Self Defense (asian martial art schools) And Psychological Preparedness
February 24th, 2008
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Being psychologically prepared is critical for self defense during an assault in the street. It is very important to be ready to repel the assailant (assailants) using all the means you have. Note that even being in not very good physical shape these means could be quite sufficient to disable your enemy (enemies).
For example, if you wear hard sharp-toe shoes, then kicking your enemy in groin or shank with the toe of such shoe (even if there are no years of practice behind this kick) immediately makes him writhe with pain for several moments. And this gives you enough time to either disable the enemy or simply run away.
Scratching facer using fingernails also causes pain shock to your enemy and makes him unable to resist for some time. Remembering how dangerous a furious cat can be for people is enough to understand this.
In several cases, a furious cat is known to make its owners hide in one of the rooms and wait for the police to come and help them. Police officers in this situation often have to use guns to protect themselves and rescue the owners of the animal.
Now let’s take a look at a cat, its weight is about 30 times less than that of a man. And this tiny thing can resist police officers armed with firearms. That’s one thing. The other thing is that a common schoolboy, who tortures a cat giving it a hard time, can cope with it, the cat doing nothing to protect itself.
Now you can see the difference between a man employing everything he has at hand to give furious resistance to an assault, and a man who does not resist at all or makes poor attempts to resist.
So we see, at one hand, the enraged and furiously attacking cat that a couple of armed policemen cannot restrain, and, on the other hand, a meek unresisting cat that a little boy can easily handle. The difference is very substantial. This example clearly shows that the more furious and fast you resistance, the more chances you have to win the fight.
I remember a story told me by my disciple about one weak man small in stature, who succeeded in protecting himself against a husky trained fellow with the black belt in taekwondo, who assaulted him.
This small man was so furious and fearless giving his much stronger offender a hail of blows (weak and unskilled as they were) as to shock the guy and made him only try to cover himself from the blows.
One would think what chances had this tiny, middle-aged man, who has never gone in for any sport in a fight against a young and well-trained in taekwondo school guy with the black belt. Any one would say he had no chance. However, it all turned out badly for no one, but the young insolent beggar.
Why, after all, the winner was that small man, who had no chance to win. It is very simple. The moment the fight began, he had his consciousness fully blocked; he acted automatically guided by his subconsciousness.
At the moment, he had nothing in his mind, but the enemy and the thought of disabling that enemy by any means possibly. At that moment, his consciousness was, as it were, at one with the Universe. He feared nothing since the sense of fear was gone from him.
He had neither diffidence nor other impeding factors, that’s why all his actions became TRUE ones. Even though he had not much power and skill, but all he had he putted in each blow. So that’s why, seemingly, with no chance to succeed he won the unequal fight.
Quite contrarily, his enemy was stiffened with fear and uncertainty as a result of this sudden and furious repel. Who could ever dare to attack him, as he was so strong and practiced fighter, he thought. Certainly not this small man, who, as it seemed, was supposed to be trembling with fear.
But it turned out so that it was that strong and trained beef, who had a weak spirit. At the critical moment, his will, composure and fighting skills failed him. He simply got scared and confused, and, as a result, was defeated by a weaker and less skilled opponent.
