Category Archives: Training

March 4, 2013 · 7:59 pm

Kris Wilder Seminar in North Texas!

Kris Wilder 2013 Seminar Texas

KWilder

The above link will open a PDF form with the seminar and registration information.

Author and Co-Author of many books on the martial arts, Kris Wilder is also the leading authority on applied traditional martial arts in the U.S. He has expanded the knowledge and understanding of applied traditional martial arts through such work as The Way of Kata, and The Way of Sanchin Kata, as well as myth dispelling works such as The Little Black Book of Violence. A knowledgeable martial artist and a truly good human being, Kris Wilder brings a lot to offer. The seminar is not style specific, so regardless of your martial arts background, there is something here for you to learn.

Don’t miss this opportunity to train with Kris Wilder and learn to Hit Harder, Stand Stronger, Think Clearer.

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December 26, 2012 · 9:10 pm

Martial Arts Parents, Please Slow Down

Before I start, I want to note that this post is inspired by another post on another blog. For the source article, please read here.

We are facing a problem which, in many ways, has been accumulating for quite a while now. In the martial arts, the problem has the potential to fundamentally change how business is done, and change it in a way that is much for the worse.

In our modern martial arts, the majority of people want to have a black belt more than they want to earn a black belt. This is a carry-over from other areas of our life, but I wish to stick with the topic at hand. Understand that this is not the condemnation that those who may bristle at the preceding statement wish to see it as upon first read. It is just a simple fact. We live in the time of instant gratification. Internet speeds allow us answers to the most trivial questions almost as fast as we can click. Drive through dinner, DVR allows us to pause and rewind live TV, and I could go on and on.

We are accustomed to getting what we want at the moment we want it. Someone who lives in this gimme-gimme-RIGHT-NOW mindset enrolls their kid in a traditional martial arts school, and cannot understand why the kid is not a black belt in just one year.

While I do believe that anyone can make it to Black Belt, it would be beyond foolish to claim that everyone will make it to Black Belt. In fact, many will not deserve to make it to Black Belt.

“Whoa there Smedley! Did you just say not everyone deserves a Black Belt?”

Yes I did. Allow me to explain.

To some parents of martial arts students, the statement above is borderline blasphemy. No one wants to hear that their kid is not good at something, but to say that their kid doesn’t deserve it?! That is going too far.

At least to the parent.

Speaking as someone who has been through both the Old School method and the McDojo method, I can tell you that the students given black belts in the McDojo month after month in large part do not deserve it. One need only look around at the black belts who could not fight their way out of a door of rose petals to see that some are given, and some earn.

If giving your kid a black belt would ensure that he or she finishes high school and goes to college and becomes a successful person, I would be all for it.

But it doesn’t work that way. No one can give your kid success. Success is earned, period.

I tell you from experience – let…no no no, MAKE your kid earn a Black Belt, and they will go on to finish high school, go on to college, and make something of their life. I have seen it too many times to fall for the other lie.

Your kid wants to be a black belt; make them earn it.

Growing up, my family was poor. My Father measured a man by work. If you worked hard and earned a million dollars, he respected you, just as he did if you worked hard and earned two hundred dollars. If you won a million in the lottery, he didn’t respect you.

I had to work hard, and save for nearly a year to buy my first vehicle. It was a 1967 Chevy pick-up. But when I bought it, it was mine, and I was proud of it. It didn’t matter that it had over 250,000 miles on it. It didn’t matter that I had to repair it every other week. It was mine, and it was something I worked for, and saved for, and earned.

Not so a friend of mine. His parents bought him a new car upon getting his license. He wrecked it within two months, and his foolish parents just bought another for him, which he wrecked within a half year. I took good care of my beat up truck, and had it for five years.

Going back to martial arts, I started and trained in an old school Chinese Martial Art system, under an old school instructor. I was a walking bruise for three solid years. After that point, I started getting good at it, and started leveling the field. But it was a rough go every step of the way.

When I made it to Black Belt (in that style it wasn’t “black belt”, but this is the common term, and I wish to add as little confusion as possible), I was as proud as I could be, and it was a true accomplishment. During the test, I had to display everything, and at times I was sure I would not make it. I had to spar with very hard contact for a length of time that most of the parents out there would call a stop to and sue for child abuse (my parents weren’t even there, so no such call was made).

But hear me on this – there was not just a mere sense of “I’m a black belt now!”. This was a true accomplishment that I had worked very hard for.

No one else sacrificed time with their friends for me to succeed. I did it myself. I took time by myself to practice. I studied, and sweated and bled, and lived and breathed this stuff (still do as it happens…), and reaching Black Belt was a triumph like nothing else I had experienced. It was then that I finally believed in myself. No one ran interference. No one gave me anything. I earned it.

I am not a black belt; I am a Black Belt.

Mine was earned, not given. No non-competitive-we-don’t-count-points, no everyone deserves to make the team, and certainly no one feeling sorry for me.

I did it. Myself.

My instructor taught me, but I am the one who had to stand up and prove myself to the judges.

If you step in and deny this to your child, you are not helping your child at all the way you think you are.

When your kid takes longer to reach Black Belt, stay calm. Don’t pull them out with the line of, “I’ll pull little Timmy in a real martial arts school where he can get a black belt.” The old school instructors will let you and your kid go, but your kid will miss out on the real feeling of pride that comes with really earning the rank.

Anyone can.

Some will.

Most will not.

And some simply do not deserve it.

I know which category I want my kids in. Do you?

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March 26, 2012 · 9:09 pm

Too Many Excuses

I was speaking to a friend of mine a few hours ago.

I asked him if he would be interested in joining me for some workouts over the summer. I have looked at a number of workout programs, and the one that is the most interesting to me is Iain Abernethy’s Extreme Impact Martial Arts. I know that P90X and Insanity are the most popular right now (at least in the martial arts circles that I run in). But, as I spoke with him, I heard myself saying something rather odd.

