Mike Massie here with a little Friday Martial Arts Randomness...

Matt Page always does a great job of skewering popular martial arts... and sometimes, famous martial artists.

This clip should look familiar to you, since I sent a similar one out a few weeks back:

A parody of a parody. Gotta love it.

Next up...

These Fightland mini-documentaries always manage to tell interesting stories about fighters with respect and insight. 

I particularly enjoy the stories they tell about people who are pursuing the fighting arts under the worst of conditions or in the face of political, social, or economic hardship.

Some of them are a reminder that you don't need a fancy dojo to train. Others simply serve to remind us there are other reasons to share the arts than money (although most of the instructors I've worked with aren't in it for the money).

This particular story about how Bashir Ahmad helped bring MMA to Pakistan is one to watch:

And finally...

Video is one of the easiest and best ways to let people know about your dojo, programs, and the arts you teach.

However, many school owners don't use video in their marketing because they think they need a lot of special equipment and know-how to make it work.

Guess what? You don't. You can get by with just a little tech and the one piece of equipment you carry with you everywhere. 

(FMA guys, you can put your blades away -- that's not the piece of gear I'm talking about.)

Yup, you can shoot some pretty decent video with your smartphone.

Here's a clip from a tech guy (no, he's not a martial artist to my knowledge -- that's sort of the point) on how to shoot professional-ish videos using your smartphone:

That's it!  Enjoy your weekend, everyone.