By Matthew Schafer
Copyright 2011, All Rights Reserved
Several years ago I was showing a martial arts technique to a friend who studied a different style. In the technique I came at him with my left hand followed by my right and concluded with a takedown. This particular friend was a 3rd degree black belt in a Korean martial art and I respected his opinion greatly, but when he saw me demonstrate that technique his response was, "That will never work. If I saw your hand coming at me like that I'd counter with ____." He went on to tell me how flawed the technique was because it started with a large movement and he thought you could easily see it coming. I replied, "Ok, I'll come at you again and let's find out."
I came at him again using the same technique and he showed me the counter he thought he might use, and he went on to very precisely explain what he was doing and how it was the perfect counter. Being a very skilled martial artist and instructor he made some very good points and I enjoyed getting his input. After he was finished we spent about 10 minutes working on his counter and discussing its merits, all in all we probably did this counter 20 times each. Then I said, "That's pretty good. I'll come at you one more time, I want to show you something."
This time, however, instead of coming at him with that same technique I kicked him in the shin, grabbed his wrist, and threw him on to the mat. He jumped up and with big eyes and he said, "What the hell was that?"
"Reality," I replied, "Although you made some great points, if you know what I'm going to do beforehand then you can counter any technique, but in a real violent situation you never know what someone’s going to do."
The simple truth is that if someone is standing there challenging you or attacking you, you never really know what that person is going to do. They could punch with either of their hands, grab, push, kick with either leg, pull a weapon, there are a myriad of possibilities and no way to predict with 100% certainty. However, this is a way we can get a fairly good idea and at least tell which limb they're coming at us with. The way that we do that is by knowing how to use your eyes...and by completely ignoring Mr. Miyagi.
Mr. Miyagi told his pupil Daniel, "Look eye...always look eye!" His advice (although common in many martial arts) is flawed because it lacks an understanding of how your eyes detect movement. You have two basic types of vision, Focus Vision (FV) which is your direct line of sight, and Peripheral Vision (PV) which is along-side of your direct line of sight. Both of these types of vision have their uses, for example FV is used to examine an object and identify what it is but it is not designed to detect and measure movement; PV is used to detect and measure movement but it is not designed to examine and identify objects. So, if we want to look at something that is standing still and determine what it is we should use our FV and look directly at it, but if we want to detect when something is moving and measure its direction and speed we should look next to it and allow our PV to work.
So we know that we want to use our PV but how do we do that? To answer that let's look at how the body moves by examining an attack with a knife. Let's pretend that someone is standing in front of you with a knife if their right hand and they step forwards with their right foot and thrust that knife at your chest. In this scenario most people would look at the knife and that makes sense since it is the knife that is going to impale you. However, that is not ideal, in fact, the Japanese have a saying: “You see the sword that kills you." What this means is that you should never look at an attacker's weapon. The reason for this is that if you look at their weapons then you're using your FV to detect movement and it is not designed for that. Have you ever seen something come at you and for some reason you just stood there and watched it hit you? A lot of people have (myself included) and the reason for this is that when you focus your vision on something that is moving your eyes aren't able to give your brain the necessary information it needs to judge its speed and direction and you often are left standing there almost in a trace while you try to figure it out. So looking at the knife is out, and that also means that you shouldn't look at someone’s hands or feet to see when they are going to punch or kick you.
With the knife being out lets go up the arm to the elbow. If you watch his elbow you will see the thrust seem to slow down a little bit. The reason the thrust seems a little slower is that in most cases the elbow has to move before the hand does so you get a little tip off when the thrust is starting. Add to that that the elbow moves 4 times slower than the hand and it becomes obvious that if you had to get out of the way of that thrust then by watching their elbow you've have a much easier time then by watching their hand or the knife itself.
Let's not stop there though, let's travel up the arm and take the advice of boxers by watching the shoulder. The shoulder generally moves even before the elbow and it moves about 20 times slower than the hand. In boxing you're taught to watch your opponent's shoulders and when you see one raise, drop, or move forward that means that arm is about to throw a punch. This is very sound advice but we can do even better by looking at the center of their chest. Look at the center of their chest and suddenly getting out of the way of that knife thrust is easy.
The reason it is so easy to see that thrust coming towards you by looking at the center of their chest is twofold. First, most all movements the body makes starts with the very center of the body moving and most of the time the very first muscles to move are the ones connected to the spine. So if they are going to thrust at you with their knife the very first thing that will move is the very center of their body which, because it’s connected, will make the right side of their chest move. Next, the entire right side of their body rotates towards you, followed by the shoulder moving, then the elbow, and then the hand. By looking at the center of the body you're actually seeing the attack build up and you can start to move while the attack is just starting. Second, by focusing your vision at the center of their chest you're putting their chest and shoulders in your PV so your eyes can detect as soon as they move.
Now, while all of this is great for dealing with people that might punch, stab, push, grab, or just use their arms to attack you in any way...but it doesn't help you with kicks. The same things that are true with the arm are true with the legs in that the feet move fast, the knees move must slower, and the hips moves even slower still. The hips and the shoulders are the two great fulcrums of the body and pretty much every large movement the body makes can be detected first by watching these areas. If we take everything we've just gone over we can see that the most advantageous place to look is actually right about their solar plexus. The solar plexus area is right in between their hips and shoulders in the center of the body and by watching this area you will have their hips and shoulders all in your PV.
The answer of where you want to look to be able to detect someone’s attack is the solar plexus area, but HOW do you look? This might seem like an odd question but if I focus right on their solar plexus I'm making my FV dominant when my PV should be. Instead of looking AT the solar plexus area you should look THROUGH the solar plexus area to focus your vision about 2 to 3 feet behind them. This will direct your vision at the very center of their body but put the entire thing in your PV. Practice this a little bit and you'll soon be able to see as soon as they move and you'll be able to tell which limb they are coming at you with.
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Monday, April 25, 2011
Secrets and The Martial Arts
By Matthew Schafer
Copyright 2011, All Rights Reserved
In the martial arts there is an idea that there are no “secrets” out there. The belief is held by many that everything that can be taught is being openly taught, and secret martial arts techniques and principles held only by the by masters simply don’t exist. I’ve also noticed the commonly held idea that the only “secret” out there is plain old hard work and effort.
While hard work and effort are very important, the simple truth is that the reason martial artists think that secrets don’t exist is simply because they don’t their history, the definition of the word “secret”, or they don’t know any of the secrets themselves! If someone is successful at competition fighting or of high rank with 20 or 30+ years of study they naturally assume they know everything. If someone was a 7th or 8th degree black belt then surely they, if anyone, would know the secrets, wouldn’t they?
You can only learn what you’ve been taught. If no one has taught you any of these mystical “secrets”, and you haven’t figured out any on your own, then you don’t know any. I’ve seen many 6th, 7th, and 8th degree black belts give demonstrations, and in some cases I thought that what they were doing didn’t even qualify as martial arts (an explanation of why is below).
By assuming that there are no secrets and that you already know everything you simply stop learning. From what I have personally observed I think that this is happening to most middle level and high ranking martial artists. They think that they know all there is to know so for the rest of their martial arts career they learn more and more about less and less. At the end you ask a 70 year of 9th degree black belt, a “master”, what he knows and basically you find that he knows how to punch and kick in a straight line. Sure he probably knows forms, sparring, board breaking, traditional weapons, self-defense techniques, and some wrist locks and throws; but it basically adds up to most of what he knows is how to punch and kick in a straight line.
Please understand that I’m not knocking martial arts or the masters. What I’m trying to convey is that by thinking that there are no secrets to the martial arts you stop looking for them and then stop learning. There are more to the marital arts than a simple kick, punch, and block. However, the more and more I meet fellow high ranking martial artists the more and more I find that all they know is how to kick, punch, and block.
The martial arts are very old and many masters spent their lives studying and developing them. There are many secrets in the martial arts, but the secrets aren’t necessarily what most American martial artists might expect (more on this below).
The reason why certain things were kept secret is that originally the martial arts world was a very hostile one. The martial arts trace back to China, and in ancient China your ability in martial arts was often a great determining factor of how long you lived. This being the case you tried to keep an “ace in the hole” so to speak.
Towns, villages, and wealthy families all had their own private armies to protect themselves and their holdings. In these military groups you wanted everyone properly trained because you’d be fighting together and your life would greatly depend on the person standing next to you. However, there was also an internal power struggle in most of these groups. Lower ranking members would naturally want more and more status and power within the group and higher ranking members would want to keep the status and power they already had. One way of keeping the status quo was to withhold certain teachings. If the junior members of a family had to be strong well trained martial artists to fight for your family’s interests, the senior members, especially as they got older, needed to have tricks up their sleeves so they could keep their status if challenged by a younger lower ranking member. Thus, the more sophisticated teachings of most styles started being held back in order to maintain a status quo.
In most commercial martial arts schools there were two separate groups of students: inside students (often called “disciples”) and outside students. When a student came to a master and was accepted at the school be became an outside student. Outside students had two classes: senior students and junior students. You’d begin as a junior student and be taught almost exclusively by a senior student. You’d often spend years learning the basics and drilling them day by day having very little contact with the school’s master. Over time you graduate to being a senior student and you’d be given the responsibility of teaching new junior students. One may be an outside student for 5 or 6 years, while others might remain an outside student forever.
While you’d have very little contact with the school’s master he or she would keep a watchful eye on you to monitor your progress and behavior. A junior student would receive a basic martial arts education and a senior student would receive an intermediate martial arts education. However, after years and years of study the master might decide that you were ready to become an inside student and his personal disciple. This decision was often based on your personal skill, character, and the commitment you’d shown to learning the art. After all, even if you were the most skilled student at the school, if you regularly missed classes or didn’t practice on your own the master wouldn’t waste his time giving you more instruction.
As an inside student you’d receive the advanced training of that style. This training was kept secret and you could be kicked out the school and ostracized from the martial arts community for sharing it. During one of these training sessions you’d enter the school and the doors and windows would be locked so no one could spy on you.
The Chinese grew up with a very turbulent history and saw all non-Chinese as potential threats. When martial artists from Korea, Japan, Okinawa, Vietnam, Thailand, the US, and other countries came to China to study almost all did so as outside students. While many martial artists from other countries may have been accepted as inside disciples, most were not simply because they were not Chinese.
What this boils down to is that the basic and intermediate teachings of the martial arts were widely taught, often to anyone who paid the school fees, but the advanced teachings that inside students received was closely guarded and seldom shared. The result of this is that many students would study as an outside student for 10 or more years, think they knew enough, and then they’d leave and begin teaching martial arts. Then they would teach students, then their students would teach students, and suddenly it is several generations later and that outside student is now considered a “master” and his students aren’t even aware of what they don’t know.
An interesting example is that long ago I read an article about an American Kung Fu Master who was the direct disciple of a late well known master who came from China. This American Master was the head of a large organization and had several masters himself. One day he decided to go to China to visit the village that his art, and teacher, were from.
Upon arriving there he found that there really weren’t any formal martial arts schools but that many people did practice various arts including the one his master has brought with him. After finding some people who he deemed to be masters of his style (although they themselves denied this status) he put on a demonstration for them. They reported that his technique didn’t look right and several things were “off”.
What this American Master found out was that his style of Kung Fu was actually built around a certain style of footwork. Once they taught him the footwork he said it was like being hit in the head with a brick. Suddenly everything in the art made sense and he realized he had only been doing the techniques of the art, but not the true art.
When he asked the local masters why they thought that his master never taught him the footwork, they replied that his master probably had never been taught the footwork himself and most likely had left the village before his training was completed.
When he returned to America he had to recall all his masters and teach them the footwork. Now that master visits that village every few years to train with the villagers.
This is just one example of an art being taught without its secrets. Often arts would be developed around certain principles of combat. Then the techniques would be added that supported those concepts. The concepts and principles would be kept as secrets and only be divulged to disciples and masters. Everyone else would have to spend years getting just the techniques down.
Other reasons that secrets weren’t passed down were that the master quit teaching, closed down his school, was killed (numerous times Chinese Masters were hunted down and killed by local warlords and the government to prevent uprisings), or just didn’t like a particular student.
