[Rick]

Welcome to the forums Dale. <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/" alt="” title=”Big Grin” />

[Rick]

<img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/" alt="” title=”Big Grin” />

[Rick]

Hi Chris. <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/" alt="” title=”Big Grin” />

[Rick]

Another old post:

The Function of Kata

When I look at Kata I see two main concepts being expounded.

 Generation of lines of force.

 Body displacement.

These are the two concepts for which the Kata provide principles.

Think about that for a moment.

Many make Kata more complex or far too simple than it really is.

The generation of force and the body displacement will be either simple or complex within the Kata but Kata itself is neither simple nor complex because YOUR knowledge of how to perform the Kata and interpret it changes from complex to simple to complex to simple.

In Kata there is movement thus your body moves from one space to another – body displacement.

In Kata you are generating lines of force.

This is what Kata is.

The use of Kata for whatever purpose is simply the application of the generation of lines of force and body displacement to:

 Take advantage of a weakness in the aggressor

 Constantly gain a strategic advantage as you injure them.

While Kata can provide you with the tools only a study of violence and strategy will provide how to apply these two concepts.

[Rick]

Welcome Ryan to have you join us.

[Rick]

Excellent sense and YES you did the right thing.

[Rick]

Reality Series Post Four

As we continue with the physical and still never touch on the actual physical combat we have – fear.

Fear is a natural feeling.

Fear is your security alarm system.

While everyone will experience different things if the feel fear (and intelligent people feel fear when physically threatened) you may experience some of the following:

Pounding Heart
Muscle Tension
Trembling
Rapid, Shallow breathing
Dizziness
Nausea
Sweating
Dry mouth
Goose bumps
Tingling sensation in the face or limbs
Insensitivity to pain
Jumpy, easily startled
Urge to urinate
Urge to defecate
“Butterflies” in the stomach

You may experience some of these or none.

I think that knowing that feeling fear and what that may be like is a very good thing for martial artists to know. If you train hard and think that will shield you from feeling fear then you may be in for a very nasty surprise when things go bad and it is always the unexpected that does you in.

So prepare for fear, so if it happens you recognize it and control it.

There is another effect this may have on your system. It can distort your perception.

In the book 72 police officers were surveyed and asked about the various types of perception distortion that can happen. Here are the results:

88% Diminished Sound: you did not hear sound at all or the sound had an unusual distant and muffled quality.

82% Tunnel Vision: Your vision became intensely focused on the threat and you lost peripheral vision.

78% Automatic Pilot: You responded automatically giving little or no conscious thought to your actions.

65% Heightened Visual Clarity: You could see details or actions with unusually vivid clarity and detail.

63% Slow Motion Time: Events seemed to be taking place in slow motion and seem to take longer to happen that they really did.

61% Memory Loss For Parts Of The Event: After the event you realized there were parts of it you just can’t remember.

60% Memory Loss For Some Of Your Actions: After the event you realized that you could not remember some of your own actions.

50% Dissociation: There were moments where you had a strange sense of detachment as if the event was a dream, or like you were watching it from the outside.

36% Intrusive Distracting Thoughts: You had thoughts not directly relative to the event and the immediate tactical situation like thinking of loved ones or future plans.

19% Memory Distortion: you saw or heard or experienced something during the event that you later learned did not actually happen.

17% Intensified Sounds: Some sounds seem louder than normal.

17% Fast Motion Time: Everything seemed to speed up.

11% Temporary Paralysis: there was a brief time when you felt paralysed.

You may experience some of these or none but be prepared when it happens.

Next: How to Control Fear.

[Edited on 13-12-2006 by Rick Wilson]

[Rick]

Okay much of this comes from Gavin DeBecker’s:

The Gift Of Fear (Survival Signs That Protect Us From Violence)
Protecting The Gift (Keeping Children and Teenagers Safe)

These are from the write up I have for the Wilson Karate School’s Women’s (Teenagers) Personal Safety Program.

Sexual assaults can be all kinds of ambushes but often they are people known to the party attacked or they gain privacy and control through the methods listed and then when Privacy and Control are gained they assault the woman.

