Happy New Year

To start our first blog entry of 2009 the team would like to wish all of our current users both registered and lurking - a happy new year. As a team we are excited about what the new year will bring for the site. Looking forward in 2009 our goal as I have mentioned in previous blog entries is to be the worlds largest online martial arts community. With the planned developments we have for Martial Edge I see no reason why this cannot be the case.

New members and New Debates equals Growing Martial Arts Forums
 
2008 brought to life a martial arts forum that can really grow and flourish this year. Looking back I can remember the early weeks when the forums first came online and there was only a few of us chatting to ourselves in there. Today we have people logging onto the forums from all over the world to share discussion on the martial arts.

As the forums grow this year we have to remember that this is an open community and people of all ages and experience are welcome if they are able to make a positive contribution. Back in 2008 some members of the site raised concerns in the expanding community thread and indeed as the site grows that thread is open to further discussion to ensure we maintain that control.

Popular discussions in the Martial Arts Forums

Just to highlight some of the interesting debates and forum discussion that is going on at the moment.  The editorial team posted a new piece in the philosophy and opinion section on UFC Ring Girls with the forum topic on what impact using sex to sell has on female martial art practioners.

Another interesting thread has been started by Dan McCarthy in the martial arts talk section. Dan is a senior instructor at San Mai and has started a sound off thread to encourage fellow instructors and students at his school to get involved with Martial Edge. Clearly if your not from San Mai its difficult to get involved with that thread but thats not the point. The point is that this is one school in one town of one state in one county yet through Dans efforts of encouraging support this has had a really positive impact on the Martial Edge Community. More of the same guys!

New Content from the Editorial Team

We have tonnes of stuff to go up in the next month. With articles we have some fresh interviews and articles including this week a short piece on the ground breaking Volkswagen advert gracing British television schemes. Lesley Jackson has spent her Christmas holidays enjoying the latest reviews in the world of martial arts cinema and publishing including the Muay Thai flick Chocolate. There is also fresh new video and audio footage to go up on the site so watch out for that one.

UFC Octagon Competition

My first question is how much do you like giant martial arts books crammed full of pictures? If the answer is a BIG FAT YES then be sure to check out this months competition for your chance to win a copy of the UFC title Octagon by Kevin Lynch. This book is basically a scaled down version of the opus which is currently selling for around $3000 in the US.

Pete Mills
Senior Editor/Co Founder
Martial Edge - The Worlds Largest Online Martial Arts Community

Festive Greetings to the Martial Edge following
It is Christmas eve and as always we cannot bare to leave the Martial Edge HQ. Well ok I might be exaggerating a little but before we finish up for the festive holidays the team would like to wish you a very merry Christmas and a happy new year.  2008 has been an exciting year for us and we are all looking forward to 2009 as if it was our first ever lesson in the martial arts.

Chat room now live
If you check out Jasons latest post in the talk to the team forum you will see that there is now a chat room available over the new year period. It is not advertised fully on the site as we are still working on some of the techie stuff behind it. However it is there to be used by existing members so get stuck in. As everyone both sides of the Atlantic tends to log on at different times of the day I suggest that you get together and arrange a time to be online and have a chat!

UFC Competition
If you have not already entered make sure you get involved in the competition currently running for a chance to win a copy of the Kevin Lynch opus Octagon which is AMAZING. I will close the competition around mid January. The link to the entry page can be found here.

Anyway all the best for the Christmas period from the Martial Edge team and we look forward to another exciting year.

Pete Mills
Senior Editor/Co Founder
Martial Edge - The Worlds Largest Online Martial Arts Community

Merry Christmas from the Martial Edge Team

Christmas is only 8 days away now so I think its time to wish everyone who has supported the Martial Edge site and team a very merry Christmas and a happy new year! In the forums there are few threads already starting to kick off on the subject so I guess all I need to say is share the love.

Martial Arts Forums

The forums just keep getting better. There are some quality conversations going on in the forums everyday so get involved where you can.  Looks like we are going to fall short of having a 1000 members on here by Christmas but the team is still really pleased with how the site has progressed throughout the year. I think 2009 is going to be a big year for this site well it is with the development we have planned but that said the site is continuing to grow everyday and that my Martial Edge friends can only be a good thing! Apologies for the odd bug that continues to cause a few problems it is on our list to get sorted after Christmas and we appreciate everyone working around them.

