high-profile shooting yesterday which brought out the typical news media routine of spin the back story on the shooter and deflect the incident into a conversation on gun control, or as they want to call it now gun safety or ending gun violence. The problem starts with a lack of understanding personal responsibility, the shooter…
Knife Law Changes Coming to Texas
In Texas, there are some possible changes coming to laws that affect how we are able to defend ourselves and our loved ones from the various threats we might face. I have been asked and will give my thoughts on the topic. I’m not good at blindly following the typical party line answers, so I…
Essential Ingredients: Commitment
Many people who know me know that I spent a part of my younger days working as a Pro Wrestler. It was a very fun time for me, and at the time I had no responsibilities to anyone other than myself, so travel, injuries, and other assorted difficulties were of little concern to me. I was…
Essential Ingredients: Fighting Fitness
There are a lot of excuses given for not exercising, I’ve heard them all and used many of them myself. For many years, I really let myself go. I ate inhuman quantities of whatever I wanted and didn’t care. I have a picture of myself with Chuck Norris, and I love the picture but hate…
Essential Ingredients: Willingness
In the late 1980’s I was working on a construction site as a part of a masonry crew. I was a teen at the time. The scaffolding was…we will just say that it was not set in any way that would be approved by even a drunk safety inspector. There was a stack of 2X12 in….
Essential Ingredients: Toughness
Some elements of real safety are talked about so much that people get tired of hearing about it. I remember losing several subscribers after publishing an article on awareness. Nevermind that if you don’t know what’s going on around you, you have zero chance of defending yourself against it. But there are other elements, essential…
Pigeonholes and Othering
In our time, people have begun a dangerous practice of self-segregation. Of course, this is not what it is called, as that would be too honest, and one thing our society will not tolerate is honesty. It seems innocent enough in the way it is presented and practiced. To start things rolling, we are not…
“What’s Up With the Guns?”
During a recent conversation with one of my adult students, there was a question that came up. “I saw the change in the title of your Facebook page. ‘Martial arts, sharp things, and guns.’ What’s up with the guns?” Now, my student accepted my answer and moved on to another topic without missing a beat….
When Students Leave for Good
I am facing the truth that a couple of my long-term students are about to go off to college, and I am facing the fact that there is no telling when I will see them again. This is a post based on the random thoughts that I tried to bring into something resembling a blog…
Full Circle: The End is Where We Started
A question was posed to me this week that I had to really think about in order to properly frame an answer. That Question: How far behind can a person leave their martial arts center before they are unable to return to that center? Some years back, much of it chronicled on this blog, I…
Self-Defense from a Diminished Capacity
Everyone has strengths and weaknesses. Regardless of style and system, we all learn to emphasize our strengths and minimize our weaknesses. But what about those times when we, for whatever reason, are less than 100%. That is our topic this week. Quick background information as we begin. On Saturday, April 22, the KickStart Kids State Karate Championships…
The Fear of Making Mistakes and Failing
Most people live their life with two major fears hanging over their head, the fear of making mistakes and the fear of failing. Often these are the very people who wish for the dazzling success of the leaders in different fields. But the leaders in any field, in many ways, are not really that different from…
Catch What is Right, Correct What is Wrong
Many years ago, there was a standard style of teaching martial arts. Stand at the front of the class, and bark commands. As the number of martial arts schools expanded and schools began competing over a small number of students, different styles of teaching emerged. Some had benefits, others did not. Of course, there are…
Unintended Consequences: What’s the worst that can happen?
Very often, too often if you really think about it, people find themselves stirred into an emotional frenzy over things that their chosen, and therefore trusted news provider has told them is important. And people are often so worked up over the way a new law or program or ideology might fix a problem that they never…
Eat Bitter
You read that right, I said eat bitter. I did not mean eat better. I cut my teeth in the traditional Chinese martial arts, and there is a common saying that translates into English as eat bitter. This is essentially a common sense idea that you have to put in the work in order to enjoy…
The “Teach Men Not to Rape” Line
So, I was scrolling through my Facebook so-called newsfeed. When something caught my eye. It was a comment by a former student on a post shared by another former student of mine. Before we continue, I need to stress, nothing contained herein is an attack of any sort on my former students. They are wonderful people…
Victim vs. Personal Responsibility
A long time ago, there was a concept in this Country that gave us great strength and, indeed, power. It was the concept of personal responsibility. The idea that you can work and earn. The idea of saving to buy. The notion that every dog has his day. These were all as American as apple…
New Terrorist Method and Response
With the use of cars to run over people, followed by knives to kill more, and questions from readers coming in, I decided to take a look at this new modus operandi of the terrorists. And wouldn’t you know, it isn’t new at all. My mind was preoccupied with the horrible news coming out of London, without making…
The 2nd Amendment
In the United States, the first ten amendments are what is known as The Bill of Rights. As an armchair student of U.S. history, I could write quite a bit about the Constitution and the founding of our Nation. It would be a little out of place here, and so I will stick to one issue here….