Privacy and Control (P&C):

“Dangerous men are dangerous if they can get you somewhere they have privacy and control.”

Privacy = Isolation or concealment.
Control = Where one person is persuaded or compelled to be directed by another person.

• The perpetrator will try to get you in a place where there is nobody nearby who will hear you if you resist loudly or call for help. Depending on the relationship of control they have developed this may even be your own room with others in the house.

• The perpetrator will get you in a frame of mind where you do not resist loudly or call for help. This can be done in different ways.

• If you end up in a situation where a person has P&C over you, then you must evaluate how the man got P&C:

 Was it by chance or unintended circumstance?
 Was it by design?

• You can start to exert Control by stating Clearly and Forcefully that you do not want to continue to the area where they would have Privacy.

• Clearly and Forcefully take control. “I am not going upstairs with you.”

• Control is obtain usually through either force or persuasion. The next segment will deal with how the perpetrator will use devious means to persuade you to give them Privacy. The other sections of this course will help deal with the use of force.

THE SECOND CRIME SCENE

• Very often police refer to the “second crime scene”. This is where a person has been taken from one area (the first crime scene) to another area where the assault takes place.

• The location where the actual assault takes place is the second crime scene. The perpetrator must get you to the second crime scene because he does not believe he can commit the assault in the first location. This is often because the first location does not give them the Privacy and Control that they need.

• Whenever possible DO NOT GO TO THE SECOND CRIME SCENE, FIGHT BACK FIRST.

Ways used to get by your defenses to gain P & C:

• Perpetrators of violence and assaults are predators. Just like in nature all predators have ways by which they trap their prey, or rather, how they gain PRIVACY AND CONTROL.

Here are a number of ways that human predators get passed your defenses:

1) Forced Teaming:

The perpetrator groups you in with him, or links you and your situation to him.

“We’re in the same boat.”
“Both of us.”
“How are we going to handle this?”

RESPONSE:

• Be Clear and Forceful in your refusal, but calm and direct. Do not be ambiguous, leave no room for negotiation:

“I did not ask for your help and I do not want it.”
“There is no we.”

2) Charm and Niceness:

• Charm is an ability and an action.

• It is not “he is charming” it is “he is trying to charm me” or “I am being charmed.”

• Understand that charm is not an attribute of character but an action of persuasion.

RESPONSE:

• Be aware that the person is trying to persuade you, when you still do not go along with what they want you must be Clear and Forceful in your refusal.

3) Too Many Details:

“When people are telling the truth, they don’t feel doubted, so they don’t feel the need for additional support of the details.”

• When people lie they give more details so that you will find the lie credible.

• If someone has the right to be in an apartment building they rarely feel the need to provide all the details about their aunt being on holidays in Arizona and they have to come over every two days to feed the cat and water the plants etc.

RESPONSE:

• Stay focused on the situation and the context of what is happening. (e.g. You are alone in a dark hallway with this man.)

• Do not get distracted by all the clutter of details he is throwing at you.

• If a man is a stranger then no amount of information he gives about himself is going to change that. If a man (even if you know them) is leading into a situation where they have privacy and control – be aware of it.

4) Typecasting:

“You’re probably too snobbish to talk to the likes of me.”

“You’re too afraid to talk to real men.”

• Typecasting usually involves a slight insult but an insult that is easy to refute.

• By refuting the insult (proving that you are not too snobbish or afraid to talk to him), the perpetrator/predator has gotten inside your protective barriers.

RESPONSE:

• Ignore the insult.

• Do not refute it or engage the perpetrator in any conversation.

• If your intuition and instincts are telling you to stay clear of this guy then do not be fooled into talking to him.

5) Loan Sharking:

• The perpetrator has done something for you so they imply you owe them something in return.

• You are somehow now in their debt.

RESPONSE:

• You owe them NOTHING!

• They chose to pick up that fallen bag, you did not ask them to and even if you did you owe them NOTHING!

