[quote]rasturai wrote:
yo dymdez whats goin on with the situation? you knock in some skulls yet? lol[/quote]
I returned back to the original gym, and I havent seen him. I think my powerlifting partner had some words for him. And being a national winner in his weight/age class I think he was rather convincing. Yea havent seen him, the wife or daughter lately. Which is a good thing, I just learned that the daugher is 16 years old (swear to god she looks in her 20s. fuck modern cosmetics)
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Glad to hear this. Amazing shit can get solved without anybody going to jail, ain’t it?
LOL. Everybody thinks boxing’s so damn easy until they get in there. Shit ain’t like it looks, is it now?
And for god’s sake- you do need to learn an uppercut no matter how tall you are. It’s one of the most brutally powerful shots in the arsenal, and if you do it right you’re dropping down at least six inches before you throw it anyway.
If a guy has his hands covering his face, the only way to split the defense is with an uppercut.
Watch teh end of this fight, where Kelly Pavlik, the taller fighter, ends up demolishing Jermain Taylor with two uppercuts that put him out.
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I was going to say almost exactly this, so I’ll just give Irish the +1 and say this:
You need the uppercut and the hook, correct and with power, to be a good boxer. It doesn’t matter how tall you are, the other guy can be as tall or taller (especially if you eventually compete). And yes, learning the speedbag sucks, especially if you thought you’d go in there and look like Ali your first day. You’re paying a pro a lot of money, but it sounds like he knows what he’s doing (hooks, uppercuts, and jumprope, none of which you see to have been specifically looking for). Sparring hurts a lot less once you learn to keep your hands up and your chin down, trust me. Keep it up, it’s not easy but it is worthwhile.
I was going to say almost exactly this, so I’ll just give Irish the +1 and say this:
You need the uppercut and the hook, correct and with power, to be a good boxer. It doesn’t matter how tall you are, the other guy can be as tall or taller (especially if you eventually compete). And yes, learning the speedbag sucks, especially if you thought you’d go in there and look like Ali your first day. You’re paying a pro a lot of money, but it sounds like he knows what he’s doing (hooks, uppercuts, and jumprope, none of which you see to have been specifically looking for). Sparring hurts a lot less once you learn to keep your hands up and your chin down, trust me. Keep it up, it’s not easy but it is worthwhile.[/quote]
Thanks (and thx Irish)
Any ideas why I feel awkward and weak generating a left hook (I’m right handed), my right hook is illnasty, but my left is pathetic, I actually missed the glove my first try, hit the guy dead on in the face, full force, and he didnt even flinch. He goes “yea thatll happen”
I was going to say almost exactly this, so I’ll just give Irish the +1 and say this:
You need the uppercut and the hook, correct and with power, to be a good boxer. It doesn’t matter how tall you are, the other guy can be as tall or taller (especially if you eventually compete). And yes, learning the speedbag sucks, especially if you thought you’d go in there and look like Ali your first day. You’re paying a pro a lot of money, but it sounds like he knows what he’s doing (hooks, uppercuts, and jumprope, none of which you see to have been specifically looking for). Sparring hurts a lot less once you learn to keep your hands up and your chin down, trust me. Keep it up, it’s not easy but it is worthwhile.[/quote]
Thanks (and thx Irish)
Any ideas why I feel awkward and weak generating a left hook (I’m right handed), my right hook is illnasty, but my left is pathetic, I actually missed the glove my first try, hit the guy dead on in the face, full force, and he didnt even flinch. He goes “yea thatll happen”
[/quote]
Not having seen you throw it, I’m guessing you don’t pivot the same when you throw your left as you do your right. It could be some combination of your left being your front foot, and your left being your weak side. Arm strength shouldn’t factor into it, most of the power in the hook comes from your core and your legs. Doing some southpaw bag work might help, or it might just help you avoid the real problem. I’m assuming your coach knows your left is weak, and will get to it in due time. There’s only so much material you can absorb at once, so it’s better to go with your coach’s training plan than to try to jump ahead. If it really concerns you, bring it up with him and see what he says.
[quote]Dymdez wrote:
Any ideas why I feel awkward and weak generating a left hook (I’m right handed), my right hook is illnasty, but my left is pathetic, I actually missed the glove my first try, hit the guy dead on in the face, full force, and he didnt even flinch. He goes “yea thatll happen”
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I have absolutely no idea.