Anger Management
Have you ever said words in a moment of anger that you wish you had not? Do you have a long list of moments where you wish you had a do-over? What about your circle of friends and loved ones, do they wish you could control your temper? Anger is one of those pesky parts of…
Trigger Warning: I Don’t Do Trigger Warnings
I do love when I hear from readers. Just the simple fact that someone cares enough about what I write to contact me is a big deal to me. Even when people hate something I write, I enjoy a good debate when we are able to discuss differing ideas. I know I am not the…
Range Time
I promised a follow-up to my First Impressions article about the Walther Creed. Here it is. Although the weekend was busy with a North Texas Regional Karate Championships to prepare and direct for KickStart Kids, I snuck away for a few minutes on Sunday morning to try out the new Creed. I had never loaded…
Walther Creed: First Impressions
My Wife is one in a million. A couple of weeks ago she told me, “You need to get around and get your LTC!” (License to Carry, in Texas, formerly Concealed Carry or Concealed Handgun License). I responded that my handgun wasn’t good for concealed carry. For those of you who are new here, my…
The ‘Butthurt’ Excuse
Yes, I’m aware that the word butthurt has some unpleasant connotations. But I chose it after careful consideration. I hope I can be forgiven. People are very quick to excuse their own bad behavior. People are blisteringly quick to condemn the poorly thought-out actions of others, but the excuse-without-thought for their own action is of comparable speed….
When People ‘Hate on you’
Emails come in, and I do my best to respond in a timely manner, but with only 24 hours in a day, and sooooo many distractions, as well as only being able to live in the now, sometimes my replies are late. Case in point here. It has been about a week since I was asked how…
Folding Knives
Questions turn up repeatedly regarding different tools and methods and in general, people seem to want a confirmation that their view is best. Another possibility is an attempt to start an argument. I’m not trying to seem jaded, but the actual desire to hear another person’s opinion is rare in my experience. It is like…
People Skills and (Anti)Social Media
So much of your personal safety can be covered in developing your ability to interact with others as equals. There has been an increase in the attitude of superiority by different groups, and this can and does lead to conflict. Social media allows people to express their opinion, but there is a strange piling on…
KICKSTART KIDS Sponsorship Drive
It is that time of year again! Kickstart Kids is a non-profit organization that teaches Character Through Karate. We operate in schools around the State of Texas offering a martial arts class as an alternate PE credit elective, and we work with some of the best kids in the State. We give them a place…
What Would You Do?
This footage is not graphic. It is probably disturbing to people who do not understand this type of violence or prefer to pretend such things never happen. I think it offers a chance for some reflection on our state of mind and how we might react to such an occurrence. Take a moment and watch….
A Teacher’s Reward
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 more of an approach to life than a sport or hobby. If you have ever had a moment where you have…
Mailbag: Active Shooter Question
With the random shooter attack in Florida, I am wondering if you could give us some advice on what to do if we are caught in a place where this happens? Ryan B., Fort Worth Texas My advice would be the same for the airport scenario as for any other active shooter situation. What do you…
Digital Self-Defense
In our time we have seen the rise of the highly opinionated, poorly informed, easily offended, self-righteous, self-promoting, vociferous, obnoxious, feisty-yet-spineless, anti-bully, cry-bully, cry-baby, my-mom-says-I’m-special-like-a-snowflake generation. It is easy to dismiss them as cupcakes, but this does not give a real picture of the coincidence of opposites they truly are that makes them such a…
Year End/New Year Post
As 2016 is finally in its death throes, and 2017 is racing headlong into our collective faces, I thought I would share with you a few items of what is in the works here. First, I want to thank those of you still here. Our subscriber list went up and down a bit, but ended…
Marlin 1895 Rifle
A few people have asked, so here is the answer, yes, the lever-action rifle that is a part of the random banner images is mine. It is a Marlin 1895 lever-action rifle chambered in 45-70 Government. It is a gun type that has appealed to me for a long time. The lever-action guns are pure…
Strength in Numbers?