As I keep saying every week make sure you are telling your fellow students, instructors and even contacts on other forums to get involved. We still have some long dark evenings ahead with the winter months coming up so that gives us plenty of time to have some good debates!

New  Editorial Content

Watch out all this week as we will be publishing some new material for the articles and reviews section. In particular check out the review of Sucker Punch, as well as some new material from Martial Arts author Jamie Clubb.

UFC Octagon Competition

My first question is how much do you like giant martial arts books crammed full of pictures? If the answer is a BIG FAT YES then be sure to check out this months competition for your chance to win a copy of the UFC title Octagon by Kevin Lynch. This book is basically a scaled down version of the opus which is currently selling for around $3000 in the US. It is something not to be missed so click here to enter.

Pete Mills
Senior Editor/Co Founder
Martial Edge - The Worlds Largest Online Martial Arts Community

Well I am back from the US. I would love to say that I am now 100 pounds heavier but like any other responsible martial artist I was out running every morning during my visit to the states. Honestly.

General Martial Edge News

The competition will be up and running and tomorrow with regards the Kevin Lynch UFC photography book. I need to get the ok on the competition question and of course how many copies I am able to give away but this is going to be one cracker of a prize. This book is basically a scaled down version of the UFC opus which is currently selling in the states for $2500 so it is a sweet addition for any coffee table!

Also we have some great new content to get up on the site including interviews, reviews and more so stay tuned during the week as various bits and bobs go up.

Our interview in Martial Arts Illustrated

If you live outside the UK make sure you do your best to get hold of a copy of Martial Arts Illustrated next month. We did an exclusive interview with Britains leading UK martial arts magazine about Martial Edge and the people behind it. Not something to be missed!

Anyway catch you in the forums as it looks like I have missed a lot of good discussion while I have been away!

Pete Mills
Senior Editor/Co Founder
Martial Edge The Worlds Largest Online Martial Arts Community

Hello folks!

While Pete is ferreting around the United States working (we at Martial Edge HQ are sure he is hard at work on a sunny beach somewhere) I will be looking after you all on this weeks blog.

Got the Lurgy? Read a Book!

Of course, as Pete is not here to look after us all, the team have all gone down with rotten colds and judging by the Man Flu thread in the forum , so have most of our readers. Those dark and dingy nights and the long hours at work are starting to take their toll so when you do have a cold/flu/plague, take a few days off from training and take time to recover. Also on the forum, dajack9 has been in the wars with a broken hand. We at Martial Edge wish you a speedy recovery and hope you are looking after yourself. Meanwhile, during your downtime while you are all recovering from your various injuries or ailments, why not visit our shop and obtain some books or DVDs to while away those boring nights when you are not training. Personally, I have got my eye on the Clash of the Titans DVD…

Editorial Feedback

It was also nice to hear comments regarding my book review of Walking the I Ching, especially as it led onto a thread on the forum. So thank you to Bailu Taiji for responding to that. It is always good to hear feedback and your reactions to any type of articles that are put up on the site so do keep adding your views at the end of an editorial piece and even better, discuss it in the forum. We writers find your feedback really useful and are open to constructive criticism, after all, you are the people who read our work and we want to know what you think. Also, if you have any area you would like us to write about or even fancy contributing yourselves, then get in touch and we will do our best for you. We are also currently chasing some hot interviews for you, so keep your eyes peeled.

Competitions

We have plenty of exciting competitions coming up with lots of goodies for you to win, so if you want to be in with a chance of bagging some Martial Edge swag, get entering. You have got to be in it to win it! The Octagon book giveaway looks like quite a catch and will be quite an addition to your coffee table, if the table is strong enough to support it! So as soon as you see the link for that Christmas bumper giveaway, get your entry in early as this valued prize will literally fly off the shelves.