6) The Unsolicited Promise:

“I’ll just set these bags in the kitchen and then I’ll go, I promise.”

“As soon as I call the tow truck I’ll leave, I promise.”

• Promises are used to convince someone of our intent.

• Promises are used to gain our trust.

• Promises are used to convince you of something because the person is willing to back it up by “giving their word.”

• They do this to get you to believe them because you have NO reason to believe them.

RESPONSE:

Be Clear and Forceful and Direct.

“You promise because I do not have any other reason to believe or trust you and you are right – I have no reason to trust or believe you. YOU CANNOT COME IN.”

7) Discounting the word NO:

To me this is the most dangerous one of them all

“No is a word that must never be negotiated, because the person who chooses not to hear it is trying to control you.”

• The worst response is to give in. The next is to negotiate: “Let me try it myself first.”

IF THEY DO NOT HEAR NO NOW THEY WILL NOT HEAR NO LATER!

RESPONSE:

• Be Clear and Forceful and Direct.

“I don’t want your help!”

“I said NO!”

• If you do need help it is better to pick a person yourself and preferably pick a woman.

• Always remember that NO is a complete sentence.

These are just seven of the ways that perpetrators use to get by your nature instincts of safety.

[Rick]

Mat: I agree completely and

“If we focus on the technique, we miss something infinitely more important. How about the MOVEMENT? The TRANSITION?”

Will be a thread of its own soon because it is so important.

[Rick]

Reality Series Part Two

Physical:

In the physical section I will not address the actual physical conflict because many of our other threads will be addressing that sort of thing and it is what you most likely do in class.

However, there is a part I include in the physical conflict and that is the pre-encounter.

We do see now a days that very random violence where thugs are out looking for a victim and simply walk up and attack – most often from the side or behind.

Blindside Ambush:

While we can all be as alert as possible and more alert in public there really is not a great deal you can do to prevent a person walking up behind you when you are sitting on a park bench and nailing you from behind in the back of the head.

At that point you have to hope your toughness, survival mindset and training all kick in before the aggressor can do more damage.

About all I can say is train the survival mindset. Train the “go through the pain” drills or some form of that. Do sucker punch drills where the punch lands.

Here there is no magic. There is no secret training that will get you through – just you.

I call that attack the “Blindside Ambush.” This is where you have no chance to see the set up or the attack.

Ambush:

The next attack would be the “Ambush.” This is where the aggressor does initiate random violence but without the foresight of blindsiding you. In other words, you do have an opportunity to read the intent of the thug before the violent attack.

In this case what you want to do is prevent the ambush from taking place. If it does well then you are in the same situation as the Blindside Ambush.

Here awareness and paying attention to those around you and approaching you is important.

You must read the body language of pending violence (more later on the specific signs.)

I remember walking along the sidewalk just off the Alberta Legislatures beautiful grounds one evening with a friend (we were working overtime and on dinner break). As we walked I saw two individuals walking towards us. One was very agitated and animated. They also appeared to be intoxicated.

As the came along side of us the agitated guy threw and elbow at my head. I slipped the strike and pushed his elbow sending him flying down the hillside with his buddy running after him calling his name.

Now the strike was sloppy and very easy to deal with but only because I had been paying attention. My buddy was shocked because he had not taken any notice of their approach let alone seen their violent potential.

So the ambush differs (in this thread) from the Blindside Ambush because you have the opportunity to take action if your awareness is high enough.

Interview Ambush:

A number of sucker punch attacks begin with the interview. The interview is a verbal exchange is used to see if the aggressor can read you. They are testing to see if you are a victim and if they can get in position to sucker punch you. The sucker punch in today’s world can also be a knifing.

Once again awareness is your best defence; here you want to make sure the thug knows you are set and ready. You want to keep your distance and have your hands up in a non-threatening position BUT up and ready to act and/or shield.

Watch again for the physical signs of the impending attack and take action on or before the launch depending on the verbal exchange.

The hope here is that you fail the interview and they look elsewhere for another victim.

