Is [your martial art] good for a "real fight"?

JowGaWolf

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I never wanted to use my aggressive mode. I had to or I would've been sliced up, killed, shot...most likely dead one way or another.

My instructor threw me out of his school after 9 years because I was very reluctant to use my destructive abilities, but on the street, turned out I had to anyway.

In light contact sparring I could use my speed with little or no damage to people. On the steet with people that wanna kill you... you've gotta cause as much damage as possible, as fast as you can. It turned out I was well trained for it regardless that I was reluctant to use it. I just didn't like that my instructor demanded it.
What type of footwork drills do you train?
 

EdwardA

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Self inflicted wound comes to mind
Kind'a. I didn't leave him on good terms. When other schools sent their people into his school, he wanted me to kick their aces...rough them up for the honor of his school. It was unnecessary. He had taught me such good defense, and I had the ability to move like a mirror in different ways (by my 4th year), so I'd just block them and tap them in forehead occasionally. That wasn't enough, he wanted me to make an example...out of them.

At the same time his biggest competitor was a PD sargent who's school was the biggest in town, and very successful. A good friend introduced me to that PD sargent in a dance club one night. He decided right off to tell what garbage Chinese MA was, and I told him something he didn't wanna hear. He was an very very popular police sargent too.

Haha, I had everybody mad at me.... and some pretty radical things happened. I won't say any of their names or the small city it was in. I left and came home about a year later in 1976. It was such a wealthy little city, it was very expensive place to live, so i had that reason to leave too. The whole 9 years ended badly, at least I learned a heck of a lot, but my instructor wasn't to happy about it after teaching me free all those years....and the PD sargent was tryin' to mess me up too. I had lots of people coming at me from all sides.
 
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HighKick

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I can't watch video due to limited data, but I always thought the only issue is survival and not going to jail for defending yourself. Is it any more complex than that? I only fight empty hand and have never killed any body, but have hurt a coulpe people pretty bad. I think if somebody comes after me, especially with a weapon and I'm unarmed, them I'm justified in putting them down hard and fast. Also, I'm 5' 9", 145 lbs and ive almost entirely had to fight guys that are 175 lbs and up. My max weight ever was 157. I have to capitalize on speed....and soft spots.
I used to say I could play with you, embarrass you or hurt you, it was my choice. Now I would only consider the latter. In that context your first preface is correct. For LE or very experienced fighters and such, the first two must be considered because someone will always chirp excessive force.
If a weapon is in the equation, it greatly changes the dynamic.
All that said, I still teach to hit, and hit and hit until you are certain you can walk away. In no way does that mean killing someone.
 

rabbittoystory

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Most martial arts have something solid to offer for self-defense, but it really comes down to how you train. If you're all about that katas and forms life, but never spar or train in real-world scenarios, then you might be in for a rude awakening. But if your dojo/gym keeps it 100 with practical drills and live sparring, you're in a much better spot for a "real fight."
 

EdwardA

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It still isn’t clear who he was referring to. He has yet to name his instructor.

I used to say I could play with you, embarrass you or hurt you, it was my choice. Now I would only consider the latter. In that context your first preface is correct. For LE or very experienced fighters and such, the first two must be considered because someone will always chirp excessive force.
If a weapon is in the equation, it greatly changes the dynamic.
All that said, I still teach to hit, and hit and hit until you are certain you can walk away. In no way does that mean killing someone.
When someone is a real threat to me, everything goes dark and i don't recollect but glimpses of what i did...threat over. Then i come back to normal consciousness. It's automated, but I've never done more or less than what was justified.
 

EdwardA

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What type of footwork drills do you train?
Spontaneous. Early on I decided to base all of the techniques i was learning on to the structure of Dong Hu Ling's Taiji. Very centered, very stong. My instructor made me do spontaneous forms, and not tradition form. He wanted me to learn how to move in structure. He spent a lot of time with me throwing everything at me....more and more, faster and faster until I got it right. He also wanted me to look at many systems and adapt what i found was useful. I also had the ability to mimic, mirror or reflect opponents movements, including his, so he used that to teach me everything he could throw at me .

Around my 4th year I developed a freeform sticky hands based on taiji push hands, wing chun's chi sao and many techniques from Ed Parker's kenpo. All into one fast pace, very eell rounded...both straight line, circular movement with some traps ang grapling too. I taught it to a few people so I could develop it fully....2-3 years worth.
 
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JowGaWolf

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Kind'a. I didn't leave him on good terms. When other schools sent their people into his school, he wanted me to kick their aces...rough them up for the honor of his school. It was unnecessary. He had taught me such good defense, and I had the ability to move like a mirror in different ways (by my 4th year), so I'd just block them and tap them in forehead occasionally. That wasn't enough, he wanted me to make an example...out of them.

At the same time his biggest competitor was a PD sargent who's school was the biggest in town, and very successful. A good friend introduced me to that PD sargent in a dance club one night. He decided right off to tell what garbage Chinese MA was, and I told him something he didn't wanna hear. He was an very very popular police sargent too.

