Don’t drink the Coolaid
In any sports, the drilling and technical work, mirrors the kinetic signature of the movement patterns used. I got to lie down after writing this sentence. It is simply common sense.
Yet… In the wonderful world of martial arts, regular pedagogical principles don’t seem to apply. Another fucking fancy word.. sounds like gynecological… oh well sue me. Here’s an example, I saw a karate class spend 20 minutes doing gedan barai (downward block) and when the sparring started, a student blocked a low kick using the move and it failed. The teacher jumped in action and said with a straight face: “Nooooo you never block like that when you actually fight!!!!” I was waiting for the student to say: “Then why did we spent 20 minutes on that?” It would have been a good question in deed.
Another example… This FMA outfit keeps showing clips of flow drills. They look cool. Hubud this, Hubud that…. looks fast!!!!! Hoooooo ahhhhhhhh! They they publish a full tilt stick fight in the forest, I have to admit it’s a good one…. Here’s the thing… NOTHING remotely looks like their flow drills… actually when they go balls to the wall nothing looks like anything they do.
Do you guys have that much time to lose? In Germany I had the pleasure to work with the Senshido Europe crew and was treated to some knife instruction by some of our affiliates, also part of ACDS… What struck me is that 100% of the material was usable right away. Wish i could’ve done more.
When you seek Self protection instruction, just so you know, you are not joining a religious cult. No one holds the truth. Blind faith in anything will get you killed. bottom line is this, the training has to mirror the fight. I feel stupid writing this. It’s fucking obvious. If it does not? move on.
I can’t hear the usual: “yeah but you can teach balance and coordination with xxxxxxx (fill the blanks with your favorite pointless drill)”…. Or: “Yeah but we use it as a conditioning tool” hahahahahahahaha Since when bad neuro-muscular programming as good thing? You will fight like you’ve trained. Period. Join a gym.
However, these things are good time fillers for instructors who want to fill 15 minutes at the end of a class….. when they are out of ideas.