There are teachings that have been kept secret; close door lessons that only a select few in a school were taught. The really interesting thing to most people is that these secrets are generally not techniques. One of the reasons people think there are no secrets is because they consider the martial arts to only be a collections of techniques. However, most of the secrets are actually strategies and scientific principles that make the techniques work.
In the interest of sharing some of the secrets with my fellow martial artists, here are 11 of the secrets that my master has shared with me. I can personally attest that all of these 11 secrets will make all martial arts more effective. The reason why I know they are secrets is firstly because he told me that they were secrets when he taught them to me, and also in my 24 years in the martial arts I rarely if ever see them used, on purpose anyways.
I should state that there are hundreds of secrets in the martial arts. Some are sound scientific principles, others are actual techniques, and others boil down to personal preferences held by a particular master. What are discussed in this article are the 11 that popped into my head while writing this article. I believe these are the 11 that will be of the greatest benefit to the average martial artist.
I’m sure that while reading this certain people may say to themselves, “this isn’t a secret! I’ve knows this for years!” Well then that is great. You know something that the vast majority of martial artist don’t know, or at least don’t practice.
The first four secrets are what I consider to be the four pillars of martial arts. In my opinion what makes a particular movement martial arts is not exactly what you do but rather how you do it. You can throw a punch but if that punch does not contain these four things it is not martial arts, it is simply swinging your arm around. However, if you simply shove someone (not a traditional martial arts technique) but you did it using all four pillars then what you just did was martial arts.
11 Martial Arts Secrets
Secret #1: Proper Breathing. Proper breathing is something that I see a lot of people talk about but almost never practice. Proper breathing is important because it keeps you from getting winded, provides internal tension that gives you structure for your stances and strikes, and by regulating your oxygen flow you can keep yourself calm under pressure. Simply breathe in through the nose and slowly out through the mouth. Whenever you pull into your body breathe in and whenever you push out (strike) breathe out forcefully.
One of the most important things is the internal tension created by tightening your diaphragm and stomach muscles. An easy way to get this tension is to make a sound when you exert yourself. It doesn’t really matter what the sound is or how loud it is, simply making a forceful sound creates that inner tension. When I do techniques I make a sound that is basically a very quiet, but forceful, breathing sound. It is hard to hear and doesn’t draw attention but it does give me more power, structure, and help regulate my breathing.
Another great thing about sounds is that when you make a forceful sound the next thing that your body naturally does is to take a large inhale afterwards. This way you’re forcing air out to give you power and then encouraging your body to take a deep breath afterwards to keep your oxygen intake up during the event.
Secret #2: Grounding. This is another thing that is often talked about but rarely done. I think it is rarely done because it is described in a mystical sense and not understood. In Karate you’re taught to “grow roots” or to “grab the Earth with your toes”. What grounding really is is to simply lower your center of gravity.
If you stand up straight then your center of gravity is very high and your balance is easily disrupted. If you are dancing on your toes like a boxer then you have even less contact with the ground and your balance is disrupted even easier.
The easiest way to learn to ground yourself is to study Tai Chi. In Tai Chi you’re taught to stand up straight and keep your spine long. Push your heels deeply into the ground and then push the crown of your head (the rear portion of the top of your head) towards the sky. Next, with your feet naturally at shoulder width apart, bend your knees to lower your hips slightly towards the floor. With your center of gravity (your hips) lowered closer to the floor you suddenly come more stable and with practice much more fluid in moving.
You can ground yourself in any stance simply by keeping your back straight, keeping your shoulders back, bending your knees, and slightly lowering your pelvis closer to the floor.
The benefits of grounding are many. With a lower center of gravity you have better balance, can better handle being pushed or pulled, can generate more power for punching or kicking, you will move in a smoother more natural manner (which is harder for the human eye to detect), and your body will move as one unit. Simply, if any time you have to exert or take force you want to ground yourself, and if you study the martial arts and are not grounding yourself you are not practicing marital arts.
One complaint I get about grounding is from people who engage in sport fighting. They say they cannot ground because they need to be on their toes. Being on their toes allows them to move quickly in all directions so they can dodge incoming blows and advance to attack. My reply to them is to try it and decide for themselves.
When you ground your entire body will fluidly move as one unit, but you will move one step at a time. That doesn’t mean you won’t move quickly or that you cannot move in any direction, it just means that instead of hopping several feet at a time while on your toes you will take one step at a time (or a series of step) while being securely flat footed.
One great thing about grounding is that you’re forced to take one step at a time. By taking one step at a time you will be able to stay close to your aggressor. Instead of shuffling several feet to the side so you can “get ready”, you will step alongside and be in perfect position to attack or counterattack. In order to do any technique you have to be close and grounding will help you be close or allow you keep distance if you choose to.
Secret #3: Bone Alignment. A simple truth is that when an object moves it will generate force, simply by virtue of it having mass. When that object collides with another object a portion of that force will go into the object it collided with. If two objects collide with each other, whichever’s structure yields first will be where the majority of that force will want to go.
For example, if you punch someone and your wrist is not tight your wrist will want to bend. If your wrist bends your bones are no longer in alignment so instead of that force flowing smoothly down your arm it will be backed up in your wrist and you will most likely injure yourself more than your opponent.
To make sure that the majority of the force goes into your opponent you need your bones to be in alignment starting at the heel of your rear foot (which is ideally pressed into the floor) up your leg to your hips, back straight, shoulder down, elbow down and in, and fist and wrist squeezed as tight as you can. If all of these bones are aligned then the force you are transmitting will flow smoothly through you and into your target and you will not even feel it. If any part of your body is out of alignment that that is where the force will get backed up and lead to your injury and a wasted punch.
What I see is often people leaning to the side with their shoulder up, their elbow suck out, and their wrist bent. Their lower body usually has bent knees and their heels off the floor. This is one reason why boxers and people who practice on heavy bags often end up with problems in their knees, shoulders, elbows, wrists, or neck.
A bonus secret along this same line is that when you strike your opponent should move away from your first and not the other way around. One reason that in every test of punch strength Karate practitioners test as having some of the weakest punches is that they train to retract their punches as soon as they make contact. The reason for this is that don’t want their opponent to grab their striking limb.
However, in the same way that the longer you touch a hot pan the more severely you will be burned, the longer your fist is in contact with your target the more force will be transferred into the target. In order to put the most force possible into your aggressor you need to strike with proper grounding, breathing, and bone alignment and then push all the way through them and let them move away from your first.
Secret #4: Coordinated Body Movement (CMB). CMB simply means that in every movement you make your entire body should start the movement at the same time and finish the movement at the same time. The benefits of this are many; here are only four.
First, you will move more smoothly and will incur less wear and tear on your body.
Second, by moving in a smoother manner you will instantly appear much faster to your aggressor. The way that the eyes and brain pick up offensive movement is by observing all the movements in its field of vision and then focusing on the jerky ones. Fast jerky motions are seen by the brain as offensive but relaxed smooth movements, while clearly seen, are generally not considered offensive. By executing a technique smoothly with CMB their brain generally won’t realize you’re making an offensive moment until it is almost over. The late David Carradine was quite adept at this.
Third, with CMB your entire body has one intention. This means it will move quicker and end up generating and transferring more force.
Fourth, by moving with CMB you will always be stable and able to switch techniques or targets quickly.
Secret #5: Physics Explains Martial Arts. If you want to understand martial arts you should study physics. By studying physics we know we have six simple tools to accomplish “work”. These tools are the wedge, the inclined/declined plain, the lever, the screw, the wheel and axle, and the pulley. Every martial arts technique uses one or more of these principles and by understand them you can understand your techniques and fix the ones you’re having problems with.
The wedge exists when one object intersects another object. Every strike is a wedge. The purpose of a wedge is to insert an object INTO another object forcefully in order to split it. Think about this and then think about punches and kicks.
The purpose of your strikes is not to hit the surface of your aggressor, make him say “oww”, and give him a nasty bruise. You need to focus on penetration. Anytime you strike you should penetrate a minimum of 6 inches into your aggressor. By focusing on driving your strike inside your aggressor, and not just to him, you will accomplish far more “work”.
An inclined and declined plain are used to guide an object in one direction or another. A hard block is often a wedge while a passing block or parry is a plain. If you block with intent of injuring their arm then you’re using a wedge, but if your intention is to guide their arm or stop it by having your arm at a 45 degree angle then you’re using a plain. Plains are also widely used in takedowns, throws, and tripping techniques.
Levers are used to apply force on joints for submission holds or joint breaking. Levers are also widely used in both throws and takedowns.
A screw is used to accomplish “work” by turning something in a circle. Aikido and many internal Chinese styles use the screw concept widely. If you place a screw on a piece of wood and turn it enough in the correct direction the screw will descend into the wood. In the same way if you turn a human in a circle, in the right way, they will be forced to descend into the ground.
To best understand a wheel and axle think about your car. Your car has a wheel that turns around an axle. Essentially it is like using a handle to turn a screw. An example is the Japanese technique Kote Gaeshi. You turn the hand not to put pressure on the hand, but to use the hand to apply pressure to the wrist, and then the elbow, and then the shoulder.
A pulley is a machine that allows us to do half or less of the work of moving an object. How do we allow our aggressor to do half of the “work” (work = injuring him) for us? The easiest way is to pull him into a strike. If you grab your aggressor and pull him towards you as you step in and drive a strike into him then he will be supplying a great deal of the force needed to injure him. In Aikido when someone punches you can step and pivot to the outside and then grab his wrist and use his existing forward force to spin him around and put him where you want him; this is another great example.
If you understand these 6 tools and how they work you can look at your techniques and understand HOW they work. Once you know that you can better use them, tweak them if they if they don’t use the tool effectively, and fix them yourself.
Secret #6: Thrusting, Dropping, and Raising Your Body Weight. When you’re small you are weak; when you a tired or sick you are weak; when you grow old you will become weak. All these things are true and still we focus on muscle for our power.
There are many stories of little old masters in China seemingly touching a person many times his size and making them fly across the room. How did he do that? Was it magic? No it was physics.
The master was simply transferring the potential energy of his bodyweight into kinetic energy and then transferring that kinetic energy into the other person. Since people equate force with ferocious swinging of the limbs and they didn’t see that, they assume the effect was mystical.
Your bodyweight is the greatest source of force you have. If you are small you still weigh something; if you are tired or sick you still weigh the same as you did when you weren’t, and if you’re old you may be heavier or lighter but you still have bodyweight to use.
Anything with mass generates force when it moves. So if you move your body you will generate force and if your body runs into something a portion of that force will transfer into that object. If you weigh more you will have more force; if you move faster you will have more force.
If you want to add bodyweight to your punch then step into your aggressor while you punch. The deeper you step into them the more bodyweight you will add. If you step all the way through him and actually bump into him and knock him back you will send it all into him.
Force = Mass x Acceleration. The average lunging step forward a person takes while they strike is 3.5 miles an hour. So if you hit someone with all four pillars of marital arts (“secrets” 1-4) and you step all the way through your aggressor and actually bump him with your body you can send 3.5 times your bodyweight into him.
So, if you weight 100 you will send 350 lbs. into him. If you weigh 200 you will send 700 lbs. into him. Nearly any injury can be caused with 50 lbs. of force or less.
If you cannot step into him to generate and transfer force you can still move your body up or down. If you squat in a deep horse stance and then explosively straighten your legs while you throw a punch you will put bodyweight into that punch. If you are standing nearly chest to chest with someone and don’t have the room to throw a traditional punch you can bring your fist into body, and then bend your knees to drop your bodyweight while you punch. This can easily supply the force to knock someone back. To add more force use the “4 pillars” and rotate your body into the strike.
Secret #7: Unbalance them to move them or do leverages or throws. In the martial arts we often talk about the importance of keeping your balance while taking your aggressor’s balance. However, rarely if ever do they discuss why. The reason why is simply that if you are off balance then you are vulnerable.
