tallgeese

I can't disagree. Great ending to what could have been a nightmare for everyone involved. It certainly shows the value in training to conditioned response levels. The girl did great, no doubt. It also underscores a couple of valuable lessons that so often get overlooked. First, she knew he was there. She made him early in the encounter. This means that she was not totally blindsided by the event and behind in her response (see the thread on the OODA loop, good example of observation). The psychological impact of this cannot be overstated. That psychological factor brings us to our second point, and that's how her response effected the attacker. Think about it, she's 11 years old, can't weigh more than a 100 pounds soaking wet, and carried much less mass than the attacker. Do we really think that the day was carried solely by technique applied against so vast odds? Doubtful. What likely was a bigger factor was the effect that an immediate attack back at the aggressor had. He was plotting for a victim, it's all he planned for. This is often the case in individual like this, it's why they prey on kids in the first place. They want a victim, not a fight. The actual event of being fought was so outside his preconceived notion of what was going to happen that the psychological effect must have been immense. Or, at the very least, he decided to pick on someone who was less trouble. We tend to overlook this very important aspect of combat far too often. Understanding it gives us a decided advantage and gives us a clearer view of why things work. Another note to take away from this debrief, is not to get locked into preconceptions about how events are going to go. I'm not suggesting to aid in kidnapping efforts, but for combat in general. Our circuits can get locked just like the bad guys above, and similar effects can occur. Developing a fluid, constantly aware state is imperative to successful physical resolution to conflict. This attitude keeps your mind from being frozen in place in the OODA loop due to unforeseen circumstances. I like Musashi on this matter (paraphrased) Fluidity is the way to life, rigidity is way to death.

I ran across this great little film where Saulo Ribeiro talks jits and his philosophy on it and how it affects you beyond the mats. Great stuff that, I think, speaks to the heart of the art and how it should be practiced.

Welcome to KF!

That's just planning. That's all. Really, trust us. LP, I can't speak to the SOG variant; however, the Black Hawk Tactical Tomahawk is pretty cool. I've been trying to figure out how to sneak it into my tool box for a while now. Plus, it's painted black and had tactical in the title.

I gotta go with Montana here. I did a stint boxing in college. Despite being restricted to only punching weapons it's called the sweet science for a reason. It's reliance on angles and movement are not easy to learn and even less easy to ingrain for use under pressure. It's why despite only 8 or nine punches, practitioners drill over and over for years to make them work most efficiently. The wide array of tactics available in oriental arts sometimes (sometimes!) does not mean superiority. Most boxers who've spent similar amounts of time in have a deeper understanding of how to use their tools under duress than martial artists do. On the grappling note, throwing a headlock and falling to the ground might be instinctive; however, from experience I can say that high end technical grappling is not instinctive. The body has to work in ways that it just doesn't on it's feet. You'll see BJJ black belts with 8-10 years of consistent training under their belts, with a big chunk of that built around randori and applying the tactics of the art under pressure. That's a time frame and training paradigm that most traditional martial artist can't claim. Just food for thought, I'm not saying learning to kick is easy. I've never been a great fighter in that aspect. However, I don't think it's an accurate generalization to lump other arts as easier to learn. Especially the ones you indicated, brickshooter.

Ahh, the joys of the new kid... 10/21 Drilled takedown work, double and singles. Moved on to takedowns from pummel and clinch. Finished with running the pipe from double and countering the sprawl. 15 min of open guard v. pass 20 min free roll

It's also worth mentioning that pankration rules were the basis for shootfighting during it's short lived stint in the minds of American ma-ist. That meant open hand strikes to the head at full contact. Closed fist to the body and no strikes once on the ground.

The thing is, the level of BJJ training is all over the board right now in mma gyms. There are plenty that have a solid program run by someone with legitimate rank in BJJ. Due to the influx of popularity, there are also plenty with a wrestler from the local high school running the grappling program. Just look into what your getting before assuming that the local mma gym has a BJJ coach with rank. The two are not synonymous.

10/19 Warmed up with pummelling drills. Moved into over/ under guard passing work to armbar. Finished with omo plata flow work. 25 min free roll.

10/18 Drilled passing open guard, same side. Move to knee in, transition to mount. Finish with collar choke. 45 min free roll. Lots of rounds with our brown who's prepping for the Pans next March.

From a strictly to the "why study jiiu jitsu" question I'd say it's a pretty simple explanation. If you're talking about Japanese jiu jitsu then the heavy influence of joint manipulation and limb control will be greatly enhanced by the striking from your core art. It will also give you a close, chest to chest option. If you're referring to BJJ the answer is even easier. It gives you a ground component that you don't have with your base karate system. Shoring up this hole in your game is a good idea if you're looking to being well rounded for any contingency. On a larger scale, any decision should start with an assessment of what you want and what you want to prep for. That will make any decisions you make more meaningful.

Happy b-day!

