In combatives, you’ll hear people talk about the principles of a system, or principles-based training. That’s fine and dandy right up until you ask a senior practitioner exactly what those principles are. If you’re lucky, you’ll get crickets. If not, you’ll get the normal word salad of someone who has been pinned down in … [Read more…]
And today’s question was about ‘footwork’ — specifically what is footwork (followed by all kinds of “This style says do it this way, but this style says this” silliness from marketing driven ~cough cough~ ‘knowledge’ and claims about what style has the best footwork. *** Footwork = mobility. Mobility = well all kinds of … [Read more…]
Going to try to capture the thought I woke up with this morning. It was about sacrifice throws, sutemi waza, and how many principles they illustrate. I just thought about linking to a video, but this is kinesthetic, and video doesn’t show the most important stuff. Principle: Balance. The essence of balance is that the … [Read more…]
Ninety five percent of all martial arts training is based on the assumption that the person doing it has normal physical abilities. With defensive tactics you are closer to 100%. While this is not in itself a bad thing, what has happened is that a philosophy of “muscle” has evolved. That is to say, if … [Read more…]
Whether you study a traditional martial art, a modern martial art, a self-defense system, defensive tactics or close quarter combat, all must meet one basic criteria: They must teach you how to control force. Notice I didn’t say ‘generate.’ That’s because generating force is only one aspect of controlling force. Specifically, you must be able … [Read more…]
When it comes to having powerful punches, a whole lot of what you know ‘ain’t so.’ Or to be more precise, odds are you’re trying to fly a one-winged airplane. Quite frankly most people need to be less concerned with generating more power than they need to focus on losing less of what they already … [Read more…]
Upon hearing the idea of any physical conflict being over in three moves people have different reactions. Cops and correctional officers — who’ve had their share of defensive tactics go wrong — usually look skeptical at who said it. Some martial artists believe that their devastating Ancient fighting style would be capable of doing just … [Read more…]
I’m often asked about certain aspects of a system or technique. The response below was just one example. The original question was about the Wing Chun square/basic/box/whatever someone is calling it where-ever they are. He had some specific questions about what the stance was good for. I took one look at his questions and realized … [Read more…]