“I am not into cardio for the sake of cardio, or cardio for the sake of mere weight loss. I want everything I do to be productive. I want to lose weight while continuing to further develop the ability to deliver blunt force trauma.”

I am a martial arts student. Never mind the instructor part, I am still a student as well. To be honest, I think that is what makes me effective as an instructor – I am still learning.  I want to continue to learn until I die.

Not for the sake of seeking sympathy, as I could not care less if anyone actually feels sorry for me, but more to make a point, I am going to run down a list for you.

The first injury to my back happened when I was 10 years old. I was unloading scaffold boards for my Father. The boards were 16 feet long 2X12’s. I was very proud that I could lift them, as not all that long before I was unable to do so. I kept moving them that day until (of all of the things that could give me my first real lifelong injury), a puff of wind caught the board I was carrying. It wrenched me sideways, and something in my back popped. My back was never quite right after that day. More often than not, throughout my teens and early twenties, my back was in some level of pain. Then, in the period between 1998 and 2000, I managed to pop three disks in my lower back. From that time, the pain has never stopped. My back is giving me pain at every moment.

I mentioned more than once that I was bullied when I was in school. The worst of it took place in high school. I was dragged into the bathroom by several boys, and beaten half to death. The first strike is the only one that really matters. They stomped my left knee from the side, and it folded like a taco. ligament and cartilage damage from hell. When I had an MRI a few years ago, my doctor told me, “You were doing something, and your knee is telling me that you got hurt. But for some reason you kept on doing whatever it was that you were doing when you got hurt. “ See, I was never in a position to take a rest. I did things the old school American way – I got hurt and didn’t complain, I just kept working.

I have broken both ankles too. I actually broke them both at the same time, but that is a really long story that is best saved for another day.

In my recent MRI and X-Ray sessions on my back, the Doctor told me, “Your spine is really f***ed up.” I am supposed to get spinal decompression this summer.

I cracked a vertebrae in my neck in a pro wrestling match (yeah, that’s right…almost broke my neck in a “fake” wrestling match). I don’t know how many times my nose has been broken. I know that I have broken or dislocated every finger and toe.

And yet here I am.

42 years old. With everything that I have put my body through, I hurt all the time. There is no moment where I am not in some kind of pain – even in my dreams I am aware that my knees and back are hurting.

And yet, here I was, telling a friend of mine that I need to find a training partner that likes to hit hard, because I like to work with people who hit hard and don’t mind if I hit hard back. If I can do this, on top of being fat and lazy, you have no real excuses.

Get out there and train.

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March 21, 2012 · 8:25 pm

Is Hung Gar a ‘Practical Martial Art’?

I receive a lot of email related to what is published on this blog. I think it is funny that people express themselves so freely in the format of an email, but few people comment on the actual articles themselves in the space provided. But that aside, I did get a few emails covering the same question, and I felt that, as I am completely unashamed and willing to put whatever I think out there for public praise or ridicule, I would answer here on the blog. (It isn’t that don’t care what people think, although that is a part of it, the fact is that I always consider the source. Not all opinions need to be considered…)

The question is this, “Why does the top of the page say, “Practical Martial Arts” when there is a photo of you, surrounded by fire, performing some very impractical techniques from Hung Gar?” For a start, practical is in the eye of the practitioner, but we can save that for a bit, and take this one step at a time.

The fire is there because the me who grew up in the 80’s still likes pictures of stuff surrounded by fire, and it also allows me to make “kung fu in hell” jokes. As for the rest; I am going to take some liberties with the question and change it slightly into the more interesting (at least to me) question of, “Is Hung Gar a ‘Practical Martial Art’?”

Well, in order to answer this properly, we must first define what the word practical means.

When we speak of “practical martial arts” what should come to mind immediately would be a martial art that can be applied against the types of attacks that a person is likely to face in our modern time.

Most martial arts are very capable of dealing with the types of attacks found within the system itself. This is, of course, how it should be. After all, in any training hall around the world, the people you train with the most are going to be students of the same style or system, and therefore should be most used to using and defending against attacks of the type used most by that particular style or system. If the style is not suited to defending against the very techniques it presents to the practitioners, then one must question the system and its validity. (Please don’t try the line that the techniques are so awesome that the style cannot even defend against itself).

There are many reasons that people take up martial arts. If your reason for training includes gaining the ability to protect yourself in a fight, then you need to understand practical application.

The reason I throw in the term practical application, instead of simply saying application is this: if the techniques are not applicable against the techniques that are likely to be used against you, then your style is not practical, and if it is not practical, then it will not serve your purposes of self-defense/self-protection. It may work wonderfully against ninjas falling from the sky, or warrior monks riding on the backs of dragons while eating poppy seed muffins, but is that really practical?

So I will now come back to Hung Gar, and the question, Is Hung Gar a ‘Practical Martial Art’?

The honest answer to this question is going to be the same as if the question were asked about nearly any other martial art.

Hung Gar is practical if it is taught to be used in a practical manner.

When the techniques of Hung Gar are either only drilled in the forms, or are taught as being response to other techniques typical only to Hung Gar or other Southern Chinese martial arts, then no, it is not going to be a practical martial art.

When one trains only the forms, regardless of martial style or system, there is going to be a lack of depth. Even when the student (or in some cases, the instructor) is convinced that they understand the applications of the form, there remains the fact that these applications will remain nothing more than theory, until practiced and drilled repeatedly. And as long as they remain theory, the student will be completely unable to use them in the real world.

Equally misleading is the situation where the trainee is taught applications to the individual techniques that are going to only be used against techniques unique to the style, system, or region and time of origin.

The types of attacks one would be likely to face in 1800 south China are almost certainly different from the types of attacks one is likely to face in an alley in 2012 Chicago. And the odds of being attacked by a Hung Gar practitioner are probably pretty low. I don’t have case studies and hard statistics to back this up, but I am still pretty confident in the statement. Some of the attacks could be similar, or possibly even exact, but the majority probably would not be related at all.

