Karate Do - The Way of the Empty Hand

I come to you with only Karate,
My empty hands,
I have no weapons.

But should I be forced to defend myself,
my principles or my honour,
should it be a matter of life or death,
right or wrong,

then here are my weapons,
Karate,
my empty hands.

STMA Spring Course

24 April · 10:00 - 16:00

As always we will work through all ranges and phases of combat, taking particular techniques and drills from particular arts to specialise on.

This course will include the following

Kali stick, double stick, and knife
Karate and kempo empty hand Street defence
Trapping range - locks
Grappling range - Sprawl and brawl, takedowns
Ground - locks and chokes
Gun defence

As always these moves will be demonstrated in real time in free play sparring, and attendees will have the opportunity to try out freeplay themselves.
As always with STMA "If you see it taught, you see it fought"

This will be an outdoor course and will involve environmental training.

We will do weapons training in the bushes and trees - the environmental training drills.

We will do more kempo and karate sequences, looking deeper into the empty hand phase - and how that relates not just to Wing Chun and Kali, but savate, thai and boxing in Street when, quite literally, the gloves are off.

We will do newaza and grapple on the ground, the real ground, the grass and dirt.

We will look further into stick lox and disarms.
I will bring my gun and we will go over gun disarm.

Kali on grass is no different from in class. However we will take the opportunity to go into the trees and do environmental drilling.

KB does not really work on grass, it is a dojo exercise, pads, sparring, workout gear, solid stable floor.

However empty hand karate and kempo works great on the grass and is a step closer to the street. We are literally training these arts in the environment and format they were developed.

Savate, Muay Thai and boxing are the first 3 phases of our KB at STMA. However without the gloves you need to functionalise your strikes for Street - that is where we go into kempo and karate - this means new techniques such as eye jabs and open hand strikes, as well as new concepts.

Jujutsu on the grass is far harder than the mat.

Throws and takedowns are particularly difficult.
However anybody who has played rugby will be used to doing the tackle and recieving tackles on grass, and while running full sprint at that.
With this is mind I will demonstrate the leg takedown and sprawl from Greco Roman, practiced as it was on grass in it's original format.
Members who want to drill this move can do so - it will be OPTIONAL.
Expect to get grass stains, grass "burns", and sore knees.

The newaza will for jujutsu format, there will be no sparring, just drilling, techniques and concepts - the value here is to feel grappling on a harder surface.

We will be bringing what has been learnt back to the dojo to build on in May.

What you see on the grass you will see in the class!

Outdoor course update

A sunny day on the grass.

We started with double stick and worked sinawalli concepts and progressive drilling.

Serrada allowed us to accordian single stick and knife.

We looked at largo for knife and concepts.

We introduced the kempo combinations and sequences that are the foundation of karate, some simple drills and some advanced combinations that personify the concepts in motion.

We looked at taijutsu's long range high and low line defences, the use of the elements, and the use of front snap kick and rear stamp kick in context.

We looked at newaza, the ground phase of jujutsu, and the environmental issues of groundfighting on real ground - not mats.
Not so easy when the ground is hard - or the sun is in your eyes.

Jujutsu techniques built out of a flow sequence and the advanced concepts of how and why you sequence progression from mount to side mount to guard - as well as WHY you take the leglock when you do as well as HOW to do it.

At STMA - if you see it taught, you see it fought!

Kit order

As the new members are ordering their kit it is a chance for existing members to update any kit that is wearing out such as stix, and acquire any kit they do not have from the suggested list.

Suggestions this time:

Uniform:
everyone has gi so why not complete your uniform with box boots and kf pants.
The pants are better and cheaper than track pants and are cuffed to create better movement than normal gi pants.
The boots are better and cheaper than trainers and have soft light soles for movement and sparring.

Knife:
get at least a wooden knife - or you could get 2 for double daga work
I personally also use a metal training knife as it adds that touch of realism.

Headgear:
if you want to take your boxing to the next level you need the grill headgear that Tank and I wear. This is totally optional but if you want to go hard in boxing then headgear is a must.

Gumshield:
Do you have a gumshield?
They are worth having for boxing and some people like to wear them on mat day in grappling "just in case".

Bag gloves:
I personally use the light bag gloves for impact work and the box gloves just for sparring. It is worth investing in bag gloves as it gives a more realistic feel with less padding - also the bag gloves will wear out quicker than the spar gloves.
You can also do light sparring in the semi contact style with them.

Focus pads:
Do you have your own focus pads for boxing, kb and savate impact yet? Well worth having.

Boxing rope:
the best way to get the footwork right. Though we don't do much skipping in class I can show you drills you can practice away from class so your footwork gets better each week.
If you have a rope, or are getting one, by all means bring it to class and skip during the warm up.


boxing gloves £20 and pair of sticks £15

the essential kit that every STMA member must have.

