Recently, I've started blogging on a new platform called WordPress.
It's a little more complicated than Blogger, but it's also a more powerful platform than Blogger.
I like the templates that WordPress has available, as well; let me know what you think when you take a look at my new Shotokan Karate Website!
And I Also Talk About Other Things, In Addition to Traditional Shotokan Karate, in this Karate Blog!
Demonstration by Sensei Shojiro Koyama, Who Teaches Shotokan Karate in Phoenix, Arizona
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Shotokan Karate E-Dojo
I have started a new blog on the Wordpress.com Platform, to see if I use the greater power and flexibility of that blogging platform to share Shotokan Karate with more readers.
Take a look, and see if you like the design and the posts; it's still very new, but I'm happy with the initial version of my new Shotokan Karate blog.
And I hope you like it, too!
Take a look, and see if you like the design and the posts; it's still very new, but I'm happy with the initial version of my new Shotokan Karate blog.
And I hope you like it, too!
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
A Short Self-Defense Class with Sensei Shojiro Koyama, 8th Dan, JKA
No, you don't get to see the video.
Loyal readers will recall that I have the privilege of studying privately with Sensei Shojiro Koyama, of which privilege I am absurdly proud.
Recently he called a break to basics and kata, and said he was going to teach me a self-defense lesson.
He prefaced it by telling me that in Japan, policemen are often highly trained black belts in Judo, Karate, and Aikido (in that context, please read "Angry White Pajamas", because it is wildly entertaining and instructive, simultaneously).
He continued by pointing out that because they are highly trained martial artists, the police in Japan tend to believe that they can use their martial arts techniques on knife-wielding bad guys.
And he concluded by pointing out that many such superbly-trained Japanese Policemen then die as a result of knife wounds, because knives are very effective tools for letting the life out, and bad guys don't attack in the ways that a trained martial artist attacks.
Bad guys never learned how to attack correctly! As a result, when the frenzied stabbing starts, the technique (really, non-technique) is one that has never been taught to the bad guy in a dojo, and no defense was learned for that non-technique by the policeman.
The conclusion of this short discussion of self-defense against a knife is pretty simple. Don't try to defend, empty-handed, against a deadly weapon in the hands of a determined bad guy, because your odds of success are not good.
If you can interpose a chair, good. If you can interpose a chair and poke the bad guy with the legs of the chair, good. If you can swing a chair into the bad guy while you are repeating the mantra, "Feets, do yo' stuff!", all the better.
Generally, a contest of armed verses unarmed men does not turn out well for the unarmed man. Or woman. So don't enter into that contest unless there is literally no other choice.
End of lesson.
p.s. consider trying this for fun: put on a fencing mask, and give a magic marker to your buddy. Bet him you can keep him from dotting or streaking your t-shirt with the magic marker, and bet him enough to make it interesting (unless that would be illegal in your jurisdiction, of course).
The point of the exercise is to see if you can keep your torso from being dotted or streaked by a fully motivated guy of similar size and build.
And if you are that one person in a million who can keep the t-shirt clean, take a look at your arms, and ask yourself how deep the cut, and how fast the bleed-out.
And remember, it's just for fun; make sure there's a medic present at all times, right?
Loyal readers will recall that I have the privilege of studying privately with Sensei Shojiro Koyama, of which privilege I am absurdly proud.
Recently he called a break to basics and kata, and said he was going to teach me a self-defense lesson.
He prefaced it by telling me that in Japan, policemen are often highly trained black belts in Judo, Karate, and Aikido (in that context, please read "Angry White Pajamas", because it is wildly entertaining and instructive, simultaneously).
He continued by pointing out that because they are highly trained martial artists, the police in Japan tend to believe that they can use their martial arts techniques on knife-wielding bad guys.
And he concluded by pointing out that many such superbly-trained Japanese Policemen then die as a result of knife wounds, because knives are very effective tools for letting the life out, and bad guys don't attack in the ways that a trained martial artist attacks.
Bad guys never learned how to attack correctly! As a result, when the frenzied stabbing starts, the technique (really, non-technique) is one that has never been taught to the bad guy in a dojo, and no defense was learned for that non-technique by the policeman.
The conclusion of this short discussion of self-defense against a knife is pretty simple. Don't try to defend, empty-handed, against a deadly weapon in the hands of a determined bad guy, because your odds of success are not good.
If you can interpose a chair, good. If you can interpose a chair and poke the bad guy with the legs of the chair, good. If you can swing a chair into the bad guy while you are repeating the mantra, "Feets, do yo' stuff!", all the better.
Generally, a contest of armed verses unarmed men does not turn out well for the unarmed man. Or woman. So don't enter into that contest unless there is literally no other choice.
End of lesson.
p.s. consider trying this for fun: put on a fencing mask, and give a magic marker to your buddy. Bet him you can keep him from dotting or streaking your t-shirt with the magic marker, and bet him enough to make it interesting (unless that would be illegal in your jurisdiction, of course).
The point of the exercise is to see if you can keep your torso from being dotted or streaked by a fully motivated guy of similar size and build.
And if you are that one person in a million who can keep the t-shirt clean, take a look at your arms, and ask yourself how deep the cut, and how fast the bleed-out.
And remember, it's just for fun; make sure there's a medic present at all times, right?
A Nice Karate Demonstration with Sensei Kanazawa and Terry O'Neill
I like karate demonstrations. This one is a little quirky, from my perspective, because it's narrated in Russian, but the punches, strikes, kicks and throws do not require much translation.
Sensei Kanazawa won the first big Shotokan Karate Tournament in Japan by besting Sensei Enoeda (who is now sadly passed away), and he has fun in this demonstration.
The impressively brave Terry O'Neill assisted Sensei Kanazawa in this demonstration, which must have been a little difficult for him; Terry was himself a remarkable kumite competitor until a knee injury ended that part of his karate career.
Monday, June 20, 2011
How the Japanese Improved Okinawan Karate
I have read much about the ways that karate degenerated when it was adopted and modified by the Japanese.
Many writers who have studied with Okinawan instructors have waxed ecstatic about the ways that the pure version of Okinawan Karate beats that silly Japanese stuff all hollow.
Maybe true, maybe not. I've seen great exponents from both traditions, and both of those, after all, are offshoots of Chinese Martial Arts.
But Okinawan Martial Artists were more effective after Japanese domination for one simple reason, which was discussed by Funakoshi in his autobiography.
After Japanese domination of Okinawa, the wearing of the traditional Okinawan hair arrangement, a sort of top-knot, was forbidden. Gichen Funakoshi writes about how difficult it was to shear them off some schoolchildren in Okinawa.
But long hair (and, for that matter, beards) have always been great handles for hand-to-hand combat.
Which is why Philip of Macedon and his son (a guy named Alexander, remember?) told their troops to keep it short.
So after the Japanese took over control of Okinawa, they provided one gift to local martial artists, even if it was not intended as a gift.
And you can see how effective the use of the topknot grab was, because it shows up in bunkai to most of the kata!
Many writers who have studied with Okinawan instructors have waxed ecstatic about the ways that the pure version of Okinawan Karate beats that silly Japanese stuff all hollow.
Maybe true, maybe not. I've seen great exponents from both traditions, and both of those, after all, are offshoots of Chinese Martial Arts.
But Okinawan Martial Artists were more effective after Japanese domination for one simple reason, which was discussed by Funakoshi in his autobiography.
After Japanese domination of Okinawa, the wearing of the traditional Okinawan hair arrangement, a sort of top-knot, was forbidden. Gichen Funakoshi writes about how difficult it was to shear them off some schoolchildren in Okinawa.
But long hair (and, for that matter, beards) have always been great handles for hand-to-hand combat.
Which is why Philip of Macedon and his son (a guy named Alexander, remember?) told their troops to keep it short.
So after the Japanese took over control of Okinawa, they provided one gift to local martial artists, even if it was not intended as a gift.
And you can see how effective the use of the topknot grab was, because it shows up in bunkai to most of the kata!
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Rare Karate Books Online: A Gift from Charles Goodin. And Thank You, Charles!
I like Christmas, and one reason I like it is the gifts! I particularly liked that Merlotte's Bar and Grill Mug, by the way.
But I ran into a gift recently that left me amazed, because it is so valuable, and because the gift is so generous.
And that gift is the free, online rare karate book and monograph collection on Charles Goodin's Hawaii Karate Museum Blog.
Some gift, neh?
But I ran into a gift recently that left me amazed, because it is so valuable, and because the gift is so generous.
And that gift is the free, online rare karate book and monograph collection on Charles Goodin's Hawaii Karate Museum Blog.
Some gift, neh?
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Is Naihanchi the Perfect Martial Art?
I love practicing the Tekki Kata. Donno why. Just do.
And I've written recently about them, and the fighting techniques embedded in them.
Now, Rob Redmond has a great Shotokan Karate Blog, and you should read every single post he's written. You may not agree with him, but you'll learn a lot about Shotokan Karate.
One of his suggestions is that the best martial art for real fighting might well be one that's composed of all the techniques forbidden for competition in every other martial art!
I thought that was smart, as well as funny.
And then I considered the Okinawan Karate Masters who indicated that Naihanchi had everything you needed to know about fighting.
So let's think about Naihanchi/Tekki Kata for a moment, and consider which techniques are embedded in it, and are also prohibited in all martial arts for competition.
On the one hand, you've got elbows to the head, while you're grabbing his head for target control. Check.
Arm breaks? Check.
Hair grabbing, neck crank? Check.
Smashing your opponents knee to do structural damage to it? Check.
Head butt and eye gouge and bite? Implied in the kata, I think, so check.
Finger breaking? Yep. Check.
Choking and neck breaking? Check.
Head snap taking your opponent to the ground? Check.
Forearm smash to the back of his neck? Check.
The one thing I don't see anywhere in the kata bunkai is a groin attack.
On the other hand, there's a nice response to your opponent's wrist grab after you attack his groin!
Naihanchi is not for the faint of heart!
It looks to me, by the way, as though it's among the very best kata for applications that start after the perp has rung your bell with a roundhouse right sucker-punch. It teaches moving from the clinch to counter-attacks more clearly than any other kata I can think of today.
Remember, boys and girls, running away from a fight may make people laugh at you, depending on the neighborhood.
But they're going to laugh at you anyway once you get your front teeth knocked out, right?
So run if you can. If you can't, consider the techniques in Naihanchi for self-defense, unless of course they're illegal in your jurisdiction. Always obey the law.
And I've written recently about them, and the fighting techniques embedded in them.
Now, Rob Redmond has a great Shotokan Karate Blog, and you should read every single post he's written. You may not agree with him, but you'll learn a lot about Shotokan Karate.
One of his suggestions is that the best martial art for real fighting might well be one that's composed of all the techniques forbidden for competition in every other martial art!
I thought that was smart, as well as funny.
And then I considered the Okinawan Karate Masters who indicated that Naihanchi had everything you needed to know about fighting.
So let's think about Naihanchi/Tekki Kata for a moment, and consider which techniques are embedded in it, and are also prohibited in all martial arts for competition.
On the one hand, you've got elbows to the head, while you're grabbing his head for target control. Check.
Arm breaks? Check.
Hair grabbing, neck crank? Check.
Smashing your opponents knee to do structural damage to it? Check.
Head butt and eye gouge and bite? Implied in the kata, I think, so check.
Finger breaking? Yep. Check.
Choking and neck breaking? Check.
Head snap taking your opponent to the ground? Check.
Forearm smash to the back of his neck? Check.
The one thing I don't see anywhere in the kata bunkai is a groin attack.
On the other hand, there's a nice response to your opponent's wrist grab after you attack his groin!
Naihanchi is not for the faint of heart!
It looks to me, by the way, as though it's among the very best kata for applications that start after the perp has rung your bell with a roundhouse right sucker-punch. It teaches moving from the clinch to counter-attacks more clearly than any other kata I can think of today.
Remember, boys and girls, running away from a fight may make people laugh at you, depending on the neighborhood.
But they're going to laugh at you anyway once you get your front teeth knocked out, right?
So run if you can. If you can't, consider the techniques in Naihanchi for self-defense, unless of course they're illegal in your jurisdiction. Always obey the law.
Looking Pretty Doesn't Win Fights
See, if looking pretty won fights (or even sparring matches), the world would be a lot nicer and more predictable place.
But no. Looking pretty when you fight doesn't win fights, and the world is not nice and predictable, and fighting is particularly unpleasant and chaotic.
Back around 1964, before most of you were born, I started taking fencing classes from a world-class instructor. There were other kids in the class, and all of them were far better than I was in basic technique and form, because I'm a little coordination...challenged.
But after we had picked up the rudiments of lunging and parrying and beating and disengaging as solo drills, we started actually "fencing" with each other. We were so bad that calling it fencing is far too kind.
But I really envied one of the guys in class because he had a natural talent for fencing; his lunges were perfect. His parries were beautiful.
And I beat him every single time we fenced, even though my technique looked like poop, and his looked like Errol Flynn in Robin Hood.
I had simply stumbled upon a technique that worked for me in competitions, and it clicked.
It was a simple beat, disengage, lunge combination. When I slapped his foil (which moved it out of line) he frantically over-corrected and threw it further out of line on the other side. Which left an opening in his guard through which I could drive a truck. Or, in this case, a foil.
I used the same technique decades later (rapiers, instead of foils) in some competitions in the Society for Creative Anachronism and a couple of other living history groups, and it worked against most of the people with whom I fenced ( not all, of course).
See, in martial arts, you have a combination of skills that are developed over years, and you have to decide which of those skills and techniques you want to develop, and whether you want to do well in formal competition for trophies, or in self defense on the street, or just self-defense against aging (you can't win, but you can draw out the fight, which is itself something of a victory. But, hey, if Thor couldn't beat Old Age, nobody can!).
Watch boxers and it will be obvious; some boxers imitate Cassius Clay, and drop their hands to taunt their opponents, and get away with it! Some stay buttoned up, and do very well. Some use a funny guard with their left hand down and their right hand up, and do well with that.
Marital arts classes do a lot of things; they expose you to a lot of different techniques, and depending on the art, they may also teach your warm ups and strengthening and flexibility and timing exercises.
But if you watch competitions between very good competitors in any martial art or system, including MMA, you'll see that simple techniques work, and complex techniques often don't, and that everybody has a pet technique or three.
The reason that world-class competitors have a relatively small bundle of techniques that they actually use in competitions is that they have found, through unpleasant trial and error, that some techniques that they have learned don't win for them!
And you don't win in world-competitions with a hundred techniques that you know. You win with one to five techniques that you've mastered.
p.s. If your martial art doesn't involve contact, you'll want a remedial contact course somewhere along the way. In the same way that people react predictably when you beat their blade to the side in fencing, they respond predictable to a blow to the solar plexus.
Some drop their arms a little and lean forward a little, some a lot. But just about everybody has a reaction, and that reaction is often the beginning of a combination that will finish that fight. But not in their favor. Note that you'll want to develop your ability to take a blow, but that's a topic for another day. Don't stand in front of moving cars to toughen yourself up, or do anything else stupid.
One of Sensei Funakoshi's senior students, Shigeru Egami, was so unhappy with the lack of stopping power of the punch he used to strike the solar plexus that he wrote a book about his frustration and his solution. And he came up with a pretty good solution.
A different solution is known by many boxers who hit people for realsies all day long: if you want to stop somebody with a shot to the solar plexus, the most effective angle of attack is up, as in uppercut.
p.p.s. some of this discussion relates to controlled sparring matches; some to real fights. The two are completely different. If you don't know the difference, never get in a fight, and run away in every case. Mind you, running away from a fight is normally the best martial arts technique available.
Some martial arts, on the other hand, may be useful when you are vic and the perp has already rung your chimes with a sucker punch. The primary marital art used by perps, by the way, is simply getting in close enough that your reaction time is no defense whatsoever.
