General Martial Edge news

Apologies to those of you who have been experiencing technical difficulties with certain aspects of the site. Unfortunately every internet explorer works differently which means it is incredibly difficult to get the site looking perfect in every browser! However, big thanks to those of you that have been reporting these problems to our team in the forums and hopefully we can have these issues fixed soon.

The martial arts shop that we have been working away on for the past two months is finally looking pretty darn good if I do say so myself! By the end of next week the shop will be finished leaving us with one clear week to test before it goes live. Hopefully if supported it will mean we can continue to grow and develop the site even further.
 

Martial Arts Forums

I have added two new topic areas as they are starting to grow really well and the demand is certainly there to add new areas for discussion. These are,  

Weapons - Okinawan, Japanese, Chinese, etc.

Political, Social, and Cultural Dimensions.

Anyway keep the suggestions coming on this front as our ambition is really to make the forums a place at the forefront of MA discussion! And if you are a  member of the site and have not already introduced yourself then do so.

As always you can catch me and the rest of the Martial Edge Team in the forums.

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

General Martial Edge News

On Thursday night Martial Edge were invited to the exclusive screening of Kung Fu Panda at the Imax Cinema, part of the National Media Museum in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The event kicked off in style at 6pm with a demonstration by students of local Taekwondo instructor Chris Beanland fifth degree. The display featured drills, patterns and semi contact sparring to showcase the kicking movements which went down a treat with the audience. At 6:45pm it was the press photo call with the giant monkey and Panda taken by representatives from the Yorkshire Post, Telegraph and Argus, Look North and of course Martial Edge!

The winners of the competition were Martin Derbyshire (Martial Edge username Ryusui Ryu) and James Beedham (Martial Edge username Beedham) and for the benefit of you guys here are the pictures from the event:

http://www.martialedge.net/reviews/events/martial-edge-meet-kung-fu-panda/

Next month sees the return of Christian Bale as Batman in The Dark Knight. So further information will be given in due course but we plan to run a similar kind of competition for the benefit of Martial Edge users with IMAX Cinema.

A martial Edge interviewee, Rosie Sexton was a guest on channel 4s chat show Richard & Judy which aired on Thursday evening. Rosie is about to take on the big timers in the USA Mixed Martial Arts circuit so we wish her all the best for that one. It is pleasing to see how her career has rocketed since we interviewed after her success in the Bodog Fight Leauge.

See here for interview:

http://www.martialedge.net/articles/interviews-question-and-answers/interview-with-bodog-fighter-rosie-sexton/

Martial Arts Forums

On Thursday evening at the Kung Fu Panda event I had the opportunity to chat with competition winner Martin (Forum username Ryusui Ryu) to glean feedback on the site. I am well aware that we have the Talk to the Team section in the forums and of course I receive regular personal messages and emails from you all with suggested improvements and of course alerts to bugs etc which is continually welcomed. However, it was fantastic to actually meet someone who used the site in person! Ryusui Ryu actually complemented us on how much of a training tool the site has become and was impressed by the level of debate in the forums - from beginners to senior instructors - rr made it clear that he felt everyone could have there say. It was music to my ears as that is what we are striving to achieve with the forums.

Anyway guys keep it up as clearly everything is moving in the right direction.

Martial Arts Shop

With a firm launch date of 1 August its all hands on deck at the Martial Edge HQ to get this store fully integrated into the site. See below for screen shots of how it is all coming together:

Advertising

This is my last plug on the commercial side (but hey, you want great content and great website functionality - the money has to come from somewhere to develop it all!) but we signed a deal with a new partner www.pad-up.com for them to display featured advertising on the site.

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

General site news

There is some great new material on the site this week including Lesley Jacksons first part of The Rise and Rise of the Female Action Hero -

http://www.martialedge.net/articles/fun-and-entertainment/the-rise-and-rise-of-the-female-action-hero/

We also have a new contributor to Martial Edge, John Clements who is the Director of the Association for Renaissance Martial Arts. ARMA was established in 1992 to re-establish the concepts of Western Martial Arts such as fencing and sword play derived from rare medieval manuscripts. It is interesting stuff and so we will be showcasing articles and editorials from ARMA on the Martial Edge site throughout the year.