I’m a southpaw, but my right (lead) hook is nasty and powerful. My left hook is nonexistant, I don’t even throw it, but that’s because my shoulder is held together by the grace of God.
Rocky Marciano once said that your lead hand does 80 percent of the offense and your back hand 20… so get that right hook working. It’s closest to your opponent, which makes it more effecitve.
walk into a boxing gym and you will have your endurance stamina and strength furiously pounded until you are up to a good level of conditioning. you wont learn how to be a good enough fighter to defend yourself against a beast in a week or even a month. although i do suggest you start now for future conflicts
for solving this problem, forget all the kung fu keep it simple. get your boxing stance down and work on your right cross. in streetfights a technical, fast and powerful right cross will drop most opponents. learn to throw a counter right. (for example he takes a shot at u with his right hand, you simultaneously block it with your left protecting your chin, and throw a right of your own. In streetfights most people come in and throw a wild right,sometimes two or three. countering it will open him up for whatever you want to follow it up with.
unless hes a trained fighter. in which case, stay humble and walk away.
[quote]FuriousFists wrote:
walk into a boxing gym and you will have your endurance stamina and strength furiously pounded until you are up to a good level of conditioning. you wont learn how to be a good enough fighter to defend yourself against a beast in a week or even a month. although i do suggest you start now for future conflicts
for solving this problem, forget all the kung fu keep it simple. get your boxing stance down and work on your right cross. in streetfights a technical, fast and powerful right cross will drop most opponents. learn to throw a counter right. (for example he takes a shot at u with his right hand, you simultaneously block it with your left protecting your chin, and throw a right of your own. In streetfights most people come in and throw a wild right,sometimes two or three. countering it will open him up for whatever you want to follow it up with.
unless hes a trained fighter. in which case, stay humble and walk away.[/quote]
Thanks, much love for practical advice… In cases of fights, where people just flail their punches like mad men, will boxing eventually teach me how to counter this? I see it a lot, fights where it’s just fast flailing and hoping to hit.
yeah, definately. when i was younger i would just throw hands and so did whoever i was fighting. but boxing turns it into a science. someone wildly swinging is just pumped on adrenaline and fear or anger, and are just trying to connect with a lucky hit.
the shortest distance between two points is a straight line.
in this case the two points are your fist and his chin.
boxing teaches you to parry, weave, slip and counter all those bullshit helicopter punches and be completely direct with taking out an opponent.
example: a while ago i was outside a bar with a friend. across the street these two bald drunk ‘tough’ guys (football hooligan type) arguing with this little irish dude. they were both about 6 foot 180-200lbs and he was 5’6ish, <150lbs. all of a sudden the guys girlfriend gets slapped/disrespected and a fight broke out. instantly he put his hands to his face and put his feet into a stance. i knew he was going to win. They charged at him and BEFORE they even threw a punch he hit one with a straight right and the other with two hooks, they both hit the ground hard, think one hit his skull pretty hard on the pavement. he left, they scrambled after him but didnt make it far.
this is an example of technique over weight, height, power, and even numbers.
Thanks, much love for practical advice… In cases of fights, where people just flail their punches like mad men, will boxing eventually teach me how to counter this? I see it a lot, fights where it’s just fast flailing and hoping to hit.
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Keep in mind that I’m blatantly biased towards boxing, but yes, I believe it will. As the previous poster said, it’s going to teach you to keep your hands up, chin down, and how to throw straight punches in combinations. There is nothing more useful than that.
Take a look at this video. This guy does basic boxing technique- doesn’t let his legs get crossed up, keeps his chin down, hands up… and fucks up like four or five guys in a running streetfight that is every bit as chaotic as anything I’ve ever been in.
This is another good one… kind of makes me laugh, but is still a good example of things that I found lacking in TMA’s- no head movement, they never tell you to keep your hands up, and they never tell you how to block a left hook haha.
One of the problems with training pure boxing (meaning training for the ring) for self defense purposes is the presence of the gloves. No, I’m not against wearing gloves for sparring purposes or sparring full contact for that matter (in case anyone thought otherwise).
