Editor’s Note

Nasser Butt

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Welcome to Volume 20 of Lift Hands Magazine!

What an amazing landmark as we celebrate the fifth anniversary of Lift Hands Magazine with an ever growing number of readers across the world — currently standing at 25,000 and counting!

I never imagined in my wildest dreams when I started this project in 2016 that we’d have so much success in such a short space of time from winning awards to publishing critically acclaimed articles by a host of some of the most talented martial artists from around the globe.

My heartfelt Thank you to you all!

This would have been impossible without all the support I have received in the past 5 years with a special mention to [alphabetically]:

Tony Bailey, Louiseneige Be, Amy Faulkner, Peter Jones, Neil Kirkland, Dr Gregory Lawton, Katherine Loukopoulos Sensei, Alan Ludmer, Gavin Mulholland, Ramakrishna Pillay and Colin Power for contributing regularly to the magazine, and helping in many other ways too!

My Thank you also to those who wish to remain anonymous and to all those who have contributed to help keep the magazine free through their generous donations throughout the years.

Let us not forget the lights we have lost too! They live on in our hearts and in the arts themselves.

The last couple of years have been difficult and yet despite the difficulties and challenges of Covid, we have marched on, making this milestone even more impressive.

We have a bumper-packed issue to celebrate and I’d like to welcome Piercing Eagle Feather [John Aldred] to our list of contributors.

I hope that you all have a safe and peaceful Christmas, Holidays, Solstice — wherever you are and whatever your beliefs — and a happy, healthy and prosperous 2022!

Here’s to the next 5 years!

105 Countries

25K Readers

Albania Algeria Argentina Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bangladesh Belarus Belgium Bolivia Bosnia & Herzegovina Brazil Bulgaria Cambodia Canada Chile China Colombia Costa Rica Cote D’lvoire Croatia

Cuba Cyprus Czechia Denmark Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt Estonia Fiji Finland France French Guyana Gambia Germany Ghana Greece Guatemala Hungary Iceland India Indonesia

Iran Iraq Ireland Israel Italy Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Korea Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lithuania Macedonia Madagascar Malaysia Malta Mauritania Mexico Moldova

Morocco Mozambique Myanmar Nepal Netherlands New Zealand Nigeria Norway Oman Pakistan Palestine Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Qatar Romania Russian Federation Saudi Arabia Serbia Slovakia

South Africa Spain Sri Lanka Sweden Switzerland Taiwan Tanzania Thailand Tunisia Turkey Ukraine UAE United Kingdom USA Uruguay Venezuela Vietnam Zimbabwe