Forms: their core purpose by Dan Djurdjevic

This is a great article on forms and their core purpose across various martial disciplines. Read slowly and carefully, lots of great insights here.

The Way of Least Resistance- Forms: their core purpose

MMA is Bullshit-Master Ken speaks

This is hilarious, Master Ken does it again!!

Ameri-Do-Te's Master Ken: just awesome!! 

Girl vs Guy in Vale Tudo match

Check out this video link, the guy obviously underestimated his opposition because of her gender and look where it got him LOL!! For women and small men this is a great reminder: don't give up before the fight starts out of fear of being smaller or weaker. If you have heart, are ruthless and keep your head you can beat the odds and survive an attack.
Girl vs Guy in Vale Tudo fight

Martial artist or martial arts practitioner?

     As we become older and experience and learning make their imprint on our self we tend to think deeper about things... ideas we held firmly in our twenty's can become quite blurry and not so black-and-white in our forty's. Introspective analysis of one's ego and what makes it tick is a bit easier once our lives have been simmered in time, hardships and achievement. Not too easy, mind you: the ego tends to fight very hard at asserting its dominance over our thoughts and feelings but with discipline, training and an open mind a person can unshackle itself from the worst of its chains.

     I have been spending quite a bit of time thinking of what the martial arts have meant to me over the years, the needs that drove me to pursue them in hopes of them turning me into something other than what I was.  More importantly, do the arts still fulfill those needs or have my needs changed so that their study is not as relevant as it once was? Have I become the martial artist I once aspired to be, or was I ever one? And what does that make me if I am not?

It is true I guess, but it's still hard to do...

     Take a look at this excerpt from an article on what it means to be a martial artist:

"A Martial Artist is not a title or rank or certification. A Martial Artist may not even be a black belt.

A Martial Artist is a WAY of being that lives in the soul of the person. There is no ego. There is no trying to be a Martial Artist. One just is.

The Martial Artist places the Art above himself/herself, wishing and needing no credit or reward for the work. It is a work of love, not labor.

To become a Martial Artist takes time and a maturity that can not be rushed. One grows and matures into a Martial Artist as a seed grows to become a Redwood over many years. While many seeds may be planted, few grow into a martial Artist. There is no trying, just living and doing. There is no talking about it, but rather a modest self awareness in the doing.

While others may refer to someone as a Martial Artist, a Martial Artist would not refer to themselves as a Martial Artist because that is ego. He/she is the essence or spirit of the Martial Art itself, living the art naturally, effortlessly and completely.

The tenets of the martial art are not written on the wall for others to read, but lived by the Martial Artist for others to see and emulate.

The Martial Artist embodies the best of the martial arts in everything he/she does."

Above By Master Edward Rugh

What is A Martial Artist?

     Sounds deep, mystical and enlightened doesn't it? Master Po could have written this... I like the overall message of the article as I find myself at a point in my life where the actual use of empty hand skill is quite remote (I work with computers and machines, have a wife and four children that keep me quite busy, and don't get out much at night since that's the time I am at work). There were times in the past though that a job required the training necessary for not only defending myself but restraining others without causing excessive injury. But now? I spend my nights off trying to catch up on all the sleep I have missed during the week.

     When I was twelve years old I had my first lesson at an ITF dojang; it was a surprise from my parents for my birthday. While I would have preferred a ninjutsu school (ninja craze was in full swing in 1982), in Puerto Rico there were very few choices near me (and my dojang was quite a trip for me, I had to take a bus and walk a couple miles to get to it). Can you remember the first time you put on a pristine white gi and tied the obi around your waist, the giddy feeling you had of being just BETTER by virtue of such awesome uniform and all the magnificent possibilities it represented? Images of flying kicks, somersaulting over ten foot walls, grinding massive stones to powder with a punch... I wanted to become the best martial artist EVER!!

     Then, reality check.

     I trained hard, practiced at home for hours, kicked banana trees and struck sand buckets with nukite strikes... never was I able to somersault over anything though, and breaking was limited to boards (I did try to break concrete bricks with shuto, but soon gave that up).  Slowly it dawned on me that maybe, just maybe there was a lot of smoke and mirrors regarding martial arts (I didn't want to call it bullshit just yet, I was young and still had hopes).

No gliding on treetops during a sword fight for me, I should have trained harder!!

     As I grew older and saw the true abilities martial arts practice could develop, I pursued other systems in search of one that fit my ideas of what a martial artist should be. I still harbored the wish that I could learn the secrets of Five Venoms Toad style and be invulnerable to weapons; or that I could master the Hands of Death as Lo Lieh did. But I have had the opportunity to meet some great practitioners whose abilities border on the incredible, and their skills are real. My mindset moved slowly away from the fantastical and focused more on the practical uses of martial arts. The biggest change came when I started security work, and I learned from experience that a lot of what I thought would work most definitely sucked anywhere except a training hall. Being able to break stuff with your hands is pretty useless when you are supposed to restrain someone without hurting them, even if they are fully intending to do just that to you.  Legal ramifications of the job made me change my training focus and so I attended defensive tactics training and aikido to give me better skills at handling such threats.  I was not thinking much about the "do" aspects of what I was doing; only that whatever techniques I chose would protect me and others while keeping with force continuum policies of my employers. 

