2015/09/29: The Replacement Step, "Drop Kicking," Footwork

It's so interesting for me to see what everyone says about footwork, and how convinced they all are of how right they are. I think at the end of the day, I've realized that everyone's footwork is catered to what they want to do. The EnterShaolin guys and Bruce Lee want their lead leg to be able to be lifted to kick, and also they want to "hide" their weight so that it cannot be exploited, so they keep their weight back. The EnterShaolin guys advocate a 10/90 cat stance, while Bruce Lee favors a more traditional Wing Chun 30/70 or 35/65 stance.

Lyoto Machida favors a 50/50 stance because it is a compromise. Jack Dempsey favors 80/20 in the lead leg to use the drop step, but there is little resistance to pulls. However, that wasn't really something you had to worry about in boxing. So the forward weight is really good for aggressiveness, and the backward weight is really good for defensiveness. Weight on the heels is good for rooting and power, weight on the toes is great for mobility and evasion. Phu's idea of an Anchor leg and Weight leg is interesting in non-symmetric distributions, however in a horse stance, both legs are both things I guess.

Anyway, I've been thinking about a move called the replacement step. (JKD Rocker shuffle?) It is somewhat athletic in its execution, but not that much. Suppose I want to launch a kick with my forward leg, but all of my weight is in my front leg. I cannot lift that front leg unless I shift my weight elsewhere. So what I will do is use the bound spring principle to lift my front leg, be temporarily falling, and my back leg will land exactly where my front leg was, and since my center of gravity did not move, I should still be in the same place in balance, with my lead leg in the air. This can be used backwards to resist sudden pushes as well. The key is to not move the center of gravity, but only the legs until they are set. THEN you can do body shift or whatnot to attack/defend.

A "drop kick" is a maneuver I made up based on the falling step for punching, but with the legs. It is a VERY low line attack, usually for knees or below, (usually shins, insteps, ankles, toes). The idea is you load the front leg...and then you pick it up, just like you would for a punch, but you just drop all that weight into whatever it is you're attacking with your foot. Cutting shin slides seem good. I'm pretty flexible so I could do this to the side of their knees...

2015/09/28: A Lot of Pain, Rooting, Different Uses

Today was...a lot of pain. But also a lot of hard earned lessons. So, to start off, I went to the Academy and we did a lot of double underhook pass prevention, which was cool. I need to practice my left backroll apparently haha. Sparring was pretty fun, I can definitely tell I got a lot better because I have absolutely no problem manhandling people that are my weight. It's nice that I always spar against people heavier than me, because lighter people are not much of a challenge. Except Adrian that kid is squirmy LOL.

Sparred with Rashid, the dude who almost ripped my shoulder off. Learned some valuable lessons; need to find better ways to tie their arms up and rest. Though I took the hits okay.

Anyway, Judo was the interesting part. I pushed myself to do the class even though I was somewhat tired and my body was somewhat complaining. But I got through it. Got thrown a LOT haha, a couple times on my right side, which I wasn't used to.

So then during the throw-everyone-in-your-group-5-times drill, there was this short blue belt girl (who's kinda cute...LOL not gonna do anything though), and she had to throw me 5 times. And because she was so short, when she threw me, I wasn't very high off of the ground. Which meant not a lot of time to flip over...and WHAM. Landed right on my kidney. The part that fucking hurts haha. At least I'll get better at ukemi.

Then, during sparring, I got Uchi Mata'd in the balls. They actually had to do the resuscitation on me LOL. Also, same guy kneed me in the jaw, but I think that'll be okay. The side of my head slightly hurts, but I can think just fine so it's all good.

I held him (200+ lb black belt!) in Kesa Gatame and he couldn't get out! HE COULDN'T GET OUT! :O Also he had a hard time getting out of my Kami Shiho Gatame. He had to brute force it haha.

Anyway, so what I discovered sparring with Yuki Sensei was that so long as I rooted, he couldn't sweep either of my feet off of the ground. But what stability cost me was mobility. If I wanted to attack, I had to become either light, or dump all of my weight into one foot so that at least part of me was light. However, keeping all of my weight over my OWN base, and not trusting him with any of it was the best result. He's not really letting me anymore, so it was hard for me to get him, but I will steal his circling tactics. He circles away from the side (complete the circle) of my lead leg (or attacking leg), so it is really hard for me to make an attack. Angles, angles, angles!

Tip: When doing Ippon Seoi Nages, or any hip throw in general, turn your head in the direction of your throw. I'm guessing this is for spinal alignment reasons. Also, high collar grab and pull the slack out! You know why though.

So I guess it has become this game of knowing when to use what. Which makes a lot of sense. Be able to adapt your tools to the situation.

I lost my "move from your center" wristband today, so I'll have to work on that. The few times I did though, a TON of effortless power. I'll try being more loose.

2015/09/27: Baguazhang

I've been playing around with Baguazhang. I decided to learn Circle Walking and the first set, and so far it's been pretty interesting. The movements seem quite cool, I'm working on reading the classics. Moving from my center is going well. The hand movements are a bit confusing (as is with any form), but I am managing. The idea of evasion is so amazing...but so difficult.

2015/09/26: Ego, Internal Power, The "New" Strategy

I got up this morning to go to class at the Gracie Academy. It's been a while since I've done the Saturday class since I suck at getting up, but since I've been on a schedule that prioritizes getting up early because of school, it wasn't too terribly difficult.

So I'm doing great during the technique portion in the class...as usual...I have little to no difficulty learning the moves. My kinesthetic learning ability is pretty good, considering I spent years of my life working exclusively on that.

But then we get to the sparring...and we were doing this drill where one person gets a cross grip on someone, and then the goal is for the cross gripper to sweep the other guy or take his back. (Roleto vs Saulo comes to mind) The first round with Nick was pretty cool, I couldn't sweep him, I just went back to guard and then we played around for a bit until he passed, and then I defended for a very long time. He ended up catching me, but whatever.

