DWx

Thanks for the responses guys I wouldn't rule out breaking the guy's fingers if I was grabbed. It'd go along with stamping on his feet, grabbing his groin etc. I don't know whether it'd be enough on its own that's all... TBH my escape was a pretty poor effort (even though it got me free), we don't really practice this as much as we should. This guy is a little taller than me, heavier and a lot stronger and was behind me pulling me over backwards. My initial reaction was to go crazy: stamp on him, elbow, think I tried to kick my heel up to his knee, basically kicking and flailing while I panicked. Then I went back with him, got my hip behind his and flipped us both onto the floor so I landed on him with my elbow. Knocked the wind out of him so he let go and I could run away and deal with the rest of them. If he hadn't have let go I guess I'd be worse off. (I should probably make another thread asking for better escapes ). Another question, If the person you were trying to mug broke your finger would you let go? Reason I ask is another guy I sometimes train with was doing a similar exercise and someone's response to being grabbed like that was to try to bite him. He said not to do it because if it was him that'd hurt but just make him angry and he'd probably start hitting her (if he wasn't already) in response.

Welcome Ben

Welcome 6ambit

So tonight in class we were working of self defense stuff. Had one person surrounded by a group of others who were allowed to do what they liked to the central person in an attempt to rob or assault them. Anyway so the assistant instructor jumped on me and put me in a single arm headlock. After I got out of it he suggested that I could have done it easier by just breaking his fingers. I've been fortunate and have never broken anything before but does it really hurt that much? My argument was that if someone really wanted to mug/rape you a broken finger isn't going to stop them. So how much does it hurt and would it really be effective

I forgot about that for us. At meals, masters sit first, then we can sit. And if we're all seated and one of them comes by to say hello or to join us, stand up immediately and wait for them to be seated or to leave again. Same applies if you're just sitting down talking or whatever.

TBH with the exercises and drills you listed earlier, that could mean anything. I once trained with a guy who had us do similar things, sit in a stance for half an hour, continuous punching on a bag... once he made us stare at our reflection in the mirrors (not sure why) and it was all pointless. I was fortunate because from previous training I already knew how to punch and do the kicks but the beginners had no idea because he'd never taught them the kicks or had taught them bad form and they were doing all these exercises with no real benefit. But then again my current instructor does similar drills too sometimes and I think when we do them with him they're a great workout. As far as the style goes, there's nothing wrong with Shotokan for self defense if you train hard.

I think I've watched too many of the "sane person gets admitted to an institution and then goes insane" films to ever be able to do that. I don't think that study is fair really. How often are staff going to come across a patient that has been admitted because they wanted to be? They're going to accept the official diagnosis of the doctor that admitted them then just go about their job. Even if the patient is acting normal how are staff to know if the voices they hear aren't still there?

Totally agree with this. Can't really tell anything over the internet.

Welcome Andy As always with these types of things, probably the best thing to do would be to go along, watch and try a couple of classes in each and see what you think.

I can understand where Joe is coming from on this one. Maybe if the scenario had someone in it that wasn't the victim being strangled or the person strangling the one kneeling you could test whether people truly had a victim mentality. If there was a third party involved in some way that was neither victim nor the one strangling then maybe you could use this as a test of "victim mentality". Very few people are going to think straight away that they must be the one doing the strangling. And not because they have a "victim mentality", more that they don't have the mentality of the aggressor; by having the person being strangled kneeling and gasping for breath TBH you could draw better conclusions by looking at the few who do choose to be the one strangling in this situation. I don't think this is necessarily a symptom of a victim mentality. If you're going to learn a technique, you need to learn all aspects of it. How to counter it, how to defend against it or how your opponent will defend against it. To fully appreciate the mechanics of a technique you need to know where its weaknesses are as well as its actual application.

TBH not sure I'd want a house like that, looks more like a hotel than a home. Probably great for a holiday get-away or something like that but don't think I could live in it. When I win the Euromillions lottery I might buy one though

