Archive for Martial Arts
Why the untrained fighter kicks your highly trained butt, Part Two.
Posted by: | CommentsIn part one of Why the untrained fighter kicks your highly trained butt, I covered some of my thinking about the whole training vs. experience thing so you might want to read that part first before going over what follows.
In the comments section, Viktor wrote this:
All of this makes sense, i’ve though along these lines before even though i don’t actually have any experience of real life violent situations.
I have trained martial arts for some time now, but i don’t think i would stand a very big chance if i actually ended up in a fight with someone that has been in many real fights no matter how unskilled they are in any form of martial art. (partly because i’m not that skilled in martial art yet nor am i very well trained physically or have any experience at all in real situations, all in al not much in favour of me)
And one thing i’ve been thinking about a lot is how to train for a real situation, San shou or sparring is of course a way to train techniques in a simulated fight, but that final touch that is needed for a technique to work in a real situation; a situation with adrenaline, full power and speed is hard to train for. I’ve often thought that i should aim for competitions because i think that is as near as i can come without actually being in a fight for real even though i otherwise think that fighting or violence as a competition doesn’t make sense. What is your take on competition as a way to train and test techniques under stress?
What would you say is a good way to train for real situations? Can it even be done?
It’s an interesting question but before I answer it I need to give some qualifiers and context:
- Viktor says he’s not very skilled, experienced or in great physical shape. Two out of these three are things you can remedy quite easily by training harder and more frequently. Doing so will give you not only more skill but it’s also a quick way to get your physical attributes (like speed and power) to a higher level. Once you do that, your chances of coming out on top in a violent conflict are better already. There’s no guarantee that these things will let you win every fight you end up in but I believe not working on them definitely decreases the odds in your favor. So I’d say: go out and train some more. There’s no reason you shouldn’t.
- That said, I don’t think there are easy answers to the “I lack experience, where should I get it?” question. I know people who answered it by starting to work as a bouncer or join the military. I know of others who would go out and pick fights to see if their techniques worked. They all ended up getting experience though not necessarily the kind they wanted. E.g.: One guy on purpose tried a crescent kick as a knife disarm and found out it worked perfectly. The only downside was that even though his attacker was now just as empty handed as he was, the knife was now stuck in his foot. Kind of ruined the rest of the fight for him… Read More→
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French documentary on Arnis in the Philippines in the ’50
Posted by: | CommentsCheck out this French documentary on Arnis in the Philippines in the ’50. It features some footage of villagers playing Arnis back in the day when point fighting tournaments and DVD courses were unheard of.
Take a look:
What I liked best was the footwork. It’s in sharp contrast to some of the footwork I’ve seen become more prevalent in Philippino martial arts in recent times. Anyway, it’s cool to see some footage of the old ways of training. Always inspirational and a good reminder of where we get our arts from.
Props to Melvin for this find.
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Why the untrained fighter kicks your highly trained butt.
Posted by: | CommentsI just found this comment by Iain Abernethy via Facebook and it’s well worth reading. He covers one of the oldest but most persistent myths you find floating around in dojos and martial arts gyms. The one that says: “Your typical street thug is untrained and therefor he doesn’t fight very well.” The conclusion that follows out of this myth is that you, as a trained martial artist, can easily handle that brute strength, clumsy, untrained crap he throws at you. The result of that conclusion is all too often a mindset of “Dude, I’ve got it. I can handle myself. Look at my Kill Face!”
Sometimes they’re right and they actually can take care of themselves. More often than not, they’re absolutely wrong. Just because you are trained to handle certain things, it doesn’t mean you can automatically handle others no matter how similar they may be. And even more importantly, no matter how much you think you can. Right off the bat, we run into the classic problem I’ve mentioned here ad nauseam: the differences are just as important as the similarities.
I’ve written a lot about this in the past so I won’t rehash it today. Suffice it to say I think it’s crucial to understand and apply this concept to make any true progress in whatever art you practice. I’m also going to take a slightly different approach than Iain (though I’m in total agreement with his words) and it’ll take a while for me to get to the final conclusion. So please hang in there until the end.
Similarities, differences, equally important....
I can do it! I can do it!
In a way, nothing fails like success. Take the example of the leg kick, one of my favorite techniques:
- I’ve knocked people out with it.
- I’ve made people cry after landing it.
- I’ve used it to distract them so I could hit them in the face.
- I’ve used it to scare stronger fighters into keeping away from me to avoid the pain they cause.
To me, this technique is real and reliable. I know so, deep down at gut-level, because I’ve experienced the results it yields over and over. I have faith in the technique that if I can land it (which is always a big “if” but let’s say I do), then the other guy will be in a significant amount of pain.
So why am I not teaching it to my students as the most effective kick you can throw in a street fight? Read More→
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People need to get punched in the face more often.
Posted by: | CommentsThis article has been going the rounds lately. Before you read the rest of my post, check it out.
Frankly, the author has a point, a pretty damn good one.
In many modern societies, violence is not only frowned upon, it’s is considered inherently wrong. And as a result anybody involved with anything that comes close to violence is regarded with suspicion and incomprehension at best. More often than not, they’re seen as a brute or a barbarian. Given that martial arts are a big part of my life, I’ve run into this mindset now and then, to put it mildly…
The funny part is how this post captures the essence of several conversations I’ve had this last week. Here goes.
The one with a former teacher.
We talked about how before, you wrote the student a note when he misbehaved in class and that was the end of it. Now she has to write four different notes: for the parents, for the principal, for the administration and for a monitoring committee. Then the parent writes a note back or calls her up to complain and the whole process starts over. Writing two notes during a given hour in school means she has more work than it’s worth. So teachers don’t do it unless absolutely necessary and little Johnny learns squat because he gets away with everything in class.
Later on, the parents complain because their kid gets bad grades or fails every class. And then they blame the teacher…
They fail to see the problem, which is: it’s not the teacher’s job to raise your kid, it’s yours. If he acts like a total prat and you refuse to have him punished, regardless of whatever crap he pulls, then you have no right complaining when he doesn’t pass. None.
My mother was a school teacher so I know a wee bit of what I speak: it didn’t use to be like this. Kids were supposed to go to school and if they got bad grades, they got punished by their parents. People didn’t shift responsibility for the upbringing of their children to the school system and its teachers instead of doing it themselves. The took care of their own, they handled the responsibility. Today, this is less and less the case.
The insane gunman.
Last week, an insane gunman went to a Christmas Market here in Belgium and killed five people. He threw grenades into the crowd and opened up with automatic gunfire before killing himself. Read More→
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