Johnlogic121

I don't know much about Northern Shaolin Long Fist or Preying Mantis, but I have heard that a slow Tai Chi workout under full mental concentration can burn more calories per minute than surfing. People who do Tai Chi forms actually sweat sometimes even when doing the forms slowly. If you really have a problem with asthma, I would worry that the vigor of the other styles might inhibit your full potential in thoe arts. However, you should be able to enjoy Tai Chi exercises without difficulty for the most part and lose some pounds at the same time. When Tai Chi stylists move at high speed, it can actually be one of the fastest martial arts around, but I would caution you not to stress your lungs farther than they can naturally serve you. Good luck.

I think it may be very hard to research a style that had historical links to actual assassinations. Assassinations in my mind are really perfected by government sponsored espionage societies, and otherwise attempted by criminal underworld societies. In either case, finding out about the activities and training methods would be difficult. If the White Lotus religious sect was a strictly peaceful society, they may have preferred to settle their conflicts through assassination of single enemeis rather than through large scale conflicts with many individuals. I am only speculating with this premise, but the way I have worded the idea makes it seem logically possible. The arts of Ninjutsu were associated with assassinations in previous centuries, but training in the modern Bujinkan Ninjutsu groups won't teach you how to prepare poisons and bring opponents down with blowdarts. The main differences between Samurai Ryu and Ninjutsu ryu in history were apparently in the psychological training for the warrior. Gikan ryu, for example, is a Ninja ryu that is rumored to be good at teaching students who have a "Why me?" attitude towards life and they transform the personality into a fighting personality. However, because personality training can be very badly misused, the principles are seldom openly taught to protect the world from potential harm. Martial arts are already too badly misused, really. I hear that in Asia, evil men master the martial arts even though many arts have a slow teaching rate to "weed out" undesirable students and reinforce teachings of good virtues. Okinawon styles that used to prepare a student psychologically with ten years of disciplined chores as a house servant are now accessible to anyone who can pay monthly class dues.

I had a friend who trained in a hard karate style that avoided using open hand knifehand strikes because a misjudgment of distance could potentially break your fingers if the fingers hit the target instead of the edge of your hand. I trained in Isshinryu karate for 11 months and that style does incorporate the use of the spear hand, but for maximum effectiveness against all availible targets for that hand strike, you need to train the spear hand every day for about six years. The spear hand can be directed towards the windpipe of the throat or the navel area of the belly or the armpit area under someone's punching arm as well as the eye. A hand with fingers spread usually is used against both eyes. Ninjutsu has a substyle called Gyokyo Ryu that utilizes a shito ken as its primary hand weapon. The shito ken is an extended thumbtip, and because it is reinforced by the fist, it is the strongest of all the fingertip striking hand positions. Fifth degree black belts in Ninjutsu also condition the little finger of the hand so that they can protect it from breaking against the forehead when attempting eye gouge strikes. To some degree, the tendency for Kung Fu styles to favor palm strikes and open hand strikes may be a aesthetic choice related to Chinese traditional fighting forms that would often go from striking with the hand to seizing and grappling with the hands. The hands can close faster than they can open, thus having them opened in preparation for potential moves can be a slight advantage.

As a Grandmaster, I have contributed four striking katas to Bujinkan Ninjutsu. I intend to create a total of sixteen. I am also working on the first of fifteen weapons forms for that style. I submit my material to Mr. David Heald, who has distributed it to the Genbukan Ninjutsu organization as well as the Stephan Hayes training groups as well. Ninjutsu is a good system that teaches effective grappling moves from a standing position that cause subdual immobilizations and restraints against the opponent. The style takes years for a great deal of capturing skill to be developed, but the dojos maintain a very good 'martial spirit' in their training culture and thus most dojos tend to trreat each other like family or at least close friends. If you want to learn to fight effectively in a shorter period of time, I would recommend a Wing Chun school. Wing Chun can be mastered satisfactorily in a year's time. However, Ninjutsu will expose you to many more weapons than Wing Chun, and many people like weapons training. If I were you, I would not be concerned about whether or not the Bujinkan can trace a 900 year legacy back to the days of the ancient Ninja warriors. In the modern world, Ninjutsu is a dominant system that resembles Japanese jujutsu 70% of the time but it also contains deadly counters to some of the worlds most common martial arts. I can think of counters to roundhouse kicks from Ninjusu that will hyperextend the kicker's knee before smashing his face and counters to Judo throws that will break the Judo man's neck after defeating his throwing attempt. Undoubtedly, Ninjutsu is one of the best styles in the world, and was even used at one point by the Marine Corps Martial Arts Center for Excellance as a base discipline for their fighting arts. This was soon after Congress decreed that Marines should be martial artists as well as riflemen. Ninjutsu rarely dissappoints.

