cross

2. Build-ups bother me. If crap just starts happening, and I don't have time to think it out, not so much of a problem. But if the situation is building, I start thinking, and that sucks. So, I try to work on these things.

Often the lead up to confrontation is far worse than the confrontation itself. We are our own worst enemy in this regard. I think its best to try and take comfort in the training you have done and re-enforce to yourself that regardless of what happens(even worst-case scenario) you will do everything you possibly can to deal with it.

I agree with the others, and keep in mind that most grappling techniques can seem fairly difficult to pull off in isolation, but when you have already "softened up" your opponent with strikes they suddenly become alot easier to do.

Nice work SakranMM, sounds like you have found a great class. Keep us posted.

Hey Everyone,

Wondering if you guys have any advice on ways to strengthen the trunk/rib area?

Ive suffered rib cartridge strains several times on the same side whilst training bjj, usually when im on the bottom of side control, so i think the injury is caused by a combination of the weight of the other person as well as twisting and stretching.

Thanks for any info you can provide.

Boxing is more about hard work than anything else.... you will spend far more time skipping, hitting a bag/focus mitts, shadowboxing, doing pushups and situps, than you will getting your head punched in.

As for being "to violent", boxing is closer to the true realities of violence than alot of martial arts, when you try to hit someone in boxing, your actually trying to hit them full speed/(often) full force... and they are trying to do the same, if self defense is a goal of yours, this experience is invaluable.

Great post ps1. Totally agree. Particularly:

I feel that a good grappling base is every bit as important as a good striking base. That does not, however, mean that you need to be a BJJ black belt..or even a purple or brown belt for that matter. By the time I earned blue belt I could easily beat anyone who walked through the door with no BJJ/JJ background. That includes the wrestlers. Blue belt represents about 1 to 1.5 yrs of BJJ training. Everything after that teaches you how to beat other BJJ stylists...which is fun but not necessary.

I'm not completely convinced that we won't see the fashion shift to other arts at some point in the future. Boxing and MT have their own limitations. The best sportfighters chose to use that blend because others have been using it, which is rather circular; we could easily see some fighting prodigy start winning with something completely different and quickly see that tune change. As it is, the only real advantage I see of the arts listed is in training methodology; if boxers and MT people trained against air, and certain other arts trained with live full contact and resistance, right now you would be saying that, for instance, 'Everyone knows that Taiji and Aikido is the best fighting combo in the world..' because the best fighters would be going to those because of the way they carried out training. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I do see your point. However, the fact remains that kickboxing/bjj train against resisting opponents and this get results. Its been seen many times when other styles are put to the test under full contact circumstances, the practicioners end up looking like poorly trained kickboxers. There are only so many ways people can cause pain to each other without weapons, its unlikely we will see many new revelations anytime soon. Its the delivery system you learn from kickboxing and bjj that is the key.

It's fortunate that security was right on the spot, Cross, and perhaps your knowledge of martial arts, which I'm sure is more advanced than mine, gave you a size-up of the situation that you felt you could hold off, but I must admit I strongly believe that I would have reacted immediately upon his push. I couldn't chance him striking me.

Its been my experience that if someone asks you to "step outside" or they push you and are yelling etc. Its all because they have not reached a level of anger where they are ready to actually stike you yet. They are looking for a reaction, i.e. the moment you agree to step outside with them, or you push them back, or you join in on the argument with them then you are giving them the reason they are looking for to start actually fighting with you. If a person wants you to step outside its because they have a reason why they dont want to do whatever it is they have planned for you inside, the longer you can stay inside the better, in most cases.

But did you have your hands in any particular position of defense while he ranted? It's likely he was loud enough to catch security's attention, but did you say anything in particular, Cross, loud enough that security knew you weren't looking for a fight?

I didnt have my hands in any particular position, however i have trained quiet extensively in pre-emptive strikes and defense from both passive positions and a more natural hands by the side position, but has mentioned above he wasnt ready to actually fight yet, situational awareness and the understanding of human behaviour made that quiet clear.

Yet most self defense classes you go to will tell you that the moment a person starts yelling at you or lays a finger on you then you should pre-emptively strike to try and 'finish' the situation. When in reality, most people are not that good at pre-emptive strikes and chances are if your not confident you can knock someone out with a solid pre-empt you probably wont and will just give the person a green light to start fighting you. Most of the time if you wait just a few more seconds the person will often start seeing reason and calm down without the need for you to punch their lights out.

Also i didnt feel that yelling "i dont want to fight" so security could hear was a very smart option at the time. Drawing further attention to the situation was not really needed being that the security guards would have noticed one rather loud aggressive person and a passive calm "victim"(me).