There are several lists out, but the most common list out states 36 habitual attacks. I believe that list is copyrighted, and so do not wish to go too much into that list.

clip_image002[5]As I stated in an earlier article, the common attacks faced are going to be circular kicks or strikes, linear kicks or strikes, tackles and ground-work.

Let us start with the photo from my banner at the left. This is an example I have used before. There are a variety of situations where this technique could be applied.

The lower hand is being used to redirect an incoming technique, and the upper hand is striking/grabbing (it can be practiced in a variety of ways).  The redirect can be trained for use against either linear or circular attacks, given enough practice.

But the real key is just that, practice.

Too often, martial arts instructors and students allow theory to take the place of practice, and this cannot but end poorly. If we allow theory to take the place of actual practice, we end up as those very caricatures of martial artists that we all despise. Every single martial artist on the planet wants to be taken seriously. Those that are the butt of the jokes don’t realize that it is them that are made fun of, and sharply deny it if they are told.

The drills that I use to teach the above technique are pretty standard in the world of practical martial arts. I follow a process where the student will first learn what to do with the hand doing the redirection. This is started from the most elementary levels of a static arm held out in place of a punch. Later, motion is introduced to the set. Next we practice the counter-strike that is executed here with the hand on top. This can be done as a grab of the throat, or as a strike to the throat, or face. In either case, it is important to remember that the key is going to be in practice. You need to practice repeatedly, at each level, and from different angles against an increasingly resistant opponent. Grabs to the throat and strikes to the head are dangerous. Care must be taken to prevent unneeded injury to your training partners. Standard rule of thumb applies. With a partner, work on the speed and precision, and when you work for power, use a heavy bag or a mannequin bag. Eventually, different angles are introduced to make the application three dimensional. There is always an evolution and a process.  image

Next we find (pictured to the right here) a bridging technique called “Subduing Bridge”. The term “subdue” refers to gaining a physical control over the opponent. The best reference I was given on this technique was when Onassis told me to “do it like you are drowning someone”. Since that time, I have never been able to perform this move without having that image pop up into my mind’s eye.

What is probably obvious to most should be the probable application of grabbing an opponent and pressing them downward. The footwork would have to be changed from a standard horse stance to make that work very well, but all of this is discovered in practice. Again, as with everything we train, we start from rudimentary levels and work toward a more free and live” simulation of the technique being used in a self-defense/self-protection situation. When seen as preventing a takedown, and practiced as such, one finds only slight modifications needed to make it workable.

Last I will address the Kiu Sao, or one-finger briclip_image006[4]dge hand, common and seen throughout the Hung Gar systems worldwide. The hand position is quite unusual when you are considering that this is supposed to have a martial or fighting application. To form the one-finger bridge hand position, you start with a tiger claw hand position, and raise the index finger. There are differing ideas on the precise thumb position. There are schools that teach that the thumb should be held close to the palm, others teach that it should be outstretched as far as possible from the hand. As the base for the arguments tends to break down into Qi flow and not actual application, I will say that which way is correct is going to depend entirely on what you are teaching as the application. In either case, in application, I strongly recommend that you do not opt to raise the index finger when practicing practical applications. The technique is intended to be used as a strike or a grab (train it both ways). The first time someone grabs your upraised finger, or strikes it, you will understand why.

In the series of techniques from Gung Ji Fuk Fu Kuen form, from which the above photo is taken, there are some great applications to be found. There are a elbows and redirects, and strikes that flow directly off of the redirecting techniques. Fantastic, wonderful, GREAT stuff. But the bottom line that must be understood – for any martial arts application to be useful, it must be practical. And no matter how practical it may be, if it is not trained, it will be useless.

In closing, I will say that I find Hung Gar to be a practical martial art. It does contain things that are for show and street performance, but there is a lot of value to be had for the practical minded martial artist. My advice for any martial artist of any style or background is the same. Find the practical application, and train it extensively. There is no way you will end up regretting the time it takes to learn how to use your style or system the way it is meant to be used.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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March 5, 2012 · 1:35 pm

Overlooked Self-Defense Elements 6: Physical Skills

This is part six of a series of articles where I look at the elements needed for a self-defense or self-protection course to be of real use. In a previous article I listed the required elements as follows:

Physical Skills

The least important element is the most taught (and poorly taught at that).

The physical skills are what you need after everything else has gone wrong. This is where many people who sign up for self-defense classes make their first mistake. All that has been discussed on the previous articles, especially the first four, are the most important information. The information found there is going to be given only the most cursory treatment in a standard self-defense class. They may mention, for example, how important awareness is to personal safety. Then they just might discuss avoiding certain places (and classify that as avoidance), but there will not be much more than a scratching-the-surface type of treatment for either topic. De-escalation is so rarely considered that it is not even touched upon in most standard self-defense courses.

I feel so strongly about this that I am severely tempted to leave this article at that. A strong recommendation to go back and re-read the previous material and visit the recommended websites and books.

But I must give something. I do have people reading this who are not instructors, but are beginners in the martial arts, and they need a full treatment of the subject.

When we take all of the previous information into full consideration, we see that something other than the standard “what to do if someone grabs your wrist” is needed. That falls back on the “one response for one attack” list of techniques, and that will never do. We need to train in something a lot more practical.

You need to train for the common ways that a person will probably attack you. As stated quite clearly by Marc MacYoung, “If you train for what happens most, you’ll be able to handle most of what happens.”

In our current era, everyone and their brother thinks that they are the UFC champ. If you watch a lot of MMA, then you will see most of what they think they can do to you. Speaking in simple terms, they will try to kick you or punch you (or both), they will get close and grab or tackle you. From there they will strike, choke or attempt to joint lock you.  

