The video above is of Maija (Sword and Circle) and her teacher Sonny Umpad, the founder of Visayan Eskrima. I’ve seen Maija’s posts on forums and blogs, but didn’t realize she had a blog of her own until a few days ago. Her blog is excellent, and I’d highly recommend subscribing. Although all of the posts are great, two are particularly interesting to me at the moment: Forms and Ego, Death and Progress.

In the post on forms, Maija starts out by asking if forms are valuable for people who don’t know what fighting feels like and/or don’t know how to visualize an opponent. She brings up Sonny’s feelings that forms are “inherently glitchy” and that the patterns within them can override reactions, and then comes to her own conclusions that there are benefits, especially if “you have felt the problem they were created to solve or the skill they were meant to refine”.

For the last few years I haven’t been teaching, and have only been training with my partners/students a couple of months each year due to travels. I’ve been attending classes at other schools, but the techniques and training methods are usually very different from what I’d prefer to be doing. So I find myself doing more solo training than I’ve ever done before, and I find myself creating prearranged forms as a convenient way to drill certain techniques and strategies. I’m also thinking these new forms would be great for former students who seem to have trouble practicing on their own, as they can be a guide to techniques and strategies. But Maija makes a great point that without knowing what a fight feels like and without being able to visualize the opponent, they’re probably of very limited value (so possibly not so great for beginners or those who don’t have some experience fighting).

I’ve also had an experience recently with Sonny’s point about patterns overriding reactions. At a new school I’ve recently been going to, when learning a stick vs. stick drill I repeatedly found myself reverting to counters I had done most often in drills I used to teach. To some extent, my ingrained responses slowed my ability to learn the new drill I had never done. But is that really a bad thing? I imagine it can go both ways. I’m a big believer in having a few solid “default responses” you can rely on, and ingraining them through repetition. There are two sides to that coin. On one hand prearranged partner drills (and possibly solo drills to a lesser extent) do ingrain reactions. If they didn’t, I wouldn’t have had such trouble not reverting to them automatically.  On the other hand, might it be better to simply “flow”?

This brings me to Maija’s next post, Ego, Death and Progress. I love this post for many reasons, and I love the “flow training” in Visayan Eskrima, which is something I’ve done very little of. In my upcoming trip back home I’ll certainly incorporate it into my training. The progression she details in the above post is great because it seems it may counteract the disadvantages of prearranged form training through a free flow as in the video at the top of this post, with structure to help practitioners win without dying (in the case of sword training at least).

The idea that forms training does ingrain responses to such an extent that those responses could be harmful is an interesting one. I like prearranged solo and partner drills because they’re a great way to work on perfecting body mechanics, training with full speed and power with little chance of injury and no gear, AND they ingrain responses like ramdon flow training cannot, in my opinion. I’m not sure yet exactly what I think of the downsides of ingraining those responses, or the possibility of using flow training to counteract those downsides, but I’m interested in exploring it.

Facing Violence

I came across an outstanding self defense blog today, Chiron, which led me to the author’s website and to purchase two of his books: Meditations on Violence: A Comparison of Martial Arts Training & Real World Violence and Facing Violence: Preparing for the Unexpected. Rory’s blog and website have such great information on them that I wanted to share them here. (I don’t know the guy and have never communicated with him.) Anyway, check out his stuff. It looks great. I’ll post more on his books after I read them.

UPDATE: I’ve finished both books and they’re excellent.  Anyone who practices martial arts, especially if you’re at all interested in self defense, should read both books.  They cover the different types of attacks you might face, from an idiot in a bar to a real predator, rapist, etc., how to recognize which type you’re dealing with, how to avoid trouble or deescalate when you can’t, and what you should realistically expect.  They portray violence as it really is, and explain in detail why most martial arts and self defense training will fail in the face of a committed, brutal, and chaotic attack.  The books are also a fascinating study on human nature.  In terms of violence and social interactions, we’re not all that different from the animals we evolved from.  Fortunately, understanding these interactions that Rory breaks down so well, can seriously increase your odds of avoiding or coming out of a conflict in one piece.

I was very happy to see Rory explaining why matching specific defenses to specific attacks is generally a recipe for failure.  In a real violent assault you won’t know if your opponent is stepping forward with his left foot and throwing a straight right or stepping forward with his right foot and throwing a sloppy hook.  You’ll most likely be facing a barrage of chaos, and complex, fancy techniques will not work.  In “Facing Violence” he covers a few of his preferred default responses.  While I prefer those in our Fundamental Five, his responses, the techniques he demonstrates, and the principles that support them are solid.  I very highly recommend both of his books.

