105% of all fights go to the ground

I'm sure you have heard that 85% of all fights go to the ground,or 95% or 105% or what ever number an advocate for ground fighting is selling. There was a study done by the FBI back in the 1990's about police officers going to the ground in fights. I believe a misrepresentation of this study had lead to the over blown numbers given to the amount of fights that go to the ground. Consider this, if neither party wants to go to the ground, it wont. If only one person wants to go to the ground, the other will do there best to stay up. If both individuals want to go to the ground it is guaranteed to happen....then one of their friends is going to show up and kick the other guy asleep. But just with this simple observation of the only three options there are, at most some place between 33 - 66% of the fights will go to the ground. Then there will be some percentage of them that get back to there feet. If your interested I can bring in a paper I read about the FBI report to class that shows how the numbers have been exaggerated. But in the mean time look at these videos and imagine if the guy fighting by himself took the fight to the ground. He would have gotten stomped by multiple people. Now let me say this before I go, I do think you need to know how to FIGHT on the ground. Not wrestle or ju jitsu, but fight, and then get back to your feet as soon as you can. It is important to have some ground skills, but if you put all of your effort in that basket you are making a big mistake. Consider this, when was the last time you went out on the town by yourself, to a club, a restaurant, to a bar, to a show, or where ever? People go out with friends, so unless you are facing a lone mugger, you will be dealing with more than one person. Staying on your feet and staying mobile is your best option just ask these guys.








***The clip below has foul language in the song being played. This is the only version of the clip I found. Turn down the volume if you don't want to hear it.***








In which one of these situations would you have wanted to gone to the ground by your own choice?

It's nothing new

As much as I love the movie "The Karate Kid" and as much as I love the theory of Mr. Myagi and Danielsan, those relationships of teacher and student are extremely rare if not nonexistent. The old TV series "Kung Fu" introduced us to the blind Shaolin Master and his student Grasshopper. The idea for this show belonged to Bruce Lee. Lee initially trained under a Wing Chun master named Yip Man, who was Lee's only formal instructor. However, Lee trained with many martial artist over the years and meticulously studied every martial arts he could get a book on or learn about through other means. His style of Jeet Kune Do, which by the way was intended to be his personal style of Jun Fan Gung Fu, and not a system to be categorized and taught to others. More accurately students of his were trained in Jun Fan Gung Fu. However, after he wrote Tao of Jeet Kune Do and his sub sequential death, the adoption of the name of JKD rapidly spread. Lee was the first real mixed martial artist. As his system incorporated aspects of Wing Chun, Filipino Martial arts, Boxing, Wrestling, Judo, Fencing, Chin Na, and Kenpo. One of Lee's top students Dan Insanto, who trained with him for about ten years was already a 5th degree black belt in American Kempo Karate when they met. Insanto is of Filipino heritage and introduced Lee to these styles. So whats the point of all this? A few years ago i bought a book about Hapkido, a style I trained in for a year. In the book there are two pages that demonstrate the same technique performed by four different styles. There are subtle differences between the moves, but ultimately the skills are the same. That led me to the understanding that Bruce Lee also came to, "a punch is a punch and a block is a block." Another truth is, you can only bend an arm so many ways. There are several styles that borrow from each other or are influenced by another. Some are due to regional location and others are due to similar philosophies and yet others are due to the ease if insertion of new skills into that style. What you see a lot is the blending together of Kenpo, Filipino Martial Arts, and JKD. This is were the bulk of my martial arts training has taken place. Lets look at these videos and see how they have a similar foundation of movement, but you can see how the primary style influences the motion and development of the skill. The drill is called Hubud, it is a flow drill that has many purposes and variations. We have been doing it in class off of a hook punch instead of the traditional short inward chopping motion.

Here the drill is used with a straight punch that then flows into a Kenpo self defense technique.



Here you see Paul Vunak, a student of Dan Insanto's and a very good martial artist, even though he is a little goofy and eccentric. He is using hubud to move into trapping and then to clinch for a headbutt.



Here we have two Kali (Filipino MA) students that take it into a lock and takedown.



Finally we have two Koryu Uchinadi students. KU is a style based on traditional Okinawan martial arts which uses flow drill extensively to train its students. Take a look at the rank of these two students. you might also recognize a couple of the other drills on the clip, because we have done them. I first was introduced to KU about two years ago. It is a very progressive style. The students here are also doing the drill using elbows instead of the inward chop.



So what does this tell us?
Just as the Bible says..."There is nothing new under the sun."
A lot of people like to take credit for a lot of things, but its usually already being done some place else.