And I know that this is obvious, but you won't be looking pretty, with snappy, good-looking techniques, once the first sucker punch has landed. Hopefully, you will have developed some version of the clinch so your head will clear enough that you can begin a defense (which means offense, once the other guy has belted you five times).
And your teeth? Well, try to find them on the floor after the flurry of sucker punches and your successful defense. And you may well be able to re-implant them if you act quickly, says Mayo Clinic!
But no. Looking pretty when you fight doesn't win fights, and the world is not nice and predictable, and fighting is particularly unpleasant and chaotic.
Back around 1964, before most of you were born, I started taking fencing classes from a world-class instructor. There were other kids in the class, and all of them were far better than I was in basic technique and form, because I'm a little coordination...challenged.
But after we had picked up the rudiments of lunging and parrying and beating and disengaging as solo drills, we started actually "fencing" with each other. We were so bad that calling it fencing is far too kind.
But I really envied one of the guys in class because he had a natural talent for fencing; his lunges were perfect. His parries were beautiful.
And I beat him every single time we fenced, even though my technique looked like poop, and his looked like Errol Flynn in Robin Hood.
I had simply stumbled upon a technique that worked for me in competitions, and it clicked.
It was a simple beat, disengage, lunge combination. When I slapped his foil (which moved it out of line) he frantically over-corrected and threw it further out of line on the other side. Which left an opening in his guard through which I could drive a truck. Or, in this case, a foil.
I used the same technique decades later (rapiers, instead of foils) in some competitions in the Society for Creative Anachronism and a couple of other living history groups, and it worked against most of the people with whom I fenced ( not all, of course).
See, in martial arts, you have a combination of skills that are developed over years, and you have to decide which of those skills and techniques you want to develop, and whether you want to do well in formal competition for trophies, or in self defense on the street, or just self-defense against aging (you can't win, but you can draw out the fight, which is itself something of a victory. But, hey, if Thor couldn't beat Old Age, nobody can!).
Watch boxers and it will be obvious; some boxers imitate Cassius Clay, and drop their hands to taunt their opponents, and get away with it! Some stay buttoned up, and do very well. Some use a funny guard with their left hand down and their right hand up, and do well with that.
Marital arts classes do a lot of things; they expose you to a lot of different techniques, and depending on the art, they may also teach your warm ups and strengthening and flexibility and timing exercises.
But if you watch competitions between very good competitors in any martial art or system, including MMA, you'll see that simple techniques work, and complex techniques often don't, and that everybody has a pet technique or three.
The reason that world-class competitors have a relatively small bundle of techniques that they actually use in competitions is that they have found, through unpleasant trial and error, that some techniques that they have learned don't win for them!
And you don't win in world-competitions with a hundred techniques that you know. You win with one to five techniques that you've mastered.
p.s. If your martial art doesn't involve contact, you'll want a remedial contact course somewhere along the way. In the same way that people react predictably when you beat their blade to the side in fencing, they respond predictable to a blow to the solar plexus.
Some drop their arms a little and lean forward a little, some a lot. But just about everybody has a reaction, and that reaction is often the beginning of a combination that will finish that fight. But not in their favor. Note that you'll want to develop your ability to take a blow, but that's a topic for another day. Don't stand in front of moving cars to toughen yourself up, or do anything else stupid.
One of Sensei Funakoshi's senior students, Shigeru Egami, was so unhappy with the lack of stopping power of the punch he used to strike the solar plexus that he wrote a book about his frustration and his solution. And he came up with a pretty good solution.
A different solution is known by many boxers who hit people for realsies all day long: if you want to stop somebody with a shot to the solar plexus, the most effective angle of attack is up, as in uppercut.
p.p.s. some of this discussion relates to controlled sparring matches; some to real fights. The two are completely different. If you don't know the difference, never get in a fight, and run away in every case. Mind you, running away from a fight is normally the best martial arts technique available.
Some martial arts, on the other hand, may be useful when you are vic and the perp has already rung your chimes with a sucker punch. The primary marital art used by perps, by the way, is simply getting in close enough that your reaction time is no defense whatsoever.
And I know that this is obvious, but you won't be looking pretty, with snappy, good-looking techniques, once the first sucker punch has landed. Hopefully, you will have developed some version of the clinch so your head will clear enough that you can begin a defense (which means offense, once the other guy has belted you five times).
And your teeth? Well, try to find them on the floor after the flurry of sucker punches and your successful defense. And you may well be able to re-implant them if you act quickly, says Mayo Clinic!
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Funniest Version of Road Rage That Didn't Get You Killed!
Road rage is quite real.
Maybe it's a function of breathing in carbon monoxide mixed with lead-laden particulates.
Maybe it's that you're using mostly small muscles to pilot your car, and your adrenaline can't get burned up by the use of large muscle movement, as it would be if you were sprinting or jogging.
But it can turn ordinarily mild-mannered folks of all sorts into quite dangerous people indeed. With I.Q. levels below that of a newt.
Here in Phoenix, we have a special sort of road rage, fueled by 120-degree temperatures in the summertime. And you need to keep very careful watch for cars with the windows rolled down (indicating that they don't have air-conditioning in their car).
If you make a driver with no air conditioning even slow down when it's 120 degrees in Phoenix, you take your life in your hands.
Now, martial arts or self-defense classes or boxing expertise are unlikely to help you a lot during episodes of serious road rage. Either one or both of the participants will have a weapon (remember that tire irons are perfectly good weapons, as are big flashlights, small flashlights, screwdrivers, and wrenches; putting it a different way, cars are almost as full of weapons as kitchens).
And it may sound like I'm kidding about this; I'm really, really not kidding.
What you need to do is to be aware of the point at which you are tipping into irrational anger, and dump the contents of that entire Super-duper Size Slurpy down your back so that the shock can make you lucid again.
Anybody, apparently, can have a sudden loss of I.Q. when hit by a wave of adrenaline; a former prosecutor named Dan Gukeisen was recently sentenced to five years for manslaughter committed with a knife. And that's a former prosecutor; if he can suffer a lapse in judgment, there are few mortals indeed who are capable of perfect self-control.
There's nothing funny about going over the top emotionally and either starting a fight or getting stomped by somebody who has himself gone off.
And I just watched a comedian named Ben Bailey talk about road rage. It was hilarious!
It was also sobering; this guy is a game show host, and he depicts the experience of road rage brilliantly, having experienced it. While being a televised game show host. With two contestants in the back seat!
Another part of the story which was interesting was the entry of his posse on the scene; you should always expect that the six-foot six-inch guy you think you can take has a bunch of buddies with him.
And that at least one of them will have a pistol.
Maybe it's a function of breathing in carbon monoxide mixed with lead-laden particulates.
Maybe it's that you're using mostly small muscles to pilot your car, and your adrenaline can't get burned up by the use of large muscle movement, as it would be if you were sprinting or jogging.
But it can turn ordinarily mild-mannered folks of all sorts into quite dangerous people indeed. With I.Q. levels below that of a newt.
Here in Phoenix, we have a special sort of road rage, fueled by 120-degree temperatures in the summertime. And you need to keep very careful watch for cars with the windows rolled down (indicating that they don't have air-conditioning in their car).
If you make a driver with no air conditioning even slow down when it's 120 degrees in Phoenix, you take your life in your hands.
Now, martial arts or self-defense classes or boxing expertise are unlikely to help you a lot during episodes of serious road rage. Either one or both of the participants will have a weapon (remember that tire irons are perfectly good weapons, as are big flashlights, small flashlights, screwdrivers, and wrenches; putting it a different way, cars are almost as full of weapons as kitchens).
And it may sound like I'm kidding about this; I'm really, really not kidding.
What you need to do is to be aware of the point at which you are tipping into irrational anger, and dump the contents of that entire Super-duper Size Slurpy down your back so that the shock can make you lucid again.
Anybody, apparently, can have a sudden loss of I.Q. when hit by a wave of adrenaline; a former prosecutor named Dan Gukeisen was recently sentenced to five years for manslaughter committed with a knife. And that's a former prosecutor; if he can suffer a lapse in judgment, there are few mortals indeed who are capable of perfect self-control.
There's nothing funny about going over the top emotionally and either starting a fight or getting stomped by somebody who has himself gone off.
And I just watched a comedian named Ben Bailey talk about road rage. It was hilarious!
It was also sobering; this guy is a game show host, and he depicts the experience of road rage brilliantly, having experienced it. While being a televised game show host. With two contestants in the back seat!
Another part of the story which was interesting was the entry of his posse on the scene; you should always expect that the six-foot six-inch guy you think you can take has a bunch of buddies with him.
And that at least one of them will have a pistol.
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Tekki Kata: Worthless? or Priceless? And Some People Call it Naihanchi.
Opinions differ.
Choki Motobu, who was never a shrinking violet when it came to brawling, said that Naihanchi contained all that you needed to know about fighting, and that it was a martial arts system (!) no longer practiced in China, only in Okinawa.
Rewind: Tekki as a martial arts style, or system? That's kinda big talk, you know?
Kentsu Yabu said "Karate begins and ends with Naihanchi".
Gichen Funakoshi, the founder of Shotokan Karate, spent a decade practicing three versions of this kata under one of his principal instructors, Itosu Sensei. Clearly, Itosu Sensei thought that Naihanchi was a pretty useful training exercise.
Iain Abernethy says that this kata is deep, and that it constitutes a "complete fighting system". When Iain Abernethy says that a kata contains a complete fighting system, I take notice; he's a very smart guy, and generous with his vast knowledge.
Now, some folks have suggested that this kata was designed so that you could fight with your back to a wall, or on a narrow strip of dry land between a couple of rice paddies. And some folks are terribly concerned with the precise way the hand is angled in performing the kata, and some may insist that their version of a stance is the only usable stance.
I, personally, do not give a rat's keester exactly what variation of the kata is being used in training, as long as it contains the fundamental information encoded in the kata. For that matter, if you look at the early kata books by Sensei Funakoshi, you will see higher stances than those used in Shotokan Karate today.
To get an idea of the practical ways that Tekki Shodan (the short, simple, bland, boring kata, right?) can be employed, you might want to watch this short video posted by Iain Abernethy, a Wado Instructor who has spent a career studying and teaching bunkai:
Note: the above short video is a commercial for a dvd, and if commercials for great products offend you, I'm deeply and terribly sorry. Myself, I recently ran across the little commercial.
I'll be ordering the dvd...today.
And here's another take on the bunkai to Tekki, or Naihanchi, or whatever you want to call it, by a gentleman named Didier Lupo. His version of the kata is closer to mine, and he looks like he would be happy to explain his version of Tekki to anybody who wants to learn it from him. Putting it another way, he looks like a tough hombre:
And I haven't been able to track down a source for Sensei Lupo's dvds, or I'd have a buncha those, as I have a buncha Iain's.
You can never be too rich, too thin, or have too many kata dvds, right?
Choki Motobu, who was never a shrinking violet when it came to brawling, said that Naihanchi contained all that you needed to know about fighting, and that it was a martial arts system (!) no longer practiced in China, only in Okinawa.
Rewind: Tekki as a martial arts style, or system? That's kinda big talk, you know?
Kentsu Yabu said "Karate begins and ends with Naihanchi".
Gichen Funakoshi, the founder of Shotokan Karate, spent a decade practicing three versions of this kata under one of his principal instructors, Itosu Sensei. Clearly, Itosu Sensei thought that Naihanchi was a pretty useful training exercise.
Iain Abernethy says that this kata is deep, and that it constitutes a "complete fighting system". When Iain Abernethy says that a kata contains a complete fighting system, I take notice; he's a very smart guy, and generous with his vast knowledge.
Now, some folks have suggested that this kata was designed so that you could fight with your back to a wall, or on a narrow strip of dry land between a couple of rice paddies. And some folks are terribly concerned with the precise way the hand is angled in performing the kata, and some may insist that their version of a stance is the only usable stance.
I, personally, do not give a rat's keester exactly what variation of the kata is being used in training, as long as it contains the fundamental information encoded in the kata. For that matter, if you look at the early kata books by Sensei Funakoshi, you will see higher stances than those used in Shotokan Karate today.
To get an idea of the practical ways that Tekki Shodan (the short, simple, bland, boring kata, right?) can be employed, you might want to watch this short video posted by Iain Abernethy, a Wado Instructor who has spent a career studying and teaching bunkai:
Note: the above short video is a commercial for a dvd, and if commercials for great products offend you, I'm deeply and terribly sorry. Myself, I recently ran across the little commercial.
I'll be ordering the dvd...today.
And here's another take on the bunkai to Tekki, or Naihanchi, or whatever you want to call it, by a gentleman named Didier Lupo. His version of the kata is closer to mine, and he looks like he would be happy to explain his version of Tekki to anybody who wants to learn it from him. Putting it another way, he looks like a tough hombre:
And I haven't been able to track down a source for Sensei Lupo's dvds, or I'd have a buncha those, as I have a buncha Iain's.
You can never be too rich, too thin, or have too many kata dvds, right?
Top Ten Shotokan Karate Blog Articles of All Time!
Enjoy!
Top Ten Most Popular Shotokan Karate Articles of all Time On This Blog
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Saturday, May 21, 2011
No Second Chance, a Reality Based Guide to Self Defense, by Mark Hatmaker
Teaching self-defense is an integral part of karate.
Karate was, at one point in Okinawan History, a brutal and brutally effective variety of self-defense taught in secret on a one-student one-teacher basis, and really not a sport or a meditative practice or a health and longevity exercise.
In order to make it a little more acceptable to the genteel Japanese on the mainland, the folks who introduced karate to Japan from Okinawa downplayed the vicious and nasty techniques embedded in the kata. Much of that process had already been accomplished when the Heian Kata were taught to schoolchildren in Japan.
Come on; if you're teaching a system of mostly-calisthenics to schoolkids, are you also going to show them how to use those pretty exercises to break arms, choke each other into unconsciousness or death, while you demonstrate head butts, biting and eye-gouging techniques?
That would be a big fat no.
These days, most traditional karate classes in the United States are just as reticent about teaching the nasty stuff, because parents like to sue, and a lawyer's gotta eat!
On the other hand, even when I was a kid I was able to check out a copy of "Kill or Get Killed" from the Phoenix Public Library, and I thank God to this day that it was sort of boring, with all that text, and that the techniques didn't look nearly as exotic and interesting as the kata in George Mattson's Way of Karate, or the wildly athletic techniques performed by Sensei Nakayama in his double-breasted suit and tie.
And it's good not to teach kids horrifyingly effective ways of killing and maiming with their hands.
If I'd been pushed around at Emerson Grade School, and responded by clapping my classmate's ears, tripping him and jumping up and down on his neck, I might have eaten alone in the cafeteria even more often!
So when you look for self-defense instruction, who you gonna call?
Well, you could do a lot worse than looking at Mark Hatmaker's little paperback book, "No Second Chance".
I have seldom read a book about self-defense that had more practical information and advice than "No Second Chance".
I like the fact that he recommends running as a major self-defense tactic (in this context, remember that tiny classic, "Strictly Street Stuff").
And I like discussions by Hatmaker that set up a pretty good decision tree for folks confronted with bad guys. Hatmaker has strong opinions, based on statistics, that running is best when confronted by a bad guy with a gun, and that fighting like a cartoon tasmanian devil, or a psychotic housecat, is appropriate in many situations.
There is a "deer in the headlights" effect that overtakes many people who are targeted by bad guys, and it's very powerful, and very dangerous. That deer/headlights thing can turn a bodybuilder or a long-distance runner into a stationary punching bag.
Reading a book like "No Second Chance" may help someone live, who would otherwise have died, if they had failed to think through their responses in advance of an attack.
The book has a nifty selection of targets and body weapons and techniques that will be familiar to most martial arts enthusiasts; the important part is the text, which applies clear thinking to self-defense issues.
