Sonkal Daebi Makgi

After punching techniques Sonkal Daebi Makgi is one of the most, if not the most common, technique found in the patterns. However, little or no time is spent in modern teaching investigating the application of the movement. Often it is labeled as part of a ready stance in preparation to attack. However in my opinion knife hand guarding block is one of the most important movements in the patterns

There are a couple of things wrong with the idea of knife hand guarding block being used as a guard, the most obvious of which is that is is fairly ineffective for that purpose. It is quite an open movement and it doesn’t protect a person’s head. The hands are placed relatively low, and the front hand is extended too much for an effective guard. Other reasons against the guarding application would be, why have guarding block all the way through the forms? and also that a guard is very basic and would be trained in other ways during martial instruction.

So what is it for? For me understanding the knife hand guarding block is the keys to understanding a lot of the movements found in the patterns. If you think of a fight you opponent will instinctively bring his arms up to defend himself. We then need a way to get in and attack. This is where the knife hand guard block comes in as technique to get you opponents arms out of you way. This is far from a reactive block or a ready stance, but rather a proactive technique to move or grab the arms of your opponent and move them to open up target areas.

The most basic example of this is the opening of Dan Gun. The front hand could be used to move or secure the arms of the opponent before stepping through with the attack. However, there is a good chance that your first attempt will fail, so what then? The answer is also in Dan Gun, you apply another knife hand block. The three knife hands in pattern means you have practiced left-right, right-left combinations. So you can work round an opponent arms and try to ‘get in’ also if your first attempt is grab then you can respond with the second.

This idea is supported by entering techniques being a feature of many traditional martial arts. You will see them represented in many forms from China and Japan. In fact I was actually in the practice of the Chinese martial art of Xingyiquan that the entering application of knife hand guarding block occurred to me.

To apply a knife hand, or indeed any entering technique, well you need good timing and distancing skills. In order to train this we have ot start simply and build slowly. First of all we have to we have to feel what it is like to work around someone’s arms. To do this I get a partner to stand with both arms extended and I just work around them moving from inside to outside, using knife hand guarding blocks. When we feel comfortable with that practice we progress to my opponent holding his arms in a guard to practice moving and pulling his arms. Then we add movement to the drill and finally start to add in attacks and counters.

Use of the knife hand guarding block is what I see as one of the foundation skills, of Taekwondo self-defence and a lot of time should be taken to understand and apply it. When it is mastered many of the other techniques of the patterns will become clearer and easier to apply

The Skill Trap

Go into almost any martial art class and the subject of self-defence eventually comes up. During these parts of the class it is very common to see a variety of locks, long flow drills, and sequences ending throws or submissions taught as practical techniques. The good old left hook, or kick to the groin is left out. It is almost as if teaching those methods is seen as demonstrating a lack of skills.

To help both instructors and students feel like there is something being learnt in the class these manoeuvres are often very complex. The students then have a goal and the instructor can feel that he is superior to his students. Oddly this thinking is completely abandoned in sporting practice, people discouraged for being too fancy and coached in using direct simple techniques.

I think the issues that lie behind this problem are twofold. Firstly, lack of knowledge of the problem. I once had a discussion with an Aikido teacher who was adamant that holding a person in a wrist lock till the police turned up was a viable option in real situations. Likely he was passing this sort of information to his students as well, whether they believed him or not I don’t know.

Investigation in to real world self-defence doesn’t mean that all instructors have to go out and start picking fights with people. Rather they should be researching those who have an amount of experience. Today more than ever there is so much information out there on internet forums, instructor’s websites and of course YouTube, not to mention open seminars being held by top class experts in the field. There really is no excuse for instructors to continue promoting the myth of over complex methods

The second issue, I feel, is connected with the continued development of the different martial arts. The sporting and artistic martial arts have continued to develop over the years with the inclusion of gymnastics training, modern sports science, and of course the advent of the UFC. This has kept them alive with each generation pushing the standards set by the last.

In the traditional arts however, there was maybe a less obvious direction to develop. Adding in the gymnastics or flashier solo movements would have dragged them in to the sporting area which many traditional practitioners would be unwilling to do. Many also reject modern training methods keeping their classes very old school.