If you want to walk up to someone and try to put them in a wrist lock you will have a hard time because they can easily defend themselves. However, if you walk up to them and knock them off balance they will go into a very brief period where have limited ability to move and are focused not on you but on regaining their balance. So, walk up and hit them with a palm underneath the chin to knock them back and off balance and when they’re busy being off balance you can put him in a wrist lock with little trouble. The same is true with both throws and takedowns.
If you want to throw someone who still has their balance…good luck. Take them off balance and then a little nudge will knock them down.
Secret #9: Targeting. Nearly every time I see a person teach martial arts they will tell their students “high punch, low punch”, “high kick, middle kick, low kick”, or “face punch, body punch”. This general manner of striking is made worse in sparring.
Training to hit general ambiguous places on your aggressor’s body generally leads to just standing there and trading blows with him. Hitting someone in the face does little but hitting someone in the temple does a lot.
As much as I don’t like to use “MMA” (I put it in quotation marks because it is not marital arts and has little to nothing to do with actual martial arts) for an example, a great example of this appeared on the TV show “Ultimate Fighter”. I saw a few minutes of a show that featured Kimbo Slice. In that short clip that I saw fighters warming up for a workout by paring up and taking turns lightly tapping each other with punches. You saw all these guys going back and forth warming up their muscles and then you saw Kimbo Slice doing that warm up drill with his partner. When the partner lightly tapped Kimbo with his gloves he tapped his body a few times and his head a few times; when Kimbo did it he tapped the body a few times and then tapped the tip of his partner’s chin a few times.
The result? In this slow warm up drill Kimbo dominated the other guy. Instead of going back and forth: partner 1, partner 2….partner 1, partner 2, Kimbo and his partner went: Kimbo…..partner 2, Kimbo…..partner 2. The light taps on the chin were enough to create a small effect that the partner had to recover from before he could respond.
If you don’t focus on targeting you’ll just trade blows back and forth with your aggressor. You’ll be fighting his entire body and causing bruises instead of injuries. If you do focus on targets (throat, ear, eye, knee, spleen, etc.) then it won’t be your entire body against his entire body; it will be your entire body against his temple, or your entire body against his groin.
Secret #10: Don’t block, strike. When it comes to defense, aggressiveness overwhelms non-aggressiveness, and action is always faster than reaction. This is why there is an old Chinese saying that anyone can block one punch, not many people can block two punches, only a couple can block three punches, and almost no one can block four punches.
If a training partner puts on gloves and comes at you with one punch most of the time you can block it. If he comes with two quick punches it is a lot harder; with three strong aggressive punches one of them will most likely connect; four will overwhelm almost anyone. Combine them with a combination of punches, kicks, knees, and elbows to varied areas of the body and four or five strike combinations are nearly always successful.
This being true trying to block what your aggressor throws at you is fighting a losing battle. A better strategy is to strike their arm instead of blocking it. If you block it then you’ll stop that particular arm but they can use their other arm, their legs, or retract their punching arm and continue their attack. However, if you strike their arm you can either knock it away and open up their body or knock it down and pull them off balance.
For example, someone comes at you with a right punch. You do a right cross block with your forearm as you step into the block with your left foot and rotate your body to the left. This moves your entire body into the block and you will hit their arm hard enough for it to go numb (most likely) and you will knock it out of the way and cause their body to come off balance and rotate to their right. Now their right arm is numb and they are off balance and temporarily vulnerable to counterattack. If they were planning on unleashing a combination they will be stopped in their tracks.
Another method would be to use that same right cross block with your forearm but when it connects with his arm bring your arm down sharply in a chopping motion to your waist. This will knock his arm down, most likely make it numb, and pull him forwards off balance getting the same basic result as before. A nice thing about this method is that is often quicker because a sharp downward chop can be added to any block to get the same effect and you can often move your arm faster than you can move your body.
Two more nice benefits of the second method are that since it makes them bend forwards sharply you can use that by throwing a quick strike of your own. By doing this they will bend into your strike and add their own weight to it.
Also this tends to create “eye jerk”. The quick drop of their head will often cause their eyes to go in and out of focus resulting in them perceiving that they actually lost that second of time. If you do the block-strike with your right arm and then chop the right side of their neck with your right hand it will have occurred with the rhythm “one-two”, but they will perceive it as happening at the same time.
Secret #11: Focus On Principles, Not Techniques. The final secret is to not put too much emphasis on techniques but rather focus on the principles that make them work. If all you know is the techniques of your art then all you’ll end up knowing is how to punch and kick in a straight line. By knowing the principles behind that techniques you can fix them if you or someone else is doing something wrong.
You will also we better at defending yourself because if all you have is techniques you‘ll have to sort through your bag of techniques to find a technique that matches the situation as it happens and it can take time. However, if you focus on principles you can quickly adapt and adjust to any situation.
Another great benefit is that you can walk into a different martial arts school and you’ll understand what they are doing. For example, when I started martial arts I focused solely on techniques until I got to black belt. Once I earned my black belt my instructors started to make me focus on principles. They stressed that techniques themselves are not power, rather knowing how and why techniques worked, or didn’t work, was power.
With this knowledge I walked into an Aikido school several years ago and found that I understood nearly everything after viewing it a few times. I looked at a joint lock or throw and knew the science behind it that made it work; I just had to see exactly how it was that Aikido applied that science. The result was that I picked up everything quickly and rose through the ranks with ease, despite only being able to attend classes infrequently
These are just a sample of the secrets that the martial arts have to offer. By studying these you can greatly increase your skill and get closer to mastery.
Copyright 2011, All Rights Reserved
In the martial arts there is an idea that there are no “secrets” out there. The belief is held by many that everything that can be taught is being openly taught, and secret martial arts techniques and principles held only by the by masters simply don’t exist. I’ve also noticed the commonly held idea that the only “secret” out there is plain old hard work and effort.
While hard work and effort are very important, the simple truth is that the reason martial artists think that secrets don’t exist is simply because they don’t their history, the definition of the word “secret”, or they don’t know any of the secrets themselves! If someone is successful at competition fighting or of high rank with 20 or 30+ years of study they naturally assume they know everything. If someone was a 7th or 8th degree black belt then surely they, if anyone, would know the secrets, wouldn’t they?
You can only learn what you’ve been taught. If no one has taught you any of these mystical “secrets”, and you haven’t figured out any on your own, then you don’t know any. I’ve seen many 6th, 7th, and 8th degree black belts give demonstrations, and in some cases I thought that what they were doing didn’t even qualify as martial arts (an explanation of why is below).
By assuming that there are no secrets and that you already know everything you simply stop learning. From what I have personally observed I think that this is happening to most middle level and high ranking martial artists. They think that they know all there is to know so for the rest of their martial arts career they learn more and more about less and less. At the end you ask a 70 year of 9th degree black belt, a “master”, what he knows and basically you find that he knows how to punch and kick in a straight line. Sure he probably knows forms, sparring, board breaking, traditional weapons, self-defense techniques, and some wrist locks and throws; but it basically adds up to most of what he knows is how to punch and kick in a straight line.
Please understand that I’m not knocking martial arts or the masters. What I’m trying to convey is that by thinking that there are no secrets to the martial arts you stop looking for them and then stop learning. There are more to the marital arts than a simple kick, punch, and block. However, the more and more I meet fellow high ranking martial artists the more and more I find that all they know is how to kick, punch, and block.
The martial arts are very old and many masters spent their lives studying and developing them. There are many secrets in the martial arts, but the secrets aren’t necessarily what most American martial artists might expect (more on this below).
The reason why certain things were kept secret is that originally the martial arts world was a very hostile one. The martial arts trace back to China, and in ancient China your ability in martial arts was often a great determining factor of how long you lived. This being the case you tried to keep an “ace in the hole” so to speak.
Towns, villages, and wealthy families all had their own private armies to protect themselves and their holdings. In these military groups you wanted everyone properly trained because you’d be fighting together and your life would greatly depend on the person standing next to you. However, there was also an internal power struggle in most of these groups. Lower ranking members would naturally want more and more status and power within the group and higher ranking members would want to keep the status and power they already had. One way of keeping the status quo was to withhold certain teachings. If the junior members of a family had to be strong well trained martial artists to fight for your family’s interests, the senior members, especially as they got older, needed to have tricks up their sleeves so they could keep their status if challenged by a younger lower ranking member. Thus, the more sophisticated teachings of most styles started being held back in order to maintain a status quo.
In most commercial martial arts schools there were two separate groups of students: inside students (often called “disciples”) and outside students. When a student came to a master and was accepted at the school be became an outside student. Outside students had two classes: senior students and junior students. You’d begin as a junior student and be taught almost exclusively by a senior student. You’d often spend years learning the basics and drilling them day by day having very little contact with the school’s master. Over time you graduate to being a senior student and you’d be given the responsibility of teaching new junior students. One may be an outside student for 5 or 6 years, while others might remain an outside student forever.
While you’d have very little contact with the school’s master he or she would keep a watchful eye on you to monitor your progress and behavior. A junior student would receive a basic martial arts education and a senior student would receive an intermediate martial arts education. However, after years and years of study the master might decide that you were ready to become an inside student and his personal disciple. This decision was often based on your personal skill, character, and the commitment you’d shown to learning the art. After all, even if you were the most skilled student at the school, if you regularly missed classes or didn’t practice on your own the master wouldn’t waste his time giving you more instruction.
As an inside student you’d receive the advanced training of that style. This training was kept secret and you could be kicked out the school and ostracized from the martial arts community for sharing it. During one of these training sessions you’d enter the school and the doors and windows would be locked so no one could spy on you.
The Chinese grew up with a very turbulent history and saw all non-Chinese as potential threats. When martial artists from Korea, Japan, Okinawa, Vietnam, Thailand, the US, and other countries came to China to study almost all did so as outside students. While many martial artists from other countries may have been accepted as inside disciples, most were not simply because they were not Chinese.
What this boils down to is that the basic and intermediate teachings of the martial arts were widely taught, often to anyone who paid the school fees, but the advanced teachings that inside students received was closely guarded and seldom shared. The result of this is that many students would study as an outside student for 10 or more years, think they knew enough, and then they’d leave and begin teaching martial arts. Then they would teach students, then their students would teach students, and suddenly it is several generations later and that outside student is now considered a “master” and his students aren’t even aware of what they don’t know.
An interesting example is that long ago I read an article about an American Kung Fu Master who was the direct disciple of a late well known master who came from China. This American Master was the head of a large organization and had several masters himself. One day he decided to go to China to visit the village that his art, and teacher, were from.
Upon arriving there he found that there really weren’t any formal martial arts schools but that many people did practice various arts including the one his master has brought with him. After finding some people who he deemed to be masters of his style (although they themselves denied this status) he put on a demonstration for them. They reported that his technique didn’t look right and several things were “off”.
What this American Master found out was that his style of Kung Fu was actually built around a certain style of footwork. Once they taught him the footwork he said it was like being hit in the head with a brick. Suddenly everything in the art made sense and he realized he had only been doing the techniques of the art, but not the true art.
When he asked the local masters why they thought that his master never taught him the footwork, they replied that his master probably had never been taught the footwork himself and most likely had left the village before his training was completed.
When he returned to America he had to recall all his masters and teach them the footwork. Now that master visits that village every few years to train with the villagers.
This is just one example of an art being taught without its secrets. Often arts would be developed around certain principles of combat. Then the techniques would be added that supported those concepts. The concepts and principles would be kept as secrets and only be divulged to disciples and masters. Everyone else would have to spend years getting just the techniques down.
Other reasons that secrets weren’t passed down were that the master quit teaching, closed down his school, was killed (numerous times Chinese Masters were hunted down and killed by local warlords and the government to prevent uprisings), or just didn’t like a particular student.
There are teachings that have been kept secret; close door lessons that only a select few in a school were taught. The really interesting thing to most people is that these secrets are generally not techniques. One of the reasons people think there are no secrets is because they consider the martial arts to only be a collections of techniques. However, most of the secrets are actually strategies and scientific principles that make the techniques work.
In the interest of sharing some of the secrets with my fellow martial artists, here are 11 of the secrets that my master has shared with me. I can personally attest that all of these 11 secrets will make all martial arts more effective. The reason why I know they are secrets is firstly because he told me that they were secrets when he taught them to me, and also in my 24 years in the martial arts I rarely if ever see them used, on purpose anyways.