Then I went with a two-stripe blue belt, but I couldn't do anything to him. Probably because my style is very reliant on the other person's energy, otherwise I just stay there and wait because I'm in a chill position. But he wouldn't let me do anything to him, he just lay there, and then really exerted himself later on. I don't know why, but I felt myself start to get angry. Whether it was because I wanted to spar, but didn't get to, because he kept wanting to do that little drill over and over again, or whether it was because I couldn't sweep him, I don't know. But I was legitimately starting to get a little upset, and I knew, in my head, that this was bad and that I had to let it go, and I kind of did, but meh...I guess not every round can be as insightful as I'd like it to be.

Then I went with this other guy who was oodles of fun, so I guess that makes up for it. But I wish I didn't have such a big ego. I wish I didn't hate losing so much. At least I learn a lot from it.

So I went to Scott's house, after reading about Jing yesterday, and tried a lot of it, mainly just Fa Jing for now. Or straight up explosive force, but I'm keeping it very light and very flowy since I don't want to hurt myself, and I'm keeping my body as loose as possible. It's pretty cool, I can really feel my qi, whether it's visualization or not, I can really see the change in power. I move from my center, the six harmonies align, and I launch the power out of me, leaving none of it in my body. I actually knocked the punching bag down from the ceiling when I was practicing body up...

So that's cool. I practiced all my boxing combos smooth and relaxed, like a Taiji form, and let my qi flow, which was cool. I felt way better after. Moving from my center. That's key! In fact, I got a wristband to remind myself to move from the center on a daily basis, all the time.

Anyway, the new strategy is to train both leads, and get equally good on both leads. That way, I can switch to Southpaw and not worry about it, and this will save me significant need to move, so I won't need to be as mobile.

2015/09/24: Chinese Boxing, Confusion (and lots of it)

I am a Taiwanese man. I mean technically we are the true China (since we brought all of the Cultural practices and relics with us when we fled, and the communists destroyed all of it), but since they want to be called China, then I guess we'll keep calling ourselves Taiwanese.

Regardless of that, my roots are still Chinese. My ancestors (most, some were aboriginies I think) crossed the Taiwan Strait from Fujian during the Qing Dynasty in the late 1600's/early 1700's. In fact, I come from a line of scholars who directly served the Emperor. (On my mother's side)

I love my rich heritage and its over 4,000 years of history. I love everything Asian. I am proud to be Asian, never once in my entire life have I ever wished that I was white. I love being Chinese. (As in Republic of China, not the People's Republic of China)

Yet in the eyes of the entire world, we are viewed as the sick men of Asia, in almost every respect. And in almost every respect, we are shunned, discriminated against, and called bullshitters and liars - particularly in the Martial Arts world.

Don't get me wrong, I'm sure a lot of it is bullshit, but I think it's more that 1)all of the masters died during the Boxer Rebellion and the Communist Revolution, 2)more people are getting better at fighting; the average skill level has improved significantly with Bruce Lee's movies in the 1970's that sparked the Kung Fu craze, 3)styles are starting to mix because of globalization, 4)the traditional idea that the Master should always hold something back, and finally 5), the lack of modernization.

These styles of Martial Arts have existed thousands of years, so I'm sure their methodologies must work. I want to learn something that is authentically Chinese and make it work. Now I know I've said a lot about not being a style, and I never really got to clarify on that. It might seem like I am contradicting myself, but there are inherent differences in Western and Eastern fighting, particularly in that of the methodologies. We all punch kick and grapple, but the ideas that govern it are slightly different, as well as the body mechanics. Westerners like to rely on muscle, whereas Easterners like to use as little muscle as possible.

I want a template, however, that is authentically Chinese, and I want to use it to grow myself and develop that individual style that I have always talked about. But just like how I am a Chinese/Taiwanese man, the style that manifests in me should end up being a Chinese/Taiwanese thing. And it probably will be, regardless of what I learn, but I want the reassurance lol. I want so badly to show people that we can fight too, that we are not the sick men of Asia.

There is a longstanding prejudice against the Chinese, subtle and unseen, that I have felt my entire life. It's still there. America didn't stop its racism. It just stopped talking about it. And I want to change that, in one small way or another.

Now, onto confusion. Remember when I said that I wanted a simple answer and simple theories that would just explain everything? Well, for some reason I searched for it again. And I just ended up more confused than I ever had been before.

Which is usually what happens.

2015/09/22: Perception, Wing Chun, "Surprised," Homework for the Week

Today I went for a walk with an old mentor of mine (in music, particularly Trumpet and Piano), Jesse. And as we walked, he was pointing out things that I either noticed or did not pay attention to, or did not notice at all. The entire time, he was carrying out a conversation with. So either one of two things was going on; either he was barely paying attention to the conversation and his mind was all over the place, or he just has such an acute passive awareness that he registers literally EVERYTHING.

I'm quite certain it was the second, since he was carrying out a conversation with me the whole time. Interesting. I am certain it was part of his art training, but I am starting to understand why samurai were so obsessed with art. And many other martial artists, for that matter.

Also, Nathan, a guy from my Judo Club, asked me if I wanted to train Wing Chun under one of the other guys in the Club, named Peter. I said sure, and made some adjustments in my schedule to check it out, and I am so glad that I did. I have not felt a Pak Sau with full body power like that in years. He had me do a lot of drills right leg forward, which I wasn't used to (WHICH IS GOOD, IMPROVEMENT! :D), but I was starting to get back into the groove. My sensitivity is all still there; I actually accidentally hit my training partner in the face a couple times because his hand left the centerline and I felt kind of bad lol. The sifu told me it was okay though. (He was a student of Hawkins for who knows how long)

But man, this guy is the real deal, I can tell just by the way he moves and the ideas he was throwing around. He is trying to teach us old man's Wing Chun, which is very contradictory to the use your structure and run them the hell over approach I learned, or my current boxing style, which is still quite economical, but uses SOME muscle (that I am trying to replace with internal power). The style of Wing Chun I am being taught however, uses almost exclusively the other guy's power, as well as dead weight. It's quite impressive.

