Practical Unarmed Combatives Dvds

[DWW]

Dear Mr.Janich,


I recently purchased Volumes 1 & 2 of your Practical Unarmed Combatives Dvds.I was very impressed with the quality of them as the camera work & angles was excellent as was your explanations.Well worth the money and I highly recommend these Dvds to anyone interested in Self-Defense & Unarmed Combatives.I especially liked the "Physiological Potential" & "Commonality of Technique" concepts as well the "Instinctive Hubud". Is Instinctive Hubud your own invention?

You demonstrate "Reflexive Training Drills" for technique development in the Dvds. I have over 20 years of Martial Art training with Shotokan Karate,Boxing & Brazilian Jiu Jitsu forming the bulk of my study & training.
Freestyle Sparring is a major component of these systems & is hardwired into my thinking as a necessity, so I'm having a difficult time wrapping my Brain around the idea of being able to apply techniques against a continually resistant opponent that is using random,spontaneous attacks without it and was hoping you might help me understand how you & your students train to apply the techniques against real attacks.

Thank you very much for your time & I look forward to the next Volumes in this series.

Respectfully,
DWW

[Michael Janich]

Dear DWW:

Thank you very much for your post and the kind words.

I arrived at my preferred version of hubud after years of playing with and analyzing all the common variants. I found it interesting that most systems parry inward (left hand slap) against punches, but preferred to block with the ulna (like a traditional rising block) against downward strikes. Slamming ulnas was never fun for me, so I tried the wing chun bong sao (wing block). That still didn't work the way I wanted, so I went with the "wedge" using the flat of the beack of the wrist, as in a roof block. Structurally, that was great, but still left me vulnerable to a long weapon wrapping over the block or a reverse-edge hook and rake.

The real catalyst was watching prison surveillance videos of prisoners practicing tight, close-range reverse-grip stabs to the neck. Ultimately, doing things the same way against punches and downward strikes made the most sense.

With regard to sparring, I agree that it does have value and come from a background that included a lot of it. The turning point for me was attending a class taught be my friend Bill Kipp (FAST Defense) that included "Bullet Man" training. The students in the class included a variety of skill levels, from novice all the way up to long-time martial artists. Bill is exceptionally good at "woofing" and screwing with you verbally and mentally to get your adrenaline going. The Bullet Man suit also removes the facial recognition, so even though you "know" him, it's still a realistic experience. Basically, he gets inside your head until your adrenaline is up, then he attacks. Your job is to defend yourself and land a few fight-stopping hits. Bill's job is not to stop until he feels hits that would be likely to stop a real attacker.

The novices in the class did great. They only knew a few basic techniques and went balls-out to make the most of them. Interestingly, most of the seasoned martial artists reverted to a sparring mentality. Rather than engaging and staying there until the fight was done, they fell back on what they knew best: hit-and-run sparring. After a few scenarios, most of them broke the habit and finished the fight (with the help of the rest of us penning them in and making it impossible for them to back away). However, a few of them could not break the sparring habit. When faced with a committed attack, they'd hit a couple times and immediately back off into sparring mode.

Although I've sparred since then, I do it with a very different mindset. Whenever possible, we focus on clear roles of attacker and defender, rather than mutual competition. I also regard every "clash" as a fight.

Our favorite form of "sparring" is what ASP (American Self Protection--the first system I ever studied) called "technical sparring." It's basically "monkey-in-the-middle" technique sparring that gets more and more fluid as people get more experienced. It reinforces the idea of "finishing" every clash and is a great primer for multiple-attacker situations.

The biggest problem with sparring, in my opinion, is that most people--and instructors--don't approach it with a clear purpose. Boxers and MMA fighters will spar to develop and refine specific skills. For example, a good boxer may only jab for an entire round to hone that skill--regardless of what the other guy throws. Many other folks will use unstructured sparring as a macho "reality" that provides an excuse for having no real functional technique or tactics.

Does that mean that MBC (and our related skill sets) doesn't have offensive technique? Absolutely not. We also have and practice offensive and preemptive skills. However, we still put them into a personal-protection context, not arbitrary mutual combat.

I hope this helps.

Stay safe,

Mike

[DWW]

Dear Mr.Janich,


Thanks for the reply,very informative.

Could you expand on the explanation,definition and how to perform what you referred to as "Technical Sparring".Thank you very much for your time.

Respectfully,
DWW

[JohnAPA]

DWW-

Michael explained technical sparring in his blog a few weeks ago here:

http://martialbladeconcepts.blogspot.com/