- Joined
- Nov 28, 1999
- Messages
- 235
"What have callouses on the hands got to do with skill in self defence?
Hitting someone hard enough to hurt them isn't all that difficult and requires about an hour of training for a complete beginner to learn even empty handed. With a stick it is even easier. With a knife it is easier still. With a machete"
callous have nothing to do with fighting. but they show how much work you put in to training for a fight. yes a knife will go though skin easy, but if two people fight, the one who is more prepared will have the advantage. i hope you dont think all you will need is a weapon and a "hour of training" to prepare for streetfighting. and you need to know more than just how to hit and have enough strength to hurt somebody. if you want just simple and basic self defense, go to a book or video or seminars. but i am talking about being way above average in strength, speed, power, pain tolerance, and timing and skill. if what youre saying is true, lets just close all the schools and offer one hour courses.
"If you chop at a person with a machete then you will find that there isn't alot of force required to cut them. "
well, i am not stuck in the past, i dont fight with machetes. but speaking in theory, you will need more than the weapon, you need to have the ability to CATCH the opponent. if you have a weapon and he does not, he will not stand there like a tree and take your attacks.
"Are we here to learn to defend ourselves or tap each other with sticks that weigh far less than the machete they are supposed to represent? "
no, that is why i dont like stick tapping, and the common belief in the western FMA community that the stick represents the blade is not true, they are spread by people who dont know any better. you train for machete with a machete. you train for stick with a stick. i challenge anyone who thinks a one inch rattan is "tapping" then let me take a shot.
"Has anyone here done any test cutting on animal corpses? I haven't but one of my friends has and he was amazed at just how easy it is to make a disabling cut. You don't need to whack it as hard as you can. In fact hitting too hard screws up cutting technique. A cut must be drawn as it impacts otherwise it will not do much.
Of course if you never actually pick up a machete then your edge alignment will never be right anyway...... "
makes sens to me. there is a difference to chopping and cutting. you have certain kinds of blade for each one (and stabbing to). and i test my skills on animal corpes almost every night. and vegetables too.
"If you really are only training for stick work then perhaps you should examine the two handed method. A light blow using this method is going to hurt enough to end a fight. A bodyweight blow in the right place will kill. "
i agree with you too.
"What has compliant same weapon sparring between two combatants who are both ready with their weapons out got to do with self defence? "
almost nothing. but arnis in the philippines does not just do stick to stick. that is a western FMA thing.
"What has whacking each other with a short stick whilst moving over a perfectly smooth surface whilst wearing a tracksuit and armour that blocks all the sting from a blow got to do with self defence? "
nothing, that is why most philippine arnis schools do not practice with expensive armor, and a lot of practice is outside. but be careful to dont spend too much time on hills, unless you spend a lot of time on hills.
"Has anyone ever heard of scenario training?
Does anyone train in low light conditions?
In cramped conditions?
With and against improvised weapons?
I do. "
good for you. filipinos are more adaptive than you think. if you travel to the philippines, you will see that this "new discovery" is not new at all, but only to seminar goers.
"I really don't care what people are doing in the Phillipines.
(so shoot me)
We live in a different world to them. We face a different type of adversary under different circumstances. "
that is too bad. many of the things i hear FMA people today "discover" are things i could have told to them 20 years ago. the problem with the philippine martial art seminars and "quickie" course, is the western world have a backwards view of us and our style, and they are going back 100 years "improving" things that were done many years ago. meet any east coast FMA person who knows me from 1980s, they all called me stupid when i said the "drills" and sinawali craze does not represent what philippine martial arts is about.
we have our drug addicts, gun shooters, and gangs like everyone else. what we do not have is martial arts that became watered down to where people now have to change everything and add "realism". dog brothers, this kind of sparring has been around many many years. that is what gives us the art we have today. but the seminar is where all this drilling and sinawali, and prearranged, kenpo-like technque comes from. now people think the philippine martial arts have the same style as kung fu forms, but we dont. but since nobody is interested to find out, or listen to teachers who are not famous and dont have video and articles out, then i dont feel sorry for you.
"We have access to modern studies on the adrenal stress response that were not available even 10 years ago. We now know that defences that rely on a modified flinch reflex are the only ones that are going to work in a surprise self defence situation or perhaps at all. "
so do we. but since you dont care what we are doing, i guess "american FMA" improved the art better than someone you will probably never met.
"My system has adapted. Has yours? "
yes. many years before you think.
"The arts should move towards the future, not look at the past. "
i disagree, we learn to prepare for the future by looking at what we did in the past, and the lesson we experienced there. in 2002, we do not have the fear and blood that was there that the grandfathers saw before us. today there is no man to man fighting, only sports, video game wars with few soldiers, and "classroom science theory". people today think up there own ideas of what will happend when they fight, then very few people who try to find out, and they fight to get used to it. do not become so arrogant to think you are smarter than experienced education. old lions can teach a lot to the cubs.
part of this attitude is from the teacher who tells his people, i am the best/most advance/authentic teacher, and nobody went out to see how effective this teaching is. now, like almost all the "seminar teachers" i have met, thinks he learned a superior art to what we pinoys are doing. 10 years ago it was my teacher has the best of the philippine styles, and the best teachers are all in the US. today its, the philippine styles are to rigid/uneffective/thoeretical, and i am improving it. too bad.