This is not only a good book for an experienced, but civilized, martial artist. It's a good book for an ordinary civilian ("table-grade beef to a bad guy") who never thought about being the target of a bad guy.
And trust me on this one: when you are targeted for a physical assault, or a robbery or a rape or a murder, it's a little too late to do introspecting. Because you'll be doing a lot of thinking ("Oh my God, is this really happening?") that will paralyze your ability to act.
And you don't want to be paralyzed when a bad guy calls you out.
You want to be running. Or turning instantly into one of those really bad cats on the TV Show.
But don't break the law when you defend yourself!
p.s. there's a phrase I've heard in connection with getting into fights: "Better to be judged by twelve than carried by six."
Sadly, decisions you have to make when under pressure of the threat of imminent death may well also be analyzed in the cold light of day in a courtroom; and you may be judged according to standards that were developed by people who have always had armed bodyguards.
All you can do is the best you can do, and death is pretty final.
Just remember, I told you again and again, never break any law whatsoever.
p.p.s. some folks close to me have been raped, robbed, beaten and left for dead, or jumped by groups of guys and kicked nearly to death, or targeted for murder by some kids who needed to make their bones to join a gang. But one thing about folks who have been through that once is interesting to me. My friends in that category have NO PROBLEM listening to their instincts and leaving a place of business, a restaurant, a shop, a party, or sitting with their backs to the door, or taking any other action that they feel will reduce their chances of a repeat performance.
Also note; if you think you can take your oppressor, and feel pretty tough, make sure you check the immediate vicinity for his buddy with the knife.
Just a thought!
Karate was, at one point in Okinawan History, a brutal and brutally effective variety of self-defense taught in secret on a one-student one-teacher basis, and really not a sport or a meditative practice or a health and longevity exercise.
In order to make it a little more acceptable to the genteel Japanese on the mainland, the folks who introduced karate to Japan from Okinawa downplayed the vicious and nasty techniques embedded in the kata. Much of that process had already been accomplished when the Heian Kata were taught to schoolchildren in Japan.
Come on; if you're teaching a system of mostly-calisthenics to schoolkids, are you also going to show them how to use those pretty exercises to break arms, choke each other into unconsciousness or death, while you demonstrate head butts, biting and eye-gouging techniques?
That would be a big fat no.
These days, most traditional karate classes in the United States are just as reticent about teaching the nasty stuff, because parents like to sue, and a lawyer's gotta eat!
On the other hand, even when I was a kid I was able to check out a copy of "Kill or Get Killed" from the Phoenix Public Library, and I thank God to this day that it was sort of boring, with all that text, and that the techniques didn't look nearly as exotic and interesting as the kata in George Mattson's Way of Karate, or the wildly athletic techniques performed by Sensei Nakayama in his double-breasted suit and tie.
And it's good not to teach kids horrifyingly effective ways of killing and maiming with their hands.
If I'd been pushed around at Emerson Grade School, and responded by clapping my classmate's ears, tripping him and jumping up and down on his neck, I might have eaten alone in the cafeteria even more often!
So when you look for self-defense instruction, who you gonna call?
Well, you could do a lot worse than looking at Mark Hatmaker's little paperback book, "No Second Chance".
I have seldom read a book about self-defense that had more practical information and advice than "No Second Chance".
I like the fact that he recommends running as a major self-defense tactic (in this context, remember that tiny classic, "Strictly Street Stuff").
And I like discussions by Hatmaker that set up a pretty good decision tree for folks confronted with bad guys. Hatmaker has strong opinions, based on statistics, that running is best when confronted by a bad guy with a gun, and that fighting like a cartoon tasmanian devil, or a psychotic housecat, is appropriate in many situations.
There is a "deer in the headlights" effect that overtakes many people who are targeted by bad guys, and it's very powerful, and very dangerous. That deer/headlights thing can turn a bodybuilder or a long-distance runner into a stationary punching bag.
Reading a book like "No Second Chance" may help someone live, who would otherwise have died, if they had failed to think through their responses in advance of an attack.
The book has a nifty selection of targets and body weapons and techniques that will be familiar to most martial arts enthusiasts; the important part is the text, which applies clear thinking to self-defense issues.
This is not only a good book for an experienced, but civilized, martial artist. It's a good book for an ordinary civilian ("table-grade beef to a bad guy") who never thought about being the target of a bad guy.
And trust me on this one: when you are targeted for a physical assault, or a robbery or a rape or a murder, it's a little too late to do introspecting. Because you'll be doing a lot of thinking ("Oh my God, is this really happening?") that will paralyze your ability to act.
And you don't want to be paralyzed when a bad guy calls you out.
You want to be running. Or turning instantly into one of those really bad cats on the TV Show.
But don't break the law when you defend yourself!
p.s. there's a phrase I've heard in connection with getting into fights: "Better to be judged by twelve than carried by six."
Sadly, decisions you have to make when under pressure of the threat of imminent death may well also be analyzed in the cold light of day in a courtroom; and you may be judged according to standards that were developed by people who have always had armed bodyguards.
All you can do is the best you can do, and death is pretty final.
Just remember, I told you again and again, never break any law whatsoever.
p.p.s. some folks close to me have been raped, robbed, beaten and left for dead, or jumped by groups of guys and kicked nearly to death, or targeted for murder by some kids who needed to make their bones to join a gang. But one thing about folks who have been through that once is interesting to me. My friends in that category have NO PROBLEM listening to their instincts and leaving a place of business, a restaurant, a shop, a party, or sitting with their backs to the door, or taking any other action that they feel will reduce their chances of a repeat performance.
Also note; if you think you can take your oppressor, and feel pretty tough, make sure you check the immediate vicinity for his buddy with the knife.
Just a thought!
Friday, May 20, 2011
Why All Those "Knife Hand" Blocks in the Kata, If We Don't Use them in Sparring?
I've got news, junior. They aren't blocks.
Blocks don't work very well in self-defense. A bad guy who means you ill gets real close, smiles, then unloads on you, and you see the little blue stars on the black background before you see his punch/headbutt/elbow.
Remember: bad guys don't want to spar, and they don't want a fair fight, or that man-mountain with a "born to kill" tattoo wouldn't be picking on poor little fragile you!
Bad guys want a victim, and a crushing victory. Watch "Once Were Warriors", a very good movie with a fight scene that's very short, very brutal, and close to real, although there's still some warning given before the fight starts. Note that all the critical elements of a real fight show up there: alcohol, pretty girl, sticks (although the pool cues aren't used in this particular movie fight), and a conflict over who gets to decide what music is playing.
But if "knife hand blocks" aren't really blocks, and if we don't often use knife hand strikes in sparring, why do knife hand techniques show up with such remarkable frequency in Shotokan Kata?
Well, because the four little "knife-hand blocks" at the end of Heian Shodan, which also show up with great frequency as you move to the big-boy kata, are darn near a complete fighting system all by themselves.
That's right. The knife hand block is a virtual Swiss Army Knife of fighting techniques. It's not a beginner's technique, although a beginner can use it.
And if you throw in the "knife hand attack" that shows up in Heian Yondan, and you know how to use it, you may have learned much of what you were looking for when you took up martial arts in the first place!
Bear in mind that knife hand blocks, although you won't be blocking much with them, can be used as defenses once you've gotten cracked, and are still standing, and need to interpose some arms to buy time to clear your head.
But to start getting an idea why the "knife hand block" sequence shows up so often in all Okinawan Karate, watch this short video by Iain Abernethy, a Wado Instructor who loves his art:
Blocks don't work very well in self-defense. A bad guy who means you ill gets real close, smiles, then unloads on you, and you see the little blue stars on the black background before you see his punch/headbutt/elbow.
Remember: bad guys don't want to spar, and they don't want a fair fight, or that man-mountain with a "born to kill" tattoo wouldn't be picking on poor little fragile you!
Bad guys want a victim, and a crushing victory. Watch "Once Were Warriors", a very good movie with a fight scene that's very short, very brutal, and close to real, although there's still some warning given before the fight starts. Note that all the critical elements of a real fight show up there: alcohol, pretty girl, sticks (although the pool cues aren't used in this particular movie fight), and a conflict over who gets to decide what music is playing.
But if "knife hand blocks" aren't really blocks, and if we don't often use knife hand strikes in sparring, why do knife hand techniques show up with such remarkable frequency in Shotokan Kata?
Well, because the four little "knife-hand blocks" at the end of Heian Shodan, which also show up with great frequency as you move to the big-boy kata, are darn near a complete fighting system all by themselves.
That's right. The knife hand block is a virtual Swiss Army Knife of fighting techniques. It's not a beginner's technique, although a beginner can use it.
And if you throw in the "knife hand attack" that shows up in Heian Yondan, and you know how to use it, you may have learned much of what you were looking for when you took up martial arts in the first place!
Bear in mind that knife hand blocks, although you won't be blocking much with them, can be used as defenses once you've gotten cracked, and are still standing, and need to interpose some arms to buy time to clear your head.
But to start getting an idea why the "knife hand block" sequence shows up so often in all Okinawan Karate, watch this short video by Iain Abernethy, a Wado Instructor who loves his art:
Sunday, May 15, 2011
I Have Been an Unwitting Billboard for Mixed Martial Arts
When I need clothes, I want them to fit. And I work about sixteen hours a day, so I have no clue, and care less, about fashion.
On the other hand, I need to look okay when it's time for Marius to make another video.
So I go to the local Men's Wearhouse, because everybody there knows your name, and they all know exactly how to fit lawyers, and doctors, and CPAs, oh, my! And the quality is good, and the prices are fair.
So one day I was getting a new jacket, or tie, and I saw a stack of t-shirts on the "clearance" table; and they were kinda interesting, and kinda weird-lookin', and they had designs that ranged from sort of Goth-y (with skulls) to sort of historical (with medieval helms).
And I saw that they had previously been very, very expensive. For t-shirts, anyway.
Now, I'd never heard of the brand before, but I like a bargain as well as the next guy, so I bought a stack of 'em, because the price ("clearance") was right.
I wore one to a lunch the other day, and a martial arts buddy of mine said, "So which MMA School are you training in these days?"
The brand was "Extreme Couture", and apparently named for Randy Couture, a very good MMA competitor who recently lost to a Shotokan Exponent.
Here's what's funny, from my perspective: I take my obligation not to get into fights very seriously. I don't wear Shotokan-printed t-shirts because I don't want to tempt some poor dumb sap to call me out: "You're wearing a Karate T-Shirt! Karate is for sissies!"
I prefer letting my silver hair do the fighting for me, and letting young competitors open doors for the old guy instead.
And I find it slightly ironic that I made a fashion faux pas that made it more likely that I'd attract the attention of excessively competitive folks than not.
Well, I can still wear 'em to work in the garden: the artichokes won't care!
On the other hand, I need to look okay when it's time for Marius to make another video.
So I go to the local Men's Wearhouse, because everybody there knows your name, and they all know exactly how to fit lawyers, and doctors, and CPAs, oh, my! And the quality is good, and the prices are fair.
So one day I was getting a new jacket, or tie, and I saw a stack of t-shirts on the "clearance" table; and they were kinda interesting, and kinda weird-lookin', and they had designs that ranged from sort of Goth-y (with skulls) to sort of historical (with medieval helms).
And I saw that they had previously been very, very expensive. For t-shirts, anyway.
Now, I'd never heard of the brand before, but I like a bargain as well as the next guy, so I bought a stack of 'em, because the price ("clearance") was right.
I wore one to a lunch the other day, and a martial arts buddy of mine said, "So which MMA School are you training in these days?"
The brand was "Extreme Couture", and apparently named for Randy Couture, a very good MMA competitor who recently lost to a Shotokan Exponent.
Here's what's funny, from my perspective: I take my obligation not to get into fights very seriously. I don't wear Shotokan-printed t-shirts because I don't want to tempt some poor dumb sap to call me out: "You're wearing a Karate T-Shirt! Karate is for sissies!"
I prefer letting my silver hair do the fighting for me, and letting young competitors open doors for the old guy instead.
And I find it slightly ironic that I made a fashion faux pas that made it more likely that I'd attract the attention of excessively competitive folks than not.
Well, I can still wear 'em to work in the garden: the artichokes won't care!
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Don't Let 'Em Grab You!
There are too many defenses in self-defense books and classes against grabs, and the techniques that are taught are too time-consuming and complex.
They seem to assume that a bad guy has appeared from a Star Trek Transporter, and when he materializes, he's already latched onto your shirt or jacket.
That doesn't happen, of course. The bad guy, in an ordinary situation, has to walk up to you, stand close to you, maybe push you, and finally grab you. If you interrupt that sequence, you may not need dentures in your old age.
For one thing, it's a good idea to maintain distance, using any technique whatsoever, because if he's too close, your reaction time is not up to the task. If a boxer gets hit with a jab when he knows that's the technique that his opponent will throw, that alone should teach you that blocking a shot, or slipping, or avoiding, won't work when the opponent is too close. Period. Full stop. Buy new teeth.
You can look at a technique called "The Fence", because it makes a lot of sense to me. And Geoff Thompson is very experienced, as you can tell from that video clip, and he's a smart, analytical guy.
The reason I think it's a bad idea to permit yourself to be grabbed if you have any choice in the matter is because of what comes next!
If somebody means you harm, and he grabs your shirt with both hands, you're already done for! You have zero defense against the upcoming head butt, because you won't see it coming, because he's already in position, and his tactile feedback acts like radar for targeting his attack. So he's in control, and can't miss, and you are out of control, and can't defend.
When a bad guy grabs your shirt, the very next thing you'll see is not his face, talking to you; it's little blue stars on a black background, because he's smacked you with his fist (or head or elbow) about five times.
Ditto wrist grabs, of course.
Mind you, in a dust-up, somebody might grab your wrist if you're slow coming back from a punch, or simply out of position, but the entire kata Hangetsu is designed as an answer to the question, "what do I do when my opponent has grabbed my wrist and keeps hitting me in the head again and again?" It answers a few additional questions, of course, like "what do I do when an opponent grabs me from behind, in addition to rear head butts, rear elbows, and stomps on his foot?"
What motivated this tirade? Well, I was simply reminded that a lot of self-defense classes start with a grab to your lapel, lapels, neck, wrist or belt. And the presumption is that will now intelligently defend yourself from such a grab.
The problem is that the grab is the attack, and there is no time for thought or discussion between the grab and the need for you to take a little ride in the ambulance.
Because there is NO INTERVAL OF TIME between a lapel grab and a head butt, or a single hand lapel-grab and a punch to your face.
It's a simple sequence, and it works like this: grab, blammo!
With no comma.
p.s. clever readers will understand that it makes no difference at all whether your bad guy is a trained martial artist; once the double hand grab to your lapels is locked, your particular bad guy may decide to use a head butt, a hip throw, a knee to your important parts, a "sacrifice" throw, or anything else in his tool box. The tool of choice is usually the head butt, because a bad guy really doesn't want to spend the time to learn a difficult martial art technique requiring practice, and because he doesn't need it!
The head butt will do just fine, thank you.
They seem to assume that a bad guy has appeared from a Star Trek Transporter, and when he materializes, he's already latched onto your shirt or jacket.
That doesn't happen, of course. The bad guy, in an ordinary situation, has to walk up to you, stand close to you, maybe push you, and finally grab you. If you interrupt that sequence, you may not need dentures in your old age.
For one thing, it's a good idea to maintain distance, using any technique whatsoever, because if he's too close, your reaction time is not up to the task. If a boxer gets hit with a jab when he knows that's the technique that his opponent will throw, that alone should teach you that blocking a shot, or slipping, or avoiding, won't work when the opponent is too close. Period. Full stop. Buy new teeth.
You can look at a technique called "The Fence", because it makes a lot of sense to me. And Geoff Thompson is very experienced, as you can tell from that video clip, and he's a smart, analytical guy.
The reason I think it's a bad idea to permit yourself to be grabbed if you have any choice in the matter is because of what comes next!
