cross

Sounds good in theory, maybe you should try the little test i set for P.A.L in an earlier post in this topic. Then tell us what you think.

Are you talking about a self-defence situation or competition? In self defence i wouldnt recommend this method. There are any number of ways to deal with this kind of attack(im talking specifically about self defence), some include: 1. Side-stepping and attacking from this position. 2. Getting close and controling the opponents arms, head and upper body(clinch). From here you can attack with elbows, knees, headbutts. Or perform takedowns, throws, joint locks. 3. Taking a backward step to allow some room and firing off your own attack. 4. Like "Karate Kid" said: intercept with a kick or stop hit. Probably more important than all of these things is your awareness and ability to sense trouble before it happens, but in the event that you cant do that the above methods work fairly well.

Our style contains a bit of both. You learn the basic techniques, from there you apply the principles you learn from theses to an appropriate situation when you are faced with one.

Anyone want to contribute anything else to this topic?

Them attacking you is actually them doing what they want, when they want, on their terms.

Depends how technical you want to get with it. In one way, if you dont pass out during whatever your doing thats pretty good technique. In general the breathing technique i use when performing techniques, doing kata and sparring is: Breath in through the nose, out through the mouth. Exhale sharply when performing a technique. In saying that, there are lots of different breathing methods and im sure the other members of this forum will share some interesting ones with you. Your best bet is to find the one that works best for you and stick with that.

edit: for a moment i forgot what i was talking about Weights done with low rep heavy load is best for strength like str33t_guy said.

I think it does matter, fights are very upredictable, its unlikely that you will be able to pull off one of your "block becomes a strike" moves. I disagree, it has been designed with a SELF defence strategy behind it, not a defensive strategy, ask any good fighter and they will tell you that you wont win a fight unless you take the initiative away from your opponent, you cant wait for there movements and try to react, its 2 slow. Your still attacking first. It gives you a better chance of surviving than waiting for your opponent to hit you. Thats not what i ment, in a fight you do what you have to so you can survive, your opponent wont give you any more of less respect if you have had previous training. Once again, there is a difference between an actual fight and training where the sempai isnt trying to take your head off. Next time your training why dont you do a little test and then come back and tell us all how it went. Get your sempai or one of the better students to put on your boxing gloves(so they dont hurt your face) an do a mock fighting situation. Ask the person to try and hit you in the face as hard and fast as he can when HE is ready without telling you first. Start arguing or whatever not at sparring distance, but right in each others face. When he throws his technique, (im talking about a proper pre-emptive punch here, not a chambered punch that falls short before it hits you.) Try and defend against it and counter attack. I can almost guarentee that you will be eating leather. Seriously do this and tell us how you go. Then you can even switch roles and attack your opponent when your ready. Even if you do it a few times to make sure it wasnt a fluke, you will find that the person attacking will land the punch alot more times than you can defend against it effectively, so you may not win a fight everytime if you attack first but it dramatically increases your chances. Are you choki mutobo? is anyone you know choki mutobo? i dont think so. Just because he could do it in one situation, doesnt mean you can. Once again it depends how you look at it, you may see karate as a defensive art but others do not. Probably because firstly you cant "plan" a fight, and secondly there are more effective ways to defend yourself than by being defensive.

Depends how you look at it. Kata is a predetermined set of techniques, they can be attacking and/or defensive depending on the individuals interpretation. So i wouldnt label kata as a set of defensive movements. If kata was mainly defensive your applications would be dependent almost completely on your opponents actions. I dont go out looking for fights, if someone is really serious about fighting me for whatever reason, im not going to hang around waiting for him to attack so i can execute a perfect technique plucked straight from pinan sandan. Im going to do what i need to do so i can continue on my way without getting injured. If i WAIT for someone to attack me that doesnt add up to effective self defence to me. If a person wants to fight me they are already attacking me in my opinion. Because your taking the initiative away from your attacker, controling the timing of the encounter, putting them on the defensive, making them react to your unpredictable movements..... rather than having them attack first and it being the other way round. There is a difference between practicing "art" and actually fighting. Someone who wants to fight you isnt going to care about how much or how little training your had, there only objective will be you hurt you so they can get what they want (satisfaction, revenge, money, belongings etc.) Your objective should be end it as quickly as possible, no matter what it takes. Im sure you dont spend 6 hours a week practising hitting someone with a chair, but if there is a chair there in a self defense situation, im going to use it if i can to help me out. This is where muscle memory comes into play, hopefully all your training has made your "instincts" alot better than the average person. Can you explain why?

Im pretty sure that Luckykboxer has already listed all the ways you can deal with it. Move to somewhere else or get a heap of friends. There is no real reason why a group of people would attack you everytime you walk down the street unless you give them a reason 2 or have done something to them in the past. So if there is more to this story than your letting on, maybe you need to sort that out with the group of people in question.

http://www.ustkd.com/meridians/chart.htm Thats one chart i found, doesnt tell you what happens with each one.

