Good talk on blocks

[Van Canna]

Brooks

This does not match what we need to do in order to maximize our effectiveness as martial artists.

Our bodies are much more complex and so are more able to function as integrated systems not just as related systems of fire and mobility.

(This attribute is most evidently true with empty hand but it holds to a large degree when examining armed exchanges with bladed or impact weapons.)

[Van Canna]

Brooks

Certainly it is essential to gain the initiative in the interaction immediately or at least as rapidly as possible. If we move properly in response to incoming force it is possible to simultaneously (in a single movement)

1. Reroute the incoming energy past our target region,
2. Reposition our body just outside the range of attack,
3. Off balance the opponent,
4. Damage the opponent’s attacking personal weapon (limb), and
5. Execute a counter and/or set up a counter attack that is launched without any extra motion of your body.

[Van Canna]

Brooks

To do this we have to understand the use of the full body in movement.

If we move the body as parts – an arm here, a step there – we will not maximize our ability to move effectively.

The means of moving the body as a fully integrated system utilizes the three components of koshi –

the ability to move in a whip-like, helical form by rotating from the center, compression – drawing the body toward the center point and then exploding force outward, and using the arches of the body – integrated flows of energy and body architecture which connect the whole body in a resilient unified structure.

[Van Canna]

Brooks

Describing those three components of fully integrated body movement is outside the scope of this article. If you haven’t studied them you should get this information because it will add a whole new level of achievement to what you are doing.

When we move in this way we can feel that the “defensive positions” in our kata and our combative tactics are not merely “point to point” interceptor defenses but in effect are “zone defenses.”

We don’t know precisely where the attack is targeted against us but we do not in fact need that precise predictive intelligence to respond effectively.

This understanding informs our use of the hand, arm and body positions in “defensive” techniques, and makes it different and much more Boolean than the usual “point to point” interpretation of defensive movement.

[Van Canna]

Brooks

But what this way of moving does is allow the body shift and opponent contact to be a single motion, and allows for no perceptible delay in following up, responding to incoming assaultive technique.

This idea is an entry point to advanced martial arts.

If you go in this direction your martial arts will be transformed and you will become a truly effective fighter and a practitioner of a higher order.

[Van Canna]

Your kicks

Shod foot. “Footwear, such as a shoe, when used to kick, can be a dangerous weapon.”
Commonwealth v. Tevlin, 433 Mass. 305, 311 (2001); Commonwealth v. Fernandez, 43 Mass. App. Ct.
313, 315 (1997) (sneakers);

Commonwealth v. Marrero, 19 Mass. App. Ct. 921, 922 (1984) (boots or
sneakers); Commonwealth v. Zawatsky, 41 Mass. App. Ct. 392, 398-399 (1996) (unnecessary for
prosecutor to prove exactly what type of shoes defendant wore where there was evidence that defendant
was wearing shoes and gave victim a vicious kick to the head resulting in injury).

Compare Commonwealth
Instruction 6.300 Page 10
ASSAULT AND BATTERY BY MEANS OF A DANGEROUS WEAPON Revised December 2019
v. Charles, 57 Mass. App. Ct. 595, 599 (2003) (kicking was “not so minimal as to foreclose an inference”

that shod feet were being used as dangerous weapons capable of causing serious injury) with
Commonwealth v. Mercado, 24 Mass. App. Ct. 391, 397 (1987) (jury may infer that foot was shod, but no
more than a nudge was insufficient).

[paulg]

Here's another way to think about this...
There is increasing discussion in martial arts circles about how blocks are ineffective. We practice them for years and years as part of our kata and prearranged kumite, and we want to believe that we can use blocks in a real self-defense situation. When you look at the films of the best competitive sparrers (is that a word?) like Van or Jimmy or Bob Bethoney or Bob Cambell or Al Wharton or Walter you see that they do use some defensive moves and basic blocks to set up their counterattack. But their blocks are quick and reflexive and are followed immediately by their own counterattacking moves. Blocking is not absent, just automatic and the beginning part of their own attack. Could they have developed these reflexes had blocks not been a significant part of their training?