The concept of simultaneous attack and defense in Wing Chun is excellent, as is controlling the center, the solid structure of the techniques, and basic trapping.  The emphasis on attacking the eyes, throat, and groin is also great for self defense.  But in order to pull any of it off in reality, the training needs to be realistic.  And, some modifications will make Wing Chun safer to apply.  Even still, Wing Chun was not made for the ring.

The lop sao or pull is a great trap to use before kicking your opponent in the groin (following up further if necessary of course).  And the groin kick is very effective.  But you can’t use groin kicks in the ring.  The pak sao or smack is another great trap for self defense, especially when followed by a hack in the neck or finger in the eye, neither of which are allowed in MMA.  You can follow the lop sao or pak sao with punches or palms, but against boxing style structures the “pak sao, punch” or “lop sao, punch” combinations are far less effective.

There are exceptions.  Using a pak sao to create an opening for a punch or two, possibly causing your opponent to cover or retreat, will provide the opportunity for a double lop sao (two handed pull) into knees and elbows against a cover, or a kicking follow up against a retreat.  But due to the unrealistic training in most Wing Chun schools, practitioners are only used to dealing with other Wing Chun stylists…who very often ineffectively stand in one place attempting to block, block, block as a cooperative defense.

In MMA you might see someone opening with a jab-cross combo from boxing, followed by a kick from Thai boxing, followed by a clinch entry and takedown from wrestling, followed by ground techniques from Brazilian jiu jitsu.  They take what’s useful from each style and use various parts where they’re appropriate.  Wing Chun can be used similarly.  An MMA practitioner could use a pak sao trap to increase the likelihood of landing a jab, followed by a cross, then a double lop sao into a knee, etc.  The structure of the “tan sao” can be used to stop a takedown attempt.  The “huen sao” techniques is identical to the initial motion of pummeling or swimming in the clinch.  In self defense, the simultaneous biu sao and punch works very well against most hooks, as does trapping to eye jabs, groin kicks, and throat strikes.

Wing Chun isn’t just BS, and it does have a great deal to offer.  But in order for the strengths to come out, both WC and MMA practitioners need to open their minds and forget about previous prejudices!

The same video is posted on the Wing Chun page, where more realistic applications of Wing Chun trapping and techniques are demonstrated in both pictures and videos. (I’ve recently updated the Wing Chun page with images of the pak sao, bong sao, and lop sao, and will be adding more images in the near future.)

So what specifically is wrong with the above video? The trapping practice in the first two clips might appear to be somewhat fierce, as I hit my training partner in the solar plexus and face in the second clip. Around the time these videos were recorded (1998), we regularly “sparred” from a Wing Chun reference point using a good bit of trapping. We did train hard back then, but the training was very unrealistic. The primary problem with the type of training shown in the first video clips is that there is no footwork or movement at all. No one is going to fight like that. If you attack someone they are going to move, and if someone attacks you, you are going to move. Standing in place does allow you to use more complex trapping, but you’re going to be at a loss if you ever have to fight or defend yourself for real…which leads me to the third clip of “blast practice”.

In 1999 I was invited to spar with a number of other New Orleans instructors I had never trained with before. I did pretty well attacking with Wing Chun trapping and blasting, interceptions, etc. I was able to back my opponent’s up over and over again. But, I was barely hitting them! Every time I’d enter with a blast, they’d back up and cover. My trapping no longer worked, and I didn’t have the techniques or training to deal with what were often unconventional and unskilled cover ups and retreats. I used this experience to begin working on a comprehensive version of what I called the blast…a continuous, forward pressure assault.

Wing Chun has the straight blast, which is generally taught as a punching only blast. Not only is this insufficient against an opponent who simply uses either a very tight or extended cover, but it can also be easily countered by a beginning boxer, as I explain in this video on Wing Chun trapping. After I had the above mentioned sparring experience, I tried to search out techniques and training that would solve this problem. I attended a seminar with Paul Vunak and took some private classes on RAT (Rapid Assault Tactics) in 2000. Although I loved the RAT concept, I found the specific entry (largely consisting of attempts to elbow incoming punches), pressure/blast (the Wing Chun straight blast), and termination (headbutts, knees, and elbows from the Thai clinch) to be lacking or unrealistic.

