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

On Saturday night the team from Martial Edge attended the Clash of the Titans hosted by Martial Arts Illustrated in Huddersfield. The clash has been going now for some twenty odd years with Taekwondo legends such as Dave Oliver and Kenny Walton gracing the earlier clashes and of course greats of the competition such as Alfie Lewis.

Saturdays event saw Bob Sykes back in action at the golden age of 46, leading his team from the Colne Valley Martial Arts Academy. The two other teams in action were Puma Taekwondo and North West Chinese Kickboxing. Apart from some dubious refereeing and decisions and the occasional bout where the kickboxers forgot how to kick it was a splendid evening of freestyle sparring with Bob Sykes academy team taking the honours.

Between the bouts were XMA demonstrations from children from various schools including the Sheffield Dragons. Personally I think the XMA is a refreshing way for youngsters to get involved in the martial arts which can only be a good thing right?

The finale to the evenings events was a demonstration by Britains got talent finalists, Team Strike. The lads from Strike put on a good show and the only negative was that both Jason and myself had to literally drag our respective ladies away at the end  apparently Team Martial Edge doesnt cut the mustard like Team Strike.

Way of the Warrior Competition

Ok guys well we have had no takers on this so far. If you have not already read the rules on this months competition to win a signed copy of Chris Crudellis Way of the Warrior all you have to do is get five of your fellow martial arts students to get involved with Martial Edge so get cracking as it closes at the end of this month!

Building a Community, maintaining the quality

Having met a couple of you guys at various Martial Edge events and of course through chatting in the forums it appears that an overwhelming concern is maintaining the sites forum as Martial Edge grows.

For those of you that have missed these various conversations check out the various threads in Talk to the Team such as Critique other Forums! Expanding the community and Largest Martial Arts Community.

The topic of maintaining the community feel interests me and the team a great deal as it is clearly a core aspect of the site we want to ensure survives as the Martial Edge site continues to grow. Jason and I have always maintained a liberal approach to the forums in that as long as a - No Profanity and b - No Personal Attacks are made then pretty much any topic is allowed.

The question is how do we move on from this as the site grows? Undoubtedly we will get people signing up and logging in who have no interest in the community aspect and clearly the team cannot be online 24/7 - nor do we have the time or inclination to be getting involved with personal disputes between people who use the site. Food for thought and something we should be all thinking about over the next few weeks. 

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

Babes with Blades

On Friday night we attended the Babes with Blades theatre show at Jacksons Lane Theatre in London. As we came into the theatre the babes from the blades had gone about creating the scene with oriental music being piped through the theatre and the smoke machine on full blast! As for the show itself it was a demonstration of some fine martial arts skills with a mix of contemporary dance. From my perspective I feel that this type of show is fantastic for the martial arts and I wish Cecily Fay and her team all the best in putting on more of these shows.

We ran the Babes with Blades Competition last month and below I have included a picture from the event. From left to right Competition winner Sophie a.k.a Hopsy Bailu, myself top left, James a.k.a Bailu Taiji top right and bottom right Cecily Fay.

Chris Crudelli competition

With the launch of his new book Way of Warrior with Dorling Kindersley Martial Edge are giving away ten signed copies of this terrific martial arts book. I have seen some related threads in the forums this week on how ace the way of the warrior book looks guys all I can say is get entered into the competition!! Not only does this book retail at twenty five pounds but it will be a signed copy by Chris Crudelli and delivered to your door.

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

General Martial Edge News

Martial arts in Disneyland Paris

I have just got back from the European Festival of Martial Arts in Disneyland Paris. The venue was the New York New York Hotel and I have to say I was very impressed with the whole event. The organisers - Fighters Inc - had invited over various martial arts associations for the junior events. Running simultaneously throughout the day was an open Taekwondo championship, open freestyle, open karate and open Brazilian Ju Jitsu.  I wont go into too much detail here as I plan to share with you all an in depth review on the weekend event. However in a nutshell it has the potential to become the premier European martial arts event for juniors.

