Learning to tie your belt neatly is one of the first practical skills every beginner should master.
The belt serves a practical purpose by helping to keep the jacket securely closed during training. It is also a visible symbol of your progress, reflecting your experience and commitment to the art. Taking a few moments to tie your belt carefully demonstrates respect for yourself, your instructors, your fellow students and the traditions of Kempo.
There are several accepted ways of tying a martial arts belt. At London Kempo we recommend the method shown below, as it produces a secure, comfortable knot that lies flat and is less likely to work loose during training.
A Good Belt Knot
When tied correctly:
The knot should sit neatly in the centre of your body.
Both ends of the belt should be approximately the same length.
The belt should be snug enough to keep the jacket closed, but not so tight that it restricts breathing or movement.
One advantage of the method shown is that the two free ends are tucked between the layers of the belt before the final tightening. This helps produce a tidy, symmetrical knot that remains secure throughout training.
A Few Tips
Take a moment before every class to check that your belt is tied neatly.
If your belt comes undone during training, retie it promptly when instructed by your instructor.
Avoid twisting the belt around your waist—the layers should lie flat all the way around.
Over time your belt will soften and become easier to tie.
More Than Just a Belt
Every martial artist begins with a White Belt.
Whether you have been training for one week or twenty years, taking pride in wearing your uniform correctly reflects the care and attention you bring to your training more generally. Small details matter, and learning to tie your belt well is one of the first steps in developing good martial arts habits.
In most self-defence situations, the first priority is to avoid violence altogether. Good awareness, calm communication and de-escalation should always be your preferred options.
However, if a situation continues to deteriorate, it is important to adopt a posture that allows you to protect yourself while still appearing non-threatening. At London Kempo, we refer to this as the Self-Defence Ready Stance.
From this position, you are better prepared to defend yourself if necessary, while reducing the likelihood that your posture will unnecessarily escalate the situation.
Why Use This Stance?
The Self-Defence Ready Stance is designed to:
Appear calm and non-threatening.
Create a stable, balanced base.
Protect vulnerable targets.
Maintain a safe distance.
Discourage an opponent from entering your personal space.
Allow techniques to be delivered quickly and efficiently if required.
A good stance should allow you to move freely in any direction while remaining relaxed and alert.
The Position
Although there are small variations, the key features are:
Stand with your feet approximately shoulder-width apart.
Place one foot slightly behind the other to create a stable, staggered stance.
Bend your knees slightly and distribute your weight evenly so that you remain mobile.
Angle your body towards the opponent at approximately 45 degrees. This presents a narrower target while keeping both hands available for defence.
Keep your head upright, your posture relaxed, and your eyes on the opponent.
The Hands
The hands are perhaps the most important part of the stance.
Hold both hands open with relaxed fingers, signalling that you are not looking for a fight.
Extend the lead hand comfortably along your centre line to establish and protect your personal space. This naturally discourages an opponent from moving closer and provides an early point of contact should they suddenly attack.
Keep the rear hand relaxed but ready, close enough to protect the head and body while also being in a strong position to deliver an effective counter if absolutely necessary. Although prepared, it should not appear obviously “cocked” or aggressive.
Why It Works
One of the advantages of keeping your hands between yourself and your opponent is that any attack usually has to travel around, over or through them.
This provides valuable information. Rather than having to defend against attacks from every possible direction, your hands naturally narrow the paths by which an attack can reach you, making your opponent’s movements easier to recognise and react to.
Your lead hand also provides a useful reference point for judging distance and helps prevent an opponent from closing the gap unexpectedly.
Relaxed but Ready
The Self-Defence Ready Stance is not rigid.
Stay relaxed, breathe normally and avoid unnecessary tension. Your posture should communicate confidence and awareness rather than aggression.
Above all, remember that the purpose of the stance is to create time and options. If the situation can be resolved without violence, that is always the preferred outcome. If physical action becomes unavoidable, however, you are already in a balanced and well-prepared position from which to respond.
Practising the Ready Stance
Like any martial arts skill, the Self-Defence Ready Stance becomes more natural through regular practice.
Begin by practising stepping back into the stance from a relaxed, everyday posture. In a genuine confrontation, it is often better to create space while adopting a defensive position than to step forwards towards a potential attacker. Aim to move smoothly, naturally and without appearing confrontational. Whenever moving in the Self-Defence Ready Stance, avoid bringing your feet together. Maintain your stance width at all times to remain balanced, stable and ready to respond.
Once the stance feels comfortable, practise delivering simple techniques from it, such as palm heel strikes and front kicks to the groin. Focus on maintaining good balance and posture throughout, returning to the Ready Stance after each technique.
As your training progresses, practise with a partner. From the Ready Stance, work on responding to common attacks—such as a swinging punch—using the defensive movements and counter-attacks taught in class. You will discover that the stance naturally places you in a strong position to intercept attacks, control distance and deliver effective follow-up techniques, such as knee strikes, when appropriate.
Like all aspects of Kempo, the aim is not simply to adopt a position, but to develop the ability to move naturally into and out of it as situations change.
Summary
The Self-Defence Ready Stance is one of the simplest yet most important positions in Kempo. It reflects a central principle of practical self-defence: be prepared without appearing aggressive.
By creating a stable base, protecting your personal space, and placing your body in a strong defensive position, the Ready Stance allows you to remain calm, communicate confidently, and respond effectively only if necessary.
The best self-defence stance doesn’t invite a fight—it quietly prepares you for one while giving every opportunity to avoid it.
One of the first skills taught in many martial arts is not how to strike or throw, it is how to fall safely.
Known as breakfalls, these techniques are designed to minimise the risk of injury when receiving throws or falling to the ground. While they are essential for safe martial arts training, they also have value beyond the dojo. People with basic breakfall training often fare much better than most during accidental slips, trips and falls in everyday life.
Learning to fall correctly is about much more than avoiding injury. Once you have mastered the fundamentals, it becomes possible to practise throwing techniques repeatedly with confidence and without fear. Good breakfalls are therefore just as important as good throwing technique. In many ways, you cannot become skilled at one without the other.
For this reason, time spent practising breakfalls is never wasted. It is one of the most valuable investments you can make in your martial arts development. A student who is confident receiving a throw will usually become much better at performing throws as well.
Two Ways of Falling
There are two broad approaches to breakfalling.
The first is to spread the impact of the fall over a larger area of the body. This approach is used when falling almost vertically, where there is little opportunity to roll.
The second is to roll, allowing the body to continue moving and gradually dissipating the energy of the fall. Rolling breakfalls require forward or backward momentum and are most useful when there is sufficient movement to carry the body safely through the roll.
Over time, students learn a variety of breakfalls to suit different situations.
The Basic Back Breakfall
The back breakfall is one of the first breakfalls taught in Kempo and provides the foundation for many other falling techniques.
The key principles are:
Tuck the chin firmly towards the chest to protect the head.
Keep the body rounded rather than stiff.
Exhale as the body makes contact with the ground.
Slap the mat with both arms to spread the impact over a larger area.
Never reach behind with the hands to stop the fall, as this can easily result in wrist, elbow or shoulder injuries.
When performed correctly on suitable matting, the impact is spread comfortably across the back and arms rather than concentrated on any single part of the body.
A Skill for Life
Like every technique in Kempo, good breakfalls develop through regular practice.
As your confidence grows, you will become more relaxed when thrown, allowing you to train more effectively and safely. Whether in the dojo or in everyday life, knowing how to fall well is one of the most practical and valuable skills any martial artist can possess.
