I have 3 broken fingers...

Your ex was a ninja? How did you know? I bet you never heard her creeping in late from the pub #nightingalefloor

 

I would just like to say abig thankyou for the overwhelming response i have received from my little question. Your answers have helped me immensley.

I have spent the past hour or so going back over the thread and have watched, read, thought about (and even had a little giggle at some of the responses) everything that was shared here. My question was answered in every way. Thankyou very much.

True gentlemen.

Regards

Artemisia

 

Alright, I'll defend my cherished American gun toting values. Back in 1995, an old lady showed me the twenty staples she had in her head from an attacker. If she had a gun, she would have blown that perp away.

It's one thing to communicate, "Back off, don't bother me, I know ma" versus wearing a shirt that screams, "I'm an MMA tough guy, come get some!" There's a big difference. Mabe some day when I get good enough, I'll try that. But today, I will only communicate, "I am strong, attack at your own risk."

 

Thanks jwt, I liked the video also. But it did make me wonder: what happens if you throw a TaeKwondo black belt into the mix? Does the fighting look different?

 

No. Those clips are taken from the video footage of hundreds of scenarios. Those scenarios include Karate (Shotokan, Wado, Goju) and Tae Kwon Do black belts, including a 6th Dan TKD who never threw a single kick.

 

Good luck with your recovery Artemisia. Remember to be patient with yourself while you heal. It will probably take a good 6 months before you have full dexterity back in those fingers, and up to another 2 years of potential recovery time before you're likely to be as fully healed as you'll ever be. Broken bones and major lacerations suck.

 

And a spiffing Shotokan chap who demonstrates a lovely groin kick in the video as well as a 'straight from kata' ground kick.

 

Yeh, he'd do a reverse spinning outer crescent kick and it"d be all over !!

 

Well that's kind of an unwelcome surprise. I'm just trying to understand what's happening. If 3 or 4 fighters are trained to defend against highly damaging attacks, then you're looking for openings in your opponents defenses. It makes me wonder if hand/fist/arm strikes are just faster than kicks? Or is it that there just isn't enough room for kicks? I saw some kicks being launched, but it seemed like the opponent was moving too quickly.

 

That's what I would have thought, but jwt says: no, it doesn't playout like that.

 

I was being ironic

 

Whether you can access your skill set depends on what you are used to. You might recall me saying this:

The more of the above criteria that are met regularly in training, the easier it is to automatically access your skill set. If people hardly ever train any of those then it is not surprising when they fall back on windmilling haymaker punches, pushes, clinches and shoulder barges to protect themselves, regardless of how many years training they have behind them.

Those that kicked the most (out of my scenario participants) don't practise kicks all that often, and actually my guys only have (other than padwork) one drill involving a kick, but they kicked the most because they were used to the factors mentioned above.

 

Wow! Would someone with anger management issues be able to access their skills more easily?

 

Not necessarily. All that shows is that they are liable to lose their temper (ie lose control) more easily, not that they are able to access skill sets that rely on control.

 

I think you make a valid point Simon, but I would like to qualify my statement further in case it was misunderstood. I was making reference to skills access being linked to the similarity/familiarity of the facets of the environment. If the context for skills access is unfamiliar then there is no guarantee of skills access, whether you have anger management issues or not. Sparring, as it is commonly understood, is entering into an environment where you should expect skills access as it should be familiar.