I have an impression that the Russian martial arts primarily focus on grappling actions rather than striking. I'm surprised that you say that Russian Systema looks like Bujinkan Taijutsu. The Bujinkan forms of Doctor Hatsumi were normally throws against a lunging attack in which you simply shoved the opponent from a side position. This is a big generalization of coarse, because he had over 850 variations of this basic concept. Russian Systema if I understand it correctly considers grappling attacks and grappling defenses on the ground much more heavily than Budo Taijutsu. In Taijutsu, you try to grapple the opponent when standing in such a way that he is immobilized after the throw and locked so tight that the fight is over. Taijutsu tries to subdue opponents, mostly. The Russian Systema system goes for chokes and joint locks to a degree that would make it more similiar to Brazilian jujutsu or American Freestyle wrestling than Taijutsu.

In Isshinryu Karate, the first kata, Seisan, has a section that turns ninety degrees to one side as you execute a middle area block, then you punch, then you punch again, then you kick, and finally you punch. The section is repeated on the left and right sides within the same kata a total of three times, so it rapidly becomes familiar when you do the kata. Most of the time, people interpret this section of the kata as a long fighting combination. However, I am considering that this section is really a seqeunce of two-step combinations. Thus, as one flowing motion, you go through the common transitions of Isshinryu karate fighting in one special sequence rather than as seperate units. The basics of Isshinryu teach many two-step movements that you learn to combine in longer combinations, so I'm thinking that the kata is designed to be broken into its component parts in a complementary way. If you take this line of interpretation further, you can see many shorter sequences out of the longer sequences shown in the forms. Ultimately, every single fighting gesture is a single unit in my opinion that can be intercombined freely with others for maximum versatality and effectiveness. What do other people think about the interpretation of kata forms and the study of Bunkai applications?

I rented a Jeet Kune Do video from Blockbuster video once and Dan Inosanto explained the basics of Western boxing and Phillipino boxing, which are the same. In his exposition, there were eight essential basics. 1. Dodge the left hook to the inside left, then throw a left hook, right cross, and a left hook. 2. Dodge the left hook to the inside left, then throw a right cross, left hook, and a right cross. 3. Dodge the right cross to the inside right, then throw a left hook, right cross, and a left hook. 4. Dodge the right cross to the inside right, then throw a right cross, left hook, and a right cross. 5. Block the left hook to the inside with the right hand, then throw a left hook, right cross, and a left hook. 6. Block the left hook to the inside with the right hand, then throw a right cross, left hook, and a right cross. 7. Block the right cross to the inside with the right hand, then throw a left hook, right cross, and a left hook. 8. Block the right cross to the inside with the right hand, then throw a right cross, left hook, and a right cross. That's it. I was little surprised that these common seqeunces are best taught strictly as specific sequences, rather than as individual basics that you actively learn to combine later. For example, I expected breaking everything down into two dodges, two blocks, and two counterattacking sequences. However, real world practice has evolved these forms to the state they are now in, so I suppose that these basic eight forms, even if they are somewhat repetitive and even redundant, are the best way to teach the essentials of Western Boxing. Can anybody think of some examples from their martial arts experience that apply this degree of repetitive refinement? I expect that many dojos practice their techniques in variations that tend to differ more individually than these do.

I believe that I saw the word "Sanshou" translated as "San Chaio" in an issue of Black Belt magazine. If these are two spellings of the same style, then we are talking about the national grappling art of China. The Chinese military has a form of San Chaio that teaches 72 lethal fighting technqiues accoridng to the Black Belt magazine article. It was developed scientifically based on statistics that were gained on the outcome of battles conducted in controlled testing. Because the spleen is a common target, this style uses motions of the left hand to circle over the spleen regularly as a defensive cover to close the "gate" that would otherwise be open if the hand wasn't actively covering that area. The impression I got from the article is that common Chinese citizens try to fight San Chaio if they are ineperienced in a similiar way that American citizens try fighting like Western Boxers or Wrestlers if they have no experience. Thus, the concepts of fighting san chaio are evidently very widespread in China, just as Western Boxing concepts are commonly known in the United States.

