Tim Larkin explains self-defense techniques | MMA...

[Subitai]

See this video right here!!! This dude went back friggin' 17 yrs ago and is saying sh!t I was spouting off in since before 2000

The part where he speaks from about 1:30sec to 2:15 secs or so is almost word for word what I was warning people about in past threads. My sentiments exactly!




People like Dave Ross was giving me sh!t about it too. Mother flowers, I swear man!

Especially in this old thread: Ever used any TMA in a Street fight successfully? !
http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/...light=HIV+test

[MarathonTmatt]

Hello,

Thank you for sharing, that is a very good clip, well analyzed and great points. I have always felt the same way about sport fighting the way Tim Larkin has analyzed it. That is no disrespect to the fighters, they are in A+ shape and can do some damage. However Tim Larkin is right to be pointing out what he did.

I doubt this video will go as viral as the "Tai Chi/ MMA" fight in China.

What it comes down to is function-ability. When learning proper mechanics and applications in Tai Chi push hands, the focus is on applying the right mechanics into the science and knowledge of how you move, angle, respond, lock, throw, bump, etc. I have some training in both Tai Chi and Longfist; not saying I am the best.

I think I have shared this before, I was training a bit in a parking lot one day and a drunk MMA guy came over to me and started mocking the movements I was doing (after roundhouse kicks and stringing combos together in my shadow boxing, probably running through some forms, I did some Tai Chi movements, he saw the Tai Chi movements only I think, not what I was doing earlier, and came over.) Well, a fight did START to happen. After a bit of shoving, etc. he tried to bash my head in, but I saw him swinging from the corner of my eye and dodged by maybe, a mili-inch. Since we were in close range I followed through with a hip bump (kao), a technique I had worked with a partner in Tai Chi push hands class. He went reeling backwards maybe 3 or 4 car spaces and landed face first on the pavement. After a second and his initial shock wore off, he curled up like a baby turtle and exclaimed, "don't kill me!" If I was a violent person, which I tend not to be, I would have stuck to him and ground and pounded him. Instead I stayed where I was from where I threw the hip bump and let him get back up. He was ****ed, words were exchanged but I was calm about it, the situation de-escalated and we walked away our separate ways.

As you said in your other thread, describing some of your own students, I am a raw student when it comes to martial arts training. I have only trained the TCMA, as far as a "martial art" goes. I was in good athletic shape before such training though (running, working). Sometimes I can appreciate MMA for what it is depending on my mood, just saying, being honest to my lens of the world. But I am turned off by the whole bread and circus of it. When I was 18 years old or so and not taking exercise seriously yet. I was at a carnival (outside an Iggy Pop concert) and two gym rats with "perfectly" chiseled bodies, with a hot babe over each one's shoulder, were trying to swing the mallet to hit the target and make the bell rise up and go "ding." I was watching them for like 5 minutes and they couldn't do it. I went over, then a young mr. leather jacket and cigarette dangling from mouth, swung the mallet and got the "ding" in one swing. Why? Because I know the proper mechanics of how to swing an axe/ mallet from chopping fire-wood.

Also, I grew up with one foot in the country and still like to think that I do. Every young kid who spends a lot of time in the woods knows the art of stealth to some extent, and also to be very aware of your surroundings. Again, even today, if I can build giant stone walls and effigies up in the hills, a feat of hard labor; and still train my kung fu, and still even run, get the upper hand in a street scuffle, I don't have to prove anything to anybody. I think a lot of people who train in the traditional arts who can functionally use their training (at least to some degree) feel this way.

[MarathonTmatt]

Seems like functional kung fu training may be able to help somebody take on somebody swinging a 2X4 at you better than sport fight training. Break the wood with your conditioned Pop-Eye forearms with a block, or better sense of surroundings/ angles when moving in/ standing up against it. Yeah me knows, easy to sez on a computah, but still I'll says it!

[Frost]

Think I missed the part where he said doing pushing hands and long fist forms would make you any better than the mma guys in a similar situation?

[MarathonTmatt]

Think I missed the part where he said doing pushing hands and long fist forms would make you any better than the mma guys in a similar situation?

Than you misunderstand my post. Function-ability is what I was stressing. True, a LARPER (I had to look that term up) will probably FAIL. If you are able to emerge victorious from a scrape or a scuffle or a street fight with ANY kind of training- be it boxing, wrestling, kickboxing, karate or tcma, due to your training and applied knowledge base, conditioning or whatever, than it is a function-able martial art that works "for real." I gave an example of how I applied a technique from my push hands training that WORKED against somebody trying to take me out. Why does it have to be "better" than an MMA guy's training? If it works, it works.

Also, I was trying to stress the mind-set. One point that Mr. Larkin explained was that, as shown in the video, they were not taking in their surroundings, they were one-track minded against one vs. one, not thinking about stealth against multiple opponents. I mentioned my time growing up in the woods. Learn how to track. To be stealthy. To stay invisible if need be (for one's own survival). And I'm not saying that lightly.

I don't need to explain myself like this to a dozen people. Everybody here including you has my respect. What were those two guys doing like that in the convenient store anyway. I'm sorry for what happened to them. I wouldn't want to get caught in that situation either, god bless their souls. But I do agree with Mr. Lafkin's video. Don't tell me that Tai Chi or Long Fist or Kung Fu doesn't work if I have used it successfully.

[MarathonTmatt]

Plus, the 2X4. Larkin explained that the sport fighter did not react properly. Personally I have hauled boulders up a hillside by hand, blood sweat and tears. Many times. And have worked in stone, doing heavy solo labor work with the stone. That was to it's own end. But hey, good side effect of that when combined with proper, traditional martial arts training. My instinct would probably be to move in on the guy with the 2X4 and brush the blow off from the 2X4 (forearm conditioning) and kick his ass. According to Larkin, Sports fighter failed where a traditionally trained person may not. (and yes I realize that is a *MAY not.)