Put simply, the physical techniques you need to train for are as follows (from Marc MacYoung)

  1. Straight line attacks
  2. Circular Attacks
  3. Take-downs
  4. Chokes and locks

When approached honestly, the list doesn’t need to be any more complicated than this.

In truth, there is no need to separate kicks from hand strikes when they both so easily fit into the categories of straight and circular striking attacks. So if you train to handle straight and circular attacks, you are training against kicks and hand strikes. Take-downs come in many varieties, but most of what you will see is a double-leg takedown (a “spear” for you pro wrestling fans), and a run of the mill football tackle. It would not be necessary in a self-protection class to learn the takedowns, as that turns you into the aggressor, and so you are not at that point acting in self-defense. You do need to train to identify the takedown as early in its initiation as possible, and how to stop it from happening (you don’t want to roll on the ground with the attacker). And we cannot leave chokes off of the list. You need to know how to use them, as they are a relatively safe way to end a fight, and you need to be familiar with the ways to get out of the chokes as well. Locks are not as easy to use as a lot of people seem to think. They take a ton of practice and a lot of time before you can use them the way you imagine.

But to stay on topic, when we are speaking in terms of self-defense and self-protection, you need to remember that choking and locking the other person may not be classified as “self-defense” where you live. You should be looking to

  1. Not get hurt or killed
  2. Extricate yourself from the conflict
  3. Don’t go to jail

Whatever you train needs to address these three needs. Obviously, it isn’t self-protection if you get hurt or killed. But you do need to consider that when the guy attacks you, and through “superior skill and training” you overwhelm his offense and destroy him, in most areas of the U.S. you will be going to jail. In our overly litigious society, you will also probably get sued by the guy you hurt.

This is almost never discussed in the standard self-defense class, but it is terribly important. One self-defense instructor was asked in an interview how he would feel if he found out that someone had used what he taught and actually killed a person, and he matter-of-factly replied, “I’d be okay with it.” This is a blatant disregard for his students. He is okay with them killing a person, when we all know that if you kill someone you will be going to jail. This is far outside of the definition of self-protection.

In closing, I just want to beat an old dead horse a little more. When we speak of self-defense and self-protection, the most important lessons are going to be found in Awareness, Avoidance and De-Escalation. The entire set of “what to do if someone grabs your wrist thusly” is asinine and a complete waste of time.

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March 2, 2012 · 6:43 pm

Overlooked Self-Defense Elements 5: Adrenaline Effects

This is part five of a series of articles where I look at the elements needed for a self-defense or self-protection course to be of real use. In a previous article I listed the required elements as follows:

  • Awareness
  • Avoidance
  • Pre fight indicators (pre-fight rituals)
  • De-escalation
  • Adrenaline effects
  • And last, actual physical skills

Adrenaline Effects

Most people don’t have a clue as to how much the effects of adrenalin will change everything in a given situation. Changes to vision, hearing, memory, visual perception, and motor skills all occur once adrenalin is in the blood. Adrenaline causes many reaction within the body, and the first and most noticeable is the change in heart rate.

In their work The Psychological Effects of Combat (Grossman and Siddle, 1999), they list the following information:

60-80 BPM (Beats Per Minute) – Normal resting heart rate.

115 BPM – Fine motor skill begins to deteriorate.

115 -145 BPM – Optimal Complex motor skills, Visual reaction time, cognitive reaction time.

145 BPM – Complex motor skills deteriorate.

175 BPM – Cognitive processing deteriorates, loss of peripheral vision, loss of depth perception, loss of near vision, auditory exclusion

175 + BPM – Irrational fighting or fleeing, freezing, submissive behavior, vasoconstriction (reduced bleeding), voiding of bladder and bowels, gross motor skills at highest performance levels (Running, charging, etc.)

What does this entire list have to do with what is missing from a standard “Self-Defense “class?

Everything!

Take a look at a standard class teaching something they classify as self-defense. You will see unrealistic attacks (which I will discuss in-depth in a later article), and absurd responses to these attacks. I do not intend to bust any bubbles, but even if the tired old line about “you need to drill these defenses until they are second nature” came into play, the information put forward by Grossman and Siddle will give lie to all of the defenses and the excuse for why it “doesn’t work most of the time”

First off, you need to understand that you are going to cruise right past the 115 BPM rate before you know it. This is important because once fine motor skill begins to deteriorate; your fancy four and five step “self-defense” wrist locks and such are no longer available to you. Then you are in danger of tactical fixation, where you see that your trained response to a crisis is not working, so your monkey brain tries the same response, only harder.

The more scared or surprised you are, the faster the heart rate goes, and just look at what is lost in the range at 175 BPM. Things are falling apart rapidly at this point, and you are in more and more trouble with each passing moment.

Why is this not mentioned in a self-defense class?

The only time adrenaline effects are even mentioned at all are when the class is told in passing that adrenaline is tied to the fight or flight response, neglecting that the fight or flight response is a very complicated field of study!

Dr. Alexis Artwohl, the author of Deadly Force Encounters listed the following statistics for Police Officers who were involved in situations where deadly force was used:

84% experienced diminished sound (auditory exclusion)

 79% experienced tunnel vision (peripheral narrowing)

 74% experienced “automatic pilot” with little or no conscious thought

 71% experienced visual clarity

 62% experienced slow motion time

 52% experienced memory loss for part of the event

 46% experienced memory loss for some of their own behavior

 39% experienced dissociation; sense of detachment or unreality

 26% experienced intrusive distracting thoughts

 21% experienced saw, heard, or experienced memory distortion

 17% experienced fast motion time

 07% experienced temporary paralysis

 Do you think this sort of information has a place in a civilian self-defense class? If you answer “no”, I am sorry, but I must disagree with you.

 Granted, these are trained police officers, and as such, they are going to react differently from most people. After all, they run toward the sound of gunfire, where most rational humans would run away.