It is worth checking to see what condition your own kit is in and replace anything that is getting worn out.
Is that stick likely to break in the next couple of weeks? Get a replacement ready!

Also have you got all your "secondary" kit yet.
This kit is not essential, but is recommended:

Shinguards £10
FC full face £30
FC full face with detachable grill £30
training knife - wood £5, aluminium £8
Bag gloves for impact and light sparring £15
Gumshield £1.50
Judo gi £30
Groin guard £10
Focus mitts £20
Kung fu pants or gi pants £10
Boxing boots £30
Thai pads £50 a pair

Savate fight footage

Kali sticks - Wing Chun swords

At STMA we blend Kali with Wing Chun to work from weapons to empty hand and back out to weapons.

Kali starts with sticks:
double sticks sinawalli
largo mano
sumbrada
hubud

hubud is then the foundation drill for knife
knife works largo and sombrada drills
there are also many drills unique and specific to knife
kadena de mano also has knife defence - empty and against knife

hubud empty hand is the foundation for
panantukan - boxing

and is the base for all CRA Close Range Arts

Wing Chun starts with empty hands:
entry with kicks and jabs
jik chun choy blast
HIA trapping
chi sao

Wing Chun has 3 forms:
sil lum tao
chum kil
bil jee

the mok jong dummy form

and 2 weapons forms:
bart charm dao swords
kwane pole

once sil lum tao, chum kil, mok jong and bil jee and learnt in application, freestyle chi sao sparring is possible

hubud and chi sao meet for complete development of close range fighting in the trapping phase.
we also employ energy drills from other arts such as Mantis to fill in any gaps

the student who now learns Wing Chun Dao can come back out to weapons range with a even more diverse repertoire.

Kali stick - Wing Chun Dao

Here is a demo from 1984 - Dan Inosanto Kali sticks and William Cheung Wing Chun Bart Charm Dao swords:

Double KOs

Yes we saw it at the end of Rocky 3, but it does happen in real life - 2 fighters knock each other out.

perfect Rocky 3 ending in a cage match:



if the fighter kept is guard up he would have got the KO and been OK
but he dropped his guard
so did the other guy

boxing match with hook:




another cage match:

also...

why you don't ambush-surprise attack someone with good reflexes:



The numerada drills and the boxing focus pad line drills will create the reflexes so that if someone jumps out at your then you will land the cross to their jaw with power and precision.

We developed it for use in nightclub fights - but it's also handy if you encounter a werewolf hiding in a skip.

Also...

what not to do if you are fighting a homophobic redneck:



Funny though this is, it shows a great example of a pre-emptive strike, the surprise attack, sucker punch, sniper option. The "kisser" never saw it coming and the fight was over before it began.

Firstest with the mostest is the bestest.

(note - the guy doing the kissing probably missed a lot of training sessions)

Leg Destruction

This clip has been around for a while now, but it is still the best example of the result of what can happen when a low kick lands dead centre onto a defending knee:



and it has happened in the cage as well:




a more detailed example including discussion and slo mo:



check the reply at 2:16 - the kick is thrown and the defender shields.
the kicking leg lands dead centre of the shin and bends and snaps
the shielding leg takes it at the top.

if a kick lands with the "knuckle" at the end of the bone above the foot it will be powerful -
if it lands dead centre of the shin then the bone will snap like a twig

Useful to know when both attacking and defending with low kix.

Chi Sao at STMA

At Shiro Tora, chi sao starts with the traditional
Wing Chun form, then moves into the more free flowing Jun Fan form.

At this point, as well as WC and JF strikes and traps, techniques from all 9 CRA Close Range Arts that have been perfected and practiced in hubud are now applied spontaneously out of chi sao.

True close range sparring, with an appropriate response for any opponent on any occassion, fully functional for the Street

Elvis Karate 1974

Bruce Lee Chi Sao

Chi sao

Trapping HIA CRA

Hand Immobilisation Attack

Close Range Arts

The arts we apply at trapping range from the HIA ref point,
and done from hubud.

locks
dumog
sweeps
Tai Chi
HKE
kinamutai
shime
HIA
tomiki

Kinamutai - biting

Kina is a complete art in it's own right - one of the Filipino Martial Arts.

There are various ways to bite in combat.
For now we only want to concern ourselves with the basic few.

