rotational or linear?

[juey palancu]

If you are 'falling' towards your oponent, you are in trouble, since falling is being out of control. Proper centering and body alignment should always maintained (if one wants to survive;)).

'Blocks' by themselves are never the first line of defense, position and evasive movements (footwork) are. Your footwork should be good enough that the block is just an added insurance (tai zabaki).

The covering up wiht the gloves, etc, is good for boxing, but opens one up for kicks, sweeps, and takedowns. As with blocks, it should only be the last line of defense, after footwork and positioning. Standing in the pocket and trading punches is only done for sport (as in boxing, knockdown sparring and MMA). Out in the street, it is a very bad idea, since you dont know if your opponent is armed or if your opponents' friends are right around the corner!

dos centavos,

Carlos

Former Amateur Boxer

Nidan, Traditional Shotokan

[yamesu]

Agreed juey.

Evasion is much more efficient than stopping an attack.

Under 18's at Kyokushin wear the same open-finger gloves as UFC fighters, to offer protection.

Adults fight bare knuckle, and being hit by a punch which has its force concentrated at the knuckles is like being hit by a hammer, hard.

You dont even want to take those sorts attacks to your arms.

Moving is a much safer idea.

Cheers.

[KF Dude]

I'm enjoying the different perspectives on this thread. Very interesting.

[TheAnimal]

Most definitely, blocking is your last resort, slipping and ducking and so on is the best way to deal with any strike headed your way. But when it comes to that "circular vs linear" thing- whether its wax on was off, or painting the fence, if you havent moved away from the punch, its 99% likely to hit you instead of be blocked.

[KF Dude]

Most definitely, blocking is your last resort, slipping and ducking and so on is the best way to deal with any strike headed your way. But when it comes to that "circular vs linear" thing- whether its wax on was off, or painting the fence, if you havent moved away from the punch, its 99% likely to hit you instead of be blocked.

Since we condition our arms, we use long & short arm blocks as part of our counter attack. Hung-Ga is primarily a defensive art. We seek to establish bridge control of any incoming attack. Having been on both ends of this method I can speak for it's effectiveness against strong hard attacks or it's speed/flexibilty to nulify quick jabbing type strikes.

[TheAnimal]

Things change when some guy is throwing a flury of punches and kicks at you like kickboxers do.

[KF Dude]

Things change when some guy is throwing a flury of punches and kicks at you like kickboxers do.

You can't fault something you don't understand. There's a lot of good martial arts out there, don't take such a narrow view.

[nanfeishen]

The circular will always have a weakening linear quality and the linear will always have a weakening circular quality, if you can see and find this, then the weakness of each technique can be exploited, once you understand that, you can get in close and fast and stay in.

[juey palancu]

something many people dont know...

many karate 'blocks' are actually better used as strikes or as joint control techniques. Take an (uchi uke)inside block, for example: the best application is not to try and block a punch with it. Instead, the best application (in my humble opinion) is: opponent initiates attack. You slip the punch by slight side movement to the closed side of you opponent while you grab your opponents' arm with your leading hand. You execute the uchi-uke to your opponents arm by sliding you back arm along your leading arm. There you have it, a joint lock or a joint break depending on your intention and/or the explosiveness of your movement.

This is actually much less complicated than it sounds in this explanation. I've used it in real self-defense and it worked beautifully. I had a drunken, bigger surprise attacker under control until people stepped in and broke the fight, which actualy wasnt much of a fight. I took it easy because I was in a party with friends, that is the only reason I didnt break this dude's elbow that night.

On the topic of dealing with multiple, rapid succession punches: If your oppponent is 'flurrying' you, you just sidestep and sidestep until the opponent gets winded and stops. Then you go for it like there is no tomorrow. Go ahead and watch an old school, 'slow' Mexican boxer (like Julio Cesar Chavez) to see how they deal with fast, flurrying opponents. A thing of beauty. What you NEVER do is step inside of a flurry. That is like getting into a tornado.

Karate is like an onion with many, many layers...the old senseis knew what they were doing when they came up with katas...one can explore a kata forever...

the old school boxing trainers know their stuff too (an example of a current 'old school' boxing trainer is Freddie Roach).

Gero

-------

Amateur Boxing (formerly)

Nidan-Traditional Shotokan

[KF Dude]

something many people dont know...

many karate 'blocks' are actually better used as strikes or as joint control techniques. Take an (uchi uke)inside block, for example: the best application is not to try and block a punch with it. Instead, the best application (in my humble opinion) is: opponent initiates attack. You slip the punch by slight side movement to the closed side of you opponent while you grab your opponents' arm with your leading hand. You execute the uchi-uke to your opponents arm by sliding you back arm along your leading arm. There you have it, a joint lock or a joint break depending on your intention and/or the explosiveness of your movement.

---> We have a similar technique using a rising block while taking an angle. It's more of a break than a lock due to the sharpness of the movement.

On the topic of dealing with multiple, rapid succession punches: If your oppponent is 'flurrying' you, you just sidestep and sidestep until the opponent gets winded and stops. What you NEVER do is step inside of a flurry. That is like getting into a tornado.

---> It's so much easier to stay on the outside. Only if I know I'm stronger than my opponent will I go inside.

Karate is like an onion with many, many layers...the old senseis knew what they were doing when they came up with katas...one can explore a kata forever...

---> Well said. Hung-Ga has only four core hand forms yet there is more than a life time worth of study in them.