To keep the feeling of progress the self-defence techniques were slowly made more complex, a single lock, became a lock flow, became a lock flow with a throw at the end, became a lock flow with a pressure point strike, and so on. We then ended up with something like a ‘martial trick shot’ instructors laying out all the pieces exactly where they wanted them so they could pull off increasing more impressive techniques on their compliant students.

All this was done with the idea of the martial arts developing, and in some camps making sure the instructors were always ahead of the students in a very tangible way. In doing this, people have in some ways lost sight of the goal. Instead of being self –defence, the goal seems to have shifted to entertaining and wowing students.

If we look at videos of the old masters, their styles were very simple and effective. It is that simplicity that should always remain at the core of the arts. We should seek to emulate the masters of old and the modern day masters who have stayed true to this, not the 27th degree black belt who spends 10 minutes throwing his compliant student around while counting off the number of techniques he is using

Shadow Boxing

Similar to forms, shadow boxing remains, in my opinion, one of the most under used parts of martial training. I have seen it in gyms all over the world, the instructor calls for shadow boxing, the students take their stance and away they go. Throwing techniques that they feel comfortable with, but will largely not represent what would happen in application, be it competition or self-defense.

I think this problem come from the way many see shadow boxing. They see it just as a warm up or a light workout, which it may well be used as, but there can be some much more gained from it. In fact shadow boxing is the same a pattern practice but just on a freer level, the same way that sparring should be the same a set sparring or drills, but on a freer level. Within some martial art communities, mainstream taiji in China for example, the practice of forms is actually translated as shadow boxing, something that I found quite odd when I first heard it.

So what does that mean? Well firstly let’s look at the definition of a pattern as set out by General Choi:
A pattern is a set of fundamental movements (mainly defense and attack) set in a logical sequence to deal with one or more imaginary opponents

The exact wording of the definition varies slightly from organization to organization but the basic meaning remains the same.

Firstly it mentions fundamental movements, ok so most people use a variety of punches and kicks, that’s fine, and because shadow boxing can be an advanced practice we can add in advanced movements. It then goes on to say attack and defense techniques, this is where we start to leave the definition behind, I rarely see people practice any sort of defense techniques in their shadow boxing mainly it is just throwing attacks constantly without thinking how to use or create openings.
We then get further away from the definition with the phrase ‘logical sequence’ many times I have seen people throw jumping reverse turning kicks in to the mix not because they are seeing it fitting, but just because they want to throw one or want to play with fancier techniques that look nice. Finally seldom do people visualize any opponents let alone more than one.
So when we take all that out what we have is a practice something akin to cardio kickboxing instead of martial arts training.
Visualization should be a big part of shadow boxing. Even if you have to start slower, not because the physical technique is lacking but because you need time to get your mind focused. You should visualize people attacking you from all angles and respond to them using the techniques from you forms.

You will find that you will start moving faster and be able to keep your head in the visualization for longer. Each time you find yourself slipping out of the visualization simply stop and start again. Visualization of attackers can be used to begin the session too, maybe you are starting with a defense and then moving in to counter attacking.
This is exactly the same way we should be dealing with pattern practice and is an extension of such practice. There is an old Chinese saying which supports this, (lian de shi hou you ren, yong de shi hou wu ren) forgive me if my spelling is a bit off. But directly translated it means: when practicing there is people, when using this is no people,

This is a great way to continue your solo training. Of course nothing compare with getting hands on with a training partner but at the times that one is not available and you want to challenge yourself, doing this type of shadow boxing is a good start.

This is an example of how the mind plays a very important role in the martial arts. I hope very soon to write an article on meditation in the Martial arts to go in to this topic deeper.