If somebody means you harm, and he grabs your shirt with both hands, you're already done for! You have zero defense against the upcoming head butt, because you won't see it coming, because he's already in position, and his tactile feedback acts like radar for targeting his attack. So he's in control, and can't miss, and you are out of control, and can't defend.
When a bad guy grabs your shirt, the very next thing you'll see is not his face, talking to you; it's little blue stars on a black background, because he's smacked you with his fist (or head or elbow) about five times.
Ditto wrist grabs, of course.
Mind you, in a dust-up, somebody might grab your wrist if you're slow coming back from a punch, or simply out of position, but the entire kata Hangetsu is designed as an answer to the question, "what do I do when my opponent has grabbed my wrist and keeps hitting me in the head again and again?" It answers a few additional questions, of course, like "what do I do when an opponent grabs me from behind, in addition to rear head butts, rear elbows, and stomps on his foot?"
What motivated this tirade? Well, I was simply reminded that a lot of self-defense classes start with a grab to your lapel, lapels, neck, wrist or belt. And the presumption is that will now intelligently defend yourself from such a grab.
The problem is that the grab is the attack, and there is no time for thought or discussion between the grab and the need for you to take a little ride in the ambulance.
Because there is NO INTERVAL OF TIME between a lapel grab and a head butt, or a single hand lapel-grab and a punch to your face.
It's a simple sequence, and it works like this: grab, blammo!
With no comma.
p.s. clever readers will understand that it makes no difference at all whether your bad guy is a trained martial artist; once the double hand grab to your lapels is locked, your particular bad guy may decide to use a head butt, a hip throw, a knee to your important parts, a "sacrifice" throw, or anything else in his tool box. The tool of choice is usually the head butt, because a bad guy really doesn't want to spend the time to learn a difficult martial art technique requiring practice, and because he doesn't need it!
The head butt will do just fine, thank you.
Good Book About the Practical Application of Martial Arts
I recently read "Martial Arts Techniques for Law Enforcement", and I liked it very much. The author, Mike Young, is not a virgin teaching sex therapy.
He has been a deputy sheriff for the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department for a couple of decades. And he's taught a lot of classes.
More importantly, he's had an opportunity to experience what works well, and not so well, on the street as a cop.
Now, cops are attacked a lot, and therefore they have a lot more experience in real self-defense than anybody except bouncers, which whom they may be tied. Cops, however, get to deal with folks who are more troublesome, dangerous, and more heavily and frequently armed than bouncers do. Putting it another way, if bouncers can't handle the problem, they call the cops!
Mike Young is smart, and he's studied a lot of different approaches to dealing with combative opponents. He has also worked at finding ways to avoid killing them, when possible. He does not complain about the paperwork, but I suspect that is at least one consideration.
"Not killing" is an important consideration. Military combatives, like the Fairbairn System, consider killing an opponent a perfectly good outcome, and sometimes an exceptionally good outcome! Police Officers often go to remarkable lengths to avoid killing or injuring civilians, and they sometimes pay the ultimate price for their restraint. And God bless them all for their heroism.
Now, non-cops and non-soldiers get to defend themselves, depending on the jurisdiction. My take on self-defense in Great Britain is simple; you might as well beg your opponent to finish you cleanly, because if you're successful in defending yourself against your opponent, you'll then go to jail on some theory or another, period.
So if you're unlucky enough to live in such a jurisdiction, just give up and let the bad guys flatten you, and dance on your flattened corpse. Sorry for your bad luck, buddy! Better luck next time!
In any case, know the specifics of the law of self-defense in your jurisdiction and any such jurisdiction you visit, and never break the law.
If you read Mike Young's book, you'll have a pretty good idea what techniques might be useful for your practice sessions.
Bear in mind that when he trains recruits (and recruits to any police force are typically big and strong and healthy and not bookworms, right?) he challenges every class that if anybody in class can knock him out, he'll buy 'em dinner.
He's five nine, weighs 155, and hasn't bought any dinners yet.
If you study Shotokan Karate, and you want to know how to adapt the body mechanics you've learned so that you can predictably defend yourself without causing undue harm to your opponent, this is a good read. Chapter 17 will also look familiar to you.
In Chapter 17, Mike discusses some one-hand defenses he developed to control a suspect while holding a gun, for use when the circumstances don't justify ventilating the suspect. You'll see a couple of techniques that take an opponent off his feet, reliably and predictably, without causing him to die. Unless he has an eggshell skull, of course, but remember that it's always better to be lucky than smart.
And you already know those techniques, even if you don't know it, because they're embedded in the syllabus of Shotokan!
Mike also discusses a sort of "universal counter" to a bad guy rushing you, and I was surprised to read about its effectiveness; and then I thought it might work so well for Mike because he's huge. But he's not.
So I'm going to go practice Mike Young's not-at-all-secret-technique for defense against an attacker rushing you with punches, and see if I can develop a little "zip" in that technique; I particularly like the idea that, according to Mike, it has stopped 'em all, and produced no lasting harm to any of 'em.
He has been a deputy sheriff for the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department for a couple of decades. And he's taught a lot of classes.
More importantly, he's had an opportunity to experience what works well, and not so well, on the street as a cop.
Now, cops are attacked a lot, and therefore they have a lot more experience in real self-defense than anybody except bouncers, which whom they may be tied. Cops, however, get to deal with folks who are more troublesome, dangerous, and more heavily and frequently armed than bouncers do. Putting it another way, if bouncers can't handle the problem, they call the cops!
Mike Young is smart, and he's studied a lot of different approaches to dealing with combative opponents. He has also worked at finding ways to avoid killing them, when possible. He does not complain about the paperwork, but I suspect that is at least one consideration.
"Not killing" is an important consideration. Military combatives, like the Fairbairn System, consider killing an opponent a perfectly good outcome, and sometimes an exceptionally good outcome! Police Officers often go to remarkable lengths to avoid killing or injuring civilians, and they sometimes pay the ultimate price for their restraint. And God bless them all for their heroism.
Now, non-cops and non-soldiers get to defend themselves, depending on the jurisdiction. My take on self-defense in Great Britain is simple; you might as well beg your opponent to finish you cleanly, because if you're successful in defending yourself against your opponent, you'll then go to jail on some theory or another, period.
So if you're unlucky enough to live in such a jurisdiction, just give up and let the bad guys flatten you, and dance on your flattened corpse. Sorry for your bad luck, buddy! Better luck next time!
In any case, know the specifics of the law of self-defense in your jurisdiction and any such jurisdiction you visit, and never break the law.
If you read Mike Young's book, you'll have a pretty good idea what techniques might be useful for your practice sessions.
Bear in mind that when he trains recruits (and recruits to any police force are typically big and strong and healthy and not bookworms, right?) he challenges every class that if anybody in class can knock him out, he'll buy 'em dinner.
He's five nine, weighs 155, and hasn't bought any dinners yet.
If you study Shotokan Karate, and you want to know how to adapt the body mechanics you've learned so that you can predictably defend yourself without causing undue harm to your opponent, this is a good read. Chapter 17 will also look familiar to you.
In Chapter 17, Mike discusses some one-hand defenses he developed to control a suspect while holding a gun, for use when the circumstances don't justify ventilating the suspect. You'll see a couple of techniques that take an opponent off his feet, reliably and predictably, without causing him to die. Unless he has an eggshell skull, of course, but remember that it's always better to be lucky than smart.
And you already know those techniques, even if you don't know it, because they're embedded in the syllabus of Shotokan!
Mike also discusses a sort of "universal counter" to a bad guy rushing you, and I was surprised to read about its effectiveness; and then I thought it might work so well for Mike because he's huge. But he's not.
So I'm going to go practice Mike Young's not-at-all-secret-technique for defense against an attacker rushing you with punches, and see if I can develop a little "zip" in that technique; I particularly like the idea that, according to Mike, it has stopped 'em all, and produced no lasting harm to any of 'em.
Friday, May 6, 2011
Is it News When a Convicted Murderer Tries to Punch Out the Prosecutor?
I'm a bankruptcy lawyer in Arizona, and therefore I'm pretty busy at the office right now.
And recently I read about an attack on a prosecutor by a convicted murderer, right after the trial was over.
I was conflicted when I read the article, because I couldn't decide whether to discuss it in my karate blog, or my Just for Lawyers Blog, or my Health Blog (because not getting mugged is a part of my personal Live to 120 and Die of Nothing in Particular Plan).
But what surprised me the most was the lawyer who was blindsided was a former cop.
Generally, cops don't get blindsided in Courtrooms as much as ordinary lawyers.
Cops expect to be blindsided!
Now, could a study of karate have helped this particular lawyer and cop? Well, apparently he didn't need a lot of help, after he weathered the initial cheap shot.
But it is a reminder; there are bad guys, and their tool box is limited. Sucker punches are at the top of that tool box. And sucker punches work fairly well.
And recently I read about an attack on a prosecutor by a convicted murderer, right after the trial was over.
I was conflicted when I read the article, because I couldn't decide whether to discuss it in my karate blog, or my Just for Lawyers Blog, or my Health Blog (because not getting mugged is a part of my personal Live to 120 and Die of Nothing in Particular Plan).
But what surprised me the most was the lawyer who was blindsided was a former cop.
Generally, cops don't get blindsided in Courtrooms as much as ordinary lawyers.
Cops expect to be blindsided!
Now, could a study of karate have helped this particular lawyer and cop? Well, apparently he didn't need a lot of help, after he weathered the initial cheap shot.
But it is a reminder; there are bad guys, and their tool box is limited. Sucker punches are at the top of that tool box. And sucker punches work fairly well.
Monday, May 2, 2011
Can a Shotokan Trained Black Belt Succeed in MMA? Well, Maybe.
I could be a smarty-obi about this, but the answer fairly obvious by now.
Randy Couture is a remarkable MMA contestant, although he is a little long in the tooth.
He can hit and he can grapple and he can fight.
And Lyoto Machida is a Shotokan Karate exponent, and he's also trained in BJJ. And he can hit, and grapple, and fight.
And, apparently, he can also kick!
p.s. don't try this at home, kids! If you get in a fight at the Dew-Drop Inn, and you start with a kick to your opponents head, you tend to wind up on your rear end down in the cigarette butts and spilled beer. That's because the ability to kick to the head and win against a serious opponent is a post-graduate skill. If you haven't done it a few hundred times sparring, don't consider doing it for realsies.
Randy Couture is a remarkable MMA contestant, although he is a little long in the tooth.
He can hit and he can grapple and he can fight.
And Lyoto Machida is a Shotokan Karate exponent, and he's also trained in BJJ. And he can hit, and grapple, and fight.
And, apparently, he can also kick!
p.s. don't try this at home, kids! If you get in a fight at the Dew-Drop Inn, and you start with a kick to your opponents head, you tend to wind up on your rear end down in the cigarette butts and spilled beer. That's because the ability to kick to the head and win against a serious opponent is a post-graduate skill. If you haven't done it a few hundred times sparring, don't consider doing it for realsies.
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Top Ten Shotokan Articles This Week!
I never know which articles people like the most, until I use the gadget to find the top ten articles. Then, both of us know!
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
Most Popular Shotokan Karate Blog Articles this Week!
- Some dojos are more traditional than others. When Sensei Shojiro Koyama began teaching in Phoenix 44 years ago, he was a lowly 4th degree bl...
- Okay, so I decided to take another look. My 1968 Tokaido gi is still in great shape, after being worn and washed under horrific conditions ...
- While I certainly don't deserve the honor, I am permitted to take two private classes with Sensei Shojiro Koyama every week. And I don't t...
- I really like Andre Bertel's website, and I'm pleased that he just posted a bundle of videos . Enjoy!
- Shotokan Karate has a good characteristic: it takes about a decade of steady training under a very good instructor to become competent in th...
- The Karate Kata named Jion used to look boring to me. It has no flashy techniques, no extreme athletic excesses. But Sensei Koyama decided ...
- This is obvious, but it's particularly clear to me after an involuntary kata bunkai dvd orgy I recently enjoyed while my back was out. Not...
- Let's start with definitions, because good definitions make good conclusions, like good fences make good neighbors. In my dictionary, a re...
- He demonstrated Tekki Sandan and Heian Shodan to me during my private class. He's seventy-five years old. He shouldn't still be able to ...
- CAUTION: THE SYSTEM OF WORLD WAR II COMBATIVES DESCRIBED IN CONNECTION WITH THE SYLLABUS OF CAPTAIN W.E. FAIRBAIRN TAUGHT DURING WORLD WAR I...
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Eventually, I'll Release this Bowstring Properly!
While I certainly don't deserve the honor, I am permitted to take two private classes with Sensei Shojiro Koyama every week.
And I don't take adequate care of my conditioning, so I don't benefit as much as I could from those classes; I waste a certain amount of time wheezing, and we spend class time stretching and warming up. In fact, now that I think of it, I think I'll ask him if I can stretch and warm up on my own, so I don't lose precious time that I could be learning technique from him.
Tonight we spent about two minutes on the heavy bag, and that suggested to Sensei that I might be ready to learn a different way to put "zip" into a punch, a strike, a block, or any hand technique.
So he started showing me how he, at 75, is able to generate techniques that are blindingly fast and remarkably powerful. And he's not a big guy.
And because he's not a big guy, he's spent a large amount of time getting his techniques to work brilliantly with no particular weight and without bulging muscles.
He's shown me these techniques previously, but now he seems to think I might actually be able to learn how to make them work, little by little.
And if I ever get it right, I'll write about it or make a video, which would probably work better.
Bear in mind that there are a lot of ways to make punches and strikes work well, and Jack Dempsey talked about a lot of them in his book "Championship Boxing". Note that his book appears simple, and artless, and is actually remarkably sophisticated. And the Chinese Martial Arts have names for more different kinds of power transmission in punching than I can ever remember; and Dr. Yang Jwing-Ming discusses those in many of his books, including Tai Chi Theory and Martial Power.
The sort of power transmission I'm currently trying to learn from Sensei Koyama is a sort of a whipping movement, which makes perfect sense and is easy to understand in connection with strikes, like a backfist.
It is dramatically more difficult to explain, or apply, in connection with an ordinary jab or right cross.
But I'm very, very happy to be working on these techniques now, although it's going to set back my kata training as I try to apply them, and as I think too much, and goof up even the simple sequence of movements.
And when we were training on the heavy bag, Sensei would say after some punches, "Yes! That's it!" or some expression of disappointment.
And I, of course, couldn't tell the difference between a good hit, and a bad hit.
I was reminded of Eugen Herrigel, studying with his Kyudo Instructor, who kept trying to get the release of the bowstring accomplished in the correct way.
And could not, for the life of him, understand why his instructor would approve one bowstring release, and not another.
And I don't take adequate care of my conditioning, so I don't benefit as much as I could from those classes; I waste a certain amount of time wheezing, and we spend class time stretching and warming up. In fact, now that I think of it, I think I'll ask him if I can stretch and warm up on my own, so I don't lose precious time that I could be learning technique from him.
Tonight we spent about two minutes on the heavy bag, and that suggested to Sensei that I might be ready to learn a different way to put "zip" into a punch, a strike, a block, or any hand technique.
So he started showing me how he, at 75, is able to generate techniques that are blindingly fast and remarkably powerful. And he's not a big guy.
And because he's not a big guy, he's spent a large amount of time getting his techniques to work brilliantly with no particular weight and without bulging muscles.
He's shown me these techniques previously, but now he seems to think I might actually be able to learn how to make them work, little by little.
And if I ever get it right, I'll write about it or make a video, which would probably work better.
Bear in mind that there are a lot of ways to make punches and strikes work well, and Jack Dempsey talked about a lot of them in his book "Championship Boxing". Note that his book appears simple, and artless, and is actually remarkably sophisticated. And the Chinese Martial Arts have names for more different kinds of power transmission in punching than I can ever remember; and Dr. Yang Jwing-Ming discusses those in many of his books, including Tai Chi Theory and Martial Power.