 Where I must disagree is in the fact that this information affects the ability of the trainee to actually use what their instructor is selling them as “self-defense”. When violence happens, most people are going to freeze. They don’t want to freeze, so they seek out training in self-protection. Some guy offers a self-defense class and they sign up, pay the fee and get taught how to kill a guy if he grabs their wrist, kill a guy if he puts a hand on their shoulder, how to take a knife away from a person in nineteen simple steps, and then filet him with his own knife,  and how to disarm a gunman when he has a gun pressed against their spine (somehow managing to turn around and execute the disarm before he can move his finger back ½ and inch.

 None of this is practical. And once adrenaline hits the fan, none of it will work. AND even if it did work, you will need a good lawyer to have any hope whatsoever of not going to prison.

To be able to factor in adrenaline and how it affects the body, the self-defense techniques are going to need to use gross body movement. This will overcome one issue, but what can be done about the impairment in the cognitive area? There are some who train and engage the class in a very high stress setting, and this does seem to have some merit. Obviously, there is only so much that can be done to closely simulate an actual assault or rape, and bring the stress levels to a fairly high range. There is always that last step and that last range in stress that cannot be crossed. We cannot teach a student to defend from an assault by assaulting them. There will always be that grey area that the student will wonder about, and remain less than 100% sure that they are fully trained. We have to wonder as well.

 As an instructor, I have to understand that when I teach a self-defense class, the students are placing their hope for safety in my hands, and it is my job to be as sure as possible that I am giving them every possible advantage. When adrenaline hits, it hits hard.

 The biggest point behind this is simple; you need to do all you can to stop a situation from getting to this point. By the time the adrenaline is flowing, you are on rotten ice, and sliding fast.

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February 27, 2012 · 2:38 pm

Overlooked Self-Defense Elements 1: Awareness

This is part one of a series of articles where I look at the elements needed for a self-defense or self-protection course to be of real use. In a previous article I listed the required elements as follows:

  • Awareness
  • Avoidance
  • Pre fight indicators (pre-fight rituals)
  • De-escalation
  • Adrenaline effects
  • And last, actual physical skills

In a standard self-defense class it is only the last skill in which you will receive any training.  For this article we will take a close look at Awareness.

Awareness.

We all know that it is important to be aware of our surroundings, but we need to do more than just notice where the cars are and who the gangster is looking at.

We live in a society bound by the rule of law. Most of us would not kill anyone else even if there were no legal repercussions to such an act; we simply know it is wrong. But there are those people who do not recognize, for whatever reason, the rule of law. These are the people we need to be aware of. In most settings, we do not need to be on edge. At a dinner party at a friend’s house, while everyone is calm and sober, there is no pressing need to be hyper-vigilant, but one can still be aware of what is going on, and with proper training we can develop an ability to spot trouble before it turns into something truly dangerous.

There are other settings where being a bit more vigilant than usual is not only appropriate, it is recommended. One example which should immediately pop into mind is on an airline flight. Prior to the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, there was a standard recommendation of what to do should your plane be hijacked – nothing. Try not to attract attention, do not cause any panic, and above all, don’t try to be a hero. This was because in the pre 9/11 world the terrorists follow a standard script of their own – hijack the plane, have it land in some God-forsaken hell-hole, get a lot of news attention, only kill the people who get your attention, and let the rest go, go to prison in that very hell hole where you landed the plane, and get released after the attention to the event dies down.

All of this changed on September 11th. When the terrorist scumbags crashed the planes into our buildings and a field in Pennsylvania, they changed the rules. No longer can it ever be recommended to sit and do nothing. It is now the duty of every person on a flight that someone is attempting to hijack or bring down to fight and stop the terrorist. The terrorists rely on your fear and compliance. They are brainwashed into believing that what they are doing is good, and they no longer have any fear of dying. They count on your fear to enable them to successfully accomplish their nefarious acts of violence.

In other situations, you still need to be more aware than normal. Shopping malls have been targeted by gunmen before. Sporting events are more dangerous in a post-9/11 world as well. Any time there is a large gathering of people at a well-publicized event, be cautious and vigilant.

One that is not often considered by is traffic. In our super-fast paced lifestyle, the hectic, and stressful slow-moving traffic jam is a dangerous place. Road rage was unheard of in the 70s. Now it is a common term that everyone knows and has had some level of contact with. Is it really worth cutting off the guy who just cut you off in order to flip him off like he did you if there is even an outside chance that he will pull a gun and blow your brains out for it?

It does trouble me to see some of the unsafe habits which are becoming very common. Everywhere I look, I see people walking without even looking where they are going. I do not know how many people I have almost run over when I was driving as they could not be troubled to look away from their phone long enough to see if there was a car coming before they step out into the street.

To make things easier, I have put together a list of awareness tips, and hope it will be of some use!

Put your smart-phone away. I do not know how many times my wife has referred to her i-phone as “my life”. Your smart-phone is not your life, and it never was. And your texts, emails, Facebook and games really can wait a few minutes. No one will die waiting for you to be wherever it is that you are going before making your next “Words With Friends” move. The smart-phone is a complete distraction that makes you far too vulnerable as most people are completely oblivious to anything outside of the phone when they are using it.

Remember you do not rule the highway. We all get frustrated in traffic. I do, as much (and sometimes more) than anyone else. However, we do need to remember that everyone else wants to get where they are going. We are not the ruler of the highway, and the other drivers are under no obligation whatsoever to drive the speed we wish them to drive, move into a different lane to allow us to pass them, or read our minds regarding what we want them to do. I remember in my early twenties, a guy on the highway pulled in front of me and hit his brakes. I got mad, so I whipped around him and did it to him. And then I did it over and over, at least ten times, maybe more. When I think about it now, this was reckless beyond excuse. And this is just one incident among many from that time. I don’t know how I managed to never get shot in a provoked road rage. If you can remember that everyone feels pretty much the same in traffic, but that the “urge-to-kill” feeling will be acted upon by an unknown member of the herd, you might be able to keep your cool and not get shot.