Blusterous Ambush:

In this case the thug is very vocal and often vocal about their violent intents, which may make some question the “ambush” word. I used it still because I believe the bluster is intended to distract so they can sucker punch you.

Now here there may be time to talk your way out of the physical encounter or to defuse the situation.

This is where most martial arts schools will tell you to simply walk away. Oddly the examples people post of “walking away” are the opposite.

What most people post when it comes to “walking away” is where they did things right, in that they used words that indicated they did not want a confrontation, all the while locking eyes with the thug and letting him know how badly things will go if he decides to attack. There are often no words of de-escalation but rather clear remarks letting the thug know the outcome of an encounter.

Now there is a time and a place for the above response and if the thug uses verbal BS to cover why he is backing down – let him.

However, he backed down. He walked away. Not you. You walking away is you walking away with the thug thinking you are a coward and afraid of him.

When you do actually back down you may feel a tremendous rush of adrenaline that makes you feel “dirty” for having backed down. You will want to have a second chance to engage.

Because of this feeling regardless of if you backed down or the thug backed down YOU must leave the area.

You leave the area so that you do not do something stupid after backing down. You do not want to reignite the situation into a conflict. The obvious reasons apply but also legal ones. The conflict was over and if you reignite it then legally you are the aggressor and in the wrong.

You want to leave the area after the thug backs down because he will be going through the same thing as you would and therefore he may be building up the courage to come back for that second chance.

So vacate the area, which is good advice anytime you avoid a physical encounter.

The above ambushes apply to both men and women in a confrontation most often with the same sex.

It will also apply for men when the aggressor is a woman.

The other ambush that can happen is when a man tried to sexually assault a woman and that will be the next post.

[Rick]

Great stuff.

[Rick]

Well Ray in your lack of understanding of what the testing is supposed to be about you actually have made a very good point.

The checking originally started soft, not hard. The point was to check the stance integrity but more than that, it was to test the person’s ability to shift and absorb the pressure by adjusting the stance. Dave’s push hands analogy gives a good visual only smaller movements.

When you get up close and personal you need to know how to deal with the pressure that monster is putting on you so you can do that nice hit to the head.

And yes it would be lovely if in the real world the nasty big bad guy never ever got a hold of you but I prefer to train for the Murphy rather than fantasy.

Now where Ray hit the nail on the head is that the “testing” changed and it changed for demonstrations and performances.

Showmanship and nothing more.

Take the strike to the stomach in hard Sanchin testing. The majority of the schools will strike directly on to the centre of the stomach. A few will hit to the solar plexus.

But it would be a really weird day you got hit straight on the stomach in a fight.

In reality you will get hooked up into the body and into the ribs with the common targeting being the areas on the edge of the stomach where the stomach muscles separate. Or down into the body but not straight in the centre.

The reason the strikes are done straight on is that you can take a really hard hit with not a lot of training.

Ray was right, the strikes are there because they can be taken there easier and make you look good.

Yes it is a starting place but if you are going to train conditioning then you should be striking all over the torso particularly the edges and the ribs. The strikes should be angled and not straight.

Sanchin check is merely a check of stance integrity, and movement and anyone who thinks it would be used for fighting is a fool, so Ray if someone told you that then they are a fool, if you thought that one up yourself…well……Nah that can’t be right.<img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/" alt="” title=”Wink” />:lol::cool:

I do not do the hard testing. We have enough body and limb conditioning that I do not see any point in it. I prefer the soft checking and teaching the student to use the stance not stiff like a statue but movable and constantly adjusting.

Just my take.

[Rick]

Now Dave is the example for Uechi instructors.

Dave wants to learn and have his school learn about fighting on the ground so they invite a person in to teach a progressive program. They found someone who works off their own style as a base (which is not always possible).

So in the end Dave and his students will not only have learned to work on the ground but his school will have a method to integrate teaching the ground into their program.

In fact I predict within a year Dave will be teaching this not as a separate part but simply as “what they do.” Of that I have no doubt.

It is not often a teacher will bring in someone to show something they have not learned yet.