     Court defensible take down & restraint techniques are a main component of defensive tactics training

     In 2000 I discovered Isshin ryu karate, and my search for a core art was over.  This Okinawan martial art, with its simple yet sensible approach to fighting, became my field of study and I spent three to four hours a day, four times per week at the dojo either as assistant instructor for younger/beginner belts or as part of the yudansha class. I went to work, got out and went to the dojo and stayed there until closing. There was nowhere else I wanted to be; many of the other members were black belts in other systems (Kempo, Judo and other karate systems) and we spent hours debating over differences in training, techniques, bunkai and kata. If there was ever a time when I thought of myself as a martial artist, this was the time. 

     When our teacher retired and closed the school, I decided to train on my own for a while. After all, I had a wealth of material to digest and experiment with, and I wanted to combine what I had learned into an effective synergistic system (for my own study and application mind you, not to create the next Super Martial Art System).  Soon afterward my youngest son was born, and as anyone who has been a father can attest to  there was no time for, well, anything but him. 

     Fast forward eight years... finding myself with the opportunity and time to train again in a more structured form rather than sporadic sessions when I had the energy to do so, I nonetheless feel no particular rush to join anywhere or anything. I have checked out some places, yes, and even started training in jujutsu. However this has been more in learning a new set of skills for rounding out my knowledge than a particular need to know how to fight someone on the ground or getting ready for some MMA fight.  If I practice just for the sake of practice, does that make me a wannabe martial artist? I don't think of training as a vehicle to self development in the way some think of budo, a person can find many other ways to better themselves physically, mentally and emotionally. My mother has never had a martial arts class, but she is a devout Catholic and lives more in line with the spirit of budo than others who toil at their martial classes in search of enlightenment. 

     Maybe I don't need to be a martial artist to be a better person, but the path the arts follow is one I can identify with. Finding my own way with my training is but one way; it isn't a straight line, but there are lessons in the winding of the path. I have come to terms with the fact that I might not be living the ideal of a martial artist, but trying everyday to incorporate the precepts of being one in what I do is in itself something to strive for. After all, isn't the journey on the path itself more important than the destination? 

What do you consider yourself, a martial artist or a practitioner? Does it matter? Why does it matter?

     

   

On combat strategy...

This is an article on strategy given to me by Sensei Horowitz, an Isshin ryu teacher who also worked as a corrections officer in Newark NJ. His fighting style was simple and tough, no fancy stuff; the lessons learned  are just as valid today as they were back then.

http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B2d-uTFIGmvJZGM5NGI3ZGEtNzExNi00YTdiLTg5ODAtYmNlMWQyMmFhZDJi&hl=en

Amara Arkanis basic forms: 8-directions, Abakada & Abecedario

Below is a link to a video of Mataw Guro Lou Lledo and his students demonstrating the basic lessons of the Filipino martial system of Amara Arkanis. Mataw Guro Lledo is one of the most knowledgeable instructors I have ever met, versed in not only various FMA systems but Goju ryu karate, kyokushinkai and kung fu, as well as having served as a police & military defensive tactics instructor. Thanks to his student Christian Herrera for producing and sharing this excellent introduction to Mataw Guro's art.

FMA Basic Lessons: 8-Directions, Abakada & Abecedario

PS: video is unlisted so could not make Blogger insert the video; just click on the link above and enjoy!!!

Ground fighting: do we really need it?

     For quite some time now there has been an ever growing trend in the martial arts to incorporate ground fighting techniques into training programs everywhere. From the UFC dominance by Brazilian jujutsu fighters in its early years, to the US Army modeling their latest Combatives system on BJJ, to the rise of MMA as the "hot" thing to do... martial arts practitioners everywhere hold many of these systems as the most "realistic" and "complete" self defense systems available. Many of these claim their superiority by the amount of fights won in a ring or match by their exponents, or how effective they have shown to be against one on one encounters. The effectiveness of "traditional" martial arts and their teaching methods are disregarded as ineffective, antiquated and time consuming. How are we to consider the claims made by both groups?

MMA knockouts of 2010

Brazilian jujutsu vs karate

From the Bubishi, note several grappling techniques

     My own martial experience has been primarily on stand up systems (TKD and Isshin ryu karate, gung fu,  aikido and defensive tactics) which rely on percussion techniques (strike/punch/kick) along with some joint locking and throws. Ground work consisted mainly on how to disengage as quickly as possible and stand up to continue the fight. Even during aikido training the emphasis was to use ukemi (falling and tumbling drills) to survive throws without incurring injury, even at fast speed.