Keep a proper distance when in traffic. This one does not require much explanation. When in traffic, you should be able to see the point where the tires of the car in front of you are touching the road. This applies to self-protection. If the driver in front of you get out of their car in a rage, you will have space to move around their car without backing up. But it also applies to other situations, such as the car in front of you breaks down in the road.

Do not avoid eye contact when a stranger seems to be approaching. I strongly advise against staring at a stranger, but making eye contact is not going to hurt. What can get you hurt is if you pretend to not see them and they perceive that as fear. Be confident, notice them, and move your gaze elsewhere while still keeping them in view. Don’t be afraid to look and see who is where and what they are doing. This is self-protection and shows a self-confidence that will deter some bad guys.

Do not be ashamed to ask for security to escort you to your vehicle. There is no shame in asking for security to escort you out, especially if something just doesn’t feel right. Speaking as someone who has worked security before, it feels good to do that for people. It is what we think of when we take a job working security. I hated the endless hours of walking perimeter, and felt great when I was asked to see someone safely to their car.

If you feel suspicious, go with it. There is no need to justify or examine why you feel suspicious in a given circumstance while you are still in said circumstance. The feeling is there, it may be nothing, but it could be well founded. Examine it later when you are home safe and sound. We all have our primate survival instincts, and we have been taught to think every situation to death. Skip the analysis and follow what your instincts tell you.

 

There is my short list on Awareness. I would like some feedback on what may be missing from this list if anyone would like to chime in!

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February 22, 2012 · 1:24 pm

We Sharpen Saws: An essay on the truth of self defense classes

In the mid 90s, I had a martial arts club that was doing well enough that I was able to move out of the rec center where we were holding classes and into a storefront space. Like anyone starting out, I had little money, and more ideas than I could ever hope to bring to reality. I didn’t know where to start with everything. Once I leased the space, I decided I needed business cards. I don’t know why I thought business cards were such a priority, but at the time it seemed more important than other forms of advertising. So, I went to a local print shop and ordered my first set of business cards.

Waiting for them to arrive was difficult, as I was more than a little excited about my new school. When they were printed, I went to pick them up, and my excitement faded fast. Right there on my brand new business cards:

 

Smedley Martial Arts

Hung Gar Kung Fu

Group Classes – Private Instruction

“We Sharpen Saws”

 

 Yes. Right there…”We Sharpen Saws”.

They offered to print a new set when I pointed out the error. But they also made an offer that the eternally cash strapped me could not turn down, I could take the cards with the error for half price.

So that was how I ended up handing out cards all over Austin offering martial arts instruction and joking about how I don’t really sharpen saws. The business cards were brought up to me in conversation by a student from that time when we ended up in a conversation about false advertising. He joked about how if I handed those out now, someone would file a lawsuit against me for false advertising.

How many martial arts instructors actually take the time to study and see if what they are claiming to offer is truly what they provide?

One easy example is the claim of “Self Defense Classes”.

In the traditional martial arts there are many different views as to what is the best method of self-defense. One will find entire schools and systems dedicated to one small aspect of fighting and laying claim to that system or school’s supremacy in the world of self-defense.

But one must ask which school or method is correct? Obviously, they cannot all be correct, as they are all claiming superiority.

In order to come close to answering this question, we must first determine what self-defense really is.

Speaking in specificity, self-defense is a very narrowly defined legal term. Throughout the world, there are different interpretations of the term, but what is clear is this; most of what is taught as “self-defense” in the United States is in legal terms, assault. What most people are looking for in a “self-defense” class is training in self-protection.

Throughout the USA, there are seminars and classes taught every day on the subject of self-defense. In the vast majority of these classes, the students are taught a specific response to a specific attack. Those who choose the path of the traditional martial arts will have a longer road, but the same outline when it comes to their method of self-defense; attack A requires response B.

Violence comes in so many different varieties and levels of intensity that there is no way that any rational person should ever be duped into believing that this attack/response scenario is even remotely workable in the real world.

Let us take a moment to examine what we should know when it comes to self-defense.

The most glossed over, least taught, and grossly unexamined aspect of self-defense is also the most important: Awareness.

Through practice in simply being aware of your surroundings and your environment, you will be able to avoid most “self-defense” situations in the first place.

But, if this is the most important aspect of self-defense training, why is it not taught?

The answer is simple, there is little to no market for it.

When a martial arts school offers self-defense classes as a sideline business, they need to make money off of it or they will not continue to teach it. When people sign up for a self-defense class, they have the attack/response training in mind before they sign up. If they do not get what they think they wanted, then word will spread that “Southside Dojo’s Self Defense training is worthless! He just tells you to keep your eyes open for any trouble…”

Just as important, and every bit as ignored, is training in avoidance. For those few situations where you didn’t see the trouble coming, simple strategies in the field of avoidance and de-escalation will carry you through. If you have any clue that they are available.

But as was the case with awareness, there isn’t a big market for avoidance and de-escalation strategies. Marc MacYoung is one of the best teachers in the world in this field, but he has not yet gotten rich through teaching it.

The duality of martial arts “philosophy” and “self-defense” training is largely unexamined. We martial artists hold firmly that we are not looking for a fight; we are peaceful warriors, and so on. Yet we are taught and we teach that if someone grabs your wrist, you need to twist and lock the attacker’s wrist, destroy the knee joint with a kick, snake the arm around their neck and with a sharp snap, break their neck, thus ending their life of wrist grabbing crime. 

This is more than confusing, it is dangerous. In the real world, if someone attacks you, even if they have a weapon, there is a fine line between self-defense and assault. Much of what is taught as self-defense by self-professed experts will be classified as assault by the police in nearly every area of the U.S. Yet this excessive use of force is what is taught and drilled repeatedly in martial arts schools across the country every single day.

