Entering the gritty, red-floored and practically bare-walled and windowless gym, students face grueling lessons in Philippine and Chinese martial arts and weapon-handling. By the end of the night, they are left with new bruises, sore shoulders, blistered hands and legs almost too weak to walk to the car. Typhoon Philippine School of Martial Arts reopened at its new location on 47th Avenue in June after six months of moving and preparing for the addition of a martial arts supply store. Guro (Tagalog for “teacher”) Maurice Gatdula – owner and teacher of the school and the man behind the new Iron Warrior Martial Arts Supply – proudly maintains a traditional, “old-school” and oftentimes inti

A greater awareness of danger is called for when the time change brings us early dark days and cold, dark mornings. While everyone needs to pay more attention in the seasonal time change, women especially need to increase their vigilance as predators often use darkness as cover. While spending time out and about shopping women would be more vulnerable to assaults as they are often alone, in unfamiliar settings and distracted by holiday stresses. Join the Robinson's, Sacramento's first name in family martial arts, for a special free clinic in safety awareness and simple self defense. Just keeping personal safety in mind helps increase the odds against any problems. By learning some simple

I walked onto the quad of Bella Vista High School on a Sunday afternoon to a sight of 20 or so men climbing walls, running like cheetahs on all fours and swinging from trees. This was the Sacramento regional parkour practice, led by a SFparkour.com representative, Victor Lo Forte. He has been a practitioner of parkour, or traceur, French for tracer, for three and a half years and has led the Sacramento group for about two years. "From what I understand, it's basically the discipline of training one's mind and body to prepare oneself to overcome obstacles in an environment," Lo Forte said. Parkour is said to be rooted in early 20th century French military practices. Georges Hébert, a Wor