But, since you won’t be wearing boxing gloves in a real fight, you can’t use the gloves to absorb blows like many boxers do. Also, since your primary objective is to retain your ability to see, breath, and think; very few people can actually drop someone with a single shot to the body; and the fight is not a 12 round competition where you have to worry about cumulative strikes to the body as the rounds go on and the fatiguing effects that has on you; you need to adjust the traditional boxing “shell” position for real fighting purposes.
The way that the guys in the “boxing vs karate” video above were covering up is going to result in you being one unhappy camper if you run into somebody who is fast, hits hard and realizes that your lack of gloves means that your hands against he sides of your face like that do pretty much nothing to protect you from his blows.
Another problem is that boxing occurs solely in an “active combat” context (meaning that both fighters know that they are going to fight so no “ambush attacks”, cannot try to de-escalate or diffuse the situation, and cannot really flea the scene or avoid it all together; all things which would be better from a legal, moral and tactical standpoint than squaring up and fighting in a real situation) so you might “win the battle, but lose the war” as the saying goes.
In other words, if a bystander sees two guys arguing and one adopts a boxing stance and winds up KO’ing the other one, they’re going to usually say that it was mutual combat and both parties are guilty (or possibly even worse, that you were the aggressor). In other words, much harder to plea self defense. Adopting a boxing stance also gives away the fact that you know what you are doing and gives your opponent a chance to mentally put up his guard, use more caution/cunning while attacking you, or worse yet pull a weapon or call his buddies over to further tip the odds in their favor.
Boxing will however teach you how to throw good solid punches (just make sure that you also practice without the gloves because you won’t be wearing them in a real fight, and you can get lazy with how you make a fist, what part of the fist you land with, what targets you aim for, etc… if practicing only wearing gloves) which is a very valuable skill in fighting, along with evasive head and body movement and footwork.
[quote]Sentoguy wrote:
One of the problems with training pure boxing (meaning training for the ring) for self defense purposes is the presence of the gloves. No, I’m not against wearing gloves for sparring purposes or sparring full contact for that matter (in case anyone thought otherwise).
But, since you won’t be wearing boxing gloves in a real fight, you can’t use the gloves to absorb blows like many boxers do. Also, since your primary objective is to retain your ability to see, breath, and think; very few people can actually drop someone with a single shot to the body; and the fight is not a 12 round competition where you have to worry about cumulative strikes to the body as the rounds go on and the fatiguing effects that has on you; you need to adjust the traditional boxing “shell” position for real fighting purposes.
The way that the guys in the “boxing vs karate” video above were covering up is going to result in you being one unhappy camper if you run into somebody who is fast, hits hard and realizes that your lack of gloves means that your hands against he sides of your face like that do pretty much nothing to protect you from his blows.
Another problem is that boxing occurs solely in an “active combat” context (meaning that both fighters know that they are going to fight so no “ambush attacks”, cannot try to de-escalate or diffuse the situation, and cannot really flea the scene or avoid it all together; all things which would be better from a legal, moral and tactical standpoint than squaring up and fighting in a real situation) so you might “win the battle, but lose the war” as the saying goes.
In other words, if a bystander sees two guys arguing and one adopts a boxing stance and winds up KO’ing the other one, they’re going to usually say that it was mutual combat and both parties are guilty (or possibly even worse, that you were the aggressor). In other words, much harder to plea self defense. Adopting a boxing stance also gives away the fact that you know what you are doing and gives your opponent a chance to mentally put up his guard, use more caution/cunning while attacking you, or worse yet pull a weapon or call his buddies over to further tip the odds in their favor.
Boxing will however teach you how to throw good solid punches (just make sure that you also practice without the gloves because you won’t be wearing them in a real fight, and you can get lazy with how you make a fist, what part of the fist you land with, what targets you aim for, etc… if practicing only wearing gloves) which is a very valuable skill in fighting, along with evasive head and body movement and footwork.[/quote]
This is nicely written with good thoughts. Sento, should I ask my boxing instructor to allow me to do some work without the gloves? This is so obvious now that you mentioned it, but you’re right, I won’t be wearing gloves in the situations I am trying to prepare for. Any other advice in terms of learning boxing for real world defense application?
