MizuRyu

If you get pushed by someone, be PREPARED for a strike straight off the bat, and train for it.

Being shorter than my usual sparring partner (my room-mate), I can't out-strike him easily. I've done it, but it takes a lot of effort to muster up the initiative to step through his barrage and gain distal advantage. But I always whoop his butt on the ground. I believe this is because people with longer limbs give those of us with knowledge of groundwork an easier out. We have more leverage to work with, and more limb to grab. I always tie him up horrifically when he's on his back, because he just can't handle me as easily as I can handle him; he doesn't have as much to grab.

The whole UFC vs. street fighting thing is an ongoing debate with no real winner. To me, it all comes down to training. Those UFC guys excel so well because that's their LIFE, their living. They train hard and work hard to succeed in the ring. If a Tang Soo Do guy took so much time and effort, he might succeed, but we don't know. Why? Because the usual formula works. Some arts are simpler, therefor you can become insanely proficient in such a short time. I've taken Ving Tsun (please don't confuse it with Wing Chun) for a long time, and one thing I notice is that it CAN NOT work in the ring. It's entire purpose is to fight beyond the ring. It gouges eyes, pulls hair, snaps knees, DOES groundwork (only enough necessary to finish something brutally and quickly). Because it doesn't work in the UFC, it is disregarded by most. I don't believe this is right. You can say that UFC guys can fight dirty too, but is this trained to be their first reaction? No. When I know I can't win by convential means far before the confrontation starts, I've already decided on my primary techniques. Go for the vital points: the eyes, throat, knees, joints and groin. They work, trust me there, but in the ring there are rules which in no way reflect a life or death brawl. Not to say in ANY way that a UFC guy couldn't handle himself in a street confrontation, but would he have an advantage against someone in Ving Tsun or something of the like? We will NEVER know until we see it with our own eyes in a total no-rules life or death brawl. Until then it's all speculation and opinion, in no way something decisive.

The trick with a palm to the face is pretending your palm weights about 2,000 lbs, in deadweight, and with a relaxed hand, slam it against their jaw. Like a slap, but really heavy and it sticks. I do not, however, advocate palms to the abdomen. Fists are much better. For the ribs, both have their perks. Of course, when striking the ribs or chest with a palm you want to make sure to keep your wrist un-locked and strike HARD, with a hard, tense hand. The floating ribs are great targets for those. Of course, in a fight one can never expect to just 'do' something based on this information, but it'll help you train to understand that when the fist is 'unavailable', many other things work just as well, if not in some cases better. Fingertips have very seldom been used effectively anywhere outside the eyes and throat, because point 'sniping' on the body, regardless of your knowledge of pressure points, isn't going to get you anywhere. You're going to miss, and get socked in a REALLY big, nasty pressure point: your face/jaw. I do however see use in fingertips in grappling. I love driving my thumb into someone's floating ribs and grinding to open up a guard or get their attention for a second. Grinding the thumb, under tremendous weight, into the shoulder or inside of the thigh is pretty nasty too. Lots of posibilities, just test things out and remember your failures and successes.

Just as you don't use a hammer on a screw, you don't use a fist for all situations. Fingertip strikes (biu tze) are useful for the eyes and throat in my experience. Keeping the fingers somewhat relaxed and thrusting them towards the eyeline is BOUND to contact an eye, which is enough to stun an opponent for the follow-up. Same to the throat, but stiffer, puts pressure on the windpipe or a multitude of the arteries and veins that supply blood to the brain. It's hard to hit an eye or the throat with a fist, and those are 2 excellent targets if it needs to be quick and dirty. Most people keep their chin down a bit when fighting, and fitting a fist in there is darn near impossible. The fingers, blade of the hand, or leopard paw make more sense because they fit in smaller places. Heck, I don't even punch to face much anymore. Mostly 'power-palms'. They work extremely well as a preemptive and you can generate a god-forsaken load of power with it. Knife hands to the side of the neck make more sense because the angle of a strike with the fist is drastic. It's a subversive technique, and effective in traumatizing the nerves and blood vessels of such a target. The force is more localized with means greater pressure on specific structures instead of the structure as a whole. There are lots of different hand positions because there are lots of different targets that react differently to different forces.

I also think your instructor and sparring partner were in the wrong. She could've said something along the lines of "please don't strike my chest, it makes me uncomfortable" instead of exploding. The instructor should've mediated the situation instead of jumping on you for it, and favoritism is never good for dojo politics.