The third clip in the above video is basically Paul Vunak’s RAT with a groin kick entry/interception. Like I said, I don’t find it to be ideal against a high pressure, real attack. Additionally, there are better “termination” phase positions than the Thai clinch for the majority of people. So there you have it…the reasons that the training in the above clips is not so good. Fortunately I’ve since come up with much better solutions. We’ve now got great, effective and realistic ways to apply trapping and a comprehensive blast that works. I’ve been using and teaching them for 10 years now, and am 100% positive they work. You can see examples of effective trapping on our Wing Chun page, a couple of examples of the blast here, and detailed explanations of all the techniques and training methods in my self defense eBook.

Not only is this garbage, but it’s also likely to get students badly hurt if they attempt this junk in self defense. At the 2:43 mark the instructor actually recommends pinching your attacker’s side or thigh to escape from his mount! How on earth are you going to do that when you’re getting punched unconscious?!? End even if you did pinch your attacker, as if that’s going to stop him! At 4:31 he recommends sticking your thumb in the attacker’s eye to escape from the side mount. Even a completely unskilled attacker would simply grab your hand and stop you. In order to escape from the mount, side mount, headlock, etc., you need to know the fundamental techniques of Brazilian jiu jitsu. Only with these techniques and the associated training can you avoid getting your face pounded in by someone who has mounted you. Without them, you really don’t have a chance.

Remember, dirty tactics are a great addition to other solid techniques, but they’re not a substitution. They will enable you to beat an attacker who is bigger and stronger than you, but only if you have the realistic training to support them.

Woman Being Attacked

I captured the images above several years ago, of a woman being attacked in front of my old house.  I had installed a security camera that was activated by motion, was going through the video footage to see who stole my newspaper one morning, and came across the horrific attack above.  A woman was walking on the sidewalk when a man in a truck stopped, ran out toward the woman, grabbed her in a bear hug and threw her onto my steps, then choked her while slamming her head into the concrete steps.  He then dragged her into his truck and drove away.  The entire time he was yelling and cursing at the woman.  I called the police as soon as I saw the footage and they came to my house to see it, but said there was nothing they could do since they couldn’t identify the truck or the individuals, and had no other reports.

It could have been a “domestic violence” situation.  Maybe the woman knew the man.  There was also a “brothel” about two blocks from my house, so it’s also possible this was an unhappy customer.  It could have been a woman who was attacked by a complete stranger.  I’ll never know, and it doesn’t much matter what the situation was.  The man was a psychopath and should be locked up or worse.

So why am I posting this now?

I’m working on a self defense e-book at the moment that I’ll eventually put on this site.  In the process of researching the demand for them I’ve looked at a few, seen plenty of advertisements for them, and also watched numerous internet videos on self defense.  The majority of what passes for self defense on the web, in e-books, and in real books for that matter is garbage. Let’s take a look at an image from the best ranking self defense e-book on the web, 7most.com:

Horribly Unrealistic Defense

I didn’t buy this book, but the image above depicts an extraordinarily unrealistic defense against a bear hug.  Compare the images above, where a man stands still holding a woman in a rear bear hug, with the images of the real attack I posted above.  In the fake attack, the attacker just stands there waiting to be foot stomped!  In the real attack, the attacker runs in and uses a bear hug to slam the woman onto concrete steps.  That’s the first problem.  The second problem is that foot stomping a serious attacker isn’t going to do anything but piss him off!  It’s DEFINITELY NOT going to give you the space to raise your arm out of the hold and elbow the attacker in the jaw!  Let’s take a look at one more image from the same site:

Another Stupid Defense

This is another horrific “defense” against a choke from the mount.  It will never work. All the man would have to do is lean back and the woman wouldn’t be able to reach his eyes.  He could also simply smack her hands off of him and punch her in the face, then go back to choking her.  If you want to learn to defend yourself on the ground, you need to take classes in Brazilian jiu jitsu, judo, or some other form of wrestling.

There’s no magic in self defense, and if you want to learn to defend yourself it’s going to take a real commitment of time, effective techniques, some hard training, and a sound strategy.  “Tips and tricks” are going to get you nowhere but hurt. So if you’re looking for self defense on the web and happen to come across this post, remember what a real attack will be like.  There will be dynamic motion.  No one is going to put you in a bear hug and just stand there waiting for you to counter.  No attacker that was serious enough to sit on top of you and choke you is going to stop when you attempt to put your thumbs in his eyes.  Other than awareness and prevention, if you’re looking for a quick self defense fix, forget about it.  Any book, video, or instructor who promises you otherwise is full of it!

Burton Richardson & Randy Couture

This is the third in six posts on €œwhat makes Hertao different€. You can find the six concepts in a list at the bottom of our home page.