The Pyramid of Skills

With all the styles that are being openly taught now, and the great trend for MMA and cross training, Students can be like a kid in a candy store about what styles they want to take. A striking style, a grappling style, a traditional or modern style, of course part of this choice will be somewhat dictated by what is available and training goals. But if you live in a larger city with a lot of choice and you are looking for practical self-defence what should you train in?
The phrase ‘no style has all the answers’ is used a lot and is as true today as it ever has been. Beyond that we can also say no teacher has all the answers, take 2 or three teachers in one style and of course you are going to find differences in them. So we should sometimes not be looking at picking a style but also picking a teach within a style.
In my opinion there is an order that things should be trained and training should focus on some skills more than others. I refer to this as the ‘pyramid of skills’ which can be broken down as follows

At the base of the pyramid we should have striking; this is the foundation and also covers the most area. Meaning not only should it be the first thing that you study but should also be the biggest part of what you do. Read any interview by some of the leading self-protection experts in the wold and most, if not all of them, advocate developing very powerful striking ability. However, it is not just about hitting hard, although that would be the base of the level, but also about distancing, timing, grabbing and pulling limbs, and other support skills. In short everything that you need to be able to deliver hard strikes punches, knife hands, kicks, head butts, to your opponent

Now a lot of people never move off the first level of the pyramid and certainly there are many good fighters out there who have only trained in striking. But to become a more well-rounded martial artist and develop skills you need to continue to build on those skills. With that we can move on to the next level of the pyramid

Grappling, again this is a very large part of the pyramid and a very large topic; we can break it down to stand up grappling/clinch fighting and groundwork. Although for self-protection we don’t need the depth of knowledge of an MMA competitor, by that I mean we don’t need to know how to tap people out on the ground. For self-defence however we do need some skills, to throw and attack from the clinch and to get up from the ground. The strong strikes that you have trained in the first part of the pyramid can also be integrated into the skills you learn here.

At this point in the pyramid there is a divide, the striking and the grappling side of the arts are huge and in themselves make very complete and competent martial artists. However, to then go on to say that those two huge skill areas are the only things of any value in the arts, does a great disservice to a great number of teachers and other skill within the martial arts.

The final two sections of the pyramid are given over to some ‘higher skills’. I use the term ‘higher skills’ not to imply that people that know these skills are in anyway superior to the ones that don’t. But more because for these skills to employed effectively a practitioner needs a good solid grounding in the two lower sets of skills. You may also notice that because this is a pyramid, not a tower, the area taken up by these last two sections is considerably smaller than the previous two. Meaning that there should be less emphasis on these skills.

The next section on the pyramid is for joint manipulation, whereas during the grappling section and possible even the striking section there is some overlap in to limb control, this area would be looking deeper into things like wrist locks and finger locks etc. strangely when people go to self-defence courses it is mainly techniques form this section that are taught, maybe because they make the teacher look good and complex so people think they are getting value for money. It is due to this complexity that puts joint manipulation in to the higher section. Unless you have the distancing and timing skill of striking and the close in range holds etc. of grappling you will find it very difficult to apply any sort of locking or small joint breaking technique. Also without the training in the other two sections you may find yourself at a loss as to what to do after you have the lock. A lock in itself is not usually a fight stopper but can be used to place your opponent in a position for some follow up attacks.

The last part or the pyramid and therefore the top and the smallest part is point striking. Whether you believe in pressure points or not the fact is you have to be a very skilled martial artist to hit a single point or a number of points in sequence during any sort of a fight. You would need all the skill from the previous levels of the pyramid to apply point striking. The distancing, timing, body control, small joint control and grasping techniques would all come into play. Without them you would be resigned to demonstrating your point striking ability on compliant, non-active opponents i.e. your students or friends. Something that I am sure you have all seen

So there you have it where the main skills fit in as I see it. Of course you don’t have to fully complete a section before moving on to the rest as there is always some overlap. You also, as mentioned in the article, don’t have to go all the way to the top of the pyramid. But if you are working on some of the skills in the upper levels of the pyramid you should be asking yourself if you could make it work in a real situation, and have you built yourself a good enough foundation in your own personal martial art.

The Tenets of Taekwondo

Whenever you see a poster advertising taekwondo classes you very often see the tenets posted along side. The implied meaning is that the tenets are trained or encouraged through the classes. However in the actual classes they are often just given lip service in the guise of:
Courtesy, bow when you enter the class and to your seniors
Integrity, don’t cheat in competitions
Perseverance, it takes a long time to get to black belt
Self-control, don’t lose your temper
Indomitable spirit, sort of a combination of all the above

This is ok for kid’s classes but for adults we should have this basic understanding of the tenets before setting foot in to the dojang anyway.