Kev, im not sure where you got the idea that age uke was circular. Try and imagine punching straight up the center of your body and at the last moment punch out at an angle(the snap that AngelaG talks about.) Some guidelines you should follow are: 1. the blocking arm should not be parallel to the ground, rather it needs to be angleing upwards so the fist is heigher than the elbow.(this means a technique coming down towards your head when blocked will slide off the arm rather than hit straight on.) 2. If your blocking with your left arm your arm should be positioned so that you are looking "through" the crook of your elbow with your left eye. Obviously this is what you want in kihon but in application it will vary.

After i posted that i thought someone would get me for leaving that little bit out. So i guess all that karate and aikido have in common now is that they are martial arts.

Both are martial arts from japan, thats about all they have in common.

This is very important and im not saying you should just go around hitting people to solve arguments. If all else fails(most of the time talking works fine to get yourself out of a situation), and my attacker is hell-bent on hurting me, i will hit first to give myself an advantage. Where and how hard i hit will depend on the attacker and the situation. I did aikido for a little over a year in a smallish school before i moved on to karate. In my opinion it is 2 hard to learn in a short time, after a year of training i was no more confident in defending myself than when i started. Im not saying this is the same in every school of aikido, there are probably some great ones out there(i dont know i have really looked), but from my experience i would not say it equals effective self-defence in a short period of time. Give yourself 5 or more years of training in it and it may well be effective. Karate is a different story, from the first lesson you learn basic strikes and blocks which can be effective straight away, as well as take part in basic sparring drills which always help. Thats just my opinion, but if you find a good aikido school, go for it.

Thats not the case, my karate is just the same as yours. For your block to be an attack you first need your opponent to attack. Therefore your reacting. Its always alot quicker to act than it is to react. Plus it would be difficult to stop an attacker by attacking his punching arm with a hard block. (you can test this if you want by getting a friend to stand with his hand extended near your chest and as you see his hand move towards you try and block it out of the way before it touches you. You will be suprised how hard this is. This makes being defensive or reacting in a self defence situation even harder because there are unlimited ways the other guy can attack you and once the attack is initiated you have to decide which block is best for the situation.) Obviously blocks are not just blocks as you said, and they are not just strikes either. They are mainly used, within our style atleast for joint-manipulation/breaking techniques.(but thats not really what we are talking about here so illl leave it at that.) If someone manages to fend off your pre-emptive attack and retaliates with a strike you would obviously defend against it and then attack again. Im definetly not trying to say that defence is not needed. Once again i will try and simplify here: If i am going to be attacked by someone and im given these 2 choices: 1. Punch the guy in the face before he gets the chance to hit me. or... 2. Let the guy attack first, risk getting hit, hit his arm if i do manage to block it(which may not even damage him), then punch him in the face. I know im going to choose the 1st one. And you see there how a strike can be a defensive technique(1st choice) and how a block can be a strike(2nd choice). The pros of the first choice definetly outweight the pros of the 2nd. Just keep that in mind.

The idea of being an offensive fighter and/or attack first is to stop the kick before it happens by finishing off your opponent without giving them the chance to attack you. If they do get the chance to attack you WHILE your already attacking them their attack wont be anywhere near as effective. In basic terms your mentality should be "i will hit you before you hit me so you better be ready to deal with it". You dont want to be thinking "hey buddy you have a free-shot at me and ill do my best to defend against it and then attack you back."

Your welcome.

If your interested: KEW contact: Iwan Pranatio 7th Dan Renshi Victorian Chief Instructor Phone : (03) 9486 2014

Which of the following locations is closest to you? Kew, Mentone, Narrewarren, Pakenham, Warragul, Frankston, Killarney, Phillip Island, Albury, Wodonga, Wangaratta? If any of these places are near you i have contact details regarding I.K.G.A Goju Kai dojos in each location.

And.. back to the topic. nudge nudge.

I was using that as an example of how style effects your mentality, which was part of your question. It depends if your attack is effective or not as to weather your open. If you hit someone in the face you may well leave your self open but its going to be hard for them to capitalise on that opening while your fist is in their face. What type of "moves" are you talking about here? Maybe assuming a fighting stance, but doing some moves 5 metres away from your and them assuming a pose- not going to happen. If someone is set on attacking you then there usually wont be a great deal of time for you to work out weather of not they have any previous training. In the time you use to workout they have formal training you could have attacked them or escaped already. And if you do work out they have training, its probably going to be to late to launch your pre-emptive strike anyway.

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$75 seems ok, maybe a tad expensive. At my school membership is $45 a year. We dont pay per month, instead we pay $8 for each class. So for 2 classes a week for 1 month it would cost $64. So your only paying about $10 extra.

And to answer your question "Will you attack first or you wait?": If i get the feeling that the guy will attack me very soon, i will attack first or take other action to avoid the situation. i.e running. All this occurs after talking your way out hasnt worked and you are remaining in your defensive posture. The bottom line is its alot easier and takes less movements to attack someone than it does to defend against there attack and then counter. I would rather be hitting than getting hit.