In CRA, at clinch bite ear or nose.
Bite face
In Last Resort life or death bite his throat

On the ground in Mount or Guard, same kina

If caught in rear choke, "sweetcorn" the forearm

Juji - "steak out" the leg muscle

headlock - "steak out" the torso - flank or pec

Shime - chokes

At the basic level we start with two:

The Sleeper
Rear naked choke
Lion killer

and

The guillotine

it is important to know the guilloine defence

the best sleeper defence is Sweetcorn

if the geezer is wearing a gi we employ 2 versions of okuri eri jime, the sliding collar choke, and kata ha jime, the shoulder version, creating a total of 5 in the set:

sleeper
guillotine
okuri eri
henka
kata ha jime

Tomiki

The atemi of Tomiki aikido are not strikes the way atemi are in JJ - they are another form of throw/projection/takedown.

Shomen ate
Aigamae ate
Gyaku gamae ate
Gedan ate
Ushiro ate

the second two link to irimi nage
the fourth links to TC mane push

HIA Trapping

Traps as they occur in Wing Chun and Jun Fan, but not limited to even those arts. HIA becomes a progressive art in it's own right.

lop sao
lo jao sao
double pak sao
pak lop
crush bi, wrench, 13, head

double IJ
pak, punch - hi lo hi
pak, dte

trap to thai clinch

Tai Chi combat push

Once past the hands with a trap, apply a TC push from the mid section of the short form:

push
ward off
stroke mane

HKE

Once past the hands and take the head, use HKE:

Headbutt
Knee
Elbow

the 3 most barbaric tools on the human body.

The Termination phase of RAT

Foot sweeps

At kickboxing range we use sweeps from karate
At Vertical Grappling range we use sweeps from Jujutsu
At trapping range, in hubud, we use sweeps from silat

the primary 3:

Lead outside
from elbow ref

Lead inside
from double pak sao

rear inside
from pak lop

Dumog

Filipino grappling method.

5 basic dumog:

forearm drag inside
outside
push
pull
head ref

Elbow locks

Hiji waza

the main 5:

ikkyo - oshi taoshi
ude gaeshi
hiki taoshi
ude hineri
waki gatame

appendix:
oni kudaki

Wrist Locks

Tebuki waza

The main 5:

kote gaeshi
nikkyo
sankyo
tenkai kote gaeshi - shiho nage
tenkai kote hineri - sankyo

from eri in kihon happo:
ura gyaku

from WC ref:
kote hineri

Close Range Arts

The arts we apply at trapping range from the HIA ref point,
and done from hubud.

locks
dumog
sweeps
Tai Chi
HKE
kinamutai
shime
HIA
tomiki

The Fork

In Chess the Fork is an offensive move that attacks 2 pieces simultaneously.

In the example here the white pawn is attacking both the black knight and bishop at the same time. If the knight moves away he will take the bishop and vice versa.

In kickboxing we use the fork with the savate fouette.

On a regular SDA you would enter, chamber and then attack the head or attack the leg.
On a fork PIA you chamber to the mid level, the median.
If the opponent guards the head, attack the leg.
If he guards the leg, attack the head.

Now try combining forks into ABCs of 2, 3 or even 4.

Speed no longer becomes a factor - you can spar at 50% or even 25% speed and still land those kicks - if you use PIA forks.

The same goes for grappling newaza.

Don't just SDA armbars, leglocks and chokes, PIA them, fork them.
Again, you can move as slow as 25% on the ground and still get the tap
- if you use PIA forks.

Now try it in the other phases of sparring:
boxing
chi sao
Judo
stickfighting

it won't be long before everyone you spar says
"I just can't catch that forker!"

Ali Quarry 2

Some of Ali's best work was in his second match with Jerry Quarry.

The fight ends with a fast jab followed by a RU-H ABC.



Reminds me of the Bruce Lee Chuck Norris match in WOTD.

Ali dancing footwork

The opening round of the Williams match again, this time to showcase his movement.

the comments are well worth listening to

2 more Bruce Lee fights scenes.

These are both unarmed and against karate men.

Look out for HIA, TC push, kina def against armbar and morote gari td.

Bruce Lee fight scenes

Check out these 2 scenes from Way Of The Dragon and Fist Of Fury.

Although they are coreographed movie fights they are the best way to see Bruce's movement, technique and athleticism.

Many of the concepts of JKD can be seen here - footwork, angles, changing of levels, timing, interception, multiple opponents, weapons, defanging, etc.






Most important of all, use these clips to study his footwork and movement - then compare them to Ali - and Fred Astaire!

Was Ali The Greatest?

Frazier beats Ali
Norton beats Ali

Foreman beats Frazier
Foreman beats Frazier again
Foreman beats Norton

Ali beats Foreman

Ali beats Frazier
Ali beats Frazier again
Ali beats Norton
Ali beats Norton again

you do the math :)

Foreman - Frazier - Norton

George Foreman - power and pressure

Foreman v Frazier 1:
Foreman's power and pressure is too much for Frazier.
Frazier goes down 6 times before the round 2 TKO.




