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A newbie tip, but then, I'm a newbie... Keep your guard up as much as possible while you strike, ie: keep your left hand up when you throw your right. You can ignore this as long as your opponent promises he won't strike back while you are. My instructor compares this to going to battle in an armoured tank, then getting out of the tank to fire your gun.

What about adrenaline, granmasterchen? Would you suppress it, and be without its assistance in resisting pain? How do you strike faster than when you do so instinctively? To clarify, I'm not talking about giving in to anger, but rather giving yourself the all-clear to act on well-drilled, almost-automatic responses, eg: he's doing 'x' which will soon open up his jaw which I will hit with a left hook, etc. except that this process of recognition and response is so well drilled as to be instinctive

I would slightly modify those definitions, I would call self-protection the taking of proactive measures to prevent a threatening situation developing, and self-defence the taking of reactive measures to make the best of a threatening situation. It's still self defence to throw the first shot if the fight is already on. Although, arguably, you know the fight is on based on the attacker's action (though pre-fight)...

"That technique works fine, as long as he signed a contract not to hit you back" - John B. Will and also the variation: "That's fine, as long as you're playing martial arts tennis - you throw your technique, he blocks and waits for you to finish, then he throws his..."

I wanted to do karate on and off a few times through school but wasn't really all that committed, and never started. Much later, about 3 years ago, one of my baseball teammates was talking about how he competes in no-contact karate tournaments, and reassured me that you don't have to be fit to start martial arts (although you do get fit after starting); the fact that he's not very fit made it more convincing He also told me I had a good physique for BJJ, which a friend of mine did until not long ago. My Dad pretty much talked me out of it, questioning whether I had the time or not, and telling me "You'd better be committed because it's a way of life", so I forgot about that for a while. Then, and this is weird, but true, I was watching videos on YouTube of baseball and hockey fights, and somehow I followed related links to a short instructional Muay Thai video and K-1 kickboxing, which re-sparked my interest. After consultation with my mate who did BJJ, another who did karate, and a friend who happens to be related to my now-instructor, I checked out the website of my current school, their philosophy and styles on offer resonated with me, and they're within walking distance from where I work now, so I checked them out, and joined up

You might ask him what the hell he's doing training in the *ahem* MARTIAL arts?

Three words: Dillinger Escape Plan. Some Tool works well for that too, or the more technical Cryptopsy stuff. If you don't require guitars, the more aggressive Aphex Twin and Squarepusher stuff works too.

Close the door, turn the music up and move to it however you want to, just keep moving. I'm serious.

For example, in a self-defence situation, the engaging question could be used to trigger your "fight mode", or your pre-emptive strike. After making an intellectual decision that the fight is on, you ask the question then instinctively strike; you deliver the right cross, right elbow, left inside leg kick, whatever, without thinking, your brain knows to do it a certain amount of time after asking the engaging question. It's like a boxer reacting to the bell, or a karateka reacting to "ICHI! NI!" (my instructor jokes, semi-seriously, that when karatekas get knocked out in the street it's because no-one was yelling that at them, so they didn't know to start fighting) , exept that you have intellectually decided to "pull the trigger", so to speak. Or is that still all intellectual?

What do you think of the idea of making an intellectual decision to trigger an instinctive response?

I tried to avoid negative self-talk, but I can't, I suck.

Quarter-circle forward, punch, HA-DO-KEN! Sorry, carry on

$25 Australian per week, which gives me up to 8 hours training per week - that's if I take both shoot and BJJ in advanced classes.

It would really depend on intent, and severity level. As Kez mentioned, there are som 14 year olds that are quite well developed, and could cause some bodily harm, if they wanted to. However, if you have little 10 year olds, the severity level may change somewhat. Exactly. A tiny 14 year old is unlikely to be an imminent threat if unarmed, a freakishly huge 10 year old might be. A small 10 year old with a knife raised and arm cocked to stab might be, a large 14 year old with a knife almost certainly is. Which is to say it really has nothing to do with age, but the reasonable perception of an imminent threat. And Kez is also right that you can only use a minimum of force - a minimum of force to remove the threat. Usually lateral vascular restraint - the court-friendly term for switching 'em off, choking 'em out - would suffice, but I can't wait 8 seconds if he has a knife, one of those arm joints has to go. You do what you need to, no more and no less.

I would agree with what others have said in regards to kids yelling stuff, just ignore them if they're not actually disrupting the lesson. As for what you'd do if a fight actually starts despite your best effort to avert it, the best way to find out is to practise realistic fight scenarios, practise fighting at close range, enough grappling to get off the ground if you end up there, etc, multiple attackers if possible. Legally, I don't think the law discriminates age-wise as to who poses an imminent threat.

Not that Wikipedia should ever be taken as gospel, but: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-defence_in_English_law. When I talk about personal space being entered as a trigger for "fight mode", I am not talking about someone bumping into you at the shops, or bowling you over because they were running back to catch a ball in the schoolyard. I am talking about (for example) a person who has persistently entered your personal space in a menacing fashion, ignoring your attempts at de-escalation, shouting that they are going to "knock your (expletive) block off", and has their fists clenched. Or, for a more age-realistic scenario, a bully advancing on you, declaring that you are "dead meat", who has his fist raised in preparation to strike you with it. For a judge, jury, or teacher to disbelieve that an attack was imminent in a situation like that would require some pretty impressive chutzpah.

A bolo punch is the default drunken street brawler's punch, he pulls his dominant hand out of the invisible holster on his hip and throws a big wide hook at you. I've heard it's also used by boxers as a decoy (very occasionally) as cathal mentioned, albeit in a much more refined manner than the drunk.

G'day all, I'm getting into the whole martial arts thing a tad later than normal, I'm 24 and have been going since the end of December 06. I take introductory classes under a fellow some of you I know have heard of named John Will in which I learn both shootfighting and BJJ. After 3 months of that, I'll have a grading to get my first stripe for BJJ and my shootfighting yellow belt, and be able to choose to continue with either style, or both. Anyway, I'm a n00b both in the KF sense and the MA sense, so hopefully you can teach me something.

When you elbow the nearest flat, upright surface when no-one's looking When you shake hands with someone and calculate their reach at the same time.

Hey, I do that fairly regularly. He's a busy guy and it's only a 10-15 minute walk from where I work

luta livre is the Portuguese form of that.

Honestly I hadn't noticed but it makes sense. No-one slides into first because you're allowed to run through it, so that conditions people to try and stride out to first to beat the throw rather than slide/dive headfirst.

After my class was over last week, I answered my phone, loudly, during the next class. I got a glare and a "take it outside" gesture for that (with which I complied, quickly). Luckily it was all cool next class, but I felt like such an * for doing that.

John B. Will ... would love the chance to train with him. Indeed, he's my instructor. Learning plenty My advice on self defence is pretty much taken straight from him.

Haven't managed an MA injury yet, but I partially tore tendons in my rotator cuff by pitching with insufficient conditioning. It kept me out of baseball for about 12 months. Now I do resistance tubing exercises with it every day. I also tore my hamstring playing baseball, I extended my stride to try and make first base, and, well, I extended too much. The physio said the bruising and swelling were about the worst he'd seen and just short of requiring surgery, he took a photo of it.