After that I gunned it to the Gracie Academy, and thankfully I was only like 15 or so minutes late. We reviewed the guard stuff that we did yesterday, so that was all good. Sparring rounds were good too.

Then I rolled with Jordan, the instructor/black belt, for the first time, and that was such an awesome experience! Right off the bat he wipes some sweat off of his forehead and uses that as a disguise to try to shoot a cross-collar choke LOL. Luckily the sensitivity I developed from Wing Chun saved me and I got the frame in in time. In fact, he couldn't get a cross-collar choke on me! Obviously he wasn't trying as hard as he could, but he did shoot pretty fast - yet I defended just as fast.

He caught me in an armbar that he let me escape from, as well as a SICK triangle that he got off of an attempted guard pass (from a kind of Kuzure Yoko Shiho Gatame position) where he faked a rollaway and then came back and triangled me.

What was really surprising to both of us, however, was how comfortable I felt at the bottom of the mount. To me it's kind of like, "whatever, I know what you're going to do, and I know how to stop it, so let's see if I can do it." I don't freak out.

Jordan was surprised too, and was impressed with my defense. So we are making progress :D. Also,

"If you want to go for a submission, always go for a different one first." Truer words have never been spoken.

Though I won't really be going for many submissions in the next 6-10 years unless someone decides to haphazardly fall into one.

So my homework for the week:

• Jiu-Jitsu: Play Guard! We are now on guard chapter, be on both sides of it, there is plenty of defense to be learned on both sides.
• Judo: Fundamental movements, controlling their body. Forget the throw, I can't throw them if I can't control them. If they throw themselves, however, I'm all for that.
• Wing Chun: Work on my Southpaw stance, and the weight on the REAR leg. That's new for me since I rely on the trigger step a lot. And if their weight is in that leg, they can't kick!
• Boxing (not really boxing), work on my combos: Double jab, 1-2, Hook off jab, straight right to body off jab, jab uppercut, alternate hooks, uppercut hook, double uppers, 1-2-lead hook, 1-2-1, left jab-hook to right, triple jab, DOUBLE SHIFT, Fitzsimmons shift on both sides
• Footwork: Two styles; light and weighted (and practice in between stuff, as long as I have control) Practice forward, backward, circling, sidestepping, cutting, shifting, drop stepping, and whatever other footwork stuff you have on BOTH SIDES.
• Defense: Practice wedges, as well as all of your covers and guards

I think that's enough to keep me occupied for a while.

2015/09/21: Footwork, Shifting, Defense, Same Things

I've been studying a lot of footwork lately. Jeet Kune Do footwork, Boxing footwork, Kickboxing footwork, Muay Thai footwork, the footwork of countless styles, analyzing how they use the positioning of their feet to put them in the perfect place for what they want to do. By dissecting these strategies, I can develop footwork that would work for me.

I have made the decision to not only use the orthodox stance, but spend a lot of time working on my Southpaw stance. I must be able to easily go back and forth between both, and be able to shift between them to confuse my opponent, because I discovered that when I slipped to the left, instead of wasting time doing a pivot and then striking, if I shifted I could attack right away.

"Never cross your feet."

That is one of the first things told to any boxer. Yet, as I was practicing the Tai Chi 24-form 5 years ago, I couldn't help think to myself...why do I keep crossing my feet? Are these inherently different? Does Tai Chi not work? Because boxers claim that anyone who crosses their feet is really easy to off-balance, and it is not hard to see that that is scientifically sound.

HOWEVER...

Recently I've been studying boxing, and it turns out that most people these days forgot about a thing known as shifting, which is...you guessed it! Where you cross your feet and switch leads. Oh yeah, what does the Fitzsimmons Shift remind me of? Brush knee and twist step/brush knee and step forward! It's almost the same move! The footwork for Dempsey's Double Shift can be found in Parting the Horse's Mane. It's so crazy how people think what they are doing is very different...but they're actually doing just about the same thing.

But there's that part of me that loves Chinese culture and wants to do it anyway just because it's Chinese.

I've also been working on my defense a lot. Even though Dempsey says I need to not get a defense complex, I need to make sure that I am invincible before I attempt the shutdown strategies that he wants me to employ.

So...

1. Learn to cover. Front covers, side covers, low covers...helmet, DRACULA, X-block, Diagonal block (Philly Shell?), Peek-a-boo (not the gloved version, the naked version which is more of a double dracula), leg checks, etc. Going to explore Karate/Kung Fu blocks
2. Once we get that down, we're doing to move on to deflection. I seem to be very good at catching hands since I'm RIDICULOUSLY fast, but the day will come when I slow down and I must rely on pre-emption to do deflections, or just cover, charge in for a bridge, and then play Chi Sau.
3. If we see it coming, we can slip/bob+weave. Or just use footwork to evade.
4. And best of all, we throw a counterpunch to stop the move from even happening.

2015/09/19: More or Less the Same Thing

For some strange reasons, humans have this weird tendency to want to compartmentalize and organize everything into distinct categories. Look at races! And within those races we have countries...and then people are further divided by State/Province, City, Neighborhood... Everything is organized for the human being.

The most important thing to realize, however, is that at the end of the day, all of those "organized" things are more or less the same thing. A Boxer's jab, a Tai Chi lead straight, the Hung Gar lead, the Muay Thai lead, the Savate Fighter's lead, and just about every other lead you can think of...is simply the lead hand launching forward to hit the other person. The boxer's right cover, the Hung Gar "throw the powder" motion, the Muay Thai high block...all of that stuff is more or less the same motion, with slightly different details/methodologies, but they all do more or less the same thing.