Even worse than this is the fact that most of these “experts” have little to no experience in real world violence. Their exposure is limited to what they see on TV and in the movies. One fact that you should never lose sight of is this – movies and TV shows are not even close to accurate depictions of real violence. Soldiers, Police, Corrections officers, and criminals can tell you about real violence. Mr. Black Belt over at any-town Dojo does not have the real world experience, unless he worked in one of the previously listed professions, to teach you anything about violence. In my admittedly limited experience, I can only tell you that real violence is fast, ugly, very scary, and very messy. Nothing you do in the Dojo will prepare you for what is out there.

So, what good are self-defense courses and classes?

They are good for a confidence boost. I hold the opinion that anything that gets people off of their butt and moving around cannot be all bad. However, when you sell people something under the term of self-defense, and it is really something that could place them directly in jail should they ever follow your teachings; I have serious issues with that.

Critical thinking has a very crucial role in the martial arts and self-defense. It is a very common occurrence in martial arts schools around the world that the students check their intellectual freedom at the door. The instructor’s word is law, and this law must be followed. The teachings must be accepted, even when they have no basis in fact.

This becomes especially dangerous when we tread into the field of study of self-defense. Most people, when asked, will claim that they are not, in fact, giving up their intellectual freedom, they are following the teachings of an expert.

This brings us right back to where we left off. How do you define an expert in self-defense? Is it going to be someone who has survived thousands of drunken bar fights? Someone who has to fight through muggers, rapists and ninjas on their way home from work every day? How does one become an expert in self-defense? Do you really become an expert in self-defense through training in a dojo?

Typically, the answer is a resounding “NO” you do not become an expert in self-defense training in your typical dojo.

To truly gain real world self-defense skills and self-protection skills, you will need to train against more than a wrist grab. At the very least, you need to study the following:

  • Awareness
  • Avoidance
  • Pre fight indicators (pre-fight rituals)
  • De-escalation
  • Adrenalin effects
  • And last, actual physical skills

Please note that it is only the last skill in which you will receive any training during the typical self-defense seminar.   

Bottom line: Before you place your trust in the hands of an instructor, be armed with the power to critically examine what you are taught. Critical thinkers do not take someone’s word for it on any subject. We are interested in fact, and want to know the truth. The truth may not be what we like, or wanted to hear, but it is always better to be armed with the facts.

For more information on this topic, go to my links page and check some of the websites listed.

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February 7, 2012 · 3:04 pm

Use and Training: Understanding a Dichotomy

When we practice martial arts, we must always keep in mind two very different concepts. These concepts are use and training. In this article I am going to look at the two concepts, and try to walk away with a better understanding of both. While the old adage states, “The way you practice is the way you perform”, is this really what we are looking for in the Chinese martial arts?

When I am speaking of practice, for the purposes of this article, I am speaking about the training of forms in general and the techniques within the forms specifically. In Hung Gar, as well as any other martial art, when we practice forms, we may have an idea of what the different techniques mean, but there are times when we may wonder if it is really effective (especially when we first enter the world of practical and real-time application).

Take for example a technique called by various names, but the title I was taught is “Black Tiger Emerges from a Cave”. Seen here:

In this technique there are several questions which must be answered before one can understand the application. Why is the bottom hand positioned with the wrist at that angle as opposed to bent to another angle or straight? Why are the fingers curled the way they are? Why are the elbows positioned that way? Would any changes to the wrist, elbow, or hand positions render this technique useless?

One often overlooked and extremely important note is that situation is going to determine use, and the use is going to determine correct and incorrect.

In the above posted technique, if the upper hand is being used to deliver a strike, then the wrist of the striking hand is going to need to be bent back as shown, and the fingers are outstretched in order to avoid jamming or breaking them. If the top hand is being used to redirect a limb of the opponent, then the fingers are going to need to be curled a little more than they are shown, as well as the thumb needing to be placed a little further out from the palm. There are a host of questions that need to be asked about the bottom hand and the stance as well. But I think this point is made.

Too often, people get stuck with the idea that stances are for training leg strength. True, this is something that training in stances does give you. But there is so much more to be had, and in order to reach higher levels of understanding, one must let go of some concepts that have become very commonplace.

One must destroy the idea that stances are in any way intended to be static postures. They are not. Stances are transitional postures. I cringe when I hear people claim that stances are not used in fighting because they are just a method of training the strength of the legs. If there is nothing more to stances than that, why not simply hit the gym and do leg presses a few times per week, and gain much more leg strength in less time, and drop their use in forms altogether? The stances are transitional postures that allow for the maximum transfer of power into the opponent through the technique. Stance is essential in how we generate power in our techniques. In the forms the stances are there to allow us an understanding through experience as to exactly how stances factor in to the generation of power in the techniques. To stay that the stance is only to build leg strength is to show one’s ignorance. In the traditional martial arts, the stances were put there for a reason. The reason may vary slightly from style to style, but in general it will be tied to strategy and maximum transfer of power. The choice of which stance follows which is going to be tied to the idea of the footwork needed in order to properly position yourself and make the system’s overall strategy come alive and be effective.

Through the practice of forms, we train the style or system. The mere rote practice of forms can be compared to buying a book on…I don’t know…theoretical physics. You can have the book, read it every day and so on. But until you attend a class where a professor starts to explain what is in the book, and how it all ties together, all you are going to have is superficial understanding (at best), and no real in-depth knowledge.

Another point often missed is that the way a technique looks when performed correctly in a form will not always be the way it looks when correctly used in application.

For example, correct in a form (speaking on Hung Gar) is going to be a solid, wide and low stance, shoulders in a specific position relative to the position of the hips, etc. In application, correct is going to have to do with the details of timing, and distance in relation to where the opponent is (and what he is doing), how you deal with the attacking limbs of the opponent and position yourself to deliver your attack while maneuvering into a position which makes his attack impossible or at least very difficult to pull off, etc. The stances will remain important for structural purposes and delivery of force.