Foreman v Norton:
Norton's unorthodox style and defence holds Foreman back for a while but in round 2 Norton's defence collases under the power and pressure of Foremans attack:




Foreman v Ali:
this footage is available in an earlier post further down the blog.
It was Ali who found a style of counter attack that successfully defended Foreman's power and pressure in attack just as it did with Liston.
Untouchable, Ali was able to set up the KO on Foreman.

Foreman v Frazier 2:

Martial Arts Croydon Caterham Surrey England Self Defence Street Fighting Urban Combat

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Pure Scientific Street Fighting
Filipino Martial Arts
Thai Martial Arts
Jun Fan Martial Arts
Integrated Grappling Arts

Our curriculum includes training methods from the following Fighting Systems:

Street Fighting . Self Defence. Urban Combat . Threat Response
Kali . Eskrima . Arnis . Stick. Knife . Empty hand
Krai Krabong. Muay Thai boxing
Combat Karate
Jun Fan . Wing Chun
Boxing . Savate Boxe Francais
Grappling . Wrestling . Judo . Jujutsu. Dumog

Our system is currently taught to Police Officers, Door Supervisors,
Prison Officers and Security personnel

Learn from a 6th degree Black Belt with over 30 years experience

New training sessions now in Caterham (Over 18s)

Coulsdon Road, Caterham CR3

Monday 8 to 10 pm Wednesday 8 to 10 pm

£5 a session

email: ShiroToraTiger@yahoo.co.uk
website: ShiroToraTiger.blogspot.com

Practical, Realistic and Effective Street Self Defence

Martial Arts Croydon Caterham Surrey England Self Defence Street Fighting Urban Combat

64 hexagrams as kali drills

Now if you really want to take it that far you can learn each of the 64 drills as a hexagram.

eg:
hex 1 is heaven-heaven, called Force
hex 2 is earth-earth, called Field

(yes, you could even chain them and create a drill called Force Field)

hex 3 is thunder-water, called Sprouting
hex 15 is mountain-earth called Humbling

8 trigrams as Kali drills

When we drill hi hi hi we call it Heaven 6.
Lo lo lo is earth.

It is then possible to name the rest of the drills after the trigrams

HLH - standard - would be Fire
LHL would be water
HLL would be Lake
etc

HHH - heaven
HHL - wind
HLL - lake
HLH - fire

LHH - thunder
LHL - water
LLH - mountain
LLL - earth


you will notice the deliberation of opposites:

fire and water is obvious
as is heaven and earth

wind, substance without sound vs thunder, sound without substance is more subtle

The I Ching in Kali

An STMA innovaion is to apply the Chinese I Ching to the Filipino Martial Arts.
We do this in 6 count sinawalli.

The Heaven symbol being the unbroken single line for High Heaven strike
The Earth symbol being the broken double line for the Low Earth Strike

HHH - heaven
HHL
HLL
HLH - standard

LHH
LHL - * - the fourth variation
LLH
LLL - earth


we now have 8 drills:

HHH
HHL
HLL
HLH

LHH
LHL
LLH
LLL

the next phase is to split the count in half.

In Heaven 6 you would do HHH then HHH.
What you do in "64" is mix and match.
So you do HHH then HLH
or HHH then LLL
etc
After HHH on the left there are 8 possible trips to do on the right.

Then you go to HHL and do the same, each with 8 answers.

This gives a total of 64 possible combinations, which match the 64 hexagrams in the I Ching.

Or for those with a mathematical or computing mind binary to base 8 to hex.

I ching

Debate

Learning a Martial Art is like learning a language.

The first thing you learn is words, single words, the shape of the letters, how to spell them correctly.

After a while you have gained enough words to begin talking with people.
Then you can debate with them.
Then you can win arguments.

Having a large vocabulary is not enough.
You need to take the words you learn and string them into sentences.

No single word is powerful enough to win an argument by itself.
You need the right combination of words to form the sentences you need to express your point.

These sentences give you the power to attack and counter your opponent in the debate.

Here is a clip from Pulp Fiction, the debate between Jules and Vincent regarding Foot massage.
Each opponent attacks using his words to form sentences to make an argument.
Attack and counter.

"Yes it is"
"No it's not"
"Yes it is"
"No it's not"

Neither side can get the advantage.

Then Vincent makes the point "would you give a guy a foot massage?"
This is the killer blow, the choke that locks in and Jules "taps out".

The conversation goes on a bit after this point, but Jules has already lost and Vincent just uses the rest of the "match" to elaborate his argument with no counter from Jules.

The conversation ends when Jules concedes "that's an interesting point".



Apply Vincent's game in this debate to your boxing, kb, stickfight, wrestling, grappling.