I will probably be stuck at work when the legions of the undead roll. However, my family will be leaving northern Illinois and the Escape from New York zone that it will become and head to the downstate homestead with the food surplus in the basement and all my spare guns and ammo. This should augment what is already at the homestead. That and the generator down there should keep things going for a while. If things are really bad, I will help them loot the local Farm and Fleet on the way out of town. My plan; however, it to get them shipped out at the first sign of impeding looting. I will then go mobile with my remaining ammo, guns and food most of the time. I'll probably hang west and north while not on duty, this will allow me to work the more rural areas for food and water sources. If society totally breaks down, line is broke and such, I'll load up what's left in the armory up here and pick my way south, hopefully with some cops and their stashes in tow to add to the survivability of my growing compound in the south. Maybe a paramedic or two as well. Plenty of land down there to sustain a small community or growing, hunting, and fishing. Ammo conservation will be a priority. So training of all compound members will be dry fire drills mainly. Only the occasional live fire session to give the feel. Less than ideal, but we've got to be careful with ammo consumption. Melee and archery training is less regulated of course, and quieter as to not announce ourselves to the world at large. We'll do that a lot. I also plan on getting rid of the primary road heading back to the homestead. Just something to deter would be invaders out for our stuff. 4x4 and ATVs will become the method of transport. Ideally, I'd wrangle a horse or two but that's on a wish list. I'll have to make due rationing gas for a while. GS, if it's a short term zombie roll out (say natural disaster) setting it out is gonna work for us fine. However, if we look at The Stand kind of bad we should look at consolidating. Yes, it's more people in one spot, but there is safety in numbers. Especially with the numbers of guns we can bring to bear together. And that means more concentrated labor in one spot so gathering and hunting will be much eased for the group as a whole. Getting these done with less effort per individual mean more time spent training.

I'll second Montana here. Fundamentally, you have to be solid. You HAVE to have built some form of response framework to respond to an attack. Systems do this differently, I'm a big prinicple based guy. Others talk about strategy and tactics (see Forrest Morgan's excellent book, Living the Martial Way for a great breakdown of defining your art thru this), or (in my opinion) a less efficient manner of high volumes of techniques to address several different scenarios. Without this, you're not going to get far. Or good. The time it takes to understand this will also bring the technical aspect of your game up to par. The two go hand in hand. Now, I am a huge advocate of cross training. Particularly if you have either: a)varied goals in the martial arts (ie. competition and historical preservation) or b) self defense and combatives (rarely does a single systems contain all ranges of combat, practical weapons, and firearms, ect.) I started out as the second, and have slowly started to morph towards the second. You have to constantly re-evaluate your goals and make sure your training is geared towards meeting them. I suggest reaching purple or brown (4th or 3rd kyu) in your initial system (if it's meeting your goals) before seriously studying another art (that should put you around 3.5-4 years in a good time to have a fundamental understanding of what you're doing. However; I want to point out that a new model is and has emerged since the birth of mma as we know it here in the states. It's an example of how it's surge in popularity had effected training outside the scope of just technical skills. You see a lot of gyms now offering BJJ and MT simultaneously. A beginner will start in both and progress thru. I think that forward thinking ma schools will start doing this as well. Again, I like this model especially for self defense oriented guys. The goal is to become as efficient as possible as quickly as possible in as many venues of combat as possible. This is best done by studying multiple disciplines at once. As an example, you don't build a modern cop by having him to hand to hand arrest tactic for a while, then once he's shown high end proficiency there give him a baton and make him drill that alone for a time, and only then hand him a firearm. You train him at the same time in multiple forms of conflict resolution. That way, he's more prepared for more situations across the board when he hits the street. As one might see, there is a serious drawback in this in relation to the time commitment it takes. So, there are great ways to cross train, and quite a few models to adhere to. But, as a new beginner without unlimited, paid for training time focusing on one method to understanding then branching out is probably the most time tested method.

10/18 2.5 mile run bench squats neck curls pull ups abs

I've never actually seen a failure to pass at a grading. That being said, the coach I trained with coming up never tested you unless you were already there. It was a formality. In the BJJ academy I'm at now, there are no formal testings. You get rank when you're ready.

Since we're talking zombies again, and I mean, who doesn't want to do that, I've been catching up on AMC's Walking Dead series this weekend and I am really impressed. It manages a really overall creepy feel thru the entire hour of an episode without relying solely on gore. Now, being a zombie flick, some level of gore is expected, but it doesn't stake it's claim to scary on it. Much more likely to use other techniques (like small, confined spaces to induce claustrophobia in the viewer) as the centerpiece to what it's trying to do with the implied gore in the background. Of course, about once an episode we get a gratuitous shot of organs being disemboweled or such, but hey, it is a zombie project. Also, their movement strikes a nice balance between the creeping doom variety established by Romero and sudden unexpected bursts that really freak me out. Nothing humans can't already do, so no crawling on walls like Legend zombies. Think rioters flesh eating bacteria. If you're a fan of the genera, it's worth checking out. As Groinstrike said in a text to me, it makes you want to clean your guns. That's the mark of a good zombie flick.

10/17 Drilled side control and defeating the underhook counter. Moved into the americana and then to a reverse armbar followed by a far side armbar variant. 30 min free roll

Pretty cool. If you end up in the Chicago land area let me know!

Weapons night. I like it. 10/14 Drilled double and singles Takedowns from pummel and clinch, worked level change Sprawl counters 25 min free roll

Breaking out the shinai, nice GS. 10/13 BJJ nite: Drilled guard to spider to cross positions. Finished with omo plata then arm bar. 25 min free roll

10/12 am: 40 min bike ride pm: BJJ Drilled spider to cross guard. Sweep to triangle to taking back combo from there. 6, 2 min rounds of back mount v. escape 40 min free roll Now, after a week pf increasing workload and decreasing claories, I'm actually ahead of schedule on the weight loss. However, I now have a family commitment knockingme out of the running for the competitoin weekend. Kid's birthday and all. So great, tomorrow, I'm going for the burrito.

Excellent breakdown, and a really honest look at what you're doing. I also like the application of both models. This is probably something we should all do from time to time to reinforce that we're getting what we want out of training and that training is actually doing what it's purported to be doing. Very nice.

10/11 am: 90 min free roll. Worked on top game flow, guard transitions to and from X guard. Some inverted work. pm: 2 mile run