tallgeese

In my last life (ie. career) I worked as a first assit for an orthopaedic surgeon so I can give you some perspective from that end. However, I've never been in your shoes and every recovery in a bit different. First off, remember that six months out is still early, even by todays advances. You've got time. As for full training mobility, depending on what style your doing and with how much contact you're doing it with, you could be out to a year before your're ready to go 100%. You'll probibly notice a different feeling with the surgical knee even past that, but it shouldn't hurt your performance. Numbness is to be expected in things like this. It's more common with the patellar tendon repair, but ceratinly not unheard of with the hammie. It should receed gradually. If it dosen't it's only a minor skin numbness, again, it will not hurt your performance. The strength deficet is the most common complaint with the hammie reapir. Keep up with your therapist. They know what they are doing and will keep you on the right path. Just make sure you're keeping up your appointments. When they cut you lose, and they may have already depending on your md's protocols, keep doing the home program they gave you. This too will pass. If I could offer a bit of advice, don't get too caught up in comparing results of improvement with others who've gone thought the surgery. It will either get you over confiedent in your recovery or bum you out because of some perceived failure. Stay out of this trick bag. Your body will heal at it's pack, accerlated by good rehab. What everyone else is up to dosen't matter. They might not have had the same style of procedures, differnt complications that did or didn't occur, different implats, ect. There are too many variables that effect outcome. Keep moving your kneed forward, forget everyone elses. Good luck with your recovery. Take your time and make sure you do it right. The MA's will still be around when you get back.

My fast bag is simply boxing glove, wraps, mma gloves, mouthpiece, headgear and cup. No gi, but I do still keep my belt with me wherever I go. Go figure. My heavier bag keeps a set of kempo glove, caged headgear, shin, knee and elbow pads as well as another set of boxing gloves. It stores a set of focus mits as well, a few training knives, red gun, and sticks. A notebook usually stays in here as well for notes. Oh, and a spare mouthpiece. This only goes out whith me when I know I'm teaching or doing certain things.

Wow, dream come true. My wish list is pretty simple. Wrestling mats across the entire floor. A couple of heavy bags at one end, one thai bag. A double ended striking ball somewhere near the other bags and a speed bag mounted in that end somewhere as well. AC/heat is mandantory. Yeah, I'm a wuss that way. No mirrors, bars, or anything else that would probibly just get broken anayway. Somepalcke to store equipment would be nice.

Plus one for bushido man. Attack on the street will probibly not give you the time to analize the opponant. End the fight as quickly as possible in your favor, or if possible, escape so it really won't matter.

I agree that you'll probibly revert back to the most easily executable movments that you know during conflict, they are probibly the ones you've drilled the most and therefore have incurred the most muscle memory of. I think this thread has the potential to be very intersting and informative. I hope it's kept alive a while by new posters. To that end, here's my theory... I go with the well rounded foundational approach. Stuff shouldn't have to be fancy at this level (if ever) and it should work. Period. With a minimal of fiddling. Movement, both on the ground and on the feet is key. This is the basis for every thing else to come, and often your best access to an escape route. Attack and defense combos that integrate well together. Something easily useable from a variety of attacks and angles with a minimum of change on your part. Cover eye gouges, groins kicks, ect often. I think also that within the first three years, an introduction to weapons defense should be made. When possible, these should mimic movments done without the weapons so the body learns to do them more instinctively. And sparring...lots of sparring...and then spar some more. Remember, you don't just need to spar for sparring sake. Really take the time to work on things. Do your self defense movments from a sparring mindset. Set up sparring drills to train those specific movments and attack/defense combos I mentioned ealier. Yes, it's a bit of a cross-training mindset. But one that will produce a fighter capable of defending himself in multiple situaions very quickly.

Is it risky to have so many resources committed to one attack, sure. But probibly not more risky that trying to slug it out with mulitple attackers. It's a major postion of disadvantage you're in already. At least with one guy in a properly applied choke, that is one that is going to be out of the fight soon. bushido man is correct, if the chokes on right from standing, his balace is broken and you can move him around. This is gonna let you hunker in behind him as a body shield. Again, keep him close to mimimize his weight's drain on your strength and try to make him take those shots aimed at you. Is it less than ideal, sure, but we're already far past best case here. Plus, if you choke this dude to unconciousness, maybe his buddies will think twice about pushing the fight.

Have to to a quick addendum here. That's probibly what I get for just skimming ealier posts. I think the term joint lock is a bit of a misnomer, espically when it comes to wrist locks. They're not locks at all. They are intended to be breaking manuvers. I'm not saying that they can't be used as pain compliance tools but primarily their function is to destroy a joint so that appendage can no longer be used agaist you. Therefore, I try never to utlize them in a way that would call for them to do something that they are not intended to. I can honestly say, I've never put a guy on the ground with a wrist lock. Arm bars, destablizing movments, sweeps, yes. But the small joint locking is much more useful as a destruction than anything else. That's why they function so well with weapons defenses. You establish control on the wrist and subsequently break it to remove the weapon from the fight, maybe even conduct a disarm. I think trying to hold someone in place with a wrist lock is asking for trouble. Better to move to a differnent set of skills or disengage altogether.

