The Intrigue of "52 blocks"

[drop bear]

Martial arts success is about the resources that they have acces to.

So in theory the skills of the best martial artists trickle down to the rest of the community.

So the best boxers are?

The best 52 blockers are?

And that pretty much gives you you answer.

This is called being a boring percentage fighter. Which if you were self defence focused i would recommend is generally the route to go.

 

[Charlemagne]

I just found this.

Twitter

Apparently, Zeb Judah, and Mike Tyson both acknowledge that 52 blocks/JHR is a thing.

Noted historians that they are, we should definitely take their word for it.

 

[JowGaWolf]

Has any martial artists sparred with a 52 blocks practitioners? I would like to here their take about the system. It looks like a punch only system

 

[TSDTexan]

Has any martial artists sparred with a 52 blocks practitioners? I would like to here their take about the system. It looks like a punch only system

Yep, that's my take. And with all the foot movement, no real root

 

[TSDTexan]

Noted historians that they are, we should definitely take their word for it.

Well, Zeb did show it a bit in a boxing match after taking a few punishing hits.

 

[TSDTexan]

Well, Zeb did show it a bit in a boxing match after taking a few punishing hits.

...

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...1pYPCxhZgpzwgWJiw&sig2=16sbb8krXyumc8-zvNkpFg

 

[frank raud]

Well, Zeb did show it a bit in a boxing match after taking a few punishing hits.

Let's see if that makes sense. He goes 4-1/2 rounds with standard boxing and gets punished. Late in the Fifth, he switches to 52 and turns the fight. For rounds 6 on, he reverts to standard boxing. And loses. 53 fights. 42 wins. Fights pro from 1996 until 2013 and in one half of one round, he displays the 52. So, in the rest of his fights it wasn't necessary , regular boxing was sufficient? How about in his 9 losses and 2 no decision?

 

[TSDTexan]

Has any martial artists sparred with a 52 blocks practitioners? I would like to here their take about the system. It looks like a punch only system

According to Dennis Newsome, a 52 evangelist... Jailhouse Rock (aka 52blocks etc.) comprises multiple styles developed in different places and under different conditions, and thus each of these incorporate different techniques. These techniques range from striking to wrestling, using the hands, elbows, knees, head butts, and some low kicks.

 

[TSDTexan]

Let's see if that makes sense. He goes 4-1/2 rounds with standard boxing and gets punished. Late in the Fifth, he switches to 52 and turns the fight. For rounds 6 on, he reverts to standard boxing. And loses. 53 fights. 42 wins. Fights pro from 1996 until 2013 and in one half of one round, he displays the 52. So, in the rest of his fights it wasn't necessary , regular boxing was sufficient? How about in his 9 losses and 2 no decision?

Hey, I never said it was effective in winning proboxing, and most or a great deal of it is illegal in proboxing.

UFCer Rashid Evens said 52 blocks is "dirty boxing".

The point being was that it has surfaced from time to time. Whether it's something new from the '60s... or really is a mythic African martial art doesn't matter to me.

My personal supposition is that it is an ad hoc eclectic street art that borrows and steals from boxing, and other arts, and remixed with an Afro-American esthetic, and verbal tradition.

I'll toss this out as an example.
52 Blocks Tribute #2 - YouTube

It has a lot of "borrowed" imagery and techniques.

Much like fake ninjitsu.

He probably realized that if he really used it, he would disqualify himself. So he pulled up short

 

[JowGaWolf]

Here's 52 vs someone who does Muay Thai. Notice how the kicks change the applications as he talks about the limitations of 52. A++ for exploring techniques

These techniques range from striking to wrestling, using the hands, elbows, knees, head butts, and some low kicks.

What kind of low kicks? there are quite a few

 

[TSDTexan]

Here's 52 vs someone who does Muay Thai. Notice how the kicks change the applications as he talks about the limitations of 52. A++ for exploring techniques

What kind of low kicks? there are quite a few

He didn't specify. Quasi martial arts thrive on ambiguity.

 

[punisher73]

I just found this.

Twitter

Apparently, Zeb Judah, and Mike Tyson both acknowledge that 52 blocks/JHR is a thing.