I should state that there are hundreds of secrets in the martial arts. Some are sound scientific principles, others are actual techniques, and others boil down to personal preferences held by a particular master. What are discussed in this article are the 11 that popped into my head while writing this article. I believe these are the 11 that will be of the greatest benefit to the average martial artist.
I’m sure that while reading this certain people may say to themselves, “this isn’t a secret! I’ve knows this for years!” Well then that is great. You know something that the vast majority of martial artist don’t know, or at least don’t practice.
The first four secrets are what I consider to be the four pillars of martial arts. In my opinion what makes a particular movement martial arts is not exactly what you do but rather how you do it. You can throw a punch but if that punch does not contain these four things it is not martial arts, it is simply swinging your arm around. However, if you simply shove someone (not a traditional martial arts technique) but you did it using all four pillars then what you just did was martial arts.
11 Martial Arts Secrets
Secret #1: Proper Breathing. Proper breathing is something that I see a lot of people talk about but almost never practice. Proper breathing is important because it keeps you from getting winded, provides internal tension that gives you structure for your stances and strikes, and by regulating your oxygen flow you can keep yourself calm under pressure. Simply breathe in through the nose and slowly out through the mouth. Whenever you pull into your body breathe in and whenever you push out (strike) breathe out forcefully.
One of the most important things is the internal tension created by tightening your diaphragm and stomach muscles. An easy way to get this tension is to make a sound when you exert yourself. It doesn’t really matter what the sound is or how loud it is, simply making a forceful sound creates that inner tension. When I do techniques I make a sound that is basically a very quiet, but forceful, breathing sound. It is hard to hear and doesn’t draw attention but it does give me more power, structure, and help regulate my breathing.
Another great thing about sounds is that when you make a forceful sound the next thing that your body naturally does is to take a large inhale afterwards. This way you’re forcing air out to give you power and then encouraging your body to take a deep breath afterwards to keep your oxygen intake up during the event.
Secret #2: Grounding. This is another thing that is often talked about but rarely done. I think it is rarely done because it is described in a mystical sense and not understood. In Karate you’re taught to “grow roots” or to “grab the Earth with your toes”. What grounding really is is to simply lower your center of gravity.
If you stand up straight then your center of gravity is very high and your balance is easily disrupted. If you are dancing on your toes like a boxer then you have even less contact with the ground and your balance is disrupted even easier.
The easiest way to learn to ground yourself is to study Tai Chi. In Tai Chi you’re taught to stand up straight and keep your spine long. Push your heels deeply into the ground and then push the crown of your head (the rear portion of the top of your head) towards the sky. Next, with your feet naturally at shoulder width apart, bend your knees to lower your hips slightly towards the floor. With your center of gravity (your hips) lowered closer to the floor you suddenly come more stable and with practice much more fluid in moving.
You can ground yourself in any stance simply by keeping your back straight, keeping your shoulders back, bending your knees, and slightly lowering your pelvis closer to the floor.
The benefits of grounding are many. With a lower center of gravity you have better balance, can better handle being pushed or pulled, can generate more power for punching or kicking, you will move in a smoother more natural manner (which is harder for the human eye to detect), and your body will move as one unit. Simply, if any time you have to exert or take force you want to ground yourself, and if you study the martial arts and are not grounding yourself you are not practicing marital arts.
One complaint I get about grounding is from people who engage in sport fighting. They say they cannot ground because they need to be on their toes. Being on their toes allows them to move quickly in all directions so they can dodge incoming blows and advance to attack. My reply to them is to try it and decide for themselves.
When you ground your entire body will fluidly move as one unit, but you will move one step at a time. That doesn’t mean you won’t move quickly or that you cannot move in any direction, it just means that instead of hopping several feet at a time while on your toes you will take one step at a time (or a series of step) while being securely flat footed.
One great thing about grounding is that you’re forced to take one step at a time. By taking one step at a time you will be able to stay close to your aggressor. Instead of shuffling several feet to the side so you can “get ready”, you will step alongside and be in perfect position to attack or counterattack. In order to do any technique you have to be close and grounding will help you be close or allow you keep distance if you choose to.
Secret #3: Bone Alignment. A simple truth is that when an object moves it will generate force, simply by virtue of it having mass. When that object collides with another object a portion of that force will go into the object it collided with. If two objects collide with each other, whichever’s structure yields first will be where the majority of that force will want to go.
For example, if you punch someone and your wrist is not tight your wrist will want to bend. If your wrist bends your bones are no longer in alignment so instead of that force flowing smoothly down your arm it will be backed up in your wrist and you will most likely injure yourself more than your opponent.
To make sure that the majority of the force goes into your opponent you need your bones to be in alignment starting at the heel of your rear foot (which is ideally pressed into the floor) up your leg to your hips, back straight, shoulder down, elbow down and in, and fist and wrist squeezed as tight as you can. If all of these bones are aligned then the force you are transmitting will flow smoothly through you and into your target and you will not even feel it. If any part of your body is out of alignment that that is where the force will get backed up and lead to your injury and a wasted punch.
What I see is often people leaning to the side with their shoulder up, their elbow suck out, and their wrist bent. Their lower body usually has bent knees and their heels off the floor. This is one reason why boxers and people who practice on heavy bags often end up with problems in their knees, shoulders, elbows, wrists, or neck.
A bonus secret along this same line is that when you strike your opponent should move away from your first and not the other way around. One reason that in every test of punch strength Karate practitioners test as having some of the weakest punches is that they train to retract their punches as soon as they make contact. The reason for this is that don’t want their opponent to grab their striking limb.
However, in the same way that the longer you touch a hot pan the more severely you will be burned, the longer your fist is in contact with your target the more force will be transferred into the target. In order to put the most force possible into your aggressor you need to strike with proper grounding, breathing, and bone alignment and then push all the way through them and let them move away from your first.
Secret #4: Coordinated Body Movement (CMB). CMB simply means that in every movement you make your entire body should start the movement at the same time and finish the movement at the same time. The benefits of this are many; here are only four.
First, you will move more smoothly and will incur less wear and tear on your body.
Second, by moving in a smoother manner you will instantly appear much faster to your aggressor. The way that the eyes and brain pick up offensive movement is by observing all the movements in its field of vision and then focusing on the jerky ones. Fast jerky motions are seen by the brain as offensive but relaxed smooth movements, while clearly seen, are generally not considered offensive. By executing a technique smoothly with CMB their brain generally won’t realize you’re making an offensive moment until it is almost over. The late David Carradine was quite adept at this.
Third, with CMB your entire body has one intention. This means it will move quicker and end up generating and transferring more force.
Fourth, by moving with CMB you will always be stable and able to switch techniques or targets quickly.
Secret #5: Physics Explains Martial Arts. If you want to understand martial arts you should study physics. By studying physics we know we have six simple tools to accomplish “work”. These tools are the wedge, the inclined/declined plain, the lever, the screw, the wheel and axle, and the pulley. Every martial arts technique uses one or more of these principles and by understand them you can understand your techniques and fix the ones you’re having problems with.
The wedge exists when one object intersects another object. Every strike is a wedge. The purpose of a wedge is to insert an object INTO another object forcefully in order to split it. Think about this and then think about punches and kicks.
The purpose of your strikes is not to hit the surface of your aggressor, make him say “oww”, and give him a nasty bruise. You need to focus on penetration. Anytime you strike you should penetrate a minimum of 6 inches into your aggressor. By focusing on driving your strike inside your aggressor, and not just to him, you will accomplish far more “work”.
An inclined and declined plain are used to guide an object in one direction or another. A hard block is often a wedge while a passing block or parry is a plain. If you block with intent of injuring their arm then you’re using a wedge, but if your intention is to guide their arm or stop it by having your arm at a 45 degree angle then you’re using a plain. Plains are also widely used in takedowns, throws, and tripping techniques.
Levers are used to apply force on joints for submission holds or joint breaking. Levers are also widely used in both throws and takedowns.
A screw is used to accomplish “work” by turning something in a circle. Aikido and many internal Chinese styles use the screw concept widely. If you place a screw on a piece of wood and turn it enough in the correct direction the screw will descend into the wood. In the same way if you turn a human in a circle, in the right way, they will be forced to descend into the ground.
To best understand a wheel and axle think about your car. Your car has a wheel that turns around an axle. Essentially it is like using a handle to turn a screw. An example is the Japanese technique Kote Gaeshi. You turn the hand not to put pressure on the hand, but to use the hand to apply pressure to the wrist, and then the elbow, and then the shoulder.
A pulley is a machine that allows us to do half or less of the work of moving an object. How do we allow our aggressor to do half of the “work” (work = injuring him) for us? The easiest way is to pull him into a strike. If you grab your aggressor and pull him towards you as you step in and drive a strike into him then he will be supplying a great deal of the force needed to injure him. In Aikido when someone punches you can step and pivot to the outside and then grab his wrist and use his existing forward force to spin him around and put him where you want him; this is another great example.
If you understand these 6 tools and how they work you can look at your techniques and understand HOW they work. Once you know that you can better use them, tweak them if they if they don’t use the tool effectively, and fix them yourself.
Secret #6: Thrusting, Dropping, and Raising Your Body Weight. When you’re small you are weak; when you a tired or sick you are weak; when you grow old you will become weak. All these things are true and still we focus on muscle for our power.
There are many stories of little old masters in China seemingly touching a person many times his size and making them fly across the room. How did he do that? Was it magic? No it was physics.
The master was simply transferring the potential energy of his bodyweight into kinetic energy and then transferring that kinetic energy into the other person. Since people equate force with ferocious swinging of the limbs and they didn’t see that, they assume the effect was mystical.
Your bodyweight is the greatest source of force you have. If you are small you still weigh something; if you are tired or sick you still weigh the same as you did when you weren’t, and if you’re old you may be heavier or lighter but you still have bodyweight to use.
Anything with mass generates force when it moves. So if you move your body you will generate force and if your body runs into something a portion of that force will transfer into that object. If you weigh more you will have more force; if you move faster you will have more force.
If you want to add bodyweight to your punch then step into your aggressor while you punch. The deeper you step into them the more bodyweight you will add. If you step all the way through him and actually bump into him and knock him back you will send it all into him.
Force = Mass x Acceleration. The average lunging step forward a person takes while they strike is 3.5 miles an hour. So if you hit someone with all four pillars of marital arts (“secrets” 1-4) and you step all the way through your aggressor and actually bump him with your body you can send 3.5 times your bodyweight into him.
So, if you weight 100 you will send 350 lbs. into him. If you weigh 200 you will send 700 lbs. into him. Nearly any injury can be caused with 50 lbs. of force or less.
If you cannot step into him to generate and transfer force you can still move your body up or down. If you squat in a deep horse stance and then explosively straighten your legs while you throw a punch you will put bodyweight into that punch. If you are standing nearly chest to chest with someone and don’t have the room to throw a traditional punch you can bring your fist into body, and then bend your knees to drop your bodyweight while you punch. This can easily supply the force to knock someone back. To add more force use the “4 pillars” and rotate your body into the strike.
Secret #7: Unbalance them to move them or do leverages or throws. In the martial arts we often talk about the importance of keeping your balance while taking your aggressor’s balance. However, rarely if ever do they discuss why. The reason why is simply that if you are off balance then you are vulnerable.
If you want to walk up to someone and try to put them in a wrist lock you will have a hard time because they can easily defend themselves. However, if you walk up to them and knock them off balance they will go into a very brief period where have limited ability to move and are focused not on you but on regaining their balance. So, walk up and hit them with a palm underneath the chin to knock them back and off balance and when they’re busy being off balance you can put him in a wrist lock with little trouble. The same is true with both throws and takedowns.
If you want to throw someone who still has their balance…good luck. Take them off balance and then a little nudge will knock them down.
Secret #9: Targeting. Nearly every time I see a person teach martial arts they will tell their students “high punch, low punch”, “high kick, middle kick, low kick”, or “face punch, body punch”. This general manner of striking is made worse in sparring.
