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Unk. Damn ! My bandwidth was already getting low ! Very nice vids. Some great display of skill.
Sammygirl,
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but I feel there is a place and time for such static demonstration and practice of techniques. As in, "here is the cleanest way to show and teach this takedown move so that a student will not only understand the technique but perform the movements precisely.
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I agree. But when it never goes beyond this point, and there are NO videos of those techniques being used properly ( in the ring or otherwise ), it only gives the art a bad name. You said as much in your post.
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Instead, let's talk about how you, as an instructor right now, can take students up to the next notch, from static practice to confident usage? If you're already getting your students there, how are you doing it?
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I'm no instructor, nor do I think I am qualified to be one. But, I do know a little bit about taking static and making it live. These are some of my own experiences from my training, hopefully they can help some people out, or at least be an amusing read /
If I were to take the original vids on this thread ( that Bob posted ) as an example. I would first ask them to do what they are doing but much faster. Then the same, but the opponent must resist every time. Then you move around and free-spar while trying ( through the pure experience of free sparring ) to feel out the right moments to apply the technique you want to make live. It takes a while to get it right, but even a few minutes in you should at least get it right once.
It can sometimes be a bit overwhelming for some people to jump into free sparring, even when they have practiced the techniques like in the vids a million times. Suddenly when they try apply that armlock and the opponent just pulls his arm away and hits you in the head, then you forget all about those techniques you were drilling. You revert back to your own natural rhythm ( which is not very condusive to combat if you have not trained and fine-tuned this natural rhythm ). If you can make the step, and apply those techniques in a free-moving, dynamic, constantly changing environment, then those techniques can truly become a part of your natural rhythm.
One way to ease the way into free sparring is to semi-focus on a few techniques and to start off by limiting some of the attacks and movements ( beginning of a progression ). For example, maybe I want to learn to apply A armlock in a focused sparring environment. Maybe you can ask your sparring partner to come at you with strikes, but avoid takedowns ( if the armlock can be done on the ground this is wrong, but in this case I mean a standing armlock ). This is the point where experience can answer questions that were seemingly impossible to answer in the demo/drill phase of training. Simply by doing, you slowly begin to understand, and every time, you get a little better.
It's also important for your partner to actually hit you. He doesn't have to do a Mike Tyson combo and break your bones, but it must stun/shock/hurt enough for your adrenaline to take over. While in this state you instinctively try over and over and over again to apply your lock. At first you may find you are grabbing for his arm and missing like an amateur, even though you are the drill master. Then you realise that your opponent is not a boxing bag and he has his own intelligence and rhythm and instincts and maybe you have to become a smarter fighter now. So you begin to experiment with footwork, broken timing, set-ups, angular crashes, feigns/trickery, flowing between all ranges and speeds that you can come up with. Then when you are getting it right, you take off the limitations and it's everything goes. You make lot's of mistakes which is fantastic, because you are learning. It is very hard not to know when you are making a mistake in sparring, because you get smacked, and until you work out a decent defense you will continue to get hit in that way. What is important, is when you get hit/stunned or something doesn't work out the way you wanted, DO NOT STOP. Keep moving, thinking, improving.
Then you can even go back to the drills/forms/kata and try em again with a more realistic energy, and you will understand them so much better.
Here is a nice clip of some takedowns/throws by Eric Paulson. Some of them ( in the gym ) are compliant clips, but the main difference with this video, is that Paulson has used these techniques against non-compliant opponents regularily with good results.
Throws Tackles and Takedowns
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Last edited by Doughboy; May 25th, 2008 at 02:13 PM.
Wow a lot of nice clean takes. But lets get som that are a little more combative rather than sport.
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Those wrestling techniques are extremely combative, provided you learn to apply them while being punched, kicked, bitten and all that other great stuff. Just look at how successful Randy Couture has been in MMA with his Greco Roman clinch game.
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"To alcohol ! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems" - Homer Simpson
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Thanks Doughboy, that's a well thought-out description. Here's a related question I have, though. Every class has a time limit -- between 1-2 hours on average -- and many adult students are limited in their own schedules to about 3 classes per week, max. How would you structure a class so that students can make positive progress?
Sparring training is a cooperative process, so the more students that fall behind because they can't make regular classes, the fewer partners there are for the more advanced students to train with. So that's one issue to deal with.
__________________ "Pain can be a great teacher of compassion and humility."~ Unkotare-san
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The reason that I liked the techniques in the original post is that you don’t both end up on the ground waiting for the guys buddies to kick your head in. Are there any reliable takedowns where you stay on your feet ?
Folks let's remember one thing KUNG FU is based on LEVERAGE and ANGLES no matter what particular style you use. In watching this video, there was no leverage control what so ever due to his body being to far away from his opponent. To do any type of takedown you must close the gap. It is due to demonstrations like this that people talk bad about kung fu and that really gets me very upset.
I took up Kung fu to fight and in the process it gave me peace and compation on my enemies, but never the less "I LOVE TO FIGHT." Please don't get me wrong I don't look for fights, but if they come my way, I'm going to hurt you PERIOD. When you train in this manner the way showned on the video all you develop is a FALSE SENSE OF SECURITY. I'm not Chinese so I've had to train harder to prove myself to them and to the world.
If I have to fight with anyone I bet on ME!!!! All martial arts have to adapt to modern day fighting, thats how most arts have evolved and lasted this long because of adaptation (the only thing thats doesn't change are the forms). Forms are just a guideline to help you develop your techniques as a fighter. I'm sure the guy demonstrating couldn't fight his way out of a wet paperbag let alone walk the streets of NYC. I don't like putting people down but when I see c**p like this I can't stay shut.
Most people put stuff on Youtube just for the sake of saying they have a video up. You have to make sure if you are going to expose yourself like that you better be a bad ass.
I could think of a million better things to do in Japan for a month besides jumping off of picnic tables. - x893
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like this I can't stay shut. 