Here is an analogy to consider: imagine a diamond-shaped curve (that is; a curve on a chart of scientific statistics.) The vertical axis is time in study. The horizontal axis is the complexity and volume of the curriculum. So as a beginner we start off knowing very little. But over time, the first few years, we learn alot of knew skills. New techniques, new kata and kumite, new moves, new combinations, etc. The curve widens out. But then at a certain advanced point we start to drop excess or unnecessary or impractical moves, and the ones we retain are becoming second nature. Reflexes, if you will. The curve over time now starts to narrow (not widen). So at the very advanced level such a curve looks like a diamond; narrow at the bottom, wide in the middle and then narrow again at the top. And at the top of this curve our moves and reactions are going to look simple and basic, but have a tremendous amount of skill behind them.

Consider this further analogy: a great Chinese painter, famous for his paintings of a local mountain, said in his old age;"When I was a boy I thought the mountain was just a mountain. Then I learned to paint and I realized that the mountain was so much more than just a mountain. Then, in my seniority I realized the mountain is just a mountain." Likewise, Bruce Lee said "Before I studied (gungfu) I thought a punch was just a punch. Then as I studied I saw that a punch was so much more than a punch. After many years I realized that a punch is just a punch." The old artist and Bruce Lee did not mean to say that all those years of study were a waste. They were very necessary to learn the essence and the dynamics of their respective arts. But they then progressed past the exercises and made their art their own. I have quoted before the old renaissance Italian saying 'impara l'arte e mette la daparte' (learn the art and then put it aside). Same idea.

So back to blocking. I believe we are still far better off to have studied and practiced blocking (for many years during our karate development) even if we eventually 'put it aside.'

[Van Canna]

Great post, Paul, and I agree 100% with your views.

We could look at blocks as lines of force and directions our limbs need to be educated in crossing as fulcrum points in setting up [loading] counter offensive and body mass angling.

When fighting, getting attacked by larger heavier opponents, we can learn to 'push off' against an attacking limb and pivot to a better countering angle...by 'crossing' the attack line with our so called 'blocks'...and all this happens automatically, not necessarily in response to a 'read' impending attack.

This is the beauty of the Uechi wauke.

Our style founding fathers certainly addressed this component in developing the wauke.

One of the ways to study this concept, is to look at three 'forward stepping' waukes we do in the kata Kanshiwa.

Each of us will see individual personal applications...

One of mine is to see those forwards circles as a 'seizing' forward moving shield, much like the wind engulfing a spinnaker on a boat in its forward momentum.

[Van Canna]

The new killing fields

New York Subway platforms

On Thursday, a 40-year-old woman was shoved onto the subway tracks in Manhattan’s Union Square station just before a train pulled in. She fell between the rails and a row bed, police said, escaping with minor injuries. A suspect was immediately arrested.

Hours earlier on Wednesday night, a man was shoved onto the tracks of the 42nd Street-Bryant Park station by a panhandler after refusing to give him money, authorities said. The victim was able to get back on the platform and wasn’t seriously hurt. A suspect was arrested.

One of the 300,000 residents of the city who have moved out since the first of the year said this kind of crime is exactly why he left.

What are you practicing against a sudden shove?

If your answer is 'Standing my ground' then you are the next pile of meat down the tracks.

[Van Canna]

Lack of enforcement for minor offenses hasn’t reduced the violence. The number of shootings has doubled since last year and the number of people shot went from 828 during all of 2019 to 1,667 this year through Nov. 15. There were 295 murders in all of 2019. There have been 405 so far this year.

Those are just the raw statistics. It’s what the violence is doing to the quality of life that has many frightened for themselves and their families.

[Van Canna]

A pair of parolees with multiple arrests allegedly broke into a home in Queens on Tuesday and held a family hostage during an hours-long standoff with police.

Earlier this month, a 64-year-old woman was robbed at knifepoint in Queens. The suspect violently grabbed her as she was walking and put a knife to her throat. He appeared to flee empty-handed, according to the New York Post.

This is what real violence is all about...

[Van Canna]

It’s the law of the jungle. The weak and helpless are preyed upon by criminals who have little fear of getting caught.

The answer has to be new leadership willing to stand up not only to the activists who seek to weaken law enforcement but the criminals taking advantage of the lax enforcement to run wild in the streets.

It’s only going to get worse. One wonders when the tipping point will be reached and when the people will rise up to demand law and order or leave the city to its misery.