The 3 goals

There are 3 goals to each training session:

#1 – Each student must get a great workout
#2 - Each student must learn something
#3 – Each student must have fun

Fred Astaire

Probably not what you'd expect to see following a series of clips that have included Mike Tyson, Ali, Bruce Lee, the Dog Brothers and Rickson Gracie.

When Dan Inosanto was asked if there was anyone, ever, who had better footwork than Bruce Lee his answer was "Fred Astaire".

Master John Lacoste is recognised as maybe having the greatest footwork of any escrimador ever. Again, if asked if there was anyone who could match Master Lacoste's footwork combined with the way he worked his stick the answer would be "Fred Astaire".

Watch these classic Fred Astaire clipss and you will see:
bursting forward and backward,
traversing laterally,
dropping elevation,
twisting,
pivoting,
breaking rhythm
male triangles,
female triangles,
upper and lower canines
replacements

Rickson Gracie

Rickson had a fight career of 400 fights, all wisn, no losses.
Many of those fights were on the streets of Brazil, pavement fights, not cage or ring.



300 of those fights Rickson won with the sleeper choke - hadaka jime - or the Gracie name for it "The Lion Killer".



Just as Tyson won a huge majority of his boxing matches with the rear uppercut, Rickson won with his choke. Though the range, phase and technique are completely different what they are doing is the same thing. Exactly the same thing. Think about it.

Muay Thai in Thailand

It's a lot more brutal over there

Savate vs Muay Thai

2 fight clips

Taekwondo vs Kickboxing

Kickboxer in shorts
TKD in gi pants

A great example of why the KB spin backfist is so deadly when used at the right time
How, why and when!

Muay Thai Vs Boxing

For contrast here is a fight between a thai boxer and a western boxer, a hands only fighter.

Thai boxer has punches and also has
leg kix
head kix
knees
which the boxer couldn't deal with

TKD v Muay Thai

Note the thai boxer does not use HKE or any face punches

Olympic Tae Kwon Do

To clarify some of the points brought up in Goose's diary convos, here is footage of Olympic TKD matches 2008

Full contact stick fighting - the fights and the injuries

This is a clip of full contact fights at DB meets - this is all REAL.

At the end there is footage of the injuries sustained by some who participate.

It's done a bit Jack-ass style so all injuies are taken in good humour.

Stick fighting sparring armour

Clip of dojo stick sparring - single stick, full armour.

Armour - as well as glove and men helmet students are wearing elbow pads, knee pads and shin guards. Sometimes thigh protection.

Boxing - George Foreman

Big George was one of the most powerful punchers of all time - in his early career a living, walking example of First Rule, as can be seen in the first part of this clip



He was, of course, not unbeatable, as Ali proved, and later Young.

The latter part of the clip sees him talking about him finding faith and become a minister.

Jeet Kune Do

Wing Chun
Boxing
(fencing concept)
Savate

Kali
Muay Thai
Jujutsu
Wrestling

Absorb what is useful
Discard what is useless
Add what is specifically your own

The truth is outside all fixed patterns

Using no way as way, having no limitation as limitation

It's just a name, don't fuss over it

Bruce Lee fight scenes

These are movie fights but the skills are real.

Bruce's use of savate, boxing and Wing Chun is showcased here.

fight against Chuck Norris from Way Of The Dragon




v O Hara in Enter The Dragon

Savate clips

savate training session




savate fight footage

Muay Thai clips

Thai KO:


Thai match clips:

Ali and middleweights

When comparing fighters you cannot compare Ali to any other heavyweight.
He is unique. No other fighter in that weight class could move the way he did or punch so fast. We need to compare Ali to middleweights and the other lighter divisions to find another similar fighter.

The first obvious one is Sugar Ray Robinson



The second, more modern example is Roy Jones Jr



Both these fighters had style and class and, like Ali, were real showmen.
RJJ used to taunt his opponents, dominating mentally as well as physically.
And in many ways RJJ like is a lighter Tyson.

Ali savate

Watch the posted vids of Ali's style:

footwork
upper body evasion
lightning fast jab
fast punches and quick combinations
long looping left hook

Now look at savate:

long fast fouette round kicks
kicks that land high and low, all levels with stinging precison
fast kick combinations

If Ali was a kickboxer he would be a savateur.

After applying Ali's counter-attack style in the boxing phase on pads and in sparring, apply his style to your savate phase.

Rumble, young tiger, rumble.

Tyson Thai boxing

Watch the posted vids of Tyson's style:

power and forward pressure
close range punches to head and body
close range combinations

Now look at Muay Thai:

powerful punches
knees to body both long and clinch
lo powerful hacking leg kicks

If Tyson was a kickboxer he would be a Thai boxer.