Training to hit general ambiguous places on your aggressor’s body generally leads to just standing there and trading blows with him. Hitting someone in the face does little but hitting someone in the temple does a lot.
As much as I don’t like to use “MMA” (I put it in quotation marks because it is not marital arts and has little to nothing to do with actual martial arts) for an example, a great example of this appeared on the TV show “Ultimate Fighter”. I saw a few minutes of a show that featured Kimbo Slice. In that short clip that I saw fighters warming up for a workout by paring up and taking turns lightly tapping each other with punches. You saw all these guys going back and forth warming up their muscles and then you saw Kimbo Slice doing that warm up drill with his partner. When the partner lightly tapped Kimbo with his gloves he tapped his body a few times and his head a few times; when Kimbo did it he tapped the body a few times and then tapped the tip of his partner’s chin a few times.
The result? In this slow warm up drill Kimbo dominated the other guy. Instead of going back and forth: partner 1, partner 2….partner 1, partner 2, Kimbo and his partner went: Kimbo…..partner 2, Kimbo…..partner 2. The light taps on the chin were enough to create a small effect that the partner had to recover from before he could respond.
If you don’t focus on targeting you’ll just trade blows back and forth with your aggressor. You’ll be fighting his entire body and causing bruises instead of injuries. If you do focus on targets (throat, ear, eye, knee, spleen, etc.) then it won’t be your entire body against his entire body; it will be your entire body against his temple, or your entire body against his groin.
Secret #10: Don’t block, strike. When it comes to defense, aggressiveness overwhelms non-aggressiveness, and action is always faster than reaction. This is why there is an old Chinese saying that anyone can block one punch, not many people can block two punches, only a couple can block three punches, and almost no one can block four punches.
If a training partner puts on gloves and comes at you with one punch most of the time you can block it. If he comes with two quick punches it is a lot harder; with three strong aggressive punches one of them will most likely connect; four will overwhelm almost anyone. Combine them with a combination of punches, kicks, knees, and elbows to varied areas of the body and four or five strike combinations are nearly always successful.
This being true trying to block what your aggressor throws at you is fighting a losing battle. A better strategy is to strike their arm instead of blocking it. If you block it then you’ll stop that particular arm but they can use their other arm, their legs, or retract their punching arm and continue their attack. However, if you strike their arm you can either knock it away and open up their body or knock it down and pull them off balance.
For example, someone comes at you with a right punch. You do a right cross block with your forearm as you step into the block with your left foot and rotate your body to the left. This moves your entire body into the block and you will hit their arm hard enough for it to go numb (most likely) and you will knock it out of the way and cause their body to come off balance and rotate to their right. Now their right arm is numb and they are off balance and temporarily vulnerable to counterattack. If they were planning on unleashing a combination they will be stopped in their tracks.
Another method would be to use that same right cross block with your forearm but when it connects with his arm bring your arm down sharply in a chopping motion to your waist. This will knock his arm down, most likely make it numb, and pull him forwards off balance getting the same basic result as before. A nice thing about this method is that is often quicker because a sharp downward chop can be added to any block to get the same effect and you can often move your arm faster than you can move your body.
Two more nice benefits of the second method are that since it makes them bend forwards sharply you can use that by throwing a quick strike of your own. By doing this they will bend into your strike and add their own weight to it.
Also this tends to create “eye jerk”. The quick drop of their head will often cause their eyes to go in and out of focus resulting in them perceiving that they actually lost that second of time. If you do the block-strike with your right arm and then chop the right side of their neck with your right hand it will have occurred with the rhythm “one-two”, but they will perceive it as happening at the same time.
Secret #11: Focus On Principles, Not Techniques. The final secret is to not put too much emphasis on techniques but rather focus on the principles that make them work. If all you know is the techniques of your art then all you’ll end up knowing is how to punch and kick in a straight line. By knowing the principles behind that techniques you can fix them if you or someone else is doing something wrong.
You will also we better at defending yourself because if all you have is techniques you‘ll have to sort through your bag of techniques to find a technique that matches the situation as it happens and it can take time. However, if you focus on principles you can quickly adapt and adjust to any situation.
Another great benefit is that you can walk into a different martial arts school and you’ll understand what they are doing. For example, when I started martial arts I focused solely on techniques until I got to black belt. Once I earned my black belt my instructors started to make me focus on principles. They stressed that techniques themselves are not power, rather knowing how and why techniques worked, or didn’t work, was power.
With this knowledge I walked into an Aikido school several years ago and found that I understood nearly everything after viewing it a few times. I looked at a joint lock or throw and knew the science behind it that made it work; I just had to see exactly how it was that Aikido applied that science. The result was that I picked up everything quickly and rose through the ranks with ease, despite only being able to attend classes infrequently
These are just a sample of the secrets that the martial arts have to offer. By studying these you can greatly increase your skill and get closer to mastery.
Friday, December 10, 2010
Some Wheels Don’t Need Reinventing
I define marital arts as “an intelligent use of violence and injury as a tool for survival”.
Today a friend of mine came and saw a few minutes of an advanced martial arts/self-defense class I was teaching. He commented afterward that what he saw wasn’t martial arts; it was just people “stomping each other into the ground.”
I responded by saying, “Damn right!”
The thing is that if you are attacked by someone it will be with real violence, not a Hollywood or Disney version. Real violence isn’t pretty and it sure as hell isn’t fair or nice. Real violence is about stomping people into the ground and being the one that walks away. Maybe that’s not moral or “right” but that simply is the case of the matter, and to tell my clients other than that is to do them a dangerous, and potentially lethal, disservice.
Originally martial arts were not pretty or nice, they were solely about combat and stomping people into the ground so you could win wars and/or survive an attack by both animals and humans. It was in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s when the west influenced and changed the orient’s culture, political structure, and economy to where the martial arts either had to adapt and charge or fade away as a major part of their culture. With a strong government and lots of guns martial arts just weren’t considered necessary by most people anymore. So, they changed them, repackaged them, and sold them differently. They moved from being methods of stomping people into the ground to a method of (first) spirituality and (later) exercise and health.
While the martial arts have changed and added principles of Buddhism, Taoism, and various oriental cultures, violence itself has remained unchanged.
The reason why most people today don’t respect the martial arts, the reason why people smirk when they hear that someone has a black belt, is that the martial arts have gotten away from the idea of stomping people into the ground and therefore they’ve gotten away from the reality of violence. For this the marital arts have suffered and become far less effective.
The martial arts have tried to pretty themselves up a lot over the last 150 years in order to be more socially acceptable in more peaceful times but when someone is actually trying to seriously injure or kill you the only thing that will reliably save your life is to be offensive and stomp them into the ground.
It’s not pretty but martial arts never used to be. Old Chinese Kung Fu masters used to say, “If is pretty, it isn’t real Kung Fu”. I say, “If it isn’t about injuring people and stomping them into the ground then it won’t prepare you to actually defend yourself from someone who is actually trying to kill you.”
Today a friend of mine came and saw a few minutes of an advanced martial arts/self-defense class I was teaching. He commented afterward that what he saw wasn’t martial arts; it was just people “stomping each other into the ground.”
I responded by saying, “Damn right!”
The thing is that if you are attacked by someone it will be with real violence, not a Hollywood or Disney version. Real violence isn’t pretty and it sure as hell isn’t fair or nice. Real violence is about stomping people into the ground and being the one that walks away. Maybe that’s not moral or “right” but that simply is the case of the matter, and to tell my clients other than that is to do them a dangerous, and potentially lethal, disservice.
Originally martial arts were not pretty or nice, they were solely about combat and stomping people into the ground so you could win wars and/or survive an attack by both animals and humans. It was in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s when the west influenced and changed the orient’s culture, political structure, and economy to where the martial arts either had to adapt and charge or fade away as a major part of their culture. With a strong government and lots of guns martial arts just weren’t considered necessary by most people anymore. So, they changed them, repackaged them, and sold them differently. They moved from being methods of stomping people into the ground to a method of (first) spirituality and (later) exercise and health.
While the martial arts have changed and added principles of Buddhism, Taoism, and various oriental cultures, violence itself has remained unchanged.
The reason why most people today don’t respect the martial arts, the reason why people smirk when they hear that someone has a black belt, is that the martial arts have gotten away from the idea of stomping people into the ground and therefore they’ve gotten away from the reality of violence. For this the marital arts have suffered and become far less effective.
The martial arts have tried to pretty themselves up a lot over the last 150 years in order to be more socially acceptable in more peaceful times but when someone is actually trying to seriously injure or kill you the only thing that will reliably save your life is to be offensive and stomp them into the ground.
It’s not pretty but martial arts never used to be. Old Chinese Kung Fu masters used to say, “If is pretty, it isn’t real Kung Fu”. I say, “If it isn’t about injuring people and stomping them into the ground then it won’t prepare you to actually defend yourself from someone who is actually trying to kill you.”
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
How To Hit Someone Before They Can Move
By Matthew Schafer
Copyright 2010, All Rights Reserved
I went through several titles for this article before I settled on this one. My original title was “How To Manipulate The Way The Eyes Detect Movement And The Way The Brain Processes That Movement So You Can Appear Incredibly Fast And Take People By Surprise”, but that title, while perfectly descriptive of this article, was too long.
What I’m going to cover in this article is four ways that you can use the body’s processes against it so you can strike or grab someone before they can react or counter you. If you plan on sucker punching someone in the near future, or don’t want to get sucker punched, than this article is right up your alley.
Method Number One: Attack at an upward 45 degree angle. The field of vision your eyes have is actually limited by your cheek bones and nose. If you’re standing next to someone with your hands by your side than all you have to do is bring your strike upwards at a 45 degree angle to the groin, torso, or head and you will actually come up under their field of vision and they will not be able to see your strike.
Granted you could give your strike away by telegraphing it with a sudden change in your glare, facial expression, drop of your chin, or sudden movement of your shoulders.
Method Number Two: Don’t break your silhouette. The main way that your eye detects movement is by picking up a change in the amount of light or the shape of the light surrounding an object. For example, if your arm is hanging by your side and held a little ways from your body than I will be able to see light all the way around your arm. If you move your arm my eyes will immediately detect the change in the amount of light surrounding your arm or the shape of the light surrounding your arm. The more distance between your arm and your body the more light there is between them and the bigger signal I get when either of them move.
However, if you bring your arms into your body where your arms are entirely within the silhouette of your body there is no big backlight around the arm to give away the movement. If you put an arm entirely within the silhouette of your body and then strike straight in so that at no time does the arm come outside of the silhouette it will be extremely hard for my eyes to detect it and relay the message quick enough for me to do anything about. This is also great for disarming guns.
Another reason why this works so well is that it has you striking straight in and not moving your arm in a circular movement towards the target. To be extremely simplistic, the eyes have two main mechanisms: the “Peripheral Vision Mechanism” (PVM) and the “Focus Vision Mechanism” (FVM). The PVM (peripheral vision) is used to detect movement and judge speed while the FVM (where you’re focusing your vision) is used solely to identify objects. The FVM is not meant to detect movement or judge the speed at which an object is traveling and when it is used for this function it results in rapid tiring of the eyes, such as being hypnotized by a person having you follow a swinging watch.
When you throw that punch straight in the person is going to be using the FVM and they will have a hard time detecting the movement and then judging the speed at which your fist is traveling. This is the same reason people get hit by trains. Trains are large and compact (they basically move within their own silhouette) and they move straight towards you so your FVM thinks they are moving far slower than they are.
Method Number Three: Moving in unbroken rhythm. This is one of Bruce Lee’s favorite ways to get over on people. The way it works is that if you are still than any movement you make appears dramatic by the eye and is immediately pick up. However, if you are moving than your current movement can conceal the movement of your attack.
Hear is how it works: pick your target and how you are going to hit it and then innocently move that limb back and forth in a gesturing manner between your body and the target. Do this a few times so that the person gets used to this gesture and sees it as harmless, then when your limb hits the portion of the gesture where it moves towards the target go in and strike with that limb.
