There are things about fighting that are very difficult to learn without fighting. There are things about an assault that are difficult, maybe impossible, to learn without being on both ends of an assault. Martial arts training is largely about trying to preserve and pass on skills without the side-effects of using the skills. You … [Read more…]
Just read a really terrible book purporting to be about safety. Ignorant, repetitive and pseudo-profound. According to the back cover, the guy had a resume that sounded like a god, but there were basic words used incorrectly, over half the book was word-for-word repeats of the author’s talking points. And some of the … [Read more…]
The simple answer is ‘See it coming and move.’ The not so simple answer is I just finished writing a 150 page e-book that covers this subject. It will be available next month. It’s called “Writing Violence IV: Defense” and it will be available for a whopping $2.99. I specifically go into some of why … [Read more…]
If you can, via effective movement, remove your opponent’s ability to attack, you can seriously effect his Will to attack you. In short, if someone attacks you and is not only quickly foiled, but simultaneously finds himself in an untenable situation, it often results in the decision to cease hostilities. Having said that, even if … [Read more…]
I was asked about my position about punching (alone) being an ineffective attack. As in “But doesn’t it cause damage?” My first response… *** A punch alone. No. There are many other factors that can cause the body to give way before something breaks.This is why punching alone is considered a sports technique — it’s … [Read more…]
Context and timing. Real attacks versus sparring artifacts. One of the common patterns of shanking works from a handshake. The bad guy shakes your hand on some pretext and then pulls you in as he stabs you about in the armpit. I don’t usually teach knife defense for a number of reasons, if you know … [Read more…]
The class was working on power generation, using the center of gravity to slam extra power up into a strike or down into a strike. Two types of wave power. One man interrupted. Through the translator, he said, “But I don’t want to hit. My reaction will be to defuse and avoid.” Wrong place, wrong … [Read more…]
Clinching is a common response when you get your chimes rung. It hopefully will keep you from getting torn up more while you try to get your brains back inside your ears. It’s pretty much all you can do unless there’s something like a table nearby that you can roll under and try to recover. … [Read more…]
I like this drill for a different reason than people might think. It demonstrates something I’ve been trying to tell people for years MOVE YOUR ASS! Because if you don’t you die. Notice, how long he’s under fire BEFORE he gets behind cover. Notice how slow he is to get to cover. Notice how … [Read more…]
Abandon I like the word “abandon” and it has been coming up a lot, lately. There are three (at least) instincts when faced with chaos and danger. The most common is to try to control it. To minimize the chaos, to minimize the danger. To basically take chaos and and make it “not chaos.” Whatever … [Read more…]