Welcome flatfoot

Good topic JiuJitsuNation - When entering the training hall we bow if there is a senior rank to yourself already in there. If the only people in the room are junior or the same rank you don't have to bow but the majority of people do as a sign of respect to those they are going to train with. - Its the senior student's responsibility to get everyone lined up in rank order and ready to start. - At start of class, the senior calls for "charyot" (attention) and then bows everyone in to the instructor(s) & masters (if there are any present). - If a master (7th dan and above) enters during training, the first person to see them calls attention, everyone stops what they are doing and bows to them before resuming the session, unless a higher ranking master is already present in the room. -If you arrive late, get yourself ready as quietly and as quickly as possible then wait at the side until the instructor signals for you to join in. - Turn away from your seniors when adjusting your dobok and belt. Ideally if you can turn away from both your seniors and your juniors do so but if not, turn away from the senior rank. - At the end of the session, bow to the instructor and masters on the command of the most senior student. Then the second in seniority bows everyone to the senior student who then dismisses the class. While we are respectful to our seniors we don't have to treat them as though they are a member of royalty, we are all there to train, no matter what rank. So bumping into people when sparring usually results in both parties apologizing and moving. TBH, we're not all that strict in our school but a lot of schools in the org enforce these rules + more. This is interesting as it is pretty much the opposite of what we do. In the first instance we are supposed to consult our peers with technical questions, if they don't know or can't provide a satisfactory answer we can ask the same question to someone slightly higher in rank and if they don't know keeping going until you reach the blackbelts. If they still don't know you've asked a really really good question and should probably ask the instructor now. Its to make sure that even the lower ranks fully understand what they are doing to the point that they can explain it to another person and if you are asking the instructor, he knows that it is probably something he should cover for the whole class if that many people don't know.

Depends which one of them it is. In most cases I'd help stop the fight but one of my instructors is 6'4", 200+ lbs and a former doorman so if someone's managing to beat him up, there's not much I'm going to be able to do to stop it. Just be getting myself into trouble. But if it was one of the other one's I'd probably be straight in there. I don't need to see them prove themselves.

I don't think that's fake. Its actually pretty easy to do if its an old pallet that's been left outside. We have a wood burner oven so have a yard full of old bits of fences, pallets, wood off-cuts and stuff from various places. Me and my sister used to stomp on them like that to break them up even when we were kids.

Great post JiuJitsuNation! I experience this a lot when going for runs, start to get a little bit tired and want to give up. Just have to tell myself there is only x metres to go and that I don't need to stop yet.

Depends how much I've got, if its only a couple of items I'll use the machine because its quicker but for same reasons Geo said I'll use the person if I've got more stuff. A lot of the places here also have rewards schemes so if I've got vouchers to use I'll go with the person because too often the machine screws it up and doesn't want to accept them. But my mum will still queue for ages for a cashier, she really doesn't get along with technology.

I know this book's been mentioned before but I just got it yesterday after months of waiting for Amazon to get it back in stock and ship it to me. For anyone interested in Korean MA history, A Killing Art: The Untold History of Tae Kwon Do by Alex Gillis is an awesome book. Very well researched and gives the true history behind both WTF and ITF as well as histories of the major founders of the style. I'm only part the way through but I definitely have a lot more respect for all the individuals that helped create Korean MA because what they had to go through.

Doesn't get released over here till then

I didn't mean to cause any offense, masterphoenix, was just trying to illustrate that if you did a specific style and wanted to grade in it and be guided in it you'd probably be better off under people who also knew what you were doing. So if you did an Okinawan Karate style, no point in us recommending the Kukkiwon. You do seem to have a lot of experience and since what you teach is your own mix, you could just award the rankings yourself?

With all due respect I don't think the term "master", as in blackbelt master, means that that person is in control or is dominating with the master-slave relationship. Its a homonym so often the two meanings get confused but I think in this case we're more along the lines of master craftsman or master tradesman. As in you have a high proficiency in your craft and are very knowledgeable about it. Same idea as master's degrees, its not that you are controlling or dominating anyone but that you have knowledge above and beyond what its normal in a particular field. If we use this English meaning of master, I have no problem using it for someone I consider to be an expert in a style.

Sorry, I should have addressed that. I'm not looking for a style specific organization, but rather one that accepts all Kick-Punch styles such as Karate, TKD, etc. Well not that I know much but the orgs that award rank to anybody from any style might not know much about every single style they award rank in. They may be knowledgeable about a handful of them but might not have qualifications in other styles yet they give out the belts. I used to see adds in a TKD mag over here for a guy that had TKD ranking, maybe some style of Karate too but that he would award rank in styles of Kung Fu amongst other things. IMO its pretty redundant to be awarded a rank in TKD by a Judo guy who knows very little about TKD and vice versa. If it was me I'd want to make sure that whatever org I was joining had at least a couple of high ranking, respected TKD masters. Adds a little legitimacy to the rank.

Congrats

What style do you do? There are a lot of orgs that are style specific and it would probably better to go with one that was specific or knew a lot about your style..

Dev Patel (who plays Prince Zuko) also has an ITF blackbelt And obviously the whole lot of them got taught MA for the roles. I wasn't aware of the politics behind it but it very interesting, isshinryu5toforever. Reading up apparently Jesse McCartney was originally offered the part of Prince Zuko of the fire nation and there was backlash over that because the majority of the main character's were white when obviously the whole show was about Asian cultures. Really want to see it, but as usual, we have to wait until 2nd week in August to see it!