Haha, I had everybody mad at me.... and some pretty radical things happened. I won't say any of their names or the small city it was in. I left and came home about a year later in 1976. It was such a wealthy little city, it was very expensive place to live, so i had that reason to leave too. The whole 9 years ended badly, at least I learned a heck of a lot, but my instructor wasn't to happy about it after teaching me free all those years....and the PD sargent was tryin' to mess me up too. I had lots of people coming at me from all sides.
I almost said that I'm glad that I didn't have people coming at me like that lol. But then I thought of my 20's and thought.. Oh yeah. I had that issue too. Not with the Police but for someone reason lots of people wanted to try to bully me, intimidate me, or just plan punk me. In college two guys where sitting down and threw a French fry at me and laughed. I looked at them, said nothing, but my eyes dared them to do it again. They didn't, They also stopped laughing as well. The older I got the less of that mess I had to deal with. Either I looked like a Victim or I looked like someone they were going to bring down a notch. Who knows? I'm just glad I get less of it these days especially since I have family.

The closest I've gotten to anything like the past was this one guy who was always in my way at the gym and the day I was going to confront him was the day that he asked me if my Son was my student, then I told him that he was my son and he wanted to know more about what I was teaching him. He just had a really bad approach. I guess some people are just not good at communicating and I guess he was expecting me to initiate the conversation and ask if he wanted to train with me. Don't know. I'm just glad I didn't fly off the handle, because that was the plan for that night. I got tired of him getting in the way and getting into my personal space. Everything ended without any confrontation so that's a win for both of us.
 

EdwardA

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I almost said that I'm glad that I didn't have people coming at me like that lol. But then I thought of my 20's and thought.. Oh yeah. I had that issue too. Not with the Police but for someone reason lots of people wanted to try to bully me, intimidate me, or just plan punk me. In college two guys where sitting down and threw a French fry at me and laughed. I looked at them, said nothing, but my eyes dared them to do it again. They didn't, They also stopped laughing as well. The older I got the less of that mess I had to deal with. Either I looked like a Victim or I looked like someone they were going to bring down a notch. Who knows? I'm just glad I get less of it these days especially since I have family.

The closest I've gotten to anything like the past was this one guy who was always in my way at the gym and the day I was going to confront him was the day that he asked me if my Son was my student, then I told him that he was my son and he wanted to know more about what I was teaching him. He just had a really bad approach. I guess some people are just not good at communicating and I guess he was expecting me to initiate the conversation and ask if he wanted to train with me. Don't know. I'm just glad I didn't fly off the handle, because that was the plan for that night. I got tired of him getting in the way and getting into my personal space. Everything ended without any confrontation so that's a win for both of us.
Glad it worked out ok for you. I had lots and lots and lots of confrontation. Before i left that little city, people would just run up on me and start trowin' down. They couldn't really do anything to me. They weren't trying to kill me ,just prove themselves.
 

JowGaWolf

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Before i left that little city, people would just run up on me and start trowin' down. They couldn't really do anything to me. They weren't trying to kill me ,just prove themselves.
I fortunate not to have this. People always approach me with caution even when they are "banging on their chest and puffing up." Hopefully they aren't sizing you up like that anymore. Confrontations and Arguments are one thing, but having people running up on you and throwing punches is not good. For the most part people only do that when they think they can get away with it.

Maybe that's why your teacher wanted you to be rough. Or maybe you appeared to be the top dog to them, which is also not a good thing.
 

EdwardA

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I fortunate not to have this. People always approach me with caution even when they are "banging on their chest and puffing up." Hopefully they aren't sizing you up like that anymore. Confrontations and Arguments are one thing, but having people running up on you and throwing punches is not good. For the most part people only do that when they think they can get away with it.

Maybe that's why your teacher wanted you to be rough. Or maybe you appeared to be the top dog to them, which is also not a good thing.
These were all black belts from other schools....long time ago in 1975 and 1976. I wasn't at my school the last year I was there, so they found me wherever they could. There were just too many people that knew. My defense drove people nuts.
 
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JowGaWolf

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These were all black belts from other schools....long time ago in 1975 and 1976. I wasn't at my school the last year I was there, so they found me wherever they could. There were just too many people that knew
Thanks for the clarification. I thought it was just some random dudes on the street looking to pick fights.
 

EdwardA

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Thanks for the clarification. I thought it was just some random dudes on the street looking to pick fights.
Oh, that happened later when i left. I hitchhiked out and went thru every major city on IH-10. Got to experience all the gang bangers in those cities.... living on the street. If I hadn't been very well trained, I would have been cut up or killed.....a bunch of times.
 
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Wing Woo Gar

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Read my post. #63
Yeah, I did, there isn’t any name there. Is there a reason you don’t answer the question when I ask you directly who was this teacher of yours that you keep referencing? The one that trained with Yip Man and then was sent by his parents to train with Ed Parker. The one that threw you out for not beating up people. That’s the one, so what’s his name?
 

EdwardA

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Yeah, I did, there isn’t any name there. Is there a reason you don’t answer the question when I ask you directly who was this teacher of yours that you keep referencing? The one that trained with Yip Man and then was sent by his parents to train with Ed Parker. The one that threw you out for not beating up people. That’s the one, so what’s his name?
You didn't read the 3rd paragraph very well.
 

HighKick

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When someone is a real threat to me, everything goes dark and i don't recollect but glimpses of what i did...threat over. Then i come back to normal consciousness. It's automated, but I've never done more or less than what was justified.
Do you realize how contradictory that statement is?
 

EdwardA

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Do you realize how contradictory that statement is?
Yes, please state how contradictory it is. It is a statement about the levels of consciousness I experience after using a variety of mental, visual and physical training methods over a long period. Specific training methods which I can outline. Tho, I doubt anybody is interested in the mental and visual training.
 

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