[quote]Sentoguy wrote:
One of the problems with training pure boxing (meaning training for the ring) for self defense purposes is the presence of the gloves. No, I’m not against wearing gloves for sparring purposes or sparring full contact for that matter (in case anyone thought otherwise).
But, since you won’t be wearing boxing gloves in a real fight, you can’t use the gloves to absorb blows like many boxers do.
[/quote]
No, but having your hands in front of your face is the best place they can be. And you can use your palms much more easily to parry.
I’m confused as to what you mean here… where’s the body shots coming in?
And I disagree about the body shots regardless- it’s much easier to drop someone with a well placed body shot and effectively end their fight. But that’s my opinion.
True- but we’ve all learned the typical boxing block of tucking your chin and raising your elbow to your ear. This, combined with moving away from the course of the blow, is far more effective than most blocking systems I’ve seen in TMA’s, gloves or not.
Furethermore, you’re going to see better movement from a boxer than you will most others anyway, just because of the stress on bobbing, weaving, slipping, and head movement that is so often neglected.
That’s fair, but more often then not who throws the first punch tends to get the assault charges. And again, the reflexes and overall athleticness that boxing hones so sharply are going to help you whether you’re caught offguard or you’re fighting willingly.
But either way- to what end do you argue this? Couldn’t the same thing be said about every fighting style out there?
If you beat somebodies ass, it doesn’t matter whether you’ve got a black belt who Hoo Flung Shit or a middlweight champion belt- you’re still trained.
Again- now you’re going into tactical errors made by a fighter, not a problem with the art itself.
The boxing stance is probably the most natural fighting stance there is, and any kid who’s seen a match can emulate it to some degree. But again, we’re getting into BS that will vary in every altercation- it doesn’t reflect on the art.
[quote]
Boxing will however teach you how to throw good solid punches (just make sure that you also practice without the gloves because you won’t be wearing them in a real fight, and you can get lazy with how you make a fist, what part of the fist you land with, what targets you aim for, etc… if practicing only wearing gloves) which is a very valuable skill in fighting, along with evasive head and body movement and footwork.[/quote]
This I agree with. Being as you’ve got your hands wrapped and you’re gripping the gloves, you tend to not make a full fist when hitting with gloves. This, however, can be remedied by practicing without gloves on the bags, etc.
At least you’re used to hitting and getting it though- as compared with the air-punching arts that never bother to test the strength of your wrist or chin.
[quote]Sentoguy wrote:
One of the problems with training pure boxing (meaning training for the ring) for self defense purposes is the presence of the gloves. No, I’m not against wearing gloves for sparring purposes or sparring full contact for that matter (in case anyone thought otherwise).
But, since you won’t be wearing boxing gloves in a real fight, you can’t use the gloves to absorb blows like many boxers do.
[/quote]
No, but having your hands in front of your face is the best place they can be. And you can use your palms much more easily to parry.
I’m confused as to what you mean here… where’s the body shots coming in?
And I disagree about the body shots regardless- it’s much easier to drop someone with a well placed body shot and effectively end their fight. But that’s my opinion.
True- but we’ve all learned the typical boxing block of tucking your chin and raising your elbow to your ear. This, combined with moving away from the course of the blow, is far more effective than most blocking systems I’ve seen in TMA’s, gloves or not.
Furethermore, you’re going to see better movement from a boxer than you will most others anyway, just because of the stress on bobbing, weaving, slipping, and head movement that is so often neglected.
That’s fair, but more often then not who throws the first punch tends to get the assault charges. And again, the reflexes and overall athleticness that boxing hones so sharply are going to help you whether you’re caught offguard or you’re fighting willingly.
But either way- to what end do you argue this? Couldn’t the same thing be said about every fighting style out there?
If you beat somebodies ass, it doesn’t matter whether you’ve got a black belt who Hoo Flung Shit or a middlweight champion belt- you’re still trained.
Again- now you’re going into tactical errors made by a fighter, not a problem with the art itself.
The boxing stance is probably the most natural fighting stance there is, and any kid who’s seen a match can emulate it to some degree. But again, we’re getting into BS that will vary in every altercation- it doesn’t reflect on the art.
I had a long detailed post written out in response to this, but unfortunately accidently lost it.