There is a wave of self-defense instructors breaking from the standard Run, Hide, Fight advice, and instead opting to suggest attacking the attacker. Today I am going to take a look at this and offer my thoughts on the pros and cons of attempting to put this advice to use. From Government websites to self-defense bloggers, the…
Social Media, Habits, and Safety
In this post, I intend to take a look at some of the habits developed through social media and how they impact our safety. And just so you know going in, this is not another post on avoiding stalkers or identity thieves. One of the problems I have had with the internet in general and social media…
An (Intentional?) Blind Spot
When we are driving, we are supposed to be aware of the fact that as we drive there is an area in which we cannot see another vehicle. This is the blind spot, and it is why we need to turn our head and look before making a lane change. Within your own eye there is…
Training That Counts
I remember reading an article that mentioned Muhammad Ali’s approach to pushups and situps. In this article the author stated that Ali didn’t count the pushups or situps until they started to hurt, then he would start counting. This was because until he pushed past the number he was already strong enough to already do, he…
Trigger Warnings or Personal Strength? Your Choice!
In my previous post, I began with what I thought to be a funny opening and poking fun at the overly offended people in our time. I am sure this was insensitive in the eyes of some people, but allow me to explain. I play around a lot. My sense of humor is quite wide,…
Gurkha Kukri
*Trigger Warning* If you are anti-knife, this post may traumatize you. This is not a butter knife we are going to discuss and ~gasp~ look at today. The Gurkha Kukri might be described by those who have little to no experience with knives as a “fully-semi-automatic-high-powered-high-capacity-military-style-assault-knife”. Proceed with caution. The latest addition to my collection…
Finding an Edge
In a previous article, I wrote about how your initial reaction to some of the increasing types of very bad situations will be fear. Whether this fear is one to result in paralysis or a hiccup of action where you need a moment to decide what to do is going to be based on how…
Do You Have a Reason to Train?
There is a stark contrast between people who have a clear purpose for training and people who are thinking about training. I see it time and again. People say they would like to get in shape, or think it would be good to be able to protect themselves. But these people never have that follow-through….
Initial Reaction
A recent conversation prompted this post. There is a common saying for when things go wrong; “Sh*t got real”. There is a lot that happens at that moment when things “get real”. Whether the situation is a mugging, carjacking, active shooter, ambush assault, or riots (strangely called protesting by our modern media) your first reaction will be…
Escape, Hide, Fight: Is There a “Right” Answer?
As a follow-up and a way to answer some of the questions that have come in since I made my last post, I am going to look at the three main ideas of what to do in the event of an active shooter/terrorist shooter* situation. There are three standard responses taught regarding the bad guy…
Revisiting the Terrorist Threat
A while back I took a look at the threat of terrorism from the standpoint of personal safety. I said what I had to say on the subject, and I really had no plans to address the issue further. But attack after attack, and some of the attacks come close to home for me, living…
A “New Normal”?
The phrase new normal kept popping up in news articles lately. There was something about it that I didn’t like, but it wasn’t clear to me before coffee. Then it hit me, after coffee, of course. The articles were focused on the rise of violence in our time. We have terrorists abroad murdering people over what is…
Five Tips to De-Stress in Stressful Times
In our time it is easy to get distracted and lose sight of he facts. Fear mongers on both sides of every issue spin every minutia possible into something to support their claims. As a self-defense instructor it is bad for business for me to openly state that you are safer than you think. There…
Train in What?