One of the things I've seen used to great effect are heavy handed slaps to the skull. As with any other powershot, it goes through and pushes the head. The way I see it, the force referred to the brain through a slap would be more solid than a punch, as the striking surface is larger. The smaller the surface of impact, the more external damage would be done in that area, lots of cuts/bruises and whatnot from forcing the skin and muscles into the hard bones of the skull. You're still using the same amount of force, it's just transferred to the target in a different manner. If you're looking to disorient or knock out the person with a skull shot, a palm strike seems more reasonable. It's alllllll about training and preferance, of course.

I've taken both "linear" and "circular" types of styles, and what it will always come down to is who can punch the fastest and the hardest, and in my experience it's always the linear guys. Example: Ving Tsun. Extremely linear, but aggressive and effective in that regard. If you're looking to beat the tar out of someone, it's a good style if trained correctly. It's entire backbone is the fact that linear attacks are more powerful if properly trained (because the bone structure is more conductive to impact), and it will meet the target faster than a circular attack due to it's straight-forward approach. When I took Ryu-Te, I was also taking Ving Tsun. Now this is where it gets interesting: Ryu-Te relies purely on circular blocks. Lots of flowly looking snake movements that move the attack off line but not by 'wedging' it, instead striking the attacking limb from the side lightly enough to move it. When I brought this blocking back to Ving Tsun (when we did gor sao or "light sparring"), I found it very easy to remove the Ving Tsun attacks and cross them up. With a circular block, you cover more area, leaving a lot more room for error. With a Ving Tsun block, like paak (slap) for example, there's very little room for error, and the range of the block is limited to your foot position and distance. A circular block, because of it's wide range of coverage, combined with fluid footwork (not the angular, blocky stuff of Ving Tsun) has a much higher success rate by nature. On the attacking side, I've noticed that the centerline punch is hands-down the fastest most solid strike I've learned. Straight to the chin with a hip twist thrown in, it can put an attacker larger than yourself straight on his rear end. It's hard to avoid due to it's speed and easy to withdraw due to it's low level of commitment. If you throw a hook, you commit yourself to that attack from the second it's initiated. If someone steps in on you when you throw it, it's basically null, and they're in your guard and have control. Or, in the midst you catch a jab to the jaw. So, by law of raw mechanics, I see centerline attacks as being a safer, more effective bet. These are just my PERSONAL observations from my level of cross training, but I've narrowed it down to this: aggressive circular defense and linear attack are where it's at. It all heavily depends upon the individual and their level of training, of course. I've combined and stripped all of the arts I've taken into a 'toolbox', and found that the punch I always resort to first and train the most is the centerline punch. When I'm doing blocking drills with my buddies, I'm always weaving in with circular blocks (mostly inside blocks, since they're easy to use from a boxing stance, my stance of choice), and they work very well. Also, the circular blocks leave a lot of room for movement. It's easier to block, turn, and straight punch to the face since the circular hip motion has already been initiated. Say someone throws a right hook and you have your hands up, you inside block with the left, turn into it, and slam them in the jaw with a right center punch. If it doesn't knock em down, it stops them dead in their tracks.

I love the tough guy attitude: because someone brings up you're a martial artist you're inept and they have to fight you to prove it... always a good one. I also hate the "can you do a double butterfly spinning kick" questions. "No, but I can hit you really hard."

What an interesting thread considering I just got discharged from the county hospital earlier today after a 4 day stint due to a DVT in my right anterior tibular vein and a superficial close to that one. Not fun. Not fun at all. I read up on them while I was at home, finding this thread oddly enough through yahoo. Basically, as far as I've read, if you keep your leg active during the flight (stretching, bounching, doing calf raises or ankle curls), it grealty reduces the risk. Mine formed after dropping a 50lb iron plate on my right foot, breaking it and forming some clots. I'm definatly in a bad way right about now.