One of the great strengths of MMA and sport based martial arts like boxing, kickboxing, judo, BJJ, etc, is that the majority of time spent training is against an uncooperative partner. In sport based systems practitioners compete against each other and quickly discover what works and what doesn’t work. But all too often in traditional martial arts and so called “reality based self defense”, training never progresses to the level where your partner is completely uncooperative.

Burton Richardson, from JKD Unlimited, has a great saying:

If you want to learn how to fight, you have to practice fighting against someone who is fighting back.

Not many people would disagree with that statement, yet so many people fail to put it into practice. There are several levels at which your partner needs to be uncooperative if you want to be able to defend yourself: in resistance, form, and technique.

Progressive resistance (gradually increasing the physical resistance to your techniques as your skill increases) is essential, but it’s not enough. Your training partners also need to use form that doesn’t match the style you’re practicing. For example, a wing chun practitioner that only deals with straight line vertical punches thrown by other wing chun practitioners will likely be hit by an unskilled opponent throwing a punch at an angle they’ve never trained against. You and your training partners must vary the form of attacks to include form used by other styles and by unconventional fighters.

In addition to progressive resistance and form variations, free sparring must be done where any and all techniques are allowed. No real attacker is going to limit attacks to those you’ve trained, so you need to be prepared for anything. Every particular style has limitations. Even though boxers train against uncooperative opponents, they don’t train against takedowns from grapplers. Self defense training must include all three levels of “uncooperativeness”: resistance, form, and technique.

Don't Try That

This is the second post in a series of six, covering the six concepts that make Hertao different from the majority of martial art and self defense systems.  The first post was on footwork.  This one will cover countering.

Many fighting systems, whether for self defense or sport, teach blocks and strikes as separate techniques.  When the opponent attacks, you block, and then you strike back.  While this is common, it€™s the worst way to deal with an attack.

Using the opponent€™s attack as a reference, there are three points in time in which you can launch your attack: before, during, and after.  If you€™ve been threatened and attempted to exit the situation, but are unable to due to your opponent blocking your exit or following you, you can attack first.  There certainly may be legal ramifications here, but in any given situation you need to decide whether you€™d rather allow someone to attack you first, or preempt that and possibly face charges.  Every situation is different.  Anyway, we€™ll call this an €œattack€€¦when you attack first.

Interception

We€™ll use the Jeet Kune Do terminology for the second option, attacking during the opponent€™s attack, and call it an €œinterception€.  If you€™re unable or unwilling to attack before your opponent launches his physical attack, you can attack him as he begins his attack on you.  There are a great many ways to use the interception, but the two major classifications are: blocking/covering with a simultaneous attack and evading with a simultaneous attack.

The last and worst option is to block your opponent€™s attack and counter attack after.  Why is this such a bad option?  There are several reasons.  If you block your opponent€™s attack without striking back, there€™s nothing to keep him from continuing his attack.  You€™re on defense and he€™s on offense.  Whereas if you attack him before or during his attack, he€™ll either be struck (in the case of striking) or forced to switch to defense€¦where you want him.  Additionally, the best time to attack is when your opponent doesn€™t expect it.  While he€™s in the midst of his attack his mind will be on that, and you€™ll have a much easier time landing an attack of your own.

Fencing Stop Hit

Of course it isn€™t always possible to attack first, and you won€™t always be ready to attack the instant your opponent does.  However, your training should focus on attacking first, intercepting second, and countering as an absolute last resort.  Even if you are forced to block, cover, or evade an initial attack, your attacker will likely continue pressing you.  It€™s highly likely that if you wait to counter until after an attack is over, you€™ll never get the chance.  So even if you do miss the first opportunity, the second opportunity will most likely be one for an interception, not a pure counter.  In any case, if you are forced to block first, you should block your way into your attack.

At least three of the systems we use in Hertao share the concept of avoiding the counter in favor of the interception or attack: boxing, Pekiti Tirsia, and Wing Chun.  Although boxing certainly does have defensive techniques that don€™t involve a simultaneous attack, counter punching (striking during the opponent€™s attack€¦with an evasion or cover) is a necessary skill.  One reason boxing may have more defensive-only techniques than Pekiti Tirsia for example is that it€™s a sport, where both participants are wearing thick gloves and target areas are extremely limited.  It€™s easier and less dangerous to only cover when your opponent has padded gloves and a limited striking area.

