I commented before on Mr. Interrupter, the "too many questions" student. Now I'd like to comment on Mr. Tough Guy, the one who likes to resist on the manipulations, locks and chokes. The guy that lives by the maxim "pain is weakness leaving the body". The guy who never wants to tap.
In my system, we do a lot of locking. It has been my experience that big differences in mass and strength can be difficult to overcome for many techniques. Techniques that might work well against someone your own size or smaller, can be difficult against someone much stronger or larger, especially if he is resisting.
It is my opinion that students who like to resist and are good at it are godsends. I think we should all expect that it is most likely that we will be attacked by larger, stronger men and therefore, we need as much experience as we can testing techniques against bigger stronger men in the dojo. Tough guy students can really help to that end. The challenge I have seen in many dojos is that big strong men are less likely to train, so dojos are filled with medium-sized and small guys. If you get a strong one, take advantage of it.
Let me share a recent experience.
I have been developing some bo (staff) defense applications from the kata Jutte. Part of each movement is to strike an arm on the biceps, forearm, elbow, or wrist, to get it to release the bo. My regular "big guy" partner I like to train with is 6'3", 230lbs and really solid. (I'm 5'8'', 175lbs) But he is a student of jujutsu and he is trained to let go rather easily. This is not to say he makes it easy for me, it is just he just doesn't make it tough. Those readers that practice biceps strikes know that they are pretty darn uncomfortable. It is tough getting hit there hard, again, and again. And in my techniques, I use good body mechanics to leverage my mass in striking. So when I get a good shot in this guy's biceps, he doesn't fight it. Likewise, when I am holding the bo, neither do I. The net is that a lot of techniques I developed worked well against him, even though he is a lot bigger than me.
I have another friend I train with. He really isn't that big, he's about my size, but he grew up on a farm and has great forearm strength. And although he is a really nice guy, he is a "tough guy". He doesn't like to give in. He makes you earn something. When he resisted some of my bo disarming techniques, they fall apart.
But here was the great thing. My "tough guy" partner was more than willing to let me unload on his arms to see where each technique was breaking down so it could be refined. (Palm heel doesn't work against the biceps, lets try an elbow smash. That doesn't work, lets try it with more rotation or full speed and power, that doesn't work, lets try it against the forearm, that doesn't work, lets hit a pressure point on the wrist.)
I would always apologize, and ask, can I try it hard here, and so on. And sooner or later, I would find the technique that worked against his steel grip. And he got big bruises up and down his arm to show for it. But I continued to hone my ideas so that they would be more applicable across a wider group of attackers, and that is the key. I bring up this experience with the bo, because in this situation I really had to unload on my partner, all to good purpose. But the same issue comes up in locking techniques. Someone resists, so you have to go extra hard, which can result in more pain for the attacker, just as my "tough guy" partner had his share of pain when we worked together.
Regarding grabbing attacks (those you use locks against), I am most concerned with having techniques that work well for smaller women. They are vulnerable, and in attacks against women, grabbing is often part of the technique. For us male instructors, it is unlikely we will have the opportunity to train often against partners with as big a difference in mass as small women in the dojo and on the street face. It is common for 110 lb women to face off against 220 lb men. There are plenty of both around. But I weigh 175lbs. and there are few 350 lb attackers on the street, and precious few in the dojo.
If you have a locking technique that breaks down under the resistance of a tough guy partner, that is around your size, think of how ineffective that technique would be for a woman going against a man 50-100% bigger, and with proportionately more upper body strength.
One last story. I was teaching what I thought was a great technique, guaranteed to work, at a large seminar that I was invited to. Against a right strike, you elbow the guy in the head with your right arm, pivoting to the left, and blocking with the left. Then you trap the right arm against your neck with your left (scoop under) so that when you turn to the right, you have an arm bar. At the same time strike hard on the neck with your right hand, leveraging the body mechanics in the pivot to the right. The typical response is his head gets pulled down a foot or two, well positioned for further follow-up.
There was a participant at the seminar who was 6'6" and weighed over 300 lbs. I felt like a rag doll next to this guy. There was no way, at 5'8" that I could get the leverage to budge his massive arm with my puny arm bar. And my strike to the neck could barely reach. I did happen to have a variation up my sleeve. (kick to the groin with the right foot to lower the head) then both arms for the arm bar rotating to the right. But the first technique was a total failure. I had just never encountered such a big partner.
But if you look at the difference between his size and mine, you find a very similar occurrence when looking at women martial artists and fairly large men in the dojo and the street.
So use these tough guys. Use them to test your techniques so you can have more confidence that what you pass to your smaller female students can work against big guys. And here is a key to success. Tell them how valuable their resistance is to the class learning, but they have to use it at the right time. It isn't appropriate to resist all student attacks in partner work. Sometimes the defender HAS to do something many times against a non-resister to learn how to move well so that the speed and body mechanics are there when resistance is added. And you can announce it to the class that your "tough guy" is a great asset, and when students are having a tough time, they can ask him to relax a bit. Then everyone benefits.