Too often, however, we get so caught up in the names, too caught up in the names of the techniques, that we forget that most of these moves are the same thing, and, more importantly, that at the end of the day, there is a human being that must execute these moves. So instead of stressing about what style it came from, and which one is superior, why not just focus on what makes the move work? Why not focus on the mechanics so you can take it and adapt it to your own style? Not the style you study, but your style? That that is uniquely your own?

"I cannot teach you, only help you to explore yourself. Nothing more."
-Bruce Lee

Everyone wants someone that can tell them the ultimate answer that will solve all of their problems. Me more than anyone else. But what I am realizing more than anything is that, no matter how much knowledge I have, if I have no idea how to make it functionally work (with practice and personal tweaking), it's useless. "Styles," to me, are just training regiments that give you some basic tools and principles and attempt to instill the understanding of fighting, as a template, for you to go out and paint your own picture.

So you must do more or less the same thing that everyone else is doing, but you almost must do it in a way that is uniquely your own, and no one else's. Huh. Sounds weird dunnit?

2015/09/17: The Fundamental Motions (Or...some of them)

So in my attempt to abstract Martial Arts (lol, math joke), I discovered that there were some motions that I could apply to almost any technique to improve it. Though I still have a long ways to go at this, I can now analyze a move, identify the key parts and how it works physically, and then learn it super quickly. Usually, a lot of those key parts involves these motions, and I will share a few of them with you now. [Standing motions there are a lot on the ground]

1. THE FALLING STEP (As described by Jack Dempsey)

I see this taught from weight evenly distributed on both heels, but Dempsey wanted nearly all of your weight to be on the forward foot. What you are doing is placing your center of gravity almost entirely over your lead foot, so that lifting your lead foot (with no weight shift beforehand) will inevitably result in you falling, resulting in a really awkward forward lurch, only to have the foot you lifted catch yourself. This move does not telegraph (because gravity is constant) and you can generate explosive amounts of force. Then you pull your back foot up.

I use this move for nearly every strike/kick that I do, particularly if I want downward momentum. And I especially do this for a lot of takedowns (that require only downward momentum). In Judo, I primarily use it to generate momentum to twist someone sideways.

2. THE FULL BODY TWIST (Shoulder whirl, Spin the wheel/Draw the bow, etc)

A lot of people in the martial arts talk about how all of the power comes from the hips. Well I'm here to rain on your parade and say that it doesn't. Don't get me wrong, your hips do swing when you do the full body twist, but because people emphasize the hip swing, they often do it too much, and they spin too much, sending all of their energy off to the side as opposed to directly into your opponent.

Imagine your entire being focused at one point two inches below your navel. Then, spin that point. You could add in some hand motions, blah blah blah, but that is the essence of it. Jack Dempsey just says to very violently hurl your shoulders. It gets the same thing done. Though Dempsey's has a bit of a whipping motion to it.

3. WEIGHT SHIFT

A lot of people are surprisingly bad at this. Done explosively, this can generate a lot of power. Here's all you have to do. Put your weight on one leg. Make sure that you put so much weight on it that, without any shifting, you can lift your other leg. Then shift your weight to your other leg and do the same thing. Wow.

4. THE "BOUNCE"

This one is kind of hard. You rely on the elastic properties of your fasciae to accomplish this; by suddenly dropping all of your weight down, your fasciae stores energy, and, combined with the ground pushing you back and your muscles activating, you get a LOT of energy. This CANNOT be done slow.

5. WAVE MOTIONS

This...is really hard to describe, but basically whatever motion you get, you let it travel through your body and have it exit in some other way. This is great for shedding impacts, or for using some strong part of your body to do an action for a weak part.

Then you can combine these and you get all sorts of neat things like corkscrewing...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MixZSs9FnhA

Read the description

2015/09/17: The Art of Dying, Judo, Footwork

The background on my laptop is a picture of Bruce Lee. And it has been that way ever since the day I purchased this laptop. I have never changed it.

Even though a lot of people talk about Bruce Lee this, Bruce Lee that, and how he started a lot of things, how he revolutionized a lot of things, what I love the most about Bruce Lee is the ideas that he left behind. Here is one of them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGJPF1c2GHE

"Like everyone else, you want to learn the way to win, but never to accept the way to lose - to accept defeat. To learn to die is to be liberated from it. So when tomorrow comes you must free your ambitious mind and learn the art of dying!"
-Bruce Lee (in case you didn't want to watch the video)

I was talking to Chris about why he was tired, and we were talking about his diet, and he mentioned going really hard at Jiu-Jitsu practice. I thought of this quote, and all of a sudden, there was newfound significance to it. I had only thought about it in terms of actual life-and-death confrontation - if I accept defeat, that I will die, then to hell with it I'll take this guy down with me. And 90% of the time the other guy is not willing to pay the price to kill you and he will back off after realizing how much damage he is about to suffer.

But this applies during practice too. If I learn how to lose, how to accept, to "die" during practice, I will not waste all of my energy and power attempting to apply a bad technique that has no mechanical advantage (not that Chris does, but sometimes I find myself guilty of this, though not so much anymore). If I don't feel the mechanical advantage I have by having better technique, then to hell with it, I deserve to be submitted/choked out/armbarred/whatever have you! If that guy's technique is better than mine, assuming he is bigger, faster, stronger, then what chance do I have? No, I will let him tap me out, learn where my technique is flawed, and then continue, and beat him with technique! But I was so concerned about winning, this would be impossible. By accepting the loss, I am liberated from it - because first of all, I no longer see it as a loss, rather as a learning opportunity, and second, I am slightly more liberated from the next time someone attempts to do whatever move I just was tapped to - because there is one less mistake I will make!

