When I’m bored, I usually grips up my PSP and throw on some streetfighter. Its got to be the greatest arcade game of all time. I usually just play using Ryu. He seems to be pretty decent and certainly not a Wing Chun man, (thankfully).
I remember mates playing this game sitting in Uni digs back in 1993, and now I sit playing it in 2010. Thats what you call classic.
Quietly, letting go. I’m quietly letting go. Shedding my skin and draping it over the doorway.
I don’t want to be a part of Gung Fu anymore. My focus has shifted. I am looking at an oblique world through a crescent lens.
I hurt when I train and feel bad when I choose not to. So, I’m letting go. The magus is revealed when the fighter is laid to rest.
I am quietly letting go. Shedding my skin and draping it over the doorway.
This clip is on mercury toxicity.
My brothers’ current research topic is anti-aging and this is something he passed on to me (subject matter of which I have been aware of for a long time).
If you are a martial artist, I challenge you to watch this. If you are a parent, you owe a duty to your children to watch this. If you are a teacher, watching this will provide you with some important lessons.
Sometimes I think my father is an Acupuncturist/Buddhist and doesn’t know it. I’ve learned a lot of things from both my parents from just watching them over the years. In my eyes, they are successful – so I try to model them.
Which line of Wing Chun are you? Who was your teacher?
Common questions in the Wing Chun world, asked by people trapped by ideology. I couldn’t care less what LINE of Wing Chun you are. If I came to see you, it is because I want to see what your personal expression of Wing Chun is. It is meaningless therefore, to say that you teach a particular line of Wing Chun, because you are not that line and you are not your teacher. You are you. Do your own thing. People like Muhammad Ali and Bruce Lee were great not because they hung on the coat tails of their predecessors, but because they were prepared to take risks and innovate.
Free yourself. And if people are too blinded by their own inadequacies to recognise what you are doing, ignore them.
I held up my left bong sau (redirecting block), standing in my kitchen. I grabbed my wife’s arm, moulding her hand into a fist shape and placed it on my bong arm to practice my Gung Fu. My wife pulled off her arm and hit me in the stomach. I was a bit irked but gently placed her fist back on my bong to try again. I got marginally further this time in practising my move before she pulled her arm out and hit me again.
I had to reprimand her and explained that in order for me to practise, she was would have to sacrifice her natural inclination to hit me and just co-operate . In particular, I explained that she had to hold her elbow bent and her arm tucked in. She walked off.
I realized that while I had been busy focusing trying to get my Gung Fu to work that she had hit me twice and I was unable to stop her.
Clearly my wife is a streetfighter and I am buried in the classical mess.
The ultimate defense technique.
The bigger picture
So here’s the twist.
I’ve said that most sports based arts either don’t directly translate to the street, or the training/techniques need modification to become effective.
I’ve also highlighted lots of areas within most sports based systems that have very different approaches to the street arena and often develop attributes that are negative when used in real confrontation.
However, there is an upside to training in any, if not, all martial arts, and this is the bigger picture that I think most miss.
Whatever art you train in, if we ignore the actual techniques for a moment, you will also be developing a lot of personal skills and attributes that can have a massive impact on your survival ability in real combat and even better, your general personal security measures in all aspects of your life.
Skills such as:-
Being self analytical – learning how to monitor your movements and attitudes can help you to improve in other areas of your life.
Self Awareness – understanding what makes you tick, knowing your limits and being able to push yourself.
Fitness – not only does this help when things get physical, but it also helps remove you from the selection pool of would-be attackers.
Health – being able to live a healthy lifestyle that helps protect us from the stresses and strains and illnesses that life can throw at us is far more valuable than protecting against personal attack – it is still very rare.
Wellbeing – most training will involve your mental muscle in a variety of ways. Remaining focused, maintaining your awareness, learning techniques, remembering complex routines, being more alert, reaction speeds, will power, and self control. All of these things can help maintain a better mental balance and a stronger, more resilient “self”.
Competitive Edge – with all sports based martial arts, the emphasis is on competition and challenging yourself against an adversary. Whilst the rules may make this “un-realistic” the process of being competitive and applying massive intention to winning the battle will directly translate to the outside arena. When things get tough and the fight might not be going your way, this competitive edge and the desire to win at all costs is what will carry you through, more so than the techniques you use.