So, in a nushell…
I am not advocating for a TMA blocking system over Boxing’s, simply pointing out that the guard needs to be brought up higher to the head, using the lower 3rd of the forearm to absorb shots (like the elbow to ear defense you described) and not just putting the gloved hands on the face (like the boxer in the video you posted) due to the absence of gloves, and because protecting the ability to see, breathe, and think is of most importance in a real fight.
I am also not in any way knocking boxing or the skills/attributes that it develops. Many of them carry over well to real fighting. But instead simply pointing out that it’s a fighting style designed specifically for a sporting context (mutually agreed upon combat, strict rules, set round times, you already have watched hours of tape on your opponent, you are fighting someone relatively your same size, etc…) and not one designed for self defense purposes.
Therefore there are “holes” in boxing as a system which one must fill in with training in other areas if they want to really maximize their chances of defending themselves effectively (and by that I also mean staying out of jail). And yes, the same can be said of any combat sport. But there are fighting systems out there specifically designed for real world self defense which the above cannot be said for.
In other words there are systems which teach how to punch with speed and power, head movement, good footwork, how to take a punch, conditioning and athleticism, basically all of the effective components of boxing, but also teach things like confrontation management skills, postural self defense, legal and moral concerns/issues, weapons defense and deployment, multiple attacker strategies, situational and environmental adjustments, effective grappling and counter grappling, etc…
I’m not trying to convince the OP to stop training boxing btw. I think he should try to get everything he can out of his boxing training. I just want him to also realize that what he is training in is not an art designed for real world self defense, but instead an art designed for sport. And as a result if he really wants to take this all the way, he’s going to eventually have to supplement or look elsewhere to fill in the gaps inherent in the boxing system.
[quote]Sentoguy wrote:
I had a long detailed post written out in response to this, but unfortunately accidently lost it.
[/quote]
I fucking hate when that happens.
I can agree with that. But I think that’s an easier transition when you’ve already got a fighter doing similar to that in the ring.
I understand that there are holes in boxing- there’s holes in every system. But as far as I’m concerned, the schools that effectively teach self defense are few and far between to the point where it’s unrealistic to expect anyone to teach “self defense.”
If you can find one of these places, awesome. But more often than not- and you and I both know that I really mean “most of the time,” you’re going to have a choice between a mcdojo and a boxing gym.
The mcdojo is, in all honesty, probably going to be some bitch shit where you get to be called “master” after five years and a couple grand, all the while never 1) getting hit or 2) hitting someone else.
In my eyes, the best bet is to learn to box, and fill the gaps and holes as you need to- i.e. knowledge on crime, avoidance, awareness, etc., or learning basic open hand strikes, maybe a kick or two, some groundwork, when you can.
You may have exprienced different things than I have, but the people I knew that were boxers were fucking nightmares to fight. It’s worth it to me to learn those basic skills before anything else comes in.
RBSD… for me to take those classes seriously, someone I respect has to teach them. i think there’s too many suburban commandos running those schools who will get you locked up for killing someone inadvertently. But that’s just me.
Absolutely.
When you find it, please let me know though, because in all my searching in my area, one of the most heavily populated in the fuckin country, I can’t find one that really addresses these things together.
Consider yourself lucky for the training you’ve received, I wish I could get similar stuff… but alas, my little style is rigged together from all the shit I’ve picked up over the years haha.
[quote]
I’m not trying to convince the OP to stop training boxing btw. I think he should try to get everything he can out of his boxing training. I just want him to also realize that what he is training in is not an art designed for real world self defense, but instead an art designed for sport. And as a result if he really wants to take this all the way, he’s going to eventually have to supplement or look elsewhere to fill in the gaps inherent in the boxing system.[/quote]
Believe me, I agree. You know me… I read all sorts of shit about this stuff and try to take in all the viewpoints I can find.
It’s just that in my experience, that sport art provides the average guy the best shot at surviving if put into a confrontation where he’s got time to react.
I do believe that a lot of it is the basic drilling over and over and over of them same 6 punches… instead of the layering of 1,000 moves that will not ever be used.
After I read the line from Kelly McCann, I believe that I’m coming to understand it- in self-defense, combatives, etc.- you don’t want “another tool for the toolbox.” You want simple shit that works.
I know I’m getting off into a tangent here but I’ve been reading alot of stuff hahah.