For example, let’s say someone is trying to intimidate me and get in my face. I put my hands up with my palms out in a submissive manner and try to calm them down. If I feel that I need to physically defend myself, and the target I choose is the throat, than I can, in a very relaxed and non threatening manner, bring both my hands in towards my body than back towards him in a non-threatening and submissive manner. This should not look like robotic pumping, rather move each hand in a small circle towards them and then towards me as I talk; it is important that this come across as an innocent hand gesture that fits in naturally during the conversation. Finally, when my hands finish their normal gesture towards me and go back towards them I continue the gesture forwards and turn it into a strike that they never saw coming.
Method Number Four: Move in a natural and relaxed manner. You PVM is designed to detect all movement but it is designed to give movements made in a fast jerky manner its attention first. For example, if you’re a hunter and you’re walking through the woods looking for dinner you’re going to see a lot of movement; you’ll see thousands of leaves blowing in the wind in all types of patterns and you’ll see trees moving back and forth in the wind. There will be movement all around you but the movement is all slow, relaxed, and natural. Suddenly, out of the corner of your eye, you see a deer dart out from behind a tree and start running. Amongst all that movement your eyes gave its full attention to the fast jerky movement because it wasn’t natural.
The same is true in a violent situation. If you move in a fast jerky manner your attacker will pick it up right away and act on it. However, if you move in a slow, relaxed, and unexcited manner as if your movement didn’t matter than he’ll have a very hard time acting on that movement.
The late David Carradine was a master of this. Watch anything he did martial arts wise later on in his career. I especially liked both “Kung Fu Killer” and “Kung Fu: The Legend Continues”. The latter was very hokey and often hard to watch but his movement during fight scenes was masterful. When he threw a punch or kick his entire body was relaxed and the movement seemed effortless.
While shooting a fight scene for “Kill Bill”, Michael Jai White commented that fighting with David Carradine was strange because it seemed that he moved so slow but he was always right there with him and sometimes on top of him. It wasn’t that he was slow, rather it was that because he moved in such a relaxed manner than Michael’s eyes saw his movement but didn’t always pick it up as offensive so they paid little attention to it. In a violent situation if you move in a relaxed manner towards your attacker they will often see it but classify it as non-offensive and pay little attention to it.
To get this type of movement down you need to pay attention to the feel. Right now, without any thought…scratch your nose. Now, scratch you head. Now, look at your watch. Pay attention to how these movements felt. They were relaxed, effortless, and perfectly natural. Identity how these simple, often unconscious, movements feel and try to make all your movements feel like them. With much practice people will think that you’re fast as hell, but it won’t necessarily be because you’re faster, it will be because you’re smarter.
Note: to see the fight scene from “Kill Bill” which, after getting a lot of coverage in martial arts magazines, was cut from the movie go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw6vWnW0i5o.
Copyright 2010, All Rights Reserved
I went through several titles for this article before I settled on this one. My original title was “How To Manipulate The Way The Eyes Detect Movement And The Way The Brain Processes That Movement So You Can Appear Incredibly Fast And Take People By Surprise”, but that title, while perfectly descriptive of this article, was too long.
What I’m going to cover in this article is four ways that you can use the body’s processes against it so you can strike or grab someone before they can react or counter you. If you plan on sucker punching someone in the near future, or don’t want to get sucker punched, than this article is right up your alley.
Method Number One: Attack at an upward 45 degree angle. The field of vision your eyes have is actually limited by your cheek bones and nose. If you’re standing next to someone with your hands by your side than all you have to do is bring your strike upwards at a 45 degree angle to the groin, torso, or head and you will actually come up under their field of vision and they will not be able to see your strike.
Granted you could give your strike away by telegraphing it with a sudden change in your glare, facial expression, drop of your chin, or sudden movement of your shoulders.
Method Number Two: Don’t break your silhouette. The main way that your eye detects movement is by picking up a change in the amount of light or the shape of the light surrounding an object. For example, if your arm is hanging by your side and held a little ways from your body than I will be able to see light all the way around your arm. If you move your arm my eyes will immediately detect the change in the amount of light surrounding your arm or the shape of the light surrounding your arm. The more distance between your arm and your body the more light there is between them and the bigger signal I get when either of them move.
However, if you bring your arms into your body where your arms are entirely within the silhouette of your body there is no big backlight around the arm to give away the movement. If you put an arm entirely within the silhouette of your body and then strike straight in so that at no time does the arm come outside of the silhouette it will be extremely hard for my eyes to detect it and relay the message quick enough for me to do anything about. This is also great for disarming guns.
Another reason why this works so well is that it has you striking straight in and not moving your arm in a circular movement towards the target. To be extremely simplistic, the eyes have two main mechanisms: the “Peripheral Vision Mechanism” (PVM) and the “Focus Vision Mechanism” (FVM). The PVM (peripheral vision) is used to detect movement and judge speed while the FVM (where you’re focusing your vision) is used solely to identify objects. The FVM is not meant to detect movement or judge the speed at which an object is traveling and when it is used for this function it results in rapid tiring of the eyes, such as being hypnotized by a person having you follow a swinging watch.
When you throw that punch straight in the person is going to be using the FVM and they will have a hard time detecting the movement and then judging the speed at which your fist is traveling. This is the same reason people get hit by trains. Trains are large and compact (they basically move within their own silhouette) and they move straight towards you so your FVM thinks they are moving far slower than they are.
Method Number Three: Moving in unbroken rhythm. This is one of Bruce Lee’s favorite ways to get over on people. The way it works is that if you are still than any movement you make appears dramatic by the eye and is immediately pick up. However, if you are moving than your current movement can conceal the movement of your attack.
Hear is how it works: pick your target and how you are going to hit it and then innocently move that limb back and forth in a gesturing manner between your body and the target. Do this a few times so that the person gets used to this gesture and sees it as harmless, then when your limb hits the portion of the gesture where it moves towards the target go in and strike with that limb.
For example, let’s say someone is trying to intimidate me and get in my face. I put my hands up with my palms out in a submissive manner and try to calm them down. If I feel that I need to physically defend myself, and the target I choose is the throat, than I can, in a very relaxed and non threatening manner, bring both my hands in towards my body than back towards him in a non-threatening and submissive manner. This should not look like robotic pumping, rather move each hand in a small circle towards them and then towards me as I talk; it is important that this come across as an innocent hand gesture that fits in naturally during the conversation. Finally, when my hands finish their normal gesture towards me and go back towards them I continue the gesture forwards and turn it into a strike that they never saw coming.
Method Number Four: Move in a natural and relaxed manner. You PVM is designed to detect all movement but it is designed to give movements made in a fast jerky manner its attention first. For example, if you’re a hunter and you’re walking through the woods looking for dinner you’re going to see a lot of movement; you’ll see thousands of leaves blowing in the wind in all types of patterns and you’ll see trees moving back and forth in the wind. There will be movement all around you but the movement is all slow, relaxed, and natural. Suddenly, out of the corner of your eye, you see a deer dart out from behind a tree and start running. Amongst all that movement your eyes gave its full attention to the fast jerky movement because it wasn’t natural.
The same is true in a violent situation. If you move in a fast jerky manner your attacker will pick it up right away and act on it. However, if you move in a slow, relaxed, and unexcited manner as if your movement didn’t matter than he’ll have a very hard time acting on that movement.
The late David Carradine was a master of this. Watch anything he did martial arts wise later on in his career. I especially liked both “Kung Fu Killer” and “Kung Fu: The Legend Continues”. The latter was very hokey and often hard to watch but his movement during fight scenes was masterful. When he threw a punch or kick his entire body was relaxed and the movement seemed effortless.
While shooting a fight scene for “Kill Bill”, Michael Jai White commented that fighting with David Carradine was strange because it seemed that he moved so slow but he was always right there with him and sometimes on top of him. It wasn’t that he was slow, rather it was that because he moved in such a relaxed manner than Michael’s eyes saw his movement but didn’t always pick it up as offensive so they paid little attention to it. In a violent situation if you move in a relaxed manner towards your attacker they will often see it but classify it as non-offensive and pay little attention to it.
To get this type of movement down you need to pay attention to the feel. Right now, without any thought…scratch your nose. Now, scratch you head. Now, look at your watch. Pay attention to how these movements felt. They were relaxed, effortless, and perfectly natural. Identity how these simple, often unconscious, movements feel and try to make all your movements feel like them. With much practice people will think that you’re fast as hell, but it won’t necessarily be because you’re faster, it will be because you’re smarter.
Note: to see the fight scene from “Kill Bill” which, after getting a lot of coverage in martial arts magazines, was cut from the movie go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw6vWnW0i5o.
Using Wasp Spray For Personal Defense
By Matthew Schafer
Copyright 2010, All Rights Reserved
One of the latest fads to hit the martial arts/personal protection world is using wasp spray instead of pepper spray for personal defense. The reasoning is that wasp spray is cheaper, more easily available, just as effective, and can be sprayed up to 20 ft which allows it to be deployed at a safer distance than pepper spray.
The truth is that wasp spray should only be used as a personal protection weapon as a last resort. Yes, wasp spray is generally cheaper and more easily available to most people than pepper spray but it is not as effective and that fact that it can spray a longer distance is mute because most attacks happen within 5 feet.
Pepper spray inflames the tissues of the face while wasp spray is a poison designed to kill insects. If you get this poison is a person’s mouth or eyes it could prove permanently disabling or even fatal. While pepper spray is a non-lethal self defense weapon, wasp spray, being a poison, could be considered a deadly weapon if you use it against someone or are found carrying it.
Most states have strict laws regulating what a person can carry for their personal protection. In Michigan, where I live, a person can carry pepper spray as long as it contains 2% or less of the active ingredient oleoresin capsicum (OC). Carrying a different spray for self defense would be against the law.
Not only that, most products carry a label that states: "It is a violation of federal law to use this product in a manner inconsistent with its labeling." So carrying it for personal defense could get you charged with a federal crime not to mention using it for self defense. Granted, if you are attacked in your home and the only thing you have in your reach to use as a weapon is wasp spray than you should use it and the law would be out of their mind to prosecute you (unless you live in England where people have little to no right to their own defense).
In short forget about using wasp spray and carry pepper spray which is safe, proven effective (as long as it is actually pepper spray with the active ingredient being “OC” or “red pepper” and NOT mace), and legal.
Copyright 2010, All Rights Reserved
One of the latest fads to hit the martial arts/personal protection world is using wasp spray instead of pepper spray for personal defense. The reasoning is that wasp spray is cheaper, more easily available, just as effective, and can be sprayed up to 20 ft which allows it to be deployed at a safer distance than pepper spray.
The truth is that wasp spray should only be used as a personal protection weapon as a last resort. Yes, wasp spray is generally cheaper and more easily available to most people than pepper spray but it is not as effective and that fact that it can spray a longer distance is mute because most attacks happen within 5 feet.
Pepper spray inflames the tissues of the face while wasp spray is a poison designed to kill insects. If you get this poison is a person’s mouth or eyes it could prove permanently disabling or even fatal. While pepper spray is a non-lethal self defense weapon, wasp spray, being a poison, could be considered a deadly weapon if you use it against someone or are found carrying it.
Most states have strict laws regulating what a person can carry for their personal protection. In Michigan, where I live, a person can carry pepper spray as long as it contains 2% or less of the active ingredient oleoresin capsicum (OC). Carrying a different spray for self defense would be against the law.
Not only that, most products carry a label that states: "It is a violation of federal law to use this product in a manner inconsistent with its labeling." So carrying it for personal defense could get you charged with a federal crime not to mention using it for self defense. Granted, if you are attacked in your home and the only thing you have in your reach to use as a weapon is wasp spray than you should use it and the law would be out of their mind to prosecute you (unless you live in England where people have little to no right to their own defense).
In short forget about using wasp spray and carry pepper spray which is safe, proven effective (as long as it is actually pepper spray with the active ingredient being “OC” or “red pepper” and NOT mace), and legal.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Michigan Self Defense Law
By Matthew Schafer
Copyright 2010, All Rights Reserved
Disclaimer: This paper was written to inform people about Michigan self defense law as it stands at the time of this writing, August 31, 2010. It covers the law that pertains to the State of Michigan and not any other state.
