Advice

**fuzzy30** · #31 (**permalink**) June 5th, 2002, 12:29 AM

Granted, in training, one must learn to deal with others of greater size than you.
How do does a generalization such as "size does'nt matter" differ from a generalization such as "size does matter"
Personally, I know from experience, a smaller,weaker,and possibly slower person can attack a bigger,stronger foe in such a manner that would make the size and strength of either a non factor.

Jeff(fuzzy30)

**StormMountain** · #32 (**permalink**) June 5th, 2002, 01:13 AM

**x893** · #33 (**permalink**) June 5th, 2002, 10:11 AM

The main difference in those 2 generalizations is that one is an assumption that could get you hurt if believed, but will have no negative affect if you believe its opposite. The other is an assumption that will help if believed, but have a negative affect if its opposite is considered true.
If you believe that size doesnt matter, then your training may reflect this and so will your methods of dealing with opponents. This could have negative affects, primarily being overly confident when its not deemable to be so.
But, if you believe size does matter in the previously posted ways, then you will train to deal with people of any size and note the differences and successful methods.

The simpleness of it is this, if you believe one...it will have negative affects on your training and fighting abilities, but if you believe its opposite then it wont.

Consider this; If I believe that the size of an opponent is a factor (which I know to be true based on experience), then I will do training to be capable of dealing with someone of any size. So no "negative" effects from that choice.
The other choice, size doesnt matter, if believed, may and often does cause one to believe that they can train one way really hard and no matter what size the opponent is, they will be successful.

Perfect example, I often had to spar with a guy who played football. He was 6'5 and weighed 280+lbs. And he could move it...just as fast as anyone and twice as strong. Sparring this man was VERY different than sparring another. I trained hard, to deal with "any" opponent, at least so I thought...but this guy (who had less martial training and technique under his belt than I did) beat me consistently and constantly.
This was due to his size. He told me had very little real life fighting experience..much less than me...and he had less training and less knowledge of our art or the arts in general.

Simply put, the guys size made the difference. With just a little training, he was able to beat everyone most of the time.
Now you tell me size doesnt matter
Like I said, it does, whether you consider it or not. And anyone who has had a situation similar to the one I just stated knows that it does.

"Size does matter"- believe this...you will focus differently in training and fighting, the extra work cant hurt.

"Size doesnt matter"-believe this...you will keep working as you normally do...and the first time you fight someone very large, who has even slight training, you will see why its a mistake.

Its better to be safe than sorry as they say.

wu ming jen · #34 (**permalink**) June 5th, 2002, 12:36 PM

Here's a true story, skill can defeat brute strength and size. Two angles, 1st > After a few years of praying mantis I moved and took Tai Chi Chuan from one of Grand master Jou Tsung Hwa's senior instuctors she was a small lady in her sixties. She would like to use me for demonstrations because of my size 6'2 175 (not huge but whatever)and training in martial arts> She would always neutrilize me to easly and make me vunerable to attack.I could not understand that for a long time! Thats when I changed to Internal Systems (1984) in 92 I was asked to start teaching at my own location.Thats when I met a student that is (Still a good freind) a big dude, he makes me look small.Being younger than me he and his freinds would always ask to do free fighting after class .Of course I would accept. This is where the square and the circle came to life and close range fighting was the only way to gain advantage. Size does matter but, it is in how we adapt to it that counts.I relied on the skills alone to teach the Fighting methods of Tai Chi Chuan (small frame) not using force myself on students to encourage thoes to study.

**x893** · #35 (**permalink**) June 5th, 2002, 03:24 PM

I definitely agree.
Size can be overcome by technique, but as previously stated...you cant just believe a statement like "size doesnt matter"...because it is a major factor in many fights and training.
So I agree with whats being said here, i just disagree with telling people..."oh, dont worry about it..size doesnt matter"...

H@pkid0ist · #36 (**permalink**) June 5th, 2002, 04:14 PM

As many others have said. Size and strength play very litttle in the MA. To a degree the are an influincing factor. That is when Skill and capability come in. The better you get the less the forementioned issues will be relivent. Do your best for you and stay the course. It will all come together. You just have to give it time. No one can be a master in a day. You have a lifetime of study ahead of you. Enjoy it.

