Val Mijailovic on Sweeping

Val Mijailovic, as you saw in the clip footage from the 70s that I posted yesterday, is a master of sweeps, including free-standing sweeps, where your opponent is not grabbed as they generally do in judo. Many karateka have tried to use judo sweeps in competition and on the street with limited results. A couple of years ago, Val produced a sweep dvd. I was one of the first to purchase a copy. (It's available through Martial Arts Masters magazine.) Here's a clip from his great dvd: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrBZIimnKls

One of our most powerful - but lesser known - fighters

When people talk about powerful fighters, they seldom mention one I consider one of the strongest - Val Mijailovic. I met Val when he was a young teenager, training at Soke Kubota's Hollywood dojo. Through the years, he fought very successfully in many major traditional tournaments, representing the U.S. in international competition on several occasions. He is now one of the most respected and loved of Soke Kubota's students. The following is a clip of Val in action. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_SkqjDxiI0

How do you handle people who try to cheap shot you?

I just posted this on Facebook in response to a statement by Shihan Judith Marx, a fellow long-time student of Soke Kubota. She brought up the subject of "cheap shots". It jogged my memory of an event that happened many years ago, where a guy tried to cheap shot me in a tournament.

"Used to get people trying to cheap shot us at tournaments, more than in the dojo. (Only had one guy try to cheap shot me at Soke's dojo, some weird guy who had transferred in from some other organization.) I was fighting a guy once in one of Ron Marcini and Leo Fong's tournaments. I had beaten him before - at the Manteca tournament in the photo I posted (of myself fighting Frank Rameriz). As soon as I got a lead on the guy, he started trying to hit me, figuring I guess that he could save more face that way - I didn't lose, I was disqualified because of excessive contact, because I was too strong for those guys, etc. On his next attack, he lifted his hands up like people do when they want to hit you in the face. So I sunk down and caught him first with a well controlled middle level reverse punch. A split second later, he popped me in the mouth. I tasted the blood and immediately caught him hard in the solar plexus with an inverted punch (uppercut). He spun around and dropped to his knees, sounding like he was going to throw up. I stood over him for a couple of seconds to see if he intended to continue, then stepped back. I never saw him again nor did he probably try to cheap shot anyone again."

Here's a copy of the photo that I posted on Facebook of my match with
Frank Rameriz. Ron Marcini and Robert Halliburton were the officials.

How do you guys/gals handle people who try to cheap shot you?

How rough should training be?

In the old days, one of my instructors told us he wanted to see blood at every workout. And he did... along with a lot of broken bones. I got my best friend involved in the school. After a month or two, someone asked him what he would do if he were attacked, since he hadn't trained for long. He said "I get beaten up by experts three times per week. What can the average guy do to me?"

I've always tried to remind myself of the following when supervising the training of my students: A student should never get more badly injured while trying to learn how to protect himself on the street than he would had he not trained and actually gotten beaten up on the street. What's your thinking on this?

Bunkai, Kyusho, and the Death Touch – Part X

Take a look at the following clip. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4BC5vrxxHo

What do you think about it? An arm point is struck and the person drops, out cold. Are such things medically possible?

Well, Dr. Kelley claims soft touch knockouts to distant points such as this are based on sound medical evidence. In his book, Death Touch, he explains why he believes this.

I’ll just hit the major points of Dr. Kelley explanation and leave a complete, more in-depth one for those interested enough to read his book. And even my explanation will likely get a bit confusing, at least partly because the names of all of the important elements end in “nervous system”.

From a neurological standpoint (having to do with our nerves), we are made up of two major subsystems – the Central Nervous System (CNS) and the Peripheral Nervous System (PNS). The CNS is made up of our brains and spinal cords. The latter system (the PNS) is comprised of all nerves beyond those within our brains and spinal cords (the CNS). Their main function is to connect our brains and spinal cords (the CNS) to our limbs and organs. But unlike the brain and spinal cord, which are located inside hard, bony structures (our skulls and back bones), the nerves of the PNS are largely unprotected, making them much more vulnerable to strikes and kicks.

According to Dr. Kelley and others, it is 1) their greater vulnerability, 2) the way in which the two systems (CNS and PNS) connect with each other, and 3) the structure of a subdivision of the PNS called the Autonomic Nervous System that creates the possibility for the type of knockouts seen in the clip.

Scientists hold that we are the result of 4+ million years of evolution – of adaption and change. Throughout that time, those who had certain qualities survived and those who didn’t, didn’t. One of these is what is called the Fight or Flight Syndrome. When someone or something appeared in our environment that could possibly prove threatening to us, we became wired to either confront the threat and immediately attack or to quickly put as much distance as we could between us and them.

The Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS), one of the two divisions of the Autonomic Nervous System, is responsible for this, for preparing us to flee or battle. Once activated, it automatically constricts (narrows) and pulls blood vessels deeper, making them more difficult to damage. It speeds up our hearts and raises our blood pressure, increasing blood flow, carrying greater amounts of oxygen and necessary nutrients to working muscles, while also carrying away waste products, enabling our muscles to work at an optimal level. It also shuts down our digestive systems to conserve possibly critical blood flow. And in extreme cases, it can also cause our bladders and bowels to empty, making us lighter on our feet.

The Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS), the other half of the Autonomic NS, creates changes that are the opposite of those created by the SNS – it undoes the Fight or Flight changes so our bodies can recover. It slows down our hearts, dilates (enlarges) our blood vessels, reduces our blood pressure, and slows down our breathing, enabling us to rest and recover.

Excess Sympathetic NS activity (which can be created by strikes to nerves – such as those along the so-called Heart Meridian on the arms – that connect to the same level of the spinal cord as those related to the SNS) can result in heart failure. Excess Parasympathetic NS activity (also vulnerable to strikes to similarly placed nerves as with the SNS noted above) can lead to a variety of problems, including unconsciousness and heart arrest.

According to Dr. Kelley, strikes to the right pressure points, including those on our arms and legs, have been medically verified to produce reactions within our Autonomic NS – either the Sympathetic NS or the Parasympathetic NS – which can cause our blood pressure to rise too high or drop too low, causing internal sensors to shut everything down and leading to unconsciousness.

Have you ever wondered why people having heart attacks often feel pain in their left arms? Well, it’s kind of related to all this. According to Dr. Kelley, it’s due to a process known as convergence. The nerves from the heart enter the spinal cord at the same level (between the same vertebrae) as do nerves from the arm. Reportedly, the pain transmitted from a failing or damaged heart converges with the nerves to the arm, so pain is felt there too. According to Dr. Kelley, the reverse can also occur – not just to the heart but also to other organs. This is the method by which strikes to the arms can reportedly affect our blood pressure and so on and cause a knockout or organ failure.

This is not easy stuff to explain. Hopefully, I got it close to right.

I’ll likely finish this series up next time with my thoughts on what all this means to the average martial artist. Thanks for bearing with me through all this. Please feel free to share your thoughts and corrections.

Interesting workshop with Hanshi Shinzato

I posted this several months ago on my Facebook page but it contains some interesting information so reposting it here. It's by Hanshi Katsuhiko Shinzato. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZOgFABxEEw&feature=related

Hanshi Oscar Higa on kime

Here is another clip on Hanshi Oscar Higa. I liked it because he gets more into proper hip and hara action to develop kime, especially as it applies to kobudo. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQ7_k03UxkI