It is for educational purposes and should not constitute legal advice. If you’re in any situation where legal advice becomes necessary you should consult an attorney.
The Current Self Defense Law in Michigan as of August 31, 2010
In July of 2006, Governor Jennifer Granholm signed into law the “Self Defense Act”. This act became state law in October of 2007.
What this law states is that people are allowed to use non-lethal force and/or lethal force against another person if they reasonably believe they face imminent great bodily harm, sexual assault, or death.
This law gives people in the state of Michigan to right to use non-lethal force and/or lethal force both in their homes and anywhere else in the state that they have the legal right to be.
The current law removes a “duty to retreat”. A “duty to retreat” means that if a person faces a violent situation they have a legal duty to retreat and remove themselves from the situation or they could be charged with a crime. With this “duty to retreat” no longer in effect in the State of Michigan, citizens may use force to defend themselves or others instead of being expected to retreat from the threat.
The legislation not only protects people from criminal charges but from civil lawsuits also. For example, if you believe you are facing imminent bodily harm and break the aggressor’s arm, you cannot be charged criminally for your actions and the aggressor, or the aggressor’s family, cannot sue you in civil court for damages.
This also includes bystanders who may have gotten injured in the process. For example, if you face imminent danger and you pull a gun and shoot your attacker and one of those bullets misses and hits an innocent bystander that is walking down the street; that innocent bystander, nor their family, can sue you civilly for damages.
Additionally, if you do use force in defending yourself and it is ruled that you were in compliance with Michigan Self Defense Law and you do get sued in civil court by your attacker, their family, or an innocent bystander who was injured in the incident the court is REQUIRED to award you payment of your attorney and court fees. The rational is that anyone who acts in self defense should not be have to spend time and money to go to court to justify their actions in protecting themselves and others.
The law also creates a "rebuttable presumption" which is a legal advantage that assumes, unless there's strong proof to the otherwise, that people honestly and reasonably believe they face death, rape or great bodily harm. What this means is that if you use force to defend yourself the court has to assume from the start that you had a justifiable and reasonable belief that you faced bodily harm or death. This assumption can be refuted by evidence, but the court is required to start with this assumption.
The Self Defense Act, and the “rebuttable presumption”, will not automatically apply in these instances:
1.) Domestic violence situations. Any time one person uses force against someone they have a prior relationship with (spouse, child, friend, co-worker, neighbor, etc.) they will not automatically get protection under this law until an investigation has been completed. This is to protect one spouse from using force against the other, or someone committing murder, and then trying to pass their crime off as self defense.
2.) Disputes involving the police. If a police officer is engaged in carrying out their lawful duty and you use force against them you cannot automatically get protection under this law. It is assumed that a police officer, as long as they are not outright breaking the law, is upholding the law in whatever interaction they have with you during the incident when you used force against them.
3.) If you are committing a crime. If you are in the middle of robbing a bank and one of the tellers tries to wrestle the gun away from you and you shoot him, you will not be given protection under this law. This law assumes that the incident in which you used force began with you being a law abiding citizen, and if you are not being a law abiding citizen when the force is used then you will most likely give up protection under this law.
Was using force justified?
The litmus test for determining when the use of deadly force is justified is whether a person "honestly and reasonably" believed he was in danger of imminent death or serious bodily harm. Nevertheless, deadly force is not permissible without a showing that the defendant had done "all which is reasonably in his power to avoid the necessity of extreme resistance, by retreating where retreat is safe".
What this means is that you are in a situation where the occurrence of violence was reasonably foreseeable and you had the ability to remove yourself before the violence began and you CHOSE not to then you may not receive protection under this law.
For example, if you are in an argument with someone and it is turning heated and you walk over to them to confront them and then you have to use force to defend yourself, you may not receive protection under this law. If you are in room where a fight breaks out and you CHOSE to stay in that room and you ended up having to use force against someone then you may not receive protection under this law because you having to use force was foreseeable and you chose to stay.
In both above examples I put the word “CHOSE” in capital letters because a chose is assumed. If you can provide evidence that you had no other reasonable alternative but to walk over and confront the person you were arguing with (maybe you were forced to at gunpoint) or that you were not reasonably able to leave the room where the fight was (maybe you tried to but the fight itself was blocking the exit) then you may be able to receive protection under this law.
There are three situations where it is assumed that you cannot remove yourself from the situation before the violence began.
1) If you are suddenly, fiercely, and violently attacked. In other words, if you are minding your own business and someone comes up to you and just attacks you.
2) If you believe the attacker is about to use a deadly weapon.
3) If you are assaulted in your own dwelling (home).
Excerpt from the self defense bill
This is an excerpt from the bill itself so you can clearly see the language.
"Michigan law regarding a person's right to use deadly force in self-defense is not expressed in statute, but is embodied in the common law as interpreted by case law.
According to a 2002 Michigan Supreme Court case (People v Riddle, 467 Mich 116), a person has the right to use deadly force in self-defense if he or she honestly and reasonably believes that using such force is necessary because he or she is in danger of imminent death or great bodily harm. Generally, a person acting in self-defense has a duty to retreat from the attack if he or she can do so safely, but retreat is never required in the person's own home, nor is retreat required in the case of a sudden and fierce violent attack or if the person honestly and reasonably believes that the attacker is about to use a deadly weapon. Some people believe that the right to defend against an attack, and the circumstances under which force is justified in self-defense or the defense of others, should be codified and that a person defending himself, herself, or another should not have to retreat when he or she is anywhere he or she has a legal right to be."
Illegal weapons
In Michigan:
(1) A person shall not manufacture, sell, offer for sale, or possess any of the following:
(a) A machine gun or firearm that shoots or is designed to shoot automatically more than 1 shot without manual reloading, by a single function of the trigger.
(b) A muffler or silencer.
(c) A bomb or bombshell.
(d) A blackjack, slungshot, billy, metallic knuckles, sand club, sand bag, or bludgeon.
(e) A device, weapon, cartridge, container, or contrivance designed to render a person temporarily or permanently disabled by the ejection, release, or emission of a gas or other substance.
(2) A person who violates subsection (1) is guilty of a felony, punishable by imprisonment for not more than 5 years, or a fine of not more than $2,500.00, or both.
Being held to a higher standard
The question frequently arises that if a person is trained in self-defense techniques or martial arts if they will be held to a higher standard by the court since they are “trained”.
While even some “experts” will say that anyone who has martial arts, military, or law enforcement training will be held to a higher standard than the average citizen if they use force this simply isn’t true.
Firstly, under the Michigan Self Defense Act training isn’t taken into consideration when determining if the level of force used was reasonable, only the circumstances of the incident are.
While it is true that members of the military or law enforcement community are held to a higher standard it is because they have an obligation to use force in the defense of the public instead of retreat. Since they have the duty to use force, their use of force is looked at more closely.
“The ‘higher standard’ [applied to members of the military and law enforcement] is meant to keep that grant of power in check. Civilians are not obligated to use force but the level of force used is guided by what the jury determines is ‘objectively reasonable’. If the District Attorney does not believe your use of force has been reasonable, then a judge or jury will decide whether your response was appropriate for the situation. Further, YOU will have to prove (convince the jury) that your actions were reasonable in light of your honest belief that imminent harm facing you required a violent response.”
-Matthew Suitor, Attorney.
It should be mentioned that while it was stated above that you wouldn’t be held to a higher standard by being trained in self-defense or martial arts, if it is decided that you are brought to trail the judge or a jury could be swayed by that fact. While legally it should not come into play in their decision they are still people.
Again, it should be stated that this article is meant for informational purposes only, and while lawyers were consulted in the writing of this document laws do change over time. In any event where legal advice becomes necessary an attorney should be consulted.
Copyright 2010, All Rights Reserved
Disclaimer: This paper was written to inform people about Michigan self defense law as it stands at the time of this writing, August 31, 2010. It covers the law that pertains to the State of Michigan and not any other state.
It is for educational purposes and should not constitute legal advice. If you’re in any situation where legal advice becomes necessary you should consult an attorney.
The Current Self Defense Law in Michigan as of August 31, 2010
In July of 2006, Governor Jennifer Granholm signed into law the “Self Defense Act”. This act became state law in October of 2007.
What this law states is that people are allowed to use non-lethal force and/or lethal force against another person if they reasonably believe they face imminent great bodily harm, sexual assault, or death.
This law gives people in the state of Michigan to right to use non-lethal force and/or lethal force both in their homes and anywhere else in the state that they have the legal right to be.
The current law removes a “duty to retreat”. A “duty to retreat” means that if a person faces a violent situation they have a legal duty to retreat and remove themselves from the situation or they could be charged with a crime. With this “duty to retreat” no longer in effect in the State of Michigan, citizens may use force to defend themselves or others instead of being expected to retreat from the threat.
The legislation not only protects people from criminal charges but from civil lawsuits also. For example, if you believe you are facing imminent bodily harm and break the aggressor’s arm, you cannot be charged criminally for your actions and the aggressor, or the aggressor’s family, cannot sue you in civil court for damages.
This also includes bystanders who may have gotten injured in the process. For example, if you face imminent danger and you pull a gun and shoot your attacker and one of those bullets misses and hits an innocent bystander that is walking down the street; that innocent bystander, nor their family, can sue you civilly for damages.
Additionally, if you do use force in defending yourself and it is ruled that you were in compliance with Michigan Self Defense Law and you do get sued in civil court by your attacker, their family, or an innocent bystander who was injured in the incident the court is REQUIRED to award you payment of your attorney and court fees. The rational is that anyone who acts in self defense should not be have to spend time and money to go to court to justify their actions in protecting themselves and others.
The law also creates a "rebuttable presumption" which is a legal advantage that assumes, unless there's strong proof to the otherwise, that people honestly and reasonably believe they face death, rape or great bodily harm. What this means is that if you use force to defend yourself the court has to assume from the start that you had a justifiable and reasonable belief that you faced bodily harm or death. This assumption can be refuted by evidence, but the court is required to start with this assumption.
The Self Defense Act, and the “rebuttable presumption”, will not automatically apply in these instances:
1.) Domestic violence situations. Any time one person uses force against someone they have a prior relationship with (spouse, child, friend, co-worker, neighbor, etc.) they will not automatically get protection under this law until an investigation has been completed. This is to protect one spouse from using force against the other, or someone committing murder, and then trying to pass their crime off as self defense.
2.) Disputes involving the police. If a police officer is engaged in carrying out their lawful duty and you use force against them you cannot automatically get protection under this law. It is assumed that a police officer, as long as they are not outright breaking the law, is upholding the law in whatever interaction they have with you during the incident when you used force against them.
3.) If you are committing a crime. If you are in the middle of robbing a bank and one of the tellers tries to wrestle the gun away from you and you shoot him, you will not be given protection under this law. This law assumes that the incident in which you used force began with you being a law abiding citizen, and if you are not being a law abiding citizen when the force is used then you will most likely give up protection under this law.
Was using force justified?
The litmus test for determining when the use of deadly force is justified is whether a person "honestly and reasonably" believed he was in danger of imminent death or serious bodily harm. Nevertheless, deadly force is not permissible without a showing that the defendant had done "all which is reasonably in his power to avoid the necessity of extreme resistance, by retreating where retreat is safe".
What this means is that you are in a situation where the occurrence of violence was reasonably foreseeable and you had the ability to remove yourself before the violence began and you CHOSE not to then you may not receive protection under this law.
For example, if you are in an argument with someone and it is turning heated and you walk over to them to confront them and then you have to use force to defend yourself, you may not receive protection under this law. If you are in room where a fight breaks out and you CHOSE to stay in that room and you ended up having to use force against someone then you may not receive protection under this law because you having to use force was foreseeable and you chose to stay.
In both above examples I put the word “CHOSE” in capital letters because a chose is assumed. If you can provide evidence that you had no other reasonable alternative but to walk over and confront the person you were arguing with (maybe you were forced to at gunpoint) or that you were not reasonably able to leave the room where the fight was (maybe you tried to but the fight itself was blocking the exit) then you may be able to receive protection under this law.
There are three situations where it is assumed that you cannot remove yourself from the situation before the violence began.