Oh man listen. I train Muay Thai in Thailand. it is a great fighting style but we train for an envirnment with ref’s, doctors, rounds, time, etc. You don’t need this.
I have seen dudes come here for self defense and they have little to no experience fighting. Have you ever been punched in the face? Have you ever punched someone in the face? go out and buy 16 oz gloves. 2 pairs and 2 sets of mouth guards. Get your friend. Let him punch you in the face. hard. now you give him one.
Now fight each other. Just go 3 minute rounds, it is very very very hard to knockout someone with 16 oz gloves. im not sure who said this but “I am more scared of the man who was practiced 1 kick 10,000 times than the man who knows 10,000 different kicks.” you want confidence? Get your ass beat. fight every day with your friend for a month.
it may not be the best technique but you will learn valuable things the hard way (best way) such as
Keeping your head down
recognizing patterns in the opponents movements
how to block punches
how to pace yourself and breathe
clinching your jaw shut (this will be your first lesson)
I think these things are invaluable and if the time comes and some dickhead wants to scrap you will be confident because you fight every single day, getting punched is not a problem for you. Make it so that your opponent is more scared of getting punched than you.
[quote]Reekster10 wrote:
Oh man listen. I train Muay Thai in Thailand. it is a great fighting style but we train for an envirnment with ref’s, doctors, rounds, time, etc. You don’t need this.
I have seen dudes come here for self defense and they have little to no experience fighting. Have you ever been punched in the face? Have you ever punched someone in the face? go out and buy 16 oz gloves. 2 pairs and 2 sets of mouth guards. Get your friend. Let him punch you in the face. hard. now you give him one.
Now fight each other. Just go 3 minute rounds, it is very very very hard to knockout someone with 16 oz gloves. im not sure who said this but “I am more scared of the man who was practiced 1 kick 10,000 times than the man who knows 10,000 different kicks.” you want confidence? Get your ass beat. fight every day with your friend for a month.
it may not be the best technique but you will learn valuable things the hard way (best way) such as
Keeping your head down
recognizing patterns in the opponents movements
how to block punches
how to pace yourself and breathe
clinching your jaw shut (this will be your first lesson)
I think these things are invaluable and if the time comes and some dickhead wants to scrap you will be confident because you fight every single day, getting punched is not a problem for you. Make it so that your opponent is more scared of getting punched than you.[/quote]
Let me get this straight… you recommend having a friend punch me in the face with 16 oz gloves? Repeatedly? I’ll do it, i just wanna know if youre being serious.
Its very interesting to me that most people on this thread seem to think boxing is the end all and be all for self defense and street fighting. Is this a true sentiment for the tone of the last couple pages of this thread? Cause last time I checked using your feet can be pretty damn useful too.
Most people don’t expect you to kick in a streetfight
75% of people throw a circular round punch, something resembling a hook as their first attack.
Shin Kicks, foot stomps, groin shots, kicks to the knees, shin scrapes can be very useful.
These are techniques employed in many “Self- defense for the street” martial arts ie, Pen-chak Silat, Krav Maga
Whats the hard-on for boxing only? I don’t get it. What if a guy wraps u up and is trying to slam you to the ground or cause some other physical harm or detrement? It only takes 4lbs of pressure to rip a human ear off. These are things that I’ve been taught, i’ve taken Krav as well in the past. I just think if anyone can broaden their horizons you can be better prepared for a fight for your life situation.
Boxing only won’t help you when you’re being attacked by more than one person…then again nothing much will which is why you should use all your limbs at your disposal to inflict damage and run.
Correct me if im wrong but the tone of some of these posts seem to imply “Don’t bother with any other Martial Arts bullshit, just do some boxing and you’ll be fine!” If thats the attitude than id like to respectively disagree.
I also think that many people get the idea that “Sport Fighting” ie boxing or any form of kickboxing be it Muay Thai or Sanshou or MMA styles transfer to knowing absolutely nothing as soon as you exit your ring or school and hit the streets.
Like I said…Ive trained krav and currently train Wushu/Sanshou…but you better be damned if someone gets into a street fight with me and I don’t make the switch. Learing a “Sport Martial art” does not transfer to me as knowing absolutely nothing on the street. If you can’t make the “switch” its your own damn stupidity.