The sort of power transmission I'm currently trying to learn from Sensei Koyama is a sort of a whipping movement, which makes perfect sense and is easy to understand in connection with strikes, like a backfist.
It is dramatically more difficult to explain, or apply, in connection with an ordinary jab or right cross.
But I'm very, very happy to be working on these techniques now, although it's going to set back my kata training as I try to apply them, and as I think too much, and goof up even the simple sequence of movements.
And when we were training on the heavy bag, Sensei would say after some punches, "Yes! That's it!" or some expression of disappointment.
And I, of course, couldn't tell the difference between a good hit, and a bad hit.
I was reminded of Eugen Herrigel, studying with his Kyudo Instructor, who kept trying to get the release of the bowstring accomplished in the correct way.
And could not, for the life of him, understand why his instructor would approve one bowstring release, and not another.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
So It's NEWS When a 63-Year Old Gets a Shodan?
My paralegal, Heidi the bankruptcy angel, sent me a link to a news story about a gentleman of 63 years old who had attained a first-degree (shodan) black belt in his style of karate.
And I thought that was nifty, and I was particularly happy that the student in question wanted to continue to gain his nidan, because some students quit because they've attained the goal their ego set for them: a black belt!
What surprised me about the article was simply this: it didn't seem like news to me.
More like another day at the dojo!
Because I think karate is a particularly good exercise for health for your entire life. Mind you, you have to use your head.
If you were 60 or 70, and you wanted to learn boxing, that would be great; but you wouldn't want to work in a gym that specialized in full-contact, can't walk for a week after training 18-year-old boxers; their needs are different from those of a grown-up.
And besides, they heal far faster!
But a dojo with a Sensei who is smart enough to be able to gauge the difference in exercise-tolerance in students, and who permits his geriatric students to pursue more kata than kumite (sparring); well, that's a dojo that will help with flexibility, strength, coordination, breathing, circulation, balance, and a lot of other characteristics that make aging a lot more fun!
And I thought that was nifty, and I was particularly happy that the student in question wanted to continue to gain his nidan, because some students quit because they've attained the goal their ego set for them: a black belt!
What surprised me about the article was simply this: it didn't seem like news to me.
More like another day at the dojo!
Because I think karate is a particularly good exercise for health for your entire life. Mind you, you have to use your head.
If you were 60 or 70, and you wanted to learn boxing, that would be great; but you wouldn't want to work in a gym that specialized in full-contact, can't walk for a week after training 18-year-old boxers; their needs are different from those of a grown-up.
And besides, they heal far faster!
But a dojo with a Sensei who is smart enough to be able to gauge the difference in exercise-tolerance in students, and who permits his geriatric students to pursue more kata than kumite (sparring); well, that's a dojo that will help with flexibility, strength, coordination, breathing, circulation, balance, and a lot of other characteristics that make aging a lot more fun!
Friday, April 8, 2011
There's Self-Defense, and there's Self-Defense; and Choices Have Consequences; Daniel Gukeisen Convicted of Manslaughter in Stabbing Death of Tempe Resident
Recently a Phoenix Bankruptcy Lawyer named Daniel Gukeisen was convicted of manslaughter.
According to the news stories I've read about Mr. Gukeisen, who was well-established as a bankruptcy attorney and was a former prosecutor, he heard noise outside his residence late at night, and he went outside to confront the gentlemen.
Apparently, a knife was involved, and a stabbing occurred, and now a conviction for manslaughter has been handed down by a jury.
I suppose it's easy enough to second-guess anybody's judgment, and hindsight is always 20/20.
But if I hear a noise outside my house that makes me seriously concerned in the future (and it's happened in the past), instead of walking out the locked door with a flashlight (which I have done), I may be more inclined to call 911 (the emergency number for the police in Phoenix) and ask them to shine their patrol car's light on the subject.
Advantages of that course of action might include not spending a lot of my life in stripes.
I don't look good in stripes. Of course, at my age, the pattern on the cloth may make less difference than it did when my hair was a different color!
Here's a link to one of the articles I have written about the unfortunate Phoenix bankruptcy lawyer Daniel Gukeisen, now convicted of manslaughter in the fatal stabbing death of a Tempe resident.
According to the news stories I've read about Mr. Gukeisen, who was well-established as a bankruptcy attorney and was a former prosecutor, he heard noise outside his residence late at night, and he went outside to confront the gentlemen.
Apparently, a knife was involved, and a stabbing occurred, and now a conviction for manslaughter has been handed down by a jury.
I suppose it's easy enough to second-guess anybody's judgment, and hindsight is always 20/20.
But if I hear a noise outside my house that makes me seriously concerned in the future (and it's happened in the past), instead of walking out the locked door with a flashlight (which I have done), I may be more inclined to call 911 (the emergency number for the police in Phoenix) and ask them to shine their patrol car's light on the subject.
Advantages of that course of action might include not spending a lot of my life in stripes.
I don't look good in stripes. Of course, at my age, the pattern on the cloth may make less difference than it did when my hair was a different color!
Here's a link to one of the articles I have written about the unfortunate Phoenix bankruptcy lawyer Daniel Gukeisen, now convicted of manslaughter in the fatal stabbing death of a Tempe resident.
Friday, April 1, 2011
Charles Goden Has A Karate Blog, and Talks About the Karate Museum in Hawaii
I recently ran into a very nice karate blog published by Charles C. Goodin (the Karate Thoughts Blog).
It discusses kata, the Hawaii Karate Museum, rare books about karate, alternative kata practice techniques ("unzipping the kata"), the importance of basic kata, and a lot of other nifty topics.
Go. Browse. Enjoy.
You can thank me later.
p.s. it occurs to me that somebody ought to do a "Gutenburg Project" with all of the rarest karate books in the world. That is, scanning the books, and posting those that are out of copyright on the internet for all the world to enjoy and read. I'll give that some additional thought.
It discusses kata, the Hawaii Karate Museum, rare books about karate, alternative kata practice techniques ("unzipping the kata"), the importance of basic kata, and a lot of other nifty topics.
Go. Browse. Enjoy.
You can thank me later.
p.s. it occurs to me that somebody ought to do a "Gutenburg Project" with all of the rarest karate books in the world. That is, scanning the books, and posting those that are out of copyright on the internet for all the world to enjoy and read. I'll give that some additional thought.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Makiwara! Iron Geta! Heavy Bag! Video Camera! What's Wrong with this Picture?
Well, nothing much, really.
Recently Sensei Koyama has taken to video taping (I guess there's really no tape; everything is digital these days) some of my kata during training sessions; then we talk about the video after class.
He is far less brutal than I am about my performance, in part because he's pleased that an aged guy who spends time being a bankruptcy lawyer during the day is still willing and able to work on kata after working to scrape off debt all day.
See, there's no way to soft-pedal the criticism of a video; either your knee is bent the proper amount, or it's not. Either your timing is correct, or it's not.
And mine; well, as often as not, not!
But I'm slowly improving, I think. Bit by bit, as Sensei Koyama says.
So today's observation is that a video camera is a remarkably useful addition to the makiwara, iron geta, heavy bag, and mats.
Here's a second observation, and it may just be me.
See, memorizing kata has never been very, very easy for me, but as an obsessive-compulsive kinda guy, I eventually got the hang of things after doing a kata a few zillion times.
Recently, Sensei Koyama has been extremely generous in teaching me; I've picked up the sequence of movements for Tekki Sandan, Tekki Nidan, and Nijushiho.
Nijushiho was an interesting challenge, because it has a bundle of movements that you'd expect to find in a Goju-ryu Kata, and it has an odd embusen.
Putting it a different way, I was so lost on the first day that...metaphors fail me. Suffice to say that my aged white head didn't want to embrace the alien movements.
Enter a second reason that video is a useful training tool, and I kicked myself for not doing this previously.
I discovered that if I watch a kata a few hunded times, I get parts of it pretty well. My muscle memory isn't there, but simply watching a magnificent karate exponent perform Nijushiho a lot made learning it a snap.
Now, I know that this is obvious. But I'm old, so cut me some slack.
And if you're young, and uncoordinated, you can use that trick to pretend that you were born with a knack for memorizing kata movements by the simple expedient of letting the kata wash over you a lot of times.
You'll pick up the sequence and the timing; at least I did.
And as the saying goes, if I can do it, anybody can do it.
AND ANOTHER THING: you have not seen me post videos on Youtube.com of me performing kata or basics or sparring, and you likely won't. Shotokan is a mature art, and there is a wealth of video instruction on the internet. Some of it is on this very blog!
But another reason that I have little enthusiasm for posting my progress is that the world is apparently full of true marital art experts, who are far superior to beginners like Sensei Nakayama and Sensei Kanazawa and Sensei Enoeda.
And when I read comments from the keyboard warriors of the world under those videos, it has what we in the law biz call a "chilling effect".
What I may wind up doing is posting videos of my inferior kata performance at some point when I'm a little more competent (gimmie five years more, okay?), just to demonstrate that Shotokan is a pretty good martial art for those who are no longer young.
We'll see. The jury is still out on that idea.
Recently Sensei Koyama has taken to video taping (I guess there's really no tape; everything is digital these days) some of my kata during training sessions; then we talk about the video after class.
He is far less brutal than I am about my performance, in part because he's pleased that an aged guy who spends time being a bankruptcy lawyer during the day is still willing and able to work on kata after working to scrape off debt all day.
See, there's no way to soft-pedal the criticism of a video; either your knee is bent the proper amount, or it's not. Either your timing is correct, or it's not.
And mine; well, as often as not, not!
But I'm slowly improving, I think. Bit by bit, as Sensei Koyama says.
So today's observation is that a video camera is a remarkably useful addition to the makiwara, iron geta, heavy bag, and mats.
Here's a second observation, and it may just be me.
See, memorizing kata has never been very, very easy for me, but as an obsessive-compulsive kinda guy, I eventually got the hang of things after doing a kata a few zillion times.
Recently, Sensei Koyama has been extremely generous in teaching me; I've picked up the sequence of movements for Tekki Sandan, Tekki Nidan, and Nijushiho.
Nijushiho was an interesting challenge, because it has a bundle of movements that you'd expect to find in a Goju-ryu Kata, and it has an odd embusen.
Putting it a different way, I was so lost on the first day that...metaphors fail me. Suffice to say that my aged white head didn't want to embrace the alien movements.
Enter a second reason that video is a useful training tool, and I kicked myself for not doing this previously.
I discovered that if I watch a kata a few hunded times, I get parts of it pretty well. My muscle memory isn't there, but simply watching a magnificent karate exponent perform Nijushiho a lot made learning it a snap.
Now, I know that this is obvious. But I'm old, so cut me some slack.
And if you're young, and uncoordinated, you can use that trick to pretend that you were born with a knack for memorizing kata movements by the simple expedient of letting the kata wash over you a lot of times.
You'll pick up the sequence and the timing; at least I did.
And as the saying goes, if I can do it, anybody can do it.
AND ANOTHER THING: you have not seen me post videos on Youtube.com of me performing kata or basics or sparring, and you likely won't. Shotokan is a mature art, and there is a wealth of video instruction on the internet. Some of it is on this very blog!
But another reason that I have little enthusiasm for posting my progress is that the world is apparently full of true marital art experts, who are far superior to beginners like Sensei Nakayama and Sensei Kanazawa and Sensei Enoeda.
And when I read comments from the keyboard warriors of the world under those videos, it has what we in the law biz call a "chilling effect".
What I may wind up doing is posting videos of my inferior kata performance at some point when I'm a little more competent (gimmie five years more, okay?), just to demonstrate that Shotokan is a pretty good martial art for those who are no longer young.
We'll see. The jury is still out on that idea.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Bas Rutten Bar Fight and Jail
Jail is sometimes a consequence of bar fights (which, after all, is a better consequence than death), and apparently Bas Rutten has decided to modify his behavior a bit; and since he is a smart, very funny guy, I applaud his decision, and wish him the best.
Shotokan Karate and Self Defense vs. "Lethal Street Fighting"
I love listening to Bas Rutten, who is funny, smart, and fights well.
He's also honest, and on his video "Lethal Street Fighting", he demonstrates that honesty by explaining that he doesn't know a lot of great unarmed defenses against a knife.
My take on that is simple; there are darn few effective unarmed defenses against a knife, and track shoes come to mind as one of the best. Bear in mind that police officers are trained to understand that a perp with a knife can close the distance and stab the officer faster than the officer can draw and fire two rounds at center mass; that's sometimes called the 21 foot rule.
But today's discussion isn't about knives, exactly; and recall that you'll generally know that your opponent has a knife when you are already perforated extensively, because bad guys who have been to Bad Guy U. and taken good notes know that you don't wave the knife around before you use it on the Innocent, Unsuspecting Victim!
Instead, I'd like to contrast the approach that Bas Rutten takes in his video to self-defense to the approach taken by Rob Redmond, which is a good deal less flamboyant. Note that I do recommend buying the Bas Rutten video, because it highlights radically different approaches to self defense than you will hear from your Shotokan Sensei, particularly if your Sensei is somebody like Rob Redmond (who has outlined what I think of as the correct views of self-defense generally, and the correct view of Shotokan Self-Defense specifically).
Bas Rutten's video might well be titled, How To Defend Yourself After You've Done Everything Possible to Ensure that You Will Get into a Fight in a Place Where Fights are Very, Very Common. As he sets up the scenarios for his self-defense video, he starts in a bar; his first module discusses the use of objects in the bar as weapons.
Note that being in a bar is itself probably a poor idea from the perspective of self-defense; the combination of alcohol, short skirts, and pool cues has generated more fights than most other environments.
Mr. Rutten postulates situations in which a bad guy has insulted your wife or girlfriend, and then discusses interesting ways to break the leg of the insulting individual.
I'm not an expert on issues relating to criminal law, but my uneducated guess is that some jurisdictions might take a dim view of that leg-breaking activity.
Now, there are two different ways to defend yourself and your family; one is simply not taking your family to bars named "Eddie's Bucket of Blood" or "The Lay Dentistry Emporium"; they don't need to have those names. They could be called "Mom's Relaxation and Supper Club", but if all of the vehicles parked outside are Harleys, that could be a sign that you ought to find some other place to hang out.
Just a thought.
But watch this short, funny compilation of "Lethal Street Fighting", and you will learn several things: 1) Bas Rutten is a really funny, likable guy; 2) Bas Rutten has been a bouncer, and has been in a lot of fights, and has found techniques that work for him; 3) Bas Rutten takes for granted that you will take your family to bars where people routinely trade insults and knife attacks and kicks to the groin and knee, and do God Knows What with the tabasco bottle when their victim is unconscious, and 4) for Bas Rutten, a bar fight is just another day at the office.
That alone is a reason to buy the dvd, because watching somebody discuss fighting with you, as though you're his wingman going out drinking with him, provides useful information that you didn't need to pay for at the emergency room.
I don't want to disagree with any part of Bas Rutten's approach to self-defense. One of the most valuable items of information on the dvd comes at the very beginning, and I won't spoil the surprise; but Bas did a good service by pointing out something that we should all remember when a Bad Guy squares off with us, or a Bad Guy in Good Guy disguise moves inside our reaction-time zone.
Frankly, that initial throwaway bit may save your life; so the video is not a waste of time, especially because of its entertainment value.
You get to decide what technique you want to employ for self-defense; I like the approach to self-defense that Rob Redmond discusses on his great Shotokan Karate Blog.
And, frankly, the techniques of Bar-Fight-Do taught by Bas Rutten seem extremely practical and effective to me. And Bas demonstrates a greatly underestimated self-defense technique that looked like it would work first time, every time!
I just think I can win every bar fight in which I find myself by a simple expedient: not going to bars!
Also note: the need for self-defense comes also to people who have done everything right, and who just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time (for instance, they're in a post office and a guy with a machete shows up and targets them and only them).
