Movement Principles – Rory Miller

  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…]

Footwork – Marc MacYoung

  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…]

Sacrifice – Rory Miller

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…]

Muscle – Marc MacYoung

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…]

Mushy Body Movement – Marc MacYoung

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…]

Effective Movement – Marc MacYoung

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…]