I don't know about the instructor you mentioned, but I think I have two principles which can contribute. First of all, even though the Internet is a great medium for research, not everything in the world is on the Internet. I would not be surprised that a martial arts organization did not have a webpage presence or an article in Wikipedia. My own martial arts organization for Montgomery Style Karate has no web page, even though we have a very high number of students. Secondly, if the instructor you are curous about has created an organization of his own, it does not necessarilymean that he is a charlatan with no real skills. Many organizations are started by people who had abundant training in other styles before they synthesized everything as a Grandmaster of their own art. In older times, the title of Grandmaster was something that was bestowed by other masters and Grandmasters on an up and coming practitioner who was acknowledged for high mastery. In modern times, people sometimes declare themselves to be the creator of an orginal art after training for five to ten years and achieveing high rank in two or more styles. One man I knew studied part of Gojo ryu karate and upon becoming a blakc belt in Bujinkan Ninjutsu, he declared himself a Grandmaster of his own original art that combined all his training experience into one new style. In that case I was skeptical that he was really all that great, but generally, a black belt can generally teach some pretty good classes on his own, even if he is experimenting some. I have known of some 4th kyu teachers who did well just by doing the best they knew how. So if the instructor you are curious about has legitimate ranks, then his teachings probably derive from somewhere other than just his own mind. If his personality seems nice, I would consider training under him if I were you.

Some people have asked for proof about the claims I make regarding Montgomery Style Karate. The message board format allows me to post my own remarks only. What kinds of proof do people want? I don't have a web page with screen shots or videos that I can show you. I'm a little stumped as to how I can prove what I'm saying if certain individuals will simply not believe me. For the purposes of my poll question, please suppose that the style is real. If you really can't imagine that, then imagine that the government does invent a superior style someday from out of the millions of soldiers who work on this stuff seriously. I'm interested in whether or not people think that the government should keep superior martial arts knowledge a secret. Please, if you don't believe me about Montgomery Style Karate, just suppose that government researchers are successful someday and post replies that address the question of public access to superior knowledge. I hope this clarifies my reasons for the poll. Thanks.

I used to train in Isshinryu Karate. That style has about 20% of the material of its two parent styles, but has been highly influential in the history of martial arts. Isshinryu represents a bridge between old fashioned traditional styles and "modern" fighting styles. Because its unarmed techniques are taught though a series of basics and a total of only eight katas, private instruction five hours a week can lead you to black belt level performance in one year's time. Beyond that, the style tends to emphasize classical Okinawon weapons to preserve Okinawon culture. I have been thinking about a blocking kata for Isshinryu that would consist of pairs of blocks in two-step sequences. There are many more than three blocks in the Isshinryu blocking system, but the basic three are the upper level block, the middle area block, and the lower area block. The same or similiar blocks occur in Kempo and a variety of other karate styles. Most of the time, it is good to defeat the first attack coming against you and reply with a counterattack. But if the attacker has the initiative, he may be able to continously attack you with a minimum of two attacks. Thus, blocking twice in a row is a good idea. Three basic blocks on two sides of the body means that there are six ways you can initially block and then three ways you can block on the opposite side, depending on whether you are first attacked on the right or the left. Here is the tentative plan that I have for the kata that I am working on. I would love to hear feedback from the forum about it. "R" - Right; "L" -Left; "U" - Upper block; "M" - Middle block; "G" - Lower level block (G is for 'ground'); "F" - footwork start LU,RU,F,LU,RM,F,LU,RG,F, LM,RU,F,LM,RM,F,LM,RG,F, LG,RU,F,LG,RM,G,LG,RG,F, RU,LU,F,RU,LM,F,RU,LG,F, RM,LU,F,RM,LM,F,RM,LG,F RG,LU,F,RG,LM,F,RG,LG,F finish The footwork actions can be either marching forward or turns that rotate in the direction of the next block. Obviously, starting in a left guard stance changes the kata from starting in a right guard stance; the distinction is just what foot is forward. Turning motions are very conservative of the amount of space you have to work in, but marching footwork motions are more often required, particularly when you consider marching backwards while blocking. I feel that doing two blocks in a row is sufficient practice for doing three blocks or more in a row, which would make the kata more cumberome entirely. What does everyone think? A few repetitions teach basic blocking nicely, except for the timing you need to develop by actually blocking live attacks from a helpful partner.