Launch of the Chris Crudelli Competition

Throughout October we will be holding the Chris Crudelli competition.  We are offering 10 signed copies of Mr Crudellis latest - Way of the Warrior - to any forum member who can introduce 5 friends to the Martial Edge scene. I received our review copy from the publisher and the book is one of the finest on the subject of martial arts. The book summarises every form of martial art from all the continents.  Every page is crammed with full colour photography and it is certainly a book you will want to keep by the side of your bed! 

MA Summit

As I mentioned in last weeks blog the MA Summit hosted by Bytomic Distribution is drawing closer and there are still some tickets available for the event. Have a look at our events section to get some more information on who will be attending and what it is all about.  The Martial Edge Team  will be there for both days so we hope to see you there.

Martial Arts Forum News

The thread of the week for me was the one started by Su Lin in what was probably a response to my blog post on the Teams ambition of becoming the worlds largest martial arts community. For those of you that missed that post make sure you check it out as it is an interesting read. As I have said many times before I have so much optimism for the way this forum is growing and the way that everyone who uses the site can be open and allow free flowing debate.

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

Babes with Blade Competition

Earlier this month we launched the Babes with Blades Competition for the forum users of Martial Edge. Basically Babes with Blades is martial arts stage show put together by actress and stuntwoman Cecily Fay. As you know we pick the winner from putting the names of the people who have entered into Timothy Daltons stunt jacket, and get the Martial Edge mascot to pluck the winner out! Anyhow the Babes with Blades competition winner is Martial Edge forum user Bailu Taiji. So congratulations on that one and we look forward to seeing you and your guest at Jacksons lane theatre, London on Friday the third of October.

MA Summit -Team Martial Edge in the house!

For the instructors out there this October there is going to be an event that you certainly need to attend -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.

For more information on the MA Summit check out our review.

Reaching 1000 members before Christmas

As it stands our member base is at 557. The team have set a target now of 1000 members before the Christmas period. Can this be achieved? Well we are of the opinion that this is more then realistic and achievable but we need your help.  Start spreading the word at your clubs and schools and if you use other martial arts forums make sure you are spreading the word there too!  Also keep feeding back your suggestions on how we can improve the site and any ideas of how we can increase the numbers who join as members.

With increasing traffic it is clear that we are doing something right. But to really grow we need you guys to be spreading the word as well as us!

Martial Arts Shop News

Martial Edge on Ebay

This week has seen the launch of our Martial Edge Ebay store. For us it makes perfect sense to have our online shop and use Ebay as a platform because of its established platform. For those of you who have ordered from the site leave a message of feedback in talk to the team or perhaps even write a review in our store.

Martial Edge selling direct to clubs, schools etc

Another angle with our martial arts shop that we are keen to be involved with is directly to the clubs and schools throughout the United Kingdom. The nature of our platform means that you or your students can simply log onto the site, make an order and the products will be shipped directly to either the instructor or students doorstep. Also for larger orders why not give a member of the Martial Edge Team a call to find out what discounts are available?

General Martial Edge News

As Jason Dainter conquered Scarfell in full on commando style – thats right folks when we are not hitting the computer keys the team at Martial Edge are full on country side walkers I had a more ingenious way of getting up Snowden in Wales. For reference please note that the Martial Edge T shirt was on but as it was a bit chilly I am afraid the green jacket was necessary!

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

General Martial Edge News

Well this week I have to start off with the high point and that of course was on Sunday we were invited down to Bob Sykes Academy in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire to meet with Andy Norman. Andy is co founder of the Keysi Fighting Method which has now appeared as the preferred fighting style of Batman in both Batman Begins and the Dark Knight. After a gruelling 4 hour seminar in which we were introduced to Keysi, I got the opportunity to sit down with Andy for an in depth interview, which you can read here.