Oh you can bring n a “Master” but there is no “threat” there but to bring in another teacher seems to scare people off.

When I ran my spring camp for four years I had a variety of people teaching from “masters” to teachers like myself.

There was a wealth of knowledge being presented.

We covered everything.

I am trying to think of everyone we had over the years (I hope I get this right and do not forget anyone):

2001:

David Elkins (Uechi Ryu, American Knife Concepts, Combat Cane – Taught Bowie knife)
Joseph Chen (Chen Taiji / Tai Chi)
Tony Fell (Uechi Ryu Karate and Chen Taiji)
Rick Bottomley (Uechi Ryu Karate and Chen Taiji)
Bill Poon (Ketto Ryu Ju-Jutsu, Filipino Martial Arts)
Cary Burgett (Tae Kwon Do)
Trevor Tessier (Ketto Ryu Ju-Jutsu – taught ground grappling at every camp)
and me

2002:

Jim Maloney was in town and came out for the entire weekend and taught.
Robb Finlayson (A PDR Instructor under Tony Blauer)
Dave Chow (Renshinkai School of Karate Uechi Ryu)
Joseph Chen (Chen Taiji / Tai Chi)
Terry McLaughlin (Uechi and Kobudo – taught Bo)
Danny La (Uechi and Kobudo – taught Bo with Terry)
Ken Read (Nothern Rvier Uechi Ryu School and Qigong)
Manuel Desa (Desa School of Karate Shohei/Uechi Ryu)
Tony Fell (Uechi)
Trevor Tessier (Ketto Ryu Ju-Jutsu)
Mike McGuire (Stick and Knife A great connection was made and Mike later, in 2005, taught a Tactical Seminar weekend for many of my student)
And me

2003

Mike McGuire (Stick and Knife)
Trevor Tessier (Ketto Ryu Ju-Jutsu)
Robb Finlayson (A PDR Instructor under Tony Blauer)
Bill Poon (Ketto Ryu Ju-Jutsu, Filipino Martial Arts)
Tony Fell (Uechi)
Dave Chow (Uechi)
Doug Smith (Edmonton Okinawan School of Karate Uechi and Kobudo teaching Bo)
Jamie Tokuda (Kempo)
And Me

2004 (The last year and we tried less but longer sessions)

Mike McGuire (Stick and Knife)
Trevor Tessier (Ketto Ryu Ju-Jutsu)
Robb Finlayson (A PDR Instructor under Tony Blauer)
Bill Poon (Ketto Ryu Ju-Jutsu, Filipino Martial Arts)
Dave Chow (Uechi)

Now in there you can see many of the Uechi folk came out and supported the camp by teaching (for free) but sadly only Dave’s Renshinkai School ever had a student attend (and they had a lot attend).

Let me be clear that it is not the responsibility of anyone else to get people out to someone else’s camp but I know that in one school while the camp was obligatorily mentioned it was very dismissive.

So I very much appreciate that Dave is willing to open his school to someone teaching something different.

And that is the danger these people see. It is okay to have someone come in and teach more fo the same because your students have already seen that but to have something taught that the teacher (GASP) doesn’t know — well – they feel threatened by that.

Mike McGuire who taught a lot at the camps and after says the same thing there is a fear they will lose students or something.

Anyway it is not common and Dave should be praised for it.

[Rick]

No way would I forget!

I love coming out and there may be a few extras to turn up to help with this one. I think Louis, Stan, Adam and Laird may just make it. One of the things we will be covering is shooting and Louis and Stan are the best at shooting in my school, so this is a great class for them to make.

I am having the best time going out to Dave’s once a month.

They are a great open minded group that is just fun to work with.

They are also very well trained by Dave so it is easy to teach them because they have the base to pick up things really fast.

This Thursday I have some real interesting stuff and now that they have some basics we are going to get them having some real fun.

Looking forward to seeing you and your students Dave.

[Rick]

This being a Uechi board of course I agree about Uechi and I believe that most of us will also agree that it depends ……………… on how you train your Uechi. :bad:

[Author]

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