Bruce Lee will appear in many of my posts, since I am of the belief that every single onscreen appearance of his that he left behind was in some way meant to be some sort of lesson to the Martial Arts practitioner. Look at Game of Death - notice how the highest level, which had Kareem Abdul Jabbar's character - didn't have a style! Kareem didn't have a style, the style of no style was the highest obstacle to overcome! (This was a central idea that Bruce seemed to advocate)

Judo practice was awesome today. I learned so much! I'll just list all of the specific things, and then I will go into the deeper concepts.

Today began with some combos:

OUCHI GARI to KOSOTO GARI

• You must really attempt the Ouchi Gari
• The defense for the Ouchi is that he must first untangle the leg from yours, and then he must place weight on it, as if he does not you will just Ouchi him again
• By pushing towards the same side shoulder as the leg you are sweeping, you attempt the cut his base out from under him and then drive his center of mass in that direction
• By forcing him to step back, his weight is now over the foot that you attempted the Ouchi on
• So his other leg must be light, hence allowing the Kosoto
• Instead of halting your forward motion and turning sideways, almost spiral/turn it over to travel in the direction of his other leg (the one that you just swept). Continuous motion!
• Since you have very little base after attempt the Ouchi, all of the momentum for the Kosoto must come from the original Ouchi momentum or the hopping momentum

OUCHI GARI to TAI OTOSHI

• By driving his weight backward, after he regains his base, he will undoubtedly attempt to drive back into you to stop your forward drive
• So help him out and pull him into you for the Tai Otoshi (thanks Sensei! :D)
• You must really lift him up

OUCHI GARI to MOROTE SEOI NAGE (though I'm doing Ippon instead)

• Ippon Seoi Nage is slightly slower, but Morote just doesn't work for my shoulder/elbow it's too weird lol
• Same principle as the Tai Otoshi

OUCHI GARI to UCHI MATA (I suck at Uchi Mata so not going to elaborate)

OSOTO GARI to SOME WEIRD SWEEP THAT WENT UNNAMED

• They resist your forward momentum somehow, usually because the leg you are attempting to sweep is still under them, or the other foot is planted behind them for base
• Cut the corner, use their forward momentum and spiral it into the same direction you were originally going, and use the non-osoto foot to cut their other foot
• This is so cool; my partner (sensei) showed me to use the spiraling motion, and this fits in with everything Phu Ngo talks about, which I totally agree with since it's helped so much (will elaborate in later posts)
• Moving the body as a coherent unit at the hips and mental+physical connection to the uke is key
• Bodyweight in motion is important

OSOTO GARI to HARAI GOSHI

• I have a hard time with Harai Goshi, but sensei made it really easy. That guy is such a baller.
• So you attempt the Osoto with your back foot not right next to theirs, but a little farther back, but it's not working for some reason; they are resisting forward
• So you turn sideways to them, hop your back foot right between their's and Harai Goshi
• Key is full body contact, and to enter with an upright posture, the more contact, the better
• Throw them as a part of you
• Hand up high for max leverage
• Point your toes!
• Use the momentum of the entry and spiral it into the throw (this is haaaaaaaaaaaard)

Cool, so got that out of the way. On a different note, the partner that I was working with, he was incredible; everything he was doing just made me feel so off balance all the time. His kuzushi is remarkable. I want to do that to people. He told me the key was wrist motion, and push/pull in the right directions.

So I went into randori thinking I'd work on the following things:

• Movement using the "fundamental motions" as I so call them (I have a theory)
• Attacking along the stance's weak line
• Taking the fall so I get better at ukemi

That was it. Everything else I worked on kind of subconsciously, without real conscious effort.

So my first randori round was with the guy that I talked to when I expressed interest in joining the club, and also the same guy who showed me the ropes of judo (whose name coincidentally was also Ray; funny story, I learned the throws on my own through YouTube, and the first time I demonstrated it to him, he said it was near perfect! LOL. But I still need the sparring experience, the little details, and the kinks to truly make it work) I just tried to move him around, and it worked! I even lifted him completely off of the ground a few times! Not that that was enough to throw him (well...it was a couple times, but you can tell he was letting me, his defense was really solid), but still, I could move him around! Except he took advantage of it a few times so I'd have to work that out. We had a super leg sweep duel, and it was really funny; he caught me with some lightning fast Ouchis and De-Ashi-Harais and send me tunneling down to the floor. He even tied up my arms and threw me with Tsurikomi Goshi.

The next round was with one of the green belts, he was pretty cool. I just tried to move him, and I could! A lot! But he took advantage of my momentum a couple times, and I was not committed enough. So he threw me. A lot. At least my ukemi is getting better LOL.

Then I went with the guy that Ray said might have been a fake black belt, or bought his black belt or whatever. I had some fun though. I threw him a couple times and successfully defended all of his throws XD. Not that that means anything to me, in fact, I'm kind of sad because I didn't get to practice my ukemi, and I didn't get to steal whatever move he did to me. (The same cannot be said for my other two sparring partners LOL) But man, the fundamental motions sent this guy stumbling all over the mat, and I (in a not-so-pretty fashion) found a way to stop his legs from catching up to him a couple times.

Then we did newaza, which I won't really go into since I don't care much for pinning.

So, what did we learn today?