Pretty much what Joesteph said. The open hand guard with looking for witness's is the best approach.

As far as when to consider the time to defend, my teacher always had us do a imaginary circle around us. Typically about 3 feet all around. If the intruder invades that 3 foot space then you know its going to be a confrontation.

We sometimes would train to stay within that 3 foot distance, its tough but is doable.

Interesting points and i certainly agree with the passive stance method. However im not sure its a black and white situation where if they enter a certain space then its a certainty that the fights on.

For example, i was in a situation where a guy i was standing next to at a bar started talking to me and seemingly out of no-where started becoming rather aggressive towards me and suggested we should "step outside" which i didnt want any part of, the whole time he was well within my personal space and even started pushing me at one point, moments later security removed him. I enjoyed the rest of my night. If i acted on the assumption that if he came within a certain distance, or if he touched me, or if he stepped towards me and then attacked straight away, the night would have ended a whole lot differently for me.

I suppose my point is, there isnt really a clear cut answer, and like most things in self defense, its dynamic and 100% situational.

When people offer self defense advice i often hear: "if the confrontation cant be avoided.... do this".

Im interested to know at what point people consider a confrontation "unavoidable", because from my experience most confrontations can be avoided right up to the moment where the other person throws the first punch.

Thoughts?

if the confrontation cant be avoided, strike 1st, and take out the eyes...disabling the old optic system should signifigantly reduce further aggression. When he's done screaming like a howler monkey, you can be long gone!

Im not sure that striking the eyes is a one-size fits all solution to physical altercations.

No, I don't think it can be self defense at a bar. People always want to tell me about how much they need self defense, and then they justify it by referring to barfights.

Don't go to bars where fights break out all the time, don't jump gleefully in on them with some absurd excuse involving saving face, and if you can't do either of those, don't claim you need skills in "self-defense" to deal with it.

From personal experience i believe self defense has an extremely important role to play for those that attend bars/clubs.

Having spent most of my weekends at clubs and bars for the last 2-3 years either working(djing) or just out with friends, i have seen a large number of situations where self defense training has been essential.

I have had countless people try to start fights with me(for no particular reason, although most feel they have a good reason at the time), rarely have these situations gone physical because i have had a reasonable amount of training in not only martial arts, but in verbal de-escalation, situational awareness, threat analysis etc. All of these "soft skills" are important aspects of self defense, and they all happen before a punch is even thrown.

I have numerous friends who have been attacked for various reasons, and female friends who have been sexually assaulted. If they had some training in self defense (and im talking about the soft skills mentioned above not how to kick and punch) then they may been able to better deal with the situation, or avoid it completely.

I dont think saying "dont go to bars, or youll get into fights" is the best thing to teach people if they want self defense. Some people need to be at bars for work, and most just like going out with friends, and should be able to do so with the confidence that they have some ability to defend themselves, with both non-physical and physical tactics, if the need arises.

In my own training i think there is a balance of both. I doubt that there will be 2 many new discoveries in terms of techniques/tactics any time soon. By now we pretty much know what works and what doesnt. If you want to strike someone you cant go past the delivery systems of boxing and kickboxing, for grappling bjj and wrestling have been proven time and time again.

The areas we can improve and experiment on are functional ways to train these already proven skills. This is where my main experimentation occurs. Working out different ways to develop the skills.

Hi Joe,

This may interest you.

In Wado we have a set paired Kata called "Tanto-Dori". Tanto=Dagger, Dori=Take.

The following vid shows some of these.

Like all other katas they are not to be taken literally, but contain the key principles of technique and movement on which to build.

You will see that Tori (ie you / deffender) does not raise his hands, he moves off the center line (or chu-sen) to avoid the blade, and then contains/controls it - either by restraining the hand or making it "mechanically" impossible for the assailant to do further damage.

The action doesn't kick in for about a minute into the vid. Sorry, but if you spoke Japanese, I am sure the preamble would be most informative.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QslwdN2mz_Q

This video is an interesting demonstration of the art of karate, if your into that kind of thing. However, it has nothing to do with actual combat. Consider it your lucky day if an armed attacker tries to stab you in the same way that the attacker does in this video. Have a look around the net at videos of actual knife attacks if you want an idea of how people actually attack each other.

Whenever i watch self defense demo's i always keep an eye on the attacker, is he/she actually attacking with real intent, and using an attacking method that is based in reality? If not then any technique shown against the attacker probably has no base in reality either.