1) If you are suddenly, fiercely, and violently attacked. In other words, if you are minding your own business and someone comes up to you and just attacks you.
2) If you believe the attacker is about to use a deadly weapon.
3) If you are assaulted in your own dwelling (home).
Excerpt from the self defense bill
This is an excerpt from the bill itself so you can clearly see the language.
"Michigan law regarding a person's right to use deadly force in self-defense is not expressed in statute, but is embodied in the common law as interpreted by case law.
According to a 2002 Michigan Supreme Court case (People v Riddle, 467 Mich 116), a person has the right to use deadly force in self-defense if he or she honestly and reasonably believes that using such force is necessary because he or she is in danger of imminent death or great bodily harm. Generally, a person acting in self-defense has a duty to retreat from the attack if he or she can do so safely, but retreat is never required in the person's own home, nor is retreat required in the case of a sudden and fierce violent attack or if the person honestly and reasonably believes that the attacker is about to use a deadly weapon. Some people believe that the right to defend against an attack, and the circumstances under which force is justified in self-defense or the defense of others, should be codified and that a person defending himself, herself, or another should not have to retreat when he or she is anywhere he or she has a legal right to be."
Illegal weapons
In Michigan:
(1) A person shall not manufacture, sell, offer for sale, or possess any of the following:
(a) A machine gun or firearm that shoots or is designed to shoot automatically more than 1 shot without manual reloading, by a single function of the trigger.
(b) A muffler or silencer.
(c) A bomb or bombshell.
(d) A blackjack, slungshot, billy, metallic knuckles, sand club, sand bag, or bludgeon.
(e) A device, weapon, cartridge, container, or contrivance designed to render a person temporarily or permanently disabled by the ejection, release, or emission of a gas or other substance.
(2) A person who violates subsection (1) is guilty of a felony, punishable by imprisonment for not more than 5 years, or a fine of not more than $2,500.00, or both.
Being held to a higher standard
The question frequently arises that if a person is trained in self-defense techniques or martial arts if they will be held to a higher standard by the court since they are “trained”.
While even some “experts” will say that anyone who has martial arts, military, or law enforcement training will be held to a higher standard than the average citizen if they use force this simply isn’t true.
Firstly, under the Michigan Self Defense Act training isn’t taken into consideration when determining if the level of force used was reasonable, only the circumstances of the incident are.
While it is true that members of the military or law enforcement community are held to a higher standard it is because they have an obligation to use force in the defense of the public instead of retreat. Since they have the duty to use force, their use of force is looked at more closely.
“The ‘higher standard’ [applied to members of the military and law enforcement] is meant to keep that grant of power in check. Civilians are not obligated to use force but the level of force used is guided by what the jury determines is ‘objectively reasonable’. If the District Attorney does not believe your use of force has been reasonable, then a judge or jury will decide whether your response was appropriate for the situation. Further, YOU will have to prove (convince the jury) that your actions were reasonable in light of your honest belief that imminent harm facing you required a violent response.”
-Matthew Suitor, Attorney.
It should be mentioned that while it was stated above that you wouldn’t be held to a higher standard by being trained in self-defense or martial arts, if it is decided that you are brought to trail the judge or a jury could be swayed by that fact. While legally it should not come into play in their decision they are still people.
Again, it should be stated that this article is meant for informational purposes only, and while lawyers were consulted in the writing of this document laws do change over time. In any event where legal advice becomes necessary an attorney should be consulted.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Four Principles For Surviving A Violent Crime
By Matthew Schafer
Copyright 2010, All Rights Reserved
Principle Number One: Always Resist Your Attacker
A lot of the so called "experts" tell you to not resist being victimized, to give a criminal everything they want and hope that they take what they want and leave. While it is usually better to give up a purse or wallet then risk serious injury fighting with a criminal, if they want something more than a material possession I advise you to ALWAYS fight back, even if you don't know how. If all you do is to aggressively start hitting them and screaming it could be enough to create a chance for you to escape or convince him to leave.
Don't listen to people who tell you not to fight back, and that if you do then you're just inviting more violence from the attacker. Federal victimization studies show that people who resist an attacker and fight back are not injured any more than those who don't. The fact is that it is just the opposite. Studies have shown that over half of all attackers will actually leave if the person indicates that they will resist. So if they want your purse or wallet it may be better just to give it to them, but if they want more there isn't any benefit to not fighting back.
It may be necessary to comply with your attacker(s) at first if the odds are overwhelmingly against you. For example, if you are accosted by three men with guns you may not be able not be able to resist at that time without getting killed. However, if you comply at first you may find that in a few minutes they let their guard down, each go into different rooms, or put down their weapons and now a situation exists where resisting is possible and practical to create a situation where you can escape.
There may be times when you must give in and comply with their demands initially, but whether it’s a few seconds, minutes, hours, days, or even weeks, sooner or later a situation will present itself where they’ll let their guard down and escape becomes possible.
Principle Number Two: Never Allow Yourself To Get Taken To A Second Location
Statistics show that if you allow yourself to be taken from where you are initially attacked to a secondary location you will have only a 3% chance of survival. Never allow yourself to be taken to a secondary location.
If a person tries to get you into a vehicle or take you from the location of the initial assault then you should hit, kick, bite, scream, and try to run like your life depends on it. You can not be able to overcome your attacker but you might alert someone in the area to what’s happening or create a situation where you can escape.
Principle Number Three: Pain Doesn’t Matter, Only Injury Does
When you are physically defending yourself do not focus on causing your attacker pain because pain is very subjective and not at all reliable. If your attacker has a low pain tolerance or is easily frightened then it may take very little on your part to make him or her stop. However, if they have a high pain tolerance then causing them pain may do little, and if they enjoy pain then causing them pain may encourage them. If your attacker is one of the 63% that commit their crimes while on drugs or alcohol their pain receptor may be numb and you can cause them all the pain you want and see little to no effect.
When I say "injure" I mean that you have to take a part of their body and render it nonfunctional and in need of medical treatment.
If a violent criminal grabs you and you punch them in the face the result would be pain and that pain may only serve to make them mad because the punch didn't actually "do" anything. If, however, you lowered the punch and hit them in the throat you could cause an injury by crushing their windpipe. A crushed windpipe is not subjective nor is it something you can "shake off". If your windpipe is crushed you will not be able to breathe, which will quickly induce panic, and unless a tracheotomy is preformed you will die of asphyxiation. While punching them in the face will probably just make them angry, punching them in the throat and crushing it will cause them to stop their attack, involuntarily grab their throat, make a high pitched noise while trying to inhale, drop to the ground in a panic, and continue to make the noise until they...well...stop.
To give another example, if you tear the connective tissue in someone’s knee it will be structurally unsound and unable to bear the person’s weight. It doesn’t matter in the slightest if that knee being “broken” causes him pain or not, what matters is that leg will be of no use to him. He will not be able to chase you or kick you and that will give you opportunity to injure him further or escape.
The point is that the punch to the face is an example of pain and the punch to the throat is an example of a medically verified injury. A criminal will only stop their attack for two reasons: if they decide to stop, or if you make them stop, and the only way to make them stop is to stop the functioning of a part, or all, of their body.
The way to get to an injury is to target specific parts of their bodies that are most susceptible to impact trauma and them drive as much for as you can all the way THROUGH them.
Principle Number Four: If You Can Think And Move Than You Can Resist, Escape, And Cause Injury
It doesn’t what you’re up against, it doesn’t matter if your outnumbered, trapped, bound, or beaten; if you can think and move you can resist, escape, and cause injury.
Many crimes start with the victim being struck, stabbed, or shot. An attack my seem to come out of nowhere and start with you being injured. No matter what is happening take a second to go through a mental checklist:
Am I still alive? Yes.
Can I still think? Yes
Can I move? Yes
Then I can cause injury, resist, and escape
Copyright 2010, All Rights Reserved
Principle Number One: Always Resist Your Attacker
A lot of the so called "experts" tell you to not resist being victimized, to give a criminal everything they want and hope that they take what they want and leave. While it is usually better to give up a purse or wallet then risk serious injury fighting with a criminal, if they want something more than a material possession I advise you to ALWAYS fight back, even if you don't know how. If all you do is to aggressively start hitting them and screaming it could be enough to create a chance for you to escape or convince him to leave.
Don't listen to people who tell you not to fight back, and that if you do then you're just inviting more violence from the attacker. Federal victimization studies show that people who resist an attacker and fight back are not injured any more than those who don't. The fact is that it is just the opposite. Studies have shown that over half of all attackers will actually leave if the person indicates that they will resist. So if they want your purse or wallet it may be better just to give it to them, but if they want more there isn't any benefit to not fighting back.
It may be necessary to comply with your attacker(s) at first if the odds are overwhelmingly against you. For example, if you are accosted by three men with guns you may not be able not be able to resist at that time without getting killed. However, if you comply at first you may find that in a few minutes they let their guard down, each go into different rooms, or put down their weapons and now a situation exists where resisting is possible and practical to create a situation where you can escape.
There may be times when you must give in and comply with their demands initially, but whether it’s a few seconds, minutes, hours, days, or even weeks, sooner or later a situation will present itself where they’ll let their guard down and escape becomes possible.
Principle Number Two: Never Allow Yourself To Get Taken To A Second Location
Statistics show that if you allow yourself to be taken from where you are initially attacked to a secondary location you will have only a 3% chance of survival. Never allow yourself to be taken to a secondary location.
If a person tries to get you into a vehicle or take you from the location of the initial assault then you should hit, kick, bite, scream, and try to run like your life depends on it. You can not be able to overcome your attacker but you might alert someone in the area to what’s happening or create a situation where you can escape.
Principle Number Three: Pain Doesn’t Matter, Only Injury Does
When you are physically defending yourself do not focus on causing your attacker pain because pain is very subjective and not at all reliable. If your attacker has a low pain tolerance or is easily frightened then it may take very little on your part to make him or her stop. However, if they have a high pain tolerance then causing them pain may do little, and if they enjoy pain then causing them pain may encourage them. If your attacker is one of the 63% that commit their crimes while on drugs or alcohol their pain receptor may be numb and you can cause them all the pain you want and see little to no effect.
When I say "injure" I mean that you have to take a part of their body and render it nonfunctional and in need of medical treatment.
If a violent criminal grabs you and you punch them in the face the result would be pain and that pain may only serve to make them mad because the punch didn't actually "do" anything. If, however, you lowered the punch and hit them in the throat you could cause an injury by crushing their windpipe. A crushed windpipe is not subjective nor is it something you can "shake off". If your windpipe is crushed you will not be able to breathe, which will quickly induce panic, and unless a tracheotomy is preformed you will die of asphyxiation. While punching them in the face will probably just make them angry, punching them in the throat and crushing it will cause them to stop their attack, involuntarily grab their throat, make a high pitched noise while trying to inhale, drop to the ground in a panic, and continue to make the noise until they...well...stop.
To give another example, if you tear the connective tissue in someone’s knee it will be structurally unsound and unable to bear the person’s weight. It doesn’t matter in the slightest if that knee being “broken” causes him pain or not, what matters is that leg will be of no use to him. He will not be able to chase you or kick you and that will give you opportunity to injure him further or escape.
The point is that the punch to the face is an example of pain and the punch to the throat is an example of a medically verified injury. A criminal will only stop their attack for two reasons: if they decide to stop, or if you make them stop, and the only way to make them stop is to stop the functioning of a part, or all, of their body.
The way to get to an injury is to target specific parts of their bodies that are most susceptible to impact trauma and them drive as much for as you can all the way THROUGH them.
Principle Number Four: If You Can Think And Move Than You Can Resist, Escape, And Cause Injury
It doesn’t what you’re up against, it doesn’t matter if your outnumbered, trapped, bound, or beaten; if you can think and move you can resist, escape, and cause injury.
Many crimes start with the victim being struck, stabbed, or shot. An attack my seem to come out of nowhere and start with you being injured. No matter what is happening take a second to go through a mental checklist:
Am I still alive? Yes.
Can I still think? Yes
Can I move? Yes
Then I can cause injury, resist, and escape
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