Earlier, I wrote a post about five must-read books for martial artists. I’m a big fan of broadening your knowledge of a subject if you’re serious about it, and reading about others’ perspectives is one of the best ways to do that.

With that in mind, I’ve put together a list of four great martial arts blogs I think are worth a look if you’re serious about your martial arts training. Why four? Well… I’d love to suggest five, but I just haven’t really found a fifth that I would feel good about recommending to you yet!

Karate by Jesse

No list of martial arts blogs would be complete without this blog, in my opinion. Jesse Enkamp, self-proclaimed Karate Nerd, writes about everything from how to improve a specific technique, to diets that complement your karate training, to differences between Eastern and Western karate training methodologies and beyond.

What I like about this site, apart from there being TONS of material to sift through, is that Jesse has a very approachable style. He writes in a conversational way that doesn’t feel too stuffy or contrived. This is one of those sites where, if you’re not careful, you can kill a LOT of time.

If you haven’t checked out any karate or martial arts blogs before, do yourself a favour and start here.

Karate Culture

The guest post section of this website has some excellent articles. It hasn’t been updated in a little while, but the content that is there is well worth reading.

What I like about this site is that it encourages thinking and commentary around the art of karate as a whole. The articles talk about the elements of training that are essential to both preserving the integrity of karate and advancing it forward into the future. These are unique topics that you won’t find much of on any other site, and it’s worth it to understand how some of the best and brightest minds in the business are thinking about their training.

I found myself pulling certain philosophies and ideas from articles written here and bringing them into my own set of values and principles that guide my training. The site may be focused on karate, but know that you can take the concepts discussed here and apply them to any martial art.

Karate Obsession

Oh man, there is so much good technical information on this site. Each post is written so as to make sure it thoroughly covers the topic it’s diving into, and you really finish each one feeling like you learned something. Some examples of the subject I’ve explored on the site are as follows:

• Various methods of power generation in karate (“What? It’s not just the hips?”)
• Why kata doesn’t look like kumite
• The value of the makiwara
• The experience of testing for Nidan
• The role of grappling in Karate (it’s probably bigger than you think)

As you can see, the site covers a wide variety of topics, and it does so very thoroughly. It’s updated regularly, and is worth diving into.

André Bertel’s Karate-Do

Andre is a karate instructor based out of Japan, and his writing really reflects the influence of the culture there. His blog excels at diving into some of the more technical elements of his training. He specializes in Shotokan karate, but he speaks of fundamentals that can be applied to any style.

Admittedly, there are a fair amount of soft posts on his site – he treats it as a personal journal of sorts, writing for himself first and foremost. And that’s totally ok – I do the same thing. You’ll just have to wade through those to find the excellent technical posts he’s written (and there are many of them). It’s worth it!

Wrapping it Up

All of the blogs I mentioned here have something unique to contribute to your overall understanding of your martial art. They focus on different flavours of topics, come to the table with different perspectives, and use different writing styles to get their point across.

You probably won’t agree with everything you read, and that’s ok. The idea is to expose yourself to as many trains of thought as possible, and then keep what you find useful and ditch the rest. I hope you find the sites as enlightening as I have!

Did I leave your favourite martial arts blog out of this list? Share it with everyone in the comments! We’re all trying to learn as best we can about our arts, and I’d love to hear your recommendations on doing that.