• That little wrist pop that you do to really hurt someone with a fook sau? That's the same motion you use to take all of the slack out of your grip and transfer your energy directly into the other guy. (THANKS SENSEI! :D Man with barely any strength he was twisting me up and stuff it was cool)
• It's all about controlling that upper square, and that is done through grip placement (collar grip not so high on the collar, since you want to be able to push their shoulder...or if you go high, pull them down!)
• Drop stepping is hard when someone is attacked to you; you must do collective drop stepping (which is risky, but really, really effective haha)
• The weight must be off of the leg you intend to sweep...and after you lift it up, you drive them in a downward arc towards whatever direction you wish for them to fall. Or...you must trap their leg in midair that is about to receive their weight. I know this already, but never hurts to reiterate.
• To successfully do a midair footsweep...you must know that that leg is about to move before it actually moves. Because everything else was too slow...or I could lift them up, sweep the foot, and after make contact, drop everything? Will experiment with Chris tomorrow.
• Moving from the hips is so good it's almost unfair
• Spin wheel/draw bow is a TON of power
• Spirals, spirals, spirals!
• Try circular motion instead of rectangular motion. Sensei Ray got me a couple times by getting me to circle to my left, and then doing an Ouchi because he knew I was going to post that foot...or else I'd fall!
• Enter throws where you intent to bend down nearly perfectly upright so that you have room to spring

There is a lesson for you to learn every day. Every single day. For me...there's usually like 50,000 LOL.

2015/09/16: Footwork, Awareness, Riding the Storm

I don't think I've ever talked about this, but I have a somewhat-plan for my Jiu-Jitsu journey. The plan was that I would focus most of my efforts on defending for the entirety of blue belt, then focus most of my effort on escapes for the entirety of purple belt, spend brown belt on reversals/control, and spend black belt on submissions. This will guarantee that I will be safe while I'm experimenting with whatever it is that I'm doing.

Developing my game so asymmetrically has actually been very interesting; though control feels a bit natural to me, I tend to lose my position when I do something stupid, but laying my body weight honestly is not that hard LOL. Anyway...

So today I let a brown belt knee-on-belly me, and he was one of the go-hard-or-go-home dudes; he was all over the place, moving really quickly, barely giving me a moment to blink. But I think he only caught me like twice. Because while he was doing all of his fancy knee-on-belly spins, I had my elbows pinched tight to my body, knowing that so long as he did not separate my elbows from my body, he could not submit me. (Unless he did a collar choke, but he can't collar choke me when his hands are posted for base so he could do his fancy spin moves) So I just waited, and waited, recovered half guard a couple times but I have no idea what to do from there so I eventually lost it...

But that was a victory for me. Being submitted less and less is good. He showed me his cool armlock where he used his knee to subtly wedge my elbow away from my body, but I was so focused on the storm going on above my head that I did not notice. Asking people how you got caught is one of the most important things you can do in my opinion.

Also I went with the other brown belt, Greg, and that was fun; I need to find a way to not get my hand trapped under me after the run from one side mount through North-South to side mount on the other side though. And I need to not try to roll them off when they go for Ezekiels. Aside from that, I survived, which was what I wanted.

All of it is just awareness. If you are aware of the possible dangers (which comes from learning the moves and what is necessary), then you know what you are in danger of and what you are not. So long as you recognize what the key elements are, no matter how crazy the picture looks, so long as the key elements aren't there, you are safe. A gangbanger can flail his arms wildly at you, but so long as you are out of range and keep it that way, you are 100% safe.

On a different note, I've been studying standup lately, and it seems to me like it is just war of footwork. Will elaborate more later.

2015/09/15: No Secrets, A Lesson in Humility, General Ramblings

I was hanging out in the hallways of the Academy waiting for class to start, and I was talking to my buddy Shak, who was telling me about his broken rib and how he got it. Apparently he was at his Kyokushin school, and they were either sparring or having a tournament or something, but some world class competitor kicked him in the ribs and broke it. I was troubleshooting with him; I told him he should tuck his elbow tight, and he told me he was afraid of the high roundhouse. I told him about watching the subtle weight shift, and about watching the knee position to tell what kind of kick it was going to be. He told me it was too fast, but that he knew about such methods.

Huh. I guess there are no secrets in this world eh?

I used to have this weird notion, for whatever reason, that if I picked up some strange resource, and it gave me some weird information that worked, that I was the only person in the world that knew it. Well, not the only one in the world, but one of the few people that did. Maybe most of the people I talk to are knowledgeable, but then again, I neglect to realize that most people are also doing their homework, and looking at extra resources in order to get a leg up. Many other people may very well have the knowledge that I have. Boy, was that a lesson in humility.

Don't get it twisted, I know a LOT, but I don't know it all. I guess there is no substitute for experience...the true "secret" is just experience, experience, experience.

So a bit on sport fighting. So it's always been my belief that sport fighting is a lot of chess matchy feel each other out sort of stuff, whereas real confrontations are more sort of blitzkrieg all-out attacks that usually don't end very well. I've decided that I want to train for both, because movement is movement is movement, and the more movement I learn, the more I can adapt. Plus, what if that one day I encounter a situation that I was too dumb to talk myself out of, he's a sport fighter? He would know better than to engage in a full-on assault, I'll need a bit more. So my resolution is to learn street THEN sport, just like the way I'm taught at the Gracie Academy. There is one catch however.

I must continue training as though everyone will outweigh me, be faster, stronger, and have more endurance.

There is no possible way I could force the end of a sport fight, since people actually care about defense and do not needlessly overextend.

How, then, do I survive? (That is the goal, and it always will be)

Well, if they are not assaulting me, then there is absolutely nothing stopping me from running away. So I will probably just do that.

But let's be real...sport fighting is really fun ^^. So without further ado...

I cannot passively just sit there and defend, for that will allow them to play their game, and place me in traps that I do not wish to be in. But since I am physically in a pickle...

• Because they are stronger, I must apply force in a manner which does not contest their strength, or where I have a mechanical advantage to match their strength.
• Because they are faster, I must use significantly less motion to accomplish more, and I must act first.
• Because they have more endurance, I must use significantly less energy to accomplish the same if not more than them.

There is no possible way for me to best someone if their skill is identical to mine, therefore I must find ways to better them.

