Jukaado Academy Of Martial Arts

What do you understand by a black belt? Is it just an achievement to flaunt and show all or tell that my child got a black belt or is it a symbol of sacrifice, training and some specific level of understanding, maturity and fluency in skill.  Traditionally children were never given black belts. I think black belts were only given to those who were above 16 or 18 years of age and has the skill set to be awarded it.  Nowadays in the age of commercialization where black belt gradings are charged anywhere between 20,000/- to 50,000/- and higher it is good money to confer black belts. Many organisations give junior black belts to kids below 16 or 18 and then after 16 or 18 they have to again pay and appear for an exam to be called a black belt. Why is this double examination needed? Money is important but there should be a line drawn somewhere. Parents also need to understand this and not pressurize or change classes just because their child is not getting belts or a bl...

In the rat race of life most of us neglect our own personal safety and security. Those that value their own safety and train for it are often called paranoid, obsessed or delusional by others.  Ask yourself, if at this very moment you are physically attacked, are you capable of defending and also maybe immobilizing the attacker? If you are out with your family members and loved ones, can you protect them, if attacked? Have you discussed with them about how to respond and react to such situations?  If your answer is unsure or a big no, then sadly you are just a victim waiting to happen.  Crime is increasing in most if not all parts of the world, if our attitude is laidback and we say or think things like - it won't happen to me, it's too much hard work, I don't have time for all this, I am too old to start now, etc. Then we do not value our ownself and the gift of life that we are given. Security has many facets and layers to it. Which are interconnected and di...

Many embark on the journey of martial arts but most of them leave it midway. Some say they lost interest, some feel it is not for them, some feel they can't be good enough or live up to the teachers expectations and lots more.  Martial arts is a path you should ideally walk all through your life. However many don't approach or get into it with that idea, understanding or discipline.  Martial arts training will test you, will at times make you feel like you are not improving or some may even feel they are useless. The repetition of techniques, the routine of training may make some feel stuck or lost. This is when one needs to pursue it more, not to prove anything to others around but just to be there for yourself and believe that you can do anything.  Martial arts training doesn't only test you but it also rewards you with health and fitness, with resilience, determination, confidence, discipline, humility and lots more.  Many times parents see their child...

Ideally everyone should train and know how to use weapons. It can be a wonderful force multiplier and equaliser especially for women when defending themselves against a stronger male attacker. However we do not live in an ideal world today.  With our fast paced urban lives, demanding so much from us at work, home and travel time etc is slowly building up frustration, anxiety and intolerance in many. This is visible in the increase in road rage cases and other squabbles over petty things. To this add the increased racism, hate and biases based on country, colour, race, caste and religion. Now with all this is it safe to train anyone and everyone in the art of weapons???? One needs a level and calm head before they are taught weapons. To judge if the student is aggressive or frustrated or has anger issues etc takes time. To start of new students in weapon training is not safe. I feel it is where an instructors moral responsibility comes into play. So many come and ask tha...

This is a question we get asked often. Some times people want quick fixes, some times they just want to show some belts or accomplishments in their life and lots more. But what is the ideal number of days, months or years that one should really give towards martial arts training, is something many don't even understand.  Everyone has different reasons for training. Parents usually join their children to get in some physical activity with other benefits like improved concentration, discipline etc. Grown ups may join to get fit, or for learning self defense, or to fullfill their desire to learn and lots more. Reasons can be many and so the time line will vary too.  If one is just looking at getting fit then maybe a few months or a year should be enough. But if staying fit and getting fitter is your goal then a few years or more would be great. If one is looking at training for self defense, I recommend a minimum 3 years, to get fairly good at it. But if it isn't prac...

In the world of most traditional martial arts there exists an organisational hierarchy built on the foundation of affiliations. A foundation which is weak and responsible for splitting and crumbling many organisations and indirectly affecting the martial arts itself.  Every organisation has a headquarters, let's assume it is in Japan. Now it has branches in many countries, let's assume India is one branch. So there will be a chief instructor for India, who is paying affiliation fees yearly to be associated with the organisation. Now other instructors under him will again pay affiliation fees for being given a city or state etc as their area to teach. In many organisations it's not just yearly affiliation fees but other things like registering a certain number of students on the website for a price, and lots more. All these costs then make instructors try more and new ways to earn money. Some even make it compulsory for all students to buy a whole training kit li...

The market in general in any industry or line of work will always cater to what we ask from it. Like we want bigger fruits and that ends up use of excessive fertilizers etc to grow bigger fruits. Similarly if parents or students keep wanting new belts then not all but many will bend to that demand and over time the belts will have no value in general. Belts are not a measure of how many months or years you have been training but a measure of how much you have grown. So just because you have been going to a class for a few years doesn't mean you should be a certain belt.  With our fast paced lives today, students are not able to dedicate the same amount of time that students a few generations before did. So that obviously slows down the growth, this itself is enough to actually slow down the belt grading process.  We are all different, we learn at different speeds, we have different preferences etc. Some may love cardio based drills, some may love sparing or some ma...

There is a debate that continues whether one should spar a lot more than practicing basics or drilling combinations or vice versa.  Different schools of thought or maybe just a personal preference of the instructor. But what is truly needed for a well balanced development of a student or practitioner in order to be able to successfully apply what was learnt in training into a real life self defense scenario? Let's look at what both these training practices bring to the table and understand what is truly needed.  In reality if one is attacked there will always be an element of surprise involved. Yes, we may read the pre attack signs and gestures, but the actual moment when an attack begins remains a mystery and a surprise. When we are attacked, the time it takes for us to process the attack and respond to it, is already much slower than the time taken to execute the attack. So we are virtually up against something that should not be able to be stopped. Any defense i...

Do you check your weight daily, weekly or monthly? It is good to check your weight once to have a reference point. However it is very unhealthy to keep monitoring ones weight on a regular basis. It not only impacts your physical health but also your mental and emotional health too.  We call it monitoring our weight but it is actually something that causes anxiety and even hampers our health and fitness journey. The weight chart is just an average chart and not a hard and fast table to adhere to. We are all different - our genetics, our bone structure, our body type, our activity levels, our diet, our profession etc  and so we can not compare ourselves to a prefixed table.  Unless you are a professional athlete that competes within a certain weight category, you don't need to obsess about these numbers.  It is sad that with so much information available today, people are still falling prey to false practices, perimeters and beauty or health standards. Weig...

There is a lot that needs to be done with regards to women safety by all the parties involved,  by each one of us, the Society in general, Government bodies, NGOs, Corporates etc.  I totally agree that crimes, sexual assaults and violence against women should not happen and we need to raise our boys to be better men. But till that change comes about, women should not sit and hope that they don't become the next victim. Just like robbery is bad and should not exist but we take precautions by locking our doors etc or cyber crime is bad and should not exist but we take precautions before opening unknown links etc. Similarly we need more women to take precautions and be ready to tackle a situation than just hope not to become a victim.  The first line of defense needs women to get fit and tough along with training in a realistic self defense based combat training system. Just going for a sport based martial arts system will make you have the false belief in your a...