Check out the following videos and look at the attacks used, and notice the actual intent of the attackers, in comparison to the above kata video:

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=YHeMrHOvZnI&feature=PlayList&p=302C5622FEC322EC&index=3

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=HAvlf0V4_H8&feature=channel_page

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=reuHRoETmHg&feature=related

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=njPgVLPTWZk&feature=PlayList&p=259EEC8605280211&index=0&playnext=1

In the above clip Rodney King explains that the position of only used momentarily during defense, you still stand in a normal boxing stance at other times.

A big breakthrough i had with getting power in kata(and techniques in general) was working on my breathing. I found that breathing out sharply on each technique puts that little bit of extra power into it.

Just read this article: http://www.iainabernethy.com/articles/Power_and_Impact.asp

Fairly relevant to this topic also.

I think the "one hit, one kill" motto is often mis-interpreted. People assume it means "you hit the person with one punch and thats the end of the fight".

A more accurate and practical interpretation would be that with each strike you throw you should have the intention of ending the confrontation. Not a concept unique to karate, but the saying is often over analyzed by alot of people, especially those outside of karate.

I doubt any of the previous karate masters where suggesting that its wrong to attack in combinations.

Havnt tried this program myself, will give it a go when my rib heals however. Found this if its of any interest:

http://www.24fightingchickens.com/2008/09/27/one-hundred-pushups/

Suffering at the moment unfortunately. Fractured a rib last week while rolling with a partner in bjj. Probably be out for about 6 weeks.

The one thing that has plagued me over the years has been my right knee. I have injured it on about 9 different occasions, 6 of those during martial arts training. Makes it hard to work for a week or so and even harder to train for a few weeks.

Looking at what some people go through though i think ive been fairly lucky so i just strap everything up and keep going.

If your serious about learning knife defense check out https://www.senshido.com and pick up the "on the cutting edge" dvds. they cover the pictured scenarios plus heaps more.

Your safest bet in a self defense situation is to use a structure based defense(cover, shield etc) which in basic terms only requires you to put the structure in place momentarily and then close range or counter asap. As opposed to an attribute based defense(parrying, slipping, weaving blocking) which requires correct timing, distancing, angle recognition, correct block selection etc.

Here are some examples of default cover positions that should give you enough time to get back into the fight, keep in mind these are not "stand here all day and cover" techniques, you use these so that you can either close the distance, counter or disengage very quickly.

http://www.urbancombatives.com/defaultart.htm

It's interesting to see something that you would never expect turn up in a karate kata. Case in point: at 40 seconds of this video of Pinan Sono San is where you turn and deliver a horizontal elbow strike with a hikite on the other hand and dropping into a kiba dachi.

Most would take it as turning to face an unseen enemy and delivering an elbow strike to their solar plexus. OK, I guess, not a bad one but it's not going to be too high percentage and it's probably not going to work as great as you think it might.

Look at some Judo videos though, and you see ippon seoinage right there.

http://www.judoinfo.com/images/animations/blue/ipponseoi.htm

Thats one of the things that doesnt make sense to me when it comes to bunkai. You learn the kata, and as you mention, one of the techniques looks kinda like a judo throw, but unless you are taught how to do the throw correctly, you are not going to be able perform it just because you have done a movement that is similar in a kata.

The way i see it, if you want to learn how to do that throw, go to a judo school and they will teach you how to perform it correctly, with a partner. Same thing if you want to learn grappling techniques, go to a bjj/wrestling school and learn how to perform the techniques straight up without having to march around doing moves in a kata that sortof resemble what your doing if you have a good imagination.

3) Bas Rutten. One of the most powerful strikers MMA has ever seen, he thinks kata is an excellent training tool (moreso for the breath control than anything but when a legend of the ring quotes that you need to stand up and take notice).

Bas Rutten saying he likes kata may be an exception to the rule, not the rule itself. I doubt you will ever see ufc fighters doing kata during their pre fight training, they have far more productive and benificial ways to spend their training time, and thats reflected in the routines they follow.

I wouldn't have guessed this at all. I would think that gi chokes with clothing wouldn't work as well, because of less resiliance of the clothing as compared to a heavy duty gi. Have you seen this demonstrated?

In no-gi grappling ive experienced it first hand several times, both doing it to someone else and having it done to me. If you get the grip correctly the material doesnt matter so much.

From my point of view, the physical techniques are of least priority if we are talking purely about self defense.

For me, self defense training is practicing things like non-violent postures, verbal de-escalation tactics, situational awareness, being up to date on your legal rights in terms of defending yourself, having a plan if your attacked while in public with your family/friends, training with improvised weapons.

All that happens before you even get to throwing a punch or escaping the terrible wrist grab. Then you can add in pre-emptive strikes, reflexive response training, cover and crash drills, safe disengangment techniques. And if all this fails, then youve got your art of choice to fall back on.

Thats how i define "self defense" anyway.