So your telling me just cause I train Sanshou that if someone attacks me that im going to wait for them to get up after ive knocked them down? Or if he calls timeout while we’re accosting each other im going to stop and go sit in a corner? Or if he taps out or screams in pain if Ive succesfully achieved a lock or submission im going to stop? LMAO this concept to me is so frickin Hilarious.
You use whatever you’ve learned to either quell or escape any life threatening situation. Application and what self defense implies is always up to the USER…ie the person who is being attacked or is in a state of self-defense. If you can’t use what you’ve learned in your art to succesfully defend yourself its partly YOUR fault.
Now don’t get me wrong, theres plenty of schools or even boxing gyms that won’t do much for you if you can’t use your brain to succesfully make the “Switch” to real life self-defense situation. There are plenty of Foo-Foo Martial art studios out there that you just pay to get your belt. Theres plenty of kids out there who can’t even represent the belts that have been given to them.
But ultimately any self-defense technique is your responsiblity to make it work for you…and if it fails to know what to do to keep yourself safe and alive. Part of this is repitetion, completion, and pratical application of sparring techniques, simulation assault exercises and group attacks that few schools drill their kids through.
But Ultimately, its up to the individual to find a school that is actually interested in your well being and doesn’t just let you pay for your belt. You have to earn your belt and prove you can defend yourself. You have to find a school that is willing to put you through these “real life drills” and is pushing you to spar variously sized oponents.
Martial Arts and Self-defense application has always been up to one person…the USER.
I don’t care what you train in…Sport Martial arts…or “Show” martial arts…training in any of these styles can help you if you let it. You simply have to employ the “pratical” uses of what the art is giving you. Train Wushu or any other martial art that involves tricking, stunting or acrobatics? Fine.
That doesn’t mean if you get into a fight you’ll start flipping all over the place…but you know what? Learning those techniques do take a matter of skill…and despite the “showiness” of a certain art…it just might teach you how to be more evasive…more quick and light on your feet…and more sure footed. Even a gymnast learns that to complete various stunting, tumbling or tricking moves it requires a measure of sure footedness…and having your feet under you properly is a tool anyone can use.
Not only that…pretty much EVERY martial art has a sport combat competive form attached to it. Wrestling, judo, karate, Wushu, Sanshou, Tae Kwon Do, Pen-chak Silat, Jui jitsu, pancraes, boxing, Kung Fu all have some type of competition combat that you can do. Even Savate and Sambo have sports attached to the art. What im saying is it doesn’t matter what you train in…you can find a technique or style that wouldn’t be “pratical” in some shape or manner.
Even if you train in Krav Maga or similar go for the kill self-defense systems. You have to be WELL ROUNDED, OPEN TO MANY MEANS OF DEFENSE, AND KEEP THINGS SIMPLE until the situation changes itself. What if you do train in Boxing only? And the person your fighting just happens to knock your ass to the concrete?
you better lock him up, gouge out an eye…do anyting you can to escape the siutation…but just because you got your ass knocked on the ground doesn’t mean boxing completely failed you. The extra parrys before he knocked your ass to the ground kept you standing.
Ya see, self defense is about a couple of things.
1.GUARD
2.PROTECT
3.STRIKE
4.ADAPT
5.ESCAPE
In no particular order. Thats what I would call phase two of street defense. Phase One?
SELF AND SITUATIONAL AWARENESS
AVOIDANCE
In no particular order as well. Thats because something surprising can happen that can make you immediately go from Avoidance to strike…or self and situational Awareness to Adapt or escape. Kind of like getting jumped in broad daylight…or being robbed or attacked in a typically safe neighborhood.
This is also the case if you have your girlfriend, friend, wife or kid with you. A situation that would normally cause you to strike might result in you protecting…adapting or escaping because of a loved one with you and the entangibles of the situation.
BEING close minded and saying this one fighting style or one martial art is the shit and I don’t need anything else is the perfect recipe for getting fucked up. Work through the Phases and keep things simple cause pull arm in, lift elbow, sweep leg, drop in and lock arm bar might be a ton to remember in an adrenaline fused situation…but if a different part of the situation is presented to you…at least you’ll know what to do.
He goes “yea thatll happen”