After applying Tyson's attack style in the boxing phase on pads and in sparring, apply his style to your Thai phase.

Muhammad Ali vs Cleveland Williams

One of Ali's greatest fights. We see here his speed, his fast jab, his footwork, and his upper body evasiveness. But most of all we see, for the first time, his explosive punching power, with both hands.

In round 1 he is all evasive and speedy.

In round 2 he is explosive, putting Williams down 3 times.

In round 3 Ali wins by TKO.

This is Ali's 7th title defence since he won the belt from Liston almost 3 years befoe.

Ali is in his prime and absolute best here, in November 1966 aged 24



Ali had two more successful title defences before being stripped of the belt in April 1967.

Boxing

This is Western boxing, hands only fighting.

The main tools are:
Jab, Cross, Hook, Uppercut

The target is the head, the purpose is the knockout.

With lead and rear hooks and uppercuts, this generates 6 basic punches. You learn and practice these on the pads, then try them out in sparring.

Drilling is progressive:

Basic punches - the "big 6"
Defences
Attack combinations
Defensive combinations
Sparring



FWA - Five ways of attack

SDA - Lo jab and cross
ABD - Attack by drawing - draw lo punch and counter hi
PDA - Progressive Indirect Attack - fake lo hit hi
ABC - Attack by combination - app of focus pad drills

HIA - hand immobilisation attack - trapping in boxing


FWD - 5 ways of defence

parry
evade - slip, roll, duck, bob and weave, snapback
block (constantine)

distance - step back and return

interception

Muay Thai - the 3 Thai "kata"

Thai drills - 3 "Thai Kata"

Obviously Thai drills start on the Thai pads.

We have a couple of long ABCs, which are like Japanese budo kata, which means something different from Okinawan and karate meaning of kata.

Along with the Krabi drill, these are important "kata" for the learning of Muay Thai

All members need to know these 3 "Thai kata"

Punch kata:
Jab, cross, Hook, Elbow, Knee, double dte

henka:
Jab, cross, elbow, elbow, Knee, double dte

Kick kata:
Push kick, round kick, knee, clinch 2 knees, 2 elbows, kradot knee

Krabi:
5 step drill

4 endings:
strike with round kick,
kradot strike,
power strike,
double strike and push kick

Muay Thai - Thai boxing

With KB we have taken our drilling mainly from karate and boxing.

Thai boxing takes training methods from Muay Thai, a different MA.

This involves the use of the knee, and training on the Thai pads.


Thai CRA

In the kb we play the Thai knee phase.

In Thai, there is knee sparring where you tie up and fight with just knees, which is an important phase of Thai and a great skill in itself. If the opponent goes to the floor in knee spar, in Thai you break.

In MMA, VT or Street, you would follow in with a strike - a drop knee or kick.

The Thai "throw" is called a "thum" and is a very effective throw for VT or the street.


Thai pad ABCs

Jab, Cross
Double kao
Double dte
J,C,H, Dte, kao
J, C, salute, H, Kao


J, C, dte
C, sok
H, sok
c, kao
tiip, C, H, C


We drill the Thai dte to the leg then arm - "thigh and bi".
We drill the tiip to the body
We drill the "rainbow" kick which sits between.

We drill these in lines, on the pads, then bring out in sparring.

For knees we use the gum sao style block, drill pads, then in sparring court the "set up" clinch and use knees.

After a while the use of knees in sparring become automatic.

The Power Kick

I have demonstrated this in class a few times, so I'm going to break it down for easy reference.

This is a description of the plyometric components of the round kick.

1. The step

2. The hip

3. The thigh

4. The calf

Practice each of these 4 components as show, then add them together for aggregate power. Develop on pads and maybe bag.

In combat we are looking to land this kick to the outside of the attacker's thigh to drop him to the floor and immobilise him.

Stick fighting

This involves the skills built in the stick drills from Kali, Eskrima, Silat, and Krabi Krabong.

Like Kendo, we spar in armour.

Strikes are made to:

men - helmet
Do - body, though we also include the arms in stick
kote - wrists

Sune - we also strike to shins and knee - this is not done in standard kendo sparring, but it is done with naginata

We then remove the body armour.

We then remove the gloves

We then spar with just a fencing mask to protect the teeth and eyes (and nose for those of you who haven't had a break yet)

We also spar nunchaku - with the foam chucks, though in armour we can use rattan chux.

FMA - Filipino Martial Arts

At STMA we tap the FMA for the core of our wepons training. These systems have unarmed combat that is drawn directly from the weapons training, which makes them unique in MA.

Kali-Eskrima

The core art. Kali is a blade art while Eskrima is a stick art. As we train with stix, there is not much obvious difference between Kali and Eskrima at the lower levels.