The question comes up often, and I am sure I am not the only instructor who gets this question over and over. You say I should train to protect myself, train in what style? When I urge people to train, I am not suggesting that I am the only one who should teach them. I…
On Defense
If we listen to the news or spend too much time reading social media “newsfeeds”, we are hit with wave after wave of emotionally charged propaganda (and this is true regardless of which side of any particular issue you stand). I want to take a moment here and look directly and honestly at one issue…
Why I Stopped Being Afraid of Guns
There is a lot of fear-mongering going on right now, and I want to go ahead and share with you just a bit on my change in stance regarding firearms. I was raised to be afraid of guns. There are a lot of reasons for this. People only know what they know and experience. My…
Define “Enemy”
A large part of personal safety is going to be found in reducing conflict. Put simply, if you are a hothead, you are going to find a lot of conflict in your life. You might justify it. He made me mad is a sentence that has a lot of poorly examined ghosts in it. But how often…
New Sword(s)
Depending on how often you visit, you may or may not have had a chance to see a new image on my randomized header for this site. I was given an early Father’s Day present, a pair of Damascus Steel butterfly swords. In this article, I want to talk about them. To start, I guess…
Feedback on Texas Hold’em Self Defense
I received an email and share with permission here. Mr. Smedley, I recently finished reading your book “Texas Hold’em Self Defense”. I want to say first, I really enjoyed the read. Your writing style is different; easy-going and laid back. Your sense of humor comes out here and there and I can easily…
If I Could Give Only One Piece of Advice…
My one piece of advice would be that you can take charge of your own safety. You are in control of where and how you spend your time, as well as who you spend your time with. These factors are under your control, and play a tremendous role in your safety. Exercise that control. I…
The Kindness of Strangers
Many people tend to follow the assumption that people will come to their aid in the event they are involved in a violent confrontation. I don’t want to sound like a pessimist here, I will grant that there are good people out there, great people even. There are many people who would never even think…
Talking Timing
I was asked to address the idea of talking down an aggressor. My take may not be the same advice you get elsewhere, but here it is. If we are talking about conflict engaged in by mutually willing people, then there is no talking things down. If two people want to fight, or if they…
Let’s Talk About Responsibility
In a recent news story, a 17 year old was burglarizing a home when the owner shot and killed him. Family members of the deceased stated that he didn’t didn’t deserve to die and asked something along the lines of how was he supposed to get his money. Obviously, loss of life is a thing…
Being Bullied? Do’s and Dont’s
In this article I want to take a moment and speak directly to the people who might be getting bullied. Having been through this myself, I want to offer some insight and hopefully this can be of some help to those in this situation. Don’t: Don’t assume you have no friends. When I went through…
When They Are Just Venting
There are times when a heated verbal tirade becomes a physical conflict, and in many cases, or probably most cases, it becomes so without any necessity. If you are in your right mind, then you will be able to see that sometimes people are just blowing off steam. I myself am guilty of needing to vent…
Don’t Make it Worse
Fumes are flammable. Be careful. The first, and probably most important step in preventing a moment of conflict from becoming physical violence is understanding the basic rule – Don’t make it worse. While this may seem at first glance as a no-brainer, there are mental processes that make this a lot harder than it appears…
But how do you set that up?
I love talking to people who are smarter than me. It amazes me just how many people are smarter than me! I get to engage in conversations with smarter people all of the time! Today was one such day. I spoke with an old friend of mine who was able to give me an ah-ha moment, and…
The Shootist I Ain’t
It has been a very busy few weeks, and I had not had a chance to go back to the range. Right now, I have a tournament to prepare, one of the largest karate tournaments I have done to date, and I have been working on that a lot, but my brain needed a break. So, I…
The Paranoia Straw-Man
Within the study of logic and critical thinking, one will find many items labeled Logical Fallacies. In this post I am going to look at a particular logical fallacy called the straw-man and how it is quite often used against those who try to teach people to be safe. The fallacy of the straw-man is really pretty simple, and…
Silent Communication
The subject of what precisely it is that makes a criminal go, “Nah…not that one. I need to find a different one.” as they seek out a target is something that has been an ongoing topic of interest for me. With my size (6’5″ and 255 lbs.), I tend to be dropped from the interview process pretty early on….
KICKSTART KIDS Sponsorship Drive
KICKSTART KIDS is a nonprofit that uses martial arts to recruit and retain students while teaching them life skills and character strengths. I am privileged to be a part of this group. I get to teach martial arts all day, have dinner with my family in the evenings, and I can honestly say that I…
Peer Pressure
I teach martial arts as an alternate PE credit elective inside of a public school in a financially challenged area of North Texas. There is a new student who has been nearly late every single day since transferring into my class. Once inside the classroom, he is attentive, hard working and clearly eager to learn….
When there are no “good options”
This article is based on a conversation I had with a friend of mine. It was pointed out to me during this chat that I spend a lot of time writing about how to avoid conflict, how to not participate and how our ego gets us in trouble, but do not tend to address those…
Calm Down
There has been a steady increase in physical violence that really seems to match the inflamed rhetoric from the digital media/social media. In order to begin to understand the problem, we should take a close look at the factors involved and then we can begin to chart a course to a solution. This is not…
Social Media and Strange Behavior
Social media has created some really strange, and probably very damaging new human habits. One cannot even go through what were once simple and enjoyable parts of a day without being distracted, or seeing other people distracted. In this article I am going to look at some of these new habits and look at them…
Making Progress
Today I made my third visit to the shooting range. I can see where I am starting to make some progress, and today was the first time that I went to the range and didn’t feel like I wasted money and ammunition. As a quick recap, here are the targets from my first two visits at the…
Another Try
Last week shared my experiences regarding my first visit to a firing range. In short, I was pretty terrible. This was the result of my first attempt: Well, I got a lot of really good advice, and this is what the result was from my visit this morning: Still not great, even with there being…
Identity or Pigeonhole
I have been asked by several people who read this blog about how I identify; am I a traditional martial artist, a RBSD guy (Reality Based Self-Defense), a gun nut, or what? To be honest, I am just studying. Each phase of what I have undertaken has been, what seemed to me, to be a…
What is ‘Practical’?