We also have some interesting material in the pipeline including interviews with traditional martial arts instructor Iain Abernethy and the stunt team behind the upcoming Batman sequel The Dark Knight so make sure you keep logging on!

Martial Arts Forums

As I have said before I think the Martial Arts Forums on the site is a great place to be. I am confident that anyone from beginners to martial arts teachers with 40 years of experience can post on a topic and have a response within the hour! Also thanks for keeping an eye out for SPAM. Although a member of the team is online at anyone point during the day obviously it is not humanly possible (boy, do we try though) to be online 24/7. Clearly silly messages about wondrous offers have no place on the forums. That said if it does appear to be a genuine attempt to have some feedback then by all means we encourage this - and often it can provide some amusement.

Also just one word on house keeping - this doesn’t apply to 99% of the people that use the forums but please bear in mind the rules of no personal attacks and no profanity respectively. Jason received a couple of emails last week flagging this and to be honest as much as we encourage no holds barred discussion there isn’t a place for either of It on the forums.

That said its all growing nicely with the site receiving on average a 1000 hits a day now and around 1-2 new members joining. Still some way off creating the world’s largest martial arts community but I feel confident in saying that the foundations have been set to really grow massively over the next 12 months.

Martial Arts Shop

The technical side of the site is now pretty much complete in this area now. At the moment the team are on with the task of uploading all of the product information and images etc. We have product testing scheduled for the end of the July with a firm launch date of 01 August. Throughout this time I will keep you posted on development.

Kung Fu Panda Event

Thursday night is the exclusive showing of Kung Fu Panda at the IMAX cinema and the lucky winners of the Martial Edge competition along with the team will be in attendance. At the weekend I will get the images and review of the event online.

Pete Mills

Senior Editor/Co-Founder

The Worlds Largest Online Martial Arts Community

Martial Edge team up with The National Media Museum

To help with the launch of the new animated flick KungFu Panda, Martial Edge were invited to run a competition for free tickets to the exclusive screening on the 26 June at the IMAX cinema located in the National Media Museum, Bradford. The evening kicks off in style at 6pm with a demonstration from local martial artists from the Bradford area followed by the full red carpet treatment with members of regional press providing the media coverage.

We received a good amount of entries and the question was:

Who provides the voiceover for the star of the show, Po?

A. JACK BLACK
B. JACKIE CHAN
C. ADAM SANDLER

The answer is of course A. Jack Black

In the interest of keeping it all fair I printed out the names of all the entries, folded them all up and had Jason pluck two lucky winners out of his stunt jacket. The winners who will be spending the evening with the Martial Edge team for the exclusive screening of KungFu Panda are:

For the IMAX family ticket , Martin Darby, forum username, Ryusui_Ryu.

For the IMAX Adult Pair of tickets, James Beedham, forum username, Beedham.

So congratulations to both winners! Im aware that this prize clearly was restricted to our UK fan base. In the interests of fairness we will be holding compeitions in the future that will give all of our global audience (with in reason of course) an opportunity to particpate.

Martial Edge store update

As always I cannot resist giving you a cheeky plug. The team finalised the individual product pages last week and they are looking fantastic. So here is a snapshot to keep everyone updated on how it is all progressing.

As always you can catch me and the rest of the Martial Edge Team in the forums.

Pete Mills

Senior Editor/Co-Founder

The Worlds Largest Online Martial Arts Community

Update on the Martial Arts Shop

This weeks blog is a massive plug on what we are doing with the online store. I wont even try and cover my tracks with flowery words. I will just be honest. However, it does serve a very good purpose in that we are involving you guys every step of the way with how we develop the site such as the look, feel and your attitudes towards customer service and secure online shopping.

A few weeks ago we started a thread in the martial arts forums with regards the store and what your thoughts were on the idea generally! Below I have listed the questions we asked and highlighted some of the feedback to show you how this played a crucial role in designing the basic layouts.