K-E is seperated into sub-systems.

Sinawalli - fighting with two sticks. This is done at the long or largo range.

Serrada - close range single stick art that moves through the ranges of largo, medio and corto.

Largo Mano - long range stick. Often done with the longer 3 foot stick. Builds to longer weapons including sword, staff and spear.

Kadena de mano - knife and hand art - drills include knife to knife, knife to hand, and hand to hand. The hand to hand combat develops from the knife drilling.

Pekiti tersia
One of the Filipino knife systems I trained in extensively which has some great drills relative to kadena de mano and knife training and defence.


Unarmed combat systems:

Panatukan
Filipino boxing, developed from kadena de mano. Has much more use of trapping and destruction than Western boxing. Fills the ground between boxing and Wing Chun. If you are having trouble making your traps work in boxing phase, panatukan has the answers. The knife defence training makes the boxing much more sensitive and effective.

Sikaran
Filipino kickboxing, similar to Muay Thai but much more evasive and sneaky.

Pananjakman
The art of low line kicking, similar to kempo, atemijutsu or koshijutsu. A training phase, becomes an art in it's own right at a higher level.


I don't want to overload you by thinking there are lots of different arts to learn. Quite the opposite - we may well only use 10% of an art like panatukan at a certain level, but we will use it to bridge the gap between boxing and Wing chun and knife to empty hand.

At the higher levels you can start to learn the differences between these different systems.

The Straight Blast

The Straight Blast.
Jik Chun Choy.

Taken from Wing Chun, after the entry phase, whether a WC entry, slip and jab from boxing, or Kali nerve destruction, we launch a chain of straight punches to the opponent's centreline as we drive forwards.

Power and pressure.

According to Bruce Lee, this technique turns "martial artists" into pedestrians.

From belt up we are doing Wing Chun.
From the belt down we are using the driving footwork of Krabi - or thinking outside the MA box, we are doing the 100m sprint from athletics track and field.

Longest weapon to closest target

This is a Combat Concept.

It means what it says:

Use your low lead kick to hit the opponent's leg as he steps into range.

Use your lead jab to his face, or eye jab to the eye as he moves in.

Best seen by in savate's bas kicks and boxing's jab.

Ali victories

Ali greatest victories were against Liston and Foreman.
Both men were undefeated, had never been knocked down, and were feared for their close range power.

Ali v Liston:
When the young Clay challenged Liston for the title, nobody gave him a chance.
Ali beat him and took the title.
In the re-match, Ali put Liston down for the first time in his career.

See footage here:
http://whitetigermartialarts.blogspot.com/2011/01/ali-v-liston.html


Ali v Foreman:
In the case of Foreman, he had won 2nd round KOs against both Frazier and Norton.
Both Frazier and Norton had previously gone the distance with Ali and beaten him.
Nobody, on paper, gave Ali a chance against Big George.
Ali completely outboxed Foreman and took his title at The Rumble In The Jungle.

See Ali-Foreman footage here:
http://whitetigermartialarts.blogspot.com/2011/01/ali-ko-foreman-rumble-in-jungle.html

Ali v Tyson:
A match we never got to see but would all probably have liked to.
Having seen the way Ali took care of Liston and Foreman how do you think he would have handled Tyson?

Marco Ruas

Marco Ruas - "The King of the Streets".

One of the first Vale Tudo fighters and one of the best of all time.
First UFC appearence in UFC 7, which he won.
The first fighter to properly cross train Thai boxing and striking styles with the grappling styles and founded what is today called "MMA"

Marco highlight reel:




Marco v Pat Smith.
Marco gets him with the heel hook just as Shamrock did

The Mount

In UFC 1 Royce "fought" a boxer.
The boxer's strategy was to wear a glove on his jabbing hand so he didn't hurt his bare fist with all the jabs he would land.
Royce closes the gap and gets the boxer to the mat and then mounts.
The boxer taps before Royce applies a lock or choke.



If you achieve the Mount and can stay there the man on the bottom is beaten even before you make him submit.

Punching in KB

Those who have studied this K1 KO montage clip will have noticed the high porportions of boxing used and the KOs done with a punch

http://whitetigermartialarts.blogspot.com/2010/12/kickboxing-kos.html

When a KO kick happens it is usually with a Thai round kick, either the classic dte or "rainbow" version, with the "knuckle" of the shin.

There are a couple of occasions where the foot is used for a KO.

We also see Thai leg kicks and the occasional knee.

Something to think about.