If you're drilling for COMBAT: The real problem with numerous opponents is that they all attack at once, utilizing that 'pack' mentality. While you're tied up with one of them, the other 2 are just as readily finding openings and exploiting the situation. With such a pounding occuring at all angles, there really isn't a whole lot to do but hit really, really hard, and keep yourself on your feet at all costs. You WILL leave bleeding or broken, if not defeated, so the mentality has to switch from fighting to 'staying alive'. One of the best pieces of advice I've ever heard is to take a single techinque and make it YOURS. Drill it over and over and over and over until it's absolute second nature. Generate as much power as physically possible with this technique and drill it on pads, bags, moving objects and people (with protective gear of course) at full power, NEVER pulling it. Make this your default technique, your most powerful option and prioritize it above all others. When the heat is on, you plant that technique (in my case a right hook) straight into the highest priority targets (jaw, nose, neck, throat, and floating ribs ONLY if the face is unavailable) with the same power and speed you drilled it at. Of course, it's great to have a 'toolbox', but the thing about fighting mulitiple opponents is you don't have the time to simultaniously adapt to 3 different attackers; you want to end it as quickly and as decisively as possible with NO room for hesitation. Put them all down as quick as possible and learn to love adrenaline. If you're drilling for other reasons: see all posts above

I've been a coffee fanatic for years. Heck, for christmas my fiancee even threw me a $50 Beaners (local coffee joint) gift card. Spent it all in one day!

This is another thing we forget so often: the frequency/quality ratio of training. In this day and age, martial arts are a hobby, not a lifestyle. Most of us spend 6 hours or so a week (if you're even that lucky) training in our art, in a diluted setting, under evolved needs and numerous restrictions. Back in 'the day' kung fu was a lifestyle, those who were taught xinyiba were taught much differently than ourselves, guaranteed. They drilled for hours upon hours a day, in a combat setting, under competant instruction with realistic goals. It would be foolish and asinine to assume that these people would choose a method of combat that was ineffective to protect such important people; it had to work. Today, our 'needs' are different, and the evolutionary course of instructional method reflects this greatly. Our jobs aren't to protect royalty, they're offices and buildings where we're nearly perfectly safe from harm and have no NEED for such training. Thus, martial arts have mainly degraded into a hobby rather than a combative practice. I've seen REAL kung fu (thank you Ving Tsun Kuen in E. Lansing), or at least as real as you'll find around here, and compared to any other school I've attended the training is drastically seperated. The ways of old: the miles of running, the endless hours of strength training, the constant hand to hand drilling, the dieting and exercise, the mental discipline, the military mindset... they've yet to truely find their home overseas, and unless people somehow find a way to dedicate so much time and effort to such a difficult and tremendous undertaking, they won't see it. On top of this, I don't buy into the 'lost in translation' all too much. Even if illiteracy plagued the common masses in those times, most of those who practiced these arts were the wealthy or of a high 'caste', being protectors or soldiers of sorts. Chances are these people knew how to read and write, and techniques were preserved in such a fashion. Even if not to the effect that it would leave a certain lineage (which could fade, of course), the training methods wouldn't change much. If you look into all styles of fighting the effective training methods don't change: physical conditioning, mental conditioning, constant applicational training. Nothing would dilute this except loss of need, just as addition and subtraction are the foundations of mathematics. The problem arises when the need for realistic self protection is lost, and techniques are replaced or muddled with to fit this. Couple that with drastically reduced time to train, and instruction that omits many of the basic foundations, and you end up with the large percentage of kwoons you see in America and other developed, industrialized countries.

Wii hands down. Own it, love it, would recommend it to ANYONE, along with Zelda: Twilight Princess. This game is basically my life outside of work right now, along with Final Fantasy 3 for the DS... Nintendo has never failed to please me.

Through progression. I've moved around the state a lot and bounced through a lot of different arts. Most I take for a couple years (oftentimes overlapping eachother) and then quit after I become disenchanted with what it has to offer. Right now I'm taking Kodokan Judo and Boxing at the same time, whereas a few months ago I was taking Ryu-te and wrapping up Ving Tsun. What I aim to do in a sense is along the lines of Jeet Kune Do: take what I see is useful, drill it obsessively, search the system just long enough to see what it has to offer, and move on to another, rinse and repeat. Luckily the martial arts community in this area is extremely rich and a respectable percentage of my friends train also. I make it a priority to make friends in a dojo or train with friends (I attended Ving Tsun with 2 close friends for the entire duration) so I can continue to drill outside of class or when I decide I should leave. I will not leave, however, if I have no way of training outside of class. After I've accumulated enough knowledge of a certain style, and cropped out the techniques I want, I incorporate them into my 'toolbox'.