H@pkid0ist · #37 (**permalink**) June 5th, 2002, 04:18 PM

nicely said.

to win fight the fight your way.
When you fight the fight their way you have lost.

wu ming jen · #38 (**permalink**) June 6th, 2002, 07:50 AM

Thanks brother.

We are all branches of the same tree.

li xiao long · #39 (**permalink**) June 6th, 2002, 08:22 AM

We are all branches of the same tree

Wu Ming, that was very new-ageish

You're getting me worried now.

wu ming jen · #40 (**permalink**) June 6th, 2002, 10:10 AM

What Taoist master said that Some words seem to be timeless and hold true through out the old and new ages. The I ching is like that, something written so long ago. I will try not to sound new age-ish as it has given Tai Chi Chuan a bad rap in America in some respects and at the same time has brought a lot of attention.I hope now we can correct the mis-informed.

migo · #41 (**permalink**) June 7th, 2002, 12:48 AM

A lot of people seem to be missing the point when they say 'Size and Strength don't matter'. This couldn't be farther from the truth, everything matters (well, not everything, who cares about a butterfly flapping it's wings in Siberia). The point is that a smaller weaker person can beat a bigger stronger person through proper use of techniques.

Size and Strength, like anything else can be both an advantage and a disadvantage, depending on how you look at them and what martial art you train. Being small can be a disadvantage because of less mass, and having more mass means there's more momentum behind strikes and more mass to controll the oponent while grappling, however being small is also an advantage because you have less mass to move around therefore it is easier for you to move around and you can move quicker, being small also means you're a small target, and it's self explanatory why that is an advantage. Strength is an advantage for obvious reasons, and there's not many ways which weakness can be seen as an advantage, however in arts where non-resistance is the key, weakness does become an advantage (or strength) because a weak person has an easier time grasping the concept of not opposing force with force, they know perfectly well that it doesn't do much good for them.

What counts is how you use your size and strength. If you are of the opinion that it doesn't matter, or that it matters very little, you'll get creamed because you'll just be happily gloating about that fact and not actually learning how to use your size to your advantage.

H@pkid0ist · #42 (**permalink**) June 7th, 2002, 09:12 AM

I'm not saying that size and strength do naot matter at all. But if you have good technique You can overcome most any obsticle. more later.

H@pkid0ist · #43 (**permalink**) June 7th, 2002, 10:31 AM

Sorry

I had to go.
I know that to a degree size and strength do matter. Example: One of the guys that was in my graduating black belt class was a 20 TKD artist. He was about 5'8", 118 pounds. He could do things with his kicks that were out of this world. But, when it came to his hand techniques He had almost no hand or forearm strength to execute them.

But if you got in the way of his kicks you wouldnt know what day it was. He excelled at TKD. This was his skill. If he were to fight using TKD kicking techniques he would fair very well. So in the long run the size and strength issue were beaten out by techniques that he was able to properly exicute.

**Nik** · #44 (**permalink**) June 7th, 2002, 12:19 PM

It all boils down to one point:

It is not how BIG you are, and how much you can weight-lift, but it is how much damage you can do without getting yourself got down or hit.

If you are not only small but WEAK, you have to have a LOT of skills to have a fight stay open, and even then you need something to finish with. Just "being good" (in WHAT) isn't taking someone out, if you cannot simply run away long enough so the other will get bored.

BUT: Just being merely small doesn't mean your strikes or kicks can't be too hard to be taken. They could, but it needs practice. A friend of me trains with Lo Man Kam, who happens to be also very small, not more than 60 kilos at most. That man can take a much bigger man out with one strike. When questioned by one of the "sceptical minds", he simply knocked that one out with a single strike before he could even blink his eyes. No "if" and "but when". When rushed from a huge man, he pushed him back to the wall. The bad knews is, Lo Man Kam has practiced every day in the last 50 years. Many heretics do not.

BTW, I know another "small" man who does the harder sort of TKD and kicked around some bad boy weighting over 100 kilos. That's why he has been a european full contact champion. Unfortunately, that bad boy lifts the usual small boy off the ground over his head and toys around with him (saw that also, and he's not really mean...). It is if you are the one sort of small man or the other.

H@pkid0ist · #45 (**permalink**) June 7th, 2002, 12:29 PM

When he sparred larger students he ususlly one becouse he was so adept with his kicks that most people couldn't get in without getting kicked , very hard. Most of the time he was able to win.