So what relevance do the tenets have to adults when studying taekwondo? For most places nothing or it is a list to remember to get you past your first grading. But within the tenets we have some good sound self-defence advice. So here I am going to break down the tenets and how they can be applied to self defence

Courtesy
Maybe it is the influence of the movies, or maybe I am getting older but it seems more and more, people being rude to each other shouting and swearing is how they choose to interact. However, acting in a courteous manner to everyone in everyday life can actually keep you safe. Whereas walking around showing off and being rude to people just because you happen to wear a black belt a few nights out the week can give people all the reason they need to confront you. Acting with self-respect will also earn you the respect of others. As someone famous once said:
‘Rudeness is a weak man’s imitation of strength’

Integrity
“Only fight when you really have to”
This kind sentiment is common within the martial art circles but often it is used to hide behind a lack of skills. We need to be honest with ourselves both inside and outside the dojang, we need to be putting in good honest hard training in the dojang, no cheating our way out of it or taking shortcuts to make ourselves look good. Only in this way can the integrity of not using our skill unless we really have to have any meaning at all. Training with integrity can help you act with real integrity

Perseverance
When things get physical no matter what the odds you have to believe there is a way out and you can’t give up. This is differenct from the perseverance of turning up to the gym every week to finally get your black belt. This kind of perseverance can’t really be objectified, it is hard in the moment gritting your teeth and going for it perseverance you need. You need to train for this in for it to be there when you need it

Self-control
Self-control for self-defence is two fold
First Self-control for self-defence is mainly self-control of the ego. More fights are started through ego that anything else. If someone calls you names, walks into you, spills your pint etc., you should, as a martial artist, have the self-control not to react to such things

Secondly we should look at self-control in fight, you need to be able to control your fear, and be aware of the adreneline dump this mean you will be in a position to use your training, not jam up and become useless when you need it the most

Indomitable spirit
Lastly, throughout our everyday life we should not allow ourselves to be dictated to by bullies, we should have the confidence and the spirit to stand up to people that would do us wrong. Whether this should be in the work place, street or even at home, your training should give you the strength to say ‘No’

Of course it isn’t enough to just identify the meaning of the tenets, but each one should be trained. With the inclusion of scenario based training, pressure testing and and even discussions the tenets can be brought to have real meaning and application in our world today. Just like everything else it is all in the training.

Punching Power

One of the most important things for self-defence is being able to hit hard. A fast hard punch or strike should be on everyone’s list of things to achieve. Sometimes in competition sparring we sacrifice power for speed and because of the rules of some competitions we continually have to pull punches. To counteract this we need to spend time developing power. Not the power for breaking, but power on the move. For this we need to spend time on the heavy bag and also pad work with a partner. Below are some tips to develop power in strikes.

Stance
All movement and power is about structure, structure starts with a foundation. A good solid foundation means that you can produce maximum power. Your stance should be low enough to give you a good strong root, i.e. if you punch something you shouldn’t fall backwards, and also be dynamic enough for movement. This is maybe different for each person according to weight and size so some time should be spent doing moving and punching drills. Practice punching on the move at different heights, closing distance and exiting to find that balance between power and stability.

Alignment
Sometimes we can get in to the habit of playing for a heavy touch rather than a strike. One of the big differences between the two is the alignment of the arms. If we are going for a heavy touch we can ignore good solid alignment to a point. When you start developing power, however, good alignment can make all the difference.

For me when I am practicing hard punching I pay particular attention to my elbows. They need to be right behind my fist, forming a good line. They shouldn’t be flaring in straight punches or dropping on hooks. Take some time to practice air punching and getting some muscle memory to get used to the feeling of where your elbows should be. It should be the feel of strong structure that can take pressure the on the end of your fist without collapsing.

Relax
Relaxation is often talked about when practicing punching. The instructor tells the student to relax, the students shoulders drop a little bit and then away they go. Whereas this is a good start there is so much more to relaxation.
Maybe it is because people are so tense generally, that even a little dropping of the shoulders feels like we are relaxed. But what about the rest of your body, the large muscles in your core and legs also need to relax to let you produce as much power through your body as you can.

