Knowledge • Perspective • Capability
Sifu Journal & Field Notes
Articles and reflections by Alan Baker on training, travel, and the experiences that shape his work. Explore self protection, self defense, and the ongoing development of capability through study, practice, and everyday life.
267 articles
Featured Story
Knowing a Technique Isn’t the Same as Being Able to Use It
Knowing a technique is only a beginning. After teaching and training at the Executive Protection Institute, Alan Baker reflects on practice, feedback, and the responsibility of educators.
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The Perpetual White Belt: Training With Tactical 21
After training with Tactical 21, Alan Baker reflected on remaining a student, responsible marksmanship, and using the C-TAC Combat Blueprint to identify gaps in training.
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Knowing a Technique Isn’t the Same as Being Able to Use It
Knowing a technique is only a beginning. After teaching and training at the Executive Protection Institute, Alan Baker reflects on practice, feedback, and the responsibility of educators.
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It’s Not Supposed to Look Like a Fight
A drill earns its place by the skill it develops and what you can do with that skill when the conditions change. Five questions for more purposeful, adaptable training.
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Podcast: 024 – The Capable Academy
The episode opens with Alan Baker’s introduction to the show and its mindset focus. It’s a returning-from-a-break episode with co-host, Bob Burgee, covering changes to the podcast, then training philosophy,…
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More Than a Certification: Building PRT Instructors Through Proximity and Consistency
The Capable Academy · PRT Instructor Development More Than a Certification Building PRT instructors through proximity, consistency, and intelligent education. By Sifu Alan Baker Instructor development requires practical work, thoughtful…
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The Gap Between Knowing and Doing: How Capability Is Built
Sifu Journal · Capability & Learning The Gap Between Knowing and Doing: How Capability Is Built Information matters. But how do we turn what we learn into something we can…
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Judgment in Martial Arts: Are You Training It?
Physical skill does not automatically create good judgment. Alan Baker explains why observation, timing, positioning, and decision-making deserve deliberate attention in martial arts training.
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La Mano Negra: Training the Blind Side in Keysi Fighting Method
Capability Academy • Keysi Fighting Method • Intelligent Optics La Mano Negra Training the blind side so primary vision, peripheral recognition, protective movement, and intelligent action remain connected under pressure.…
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The Fundamentals Must Evolve With You
After reconnecting with Master Rickson Gracie for a private session in Vero Beach, Alan Baker reflects on the depth of Jiu-Jitsu fundamentals, invisible mechanics, lineage, and why a living art…
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Predator Alert: Training the Eyes to Stay Online Under Pressure
A field-tested examination of Predator Alert in Keysi Fighting Method: how to maintain visual awareness, articulate the Pensador, and keep the larger environment online under close-range pressure.
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When the Fundamentals Have to Change
A monthly range session forced Alan Baker to reconsider a familiar handgun grip. The result offers a larger lesson about adaptation, coaching, and the continuing path toward mastery.
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The Capable Life: Education Should Change What You Can Do
Education should do more than inform you. Alan Baker explains how self-education, practical application, feedback, and humility build a more capable life.
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When Less Becomes More: Learning to Become an Intuitive Driver
After years of training with Joe Autera, Alan Baker finally began to understand what it means to feel your way through a driving problem. This reflection from Pocono Raceway explores…
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Ahead of Time: Why Early Recognition Matters in Self-Protection
Situational awareness is more than a slogan. C-TAC teaches students to prepare, train their eyes to see, recognize developing pressure, and make better decisions while they are still ahead of…
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The Nucleus: How Keysi Fighting Method Trains Problems, Not Just Techniques
Technique gives a martial artist the notes, but the Nucleus teaches the student how to play the music. Sifu Alan Baker explores how Keysi develops adaptable problem-solving through drills, laboratories,…
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Two Continuums, Better Decisions: Understanding Force and Threat Escalation in C-TAC
C-TAC students study two essential continuums: the range of responses available to them and the escalating behavior of a threat. Training both helps students recognize change, avoid falling behind in…
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The Keysi Fighting Method Pensador Is Not a Single Shield Position
The Pensador is one of Keysi Fighting Method’s most recognizable ideas, but it is not a single guard or shielding position. Sifu Alan Baker examines how its protective structures articulate,…
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Build Your Own Intelligent Physical Culture
Physical training should do more than make you tired. Alan Baker presents 13 principles for developing an intelligent physical culture that improves how the human machine moves, performs, adapts, and…
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Build the Room You Spent Your Life Looking For
Serious education begins when experienced people can admit uncertainty, question assumptions, and pursue what they do not yet know. Alan Baker explores intellectual humility, thought tools, and the responsibility to…
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Stress Is a Programmer: Why Scenario Training Must Be Designed, Not Improvised
Stress does more than test performance. It can reinforce whatever responses have already been trained. Alan Baker explains why effective scenario training must be built through intelligent drilling, structured progression,…
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Keysi Fighting Method Training – 4 Man Box Drill
The Four-Man Box is not an uncontrolled four-on-one fight. It is a Keysi Fighting Method laboratory for developing 360-degree force and investigating how every action changes orientation, awareness, position, and…
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New Course: Living Mechanics Seminar – October 3, 2024
Greetings Living Mechanics Members! New Course: Living Mechanics Seminar – October 3, 2024
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The Perpetual White Belt: What Combatives at the Lake Reinforced About Mastery
After a three-and-a-half-week teaching tour, Combatives at the Lake reinforced two enduring lessons: remain a perpetual student, and keep refining knowledge until what remains is simple, clear, and useful.
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When One Submission Becomes Many
A submission is not the end of the conversation. Discover how intermediate grapplers learn to see connections, reactions, and opportunities instead of isolated techniques.
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Why Capability Matters
The Capability Academy exists because information alone does not create capability. This founding editorial explains why human beings need a lifelong path for developing judgment, discipline, awareness, communication, physical capacity,…
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If Your Training Starts With Assault Tactics, It Starts Too Late
Most martial arts training begins after the fight has already started. Real conflict often begins much earlier, with emotion, argument, posturing, distance, and boundary violations. A complete self-protection system must…
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