But the "maniac with a machete" scenario, while something that can happen, is statistically far less common than a drunk in a bar with a tabasco bottle.
He's also honest, and on his video "Lethal Street Fighting", he demonstrates that honesty by explaining that he doesn't know a lot of great unarmed defenses against a knife.
My take on that is simple; there are darn few effective unarmed defenses against a knife, and track shoes come to mind as one of the best. Bear in mind that police officers are trained to understand that a perp with a knife can close the distance and stab the officer faster than the officer can draw and fire two rounds at center mass; that's sometimes called the 21 foot rule.
But today's discussion isn't about knives, exactly; and recall that you'll generally know that your opponent has a knife when you are already perforated extensively, because bad guys who have been to Bad Guy U. and taken good notes know that you don't wave the knife around before you use it on the Innocent, Unsuspecting Victim!
Instead, I'd like to contrast the approach that Bas Rutten takes in his video to self-defense to the approach taken by Rob Redmond, which is a good deal less flamboyant. Note that I do recommend buying the Bas Rutten video, because it highlights radically different approaches to self defense than you will hear from your Shotokan Sensei, particularly if your Sensei is somebody like Rob Redmond (who has outlined what I think of as the correct views of self-defense generally, and the correct view of Shotokan Self-Defense specifically).
Bas Rutten's video might well be titled, How To Defend Yourself After You've Done Everything Possible to Ensure that You Will Get into a Fight in a Place Where Fights are Very, Very Common. As he sets up the scenarios for his self-defense video, he starts in a bar; his first module discusses the use of objects in the bar as weapons.
Note that being in a bar is itself probably a poor idea from the perspective of self-defense; the combination of alcohol, short skirts, and pool cues has generated more fights than most other environments.
Mr. Rutten postulates situations in which a bad guy has insulted your wife or girlfriend, and then discusses interesting ways to break the leg of the insulting individual.
I'm not an expert on issues relating to criminal law, but my uneducated guess is that some jurisdictions might take a dim view of that leg-breaking activity.
Now, there are two different ways to defend yourself and your family; one is simply not taking your family to bars named "Eddie's Bucket of Blood" or "The Lay Dentistry Emporium"; they don't need to have those names. They could be called "Mom's Relaxation and Supper Club", but if all of the vehicles parked outside are Harleys, that could be a sign that you ought to find some other place to hang out.
Just a thought.
But watch this short, funny compilation of "Lethal Street Fighting", and you will learn several things: 1) Bas Rutten is a really funny, likable guy; 2) Bas Rutten has been a bouncer, and has been in a lot of fights, and has found techniques that work for him; 3) Bas Rutten takes for granted that you will take your family to bars where people routinely trade insults and knife attacks and kicks to the groin and knee, and do God Knows What with the tabasco bottle when their victim is unconscious, and 4) for Bas Rutten, a bar fight is just another day at the office.
That alone is a reason to buy the dvd, because watching somebody discuss fighting with you, as though you're his wingman going out drinking with him, provides useful information that you didn't need to pay for at the emergency room.
I don't want to disagree with any part of Bas Rutten's approach to self-defense. One of the most valuable items of information on the dvd comes at the very beginning, and I won't spoil the surprise; but Bas did a good service by pointing out something that we should all remember when a Bad Guy squares off with us, or a Bad Guy in Good Guy disguise moves inside our reaction-time zone.
Frankly, that initial throwaway bit may save your life; so the video is not a waste of time, especially because of its entertainment value.
You get to decide what technique you want to employ for self-defense; I like the approach to self-defense that Rob Redmond discusses on his great Shotokan Karate Blog.
And, frankly, the techniques of Bar-Fight-Do taught by Bas Rutten seem extremely practical and effective to me. And Bas demonstrates a greatly underestimated self-defense technique that looked like it would work first time, every time!
I just think I can win every bar fight in which I find myself by a simple expedient: not going to bars!
Also note: the need for self-defense comes also to people who have done everything right, and who just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time (for instance, they're in a post office and a guy with a machete shows up and targets them and only them).
But the "maniac with a machete" scenario, while something that can happen, is statistically far less common than a drunk in a bar with a tabasco bottle.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Should Battered Women Study Shotokan Karate to Batter their Husbands?
Uh. No.
Really, really, really no.
There is a movie in which a woman uses a martial art (Krav Maga) to kick the heck out of a guy who'd worked her over. It was emotionally satisfying, and Jennifer Lopez is a pretty good actress, and her trainer taught her some pretty spiffy looking moves.
And it's a movie, not reality!
Now, I think everybody should study Shotokan Karate, because it's good for what ails ya.
It makes you more flexible, stronger, better-coordinated, and healthier. You get to meet nice people in the dojo, and you get to learn a traditional martial art, which can sometimes be effective against unprovoked unarmed violence (and less frequently, against armed attack).
That's part of the problem with battered wives and Shotokan Karate. It's an art. It's a Do, not a Jutsu.
Now, before I continue, let me say this: never break the law, ever. That's a bad thing. Determine the law in your jurisdiction, and never stray, period.
That said, there are additional reasons, besides the law, that a woman shouldn't try to slug it out with a guy who smacked her around. One is a practical problem.
Guys are typically bigger, and stronger, and full of more testosterone than women. You heard it here first.
Because of that, men are typically better fighters than women.
I'm a guy, and I'm stronger and more testosterone filled than many men. And I'm also smaller and weaker and less testosterony than many other men.
And if a seven foot tall guy grabs me and beats me up without provocation, do you think I'm going to take some extra karate classes and go back to the biker/pro-football player/spetnatz bar and call him out?
That would be a "no".
Now, anybody can get their rear end handed to them in a fight.
And anybody who goes up against somebody twice their weight, twice their height (which translates into reach), and twice their nastiness is kinda asking for a bad day in intensive care (as opposed to a Bad Day at Black Rock, one of the first movies in which a karate-style knife-hand makes its debut).
So one practical problem is that even if a woman has a high degree of ability in a marital art, she is typically at a disadvantage against a man twice her size and weight and nastiness.
So what should a battered wife do?
Maybe the same thing I'd do if somebody beat the living thingamajig out of me for no very good reason.
Find allies and a safe place to heal!
A battered wife in Arizona will find a lot of institutional and legal support, and there is some chance that some time in the slammer may be useful for hubby/boyfriend/first date.
Now, some guys have a screw lose, and that's both sad and true.
I once had an acquaintance who was a nice lady with a stalker, and she had no clue how to deal with him.
Fortunately, her dad was former FBI, and when daughter moved to the city where Dad lived, the spontaneous visits from the Crazy Guy stopped as soon as Dad had a talk with Crazy Guy. My guess is that the talk was punctuated with visual aids that involved little purple stars dancing on a black background, but I have no actual knowledge, only speculation.
Do I think women are weak? Heck, no. Who do you think defended the castles when the Crusaders went forth to rescue the Holy Land?
On the other hand, slugging it out tends to cause repeat engagements. Guys who are humiliated in a fight may well have a psychological need to even the score, or more.
And that's a bad thing.
So in addition to seeking allies among the police, my thought is that a battered woman should also seek out other battered women who found strategies that worked for them. Then take their advice. Consider whether "leaving the moron" might be the best possible strategy advised.
After all, if you want to get a particular result, and you can find somebody else who got that result, it can shorten the learning curve remarkably.
That said, if you're battered and you want some self-confidence back, Shotokan Karate is a pretty decent place to work on your physical self-confidence.
Knowing that you have some tools in the toolbox, like a remarkable side-kick, or a fantastically fast elbow, or a front snap kick that often scores in contests is a good thing for self-confidence.
But I know something that I learned from tough guys who are really tough, not keyboard warriors; any weapon is better than no weapon at all.
And this is also true: no weapon or technique works at without the will to use it.
And on this topic, Shotokan Blogger Rob Redmond has, as always, two useful bodies of thought: one is about self-defense (and I agree with every single thing he says about self-defense), and he also talks about women who have been battered who embark on the study of Shotokan Karate.
And his post is full of wisdom, Grasshopper. No kidding. Read it.
In general, fighting is a poor way to try to deal with relationship issues.
Really, really, really no.
There is a movie in which a woman uses a martial art (Krav Maga) to kick the heck out of a guy who'd worked her over. It was emotionally satisfying, and Jennifer Lopez is a pretty good actress, and her trainer taught her some pretty spiffy looking moves.
And it's a movie, not reality!
Now, I think everybody should study Shotokan Karate, because it's good for what ails ya.
It makes you more flexible, stronger, better-coordinated, and healthier. You get to meet nice people in the dojo, and you get to learn a traditional martial art, which can sometimes be effective against unprovoked unarmed violence (and less frequently, against armed attack).
That's part of the problem with battered wives and Shotokan Karate. It's an art. It's a Do, not a Jutsu.
Now, before I continue, let me say this: never break the law, ever. That's a bad thing. Determine the law in your jurisdiction, and never stray, period.
That said, there are additional reasons, besides the law, that a woman shouldn't try to slug it out with a guy who smacked her around. One is a practical problem.
Guys are typically bigger, and stronger, and full of more testosterone than women. You heard it here first.
Because of that, men are typically better fighters than women.
I'm a guy, and I'm stronger and more testosterone filled than many men. And I'm also smaller and weaker and less testosterony than many other men.
And if a seven foot tall guy grabs me and beats me up without provocation, do you think I'm going to take some extra karate classes and go back to the biker/pro-football player/spetnatz bar and call him out?
That would be a "no".
Now, anybody can get their rear end handed to them in a fight.
And anybody who goes up against somebody twice their weight, twice their height (which translates into reach), and twice their nastiness is kinda asking for a bad day in intensive care (as opposed to a Bad Day at Black Rock, one of the first movies in which a karate-style knife-hand makes its debut).
So one practical problem is that even if a woman has a high degree of ability in a marital art, she is typically at a disadvantage against a man twice her size and weight and nastiness.
So what should a battered wife do?
Maybe the same thing I'd do if somebody beat the living thingamajig out of me for no very good reason.
Find allies and a safe place to heal!
A battered wife in Arizona will find a lot of institutional and legal support, and there is some chance that some time in the slammer may be useful for hubby/boyfriend/first date.
Now, some guys have a screw lose, and that's both sad and true.
I once had an acquaintance who was a nice lady with a stalker, and she had no clue how to deal with him.
Fortunately, her dad was former FBI, and when daughter moved to the city where Dad lived, the spontaneous visits from the Crazy Guy stopped as soon as Dad had a talk with Crazy Guy. My guess is that the talk was punctuated with visual aids that involved little purple stars dancing on a black background, but I have no actual knowledge, only speculation.
Do I think women are weak? Heck, no. Who do you think defended the castles when the Crusaders went forth to rescue the Holy Land?
On the other hand, slugging it out tends to cause repeat engagements. Guys who are humiliated in a fight may well have a psychological need to even the score, or more.
And that's a bad thing.
So in addition to seeking allies among the police, my thought is that a battered woman should also seek out other battered women who found strategies that worked for them. Then take their advice. Consider whether "leaving the moron" might be the best possible strategy advised.
After all, if you want to get a particular result, and you can find somebody else who got that result, it can shorten the learning curve remarkably.
That said, if you're battered and you want some self-confidence back, Shotokan Karate is a pretty decent place to work on your physical self-confidence.
Knowing that you have some tools in the toolbox, like a remarkable side-kick, or a fantastically fast elbow, or a front snap kick that often scores in contests is a good thing for self-confidence.
But I know something that I learned from tough guys who are really tough, not keyboard warriors; any weapon is better than no weapon at all.
And this is also true: no weapon or technique works at without the will to use it.
And on this topic, Shotokan Blogger Rob Redmond has, as always, two useful bodies of thought: one is about self-defense (and I agree with every single thing he says about self-defense), and he also talks about women who have been battered who embark on the study of Shotokan Karate.
And his post is full of wisdom, Grasshopper. No kidding. Read it.
In general, fighting is a poor way to try to deal with relationship issues.
Monday, March 14, 2011
The Japanese Tsunami, Japanese Culture and Shotokan Karate
There is a tragedy playing itself out in Japan; a natural disaster of gigantic proportions has stuck the country.
The sea has not always been unkind to Japan; it owes its existence to the "Divine Wind" that destroyed the Mongol invasion fleet from China.
But nature has been unkind to Japan recently, almost as unkind as World War II, which saw the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
And World War II was unkind to karate; it destroyed Sensei Funakoshi's beloved dojo, and killed many of his students.
So when he was old, Sensei Funakoshi conceived his greatest work; sending forth karate missionaries to the dark corners of the world to spread the Gospel of Shotokan Karate, and of Japanese Culture. Gichen Funakoshi believed that Shotokan Karate was a perfect vehicle for spreading the benefits of Japanese Culture to the world.
It's hard to criticize his logic, because Shotokan Karate is well-established in backwater sites like...Phoenix, Arizona! And Sensei Koyama was trained, among others, by Sensei Nakayama, who was trained by Sensei Funakoshi.
Students of Sensei Funakoshi have opened their own dojos, and they also teach Shotokan Karate in Arizona.
Now, don't get me wrong. I love Western European Culture. A lot.
But Shojiro Koyama is my Sensei, and my constant companion during my years of philosophical explorations was The Essentials of Zen Buddhism, so I have seen the best of Japanese Culture.
Is it perfect? Well, is Western European Culture? The answer has to be no.
Does Japanese Culture have admirable qualities?
Let's do a quick reality check: if Los Angeles had been the target of one of the worst earthquakes in history, with a side dish of Tsunami, would there have been rioting and looting?
And now let's go to Japan; earthquake with a side order of Tsunami.
Rioting?
That would be "no".
The sea has not always been unkind to Japan; it owes its existence to the "Divine Wind" that destroyed the Mongol invasion fleet from China.
But nature has been unkind to Japan recently, almost as unkind as World War II, which saw the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
And World War II was unkind to karate; it destroyed Sensei Funakoshi's beloved dojo, and killed many of his students.
So when he was old, Sensei Funakoshi conceived his greatest work; sending forth karate missionaries to the dark corners of the world to spread the Gospel of Shotokan Karate, and of Japanese Culture. Gichen Funakoshi believed that Shotokan Karate was a perfect vehicle for spreading the benefits of Japanese Culture to the world.
It's hard to criticize his logic, because Shotokan Karate is well-established in backwater sites like...Phoenix, Arizona! And Sensei Koyama was trained, among others, by Sensei Nakayama, who was trained by Sensei Funakoshi.
Students of Sensei Funakoshi have opened their own dojos, and they also teach Shotokan Karate in Arizona.
Now, don't get me wrong. I love Western European Culture. A lot.
But Shojiro Koyama is my Sensei, and my constant companion during my years of philosophical explorations was The Essentials of Zen Buddhism, so I have seen the best of Japanese Culture.
Is it perfect? Well, is Western European Culture? The answer has to be no.
Does Japanese Culture have admirable qualities?
Let's do a quick reality check: if Los Angeles had been the target of one of the worst earthquakes in history, with a side dish of Tsunami, would there have been rioting and looting?
And now let's go to Japan; earthquake with a side order of Tsunami.
Rioting?
That would be "no".
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Kangeiko 2011: Be There or Be Square!
Kangeiko means to train in the coldest part of the year, which is usually in February.
The Arizona Karate Association is holding its Kangeiko training on February 18, 19, and 20th at the Phoenix Central Dojo.
Go to the Official Website of the Arizona Karate Association website to read more.
What, you're still here?
p.s. Yeah, I know; we in Phoenix, Arizona believe that it's cold when our soda pop doesn't evaporate instantly when we open the can. But it's cold by our standards in Phoenix in February. German tourists, of course, are sunbathing while we're shivering!
The Arizona Karate Association is holding its Kangeiko training on February 18, 19, and 20th at the Phoenix Central Dojo.