     Yoshinkan aikido ukemi drills

     I have always known my ground fighting ability is very limited and unsophisticated by "modern" standards; elbows, knees, groin grabs and biting will not win any contest where rules are involved although they might save me on the street. Furthermore, my size and natural sense of balance has always made it hard for others to unbalance or throw me. Of course, that worked quite well against people not specifically trained to bring one down into the ground and take the offensive while there.  The couple times I tangled with someone skilled (a college level wrestler one time, a judo nidan on another) I was totally out of my element, and even though I could delay a takedown, it was only a matter of time before I was off my feet.

     The focus of my training for most of my life, especially during the years I worked corporate security, was to restrain and hold a person if necessary, or take them out if not.  Remaining mobile was paramount, what with the possibility of multiple attackers, weapons, having to protect another person, etc.  Going to ground was a big no-no in my strategic outlook, and it still is.  There is a big difference between knowing how to win a ground fight where it's only you and an opponent; on the street, where others might get involved, the ground could be littered with glass or debris and knives and sticks are being used I do not want to remain in one spot for any length of time. My #1 rule for the moment when your awareness has failed you and physical confrontation is imminent: mobility is LIFE. Whether to gain higher terrain, find an escape route or keep several guys to get a hold on you, you must be able to move, and unless you are very adept at chinese dog boxing (a specialized ground fighting style) being on the ground precludes all those options. 

     Gou Quan (Dog Boxing)

      That being said, my recent training in jujutsu has brought an appreciation for the usefulness of ground fighting skills, especially in one-on-one situations where a person might surprise you and manage to get you down to the floor.  I still prefer to do my fighting standing, but the chance of being thrown is always present whether you face an irate drunkard or a trained MMA practitioner. Jujutsu has many techniques for controlling and throwing a person, as well as locks and chokes to be applied while on the ground. I would recommend the Kodokan Judo Goshin Jutsu form as a staple of a short self defense program, along with some training to regain the initiative if thrown down so as to escape or control an attacker. For law enforcement officers ground techniques can allow control of a suspect without unduly injuring him/her while avoiding legal repercussions and excessive force accusations.  Same for anyone who has to deal with altercations of a one-on-one nature, whether in a hospital, a bar, or correctional facilities.  

    The problem is, how much do we need ground fighting skills? How do we determine what degree of proficiency is needed to accomplish our ends?  In my case, being that I do not work in an environment where I find my physical persona attacked on a regular basis, to invest a lot of time gaining superlative skill at fighting on the ground is not a necessity.  Rather, it is a sort of academic pursuit, learning for the sake of learning and improving current skills and adding new ones.  I might have learned new ways to defend myself on the ground, but I have not trained long enough to unseat behavior learned over several decades and if caught unawares I would most likely revert to rapid fire knees and elbows to get some damage in so I can regain a standing position. Being that I am no longer restrained by the necessity of controlling someone without causing excessive damage (not that it is ok to hurt someone if you are a civilian, but if you work in the protection or security field the liability issues add a new level of complexity to everything) the need for highly specialized knowledge of ground fighting is not as important as it might have once been.  

Jujutsu in the old days, keeping it simple

     What about civilian self defense?  So many statistics have been mentioned on just how many fights end up on the ground, it is hard to determine exactly what kind of fights were involved in these. Were they drunken brawls, robberies or assaults? Were there only two persons involved, or many? Putting the numbers aside, the requirements for civilian defense are very different than those of law enforcement or protective personnel.  A civilian is concerned with getting away unharmed, and all tactics, strategies and training should focus on this as the main goal.  Most people will not have the time or inclination to spend a lot of time learning (or retaining for that matter) any overly complicated techniques. What looks so awesome on the octagon can be utterly impossible for someone to do when taken by surprise... 

Krav Maga has the right idea IMO when it comes to ground fighting

     Simple and direct techniques, easily learned and retained with a modicum of training should be the core of civilian defense systems.  Ground fighting techniques that should be a part of such a system would include how to maintain a top mount position as well as getting to it from disadvantageous ones such as being on the bottom or with your back taken; elbow and knee strikes to create space to gain your footing and run; front and rear naked chokes (only if one opponent is involved, don't hang around someone's neck when others are coming for you); some  leg and arm lock techniques for controlling or disabling a person so they cannot follow you easily as you make your escape. Groin grabs, eye gouges,spitting and biting, all the dirty but goodies... weapons like knives being part of the mix. Always thinking of the worst possible scenario... because that is just what you might get.  

     Jujutsu has immensely improved my defensive skills, not so much in a technical sense (too short a time training to be any good) but in the way I see how throws, locks and submissions both standing and on the ground should be incorporated with my self defense training and needs.  By being more cognizant of proper use of ground fighting within a street self defense scenario I can concentrate on what works best, rather than spend my training time on things more suited for a ring or the mat.  No matter what martial discipline you choose to study, cross training can only help improve your abilities and chances at survival; it is critical however that whatever you incorporate to your bag of tricks doesn't end up playing tricks on you... and leave you on the ground in a world of hurt.