[Van Canna]

String of attacks on men is keeping Waltham on edge

https://tinyurl.com/yxwp2nsa

The night before Thanksgiving, Emerson Antonio Aroche Paz was walking down the street around 10 p.m. when he saw someone heading toward him in the rain. He moved over to give him room to pass and when they were almost shoulder to shoulder heard him take a deep breath. Then, without warning, the man hit him in the head twice, sending him reeling into the road.

He “hit me in my left eye,” Aroche Paz, 41, said in an interview Tuesday. “It happened very quickly.”

Aroche Paz is among at least 10 men who were targeted here in recent weeks, in a string of random, brutal street attacks that have frustrated investigators and set residents on edge.

How do you prepare for something like this as you train in the dojo?

[Van Canna]

The man appears to lie in wait for unsuspecting victims, sneaking up from behind and viciously assaulting them. He flees quickly on foot, without stealing anything.

The victims have all been men, the youngest 20 and the oldest in his mid-to-late 40s. Police believe the attacker is armed with a weapon.


The attacker could be motivated by the “thrill” of hurting his victims and avoiding apprehension, he said.

“It makes them feel powerful, dominant,” Fox said. “They are enjoying the experience of beating people and getting away with it.”

Such attacks are difficult to understand because there’s no obvious motive, like revenge or money. But the feeling of power and invincibility gives the assailant gratification.

Fox said it was similar to incidents across the country where people have randomly shot at passing cars, only more intimate since these attacks were carried out up close.

The attacker may suffer from mental illness, Fox said. But such crimes tend to be spontaneous and committed by someone who was not necessarily aware of the risks or the possibility of being identified by witnesses. In this case, it appeared the attacker was waiting for his victims.

“Someone who is lying in wait is being strategic about it,” Fox said. “It would tend to suggest the thrill aspect as opposed to mental illness.”

There are scum bag rats like this guy, everywhere you go these days, and the pandemic is fueling their nest.

You will encounter them in all you do in a day, from simple driving to shopping.

And if you shoot one of them, guess who's going the be the loser?

But, thinking of dealing with this with empty hands, because you go waltzing to the dojo couple times a week, if that, is a pipe dream.

So what weaponry would be adequate?

[Van Canna]

From Quora

Since leaving the Police Department I have facilitated hundreds of Code Black courses teaching people initially how to effectively negotiate and escalating to passive resistance and then aggressive self defence.

There are certain things you should and shouldn't do in a street confrontation but the mind aspects can be easily remembered by Speed Aggression & Surprise (SAS) and knowing where to strike and how many times to strike.

You also need to be made aware of the legislation in your jurisdiction in relation to self defence as compared to common assault.

If you put someone down and cause them serious injury there is every chance that the cops will charge you with an offence.

So I give you this information advisedly: NEVER EVER make a statement to Police in these circumstances NO MATTER HOW FRIENDLY THE COP IS.

Typically … “I just want to clear up a few things here buddy.” Fall for that one and you will be in handcuffs before you can count to 3.

Most people who end up in prison have had the worst witness you could imagine against them … themselves! Keep your big mouth shut or you will regret it for a long, long time. Use only one word … “lawyer.”

This is worth going over again and again, and once again, every few weeks.

The one thing we need to become believers in ...is that after a violent confrontation, in addition to your being injured, in pain, mentally and physically exhausted, and scared, and possibly having pissed your pants...you will become newly afraid by the police interaction...

All this while under the effects of the adrenaline dump which will prevent you from rational thinking and or recalling anything with accuracy.

There will be a tendency to go to 'diarrhea of the mouth' MODE...you cannot control, much like you cannot control a bout of diarrhea from the other end.

I have seen much of this in my investigations of fatal incidents...like, for example, the Greyhound bus driver who, after broadsiding a car and killing the driver, told the police at the scene that while driving the bus at 25 MPH...he had first seen the car about 25 feet away coming thru an intersection...at which point in an attempt to avoid the accident, he had unbuckled his seat belt, risen from his seat, and had run to the back of the bus...at which point the collision occurred.

Go figure.

He was charged with vehicular homicide based on his statements by the police... who were chided by the judge at the 'show cause' hearing, where I had arranged for several experts to appear for the defense.

When I interviewed him and showed him the police report, he denied ever having made any such statements.

He had become a different person during the accident aftermath.