The best method I have come across for relaxation is the standing mediation from the Chinese internal martial arts. There is not enough space here to fully describe this practice but basically it involves holding a position for a length of time, usually people aim for between 20-40 mins, and relaxing your body into that position. Through this we get a kind of ‘active’ relaxation.

From there you can try moving in that ‘active relaxed’ mode, similar to taiji. You can do your patterns in this way or just shadow box. Then try to bring that relaxed movement in your pad work. You should find that your strikes feel more powerful and heavier. Also your short range strikes, elbow, knees, etc. will be stronger and need less wind up.

Hips
For a punch to be hard you need to put your body weight behind it. The part of your body that is responsible for moving you weight is your hips. There are three main ways to move your hips for punching, these are: up and down, pivoting from the centre, and pivoting from the side. My preference is pivoting from the side for just punching, but if I am pulling and punching I like to pivot from the centre as I get power/body weight going both ways.

Different styles advocate different ways of moving and there are advantages and disadvantages of each. But you need to concentrate on moving from the hips for each. To move from the hips we have to fist locate them and practice that style of movement. As well as relaxation mentioned above, doing large dynamic exercises like ‘tenkan’ from Aikido can help. If necessary you can place your hands on your hips to isolate them in the movement at the beginning and then move to a hip generated punch later

Crunch
We spend a lot of time tensing up the stomach muscles when we punch, we can help the power of the punch but crunching slightly at the end of the punch. Doesn’t have to be a big movement as you are already in motion but a little crunch at the end can give your punch a good snap at the end and make sure that you have a good amount of tension at the moment of impact as well as activating as many muscle groups of the body as possible.

There are many other things that can help your punching, but these are the things I have felt most useful. It takes time to incorporate each of these ideas into your movements but with working on them and working on the heavy bag you should feel your punches getting tighter and stronger.

Happy training

The Ritual Cat

When the spiritual teacher and his disciples began their evening meditation, the cat who lived in the monastery made such noise that it distracted them. So the teacher ordered that the cat be tied up during the evening practice. Years later, when the teacher died, the cat continued to be tied up during the meditation session. And when the cat eventually died, another cat was brought to the monastery and tied up. Centuries later, learned descendants of the spiritual teacher wrote scholarly treatises about the religious significance of tying up a cat for meditation practice.

I came across this Zen story on the internet years ago it has stayed with me ever since. During my journey through the martial arts I have kept coming back to this story in my mind. This was mainly because the amount of ceremony that some martial arts have for little or no practical reason. Take for example bowing in to class. This should be a fairly simple action. Depending on who you are and what style you do you may bow in different ways, for some styles a short bow while entering is enough while other styles require students to kneel before they bow and they may have guidelines for when to place the hands etc. All of these are fine and essentially serve the same purpose of indicating the beginning of class or that you have entered a training hall.
But when there is too much empty ceremony applied to it that I believe it becomes a problem. There is a tendency for some teachers, especially in the ‘softer’ styles to present their art as mystical and something that is based more on faith than on physical evidence. They are then open to develop whatever routines that they want under the guise of spiritual training. Their motive for this and the type of students that they attract is a huge topic and worthy of another article all of its own.
It is not just the softer arts that suffer from this over ritualization and dogma. Take part in a hard style class and watch how they are almost fanatical about punching or kicking in a certain way for no more reason than that’s what their style did traditionally.
In my opinion as people who study martial arts we need to be constantly evaluating what we are doing and should never be afraid of asking or in fact being asked ‘why?’ if someone is telling you that the way that you hold your fist is wrong, or that you have to bow a certain number of degrees they should also be able to explain the reason behind such practices.
That is not to say that we should become the students that is always challenging the teacher and trying to catch them out, at some point we should have enough experience to be to notice the advantages and disadvantages of different techniques and make our own judgement accordingly.
Also it doesn’t mean that we should leave perfectly good schools just because students are required to bow at the beginning of a class.
It simply means that we should approach everything with a critical mind and look for the reasons in everything that we do. Through knowing this reasoning we can apply the appropriate amount of effort and attention and get the most out of our training sessions