Comments on: How Realistic is Your Training?

By: Michael Ball

Michael Ball — Tue, 04 May 2010 11:36:09 +0000

Excellent piece here. I’m digging back in time a bit but I’ve enjoyed this post.

One of the reasons I chose the Tae Kwon Do school where I study is because the master has not only addressed the art he teaches but also the shortcomings for that art. Tae Kwon Do is great for keeping your opponent at a distance but what happens if he manages to get past your legs and inside?

My master has addressed this by incorporating Hapkido into our curriculum. By doing that, he’s given us skills to deal with opponents at long, medium and short ranges.

Early in my Tae Kwon Do training, I found that I have instinctive inside movements that will negate or mitigate the length and power of my opponents legs. Hapkido gives me the tools to take advantage of those instinctive moves and throw my opponent a real curve during an altercation.

No martial art covers everything and blending various, complimentary arts, especially from the same culture, creates a more complete and realistic education. A reality check is always in order.

By: massimo

massimo — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 16:50:15 +0000

@Sifu Paul Bissett thanks Paul for the well developed comment. I agree with you on the last paragraph: I am definetely NOT fighting everyday. At the same time the essence of the post about ensuring that what you do has a meaning and you can tell at any given time whether it would work when needed.

By: Sifu Paul Blissett

Sifu Paul Blissett — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 13:12:04 +0000

I think it is important that effectivness is addressed to some degree…Ive found some martial art groups are so far removed from reality and geared towards grading standards or competition that they can miss the potential in their respective arts…on the flip side, and being from a Boxing and Wing Chun background, the confidence these arts have instilled in me means I am under no illusion how my art could potentially backfire at street level if certain concepts arent explored fully and a certain degree of pressure testing is implemented within my teaching and training. In the Kamon Martial Art Federation that I currently teach for we work towards gearing ourselves up for street level confrontation and incorporate boxing sparring, grappling and clinchwork training and knife defence into an already proven to be effective close quarter system such as Wing Chun..we also practice ‘Milling’ an exercise the special forces use to channel and test aggression under pressure to give the members a chance to experience the fast paced shock of a realistic confrontation in relative safety.

We all practice martial arts for a different reason at the end of the day and real life effectivness should, in my opinion be addressed but is only one aspect of the whole journey – we dont NEED to fight everyday, so we dont NEED to be trained killing machines either as long as we’ve got a fair idea of our capabilities and weaknesses in the art /(s) we follow.

Paul Blissett – Kamon Wing Chun and Next Level Wing Chun instructor