iolair

I do a "mutt" style TKD MDK. So here goes: 1) Groundwork (2) 2) Trapping, Throws and Takedowns (3) 3) Infighting - Elbows, Knees and Head (3) 4) Punching (1) 5) Kicking (3) 6) Weapons (0) Man! I wish I had more points to spend LOL. If I did, it would be a rating of 1 thru 10 for each area. It would look something like this: 1) Groundwork (6) 2) Trapping, Throws and Takedowns (7) 3) Infighting - Elbows, Knees and Head (7) 4) Punching (4) 5) Kicking ( 6) Weapons (0) : if I take Kali, which my school offers, this one would change.

Right on! IMHO It's important to have a proper understanding of technique before trying to compete in any way, so that you know if the technique you're applying is correct or not. I'd start introducing it in the same timescale you said. Particularly in fencing, if I fence against beginners who haven't had a firm grounding, they do really wild and inefficient things. They wonder why they're working so hard, I'm hardly moving at all yet I get the points....

As several people here have sounded interested, I thought I'd keep you up to date. I've just completed a first complete draft of the grading requirements - would be interested to hear your comments. By the way, I haven't decided what the colours represent yet (e.g. if it's a belt or something else...) I know some people get touchy about age limits on grades, but basically they are introduced because of safety issues with using chokes in sparring and with full contact sparring. The 1 minute full contact bouts at higher grades are basically because you should be exerting yourself at a level in these that you wouldn't last longer than 1 minute.... Oh yes, I know I said there would only be a small number of techniques... look carefully and you will see that there are not many techniques there, but they are listed seperately for lead-rear or leg/body/head target.

How do you guys & gals teach or learn to defend against knives and other weapons? As far as I can tell, there are two methods: 1) Pre-arranged sequences. Attacker comes in with set attack, Defender responds with a set defence. Several variations are learnt and practiced. 2) Knife Sparring. One partner has a knife (a training one that won't cause real damage - maybe with red ink on the blade). He may use any and every technique in attacking, and the defender is unarmed but may do the same. I personally think the second method would be much more valuable. The students would also need some instruction in attacking with a knife, I guess. The first method above seems a lot more common in the martial arts though. Or are there other methods beyond these two? (Apart from a combination of the two).

Personally, if I had to teach self defence in just one session, I would not do any techniques at all. I would take about awareness, how to avoid dangerous situations, do some role play, and some ideas on how to damage someone using nastier methods (eye gouge, headbutt, biting). No-one is going to learn to do any technique properly in one session, so you have to concentrate on informing them and giving them a sense of reaility regarding attackers. As we all know here, to perform any technique in a real situation, you need to drill, drill, drill it until it can be performed subconsciously. People aren't going to get this from a short self defence course - though we should certainly make them aware of the benefits of taking up a martial art.

Yes, you could look at it like that... The difference here is: 1) to try to take the minimum number of techniques at each distance in order to be effective, so that these small number of techniques can be learnt very well - and also that the outline of the system can be learnt quickly. This contrasts with most other martial arts (boxing and muay thai are exceptions) that tend to have dozens and dozens of techniques ... TKD, Karate "waste" a lot of time on high kicks and jumping kicks that are useful so rarely that it would have been better to spend the time reinforcing basics. 2) A strong emphasis on the basics (groundwork, footwork, conditioning, defence, falling). Many martial arts concentrate heavily on techniques at the expense of other fighting skills - particularly footwork. (Boxing is the only significant exception I can think of). 3) As for "ripping off" other styles - well, we all have the same sort of bodies and there's only so many things you can do with it. Many martial arts have similar techniques anyway. For the record though, the choice of techniques most heavily influenced by (more or less in order) boxing, judo, savate, karate, fencing, western amateur wrestling, and muay thai. I certainly was NOT influenced by TKDs bias towards (rather impractical) high kicks. To reiterate, the basic philosophy of Gunlann is to teach 1) The MINIMUM number of techniques required to be truly effective at EVERY range. 2) The BASIC FIGHTING SKILLS such as footwork and groundwork.

Sorry, I didn't see this reply before! Thanks for the feedback.... the rationale behind teaching dagger/knife and cudgel/stick fighting is not to produce expert fighters in these areas, but instead to promote understanding of how these weapons are used and practice defending/sparring against a skilled attacker using them. Knife vs Knife would not be taught, for example... Some stick fighting is included at higher grades, as there are many stick-like objects that might be at hand, that you could use as an aid to streetfighting or self defence.

I remember my first Karate Sensei, one day in the winter took us out for the "warm-up" of the class with a 15 minute BAREFOOT run in our gi-s in the snow. Brrrrr. I used to do huge repetitions of exercises, then I figured they're not actually that effective beyond about 20 reps (except for building technique, rather than conditioning), now I just increase the load instead. So instead of doing 100 push ups, instead I do 20 handstand push ups, or pushups wearing a weighted backpack....

Speak for yourself ... though I'm probably a bit weird as when I try any new clothes on, I always make sure in the changing room that I can do high kicks in them!!

When I was originally taught Karate, they distinguished between the "training method" of throwing techniques, and the "fighting method". The first where you pull one hand back helps you appreciate how to build power through moving the whole body. The second, we were recommended to keep a guard arm near our head at all times.