Stick Interception

Pekiti Tirsia on the other hand, and many other Filipino martial arts, almost exclusively utilize the interception€¦so much so that they use the term €œcounter offense€ rather than simply counter.  Because the Filipino martial arts involve swords, knives, and sticks it€™s especially apparent that blocking or covering without a simultaneous attack is entirely ineffective.  When your attacker is attempting to cut your head or arm off with a machete, trying to block and THEN counter is a great way to end up dead!  Instead, when the attacker comes at you with his blade or stick, his arm becomes the target of your blade or stick.  While you may not always have such a weapon yourself, the concept still applies.

Don€™t block first and attack second.  Either attack first, or at the same time.  It€™s far more effective, and in the rare case that you and your opponent have machetes, it€™s likely to save your head!

Movement Is Essential

This is the first in six posts on “what makes Hertao different”.  You can find the six concepts in a list at the bottom of our home page.

The term “martial arts” covers a wide variety of styles and practices, and means different things to different people, but most would agree that martial arts originated as “fighting methods” in some sense of the term…combat, war, self defense, etc.  If martial arts are to remain true to their original purpose, they need to include techniques and training methods that work in fighting and/or self defense.  Footwork is a vital part of any real martial art.

In a real physical conflict, people move.  They don’t stand still.  If you get hit, you move.  If you hit someone, they move.  If you try to hit someone and miss, it’s either because they moved, or you’ve got a REALLY bad aim.  Sure, people can stand still and block, but that rarely happens unless they’re up against an immovable object.

In Hertao all training reflects this, and if you want to be able to fight or defend yourself, your training needs to reflect this too.  You need to practice striking while moving forward, backward, and side to side, while moving diagonally, and while ducking and rising.  Training combinations of strikes or blocks while standing still is all but useless.  If you hit someone once, they’ll move.  If you’re standing in the same spot, your follow up shots will be hitting only air.

Poor Training

When you block or cover you also need to move.  Standing in place and blocking only gives your opponent the opportunity to strike whatever target you’ve just uncovered.  By moving, you limit the opponent’s follow up options.  Dynamic movement needs to be a part of every technique and drill.  In some “traditional martial arts” far too much emphasis has been placed on stances.  Although this has been completely de-emphasized in MMA these days (and rightly so), most people who trained martial arts prior to the early 90′s know the terms “horse stance”, “forward stance”, “cat stance”, etc.  Training these stances rather than footwork is a great way to get you seriously hurt in a real fight.

Although some classical stances may appear for an instant in real fighting and can also be seen in the footwork patterns of effective Filipino martial arts or even in western wrestling, they need to be largely forgotten and replaced with footwork.  If you are someone who trains techniques in stances, try thinking of them as positions you hit momentarily in the context of footwork.  It will change your training and ability for the better!

A proper martial arts or self defense curriculum should be ordered such that it presents material in a way that helps the practitioner to understand how to use it. Let€™s take traditional Japanese jiu jitsu for example. In traditional jiu jitsu you€™ve got kicks, hand strikes, standing joint manipulations, clinch, throwing, and ground work. Standing joint manipulations should be shown in the context of what can precede them, what can happen during their attempted application, and what can proceed them. The problem is that many instructors will train ground techniques one day, striking techniques another day, and small joint manipulations on another. The student may KNOW the techniques in each area, but will very likely be unable to APPLY them. Without being able to go from striking to clinching to locking and back to striking€¦being able to flow from one area to the next, it will be nearly impossible to effectively us the techniques in self defense.

In Hertao, we begin self defense training with basic stand up kickboxing. This gives the practitioner a realistic understanding of the dynamics of a stand up fight€¦movement, timing, and speed. Then we add self defense techniques to the mix, the Fundamental Five. If all you€™ve got is a finger jab to the eye, but no context in which to apply it, or no understanding of what to watch out for, you don€™t have much. Right as we begin with the Fundamental Five, we introduce clinch fighting, techniques to prevent the clinch, and move onto ground fighting. This gives students what Marc Denny of the Dog Brother€™s calls the €œfighter€™s understanding€.

If your self defense or martial arts training doesn€™t follow a similar logical progression, you need to at least arrange it properly in your own mind. No matter what, you need to question all the techniques, training methods, and strategies you learn. You need to ask: When should I use this technique? How does it fit in to the €œfight€? What will set this technique up? What might happen when I€™m trying to apply the technique? Will it actually work? Where does this technique fit into MY strategy?

If you€™re taking a self defense class and you want to be able to use what you€™re learning, you€™ve got to be able to answer the above questions. If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments below. What€™s your curriculum like? Does your instructor do a good job with presentation? What€™s your strategy?