1. Do you shop online for martial arts products, if so, where do you shop, and why?

The overwhelming response here was a site that you felt comfortable and secure with. Essentially the IT team have constructed from scratch our own online store incorporating the latest anti spybot/spam security measures and of course threading the clean design throughout that makes for a straightforward online shopping experience.

2. Do you have any praise for existing online stores if you use them, or any negative points of why you dont currently shop online?

Here it came down to payment methods. We have looked at various suggestions and products that are currently on the market. In the end we went for a system called protx - allowing you to process secure credit and debit card payments online, over the telephone or via mail order. This had major advantages over systems such as PayPal or Google Checkout. To give you a little technical jargon to make you feel even safer about the online shopping experience In June 2006, Protx was one of the first payment service providers to achieve Level 1 compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). Also Protx continues to employ the most stringent levels of fraud screening and security standards, and updates its PCI compliance on an annual basis. In other words something you can feel safe and secure using.

3. What sort of products would you buy in an online martial arts store?

Quite simply we are offering a range of 600 high quality products, available on next day delivery:

Sparring equipment and Protective Gear, Fitness and Home, Workout Bags Kickshields, Pads and Training equipment, Boxing and Kickboxing equipment, Martial Arts Uniforms and Belts, MMA - Mixed Martial Arts, and Official UFC merchandise, Martial Arts DVDs and Books, Training Weapons, Martial Arts Kids, Martial Arts Clothing, Shoes and Bags

4. How long do you normally expect products to arrive and does this influence your buying decision?

The thoughts from you guys here was that as a general rule 3-5 days or 2 weeks for an international delivery. The system we have put in place is around 1-3 days depending on the size of the item. That puts the Martial Edge online store up there with the best in the industry.

5. If you could order the following, the first being most important and the last being least important, how would you rate the following when making a decision to purchase a martial arts product online: price, quality, delivery time, customer support, trustworthiness of the site (or any other factors?)

Quality and customer satisfaction came top here. Again to reiterate we have sourced 600 products of the highest quality -I will release pictures in next weeks blog. With regards customer support there will be telephone, email and live chat (UK BUSINESS HOURS ONLY FOR THE LIVE CHAT) where you can talk to a customer representative online as and when you have questions.

6. If the shop had a Google checkout or PayPal payment system, would this put you off (with these you need to register before buying). Would you do this, or do you normally only buy from stores where you can pay via credit or debit card directly?

Resounding answer was credit card. As I mentioned at point number 2 we have addressed this issue with Protx that offers complete fast and secure payment methods just as if you were in a shop making a sale at a cash register.

So there you go a quick low down of how we listened to what you wanted and then took that information and incorporated it into our design process.

Pete Mills

Senior Editor/Co-Founder

The Worlds Largest Online Martial Arts Community

 

Its been a busy week.

Again.

But before I get into the details the team would like to make the following announcement:

The Martial Edge website now receives around a 1000 unique visitors every day.

Sure its not there in the millions yet but we decided to share that with you because there is a growing community developing now from Lebanon to Los Angeles which excites the Martial Edge team a great deal. Of course if you consider the millions of people all across the world who practice some sort of martial art or have an appreciation at the very least this number is insignificant in the grand scheme of where we want Martial Edge to be. However, it is a landmark we set out to achieve and if we keep improving on what we are doing it will only increase the numbers who visit and use the site on a regular basis.

Achieving this is down to four key factors and please note not mutually exclusive.

1. You guys who get stuck into the debates in the martial arts forums and of course the lurkers who move silently through the site.

2. International Authors who contribute articles, interviews and reviews -which subsequently attracts more people to the site.

3. A great team behind Martial Edge who are working tirelessly behind the scenes.

4. An amazing website that allows for profile pages, regular content, forums, schools/club directories, video, audio and soon a range of 600 martial arts products.

But as I say every week keep spreading the word to fellow students and instructors as that is one of the key ways we will continue to grow the Martial Edge community.