For those new users who have recently signed up, welcome to our site. Take your time to explore our large martial arts community and if you have any suggestions, then drop us a line and the most important thing is to SPREAD THE WORD! Tell your friends, family and even your more intelligent pets; get them to sign up after all, we are free with a large resource of articles, reviews and interviews .

Time to sign off folks, Pete will be back soon and it will be all systems go for the Martial Edge team. And picking up from the Best Lesson/Quotes thread in the forum, Lesley’s training tip is to “train hard, fight easy” but if you are injured, ill or just plain tired; have cup of tea and a rest!

Lesley Jackson
Deputy Editor
Martial Edge: The Worlds Largest Online Martial Arts Community

December Competition

In December we will be launching the Octagon book giveaway in association with Dorling Kindersley. With breathtaking photography by Kevin Lynch, Octagon takes you on a highly detailed journey of the UFC. The culmination of five years work Octagon describes the evolution of the UFC through 800 photographs featuring some of the greatest UFC fighters of all time including Anderson Silva and Chuck Liddell.  The book is a scaled down version of the opus that is currently on sale in the US for two thousand and five hundred dollars and for anyone with an appreciation of the combat sport that is the UFC the scaled down version is a must have for anyones coffee table. More on this at the beginning of December!

New projects in the pipeline

This is going to require a whole blog post by itself but behind the scenes over the last couple of weeks we have been working really hard on shaping the strategies for taking Martial Edge forward in 2009. Today as I write this blog Martial Edge is receiving around 1000 hits a day from all over the world, has a growing fan base with terrific martial arts forums and importantly has a growing reputation for reporting and coverage in the martial arts community.

Exciting times

However, for some time we have been looking for that entry into the traditional media sector. Online is the future but there is always going to be that place for magazines. So without been too cloak and dagger on the subject we are currently in talks with Martial Arts Illustrated the UKs number 1 selling magazine to work closely on spreading the word of both mag and internet portal. This represents an amazing opportunity to put the Martial Edge name in front of more faces and that friends can only be good news.  Anyway as said this will take more discussion so when everything is done and dusted I will make an announcement in next months blog entry.

Its coming up to Christmas

This one is a bit of plug for our online store but with chrsitmas coming why not? As you well know the Martial Edge store is crammed full of some 400 products. I reckon its about time if you have not been to our shop yet is to get some items down for Santas list. If you dont your going to be disappointed on the 25.

Right kids im off to pack my suitcase. Off to the USA Tuesday morning so next weeks entry will be written by Miss Jackson!

Pete Mills
Senior Editor/Co Founder
Martial Edge The Worlds Largest Online Martial Arts Community

PS and yes its work related!!!

Fresh interviews

Well as promised a couple of weeks ago we would start filtering through some fresh new content onto the site. If you have not already checked out Lesley Jacksons interviews with Britains Olympian Sarah Stevenson make sure you do.  Sarah has demonstrated every core tenant of Taekwondo throughout her competitive career and on her third games the perseverance finally paid off with Britains first Olympic medal in the sport.  

Make sure you check out the interview with Sarah, and the performance director Gary Hall as well as the review of this years British Championships.

In the pipeline

The reputation of Martial Edge is starting to really gather pace in the industry now. Expect some new and exciting material coming through the site on Clubbed which is the adaptation of Geoff Thompsons seminal work Watch My Back.  We are also looking at some promotional work with Twentieth Century Fox and the Uks Number 1 martial arts magazine that is Martial Arts Illustrated.

A couple of months ago we did some work with the Keysi guys on Batman etc. Well to be honest we have been blown over with what these guys are putting out there. General Choi came along fifty years ago with a martial art that transformed the world and has some 50 million worldwide practioners. I can see Keysi going the same way. 

Another editorial project we have in the pipeline and it’s a bit hush hush at the moment but we are in talks with a Hollywood studio directly to run features on the re launch of the Street Fighter franchise. Stay tuned for more info on that one. 