So, in a nutshell, any martial arts, regardless of style or system, has something to offer that will give the practitioner a better chance in a real life encounter.
The main thing is to be honest with your training and always keep a “reality-check” on what it is you think you are training in, versus what it is you are Actually training in and don’t kid yourself that what you are doing is “self-defence” because it might be more sports based than reality based.
However, to have a balance here, I also think it’s possible for those training in “reality based” systems to also have a check on what kind of reality they are actually living in that would warrants certain types of training.
Above all, whatever it is you are doing – make it fun and it will be the best self protection system going, as it will enhance all of your life, which is surely the ultimate aim.
Thanks for reading
Stay Safe and Have Fun
Al Peasland
With 25 years of Reality Based martial arts training and as Geoff Thompson’s longest serving student in the Real Combat System, Al Peasland has brought together effective techniques from a wide range of arts and blended them into one self-protection system. Al is fully qualified to offer certified training in a blended style containing many of the most effective techniques from Boxing, Karate, Muay Thai, Greco-Roman Wrestling, Freestyle Wrestling, Sambo Russian wrestling, Judo and many others.
It must have been a funny sight. Or, odd at least. The neighbours were having some kind of a get together, playing music, hanging out in their garden and having fun. A purple Lotus sports car pulled up into my driveway. The rumble of the car died as the key was taken out of the ignition and out stepped my brother and a casually dressed Japanese man named Takao Tanaguchi. Takao’s “geta” footwear (imagine a clog crossed with a flip flop) made an audible cloppin sound as he marched into my house.
I can just imagine the neighbour’s thinking “who the hell is that?”
The three of us sat and watched an MMA event that had been broadcast from Saitama, Japan. The commentary was in Japanese which suited Takao as he was here visiting my brothers’ Dojo for a couple of weeks. Sensei Takao, is a man in his 60’s. He is a shichidan (7th degree black belt) in Shotokan Karate and in intimidatingly good shape.
There are some people who talk about martial arts. There are some people that study and train martial arts. Very, very few embody martial arts.
(L to R) Al Peasland and Geoff Thompson
What doesn’t work
The real issue here is the environment and approach to competition combat as opposed to real-life combat.
Things which make competition training less effective or directly transferable to the street would be:-
The presence of a referee – someone ready to jump in if you are taking a beating
The strict control that most competitions are based on a 1 on 1 format – meaning you are never outnumbered (even if sometimes it may feel like it) and there is never the threat of others jumping in and adding to the melee
There are always rules – no matter how open these are, there are always rules. Even if it is a time limit, a limit on areas to strike or the strikes you can use, the clothing you can wear, the protective equipment you must wear, even if that is just a gumshield, the environment in which you are fighting, etc etc
Even if the rules are very limited, the presence of rules changes the mindset of the fighter and adds an element of familiarity which brings with it an element of comfort.
Few fights in any art are over in one or two seconds. Partly this is because fighters are often well matched but also the format of the fight, the way it is judged and scored, means you are often focussing on wearing down your opponent, hurting them with a view to slowing them down rather than trying to get the fight finished with the first shot or in the first couple of seconds.
Most competition arts do not cover the skills of pre-fight dialogue, body language, the warning signs of impending confrontation and the opportunity for fights to start when you are not fully aware or ready for action.
Even MMA and Cage Fighting, which is considered the most complete and all-round fighting system, does not fit with a conventional street-based fight. It is a match fight, akin to meeting your adversary at a location of your agreed choosing in order to settle your differences. These are very rare for the vast majority of us and so, whilst it has great skill in all of the ranges, still lacks elements that would make it more effective in the pavement arena.
Most arts only teach to defend against attacks contained within their art. Whilst I am not a huge fan of blocking and defending in confrontation anyway, it’s still a valuable asset to have an appreciation for all ranges and all types of attacks – not just those found in the one art that you train.
When we get into point scoring arts, where anything more than a bloody nose is considered poor control and warrants a warning, then we start to move away from effective street based training.
We start to develop muscle memory that goes against the intention of hitting to destroy and knock out opponents. And we all know that we get what we train for , so if I spend the vast majority of my time learning to snap techniques and retract them at the point of contact, then this is what I will do in the heat of the moment in a street confrontation.
