Help For Beginners!!

[sensei8]

Blocking VS Deflecting!! No matter the label, one label is true, while the other is misleading, imho.

Which one are YOU executing at the appropriate moment? Are you blocking said attack? Are you deflecting said attack? Imho, you're doing one or the other; not both!!

Let's look at the definition of each one. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary states...

BLOCKING:

a) the action or process of obstructing movement, progress, or activity, in particular.

 

b) to impede movement by opponent.

Let's look at the definition of the underlined word above: obstructing...

OBSTRUCTING:

a) to interrupt, hinder, or oppose the passage, progress, course, etc., of.

 

b) to stop.

DEFLECTING:

a) to bend or turn aside; turn from a true course or straight line; swerve.

 

b) direct.

What have you gotten from these definitions?

When said attacker attacks you with a measure to do you some serious harm, what do you suppose would be the most tactical and advantageous course for you? To block or to deflect?!?!

Are you actually stopping said attack in its track? I mean, is the fist that's targeting your head right now going to be stopped, per the aforementioned definitions concerning "BLOCKING"?

Sure, they're nothing more than apples are to oranges, when one speaks about either of them; blocking or deflecting. Just as long as either is effective in its means!!

Are you going to STOP a 60 mph kick dead in its tracks? To block, or to stop an attack as it would be so when a car hits the wall head-on at 60 mph. BAM...STOP... Well, we're probably going to need something with more stopping power than one of our arms or whatever other available body part(s). Try to stop, and I mean STOP said attack, I'm harshly increasing the chance of severely injuring myself because of the blunt trauma incurred by my own actions.

To stop an attack is going to have to absorb, thus take on said attack directly and bluntly so that said attack stops any and all forward motion and/or progress. Try to stop said attack, better have some type of a shield to absorb all given energy. If not, then ones going to suffer one way or another!!

But while you're executing said "blocking" drills with your training partner, just HOW are YOU "STOPPING", for example, a reverse punch to your face?? Think about it for a quick second.

Aha...yeah...me too!! My rising forearm block, Age-Uke, is NOT contacting my training partners fist directly, but instead, my FOREARM is!!

Now, what's happening? Did your Age-Uke STOP the attack, dead in its tracks, or did your Age-Uke DEFLECT the attack in an upward direction, therefore, directing the attacking fist in a new path, all via your forearm contacting your training partners forearm's underside??

A DEFLECTION has just occurred!! Nothing was stopped!! Yes, the attempted attack was thwarted and the momentum was halted but that was a mutual compliance by your training partner and yourself.

Imho, no matter the type of technique is used to attack my with, I'll DEFLECT it because I CAN'T STOP IT; I can only redirect it's true course away from me.

Even if a "block" gives the appearance that said attack was stopped, it was in all actuality, just deflected!!

Blocking VS deflecting? Imho, deflecting wins hands down!!

Hopefully, this might shed some meaningful light for those beginners in the MA, no matter the style. One day one will have to answer the best way to address said attack effectively. Knowing how is more than half the battle.

Are you BLOCKING, or are you DEFLECTING??

Your thoughts, train hard, and train well!!

[Wastelander]

Most often, we are deflecting, but sometimes we do actually "block" an attack. Deflecting is the preference, though, as it is more practical, because it doesn't tell your attacker that their strike is finished, which would signal for them to throw another strike. It's also quicker and requires less effort!

[JusticeZero]

Neither. There's lots of sloped cover involved, but the only active intervention is modificative.

[Zaine]

Most of what we do as MAists is deflecting. However, I know that I was taught that even a block can be an attack. F=MA, as it were, and if my opponent is throwing a punch with all of their power, it doesn't take much of my own force to injure their arm, or leg if they throw a kick. In fact, done correctly, a block (or deflection) can drop an opponent just as easily as a strike.

[Archimoto]

I'm a deflection guy myself.

Although I'm prone to the occasional block.

[jaypo]

I was originally taught in Shotokan that every block is a strike, and every strike is a block. Sometimes for fun in my new system, we practice the bunkai of a kata in an all offensive context. So the first gedan barai in heian shodan would be a low level hammerfist to the groin, then a punch. In my current system, we work a lot on getting off the line of attack, so our blocks are still powerful, but more often than not, I find myself doing more deflecting than breaking with my blocks. Also, I focus more on snagging an arm when I block rather than pounding it with my block. It has become a habit to catch onto whatever is coming at me now! That gives me that much more to break on my attacker!

[sensei8]

Neither. There's lots of sloped cover involved, but the only active intervention is modificative.

I disagree. Imho, you have either one or the other, unless everything that you do is an intercepted attact/counter attack where you never block/deflect...ever! But in that, I don't believe that one could depend on that by itself!!

[sensei8]

Great posts, by all, thus far; thank you!!

Seeing that I'm trying to draw beginners of the MA into this thread. Not to ever counter ones CI, but to provide alternating mindsets to consider...

**Can each of you explain how one's "blocking" with the Merriam-Webster Dictionary provided in the OP??

**Does the SNAP, as described by Shorin_Uechi, provide the needed "blocking" element??

**Does the striking in the "blocking" actually NOT strike at all, but still is a "deflection"??

[bushido_man96]

Neither. There's lots of sloped cover involved, but the only active intervention is modificative.

Ok, I'll bite here and admit that I don't comprehend that too well. Could you elaborate a bit more, please?

I think most of what we do is deflect, but it depends on the form of attack coming, too. Arcing attacks are going to be more easily defended by blocking (but not always necessary), and straight line attacks are going to be more easily defended by deflecting.

We also have to take into account what many of us refer to as moves that are blocks in our forms and one-steps, and if that is what they actually are. Everyone will have a different view on this matter, but it should be addressed. Take Bob's high block example. It can be both a deflection and a block. If someone throws an axe kick up to bring down on top of your head, and you bring the high block up and stop it in its tracks, then you blocked it; high block. But, if someone punches at your face, like in Bob's example, it becomes more of a deflection, because the punch doesn't stop, it gets pushed aside or up; high deflection.

So in conclusion, it depends.

[hammer]

All I know is deflecting hurts less...and evading hurts even less...