Bushido-Ruach

If breaking a bone is the aim (in order to secure the "victory"), the wrist isn't the only good place. It only takes 8 pounds of pressure to break the collar bone, which you can accomplish with a palm strike or hammer fist. It is kind of hard to raise your arm to punch someone with a broken collar bone...unless he is high or in a blind rage. Personally, if I have too, I like breaking the arm at the elbow from a punch...striking the elbow with the forearm after capturing the wrist. I have never had to use it (yet), but I talked to someone who was badly hurt with this kind of technique and he said it hurt like hell and he couldn't do anything with his arm for a while after that.

If the opportunity presents itself, a good solid strike to a kidney will work wonders, as well as a hammerfist to the top of the head (if the opportunity presented itself!). Someone also mentioned striking the armpits, that can really hurt...especially if you can manage mutliple strikes! Putting a good knee strike into the tail-bone also works wonders for making anyone lose the desire to fight you anymore, as well as a throat strike or punching either side of one's neck. Also, unless he is particularly muscular, a straight lead knuckle punch to the chest plate (if you're in danger of you life) seems like it would put him down. If you find yourself in close proximaty and can pull it off, an elbow strike to the head would also take him down...the head isn't made to withstand high impacts, no matter how big one may be.

Hi Gang, As some of you will remember, I am trying to get a school started in June, but I am having issues with the curriculum for the first rank (ages 8 and up). Someone I have shown it to says that I don't have enough from white to yellow, or from yellow stripe to orange. I cover basic stances, movement in stances, rolls and falls, balance drills, blocks, strikes, kicks, sticky hands drills, balance disruption skills and basic body mechanics from white - yellow - yellow stripe - orange (we have no kata). Altogether, that's 93 techniques in three ranks...does that sound like "not enough" to anyone? Also, any idea's?!!! Thanks!

Most finger strikes in my experience, are either because the situation doesn't call for a killing blow but the target is open, or they are actually for pressure point attacks. Granted, you can hit certain pressure points, but most of them respond better to fingertip activation because you can grind them...that is, unless you are in dire need of deadly force, then you would want to strike them.

I agree, a four year old hasn't developed mentally nor physically enough to even be coordinated yet, he could actually get hurt more than do him any good. Personally myself, I don't teach any child under the age of 8 simply because they need to have an understanding of body mechanics and I have found that much younger than 8 can follow through with the motions, but the understanding just isn't there yet. If we simplify the martial arts to a certain degree, they no longer remain effective...perhaps as a simple exercise, but not enough to be physically applicable in an actual confrontation if one ever does take place. Greetings!

Howdy, ya'all. I just heard today at work that I might be able to qualify for a money grant in opening my school in the area of community enhancement because the martial arts builds peoples character, gives them self-defense, and a lot of other qualities that communities would like to see built up in their populations. Does anyone already know about these? If not, I will do some research and get back to you guys (and gals), having money in the form of a grant that you don't have to pay back for community service could come in handy! Chow

Pressure points are a wonderful thing for self-defense. I'm not sure that I agree with the whole Chi theory, but I do know that time differences are based (in reality, I believe) not on Chi flow but on the fact that certain organs of the body work (or work harder) during certain times of the day or night. Most of them are based upon points on the body where main nerves or nerve bundles are closer to the surface of the skin, usually at muscle intervals where the muscles overlap or come togeter. As far as activating these points, they usually work only painfully, not detrimentally, when grasped and digging your fingers, knuckles, elbow....whatever into the area. Like I said, they are wonderful for self-defense, but there are, sadly, a lot of people out there that would get their jollies off purposely hurting people. One should only teach these points to mature students that the instructor knows well enough to say that the student wouldn't misuse the knowledge.

I have been taught this philosophy....If someone is attacking you, they are doing so because they want to hurt you...so you hurt them first (that doesn't mean attack them first, necessarily, I would think you would legally have to wait for them to "attempt" to strike you ). This escalates to the point where, if someone wants to do you great bodily harm, even kill you (in the case of a knife or other weapon), then you want to cause him great bodily harm first. We were taught that before you reach lethal force, there is crippling force. Break the arm holding the weapon, or break a leg so that he can't fight you anymore......this goes in spades when fighting multiple opponents. The longer you "mess" around with someone (especially if it is more than one) the greater chance you have of ending up in the hospital or in the ground.

I agree with Bushido man, when your mind is trained correctly, you don't pick the best option for the circumstances, your mind does that all by itself. "You" don't hit......"you" don't kick......"you" don't throw. Instead, "IT" hits all by itself. "IT" kicks all by itself. And if the situation was different, "IT" would have thrown all by itself. And I also have trained in Judo/JuJitsu, and a kick probably was the BEST thing you could have done in that setting. Remember that when a throw is done for combat it is done differently than when in practice. Had you got him in mid-throw and through him through the air as in combat, you could have hurt someone else in the line of fire, or he could have landed on his neck....

Hi guys, I finally figured it out!!! As the subject line goes, which do you think is better and why...the "pay as you go" charges (some have said $5.00 a lesson) or monthly charges. What are the reasons why you prefer one over the other? Looking for the "pro's" and "con's" of it all. Just trying to get an idea for the best scenario for when I (hopefully) open my school in a few months. Thanks to all who reply!

I don't think I would have a problem with it, but I would only allow him to work out with myself first until I could see what level he was at and exactly what kind of techniques he wanted to be working on, if he had any of what I might consider "bad habits" that he might pass on to my students...things like that. I would be careful that he didn't come in and begin teaching my students things that he shouldn't. Each style has different philosophies behind them, and I wouldn't want someone coming in spreading a philosophy that might undermine or be antagonistic to my art's philosophy.

Kante, Vladko has a valid point...what kind of finger conditioning are you looking for? Here are my suggestions... For straight-lead strikes (Knife hand, for example) what I do is train with a heavy bag, whether hanging or floor model doesn't matter. Make the knife-hand formation and position your hand, fingers first, against the bag, then simply push forward gently as far as you can go, then slowly back again. Rest, or work the other hand, and then repeat. Eventually you will be able to push the bag farther and farther with greater strength. For grasping or pressure point striking strength, opening and closing the hands in isometric-type exercises are excellent, along with squeezing a hand-ball or some other squeezable ball. Hand grippers are good if you can find one that isolates each finger, because each finger has differring grasping strength. You can also work on finger strength by taking two chairs, putting a stick across the top, placing your fingers on the top of the horizontal stick and do "finger presses". Also finger curls with a hand weight. Just some ideas...

Another important thing to ask, that should be on your initial application, is whether or not the student has any medical issues like ADD or ADHD and then read up on these as much as possible. My son is a victim of ADHD which is why I am putting him in my class, it helps them to learn to focus and learn to control themselves. If a student does have ADD or ADHD they may "act out" in class and it is good to know how to handle such an incident should it ever happen.

Holland, thanks for the info, I think this is the same one that you recommended. Shalom

Thanks to all who replied, it helped a lot. I am currently looking into a company called Grizzly Insurance Agency LLC that runs a presence on the web called karateinsurance.com to see what they have. I am running them through the BBB, if anyone is interested I can post the results. They quoted my $450 a year minimum up to 50 students, and $8.95 per student after 50, with coverage for $1 mil per incident, $2 mil aggregate. Does that sound good to anyone....looking for feedback! They have an "A" rating by A.M. Best rating. Again, thanks to all!!!

Holland, thanks for the reply......have you ever had an incident where you needed to actually use their services? If so, did they treat you right? Thanks!

I am opening a new school and am in search of liability insurance, can anyone advise a good company...perhaps one that you have actually had to utilize in a time of need? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.