Martial arts are practiced at all different ranges of speed. The slowest speeds in actual execution come from Tai Chi boxers who deliberately crawl through certain sections of their push hands practice before exploding with blazing power to drive someone off balance and onto the ground. Faster styles might execute one move per second as a typical speed. Most Okinawon and Japanese Katas have sixty movements so that they can be executed in one minute, for example. Faster speeds are possible in which people move as quickly as two attacks or two moves per second. Some practitioners emphsize speed and rythym with their sixty move katas and do them in 30 to 45 seconds, for example. Yet even faster human speeds are possible, up to a point. At a certain limit, a little bit faster than the movements of Bruce Lee, the human body itself begins to break down from moving too fast. Styles that emphasize efficient body dynamics can be called "poison hand" styles if there are times when danger can drive the martial artist to move so quickly that he damages his soft tissues. The only solution is to deliberately moderate speed and go slow enough that the soft tissue damage doesn't occur. Many martial artists practice "chain punching" drills where they punch repeatedly for as long as they can endure the exercise; this is an old karate drill. The fastest speed artists can hit between 11 to 20 times a second with short range punches that smash and sting more than they tap the surface of the body. However, speed artists can "hit the wall" for what the human body can endure and end up with soft tissue damage. There is a thrill to high speed because it tends to help people win, but too much is downright painful. This phenomenon isn't widely known because not too many common people encounter speeds as fast as Bruce Lee, but it is something to be aware of for people who cultivate mastery. What are your thoughts?

There are about 36 pressure points used by martial artists out of a total of about 108 major points on the human body that can be activated using accupressure. Acupuncturists use the same points, but insert the needles at the edges of the acupressure points. Just as acupuncture can enhance health, strikes to pressure points can damage health in seemingly mysterious ways. George Dillman has a jujutsu pressure point fighting system in which he teaches his students to strike up to five pressure points in a row for devastating knock outs. However, he recommends that students train in the most dangerous techniques no more than fifteen minutes a week to protect the health of their vital organs. In Kung Fu, people sometimes say that it takes ten years of diligent practice to be able to apply pressure point fighting secrets capably well in combat, as you have to hit with the proper angle, force, and direction precisely. Doctor Hatsumi (now deceased) used to teach that if you practiced hitting pressure points in your training your could expect to hit pressure points between 5% and 15% of the time in fighting. Most of the major pressure point areas are embedded in basic striking techniques, such as the straight punch to the solar plexus or a front kick to the groin (the male testicles are probably pressure point #1). Thus, by knowing a form accurately, you can strike pressure points without understanding the complex anatomical relationships between the point and the internal organs. Some schools that teach pressure points heavily also do accupressure or massage to treat the points that they strike on their students, since a lack of such treatment can be detrimental to health. It is possible to win a fight without striking pressure points at all, but striking pressure points does more damage than an ordinary strike.

In Bujinkan circles, it is customary to indulge in a single light beer to commemorate the death of a good friend. At other times, we tend to remain strictly sober. This practice is an old Ninja tradition.

I agree with Ottman's post. The bounce step helps beginners feel like they are fighting because it makes their mind focus on doing something all the time. However, I think it is inadvisable, even if a lot of people do it. The reality is that many people copy what other people do, especially with regard to who seems to be winning at tournaments. I believe the bounce step will just cause a person to expend energy very quickly. The habit is almost a release for anxiety.