Go to the Official Website of the Arizona Karate Association website to read more.
What, you're still here?
p.s. Yeah, I know; we in Phoenix, Arizona believe that it's cold when our soda pop doesn't evaporate instantly when we open the can. But it's cold by our standards in Phoenix in February. German tourists, of course, are sunbathing while we're shivering!
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Andre Bertel Posted Some Videos!
I really like Andre Bertel's website, and I'm pleased that he just posted a bundle of videos.
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
Saturday, January 8, 2011
The Top Ten Shotokan Karate Blog Posts, Chosen by You!
These are the posts that have gotten the most views. Enjoy!
- Some dojos are more traditional than others. When Sensei Shojiro Koyama began teaching in Phoenix 44 years ago, he was a lowly 4th degree bl...
- Shotokan Karate has a good characteristic: it takes about a decade of steady training under a very good instructor to become competent in th...
- The Karate Kata named Jion used to look boring to me. It has no flashy techniques, no extreme athletic excesses. But Sensei Koyama decided ...
- Okay, so I decided to take another look. My 1968 Tokaido gi is still in great shape, after being worn and washed under horrific conditions ...
- Let's start with definitions, because good definitions make good conclusions, like good fences make good neighbors. In my dictionary, a re...
- I have the honor of counting several police officers among my friends. And they are heroes, each and every one. Their job description involv...
- It is predictable that no matter what martial art you study, you will routinely fail to win a fight with a cop. We've covered that previousl...
- Let's clear this up once and for all. Is the correct use of Shotokan Karate Kata as a demonstration technique, for simple show? Or is it a...
- CAUTION: THE SYSTEM OF WORLD WAR II COMBATIVES DESCRIBED IN CONNECTION WITH THE SYLLABUS OF CAPTAIN W.E. FAIRBAIRN TAUGHT DURING WORLD WAR I...
- And no, the heat is currently not a dry heat. This is Monsoon Season in Phoenix, and if your gi doesn't wick, that's a bad thing. On the...
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Biting for Fighting
First, never bite in a fight; bad guys get tattoos in places that aren't as clean and hygenic as the Blue Dragon Tattoo Parlor. And therefore, they are more likely to harbor blood-borne diseases than ordinary folks.
So biting them may kill you, you know? Eventually.
On the other hand, if you are trapped underneath a 300-pound gorilla who is drooling, sweating, and yelling, "Gonna kill ya, boy! Gonna kill ya, boy! Gonna kill ya, boy!", you may want to calmly and dispassionately balance the possible long-term risks of blood-borne diseases against the certainty of immediate death.
Your choice, of course.
Now, the idea of biting frankly never crossed my mind in connection with martial arts, because, well, I was studying martial arts!
But even excellent martial arts instructors like Morio Higaonna, in his Goju Ryu Bunkai Series of Videos, discussed the biting applications embedded in Goju Ryu Karate Kata.
And yes, that surprised me a good deal.
In addition, James Painter, who I have discussed previously, explained in his dvd the way that biting can be applied in real fights, and my strong impression is that he speaks as one who has some real-world experience in this area of knowledge.
A lot of real-world experience, actually.
And he believes that biting in a particular way can have an effect on the inner state of an opponent, including the opponent's willingness to continue to fight. I think it has something to do with "chi", but I could be wrong.
And Paul Vunak, who is very knowledgeable, discussed the specific technique that he believes may be most useful when pinned, in one of his "Street Safe" Videos.
And he believes that if you apply the technique correctly, it could function well as an escape-from-underneath tool, because your three-hundred pound opponent would levitate when you released him.
Now, I am not going to discuss the specific techniques of biting in a fight; I have above discussed the opinions of experts, and you should consult them if you believe your biting skills need, well, sharpening.
Biting is the most common way that animals defend themselves, because the teeth of many animals are very effective weapons. By comparison with a lion, of course, humans are toothless.
And a police dog bites with about 750 pounds of pressure, I'm told, and a pit bull about twice that. Or so I've read.
By comparison, human bites have a series of limitations; one is that you have to be very, very close to an opponent to bite them.
Your opponent may, on the other hand, have chosen to be very, very close to you!
If there is no other option, you may want to have that last-ditch technique in your toolbox; the Chinese apparently plugged it into their tiger-style forms, and you will hear that fact from Mario Higaonna if you choose to do so.
Biting is a technique that I would never recommend to anyone, because if it works, you'll be sued by Nine-finger Jack for his loss of job as a lathe-operator, and if it doesn't work, you might have made him angry, you know?
But if I am ever unlucky enough to be waaaaaaaaay too close to an opponent, and have less strength, stamina, and technique than that opponent, and I hear the ever-popular chant, "Gonna kill ya, boy" coming from very, very close, I might be glad that I'd screened the materials referenced above.
After a careful, dispassionate weighing and balancing of potential health risks, of course.
So biting them may kill you, you know? Eventually.
On the other hand, if you are trapped underneath a 300-pound gorilla who is drooling, sweating, and yelling, "Gonna kill ya, boy! Gonna kill ya, boy! Gonna kill ya, boy!", you may want to calmly and dispassionately balance the possible long-term risks of blood-borne diseases against the certainty of immediate death.
Your choice, of course.
Now, the idea of biting frankly never crossed my mind in connection with martial arts, because, well, I was studying martial arts!
But even excellent martial arts instructors like Morio Higaonna, in his Goju Ryu Bunkai Series of Videos, discussed the biting applications embedded in Goju Ryu Karate Kata.
And yes, that surprised me a good deal.
In addition, James Painter, who I have discussed previously, explained in his dvd the way that biting can be applied in real fights, and my strong impression is that he speaks as one who has some real-world experience in this area of knowledge.
A lot of real-world experience, actually.
And he believes that biting in a particular way can have an effect on the inner state of an opponent, including the opponent's willingness to continue to fight. I think it has something to do with "chi", but I could be wrong.
And Paul Vunak, who is very knowledgeable, discussed the specific technique that he believes may be most useful when pinned, in one of his "Street Safe" Videos.
And he believes that if you apply the technique correctly, it could function well as an escape-from-underneath tool, because your three-hundred pound opponent would levitate when you released him.
Now, I am not going to discuss the specific techniques of biting in a fight; I have above discussed the opinions of experts, and you should consult them if you believe your biting skills need, well, sharpening.
Biting is the most common way that animals defend themselves, because the teeth of many animals are very effective weapons. By comparison with a lion, of course, humans are toothless.
And a police dog bites with about 750 pounds of pressure, I'm told, and a pit bull about twice that. Or so I've read.
By comparison, human bites have a series of limitations; one is that you have to be very, very close to an opponent to bite them.
Your opponent may, on the other hand, have chosen to be very, very close to you!
If there is no other option, you may want to have that last-ditch technique in your toolbox; the Chinese apparently plugged it into their tiger-style forms, and you will hear that fact from Mario Higaonna if you choose to do so.
Biting is a technique that I would never recommend to anyone, because if it works, you'll be sued by Nine-finger Jack for his loss of job as a lathe-operator, and if it doesn't work, you might have made him angry, you know?
But if I am ever unlucky enough to be waaaaaaaaay too close to an opponent, and have less strength, stamina, and technique than that opponent, and I hear the ever-popular chant, "Gonna kill ya, boy" coming from very, very close, I might be glad that I'd screened the materials referenced above.
After a careful, dispassionate weighing and balancing of potential health risks, of course.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Merry Christmas Eve! Here's a Flash Mob Singing Handel!
And you're right: this has nothing whatsoever to do with Shotokan Karate.
I just liked this video!
On the other hand, I suppose we could put together a flash mob that does "Kanku-dai", because that kata is very pretty.
I'll think about it.
I just liked this video!
On the other hand, I suppose we could put together a flash mob that does "Kanku-dai", because that kata is very pretty.
I'll think about it.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
SHOTOKAN TOURNAMENT COMING! 46th Annual WSKC Saturday October, 23 2010
46th Annual WSKC Saturday October, 23 2010!!! That's the Western States Karate Tournament, and it's the 46th Tournament in the series.
BE THERE OR BE SQUARE!
Look on the RIGHT hand side of the webpage for information.
No, your other right!
Here's a link to the site to sign up!
BE THERE OR BE SQUARE!
Look on the RIGHT hand side of the webpage for information.
No, your other right!
Here's a link to the site to sign up!
Sunday, October 3, 2010
So You Lost Your Fight With the Cop. Duhhhhh. Now What'cha Gonna Do? Painter Jitsu? 52 Blocks?
It is predictable that no matter what martial art you study, you will routinely fail to win a fight with a cop. We've covered that previously. And that's how it should be.
But suppose you didn't read my post about not fighting with cops, or you got caught with a sawed-off shotgun?
And suppose you wanted your Day In Court, until you got it?
And suppose you got nice striped jammies and were sent to a place where you got all the green bologna you could eat, and the other kids there didn't want to play nice?
Putting it another way, what if you get sent to The Big House and you don't know how to fight?
Well, you shouldn't have to fight in prison if you don't want to, because when you're sent to jail, you should either be getting rehabilitation (which doesn't work) or education (which normally doesn't work) or punishment (which seems to work on some folks, and not on others; but the punishment should be consistent, which means that the prisons should be so structured that you don't have to fight. But that's just my opinion).
Now, I haven't been to jail or prison, but some people I know who've had the pleasure tell me that they had to learn to fight there. I know another gentleman who used all the techniques in How to Win Friends and Influence People and became lifelong buddies with his mates and jailers (but that was a low-security prison, and the people there were pretty nice guys, who mostly didn't know how to fight).
If I had a buddy who wanted to learn to fight for realsies, I would not suggest that he try to learn Shotokan Karate in the two weeks prior to his incarceration. Because Shotokan Karate is a wonderful system, and provides good-quality exercise, conditioning, and self defense, but it has a very long learning curve! You'll recall that I see that as a benefit, not a detriment.
I don't know James Painter, but he seems like a very smart, very tough guy on his video (which is called ROCK & ROLL PRISON FIGHTING SYSTEMS). He also seemed like a very nice person, which shows that some people can take whatever life gives them and turn it into lemonade.
James concluded that his traditional martial arts experiences were of limited utility to him in prison fights, for a lot of reasons.
For one thing, there were no weight classes, time periods, referees, or rules.
In fact, fights in prison were remarkably similar to, you know, real fights!
So there was James, in prison on a sawed-off shotgun beef, and he says he didn't know how to fight for real, even though he'd studied a lot of martial arts.
What to do? What to do?
Well, the Spanish have a proverb, which I learned from the movie Zorro: when the student is ready, the teacher will appear.
And James Painter found Skip, and the rest is history.
Now, James Painter is an articulate guy, and a good teacher. He expresses himself well, and talks about the requirements for a prison fighting system. For instance, it should require essentially no time to learn, because a con has no time to study. It should be effective, because otherwise, why bother? It should require little to zero practice, because few prisons have good-quality dojo. It should require little equipment, because those pesky guards shake down the cells at irregular intervals.
You know the Theory of Convergent Evolution?
Yeah. Neither do I.
But it seems to me that the Fairbairn Syllabus has a lot in common with Painter Jitsu, for obvious reasons. Similar requirements, because neither one involves the luxury of a long learning curve, and neither one involves the use, primarily, of weapons, because the whole reason for learning the system is that you don't have the use of your primary weapon system! And each system needs to be effective, first time, every time.
I'm not going to give away James Painter's techniques, because he earned 'em, and you wouldn't believe that they'd work if I told you, because who am I?
But I watched his video, and I became convinced that about half of the techniques he taught, with virtually no practice, could end many a donnybrook, leaving you on top. Mind you, the techniques might make your stay in prison longer, because they are not very nice, sweet or polite techniques, no matter how effective they may be.
I'm not at all certain about the other half of the techniques he teaches, but my theory is that if you go to a seminar or watch a video and learn ONE technique that's gonna go in your permanent toolbox, you got a bargain.
This video has at least five and maybe as many as ten techniques and variations that you might wanna have in a bad situation, and those techniques require no practice to maintain, nor athletic ability to implement. And I had not seen some of them previously, and I've been reading and studying this stuff since my arm was broken for me in 5th Grade!
Actually, one of the techniques he applies in his video against an assailant using boxing techniques is implied in Yang Style Long Form Tai Chi Chuan. I always wondered how that move was used!
The techniques on his video that I don't much like are those that seem to require substantial practice or substantial agility and athletic ability.
The rest require nothing but watching his video, and yeah, I suggest you watch it. Never use the techniques to defend yourself or others, of course, because you may live in a jurisdiction where self-defense is illegal, especially if it's effective.
But if I found out that I was going on an unplanned, all-expenses-paid vacation to Green Bologna Heaven for some period of time, I would probably want to do two different things.
I'd want to re-read How to Win Friends and Influence People.
Some places, you just wanna make friends!
And I'd seriously consider buying an intensive series of private classes from Mr. Painter in Painter Jitsu, because the learning curve looks short. And his system looks very effective.
And in Green Bologna Heaven, maybe Priceless!
p.s. There is a much-rumored, written-about, speculated-upon but never-seen prison fighting system that goes by the name of 52 Blocks. I would have liked to have discussed it here, but I am unaware of anybody who actually teaches it, and have not yet found much more than speculation about it on the internet.
If somebody knows of a dvd explaining and teaching such a coherent system, I'd love to watch it and review it and compare it to Mr. Painter's style.
p.p.s. I read some folks talking on the Internet who seemed to want to question whether Mr. Painter had actually been in prison, and whether there really was a Skip, and similar issues. Here's my vote: it makes precisely no difference whatsoever. Actually, if Skip didn't exist, that would make Mr. Painter even more extraordinary, because that would mean he had invented a bundle of interesting techniques and stuck 'em them together to form a system. The only relevant line of inquiry, at least in my book, is this: are these techniques effective, and can they be learned in the time it takes to watch them?
And I'd give fully half of 'em a thumbs-up in both of those categories.
Oh, yeah. Mr. Painter's dvd is cheap as dirt; seems like a bargain to me. It is absolutely not a "me, too" kind of martial arts dvd. That is, Mr. Painter does not start by saying, "This is how you make a fist", or "First you must break your opponent's balance".
Finally, the sorts of techniques Painter teaches are absolutely, positively inapplicable to MMA competitions, or any sorts of friendly competitions, sort of like The Fairbairn Syllabus.
But suppose you didn't read my post about not fighting with cops, or you got caught with a sawed-off shotgun?
And suppose you wanted your Day In Court, until you got it?
And suppose you got nice striped jammies and were sent to a place where you got all the green bologna you could eat, and the other kids there didn't want to play nice?
Putting it another way, what if you get sent to The Big House and you don't know how to fight?
Well, you shouldn't have to fight in prison if you don't want to, because when you're sent to jail, you should either be getting rehabilitation (which doesn't work) or education (which normally doesn't work) or punishment (which seems to work on some folks, and not on others; but the punishment should be consistent, which means that the prisons should be so structured that you don't have to fight. But that's just my opinion).
Now, I haven't been to jail or prison, but some people I know who've had the pleasure tell me that they had to learn to fight there. I know another gentleman who used all the techniques in How to Win Friends and Influence People and became lifelong buddies with his mates and jailers (but that was a low-security prison, and the people there were pretty nice guys, who mostly didn't know how to fight).
If I had a buddy who wanted to learn to fight for realsies, I would not suggest that he try to learn Shotokan Karate in the two weeks prior to his incarceration. Because Shotokan Karate is a wonderful system, and provides good-quality exercise, conditioning, and self defense, but it has a very long learning curve! You'll recall that I see that as a benefit, not a detriment.
I don't know James Painter, but he seems like a very smart, very tough guy on his video (which is called ROCK & ROLL PRISON FIGHTING SYSTEMS). He also seemed like a very nice person, which shows that some people can take whatever life gives them and turn it into lemonade.
James concluded that his traditional martial arts experiences were of limited utility to him in prison fights, for a lot of reasons.
