Useful Techniques?

[Yum Cha]

Add more angles, come in from someones blind side to really add surprise.

Surprise is fundamental from my point of view. How you surprise varies depending on your opponent, as it is often a function of what they know, as opposed to what you know.

This gets back to one of my favorite points, pre-engagement. The set-up. Domination and crease.

Well, there is the honorable way.

Believe me, I do understand what you mean, but I wonder, does this expose your training in sporting combat? As disciplined, as hard, as efficient and effective as it may be? This is where honour lives. And, that's the way it should be.

Honour left the paddock when some creep decides to raise his hand to me or mine. Honour, and the hesitation that comes with it can get you killed. Perhaps my age, fitness, demeanor, whatever. Its the odds, the longer it lasts, the less I lose my advantage.

Any soldiers out there been taught about honour on the battlefield? Give them a chance to surrender before you shoot them? If you have a gun, and they don't, drop yours and take them on hand to hand? Don't shoot a man in the back?

Foot Trap -
One of my favorites. Try stepping on the opposite foot and bringing around a big muy thai style roundhouse or knee to the knee/thigh.

Like Sifu says, "He won't want to fight you again."

[SteveLau]

In line with some of the topical discussions taking place in other threads, here is my question to you all;

"Do you think it is possible, that some of the techniques passed down through the years have -

1. become so watered down (xerox copy of a xerox copy) that they have changed so much, that they lost thier original intent? (We know that this happens now, in just one generation)

2. that some technique just didn't really work? Maybe on paper, or in a controlled environment, but do you think that some tech. was NEVER proven? I mean there are thousands of TCMA tech. out there, do you think EVERYONE was actually used? (We know that people do this now - practice unproven methods - unproven amongst our generation)

3. do you believe that people blindly passed down movements, keeping in mind that they had faith in their teachers and style, without even knowing what the movements were for? (We know that people do this now)

4. that TCMA, knowing how the Chinese are, secret societies, codes, revolutions, communism, the need to save face above all other things, etc. has guided their martial arts AWAY from the truth sometimes???? (Really think about this one)

This should be interesting...
__________________
Sifu Michael Parrella

Sifu Michael Parrella,

If you are asking about possibility, then generally there is not much absolute in human society that is impossible. I guess what you really want to ask is the probability of such happenings, and whether they have happened. Here is my answer to your original questions:

Q1. No.

Q2. Yes. Some techniques were not proven and then passed onward. But students will have considered whether they work or not.

Q3. No. Highly unlikely.

Q4. Yes. Some degree of such has happened.



Regards,

KC
Hong Kong

[STUDD WILSON]

I've trained in Asia for over two years and I have to say that all my instructors taught me was pretty applicable in a fight. My Takgeyon teacher would admit that some of the more acrobatic kicks weren't that usable in a real fight because of the nature of real hand to hand combat. But this guy was one tough dude and had plenty of other things in his arsenal to mess you up with. I also trained in BJJ in America and can honestly say that of all the things I have studied that it's probably the most narrow in actual application with regards to what really might happen in the real world. Probably the most applicable thing that I have learned is Muay Thai as the sheer brutality of it usually finishes a person off pretty quick physically if not mentally. Now Muay Thai matches are actually a boring sort of thing in Thailand as the action isn't what one would expect but nontheless the training is brutal.

[sanjuro_ronin]

I've trained in Asia for over two years and I have to say that all my instructors taught me was pretty applicable in a fight. My Takgeyon teacher would admit that some of the more acrobatic kicks weren't that usable in a real fight because of the nature of real hand to hand combat. But this guy was one tough dude and had plenty of other things in his arsenal to mess you up with. I also trained in BJJ in America and can honestly say that of all the things I have studied that it's probably the most narrow in actual application with regards to what really might happen in the real world. Probably the most applicable thing that I have learned is Muay Thai as the sheer brutality of it usually finishes a person off pretty quick physically if not mentally. Now Muay Thai matches are actually a boring sort of thing in Thailand as the action isn't what one would expect but nontheless the training is brutal.

Where did you train BJJ?
MT matches in Tahiland are designed to go long and put on a "show", no one wants quick KO's in sport, people want their money's worth.

[STUDD WILSON]

I trained BJJ in Southwest Missouri with a Judo/Juijitsu blackbelt that had trained at a Gracie academy.
Yeah one sure fire way to get a Muay Thai match really going is to divide 10,000 Baht between yourself and a friend and each of you head to the opposing corners. Give each fighter the money and tell them that you want them to finish the other guy off by the third round. You'll see on heck of a fight for sure then!
I really dont want to get in to a discussion about the application of BJJ in a real fight. I have been in countless discussions about it before and its pointless. I will only say this. My experience comes from overseas bars and US soldiers. In such a situation the best recourse a person has is to punch/kick your way free and take off running before the local police get there. Regardless of your grappling experience, if you go to the ground you'll last as long as it takes one of their drunk grunt buddies to lay his size 12 against your head and if your lucky you'll wake up with only your pockets looted and a few teeth left in tact. Yeah our "nations finest" generally rarely ever fight fairly. Grappling's great and fun and a sure fire way to win most "NHB" matches but the real world is too unpredictable and in my experience in Asia, it's never usually a "one on one" matchup. It's a piece of the overall puzzle but not the first line of offense/defense I would use in an altercation unless I were alone in a cosed room prefereably with a padded floor with a guy who had no knives.