I think that bushido man 96 has a good point, alot of this type of thing comes down to how seasoned the participants involved are. I'd take it a step further and say it's not just the other guys experiance that counts but your's as well. One way to prep for that guy throwing wild, hard haymakers is to train aginst it. Practice it full contact with gear in sparring. Let the adrinanine dump hit and deal with it. Combat psycology has a concept of systematic desenseitization to violence. In other words, contuned exposure to vilent encounter, even if simualted, lead to a type of "stress innoculation". This means that your exposure with routine practice to real world simulated encounters gradually produce less of the negitive physiological responses to combat. Your heart rate stays lower, your cognitive abilities under duress remain intact and you continue to maintain fine motor function as the threat emerges. So to train this, look at the type of conflict you're worried about. Your example was the haymaker guy, and train as realistically as possible with as much contact as allowable, to counter and defend against that fighter. With progressive trainng, your "freeze up" respone should lessen and you'll be what one of the writers in this field calls "a pre-combat veteren". AAnd as such will respond in a more fluid and successful manner. Just to note, I didn't come up with any of this. Guys way smarter than I authored all of it so I could steal it and call it research .

Schaphoid (navicualr) fracture in the wrist. From a wrist lock during sparring. It's a little bone in the wrist without much blood supply. I elected not to have it surgically reparied at the time due to competition and as such, missed the window to have it done effectively. Bummer of a mistake that was. Now I tell all the guys who I train with that fight... it's not worth it, get whatever fixed and compete later. Ah the wisdom of youth....

Depends on what we're working on that day. For MMA nights, standard amature rules apply. If grapping, NAGA rules apply. To work on stand up alone, some form of kickboxing rules are used. Now for self defese kind of stuff. We don't really keep a point count.We use kempo gloves, knee, elbow, shin pads, and groin cup. Heavy nights add a cage face headgear (ligher nights may only be the gloves and cup and loads more control). Pretty much everything is on, including groing kick with control, same for knees/elbos to more vunerable area ie. back of neck and throat. Work on the ground is allowed, including submisions. If the headgear is on at th is time, it can get ripped off, but contact has to be controlled. We usually make ceratin that one man is out to keep an eye on everything going on. His job is to make certain no on is getting carried away with contact to vunerable or delicate areas. He's also good for keeping people out of walls and on mats and such. It's great training, but it takes a toll. By no means are we hitting like that every time we train. It's to physically demaning on the body. You can still work aspect of it, what we call "limited engagement" sparring. Say desiganting one attacker and haveing a sparring approach to entry and control, stopping before anyone hits the ground or at a joint lock application. Or engaing with the idea of working stop hits alone or any number of other art specific skills. I think sparring should be a way to train you self defense skills, not a seperate funciton of the art. Just my two cents, milage may very.

Well, I come out of joint lock-heavy system and I have to give them a mixed review. First off, I was always taught that you NEVER attempt a locking manunuver without stunning the attacker first. That means that for me, hitting the dude prior to applying force to a joint is pretty much a given. I think that in most circumstances, this makes them work more effectively and sometimes, it may be the only way to get them applied (ie. a heay resister or strong guy). That being said, i've had the opportunity to apply joint locks in self-defense situations and they've worked pretty well. Again, situations will dictate if you need to cease the effort or continue on with it. They are much harder to apply than one might think, and sometimes you get less than anticipated results. On a personal note, I had a wrist broken via an aiki throw during training years ago. It was during heavy "all on" sparring and my training partner tossed me with a wrist lock (after elbowing my headgear into next week) and I tried to resist (yeah, bad idea). Wrist broke. Yes, It hurt, but didn't end the fight. Big joints would probibly be worse. Take it for what it's worth. My bottom line feeling on them...they're a useful tool with limitations. It's in situations where limb control is imparitaive (such as weapons defenses) that they really come into their own.

Can't go wrong putting Bruce at the top of this list. The Gracies as a whole need props too for again revolutionizing the arts. Norris is a personal fav of mine for his early influence on my desire to study (not to mention that Walker is guilty pleasure of mine ).

Addressing a destablinzing type of manuver alone...I'm with the side downward stomp to the outside of the knee. That should work to break his balance and effectively face his weapons away from yours for a moment. That type of potental damage will help you in your next series of takedown attempts. Single leg or sweep or whatever. (Partial to Jim suggestions)

Well, it's a good question that deserves debate. You've got a couple of oprions whenever dealing with a weapon. 1) close the gap and engage, 2) disengage by creating more of a gap or (and perhaps in conjunction with 1 or 2) 3) escalate weaponry. When the threat is perceived, you need to look at your distance and situation. Can you close to unarmed range by either subterfuge or sprint? Do you feel that you can sucessfully take this individual once there? If you can't, then looing for a strategy to disengae is the way to go. As mentioned before, keep moving, be a harder target to hit. Look for cover, something solid that can stop bullets. An engine block (not the rest of the car), a stury tree, a fire hydrant, anything that will keep that fast moving hunk of hurt out of your body. Don't forget, as we sometimes do) about option three. If you can close and have rapid access to a knife, use it. If you can disengage and your profession or state law allow it, upgrade to your sidearm. Keeping in mind that even when you decide what to do, that the situation remains fluid and a disengagement may lead to crashing the gap later. Just a couple of thoughts.