Well first, I must learn to be invincible. Which means that I must first learn the defense to everything, or create one. After I develop an intuitive pattern to defense (blocking), we progress to deflection. I learn to how to steer attacks away from me. Then, I progress to evasion, before finally preemption.

Because I do not have superior physical attributes, I must learn to deal with strikers without ever lifting my foot past the waistline. So they will be going for head kicks but I will not. That will be interesting...

I must develop a strategy that involves putting pressure on my opponent without needlessly opening myself. Since moving in first is a recipe for disaster against someone, I must invite their strike and take advantage of it, or create positions where only certain motions are feasible, and use that to take advantage of them. (Attack by Drawing)

I will ponder this more later, but for now I shall study the sport fighting systems a bit and see what they have to offer. Then I will make it work for me based on what I have studied.

A brief note about technique: I have previously stated that I believe principles to be superior, and I do, but in the sport fighting world, you need to have studied specific techniques due to the optimal nature of said moves. Since everyone is doing what is optimal, you too must be doing what is optimal. HOWEVER, you must be able to make adjustments, which is where principle comes in. So I guess think of technique as sort of a template for you to explore, not adhere to the letter. Though I don't think anyone does that. I still believe the whole goal of objective - example of method - principles - figure it out for yourself is better. It's just that with sport fighting you have to be a little more specific based on the rules and common behaviors.

2015/09/14: Some Lessons in Jiu-Jitsu and Judo (and...Boxing?), and an Introduction

Hello world! My name is Raymond Oliver Chou, and I have decided to, instead of keeping a private journal with all of my martial arts/self defense (the two are very different things, but I study them both), to create one and share it with the world, in hopes that some wandering soul out there will find watch my progress, find something interesting, and hopefully learn a thing or two. I will also have internal dialogues with myself with my theories at the time, but since I am still relatively a beginner, some of it will be inaccurate. Do not take what I say as gospel truth! I am still growing!

So a bit of background; I have always loved the martial arts, but it was not until very recently that I decided to learn self defense, mainly because there are some people I know that need it, but are not willing to invest money and/or time into it, so I have to do it for them and teach them in what limited time I have. I have been involved in some schoolyard scuffles since the age of 7, but that died down around high school, where there was only one serious altercation, and only one altercation after high school. Where I got knocked out.

I currently am a blue belt studying Jiu-Jitsu at the Gracie Headquarters in Torrance, California, and I am also a white belt (started like two months ago, but missed the last month due to intense fatigue and breathing issues) in Judo, with the Gardena Judo Club. I also have some experience learning some things from random people I've met, and I have read and practiced material from countless books, and am looking to apply it to my current training. The "styles" that I have studied informally (mainly by watching, reading, analyzing, talking to people who did, etc.) are Wing Chun, Boxing, Tai Chi, Hung Gar, Baguazhang, Shuai Jiao, Muay Thai, Pentjak Silat, Savate, Wrestling (if you count that), and numerous other ones that I can't name off the top of my head right now.

Now, I do not really believe in "style;" I believe that movement is movement, and that there are certain objectives that a body must achieve, and that is it. How you do that is unique to each individual, though there are certain templates that are useful, and certain rules and guidelines to adhere by, but at the end of the day, we cannot say that a certain movement belongs to a style. So I look at styles more like mentalities and training regiments than a way for a certain individual to fight. Instead of learning a style to be the style, I train it to see what it has to offer me, how it can develop my own "style," and use the free-sparring opportunities which are oh-so-priceless.

So I went to Jiu-Jitsu in the morning, and we did mainly North-South attacks as part of the Side Mount review focus we are on right now. Not going to go into that, that part is written down in my private journal.

I will, however, talk about the sparring, since many a lesson can be learned from that. The first person I went with was Chris. For some reason, whenever punches are introduced, the notion of "relaxation" immediately goes out the window for me. Normally, when at the bottom of the side mount, I'm 100% relaxed, patient, waiting for an opportunity to do an escape, and if that escape becomes too much effort, then I go back to safe hands. When there was punches, however, I was freaking out, and expending a lot more energy than I normally would have. So I guess I need to learn to recognize when I'm not getting the crap punched out of me and when I am haha. Guess that's what get-punched-in-the-face day is for.

I've been playing around with the idea of centerline control, always owning it, but I think today I took it a little too far, and I took some shots in the face. I am consistently owning the center; I was not hit with a single straight today. I was only hit by hooks, and uppercuts, and knees, and roundhouse kicks, and... ><. I still need to develop that part of the game, but a victory...the straight punch I now dominate! :D 

On a different note, I am also a bit scared to actually hit my training buddies because I have no idea how hard I actually hit, and I don't want to accidentally knock someone out by using proper body mechanics. I keep pulling punches and I know it's a terrible habit, but I don't want to hurt anyone...so this is why solo training is important...? Lol...? (1) On the heavy bag, I can usually make that thing hit the wall, so I'm not too sure. I tag people for fun though, but I don't let my weight drop.

So back to sparring; then I went with Mike, that was a fun roll. Got some takedowns. 'Twas nice. I'm actually working on how my takedown game is going; the gist of my takedown game can be summed up in one sentence: move his center/center of gravity/dan tien/one point/whatever you want to call it past his feet and keep it there. This is a lot harder than it sounds though, and right now I'm developing each tool I'd need to use to get there. I am of the opinion that so long as I do a little bit of this each time, in a couple years I'll be able to improvise takedowns and make them work on average people. Maybe the top top people I'd need to play the technique game, but hopefully I can get the principles based approach to work on them too. (2)

Then I went with Mike. Boy was that a fun roll, but I need to be less hyper on the bottom. Congrats to him on his stripe btw. In the beginning I did the centerline wedge [very Wing Chun-esque] and smashed through his defenses, got the collar-elbow tie that I wanted, and immediately Osoto-gari'd him. That was fun. I also tried a Sumi Gaeshi on him, but because I didn't want to hurt his head, I didn't do it very violently, so he spun out of it. Maybe next time I need to really extend that leg, even if I am going slow on it. If I point my toe and extend my leg as far as I can (and maybe closer to his knee than his upper thigh), maybe he won't be able to slip out.

