See bullies get their due

A couple of nights ago, while flipping through the channels on TV, I caught a great show. It’s called Bully Beatdown. Apparently, it’s been on MTV for 3 seasons.

Viewers, who have been bullied, submit requests to the show for help. As an inducement to do something incredibly stupid, the show’s producers apparently offer the bully $10k to fight an MMA fighter in the ring. To win the money, though, the bully has to score tapouts against the MMA fighter. They keep whatever money they win via score. The person bullied gets the money scored by the MMA fighter. In the first round, there can be no striking, only grappling. In the second round, they can strike. Some of it is very funny and the smackdown well-deserved.

The following is the link to one of the complete shows:

http://www.mtv.com/videos/bully-beatdown-ep-307-bring-out-the-boar/1654770/playlist.jhtml#series=2211&seriesId=26843&channelId=1

Bunkai, Kyusho, and the Death Touch – Part XII

Here is a list of what I consider insightful books on pressure points:

Bubishi: The Classic Manual of Combat by Patrick McCarthy. Be sure to get the latest, 2008, edition.

Death Touch:The Science Behind The Legend of Dim-Mak by Michael Kelly.

Pressure Points: The Deadly Touch by Bruce Everett Miller (http://www.quanlikan.com/CMEProducts.html)

The Western Bubishi: An Advanced Study of Martial Arts by Rand Cardwell (cheaper copies are available if you do a bit of looking)

Color Atlas of Acupuncture 2^nd Edition by H.-U. Hecker, A. Steveling, E. Peuker, J.Kastner, and K. Liebchen (This is a nice, little, well-illustrated book on acupuncture but shows the locations of all points. It only keynotes healing points so you have to count off points to find specific ones sometimes. But they’re all there.)

There are, of course, other good books out there. These are merely the ones I’ve read and found most useful in acquiring an objective view of the subject.

Someone asked me about “the delayed death touch”, which I forgot to mention. I’ll likely soon add a final post on what causes the delay. I have a couple of interesting stories to tell on that subject.

Thanks for reading, Jim

Bunkai, Kyusho, and the Death Touch – Part XI

Although discussion of this subject could go on for a long time, I’ll likely wrap-up my thoughts on it with this one.

We have looked at incidents in which pressure point attacks have worked effectively. And we have looked at medical evidence that tends to support the vulnerability of these points. So we can rely on them to work in a self-defense situation, right?

Well, there’s an old saying in philosophy that you can’t get an “is” from an “ought”. You can’t assume that something is the case based solely on the belief or someone’s claim that it ought to be the case.

Many years ago, philosopher Karl Popper created what he called “The Falsifiability Criterion”. Briefly, he claimed that it’s often extremely difficult, perhaps even impossible, to prove something like this to be true. To do so, we would have to look at the outcome of every incident of a pressure point attack being applied in the past, present, and even the future to be positive they would always work. But it would be very easy to prove they couldn’t always be relied on by showing just a single instance in which they were applied and didn’t work. Popper held that we should rely on almost nothing. But we should perhaps prefer those things or courses of action that have withstood the greatest attempts over time to prove them false.

In the case of pressure points, there are plenty of cases where they have failed to work. A police training officer once told me his department had experimented with them and opted not to teach them to their officers because he had found them to be unreliable.

So does all this prove they don’t work?

No. Their failure could have been due to other things – for example, the uke (person hit) may have been a so-called “non-responder”. We’re all built a bit differently. Most of us are pretty close to each other in construction relative to the location and sensitivity of pressure points. But a significant percentage of people out there are not. How do you know you have a non-responder in front of you? Well when you poke them and they punch you in the face, you got one.

The other reason they may have failed is a lack of sufficient skill and knowledge on the part of the tori (person attempting to apply the attacks). I have no doubt there were (or are) masters who were far more skilled and knowledgeable of pressure point attacks than I am. Because they were so knowledgeable, well trained by true masters of such things, and experienced in their use, they could likely have defended themselves solely via the use of pressure point attacks. Would they always work even for these people? I don’t know. But if my only experience was using them against my own students, or believers who attended a workshop I conducted, I wouldn’t automatically assume they would work as effectively on the street in all or even most cases.

I think all this indicates, at least for me, not to rely solely on them in serious fights. If I’m close to an attacker in a life-or-death battle and have the option of poking him in a supposedly lethal pressure point or hitting him with a punch I know from experience will be bone-crushing, I’ll use the latter as I have a pretty good idea I can rely on it. I wouldn’t know until after I’d poked him if he was going to go down or just smile at me and try to drop me.

These are just my own personal beliefs relative to my own defense at this point in time. I’m not advocating others follow anything I’ve said. And my beliefs may change tomorrow. I’m always open to being convinced otherwise as I know far from everything there is to know about this subject, or any other. I certainly wouldn’t find fault with anyone who has a different opinion as their experience, skill level, and knowledge may be vastly different than mine. Plus, when it comes to our own lives, we all have to make that call for ourselves.

Thanks again for bearing with me throughout my ramblings on this. And please share your thoughts.

Do you have the quality all great masters possess?

In the midst of the images of destruction in Japan, I was surprised to see an interview with actor George Takei, Star Trek’s Mr. Sulu. He had been on TV a lot lately, but always as an over-the-top gay character. So I couldn’t imagine what he could possibly contribute to shed additional light on the horrific events in Japan.