Perfect Takedown

This video demonstrates several principles of how to take someone down. First, as we have discussed the position of the opponents feet are critical. In the video the suspects feet are parallel and the officer makes contact at a 90 degree angle, perpendicular to the line between the suspects feet ... perfect. The officer also strikes a high line. The best two places to control someone in order to take them down is at the head and feet. Here the officer strikes the suspect at the base of the neck...which by the way creates an immediate gag reflex reaction, this will draw the focus of the suspect for a moment to the thought of simply looking for his next breath. If you look closely as the officer drives through the strike the suspects feet are tripped by the officers right leg. This is again perfect execution, taking both the high and low lines for the takedown. The officer also created motion from motion by waving his arms just before he struck. The same way the karate instructor did in our previous clip. Finally, the officer committed to the takedown by driving though the suspect until he was down. Where he then controlled him be controlling his head by pinning it to the ground. If you keep a persons head touching the ground it is easier to keep them down. But if you give them just an inch of space off the ground they can use it to get up. Now if you were to watch this video without the sound and have no background info on why the officer was called you might say the officer acted excessively. However, the officer was well within the law to subdue the suspect in a manner that was safe for the officer and in reality much easier on the suspect than if he was given the opportunity to fight the two officers that were on scene. A lot can be learned from this clip nothing more important than this officer gives three warnings to take your hands out of your pockets and on four...you fit the floor...now that's the stuff I miss.

Flinch Response

Take a look at this picture. You have people who vary in gender, age, body type, levels of intoxication, and they are all reacting exactly the same. I'm sure this is not "karate school night" and all these people are highly trained martial artist. Quite the opposite, these are people reacting instinctively to danger, flinching. Take this primal reaction and train it to transition into an aggressive counter action, the "Spear," and you have your initial counter measure against an attack. Now follow up with knees, then a move to off balance your attacker, transition to a take down, then finish your objective (incapacitate, detain, or eliminate). There you have the four pieces of our basic skill set to defend against most attacks. Remember the body is designed to protect itself, physically and instinctively. So why not build upon that to make your self defense skills be as natural as pulling your hand off of a hot stove?

Be Safe, Train Hard

Offensive SPEAR

Don't think that you have to wait to be attacked before you can defend yourself. This is a classic video clip that has been around for years. There are a lot of lessons that can be learned hear, but the clearest is that the Spear can be used offensively. Also look at the "Karate Guy's" stance as he is being approached. He is bladed, but in an unassuming posture, he does not look like he is about to strike, his hands are down at his side. Although I would not recommend this, I'm sure in his mind his thought was "If this guy gets close enough to me, I'm striking first." One thing that he does just before he strikes is waves his arms outward at his waist as if to say "what?" by doing this he creates motion from motion and the pimp doesn't see it coming. It would be real easy to articulate that he felt threatened by the pimp and thought he was about to be attacked, so he simply defended himself proactively. See what other lessons you can see in this clip and we can talk about it in our next class. It's also nice to see the good guy win!

Be Safe, Train Hard

K.I.S.S. - Keep It Simple Stupid

Now I have spent years training, studying, reading about, researching, watching DVDs, going to seminars, and working to learn all I can about the Martial Arts and in resent years Reality Based Self-Defense. I don't claim to have created anything (maybe a few drills and sequences of moves) but what I have done is taken what I have learned and experienced as a police officer, martial artist, instructor, and competitor and tried to bring together all the things that overlap. The skills that seem to make the most sense and are the easiest and quickest to learn and reproduce. As I often say "you can only bend an arm so many ways." All self-defense systems overlap in some way. You are dealing with the human body, they all work and move the same, you can only be attacked so many ways. So why not take and boil everything down as much as possible and make it as simple as possible. That brings us to Tony Blauer's S.P.E.A.R. System. The spear in and of itself as a skill is simply an initial move. The over all system and subsequent skills go much deeper, but for our purpose we use the spear as Mr Blauer describes it simply as a bridge to our next move. Now understand the spear is not a unique skill. You can find the same "technique" in Kempo karate, Filipino martial arts, Haganah, Jeet Kune Do, and I'm sure others. However, the difference is the SPEAR System applies this one move against most every attack, rather than simply as a single move against a single attack. Watch this video and see how this skill can be applied as an instinctive, initial response, that gives you the chance to counter with strikes or whatever you need to do. Give me your thoughts.

Be Safe, Train Hard

This is why you never turn your back on someone that is being confrontational with you.

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Starting in the Summer of 2009, Jeremy Harris started teaching us how to inflict some pain (in the event we were being attacked).

If you have questions regarding the class email Jeremy @ combatdefense@gmail.com.

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November 13, 2009

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