Every Tae Kwon Do school I have seen or attended classes in has people who learn to consistently and relentlessly kick to the head in as little as a year's time. The front kick flexibility takes three months, then you start to develop crescant kick flexibility by opening the hips for three months, and finally you develop classic side kick flexibility to kick to the head in about three months. Even in dojangs where they rush the stretching exercises and focus on developing strength to such a degree that flxibility training is slowed, people can easily reach the height of their own head in a maximum of two years. In most Tae Kwon Do curriculums, people are already starting to work on aerial kicks by the end of the second year. My impression is that the kicking expert has one or two chances to get his foot into the aggressor's face or head before the foe can charge into close range with his fists. Bill "Superfoot" Wallace used to teach kickers defensive tactics against people who rush in while the kicker still has a leg in the air. Once the gap is closed, however, it can be hard to open it again, so low kicks to the lower legs and knee to groin strikes come in handy. I think the most beautiful kicking fights are fought between two kicking experts who spin and kick against someone else who is fighting on the same terms. Sadly, opponents try not to fight on your terms, but against your weaknesses. I think ground grappling rose quickly to popularity because people were being defeated by grapplers faster than they could learn basic grappling skills themselves for defensive purposes. At the beginning of a fight, the kicker has the longer range and a very powerful weapon, and if he has surprise, the kicker can kick your head off.

The life and work of Bruce Lee is fascinating. Through the work of Dan Inosanto, the Jeet Kune Do legacy of Bruce Lee has applied lessons from over thirty different styles, according to an estimate I read recently. However, what makes me curious is what Lee and later Inosanto decided NOT to include in their synthesis of effective martial arts methodologies. Superficially, one might suppose that Jeet Kune Do covers everything, but in reality, it seems to bear little resemblance to Aikido, Judo, or even modern Brazilian Jujutsu. My impression of Jeet Kune Do is that the techniques resemble kickboxing even though the applications are generally more advanced than what you ordinarily find at a kickboxing studio and the trapping and grappling manuevers proceed naturally from stand-up positions rather than a "mount and guard" position. Would you practitioners of JKD agree? And, why does the art not draw upon Aikido or Judo more closely? What do you think Lee would have thought of those arts? Can a "Style that is not a style" exclude the things that are deemed worthless by oneself, even though those techniques may be celebrated by others? Just some questions.

I had an instructor once who said that the bad side to sparring was that it tends to develop your best techniques, whether it is one or two favored things, and lead you away from becoming more well-rounded. Practicing all the techniques of the general curriculum is good for developing versatility, and having more options makes your real weaknesses a secret. Flexible skill sets tend to make people less vulnerable, I think. Since you seem to have less of an advantage at striking from a stand-up position, according to your original post, I would recommend some controlled sparring sessions or randori matches with your partner in which you both agree not to take the fight to the ground. This can give you significantly more time learning to apply the tricks that you need to apply to get an advantage when doing martial boxing. If for no other reason, think of it this way: strikers can face multiple attackers more easily than grapplers who entangle their own bodies with the bodies of their opponents. As for endurance, swimming and raquetball are considered some of the best sports to engage in for efficient results, but even marathon aerobics sessions will get the job done. Martial arts themselves are not as efficient as pure exercise activities are at building many aspects of fitness, like flexibility, strength, and endurance. One good endurance tip is to conscientiously learn to fight at reduced power - 70% to 95% of your regular effort can save you enough endurance to last another half minute to a minute, possibly, depending on how vigorously you exert yourself. And developing greater efficiency in your overall body dynamics is very good for helping people fight longer. If you talk honestly with your friend, you may discover that he uses tactics that deliberately get you to use your energy faster than he does; at the very least, he might be able to offer some positive suggestions on how you can fight him better. Martial artists with the best attitudes share such information with their friends. Good luck.

I think that you will be able to learn the skills taught in Krav Maga without too much interference from your previous Karate training. I would expect a big conflict in training theories and practices if you were going from Karate to Tai Chi or vice versa. Even transitioning from Karate practice to Aikido or Judo can feel awkward for a while because the "softer" arts rely on nuance and subtlety rather than raw physical power. However, I have heard that it is possible to learn two styles that are radically different at the same time, it just makes progress a little slower. Because Krav Maga doesn't have fixed form routines you may find that it is mentally liberating. Karate enthusiasts sometimes get to the same conceptual position after they have exhausted thousands of combinations until they reach the "void" sense that every new combination is just another rendition of the same old stuff in a new variation. Also, since Krav Maga is designed to be learned over a short interval of time, it should be packed with useful information and have most of the extraneous material eliminated from its curriculum. I would recommend that you give it a try and approach everything with an open heart. Please let the forum know how your lessons evolve, as many of us would like to learn more about this interesting style.

