MacDonald Academy of Martial Arts

Kenpo Karate, Krav Maga, and Fitness for the Boston / Watertown area

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You are here: Home / Archives for 2017

Archives for 2017

Academy Closed 03.14.17

03.14.17 By Brian MacDonald Leave a Comment

The Academy will be closed for all afternoon and evening classes today, Tuesday 3/14, due to the storm.

Stay safe!

Filed Under: Announcements & News, Kenpo News, Krav Maga News Tagged With: school closings

Karate: It’s What’s for Breakfast

03.10.17 By Josh 1 Comment

Thursday morning adult kenpo is going gangbusters, and you’re invited to join! We gather for the secret initiation, incense burning, and recitation of the ancient prayers at 9:30—but for you, no initiation, no incense, no prayers, just eye-pokes, gut-punches, groin-shots, and other good, clean fun lifted from the Three Stooges.

And if you act now, you get not one but two black belts as instructors! Together, Mary Ann Vacherweill and I make a 4th-degree black belt (5th degree when she aces her next test). Want Bruce Lee’s abs? So do we. Maybe you’re better off doing this instead:

All Krav students are welcome and encouraged, and you don’t need to RSVP. Just show up once, occasionally, as often as you like. Thursdays, 9:30-10:30, at the school. As Grandmaster Ed Parker said, “It’s not about who’s right, but who’s left.”

Filed Under: Krav Maga News

March 2017 Youth Kenpo Testing & Black Belt Spectacular

02.27.17 By Brian MacDonald 2 Comments

Testing Week: March 6 – 11, 2017

 
Note: There will not be regular classes this week.

* All students must have a signed Intent to Promote form and schedule a testing time via the sign-up form below. *

Click Here to Sign Up »

Filed Under: Announcements & News, Kenpo News, Seminars & Events Tagged With: test

No Regular Classes Saturday 02.25.17

02.24.17 By Brian MacDonald Leave a Comment

The Academy is closed for all regular classes Saturday, 2/25, due to Kenpo testing. The regular schedule resumes Monday, 2/27.

Filed Under: Announcements & News, Kenpo News, Krav Maga News Tagged With: school closings

Never Bring a Screwdriver to a Sewing Machine Fight

02.10.17 By Josh 1 Comment

So, this happened:

Terrorist opens fire in Petah Tikva, is subdued with sewing machine

At least five people were lightly wounded when a Palestinian man opened fire at a bus and stabbed someone near an outdoor market in the central Israeli city of Petah Tikva on Thursday evening, officials said.

Police officers later arrested the West Bank man, who was still in possession of the gun used in the attack, a police spokesperson said.

…

The Palestinian teenager used a Carlo-style submachine gun, a comparatively cheap improvised firearm, which is prevalent in the West Bank. Carlos, which are often cobbled together from water pipes and spare parts, are notoriously unreliable, and the weapon used in the attack apparently jammed multiple times.

What is normally an automatic weapon was only able to fire a shot every few seconds, according to videos from the scene. An eyewitness told Walla news that the gunmen also entered a shop and tried to open fire, but his gun wouldn’t work at all.

…

After shooting at the bus, the suspect continued on foot towards Hovevei Tziyon Street, running through the city’s alleyways, before he was cornered by a group of civilians outside a sewing machine repair shop, according to police officer Ami Ben-David.

The Ynet news site reported that one of the civilians used one of the shop’s sewing machines to take down the attacker. An eyewitness told Channel 2 news that he used a wood plank to hit the man as well, and said the suspect yelled in Arabic as he was tackled.

The Krav Maga lesson in this terrible story is to know your environment. A sewing machine, a wood plank, a fire extinguisher…you’d be surprised what can be weaponized in a life-or-death emergency. In one twisted Roald Dahl short story, a woman clubs her husband to death with a frozen leg of lamb, only later to serve it to the unsuspecting detectives who arrive to investigate. That is a literary recommendation, I hasten to add, not sanctioned Krav Maga curriculum.

Filed Under: Self-Defense, Weapons

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