There is a dichotomy. But when we understand the value given to us, there is no need to act as if there is a problem. Provided the instructor is knowledgeable enough to explain how and why the use (application) will differ from the training (forms or techniques), there is no problem.

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February 4, 2012 · 2:08 pm

A Martial View From Beyond 40

When a martial artist reaches the age of 40, does everything really change that much?

 I turned 42 last year. I don’t really feel all that different from how I felt even five years ago. So it is not really the actual number 40 that matters, but age happens and things do change as we age. In this article I am going to go over some of the changes that have happened for me, and how they have affected my training, my outlook, and my philosophy on martial arts and conflict.

Training

When I practice now, I look more for injury prevention than I did when I was in my teens, 20s, and even early 30s. Through my teen years, we trained in garages and carports, on concrete. Our padding was plain ordinary cardboard (which, for the record, provides no padding at all; it just prevents the skin from splitting open on impacts as easily as it would on bare concrete). Even as a teenager, I got out of bed slowly, because as any old school martial artist can tell you – when you are true old school, something always hurts. Through my 20s, I remember beating my arms and legs with bundled wire, soaking my fists in herbs and water as hot as I could tolerate, and doing other stupid things. I am sure this type of masochistic training took its toll on me, but I really have no serious training injuries that plague me, except for the back pain, and that could just as easily have been caused by the years of working construction, or the years working as a pro wrestler as well, so I cannot be quick to blame that pain on old school martial arts.

I have met martial artists who claim that they never even bruised when they were in their 20s. I cannot make that claim, as I had bruises all of the time. But I can note that the bruises were gone in a couple of days, and that is far from the case now. When I get bruise now, they are there for days, and in some cases, more than a week. So this does cause me to space the higher impact workouts a little further apart. Or I could simply walk around as one big bruise…I do love being the center of attention.

The bruises, however, are not what bother me. The other injuries are my issue. Pulled and strained muscles are much more frequent, and my back gives me constant grief while my knees cry out for daily attention by swelling up to the point where after my hour-long drive home from work every day, they are swollen up to the point where it looks like I am smuggling coconuts in them.

This is the type of concern that causes me to tailor a workout around the idea of injury prevention, where before I used at most some simple caution when there was an activity that carried a little more risk. I have all but stopped working out in situations where there was someone else in charge of the class. This is not out of knowing better than they do, but more out of knowing that I am going to do whatever they ask the class to do, and more than likely they will ask the class to do something that is no longer part of my skill set, and I will get hurt in trying.

My latest issue is in how my low back pain stops some of my workouts before they get going. I have three disks in my lower back that are in varying stages of destruction, and the pain is typically at levels that would hurt rocks. I have to take it slower in the warm up stage of the workout, and the warm up has to be an extended warm up. I hate spending time on my least favorite part of a workout, but the choice is that or miss a few days trying to recover from another pulled muscle.

Outlook

As a person ages their thoughts on many subjects do evolve. There are some things that were a foundation for my life that are no longer a part of my views. Other things have changed. As we are trying to stay on the topic of martial arts, I will focus strictly on that area.

When I was younger, I viewed all training as something that furthered the ability of the trainee. Not so anymore. As I see things now, the trainee must have a clear view of what they are training for, and must not delude themselves into thinking that the other fields of study in the martial arts are enhanced or even learned through study in your own preferred field or specialty.

An example is simple, when I was in my 20s, I was beyond convinced that my practice of Taekwondo sparring was enhancing my self-protection skills. Of course, at this stage of my life, I know it did nothing of the sort. I am quite thankful that I was never attacked by the criminal element during that stage of my life. But every day there are people who get the rude awakening. It is delusional to think that tightly controlled and rule bound tournament sparring is anything more than very remotely related to self-protection against a criminal attacker. There is absolutely nothing wrong with training for a sport karate tournament, or a judo tournament, as long as the instructor makes clear, and you fully understand that the skills you are learning only partially transfer into the setting of self-protection. When you factor in all that happens when the adrenaline hits, all of the techniques that require fine motor skills are gone, you had best have some training in something that is simple and strong.

When I practice now, I no longer have tournaments in mind. I stopped competing in tournament a long time ago, and have never looked back. Well, that isn’t true. I look back a lot. My tournament days were a lot of fun, and I got to meet and compete against some very talented and wonderful people. But I do not regret no longer training with the tournament perspective.

Another outlook that has changed is the ultimate warrior mindset. As a teen I bought into the entire line of BS about being able to be transformed into a super ultimate fighting machine if I trained in the right system and followed the right master. As a mature martial artist (read “old man”), I understand that we train to better ourselves and that the person matters more than the style. Most mature martial artists would agree on that though.

Philosophy

I was quite the hot-head when I was young. I had certain ideas that shaped a lot of my philosophy in martial arts for a very long time.

For example, I advocated for many years that every child should be taught martial arts, and still feel that way today. But I didn’t stop there. I wanted them to be taught the brutal, bone breaking and eye gouging stuff! Pretty strange for me to think about being where I am now and teaching what I teach, but in my younger days I was still closely tied to the severe incidents of bullying that warped my worldview for too long. While I was what one might call a “victim” of bullies in 7th and 8th grade, the antics of that crew was literally child’s play compared to what waited for me beyond. My life was a wide-awake nightmare for many years. It didn’t stop until my skills grew to the point where I was able to fight off a bully, get him in an arm bar and rip his shoulder out of joint. The group started leaving me alone and turned their attention elsewhere. This was what led me to believe that the key to ending bullying was to teach the kids to destroy the bully. As I have become more distant to the incident and much better educated on the legal aspects of such antics in our modern world, I teach kids to follow the rules. I teach them that fighting really isn’t going to help them, and I teach them how to take the heat out of a situation before it turns to fighting.

One last note, and I would like to hear from other over 40 martial artists on this. Is it strange to take comfort in the thought that the me today could easily tear apart the me at 25 years old?

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