Comments for Hertao Blog» Hertao Self Defense & Mixed Martial Arts Blog

Comment on Nodan Karate Video by TomC

TomC — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 21:13:57 +0000

The decidedly racist representation of Japanese heritage does Jesus Christ no credit at all.

Comment on The Palm Stick by Adam

Adam — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 12:27:28 +0000

just to add another point regarding history and training, in Filipino martial arts the palm stick is used to represent the balisong (butterfly knife) before it has been opened due to not having time to open it or not wanting to take your oppenents life.

Comment on The Palm Stick by admin

admin — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 14:26:47 +0000

I think you'd be much better off with pepper spray than a palm stick. But you do need to get proper training in order to use it effectively. Just remember, there is no magic bullet. Nothing is going to work without proper training, and there is no substitute for awareness and prevention.

Comment on The Palm Stick by theresa

theresa — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 14:07:49 +0000

I am 62 yo female and have no traning in this area. I would like something that perhaps would help me at least have a change of escape. I do have pepper spray, and we have guns. If I am out by myself I thought that the palm stick might help. Please advise. thank you. I do travel out of the country some ie dafur

Comment on The Default/Flinch Response by admin

admin — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 11:23:50 +0000

Thanks Brett. Over the years, training various systems, I've also been able to do what you describe with students. But as you mentioned, speed, uncertainty, and the violence of a real attack are VERY different than asking a student to attack and responding to that in a classroom setting. If you take a look at what I call the crash, I think you'll find that you can train that with full power, as long as you don't do the follow ups all out. Although I don't teach it as a default response, I also find the low jab (as shown here) works extremely well as an opening technique against the majority of high line attacks...as does a sidekick/stop kick to the knee, etc. So I think there are a number (not huge) of decent options for default responses. Each person just needs to try a few and pick the one they like most based on their skill, size, and temperament.

Comment on The Default/Flinch Response by Brett

Brett — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 11:15:11 +0000

I’ve been training chinese kung fu for 20 years now. I literally have hundreds of moves and applications for any number of potential attacks. Whenever I demonstrate to my students, I often find myself responding differently each time to the same stimuli, as many as five times in a row.
This is fine theoretically, and works because 1.) my students are a lot slower than I am, and 2.) the level of violence in a class is minimal.
As the speed, uncertainty and violence of an attack increases though, it becomes more difficult to gauge the attack accurately and respond with a specific technique – unlike the choreographed scenes in the movie, you just don’t know what’s coming, and the consequences of failure can be very serious.
As a result, I’ve found that a few large movements, which utilise the body’s natural flinch mechanism seem to work quite well in a large number of scenarios. Unfortunately, it’s almost impossible to practise these with any real level of violence. Your experience and skills support what I’ve been doing. I add my support to the concept.

Comment on Block & Counter = No Good by Bob

Bob — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 15:45:02 +0000

I totally agree with the author.

Always block the leading hand, because that is where the jab or the punch will most likely come in from.

You should strike and block at the same time, you don’t need to bother if the leading hand is going to straight punch / fake or jab.

If he fakes to throw a punch with the left (south paw), your fist/palm would already reached his face/chin.

Always assume your opponent will be using a combination on you and not like those youtube videos where the attacker leaves one hand hanging out and stands there like an idiot to be hammered.

The attacker will always reach your face first, you cannot block, unless you block and MOVE away. It is next to impossible to block and counter punch.

Comment on Chi Defense by admin

admin — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 08:07:47 +0000

You know, I used to be interested in the distinction between “hard” and “soft” styles. But I honestly believe this is BS. There’s what works, and what doesn’t. Some techniques require more force than others, but no system is going to be effective with only hard or only soft techniques. Besides, the video in this post is utter garbage. The techniques, if you can call them that, would NEVER work in reality.

Comment on Filipino Swords by admin

admin — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 08:02:52 +0000

No, I’m not going to sell mine. But I can say I might prefer the shorter back edge. It’s less likely to cut your opposite arm/shoulder when chambering.

Comment on Filipino Swords by Dee S.

Dee S. — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 23:05:30 +0000

Would you be willing to sell me this one?

I recently purchased a ginunting from TFW and they did a running change that included a shortening of the bask edge to only three inches. I’d much rather have one with a longer back edge. lemme know! Thanks!