Dog Brothers Lateral Attacks to the Head

DPD,

I think that you performed the wrong experiment!

The question is not, "Is a lateral strike effective?" There is no doubt that it is, whether you are wearing headgear or not, whether you are using a stick or not. (As long as you can land it.)

The question is, "Is a vertical strike effective?" With headgear on, it would appear that the answer is "Not really." The experiment you need to do is to do vertical strikes with a stick WITHOUT wearing headgear. Anecdotally, Crafty reports that he took a full power shot to the skull with no effect. It would be interesting to see if the same is true among us mere mortals.

My personal suspicion is that many FMA work the vertical/diagonal shot because they did find it useful in the "old days". The use of masks might reduce the effectiveness of such shots, but that is not the same thing as saying that masks make the lateral shots MORE effective. (I hope you can see the distinction I'm trying to make.)

Again, my usual caveat - this is all theoretical on my part. I don't have any experience in stick arts and minimal experience in kali (though I'm working on it).
 
One of my students, a MD, came up once with the explanation that both main nerves run the same way as the arteries under the muscles on both sides of the neck. He meant when stimulated the pars parasympathetica caused the KO.

Bye Kurt
 
Dear Kurt,

Sometimes people look at an interesting phenomenon and say, "Hmm. That's neat. I wonder why that works."

It's human nature to try to come up with a satisfying explanation. It is easy to look at an anatomy textbook see all the nerve and blood vessels in the neck and conclude that damage to one of those obviously important structures MUST be the reason blows to the neck knock people out.

BUT, such explanations are nothing more than speculation and should be recognized as such.

For example, I can think of no reason why hypothetical damage to the "pars parasympathetica" should lead to someone getting knocked out. Disruption of the parasympathetic innervation to the heart would increase, not decrease heart rate and blood pressure. Stimulation of the pars parasympathetica is essentially the same theory as the carotid baroreceptor idea, which I find questionable.

Attributing the KO effect to the pars parasympathetica sounds good (just like the carotid baroreceptor theory) but doesn't hold up to scrutiny (in my opinion).
 
Hi Shin

Originally posted by shin
BUT, such explanations are nothing more than speculation and should be recognized as such.
Click to expand...
Definitely.
Originally posted by shin
For example, I can think of no reason why hypothetical damage to the "pars parasympathetica" should lead to someone getting knocked out.
Click to expand...
I don’t know either. His explanation was that just the stimulation would be enough. What stroked me odd already back then was: When hit on the side of the neck the pars sympathetica, which have the opposite effect in his model, will become manipulated too. That’s why I was not unhappy when I heard of the carotid baroreceptor theory the first time. But after reading your theory I tend to think you are right.

Bye Kurt
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top