For one thing, there were no weight classes, time periods, referees, or rules.
In fact, fights in prison were remarkably similar to, you know, real fights!
So there was James, in prison on a sawed-off shotgun beef, and he says he didn't know how to fight for real, even though he'd studied a lot of martial arts.
What to do? What to do?
Well, the Spanish have a proverb, which I learned from the movie Zorro: when the student is ready, the teacher will appear.
And James Painter found Skip, and the rest is history.
Now, James Painter is an articulate guy, and a good teacher. He expresses himself well, and talks about the requirements for a prison fighting system. For instance, it should require essentially no time to learn, because a con has no time to study. It should be effective, because otherwise, why bother? It should require little to zero practice, because few prisons have good-quality dojo. It should require little equipment, because those pesky guards shake down the cells at irregular intervals.
You know the Theory of Convergent Evolution?
Yeah. Neither do I.
But it seems to me that the Fairbairn Syllabus has a lot in common with Painter Jitsu, for obvious reasons. Similar requirements, because neither one involves the luxury of a long learning curve, and neither one involves the use, primarily, of weapons, because the whole reason for learning the system is that you don't have the use of your primary weapon system! And each system needs to be effective, first time, every time.
I'm not going to give away James Painter's techniques, because he earned 'em, and you wouldn't believe that they'd work if I told you, because who am I?
But I watched his video, and I became convinced that about half of the techniques he taught, with virtually no practice, could end many a donnybrook, leaving you on top. Mind you, the techniques might make your stay in prison longer, because they are not very nice, sweet or polite techniques, no matter how effective they may be.
I'm not at all certain about the other half of the techniques he teaches, but my theory is that if you go to a seminar or watch a video and learn ONE technique that's gonna go in your permanent toolbox, you got a bargain.
This video has at least five and maybe as many as ten techniques and variations that you might wanna have in a bad situation, and those techniques require no practice to maintain, nor athletic ability to implement. And I had not seen some of them previously, and I've been reading and studying this stuff since my arm was broken for me in 5th Grade!
Actually, one of the techniques he applies in his video against an assailant using boxing techniques is implied in Yang Style Long Form Tai Chi Chuan. I always wondered how that move was used!
The techniques on his video that I don't much like are those that seem to require substantial practice or substantial agility and athletic ability.
The rest require nothing but watching his video, and yeah, I suggest you watch it. Never use the techniques to defend yourself or others, of course, because you may live in a jurisdiction where self-defense is illegal, especially if it's effective.
But if I found out that I was going on an unplanned, all-expenses-paid vacation to Green Bologna Heaven for some period of time, I would probably want to do two different things.
I'd want to re-read How to Win Friends and Influence People.
Some places, you just wanna make friends!
And I'd seriously consider buying an intensive series of private classes from Mr. Painter in Painter Jitsu, because the learning curve looks short. And his system looks very effective.
And in Green Bologna Heaven, maybe Priceless!
p.s. There is a much-rumored, written-about, speculated-upon but never-seen prison fighting system that goes by the name of 52 Blocks. I would have liked to have discussed it here, but I am unaware of anybody who actually teaches it, and have not yet found much more than speculation about it on the internet.
If somebody knows of a dvd explaining and teaching such a coherent system, I'd love to watch it and review it and compare it to Mr. Painter's style.
p.p.s. I read some folks talking on the Internet who seemed to want to question whether Mr. Painter had actually been in prison, and whether there really was a Skip, and similar issues. Here's my vote: it makes precisely no difference whatsoever. Actually, if Skip didn't exist, that would make Mr. Painter even more extraordinary, because that would mean he had invented a bundle of interesting techniques and stuck 'em them together to form a system. The only relevant line of inquiry, at least in my book, is this: are these techniques effective, and can they be learned in the time it takes to watch them?
And I'd give fully half of 'em a thumbs-up in both of those categories.
Oh, yeah. Mr. Painter's dvd is cheap as dirt; seems like a bargain to me. It is absolutely not a "me, too" kind of martial arts dvd. That is, Mr. Painter does not start by saying, "This is how you make a fist", or "First you must break your opponent's balance".
Finally, the sorts of techniques Painter teaches are absolutely, positively inapplicable to MMA competitions, or any sorts of friendly competitions, sort of like The Fairbairn Syllabus.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Police Combatives Compared to Shotokan Karate; Why Fighting With Police Officers is a BAAAAAAAD Idea.
I have the honor of counting several police officers among my friends. And they are heroes, each and every one. Their job description involves jumping in front of bullets for our sake, and I appreciate every single day that they get up and go to work.
Many of us have difficult or stressful jobs, and we whine frequently about them. I certainly do!
Few of us have jobs in which sudden, violent death is a daily opportunity.
But police officers have a unique view of fighting, utterly different from that of a hobbyist, or even of a professional martial artist (and that includes professional boxers). Depending on whether they're a beat cop, a motorcycle cop, or a detective, and depending on their geographic locale, they have the opportunity to observe and experience actual, factual fights far more often than the average bear. Four times a day, for instance.
Sometimes they get to watch as a bad guy swings at their head with the usual roundhouse right. Sometimes they get to separate a couple of guys fighting, and then the former combatants decide that they have found a common enemy! Sometimes a cop gets to stop a wife from getting beaten down, and while the cop is cuffing the perp, the wife is banging on the cop's head from behind with a cast-iron skillet.
Remember, a soldier gets to engage in hand-to-hand combat, but only if something has gone horribly wrong, and he's out of weapons or ammo.
For a cop, a violent fistfight with a guy with murderous intent who outweighs him by a hundred pounds of muscle means that Wednesday afternoon has arrived at last! Wonder what's for dinner?
So the perspective on fighting is different if you're a cop. For him, or her, it's a job! Or an ordinary part of the job, in any case.
That's just not true of ordinary civilians or military.
So cops have developed coping mechanisms for dealing with fights, and with the probability of a fight.
Recall that most ordinary, sane people, who are not drunk as skunks, or insane with sorrow or rage, do not usually make a decision to fight with a police officer, because duhhhh.
That leaves the chemically impaired, the nutjobs, the terminally bad and bored, hubbies or wifies who have poor verbal coping mechanisms, and hard-core bad guys who will do anything to avoid going back to the joint. Or to entertain themselves prior to going back to the joint, where they know they will end their days. So might as well have fun right now!
Police Officers do not welcome fights.
Fights may require paperwork.
And fights can and do damage cops, and they know that. All of them bear some souvenir from a struggle with a perp that went sideways and required quiet time to heal.
Now, a cop goes into a donnybrook with certain advantages, although certainly not enough advantages for my taste. I'd give the poor guy a howitzer, a bazooka, and a fifty-caliber machine gun, but I don't run things.
A cop is authorized to use force on the job when it is justified, both by law and internal procedural rules.
Since an officer has to make the decision frequently, the officer is able to do that without the mental dithering that assails the rest of us ("Gee, he sure looks like he's going to swing at me! I wonder if I should try to talk him down. Perhaps if I offered him my wallet or an apolo..." BLAMMO!).
And he can tell the signs that a slugfest is about to ensue, because he's had experiences when he failed to do so and woke up wondering what day it was and who was President.
And he has training, ranging from excellent to lousy. And he will normally put on gloves that will protect his hands from blood-borne pathogens, because this is a job for him. In exactly the same way that a medical doctor will put on gloves for intrusive exams, or an electrical worker will pull on non-conductive gloves.
For their jobs.
Let's go back over this: a police officer has had a lot of experience with fights, and he has some training, and he is authorized to use force to protect himself and others.
So when the perp swings and misses, or swings and hits, and starts swarming toward the officer's sidearm, the police officer doesn't take it personally.
Remember, all that means is that it's Wednesday!
So then the officer pushes the perp back (or himself back, if the perp weighs three hundred pounds of steroidal muscle) and acquires a tool from his tool belt in order to complete the particular job at hand.
GET IT?
To a cop, the altercation is just a day in the office, and part of a job. He (or she) has tools for the job, ranging from a baton to a Taser to the cuffs to a sidearm.
And they are just tools; he uses them exactly the way a carpenter uses a square, or a hammer, or a saw.
What's the job? Then we use this tool, or that tool. Or the other tool.
In the same way that a cowboy, for instance, will use tools like a lariet to control a calf, and spurs and bridle to control the horse. Or a doctor uses a tool like a hemostat to control bleeding.
That is such a completely different mindset from the general public that it took me until now to understand it.
The only time in my adult life that a steroidal, neck-vein throbbing man-mountain ever squared off with me I was lucky; he didn't swing much, and I didn't die much.
But I was fully switched on; there's nothing like the dawning realization of a threat of immediate, apparently unavoidable violence with somebody thirty years younger and fifty pounds heavier to get your blood pumping!
Trust me on this one. And I learned interesting things about my own autonomic responses that you can't learn in a tournament or a friendly sparring session.
But recently I have come to understand this: a policeman has an advantage over most perps because he has no ego at all involved in the fight. He doesn't care if his buddies think he's tough (by the way, he is).
He doesn't care about the esthetic qualities of his baton strike; he cares about whether the blow to the perp's leg caused the termination of an immediate threat. He doesn't care if his shot with the Taser makes him look like a cowboy; he cares whether it stops the attack upon him or the civilian vic.
And because it's just a job, he just does it, and he's very, very effective at his job. Or hers, as the case may be. And pretty efficient, as well, just as a doctor becomes efficient at stopping bleeds during surgery. After a little practice, you know?
And there are a lot of different approaches to the specific techniques of Police Combatives, because they aren't religious beliefs-they get tested a lot on the street; there are a lot of different ways for a doctor to stop a bleed, as well, including hemostats, pressure, chemical powders, and electro-coagulation. And those are just different approaches to doing a job, like the toolbox available to police.
And policemen don't exactly practice a martial art, like karate-do. Police Combatives is a jutsu, because whatever they're trying to do out there, it ain't to look pretty, or become enlightened, or do calisthenics to improve their flexibility or strength or endurance.
They're just trying to make sure that when the shift is finally over, they make it home at night.
Here in Arizona, sometimes they do, and sometimes they don't.
And may angels sing them to their rest when they don't make it, and may God make His face to shine upon them.
Because if anybody deserves it, they do.
Many of us have difficult or stressful jobs, and we whine frequently about them. I certainly do!
Few of us have jobs in which sudden, violent death is a daily opportunity.
But police officers have a unique view of fighting, utterly different from that of a hobbyist, or even of a professional martial artist (and that includes professional boxers). Depending on whether they're a beat cop, a motorcycle cop, or a detective, and depending on their geographic locale, they have the opportunity to observe and experience actual, factual fights far more often than the average bear. Four times a day, for instance.
Sometimes they get to watch as a bad guy swings at their head with the usual roundhouse right. Sometimes they get to separate a couple of guys fighting, and then the former combatants decide that they have found a common enemy! Sometimes a cop gets to stop a wife from getting beaten down, and while the cop is cuffing the perp, the wife is banging on the cop's head from behind with a cast-iron skillet.
Remember, a soldier gets to engage in hand-to-hand combat, but only if something has gone horribly wrong, and he's out of weapons or ammo.
For a cop, a violent fistfight with a guy with murderous intent who outweighs him by a hundred pounds of muscle means that Wednesday afternoon has arrived at last! Wonder what's for dinner?
So the perspective on fighting is different if you're a cop. For him, or her, it's a job! Or an ordinary part of the job, in any case.
That's just not true of ordinary civilians or military.
So cops have developed coping mechanisms for dealing with fights, and with the probability of a fight.
Recall that most ordinary, sane people, who are not drunk as skunks, or insane with sorrow or rage, do not usually make a decision to fight with a police officer, because duhhhh.
That leaves the chemically impaired, the nutjobs, the terminally bad and bored, hubbies or wifies who have poor verbal coping mechanisms, and hard-core bad guys who will do anything to avoid going back to the joint. Or to entertain themselves prior to going back to the joint, where they know they will end their days. So might as well have fun right now!
Police Officers do not welcome fights.
Fights may require paperwork.
And fights can and do damage cops, and they know that. All of them bear some souvenir from a struggle with a perp that went sideways and required quiet time to heal.
Now, a cop goes into a donnybrook with certain advantages, although certainly not enough advantages for my taste. I'd give the poor guy a howitzer, a bazooka, and a fifty-caliber machine gun, but I don't run things.
A cop is authorized to use force on the job when it is justified, both by law and internal procedural rules.
Since an officer has to make the decision frequently, the officer is able to do that without the mental dithering that assails the rest of us ("Gee, he sure looks like he's going to swing at me! I wonder if I should try to talk him down. Perhaps if I offered him my wallet or an apolo..." BLAMMO!).
And he can tell the signs that a slugfest is about to ensue, because he's had experiences when he failed to do so and woke up wondering what day it was and who was President.
And he has training, ranging from excellent to lousy. And he will normally put on gloves that will protect his hands from blood-borne pathogens, because this is a job for him. In exactly the same way that a medical doctor will put on gloves for intrusive exams, or an electrical worker will pull on non-conductive gloves.
For their jobs.
Let's go back over this: a police officer has had a lot of experience with fights, and he has some training, and he is authorized to use force to protect himself and others.
So when the perp swings and misses, or swings and hits, and starts swarming toward the officer's sidearm, the police officer doesn't take it personally.
Remember, all that means is that it's Wednesday!
So then the officer pushes the perp back (or himself back, if the perp weighs three hundred pounds of steroidal muscle) and acquires a tool from his tool belt in order to complete the particular job at hand.
GET IT?
To a cop, the altercation is just a day in the office, and part of a job. He (or she) has tools for the job, ranging from a baton to a Taser to the cuffs to a sidearm.
And they are just tools; he uses them exactly the way a carpenter uses a square, or a hammer, or a saw.
What's the job? Then we use this tool, or that tool. Or the other tool.
In the same way that a cowboy, for instance, will use tools like a lariet to control a calf, and spurs and bridle to control the horse. Or a doctor uses a tool like a hemostat to control bleeding.
That is such a completely different mindset from the general public that it took me until now to understand it.
The only time in my adult life that a steroidal, neck-vein throbbing man-mountain ever squared off with me I was lucky; he didn't swing much, and I didn't die much.
But I was fully switched on; there's nothing like the dawning realization of a threat of immediate, apparently unavoidable violence with somebody thirty years younger and fifty pounds heavier to get your blood pumping!
Trust me on this one. And I learned interesting things about my own autonomic responses that you can't learn in a tournament or a friendly sparring session.
But recently I have come to understand this: a policeman has an advantage over most perps because he has no ego at all involved in the fight. He doesn't care if his buddies think he's tough (by the way, he is).
He doesn't care about the esthetic qualities of his baton strike; he cares about whether the blow to the perp's leg caused the termination of an immediate threat. He doesn't care if his shot with the Taser makes him look like a cowboy; he cares whether it stops the attack upon him or the civilian vic.
And because it's just a job, he just does it, and he's very, very effective at his job. Or hers, as the case may be. And pretty efficient, as well, just as a doctor becomes efficient at stopping bleeds during surgery. After a little practice, you know?
And there are a lot of different approaches to the specific techniques of Police Combatives, because they aren't religious beliefs-they get tested a lot on the street; there are a lot of different ways for a doctor to stop a bleed, as well, including hemostats, pressure, chemical powders, and electro-coagulation. And those are just different approaches to doing a job, like the toolbox available to police.
And policemen don't exactly practice a martial art, like karate-do. Police Combatives is a jutsu, because whatever they're trying to do out there, it ain't to look pretty, or become enlightened, or do calisthenics to improve their flexibility or strength or endurance.
They're just trying to make sure that when the shift is finally over, they make it home at night.
Here in Arizona, sometimes they do, and sometimes they don't.
And may angels sing them to their rest when they don't make it, and may God make His face to shine upon them.
Because if anybody deserves it, they do.
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