Thankfully, he was very serious and dignified and, as a proud Japanese-American, spoke about what enabled the Japanese people to endure such events. It was a quality he called gaman. I had never heard the term before and immediately looked it up.

Although the definition has many additional meanings, one dictionary simply defined gaman as “perseverance”.

I’d imagine those of us who have been in the martial arts for many years know gaman intimately, although we never had a name for it nor likely even knew there was a quality for which we needed a name. But when asked in a magazine interview a few months ago what one quality I thought most important to a martial artist, I said perseverance. (I didn’t yet know the word gaman or might have used it.)

It has been the pluggers (those who persevered), not the natural athletes (for whom everything was easy), that went the furthest at my dojo. Without gaman, it is impossible to reach the highest levels in the martial arts. You reach the top not by a giant leap but by millions of small steps. So, if you just keep training, day in and day out, you will be amazed at where it will eventually take you.

(For a great, much more indepth write-up on gaman, check out Goodin Shihan’s article on the following link: http://www.facebook.com/#!/notes/charles-c-goodin/gaman-to-bear-the-unbearable/10150166974430127)

Thanks again for reading my humble ramblings.

The Two Edged Sword

As some pointed out in response to my previous post, it is sad that Hanshi Hagaonna chose to deny himself this simple pleasure because of someone who was not just a jerk but a stupid jerk. The guy probably never knew how close he came to the beating of his life.

Hanshi Higaonna with Tsuruoka Sensei. Two great men and martial artists.

But what do you think is the likely probability that this was the first time the driver had done this? Generally only successful behavior is repeated. So it was likely not his first such incident. How many people had this guy injured in the past? And how many did he possibly hurt afterwards?

Others would likely have chosen another of the many ways of dealing with situations such as this. One option might have been by welding what the Japanese call The Two Edged Sword – the sword that takes life, also gives life. If someone had killed Adolf Hitler early in his rise to power, millions of innocent people would not have lost their lives. So, the gun that killed this one man would have saved the lives of many, many others. It would have taken a life but, by doing so, given life to others. In the situation with the taxi driver, one way of looking at it would be that Hanshi Hagaonna might have done society a favor by applying what Soke Kubota used to call “an attitude adjustment”, and prevented this same guy from beating up others who were likely less able to defend themselves.

We must all decide the path we will follow relative to our beliefs. Hanshi Higaonna chose to follow one that was probably far more difficult and lofty than most of us would have followed. But, as Sensei Massie and others pointed out, it is very sad.

I consider myself very fortunate to have been allowed to spend a fair amount of time with or around Hanshi Higaonna when he lived here. He is a very kind, gentle, and humble man and great, great martial artist. As I said in one of my previous comments, I’ve known many (if not most) of those considered the greatest martial artists of our time. Some of them have been great martial artists but not so good as human beings – and especially after several water glasses of sake. Some I’ve met were truly great human beings but not so good as martial artists. But Hanshi Higaonna is one of a small handful who were truly great human beings and great martial artists.

What are your thoughts? Would applying The Two Edged Sword have been a better option? (This is not to in any way deprecate what he did. I certainly don’t know what is best, and most certainly not what would have been best for a far better man than I. I’m just playing Devil’s Advocate.)

A True Man of Peace

A few years ago, a reporter approached the teenage son of actors and liberal activists Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon. They asked the boy if he agreed with the very liberal views of his famous parents. I don’t remember what the teenager said. But after Robbins heard of the incident, he angrily stormed up to the reporter and told him that if he ever spoke to any of his children again, he would beat the living snot out of him. A comedian quipped that night on TV that Robbins would have beaten the reporter right then but couldn’t as he was late for a peace march.

Most non-martial arts have the mistaken belief that martial artists (and many in the military) love violence. They think it’s what attracted us to get involved in the martial arts, or join the military. But those who know the true and horrible costs of violence and war are often the most strongly against it.

An Okinawan man I know loved riding his bicycle, although his busy schedule only allowed him to do so on Sundays. He looked forward all week to his Sunday trips into the countryside, where he could peddle happily through the sugar cane fields, smelling the aromas of nature and feeling the wind in his face.

On one particular Sunday, he was peddling through a very busy Naha intersection on his way out of town. While attempting to make his way safely across, a taxi almost hit him. The driver slammed on the brakes, as did the bicyclist. The driver jumped out of his taxi, cursing and wanting to fight the bicyclist. The bicyclist was a humble man and apologized, then continued on his way.

But this would be his last bicycle trip. Because riding his bicycle had almost caused a fight and gotten someone badly hurt, he gave up riding his bike, to make sure the next incident didn’t end badly for someone.

That bicyclist was Hanshi Morio Higaonna, a true man of peace.

Morio Higaonna and I at Las Vegas tournament.

More great info from Val Mijailovic

I just watched this clip again and found a lot of very useful and insightful information, far more than just on the subject of sweeps. He talks about timing edges, off-side techniques, etc. This is the continuation of the clip I posted yesterday. Again, his entire sweep dvd is available through Masters Magazine.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iw_o9w1Flz8

This is a link for ordering his sweep dvd: http://www.em3video.com/em3%20DVDs/Masterclass%20Sweeping%20Techniques.html