When I wrote my first reply, I had in mind the typical sort of situation from Geoff Thompson's "on the door" book, when someone - usually an individual - is being verbally aggressive and wants a fight as some kind of ego trip. This is pretty similar to the situations I encounter in school as well. I've also managed to talk down someone VERY aggressive who was clearly under the effects of drugs - so you can manage this with pretty much anyone "just" being aggressive. It's important to be level headed and appear confident while you do this in order for it to work. However, if the aggressor appears to be a criminal type and you can tell from their attitude that their intention is definitely to steal or harm, then its a different kettle of fish altogether. That said, with a single attacker, I still think they could usually be talked out of it - but the approach here would be to persuade them that I am too dangerous to try and deal with single handed. This approach works well for me as I appear athletic and am 190cm tall - though it probably wouldn't work for a 160cm girl! This would be more difficult with multiple criminals who seemed to genuinely want to harm me, and this would be the case I would most likely make the first physical attack.

I prefer to call it Hydrogen Hydroxide ... it makes it a lot easier to explain its reactions with Group 1 metals as you can then just explain them as displacement reactions...

I read Geoff Thompson's stuff, and agree with a lot of it and learnt a lot from it, particularly about the effectiveness of different types of art and technique in real situations. However, the idea of the pre-emptive strike very much goes against the grain for me. I don't have Geoff's experience of violence, but I'd hesitate to say that violence was inevitable at any time before the attacker makes his move. So, although in responding rather than attacking first I'd lose the element of surprise, I think I'd likely wait... to make the most of my chance of survival in these situations a couple of basic blocks (and combinations that follow these up) are a large part of my daily training. And I can do them very quickly with no conscious thought time at all (this has been pressure tested). The threee times this has happened, the person "trying their luck" has been so gobsmacked by the speed of the block, they've apparently decided I'm a force to be reckoned with and backed down without any counter attack from my side. I only practice two blocks (and normally only use one of them), but I make sure that they are very, very strong (my MOST practiced technique) and they've served me well. That said, I'll always try and talk someone down first, and as a teacher of 11-18 year olds I get a lot of practice at calming people down this way!

I tend to look - and be - rather unemotional when I'm sparring. My wife says I look like I'm doing a dance ... I don't know if that's good or bad, but I tend to do pretty well sparring.

Miyamoto Musashi

Hit the other person before they hit you... Full contact MT? OK, Keep your face/head covered at all times, and don't be afraid to switch tactics or distance if you're taking a beating!

Physical Fitness: from my experience only, I'd say Judo gives the best workout. Power Moves: I'm not sure what you mean by "power moves", but TKD and Capoeira are, in their own different ways, probably the most impressive to watch. Self Defense:Anything that combines western boxing techniques with work at other ranges (as there are not many mainstream arts that offer this, practicing 2 or more style is probably best. Not many people would want to face someone proficient in both Muay Thai and BJJ for example.) Long Term Training: Fencing Hobby: Has to be down to personal taste....

It depends on where you are at the moment... if you're new to exercise, start with two MT sessions, one CV day and one weights/resistance training day at most. If you're experienced, it kind of depends on how much the MT sessions vary, but the general guidelines are: - try to avoid doing two very similar workouts two days in a row - have one day per week that is completely workout/exercise free The second rule should be sacroscanct, the first one you can play around with a bit (e.g. while you may do MT normally every other day, it can be useful occasionally to do it every day for six days in a row - but then followed by a lighter week. The block of solid training can really help you get hold of a new concept, or prepare for a competition - where the competition is a couple of weeks after the block).

I never had a problem with mat burns when I did Judo, though I lost skin from my knuckles when I started because of friction gripping a rough gi. Quickly developed callouses though. Kicks versus throws.... A kick, you get hit by someone's leg which weighs (I guess) 5 to 10 kg. A throw, you get hit by the earth coming up to meet you, which weighs 6 million million million million kg

I find the following set (one after another with no break) very helpful for my footwork. 1) Jump in to punch and jump out... i.e. Spring forward using your back leg in a low jump, allow the fron leg to coil as you deliver a cross punch, then jump backwards to the starting position. 100 times. 2) Stepping side to side Stepping between two points about 1m apart, move first the outside leg across, then the other leg up almost next to it, continue stepping side to side for a count of 100. (left to right and back to left = 1 count). 3) Jumping side to side Legs both together, jumping directly sideways between two points about 80cm apart, again for a count of 100. 4)5) The same as (2) and (3) but moving forward and backward instead of side to side 6) Again with feet together, this time on one spot with your feet and toes facing left, then make a short jump and land with them facing to the right. 100 times. That's my basic footwork drill, that I use as a warmup before sparring, bag work or weight training.

I tend to avoid hooks by movement: either toward or away from the attacker, or ducking. If someone is a good enough boxer that they are throwing in strong hooks (even though I can do them myself), my preferred option is to swtich from punching range... so either move back to longer punches and kicks, or move in to grapple. But really, its a lot easier to move your head out the way of a hook than it would be to block it... go watch some boxing on TV and you'll see what I mean.

I'm a secondary school teacher (teaching 11-18 year olds) in England, and considering starting up a school martial arts club in the school where I teach (it would probably be something like a kickboxing/Jiu-jitsu type mix I'd teach - I have 16 years Martial Arts experience across several styles). This would take place one evening a week right after the school day finishes. Can anyone give me ideas of the kind of issues I need to think about? I'm not currently formally part of any martial arts club/style, so I'm not sure what I should do about formally rewarding achievement or awarding grades. I know I could just award "my own" grades/belts to them, but do you think it would be a major problem that these belts wouldn't mean anything if they went to another club? Of course some type of recognition for achievement is really important for motivation!

So what is your solution?

Spybreak (Propellorheads) from the Matrix soundtrack

To prepare in case you're attacked by a shelving unit?