Then I went with the other Mike, and here's where all of the lessons are learned. So this is the bodybuilder brown belt guy who outweighed me by a lot and probably has experience in other striking arts. I went in there with the mindset to survive. I am surprisingly more comfortable with punches to the head now.

First lesson: BITE DOWN ON YOUR MOUTHPIECE! I ate a very light right hook that kind of injured my jaw (it's clicking right now) all because it was hanging loose. Come on, Ray.

Second: Wonderful, you controlled the centerline during that engagement. Now start watching his hubs! Wasn't that the second tenet that you were supposed to adhere to? Well, let's be less hard on myself. My focus was on the centerline. And I think I have that down by now, my hands rarely left except to cover something that was about to get hit, and even then I kept them relatively in the center. I guess now I can work on pre-empting.

Third: Control the tempo! You were doing a great job of circling, but because he outskilled you and was more fit/strong, you played timidly. You let him fill up the beats. You must fill up the beats with your moves! You hit pretty hard too, man. Come on. (See previous issues about that)

Fourth: He's probably just as scared of getting hit by you as you are of getting hit by him.

Fifth: You really need to work on your sport footwork. Your footwork is mainly street fight now, and while that's great for surviving large bursts of energy, you need to adjust to the weight-on-the-toes, more lively style of fighting for now. Until you are comfortable in the sea, then we will slowly start to work back to the heels and root.

Good things: Excellent grounding when you did use it, and good drop steps. Still playing around with the full-body motions, probably should have went for that more. (Will talk about this in another post)

Bad things: Too hyper, not watching what I should have been watching. And that early sprawl though LOL.

Fixes: Going to focus on watching the opponent's hubs for a while before I return to my own motions.

Then, at night, I went to the Judo Club, where I watched an in-house tournament, which was pretty funny. Then the training began.

So a few fixes on my throws:

Osoto Gari: Drop step more. Also, forearm flush to the opponent's chest. (Take out the slack!) You are doing a good job of completing the circle with the pivot around the transverse plane, but make sure you spin him along the frontal plane as well. That's the only big fix really. Also more weight drop on the actual throw.

O Goshi: Let go of the lapel grip when you go in for the throw LOL. Try to use your bodyweight backwards to initiate the motion as well, and use bound-spring to get the upward momentum? Will play around with that and see how it goes.

Sasae Tsurikomi Ashi: The key is in how fast you set your own body weight into motion. Which means...drop step! (Even though that's probably not how they want you to do it lol, but I will experiment) Also, turn the square! (3)

Tai Otoshi: MAJOR MAJOR fixes. Turn the square, and get the little pop at the end! Lift them straight up, make them down an arc over you, and then throw them down.

Harai Goshi: Yeah, I know we worked on a lot of throws today. But I had a lot of questions so...yeah. The key is your hip in their stomach. I will think about why. Perfect perpendicular angle. Load their weight onto your body, do the "karaoke step," and then sweep their outer thigh and throw. I will play around with what full body motion I need to set the bodyweight of a heavier opponent into motion.

Also, I randori'd with that older guy, but it was REALLY hard to get his bodyweight into motion. I successfully defended every throw he tried to do to me, and even reversed him on an Ouchi Gari attempt (LOL you should have seen his face it was hilarious), but by constantly being afraid, I did not get to try anything, and I did not get to try my full body motions to move him. So I need to not be so afraid of being thrown and accept that it will happen, and go play! Experiment! Also, I tried the same motions on Mike (the bodybuilder) but it didn't work because my grips sucked. I was able to set my bodyweight into motion 100% though.

That's it for now, but I will discuss more next time. ^^

(1) During my solo training, when I practice my strikes/deflections, I imagine my nightmare opponent, bigger, faster, stronger, superior physically to me in every way, trying to beat the crap out of me with 100% intent, and I respond with 100% intent. This, in my opinion, is the "missing part" of most people's kata or heavy bag sparring; this is why the skills don't transfer, in my opinion, because they don't think of the bag as an actual person. Well I'm sure there's someone that does, but from what I see of karate kata or Chinese Kung Fu forms, I don't see anyone doing it as though they were trying to survive a deadly encounter. In Lam Sai Wing's detailed breakdown of the Hung Gar forms, he clearly states that you must really imagine certain things, and I think that mental preparation is paramount. What good is practicing a motion if the most important part, i.e. the opponent, is missing? Shadowboxing is key. **The most difficult part, however, is to not know what your imaginary opponent is about to do, which can get really tricky...

(2) I am of the belief that most styles teach you 50,000 techniques so that you can pick up the general ideas behind them...but what if you don't...? Why not learn the principles straight up and see technique as examples to ultimately develop the intuition? This way you can cater a technique to any circumstance, or make one up. However, I am nowhere near that good yet.

(3) It is safe to imagine the opponent as 100% a being that is in their center of gravity...except with dudes, for some reason, that point seems to be higher. The judo grips, however, seem to have such insane leverage that I can, using my full body power (incorporate spin wheel/draw bow! :D) twist and turn the "square" (shoulder-shoulder-hip-hip, that square) in whatever direction the throw dictates! This is why my Tai Otoshi sucked before - I wasn't steering his center using my grips! Though this does not diverge from my objective of "move his center past his feet," this gives me a great tool to do it! How about, for Judo practice, "use your grips to steer his center past his feet?" Because hand on leg attacks are not allowed, I guess this is a good opportunity to focus on this specific part of the takedown game.