New Articles Layout Page

On a more general note I wanted to keep you informed with what is going on with the new articles layout. Its got that hint of work in progress but I can assure that behind the scenes the team are working furiously to get this section up to speed and finished. As some of you may well have noticed the levels of interaction vary on article to article -something over the next four weeks we aim to totally bring up to speed and have every article at the right level. By this im talking about images, video, audio and of course elements such as the author profiles and related article boxes. So pardon the construction work because in a few weeks the site will be all set to take on the world of martial arts.

As usual you can catch me or any member of the Martial Edge Team in the Forums.

Pete Mills

Senior Editor/Co-Founder

The Worlds Largest Online Martial Arts Community

 

Ok, before you think what on earth is Pete doing with the picture below, let me explain. The blog has been quite a success since its launch (thanks for the positive feedback) however there have been requests for pictures. As always we listen to what you guys who use the site want and therefore I thought the best way to kick this off in true Martial Edge style was a picture of the team.

Top left: Pete Mills,senior editor/co founder, Top right Jason DainterIT project management/ co founder, Middle right, Ben Johnson chief editor, Bottom Left, Lesley Jackson, deputy editor, Middle bottom, Ian Hales IT, Bottom Right, Sham Norsham,IT.

Anyway, enough of the comedy on with the serious stuff.

On Friday we published the brand new Martial Arts Articles and Reviews homepage. As you may have noticed there are still some finishing touches to be made but ultimately it will make your navigation of the content a whole lot easier. We have big plans for the next two to three months with editorial content so it was vitally important that we put a system in place that would allow the site to grow without sacrificing the ease of which you can use the site. As usual feedback and suggestions are most welcome in the forums on what you think to the new articles and review layout page.

Work also began on the task of putting all of our Martial Arts Shop products online - yes kids all 600 of them! So I wont go over board on product plugs but I will however keep you all updated until launch with how development is going.

On Sunday Ben (Chief editor/writing genius/drummer in upcoming band Wintermute) and I made the 40 mile trip across the Pennines from Leeds to Manchester to meet the legendary Phillip Star, author of The Making of a Butterfly and Martial Mechanics. Phillip was over from the United States promoting his latest book and conducting a series of seminars organised by Chris Lomas. If you are reading this blog chances are you are familiar with Phillips work on Martial Edge and he has been a friend to the team for around two years (yes even when we were a tiny little website). It was great to finally meet the man himself and with over fifty years of training in the martial arts it was an honour to spend some time with him. You can catch Phillip in the forums.

As usual I am pleased with how everyone is starting to respond to the message of spreading the word about what we are setting out to do with Martial Edge. Traffic to the website is continuing to rise with an increase of people now starting to sign up and connect on the site everyday. As I said in last weeks entry the team doesnt expect everyone to be martial arts forum users, forums are just the start. Already we have profile pages, write on wall functions and private messaging. (And like Willa Wonkas Chocolate factory a couple of surprises too).

The team have been receiving positive messages recently as loyal users are also starting to notice that the site is catching on. That said we cannot rest on our laurels. Keep telling everyone you know about us. Again, suggestions would be helpful if you think the process of becoming a member of Martial Edge could be easier and whether we do a good enough job of promoting the benefits on the site.

As usual, you can catch me or any of the team members during the week in the forums.

Pete Mills

Senior Editor/Co-Founder

The Worlds Largest Online Martial Arts Community

Martial Edge News

As you may have seen during the week we are currently testing out the live chat feature. Before you start wondering if Martial Edge has gone all old school on you, dont worry. Essentially we are testing out a new platform that will allow users to interview an instructor or a personality from the martial arts world live. The date will be announced on the site and all you have to do is log on at the relevant time, armed with some questions. So stay tuned for that one and if you have any suggestions/comments/feedback do let us know in the forums.

The team (Myself, Jason, Ian, Sham, Lesley and Ben) have been pleased with the feedback received throughout the week on how much everyone is enjoying the site. It certainly is uplifting to know that although there are parts of the site still to be developed, we are hitting some of the right notes. Jason actually shared an interesting story with me a few weeks ago that will always stick with me. A user of Martial Edge had dropped him an email saying how he thought the site was like the most amazing fine dining restaurant and he was the only one eating there. The Martial Edge site was in its infancy back then but it was pleasing to hear. I think we can safely say that is no longer the case but the journey of growing Martial Edge into the worlds largest online martial arts community has only just begun.