MA Summit Results

The video went out last week but we have finally compiled all of the results from the event and here is the top ten-

Paul Coleman            12.4 v
Martin Yankey            12 v
Michael Yankey          12 v
Marty Keary               12 v
Byron Marr                 11.8 v
James Pottit              11.8 v
Matt Parkes               11.8 v
Wayne Edwards          10.8 v
Alex Campbell           10.8 v
Russ Hemmings         9.4 v

Martial Arts forums

I was having a good chat with Jamie Clubb the other day with regards the perceived quality of the martial Edge forums.  Ive often said that sometimes I enjoy nothing more but to sit down with a cup of tea and read through all of the forum posts. I find the level of conversation very engaging and we are now in that place where at least ten or more people are online and the debates can really get going.

Anyway Jamie was feeding back that he likes our style of moderation in that we encourage free debate as long as it doesn’t breach our rules on profanity and personal attacks. I remember a debate we had on the subject sometime ago and to be honest with this approach as the site grows I think these forums will really prosper where others have simply turned to anarchy!

Just make sure you keep telling friends and fellow students to check us out as the snowball can only get bigger from now on

Pete Mills
Senior Editor/Co Founder
Martial Edge The Worlds Largest Online Martial Arts Community

MA Summit video now online
 
 
Jason put the finishing touches to the summit video last week and I am pleased to announce that it is now online! For those of you that have just joined Martial Edge the video is a compilation taken from Bytomics MA Summit on the weekend of 26 October. The results of who has the strongest punch will be announced this week once we have finished compiling the data. Since we posted the video on our youtube channel it has been interesting to see that already there has been some response. In the mean time check out the video under the fun and entertainment section entitled hardest martial arts punch.
 
Lesley Jackson makes in roads at British Taekwondo Championships
 
Deputy Editor of Martial Edge, Lesley Jackson and photographer Andy Parr were at the first days events at the British Taekwondo Open and a gripping days action it was too with this Lottery funded, well run event.  Keep an eye out for further interviews soon with Britains Olympic bronze medallist Sarah Stevenson and Sport Taekwondos performance director, Gary Hall. 

Lesley Jackson with Great Britains Olympic medalist Sarah Stevenson

Martial arts forums 

Come on guys keep pushing on this one. 1000 members before the Christmas holidays is our target and if we reach that then starting 2009 we are in a great position to really make serious in roads in becoming the worlds largest online martial arts community

IT problems coming to an end

I had one or two emails complaining that the site was playing up once or twice over the weekend. As I mentioned in previous blog posts we have been building towards a server upgrade and therefore there was bound to be some disruption to the service. However Jason and the rest of the IT guys feel that apart from one or two bugs the site should be operating better then before in terms of load up speed etc. However, as always please keep feeding back to us in the talk to the team section as we cannot spot everything.

Anyway folks you can catch me or any other member of the Martial Edge team in the forums during the week.

Pete Mills
Senior Editor/Co Founder
Martial Edge The Worlds Largest Online Martial Arts Community

MA Summit a Massive success!

Last weekend saw the revival of the MA Summit, the weekend conference designed to help full time and part time martial arts professionals. From start to finish this was an extremely well run event by Bytomic Distribution as the two day programme of interactive seminars and lectures offered something for everyone. From a neutral view point I was impressed by the quality of speakers, from Ronald Osbourne on teaching success to Andy Norman and the guys from his Kesyi Fighting Team. 

Me with Martyn, founder of the Focus Master

As we were a sponsor of the event in terms of offering full service media coverage, Bytomic had asked us to put on a stand to showcase to attendees of the MA Summit what we had to offer from Martial Edge. Jason and I came up with something original to not only attract interest in Martial Edge but also to amuse. Thats right kids we came up with a punching machine with the help of Andy Weightman of Boxright to really get the testosterone flowing.  Stay tuned for the feature on that one as we filmed snapshots of the instructors taking part in our competition to find out who had the hardest punch during the two day event, it will be online soon.

Martial Edge down time

I explained in last weeks blog update the technical team have been working hard behind the scenes to sort this issue with the site occasionally going down.  So as you have probably noticed the past couple of days the forums have been going down and will probably need to do again at some point this week as the transfer is complete. This is because we dont want to lose any of the new posts that will be made during the final change over. Anyway all I can say is trust me and of course the technical team as this will be all sorted by the end of the week and those slow loading times and site crashes will be a thing of the past.

