John Hackleman speaks to Martial Art School Owners

Takai

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Do you mind elaborating on his ignorance?

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I will take a shot at it...Our way works, yours doesn't.

Aikido doesn't work? Tenkan koto gaeshi on a wrist works very well when applied properly,

5-animal systems don't work? Tell that to Kenpo stylists. Just because a system use an animal as instruction medium doesn't make it invalid.

"Crane fighting" doesn't work? Try a competent WC practitioner sometime.

You need to condition yourself. I guess he has never see the conditioning utilized by a someone in a "Crane system"

I see some good common sense about training but, it starts to get lost in the we have evolved since we thought the world was flat rhetoric.
 

RTKDCMB

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Do you mind elaborating on his ignorance?

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While I agree that for self defence you have to teach something real that students can use, that you need to train to defend against takedowns and that you need to condition yourself for the rigors of self defence there are a number of things he said or implied that were a little naive.

1) That their techniques have been "proven in the highest testing ground in the world (the UFC)' - That may have been true during the first 4 UFC's, with an extremely limited scope, but not with all the rules they have now. As close as you can get - hardly.

2) That you need full contact sparring to be effective in self defence - I train in a predominantly non-contact martial art and many of our students and blackbelts/instructors have more than adequately defended themselves, even against multiple attackers, in real life violent encounters (the only testing ground that really matters).

3) Kung fu and Aikido don't work - I am sure there are many on this forum with first hand knowledge that they do.

4) "Leopards are known for their stripes". - Leopards have spots, not stripes. :)

5) A punch in the head in the 6th century hurts just as much as it does now.

6) Martial arts have "evolved" solely because of the UFC (no doubt thanks to Joe Rogan's comment during an early UFC) - Martial arts have always evolved, just not always in the same manner, the UFC is not a better form of martial arts, just different.

7) I did not know a leopard spot was a weapon. :)

And now for the kicker;

8) "When they start doing their Karate and their hands are down here" - You have your hand on your hip whilst punching when you are doing basics in a line or during patterns, you do not have your hand on your hip when you are sparring or defending yourself. How many fighters in the UFC and similar promotions fight with their hands down a lot? Plenty.

9) I am always weary when I see the words 'online Dojo'.
 

Flying Crane

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This video is being discussed over on Kenpotalk, so rather than retype what I've already said over there, I just copied and posted my own contributions. So here are my thoughts on it.

yeah it's clear that he has zero real understanding of animal methods. But that's OK, it's the norm. Most people have zero understanding of animal methods, and mistake movie fantasy for reality. For most people, authentic animal methods are simply outside of their realm of experience. Having learned a half-fist as a "Leopard fist," or a fingertip "crane beak strike" doesn't count as experience in authentic animal systems. That kind of thing is utterly superficial and often is not even a signature technique of the named system. Anyway, there's no reason to be surprised that he is no different from the general population on this issue.

He makes some good points but it's also clear that he's got his own biases. meh, I didn't find it particularly inspired nor inspiring.


I gotta kinda wonder what the purpose of the video was, and who is his intended audience? He doesn't say anything that hasn't been said before. There's nothing new or ground-breaking there and the underlying message is one that probably all of us would agree with: your training needs to be high quality and realistic, and you need to avoid teachers who suck or who don't help you train realistically.

That's a common message that many people are saying.

The rest is all just his personal biases. He feels certain methods aren't realistic, and he specifically mentions animal styles and aikido. He feels other methods are gonna give you the results you need, and he specifically talks about conditioning and strength training, and MMA type approach to martial training.

He's welcome to feel how he wants to feel about things like animal styles and aikido. Everyone's got a right to an opinion, but it's clear to me that at least in some cases his opinion is based on ignorance.

As far as the conditioning and MMA stuff, sure that's a viable approach to training and anyone is welcome to follow that if that's what interests them. But it's not the only way and it's a tired old myth that one MUST train like an MMA competitor in order to be able to defend oneself. MMA methodology is not the only viable approach to training.

So that's where I don't feel particularly impressed by this guy. He's not said anything new, he's only said what everyone else is saying too so there's nothing enlightening here. And the rest of it is just his personal biases.
 

mook jong man

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This guy doesn't do conditioning , not unless you count chi sau as conditioning that is.
Up untill a few years ago he was doing chi sau with his students every day for about five hours.

[video=youtube_share;VUZkNxq7A1Y]http://youtu.be/VUZkNxq7A1Y[/video]
 

Coker101

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Well you know, if it's not bjj or muay thai it can't be effective. The style must have a mma stamp on it or it's just pretend. :)

This attitude is why I'm not a fan of ufc in some ways. I'm all about cross training and do believe that ufc shows combat skill. But it's the crappy attitude that if it's not some hardcore mma/bjj training it must be bashed and criticized to no end.
 

EddieCyrax

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It has been sometime ago, but I read where a girl was being attacked by a larger guy through a car window. She threw a leopard paw (half fist) to his throat as he came through the window after her. It negated the guys attacked and allowed her to drive away. I have had a similar experience with some dude jacked up and full of road rage. I left him standing in the street gagging and coughing as i drove away.

I am not convinced this crazy animal stuff is ineffective.......
 

Coker101

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It has been sometime ago, but I read where a girl was being attacked by a larger guy through a car window. She threw a leopard paw (half fist) to his throat as he came through the window after her. It negated the guys attacked and allowed her to drive away. I have had a similar experience with some dude jacked up and full of road rage. I left him standing in the street gagging and coughing as i drove away.

I am not convinced this crazy animal stuff is ineffective.......

Well I believe a lot of the animal stuff goes for the eyes as well....that's not allowed in mma but it is in the streets. And there is no biting or a mat on the street to do your bjj.....so should we say mma is unrealistic and fantasy? Of course not.
 
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James Kovacich

James Kovacich

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I respect what he has done and what he has done with his students. I also agree that MMA full contact is as close as you can get to a steet fight without actually being in a streetfight. My reasoning is they train to knockout and not get knocked out. The intensity level is a step up from the most schools and that makes a big differance. Most people believe they train hard enough, that is fine but most don't train that hard of contact even though they will say different.

With that said, my immediate thoughts of this video were ist John franchises his system, now he has an online dojo, hmmm....I think he's seen the success of the Gracies online...90,000+ subscibers in a 196 countries...

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