With regards the martial arts forums we have had some interesting debates going on this week. As I said in last weeks entry it is a pleasure to log on and get involved even though officially I try and stay neutral - I cant resist and have to get involved.

We need your support

If you are a fan of what we are doing and you have not yet introduced yourself in the forums then do so. It is one of the primary ways you can show your support and give us that all important feedback about the things you like and of course the things you want us to improve on. I dont for one minute expect everyone who uses the site to register a profile and take the plunge, after all I enjoy visiting websites such as Sherdog (for MMA action and news) TechCrunch (Yep, Jason and Ian are slowly tempting me to the dark side of the computer boffins, or rather the appreciation club) and one or two others. However, to grow the site we need that support so just do it as it takes two minutes!

Also on the point of support it is vital that if your enjoying the site to spread the word. As I said in last weeks martial arts blog, instructors should be getting students on here to register profiles and set up friend networks. Students need to be telling other students and thats how these things snowball. Im not going to let slip all of our plans but exciting things are going to happen with the way you will be able to use the community features. With regards to spreading the word it creates a positive effect of more people using the site. In turn the busier our site is, the more willing martial arts commentators are to work with us to publish online content.

As a final note on the M.E. news front apologies for the delay in getting the Taekwondo and Thai Boxing video tutorials onto the site. They will be up early this coming week!

Martial Arts News from Around the World

As an avid reader of the Financial Times (yes I am that sad) I was intrigued to read about the former Russian President, Vladamir Putins love of Judo. After further investigation on Google, not only did I discover that he had recruited former dojo buddies into influential government posts (such as Vasily Shestakov to head Moscow’s new press and information bureau - the Orwellian-sounding National Information Centre) but has also co-authored a book on the subject of Judo too. The title Judo, History, Theory and Practice can belong to yours truly from Amazon. Yes folks it does exist:

http://www.amazon.com/Judo-History-Practice-Vladamir-Putin/dp/1556434456

On the publishing front if you are into your self help books Geoff Thompsons latest has just been released, The Beginners Guide to Lightness. (Review coming soon) I will be the first to admit that I used to approach Geoffs work with ignorance, i.e. hes a glorified hard man what does he know about feelings? Yep, hands up on that one in my younger days that thought did enter the mind. But that said I am always the first to put my hands up and admit when I am wrong. I interviewed Mr Thompson back in 2006 and thats when I first started to actually read his material objectively. I am not quite in need of self help material just yet, but it certainly has its place and means different things to different people. Anyway, it was worth a mention as a copy dropped through the door this week and of course I wanted to draw attention to the fact Mr Thompson is also a Martial Edge author.

As a final note, Manchester United 3 Chelsea 2, didnt I tell you I also predict football scores? (For non football/soccer fans, and for our international martial arts friends im referring to the European Champions League on wednesday evening)

As usual, you can catch me or any of the team members during the week in the forums.

Pete Mills

Senior Editor/Co-Founder

The Worlds Largest Online Martial Arts Community

Ahem, introduction

Welcome to the first instalment of the editorial blog. Every week you will have me, Pete Mills, senior editor (and co- founder dont you know) telling you about all the exciting things we have going on here at the Martial Edge HQ, and of course what blog page wouldnt be complete without a look back at the weeks news and events in the martial arts world?

If you have just logged onto Martial Edge for the first time ever and found this page - dont worry - the sites not that new! However, the team now feel that the site is growing sufficiently to warrant the effort to reward loyal visitors with an even more personal touch then before by producing a weekly blog.

General Martial Edge news

Jason Dainter (Co-Founder / IT guru/ stunt double for Timothy Dalton) and I attended the Seni 08 martial arts expo to get a feel for what the industry was doing and of course what the fans were looking for. From a personal perspective it was an excellent day out with the highlight of finally meeting Bob Sykes - the editor of Martial Arts Illustrated - after been a fan for so many years. I was also highly amused at the hype surrounding the UFC guys, in particular, the very attractive girls swooning all over the UFC fighters. Who says sex doesnt sell?