For the people who know me best, the idea that I talk so much about being practical can sometimes take a moment to sink in. I do things in an oddball way as often as not. When asked a question, I tend to give a thorough answer with supporting information rather than a quick, simple,…
First Visit to the Range
So, I made my first visit to the firing range. I fired a gun for the first time in my life, and the only thing hurt was my pride. While I have taken gun safety courses, I had no real training in the actual art and science of firing a pistol. Sure, all of the…
Gun Chronicles: Safety is more than literally not shooting yourself in the foot
This is another addition to of a series of articles where I intend to share my journey into gaining an understanding of firearms. I am sure there are others out there who, like me, were either taught to be afraid of guns, or else simply have no knowledge about guns at all. I share this…
Gun Chronicles: A Beginning
This is the first of a series of articles where I intend to share my journey into gaining an understanding of firearms. I am sure there are others out there who, like me, were either taught to be afraid of guns, or else simply have no knowledge about guns at all. I share this in…
Survivalist, with Sanity: 5 Points on Personal Safety
Very often, people tend to marginalize anything which the media wishes to marginalize. We see shows about “preppers” and assume that they are doomsday kooks. Sometimes we need to look beyond these generalizations and see the facts. Here I am going to present some of my thoughts on things that we should all consider. You…
A Question of Why
At one level of thinking and reacting, people wish beyond all reason to give labels and motivations to the actions of others. Obviously, part of the reason our species survived at all can be attributed to our ability to look at situations, and using our experiences, make predictions about what is likely to happen next….
The Terrorist Threat
With the recent terrorist activity in western nations, there have been a lot of questions coming in about how to stay safe in the event one were to find themselves in the location of such an attack. I will leave out such sections as what happens if they bomb your flight while you are at…
Texas Hold’em Self-Defense
That’s right, Texas Hold’em Self-Defense. From the description: Every single day across this country people are taught ways to save their life from the bad guy, only to end up in jail for assault if their training works as advertised. They are taught to gamble their life and freedom on what they are told is…
Musashi’s Dokkodo (The Way of Walking Alone) A New Book From Lawrence Kane and Kris Wilder
Over this past summer, right after I began working fervently on a new book which was to be titled Prelude to a Fight, and is currently undergoing a name change (it needs to be just right…), an opportunity to be a part of a very interesting project came up. Lawrence Kane and Kris Wilder, two people…
Yet another book update!
So, I originally mentioned August as a time of release for the latest book. Obviously that didn’t happen. I have had a couple of updates and even an “it is essentially done” post. Well, things happen. I had a wonderful opportunity to have some people put eyes on my work before I released it. Please…
Prelude to a Fight Update
I just noticed how long it has been since my last update. Wow. So, in order to keep everyone in the loop, here is the update and status report. I am currently putting the finishing touches on Prelude to a Fight. This has taken longer than I thought for a couple of reasons, but I…
Prelude to a Fight
There is a title to the book I am working on now, Prelude to a Fight .subtitle Personal Safety Before the Physical Conflict Begins. The book is to be about the things that happen prior to a physical conflict that are under our control. This is a logical follow up to my two previous offerings, Slapping Dragons, and Ignorance, Myth, and…
New Book in the works!
After several months of research, fact checking, and getting ducks in a row. after a good dozen rewrites of the outline, I have started on a new book. My goal is to have it available by August of this year. If you have not already given a “Like” to the Facebook “Wallace Smedley’s Page”, please…
Fight Outcomes Revisited
In my previous video I had some people comment that maybe…just maybe I had pulled a fast one. Because it was too perfect that I just happened to pick the paper that said I died in the fight. So, I remade the video without letting the papers get out of sight of the camera. Hope this helps!
On the Random nature of Fighting
This is a quick video on the random nature of the outcome of fighting. I hope the point is made, and I hope you enjoy!
What is the best way to stop bullies?
Questions kept popping up after my video on bullying: Why do the anti-bullying programs seem to be ineffective, and sometimes even exacerbate the problem? Is there a good way to stop bullies? There is a simple reason, at least in my opinion, of why so many of the anti-bullying programs fail: these programs do not…
On Bullying
This is a remake of an earlier video I made for people experiencing bullying. I hope it covers the important points and helps people.
Wallace Smedley 