This is the First Grandmaster of Montgomery Style Karate. The success of our style is truly real. Part of the reason why the style is successful is because when I created it I was already America's top research scientist. In fact, over 90% of police department precincts have been trained in this style and they are seeing 95% victory in their fights. The police officers only receive eight one-hour lessons that emphasize throwing and grappling as much as striking. Around the country, the chance that an officer will be attacked by someone he is arresting varies between 1% and 10% and the chance that the attacker will attempt to kill the officer varies between 1% and 3%. This style is saving many cops from being beaten to death by assailiants. We don't have a webpage, but if we did, it would contain much the same information I have revealed in the forum. This style differs from Reality Based Self Defense courses in its effectiveness, primarily. I have reviewed the Internet literature for three Reality Based Self Defense styles and without further details of what those styles look like I cannot comment on how their methods differ from those in Montgomery Style Karate. However, I have been told that no other style known to the CIA resembles Montgomery Style Karate and our effectiveness in fights does seem to come from our unique system design rather than good physical training (push-ups, sit-ups, et cetera). Civilians can train in the famous SCARS system now and enjoy a 60% overall success rate using the methods of that system. When Bujinkan Ninjutsu was deployed on a large scale in the U. S. Military years ago, it only saw a 40% success rate, losing 3 times out of 5. The French have started to apply Montgomery Style Karate with a success rate of 99.8%. Britain also uses the style with a 99% success rate. Thus, from the source document materials, Britain and France have constructed training programs that are even more effective than those of the United States. The US beats standard Russian espionage agents 98% of the time and beats Chinese martial artists 96% of the time. China has used some espionage to gain some of our source material documents but does not have the entire style. On average, the US Intelligence forces beat world class agents around 97% of the time. I have asked my teachers and students to take some time to post to the forum with testimonials, but so far everybody seems to think that the postings are a joke around here and not worthy of a response. The consensus even from the poll I offerred is that the style should probably remain a secret from the general public. The success of police officers with the style would be undermined if college students nationwide could study this art for about a year. Our teaching is at such an accelerated rate that the whole syllabus can be learned in a year's time with ample time left for reinforcement. Because the system is inherently simple, the main document is only forty pages long. We are in the process of adopting Belt Rankings for Montgomery Style Karate. Police officers with eight one hour classes are beating contemporary martial artists 95% of the time, so we are considering awarding them yellow belts after they complete the introductory course. Obviously, they could be awarded black belts based on a comparison against their martial artist peers, but even I feel that giving out black belts after eight lessons is too unorthodox to fit with tradition. Usually, the first belt rank in a martial art takes one to three months, if not a full six months, but the capability level of our people is revolutionizing prior conceptions of how long it takes to get good at martial arts. We get good rapidly. We teach lethal and non-lethal fighting sequences by the hundreds. People with limited creativity or limited martial arts ability can still learn our art as well as they can learn to do the fighting forms. As the great master Doctor Hatsumi once said, "Any idiot can do forms." Thus, we show students exactly what to do. Applying a seqeunce is as easy as selecting a routine and then carrying it out. The design of our forms makes interruption of a fighting sequence difficult. Usually, we tend to kill opponents with average of ten strikes in an average duration of five seconds flat. Usually we finish with a throw and our grappling is good but used more seldom. We are trying to encourage students to capture opponents more often. In comparison, the military used to say that contemporary military arts took thirty strikes on average to kill an opponent. Obviously, our instruction in accurate and precise pressure point striking is superb. Most schools let you punch in the air a thousand times before they give advice to improve the form of your punching. Our instructors provide the necessary feedback that is so vital to improving performance. Chuck Norris came from a Tang Soo Do school that used to practice blocking drills for eighty percent of the total practice time, and he won the World Karate Championships five years in a row. We dodge and block in a variety of effective drills that let us practice real attacks and real defenses simultaneously with two partners. Rather than just run through the drills endlessly, students are tested thoroughly so that real skills are emphasized. We also do randori and spar heavily. Our art is changing some with new innovations over time, but we are clearly exploring what is termed a new martial way. Montgomery Style Karate is as different from other styles of karate as Judo or Aikido is different from karate. Our teachers really make the difference. If you get the chance to ask a soldier or a police officer in the upcoming years about Montgomery Style Karate, see what he or she can tell you. Currently, the CIA considers it the best style in the world.

