Ted T.

Hi guys, sometimes a push is a push and sometime it ain't. - someone said that It really does matter if this is a dojo problem or a social problem. If in the dojo, everyone knows what's happening,the guy is set to push, then certain responses are going to work. They are designed that way. But in a social context, with some blowhard in your face, asking you who the H you think you are and waving his hands around who suddenly snaps into a slamming push, then it is different. If he is close enough to hit your chest with a two hand push, and you let him move first, you will get hit. Your reaction will be slower than his slam. That is why pre-emption is so big. If you cue on the prep for his slam, you can meet it but only with something equal, no big circular movements but your own jam and slam. Stand in front of a wall and put your palms on it. Bend your arms and load a bit then 'hit' the wall. You have just made a 'push', right? Now bring our palms back a foot and snap them into the wall, slamming it. That is a combat push or a hit. (I've seen dojo pushes made by standing far enough away from the partner to extend the hands and the push was made by walking into them.) Unless your defence can handle a combat push at critical speed, it is not puc (practical unarmed combat). Keeping him at a distance works, as someone said, so does the tai chi guy reference - put your own wrists or palms lightly on the combat slammer's wrist then let him slam you (dynamically) and you try to defend. Big miracle hey? The next thing to learn is the psychological tricks used to interfere with your defence but, later on that...

LEt me try to be more clear: "soul" damage or damage to your character is the least of it. If the killing is sanctioned by self defence or by being a soldier, cop etc, of course it is muchless tho not always as we know. but if you are an ordinary citizen, not street hardened, not a social enemy, and you cut/kill someone you will: lose years of income to lawyers fees, be put on public display in court any number of times, spend a variable length of time in jail depending on your finances where you will have to 'befriend' some people you would never have to taked to before, just to survive, your life and relationships with friends and family will be aired in public over and over and over - you will become a spectacle. I'm sure each of you could add something to this list and this may all happen even if you are eventually found not guilty. If the family sues you, you will loose your chance to go to college, your chance to own your own home etc, or you will have a bancrupcy on your history. You choices will be different than they were before... A judo man in town here walked away from a bully in a bar but got jumped outside. He threw the idiot over his shulder, broke his neck (accidentally) and he died. He spent months in jail. His family morgaged their house to make bail and to pay the defence fees. The media made a circus of his life and his girlfriend. After 4 or 5 years he was declared innocent by s-d but he was by then clinicly (sp?) depressed, couldn't hold a job, and left his girlfriend and family and left town. Use a knife and all this will be much, much worse. That's my point... If you think the nice policeman at the scene will say, "there, there, obvious s-d, go home, we'll have some questions in a day or so, stay cool", you watch too much tv.

Ahh, my term for the triangle formed from the top of the ear to the shuolder to the base of the neck and back up - great for elbows, ax hands (shutos) cup hands etc.

Hey 47, for short people, don't forget the point of the elbow into the inside of the thigh or just above the knee!! and if he leans in on you, take his fist or the inside of his bicep if you can't reach his golden triangle. Beginners often miss the elbow, not being used to the range, just like beginning kickers, kick upwards so if they miss, they land on their back.

If you use a knife to defend ourself, your life as you know it, will be over. If you kill someone, your life will absolutely end and you will start a completely new one as a new person. This new life will not be better, with more opportunities, but very stifled and dark. Changes in your spirit / soul will outweight the exterior changes of your life. If he does not die, the change will be less drastic but still inevitable. You may not even notice that people you thought were lifetime friends fade and others you have no respect for now seem tolerable. Your values will change and therefore, so will your life. When you kill a man with a knife, you kill two people.

Thanks Sho-Ju, do you have a Vigny teacher or is it just from a book or the net? I have a student who does his own trainng at my place and he is practicing Vigny from the net and he breaks all my 'rules' (arnis) for generating power. I can't tell if it is because the pics are static or because he is stiff (he is really stiff).

Thanks, again. Looks like a fun place alright!

After 20 yrs o ftraditional karate, I went on a search for a practical expression of my art. I never wanted anyone to say, "What I was taught did not do me any good." I am still a traditionalist, and I love karate. But to make the transition from art to "social conflicts that end in violence," two changes had to be made in my classes. First, a social context had to be practiced when we did our s-d. Practicing actual (as realistic as possible) scenarios of someone invading your space, you trying to decide if you should attack or keep de-escaling etc. It is the psychological traps of real social confrontation that trip up well trained m-a's, not an imperfection in their technique or style. Second, harder contact. As the man said: "The average criminal cannot hit as hard as your average black belt, but he will hit you harder than you were ever hit in class!" (Thanks, Rory!) These two things open a lot of doors to new experience.

Hi guys, thanks for the welcome.

The outside or high on the inside of the shoulder and the outside of the thigh are very safe as is a full thrust to the butt. Everywhere else and you take your chances of nicking something vital. The knife is no worse a s-d tool than any other articfact in our possession and much more common to our lifestyles than some others. Learning how to use one will help us learn how to defend from one and may come in useful in a dark time. imho

Just got here, good topic! I've carried a cane for years because it is invisible and goes absolutely everywhere!! My cane work tends to follow cqc guidelines rather that more artistic methodologies...

Hi guys, I found this forum the other day so I decided to check it out. I've moderated over at e-budo and Budoseek awhile in the karate forums. I've been training karate since 1972, Shotokan and Shorinji Ryu under O'Sensei Richard Kim since 1986. I also practice Bagua zhang, modern Arnis, cqc, the cello and I just started Chen tai chi. It's a great life if you don't weaken! As an older Canadian, I just want to say, "I might not be as good as I once was, but I'm as good once as I ever was!"