For Martial Edges benefit we cemented a working relationship with Summersdale Press. Summersdale are the premier martial arts publishers in the United Kingdom and are clearly up there fighting for the worlds no.1 position with Turtle, Bluesnake, Overlook, and Tuttle with authors such as Geoff Thompson, Iain Abernethy, Rick Young, and Jamie Clubb to name a few. What is the benefit I here you ask? Twofold, the fact the editorial team have now got access to amazing content and interview opportunities with these esteemed authors is one, the second is you will soon have access to the entire range of Summersdale books and dvds through the Martial Edge online store when launched later next month. So look forward to some good stuff coming through onto the site.

What we are also pleased with is how the forums are becoming such a diverse place to hang out and whether it is during lunch breaks, skiving from work or getting involved in some serious debates I will put my neck on the line by saying the ground work is there for one of the best online martial arts forums on the net. Also a big thanks to those who contributed (and who continue to contribute) to the Martial Edge Shop thread, the feedback has been really helpful. On Friday we finalised the design of the shop and to give you a sneak preview of whats going to be in there we will have 700 products split across the following ranges:

Sparring equipment and Protective Gear, Fitness and Home, Workout Bags Kickshields, Pads and Training equipment, Boxing and Kickboxing equipment, Martial Arts Uniforms and Belts, MMA - Mixed Martial Arts, and Official UFC merchandise, Martial Arts DVDs and Books, Training Weapons, Martial Arts Kids, Martial Arts Clothing, Shoes and Bags

All items will be available on next day delivery with complete safe and secure online payment methods. (Come on guys, you have seen how advanced the site is - you know its going to be safe.) What excites me about launching the shop is that it marks the next stage of development, a simple stepping stone as it were in our ambition to create the worlds largest online martial arts community site.

The last thing I want to mention is make sure you are logging on this week for the release of some brand new Martial Edge filmed video tutorials. Featured will be in-depth videos with Richard Smith of the Bad Company Thai Boxing Gym based in Leeds, and Chris Beanland, sixth Dan ITF Taekwondo Instructor with the T.A.G.B. After the success of the Chris Crudelli Tai Chi Fighting tutorial we felt it necessary to get more of this content online.

Martial arts news from around the world

This isnt the place for me regurgitating news from the worlds press. Rather, I will take the opportunity to bring things to your attention that have either caused me to laugh at loud or items that I feel would benefit the Martial Edge community.

USA Taekwondo Olympic Newsletter

If you have not seen this yet get onto the USA Taekwondo website: www.usa-taekwondo.us and download the Olympic newsletter. Its crammed full of useful tips and this week had a very informative article on Indomitable spirit. I have even gone to the trouble of taking an extract:

Indomitable spirit is best described by the United States Marines as the refusal to fail. The tenet of indomitable spirit is deeply rooted in periods of war and adversity. Indomitable spirit describes a mental fortitude that is essential for survival. When two warriors meet on the field of war one will eventually emerge victorious. Jimmy Kim 1988 Olympic Gold Medallist from Indomitable spirit.

There are also some good inspirational quotes in there even if your Taekwondo is not your base art so check that one out.

One thing that really got the juices flowing this week was that Matt Damon, star of the Bourne Trilogy is reportedly teaming up with Paul Greengrass again to film a fourth Jason Bourne movie. Apart from the fact they are works of cinematic genius, what I really love about these films is that they put life into the on screen fight. The Kali inspired fighting scenes were orchestrated by Jeff Imada and have a brutal reality about them that has been lost in action movies in recent years. It certainly will be interesting to see how they can build on the increased tempo of the franchise that culminated in the shoot out at the end of the Bourne Ultimatum, but thats the magic of Hollywood right?

Anyway, thats it for now folks. As always you can catch me in the forums during the week.

Pete Mills

Senior Editor/Co-Founder

The Worlds Largest Online Martial Arts Community