Martial Edge have also booked themselves flights to the European Festival of Martial Arts which is been held at the Disneyland Resort outside Paris. The main part of the weekend event is the junior competitions, but there will be also a showing from the boys at Combat 32 who will take on Europes finest freestyle fighters and there will be seminars from established martial artists such as Rick Young. So we are really looking forward to this event!

For more information on the Disney Event check out the website for more details

Martial Arts Forums

Another week, another batch of new people signed up and getting stuck into the forums which is fantastic for the growth of Martial Edge. As I mentioned in last weeks blog I have decided to expand them slightly which seems to be working quite well. I think apart from one or two areas such as a separate movie review section the next stage will be to introduce topic areas for specific styles. However, as always we encourage you guys to feed back to us your ideas in the Talk to the Team thread.

Babes with Blades Competition

Just as a quick reminder the Babes with Blades Competition will be running until this Friday. So if you have not already entered please do so now! At the event you will also have chance to meet myself and Jason if three stuntwomen are not enough for you and it promises to be a great show. Click through here for more information on that.

Martial Arts Shop

Finally a quick plug on our Martial Arts Shop. We have some great offers on products such as a Century Bobs so if you have not already done so check them out. In the pipeline over the next couple of weeks is our Ebay Store as we feel that an established store on here would be good for us. Remember it is safe and secure and with great product ranges, and often next day delivery you know who to trust!

I think that is it for this week but as always you can catch me in the forums or any other member of the Martial Edge Team.

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

General Martial Edge News

Well another week has gone!

Since I started this blog back in May I cannot believe the progress we have been making with the site. Not just in the virtual world but also making Martial Edge a name people can relate to in the real world too. Last week saw the launch of the Babes with Blades Competition through our association with one of the founding members, Cecily Fay. If you have not heard about it yet we are offering two free tickets to watch the show along with your very own Martial Edge team members Pete Mills and Jason Dainter. The show will be held at Jacksons Lane Theatre in London on the 3 Ocotober. So for more information on how to enter visit here.

This week we have really been gearing up our Martial Edge awareness campaign. A user once said on joining Martial Edge it was like eating at a fine restaurant but there was no other patrons in the place. Its not quite like that now but for energy and time, not to mention the finance that has gone into creating Martial Edge it is time we saw membership to the site rocket. Jason, who is a fellow co founder of Martial Edge was essentially schooled in the Web 2.0 philosophy during his university days that a website should not only be a gateway to free flowing information as Martial Edge is - but that you should be able to find out posts of that site in different places. Therefore you can now find Martial Edge at our Myspace profile, Facebook Profile and at Bodybuilding.com. So if you visit these sites and maintain profiles there - add us!

Of course this is the only the very tip of the iceberg. In the pipeline is our very own Wikipedia entry outlining the history of the site and shedding some light on the background of Martial Edge. Also you can help us too by linking to your own websites and blogs, emailing articles to friends and of course harassing friends into creating Martial Edge profile pages.

Martial Edge forums

Well I don’t know about you guys but I am actually looking forward to cold winter evenings this year. Why? Because I will be online in the martial arts forums every night thats why. If you are a member of the site go check them out if you have not already done so. It really is becoming a great place not only to share information but learn new things. This week we have added four new sections; Health and Nutrition in the Martial Arts, Philosophy in the Martial Arts, Classifieds, and a forum thread for any foreign members that stop by the site called Sprechen Ze Jive; hey it may remain empty for a while but as long as its there it means equal opportunities for all right?

Martial Edge Store

I am pleased to say that this is now up and running and on receiving our first orders we are really excited about the potential of Martial Edge mail order side of things. I know some of the feedback you gave us after the launch of it was that we do have gaps in supplements and nutrition and in particular more in the area of a high quality womens clothing range. But we promise this will come and we do take notice of what you guys have to say because Martial Edge is a community website. Anyway make sure you check it out as we have some great offers on this month including Century Bobs at the lowest price to be found anywhere on the internet.

Phew

I think thats it for this week. As always you can catch me or any member of the Martial Edge team in the Martial arts forums.

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