At this point, I want to make it clear that I am not criticising any arts nor dismissing anything for the street, but under the theme of this article, what I wanted to do was simply highlight what I feel can translate directly from sports based arts to a street based environment.
With 25 years of Reality Based martial arts training and as Geoff Thompson’s longest serving student in the Real Combat System, Al Peasland has brought together effective techniques from a wide range of arts and blended them into one self-protection system. Al is fully qualified to offer certified training in a blended style containing many of the most effective techniques from Boxing, Karate, Muay Thai, Greco-Roman Wrestling, Freestyle Wrestling, Sambo Russian wrestling, Judo and many others.
Al Peasland - Pre-emptive Strike
The theme for this article was to consider how we can relate sports based martial arts such as Western Boxing, Wrestling or Karate, to a street based environment.
For me, it would be quite easy to say, “they are worlds apart with a gaping chasm between what works on the mat of competition and what works outside”.
However, the real story may be a little more complicated and nowhere near as cut and dried as that.
What works
Firstly, lets look at what arts and what aspects of arts have the best chance of translating directly to the street.
I have always been a firm believer, partly through realistic training and partly through binary testing on the street, that the punching arts, in particular Western Boxing, have the most success and best direct application to real-life encounters.
It’s said that 90% of fights end up on the floor – but I would argue that almost 100% start standing up – and if your hands are good, and you understand the language of street fighting, then it’s solid knock-out shots that should be your first port of call.
Training in Boxing will give you the best education in learning fast, effective, accurate, explosive and technically proficient punching skills.
Once in-grained, these can work perfectly well either in the ring or outside.
Other arts which I would favour from a sporting arena in terms of their street based effectivity would be Judo, or grappling arts which have a good stand-up game, and also any of the kicking arts which focus more on power than snappy flashy kicks, such as Shotokan Karate or Muay Thai.
Whilst kicking range can seem safer and more comfortable for a confrontation on the street, mainly because of the extra distance you are from your opponent, in reality, this distance rarely lasts more than a fleeting second or two – so to maintain a good kicking range in order to fight with kicks, is a really difficult task.
The grappling arts however have a very valid place, and the stand-up game from Judo is perfect for when fights crash together into a clinch, giving you options for taking control of the grapple and possibly ending with a heavy throw, before you have to consider the ground-game.
Getting used to getting hit. If you art includes full contact and heavy blows are allowed, this is great conditioning for helping you become desensitised to the shock element that occurs when you are injured or hurt during a confrontation.
Obviously, there are a myriad of other arts, all of which have techniques that are applicable to the street. The trick is being able to recognise those and then figure out how they can be modified in order to make them work in this different arena.
With 25 years of Reality Based martial arts training and as Geoff Thompson’s longest serving student in the Real Combat System, Al Peasland has brought together effective techniques from a wide range of arts and blended them into one self-protection system. Al is fully qualified to offer certified training in a blended style containing many of the most effective techniques from Boxing, Karate, Muay Thai, Greco-Roman Wrestling, Freestyle Wrestling, Sambo Russian wrestling, Judo and many others.
I’m going through a nostalgic phase. Hadn’t watched Kung Fu Films for a couple of years but just bought a bunch. This site is a good resource for people killing some time and wanting to watch some Old School flicks;
The only training I did this weekend was to read comments posted by whining bitches on the Kung Fu Forum. Its made up of people who moan about Wing Chun in one way or another. The underlying message is that the seniors who post thhere think that they, and only they have the real Wing Chun. Its like watching a soap opera; a bunch of non-fighters discussing an art that is very far removed from fighting.
Maybe I’m pissy because I didn’t train this weekend. I’m not sweating it too much though.
I don’t know why I act the way I do
Like I ain’t got a single thing to lose
Sometimes I’m my own worst enemy
I guess that’s just the cowboy in me
I got a life that most would love to have
But sometimes I still wake up fightin’ mad
At where this road I’m heading down might lead
I guess that’s just the cowboy in me
-Tim McGraw
The Legendary Horiyoshi III;
http://www.nowness.com/day/2010/7/13/767/skin-deep-horiyoshi-iii#share
http://al-peasland.blogspot.com/2010/07/keep-it-simple.html
KISS=Keep It Simple, Stupid
or as my Sifu has once said – KISK=Keep It Simple, Kenton
HIS DARK SIDE 