I am a scientific researcher and developer for the Central Intelligence Agency and I teach a martial art called Montgomery Style Karate. From what I have been told, our soldiers do utilize blocks in combat situations from time to time. There are simply situations where blocking is convienient. The SCARS system that was once used by the Navy SEALS did not utilize blocking, but rather it intercepted attacks or took an offensive approach by supposing that you were able to seize the initiative and act first rather than counterattack your aggressor. However, the SCARS system has proven less effective than other systems and civilians can train in SCARS now. Wing Chun blocking and parrying differs from karate blocking and parrying in that the Wing Chun stylist will probably attack with the second hand while the first hand is preforming a defense. Wing Chun is noted for its simultaneous blocking and striking and both arms are fighting in that art at the same time than in any other. Certain krate styles incorporate two hand movements, but these examples are often in the form of double attacks. In Wing Chun, the block or parry performed with one hand is almost always supplemented by an attack from the other hand. This gives Wing Chun a unique advantage, as an attacker is usually at his least defensive position as he is executing his attack. Jun Fan Jeet Kune Do (Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do) evolved out of Bruce Lee's fundamental training in Wing Chun combined with his lifetime search into effective methods of other martial art styles. JKD prefers to intercept attacks with a counterattack of one's own. Bruce Lee adopted this idea from Western Fencing, where the most powerful attack is called a Stop-hit, in which you stop continuous motion to invite an attack and then dodge the other man's sword before attacking with a thrust. European Boxing primarily dodges attacks. There are blocks in boxing, such as covering the face with one or both hands, and blocks that hit out in a circular parry against the attacker's wrist or boxing glove. In my research, dodging is more effective as a defense than blocking alone and the best defense utilizes both with an emphasis on dodging. Consistent practice with dodging and blocking is the key to building a good defense. Chuck Norris used to train in attacking drills that had the defender preform a realistic block to an actual attack, and his Tang Soo Do instructor emphasized such drills to 80% of the total training time. If you are in a dojo that emphasizes actual dodging and blocking practice less than fifty percent of the time, then you are practicing attacking without developing the defensive skills. By practicing a good dodge or block to a real attack, you practice a real attack at the same time the other person practices a realistic defense.

I am a scientific researcher and developer for the Central Intelligence Agency. I have over a dozen years of martial arts experience that I have compiled into a martial art called Montgomery Style Karate. The style is about fourteen months old and Central Intelligence Agency agents have already used the style in over 5,000 fighting encounters globally. Over seventy-five percent of these engagements were clearly fights to the death. Montgomery Style Karate has performed extremely well. Agents using the style have won 98% of their battles. As of the last report, their were only fifty persons globally who have beaten the style. The style is also taught to the U.S. Military. U.S. Navy SEALS have commented that the style seems to have "perfected combat". Until this style became regularly used in American espionage circles, the martial art of choice for world espionage agents was some form of Bujinkan Ninjutsu. In controlled testing Montgomery Style Karate beats Bujinkan Ninjutsu thoroughly. In this style, it is possible to become "good" in twelve weeks and to become an "expert" in one year. This style is considered so effective that it may represent the last great upgrade in global martial art fighting technology. The style actually is a mixed martial art that owes more in its development to the teachings of Bujinkan Ninjutsu veterans than to teachers of karate styles. The nations of the world are converting their hand-to-hand combat programs to forms of traditional and modern karate with results that are slow up to this point. In the future, this style may be taught to police officers nationally before it becomes taught openly to the general public, if that day ever comes. The problem with teaching the style outside of the CIA or law enforcement is that groups hostile to the United States would love to have the offensive and defensive skills of this style of martial arts. Any style taught to U.S. civilians can easily be learned by agents of foreign governments. Nevertheless, this style is effective for people of all weight classes and can provide superior defense. Even though most effective martial arts are described with adjectives like "reliable," "natural," and "powerful," this style is also described as inherently "intelligent" in its design. I have a question for the forum. Would you like to see this special martial art taught openly, or in a mixed form with some other martial art under another name, or should it be reserved only for military and CIA officials who protect America? On the one hand, it could provide superior self-defense against rape or assault. On the other hand, it could take away an advantage that we have currently against other nations with different styles.