How’s it going everyone,

Just wanted to share my experience with a particular mat company that I use. I’m not sure if you’ve heard of the Swain Flex-Roll mats or not. If you have I’m sure you’ve heard many positive reviews and if you haven’t now is a chance for you to get some info about them.

I’ve had experience with all types of training surfaces from wrestling mats, tatame mats, folding mats, and flexi-roll mats. I have to say that I pick the Swain Flex-Roll mats over any other mat on any day.

I purchased Swain Flex-Roll mats almost 4 years ago and I don’t regret it for one second. Before then I had a mix of different brands of the rectangular tatame style mats at my academy.

Some things that I didn’t like about the tatame style mats was:

- If they needed to be moved for any reason it was bit of a...

Okay now onto the review.

First and foremost when shopping for a hand-gun I was looking for something to pull triple duty; predator defense while hunting, home defense, and hunting. My original intent was to go with the venerable 1911, but my research into it as a large predator defense round led me to pursue other avenues. To make a long story short I found a common opinion that the .357 with a 6” barrel loaded out with the hottest loads should, shot placement being critical, suffice for critters up to black bear. (When I head for grizzly bear county down the road I am investing the $$$ in the mighty .454 Casull.)

The Specs:

Model: R97206
Caliber: .357 Magnum
Capacity: 6 Shot
Weight: 35 oz
Barrel Length: 6”
Action: DA
Sights: Adjustable rear

THE GOOD

- Stopping power
- Cost
- Weight

No one denies the stopping power of the .357 magnum round, Period. It will more than do the job in sending the bad guys to their just rewards. The cost is right for the...

I originally signed up for this school in a joking manner after seeing a thread on Bullshido about the lead instructor. Then one day at work my email lights up with an acceptance letter. Not willing to miss the chance of a life time to train with a world renowned master, I quickly took the plunge.


My class was on Thursday evenings once a week. The school has no contracts but is very expensive for the little amount of mat time you receive. Tuition starts out at 65 a month for one class a week. You also pay a 30 fee to join their world JKD association, along with another 30 for a training shirt that you must wear. In order to progress it was another 40$ for a three ring binder manual.


The closest we came to any type of contact was some VERY compliant partner drills. It was the normal you punch, I block, I proceed to kill you in seven different ways. We did hit a mitt a couple of times, but that was it.


Equipment was pretty decent for the class size. I...

I'm on the right. I weighed in at 183, my opponent (Ryan Janes, 2-1) weighed in at 182.2. When they did the staredown pics, I stuck out my lower lip and looked up at him and he started laughing, but they chose the pic with the "toughest" looks on our faces.

I cut 17 lbs. I thought it would be a lot harder than it was.

I got my pink shorts done up, they say "Douche Bag" down one side. I got my hair dyed very pink.

I'll split this review into two parts, one for Muay Thai and one for Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. They also offer capoeira and fitness classes, but I haven't participated in those. I'm still a relative beginner, so these reviews aren't as in depth as I would like for the more advanced classes.

Muay Thai
Classes are 1 hour, offered everyday, although beginners classes are only offered on 4 days. Usually 10-15 minutes of warm-up, then the class is split by experience level (they do a belt system),a couple of 2-3 minute rounds, technique work and instruction, finished off either doing drills or with pad rounds.

Not really any sparring at the beginner level, but they do have a fight team that competes and sparring starts at around the 1 year mark. So I put the aliveness at 8 because it does happen, just not in the beginner classes. The most that really goes on in them is doing returns with focus mitts.

The instruction is good, I've done some one-on-one classes with senior students and...

When you think about martial arts, the first person that comes in to the mind is Bruce Lee, the legend of martial arts who made Karate and self defence very popular world wide. When you see a martial art movie and see the cool step, you think “wow I should learn that”. Learning martial arts is good both for self defense and self confidence. While there are many martial arts exist, choosing the right one for you is sometimes daunting.

Thousands of parents enroll their children is some kind of martial art classes every year for different reasons, ranging from self defence, improved self esteem, the ability to defend themselves if needed and physical fitness. As martial arts are a fun way to physical fitness, more parents have to enroll their children in Martial Arts Courses. Because the modern society and the education system puts enormous pressure on the children, it essential that they have to undergo some kinds of physical and mental stimuli for overall wellness.

There are many...