Fresh content

I received a couple of emails last week about fresh editorial content for the martial arts articles section. This is not something we have been neglecting in fact the complete opposite. Behind the scenes myself, Ben and Lesley have been looking at how we can really develop the editorial side of Martial Edge to keep a constant flow of information coming through the site, after all not everyone wants to have a profile page and debate in forums. Therefore next month you can look forward to some fresh interviews, articles and reviews from the team and our wider community of writers and contributors.

Martial Edge needs you!

Thats right we need you.  Today it will be around 58 days to Christmas and before the big day itself we want to have 1000 active Martial Edge members. This would cap off a remarkable year for the site and would mean that looking forward to 2009 we would be in a strong position to really start to kick those old rickety and often amateur martial arts portals into touch.  So how can you help us do this?

Well start in your clubs, tell fellow students about us and what the site is trying to achieve which is of course to create the worlds largest online martial arts community. Instructors out there include the site in your emails, your club and organisation newsletters etc. I know some of you like to use a variety of different forums throughout the week, so therefore that is no excuse not to tell everyone about us in those forums too.

Forum bugs

I wont say too much here as I am at risk of repeating myself from last weeks blog but we are still ongoing with fixing one or two issues!

Phew!

Thats all for this week folks.

Pete Mills
Senior Editor/Co Founder
Martial Edge The Worlds Largest Online Martial Arts Community

General Martial Edge News

This month make sure you check out Martial Arts Illustrated Magazine as the cover story was written by your very own Martial Edge editor Pete Mills thats right kids me!  As some of you know Chris Crudelli has been a friend of Martial Edge since we re launched the site in its present format since last year and he kindly agreed to do a cross promotional exercise with Martial Edge and the folks from MAI. If you do get your hands on a copy make sure you have a good read of all of it as you will find a cheeky advert offering 10% off in our Martial Arts Shop. 

Help I need technical assistance!

I thought a quick mention here about some of the minor technical glitches you are currently experiencing in the forums and what we are doing about it was necessary this week.  With regards the forums we use third party software which basically means our guys have not built it and therefore we have to rely on these third parties getting back to us with our queries which can take some time. I know the bug where threads cant go past page 11 is annoying and the one in the beginners area for titles of threads are just two examples but we are dealing with it. Anyhow keep yourself updated in Talk to the Team as we will post in there as things progress with this. Hopefully though we will be sorted on this front.

The real die hard Martial Edge fans have also spotted that on random  occasions the site seems to implode and subsequently goes offline. At first we were thinking that we didnt have enough hamsters running the machines but our clever technical guys led by Jason discovered that rather then Hamsters causing the problem rather it was a build up of temporary files. Thats right temporary files and if your thinking that does not make any sense join the club of non technical people. However along with the forum bugs on friday Jason is kicking off a server revamp so hopefully these Hamster failures –to you and I will be a thing of the past.

Bytomic MA Summit

I have already mentioned this in previous blog updates but for the instructors out there next weekend the MA Summit. The event organised by David Lowe of Bytomic Distribution will have key note speakers including KFM Stunt and fight team for Batman, The Dark Knight - one of the most successful school owners and speakers from the USA - Frank Silverman, motivational speaker and trainer - Richard Wilkins from the Ministry of Inspiration here in the UK and Fari Salievski - a huge success from Australia plus many more. The team from Martial Edge will also be at the event so make sure you get your hands on some tickets as there are some still available.

London Stage Show 10th December 2008

We have organised a couple of competitions now that offer a bit of live entertainment such as Kung Fu Panda and Babes with Blades.  We love these events as it gives us a chance to meet you guys and of course everyone enjoys winning competitions! Anyway this is more of a heads up then a competition announcement as on the 10th December we will be attending the Kick Ass martial arts stage show presented by Chris Crudelli with special guests The Babes with Blades. So if you would like to meet the Martial Edge Team and of course meet the people who use the Martial Edge website I reckon this would be a perfect 2008 meet up opportunity!  More details can be found at my forum thread on the subject.

Pete Mills
Senior Editor/Co Founder
Martial Edge The Worlds Largest Online Martial Arts Community