Hitting someone hard enough to hurt them isn't all that difficult and requires about an hour of training for a complete beginner to learn even empty handed. With a stick it is even easier. With a knife it is easier still. With a machete"
callous have nothing to do with fighting. but they show how much work you put in to training for a fight. yes a knife will go though skin easy, but if two people fight, the one who is more prepared will have the advantage. i hope you dont think all you will need is a weapon and a "hour of training" to prepare for streetfighting. and you need to know more than just how to hit and have enough strength to hurt somebody. if you want just simple and basic self defense, go to a book or video or seminars. but i am talking about being way above average in strength, speed, power, pain tolerance, and timing and skill. if what youre saying is true, lets just close all the schools and offer one hour courses.
"If you chop at a person with a machete then you will find that there isn't alot of force required to cut them. "
well, i am not stuck in the past, i dont fight with machetes. but speaking in theory, you will need more than the weapon, you need to have the ability to CATCH the opponent. if you have a weapon and he does not, he will not stand there like a tree and take your attacks.
"Are we here to learn to defend ourselves or tap each other with sticks that weigh far less than the machete they are supposed to represent? "
no, that is why i dont like stick tapping, and the common belief in the western FMA community that the stick represents the blade is not true, they are spread by people who dont know any better. you train for machete with a machete. you train for stick with a stick. i challenge anyone who thinks a one inch rattan is "tapping" then let me take a shot.
"Has anyone here done any test cutting on animal corpses? I haven't but one of my friends has and he was amazed at just how easy it is to make a disabling cut. You don't need to whack it as hard as you can. In fact hitting too hard screws up cutting technique. A cut must be drawn as it impacts otherwise it will not do much.
Of course if you never actually pick up a machete then your edge alignment will never be right anyway...... "
makes sens to me. there is a difference to chopping and cutting. you have certain kinds of blade for each one (and stabbing to). and i test my skills on animal corpes almost every night. and vegetables too.
"If you really are only training for stick work then perhaps you should examine the two handed method. A light blow using this method is going to hurt enough to end a fight. A bodyweight blow in the right place will kill. "
i agree with you too.
"What has compliant same weapon sparring between two combatants who are both ready with their weapons out got to do with self defence? "
almost nothing. but arnis in the philippines does not just do stick to stick. that is a western FMA thing.
"What has whacking each other with a short stick whilst moving over a perfectly smooth surface whilst wearing a tracksuit and armour that blocks all the sting from a blow got to do with self defence? "
nothing, that is why most philippine arnis schools do not practice with expensive armor, and a lot of practice is outside. but be careful to dont spend too much time on hills, unless you spend a lot of time on hills.
"Has anyone ever heard of scenario training?
Does anyone train in low light conditions?
In cramped conditions?
With and against improvised weapons?
I do. "
good for you. filipinos are more adaptive than you think. if you travel to the philippines, you will see that this "new discovery" is not new at all, but only to seminar goers.
"I really don't care what people are doing in the Phillipines.
(so shoot me)
We live in a different world to them. We face a different type of adversary under different circumstances. "
that is too bad. many of the things i hear FMA people today "discover" are things i could have told to them 20 years ago. the problem with the philippine martial art seminars and "quickie" course, is the western world have a backwards view of us and our style, and they are going back 100 years "improving" things that were done many years ago. meet any east coast FMA person who knows me from 1980s, they all called me stupid when i said the "drills" and sinawali craze does not represent what philippine martial arts is about.
we have our drug addicts, gun shooters, and gangs like everyone else. what we do not have is martial arts that became watered down to where people now have to change everything and add "realism". dog brothers, this kind of sparring has been around many many years. that is what gives us the art we have today. but the seminar is where all this drilling and sinawali, and prearranged, kenpo-like technque comes from. now people think the philippine martial arts have the same style as kung fu forms, but we dont. but since nobody is interested to find out, or listen to teachers who are not famous and dont have video and articles out, then i dont feel sorry for you.
"We have access to modern studies on the adrenal stress response that were not available even 10 years ago. We now know that defences that rely on a modified flinch reflex are the only ones that are going to work in a surprise self defence situation or perhaps at all. "
so do we. but since you dont care what we are doing, i guess "american FMA" improved the art better than someone you will probably never met.
"My system has adapted. Has yours? "
yes. many years before you think.
"The arts should move towards the future, not look at the past. "
i disagree, we learn to prepare for the future by looking at what we did in the past, and the lesson we experienced there. in 2002, we do not have the fear and blood that was there that the grandfathers saw before us. today there is no man to man fighting, only sports, video game wars with few soldiers, and "classroom science theory". people today think up there own ideas of what will happend when they fight, then very few people who try to find out, and they fight to get used to it. do not become so arrogant to think you are smarter than experienced education. old lions can teach a lot to the cubs.
part of this attitude is from the teacher who tells his people, i am the best/most advance/authentic teacher, and nobody went out to see how effective this teaching is. now, like almost all the "seminar teachers" i have met, thinks he learned a superior art to what we pinoys are doing. 10 years ago it was my teacher has the best of the philippine styles, and the best teachers are all in the US. today its, the philippine styles are to rigid/uneffective/thoeretical, and i am improving it. too bad.