Much like Ali's infamous "karate punch" that he won his fight with against Liston. There has been a history to attach something different to the ordinary in boxing.

I think that there is something to it now. I don't believe the story that Mr. Newsome came up with about it being a secret slave martial art taught in secret and then re-emerged in the prison systems. Again, I think it came about in that urban environment of boxing mixed with streetfighting tricks and a little kung fu from the popular movies. If you put all that together, then you can call it whatever you want.

 

[oaktree]

Wasn't this debunked on bullshido a while ago?

 

[wingchun100]

I think Dom Izzo or someone like that had a video called "Wing Chun Vs. 52 Blocks." Never knew what it meant until now.

 

[TSDTexan]

I think Dom Izzo or someone like that had a video called "Wing Chun Vs. 52 Blocks." Never knew what it meant until now.

Yep, I actually posted that video on this thread earlier, the day I came across it.

 

[Juany118]

Yep, I actually posted that video on this thread earlier, the day I came across it.

The only thing I found weird with that video is that it seemed to be rather catering to the 52 Blocks guy. I only say that because in many other videos Izzo has shown how the hooks etc can be addressed. Also the 52 Blocks guy goes 360 around Izzo to illustrate that 52 blocks the center line of the enemy can be attacked from the rear and flanks as easily as the front, as if Wing Chun doesn't see it that way. WC does and again, Izzo has noted this in his own videos before and after. So I really don't give much credit.

Then every other 52 Blocks video I watch has me seeing holes.

 

[Juany118]

Has any martial artists sparred with a 52 blocks practitioners? I would like to here their take about the system. It looks like a punch only system

I've had to fight one who claimed such knowledge on the street to successfully take him into custody. Now maybe he was just BSing or bad at it but it seemed to be a lot of unnecessary arm movements that maybe he thought would make his next attack less predictable? Then lots of hook punches and upper cuts, nothing with the legs . But really it seemed to be a bit like prison shanking/knife fighting, premium on overwhelming offense, that left him open to someone else training in fighting to take advantage of.

Take the above as it is though since I really have no way to verify his claims.

 

[Juany118]

Was doing some digging and found this article... The Myth of “52 Blocks” or “Jailhouse Rock”

This is the parts I found most interesting...

Second, we are told we must accept the absurd notion that entire systems of fighting — not one, not some, but many — are being transmitted and taught from inmate to inmate in an extensive web of prison instruction despite the fact that such activities would surely be discouraged by prison officials. Yes, we do have grainy footage of inmates teaching their fellow felons sloppy martial arts moves or other criminal methods, such as during time in prison yards… but these isolated incidents are a far cry from the fully realized, technically complex instruction we are asked to believe is taking place. Violence does occur in prison, yes… but it takes only moments to stab or rape a fellow prisoner. It takes considerably more time to impart the details of an intricate martial art system to another person and especially to successive generations of other persons… all while in the strictly controlled environment of the penal system.

For that matter, if the system is so varied, so different, so determined by context, then there is no system at all — just a loose collection of technically diverse underground martial arts that have nothing to tie them together except that they are alleged to be practiced in prisons and by ex-cons.

and this...

The heaviest irony here is that all of these people claiming to have seen or to teach a fictitious African martial art have, in effect, caused it to exist. Remember the martial art of Hikuta? Coincidentally marketed as the fighting style of the ancient Egyptian Pharaohs’ bodyguards, Hikuta was invented in the 1990s by a mannamed Lee Crull...

Likewise, regardless of the true provenance of the techniques they teach as 52 Blocks or Jailhouse Rock, those instructors claiming to impart it to their racially pure student bodies or to and from their fellow felons and ex-convicts have created a self-fulfilling prophesy. The fiction of Jailhouse Rock is now realized as a living, breathing style because there are people who say so… regardless of the truth. In so doing, they’ve breathed life into the lie of 52 Blocks… and helped further the popular culture imagery associated with street criminals and thugs, for good or for ill.

 

[oaktree]

Oh man it's been I think 16 years since I heard about the Egyptian martial art again.

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

None of those arts hold a finger to llap goch.