Ali KO Foreman The Rumble In The Jungle

Ali KO Foreman round 8
The Rumble In The Jungle


The KO in slo-mo



The Rumble In The Jungle:








and finally the fight as depicted in the Will Smith film.
Again, a bit of an indulgence but it so well done it's worth watching for a different perspective

Ali v Frazier

With 3 epic fights between Ali and Frazier we'll load the footage over time to allow students to take it in progressively.

Ali vs. Frazier I 1971 - The Fight Of The Century (part1)

also known as "Smokin Joe's Finest Hour"

Frazier bobs and weaves to avoid Ali's fast jab and powerful hook while going for Ali's body with his own hooks.




Joe Frazier -vs- Muhammad Ali II 1/28/74 (abc) part 1

The Rematch

Ai v Norton

Ali fought Norton 3 times.
Norton's unorthodox style gave Ali more problems than perhapa anybody in their first match when Noro beat him. By the second match Ali was dominant.

Fight footage is available broken into several sections over the three matches, and will be uploaded soon.

Muhammad ALI -VS- Ken Norton II 9/10/73 part 1

Ali v Liston

Ali KOs Liston with what became known as the "phantom punch" in their rematch.


Here is HD slow mo we can see what really happened:



Ali-Liston 1 1964


pt 2


pt 3


pt 4
as Liston didn't come out for round 7 there actually isn't a part 4

Here is the Ali-Liston first fight as depicted in the Will Smith film.
This is a bit of an indulgence as it isn't "real", but it's so well done and gives an interesting perspective, so we'll add it here - and it's a bit of fun


{more fight footage to follow}

Ali

The Greatest.

Ali was only put down 3 times in his prime - each time by a left hook:
Henry Cooper
Joe Frazier
Ken Norton
(the Wepner fight was Ali slipping, Wepner never put him down)

Ali wins title from Liston
beat him in rematch
Ali 2 - Liston 0

Ali has title taken away from him.

Ali lost his title match against champion Frazier at "The Fight Of The Century"
Frazier lost to Foreman before Ali could rematch - 2nd round KO
Ali went ahead with Frazier match and beat him

Ali loses to Norton
Norton breaks Ali's jaw in the process
Ali has rematch - wins

Norton challenges Foreman - Norton KO'd in second round

Ali fights Foreman and wins title at "The Rumble In The Jungle"
Ali 1 - Foreman 0

Ali has third match with Frazier, wins again - "The Thriller in Manila"
Ali 2 - Frazier 1

Ali Norton 3 - Ali wins
Ali 2 - Norton 1

Ali loses title to Leon Spinks
Rematch - Ali wins title back
Ali has won the title 3 times
Ali retires

In 1980 Ali comes out of retirement to challenge champion Larry Holmes, but loses.

1981 Ali's last fight is against Trevor Berbick.

Ali's record was 56 wins (37 KO), 5 losses, 0 draws.

Most people agree Ali never should have lost to Spinks.
He should never have come out of retirement against Holmes and Berbick.
Had this been the case, Ali would have logged only 2 losses - Norton and Frazier.
His wins would have been 56 after Spinks, 57 if he had still done the rematch.

Brutal UFC KO

Crucifix and multiple elbow

UFC Remco Judo UFC2

Remco Pardoel, huge Judo man fights Orlando Weit, Thai World Champion UFC2.
Clinch happens early with no Thai kicks or punches thrown and goes to the floor with no knees.
Remco performs a variation of makikomi.
On the ground he fails to get the kesa gatame or a lock and finishes with elbow strikes. Interestingly he abandons all Judo newaza and finishes the Thai fighter with a Thai move.




Royce vs Remco.
Royce gets the td, takes the back, gets the choke.
Remcos size, strength and huge weight advantage count for nothing against Royce's superior skill and technique.

Royce Gracie - Ken Shamrock UFC1

A now classic match.
Similar to the Shamrock-Smith match, Ken ends up in Royce's Guard and goes for the leglock. Royce however rides up, and manages not to get in Shamrock's own guard.
As Shamrock turns to kneel, Royce keeps his hook in and gains a choke.

Royce Gracie v Smith UFC2

The Final of UFC 2 sees Royce defeat Pat Smith by a ground n pound

Shamrock v Smith UFC1

Smith establishes Guard but Shamrock breaks it and goes for the achilles before progressing to the ankle lock to get the submission.

Pat Smith v Scott Morris UFC 2

An early example of Mount and ground n pound

UFC

The early UFCs were based on the Vale Tudo matches in Brazil where "anything goes" and "the rules are there are no rules".

Rorion Gracie's original vision was an open contest where any fighter from any background could face any other fighter with no time limit, no weight category, no protection, no rules.

What is now called MMA today, as can be seen in modern UFC among other events, had it's origins in this brutal Vale Tudo.

Have a look at some of the early UFC matches that have a great significance on the way everyone trains and fights today.