Alexander Popov is the leading expert in knife and hand-to-hand combat in the version of Spetsnaz GRU. Spetsnaz martial arts videos and ebooks: <a href="http://www.spetsnaz-gru-smersh.com" title="http://www.spetsnaz-gru-smersh.com" target="_blank">http://www.spetsnaz-gru-smersh.com</a>
Surefire way to increase your karate move flexibility
Before you begin your karate training I just only want to make sure you do some stretching first. It is basic but it is very important to improve your karate move flexibility. All of your muscle is subject to myotatic reflex. What the h**k is myotatic reflex? What is it doing with your karate training? Simply said, myotatic reflex is stretch reflex which opposes changes in muscle length, especially sudden or extreme changes. When a muscle lengthens beyond a certain point, the myotatic reflex causes it to tighten and attempt to shorten. This is the tension you feel during stretching exercises. In your karate training the myotatic reflex could prevent muscle strains and tears. Without the myotatic reflex your muscles would be allowed to overextend and tear easily. But it is also undesirable in cases where it prevents you from fully using your body. That is why stretching is important before you do your karate training. By stretching, you are entering the state where you gradually lessen the myotatic reflex little by little so you could teach your muscles a new limit of safe extension. I suggest your stretching must be slow and consistent. If you overstretch and injure the muscle, you have to go back to a lower level of flexibility and start over. Set your stretching for karate training goals over a period of weeks or months, not days, for best results. Now the question is what stretching method best for your karate training? There are three types of stretching method for your karate training: ballistic, dynamic, and static. Now I would not recommend a ballistic stretching for your karate training. By doing ballistic stretching you are using some type of moving pressure to stretch the target muscle. Why I said I would not recommend it? It is simply because ballistic stretching highly activates the myotatic reflex and causes the muscles to tense rather than relax, thus it has high risk that your karate training would end up by you taking injury. If you would like to increase your karate move flexibility it is best you are doing dynamic or static stretching. By doing dynamic stretching you are moving your muscle through its full range of movement, thus leading to greater flexibility in movement but should be done with caution so it does not become ballistic stretching (caution boy and gal, you dont want to get injured, do you?). To maintain a correct dynamic stretch, focus on smooth, even movements that do not shock the muscle. Examples of dynamic stretches are leg raises, knee raises, trunk circles, and arm circles. What about static stretching? Static stretching is a controlled stretch which means a specific muscle (or muscle group) is extended to the point of feeling slight pain and held in that position for ten to sixty seconds. And dont forget this during your karate training: when doing your static stretching it is best to concentrate on relaxing the target muscles and breathing deeply. Last but not least: begin your flexibility workout with several minutes of gross motor activity first in order to increase your blood flow. Making your blood flow increased improves the suppleness of the muscles. After that move to joint loosening exercises followed by dynamic stretches to the get the muscles moving freely. If you are working only on flexibility, do static stretches next. During your karate training, interspersing periods of static stretching throughout the workout works best because the range of motion increases as the body warms up. Do some light static stretches at the end of every workout to relax and refresh your muscles. Now you will learn what should not be done during your karate training. Stretching is important but do not overstretch it. A mild sensation of burning or pulling should be felt in the target muscles. It should be uncomfortable but not unbearable. Flexibility in karate is important, so is strength. Always increase your strength and flexibility together. Focusing too heavily on one side in your karate training will only making you have weakness. Dont let it happen especially when your opponent sees it and making advantage over you because of this. You should avoid bouncing too much during a stretch. Bouncing causes the muscles to tighten and heightens the risk of injury. If you ever feel pain in your joints during stretch exercise stop immediately and discontinue that exercise. Something not right and if you continue it will only making injury for you. Follow instructions for exercises carefully. There is right and wrong way to stretch every muscle. Good flexibility exercises are designed to provide a maximum stretch with a minimum risk of injury. When doing flexibility exercises that require bending at the waist, always bend from the hip, not the lower back. The lower back is extremely vulnerable to injuries. Do gravity assisted stretches with caution and only after fully warming up. Gravity assisted stretches are exercises like splits that use the force of gravity to increase the pressure on the stretch. Thats it! Now you have already understand how to increase your karate move flexibility and what should not be done during your training. Happy karate training.
To see more about my articles please visit http://completekarateinfo.blogspot.com
Tito Ortiz vs Chuck Liddell - It's on (again)
Chuck Liddell vs Tito Oriz - It’s on (again) Call me crazy, most people do, but I think Chuck Liddell is going to have a lot of trouble on December 30, 2006 when he faces Tito Ortiz for the second time. A little history first. On April 2, 2004, Tito Ortiz faced Chuck Liddell in the UFC octagon for the first time. It was supposed to be a war to end all wars, entitled “It’s On!” (i.e. it’s finally on), making reference to how long fans had to wait to finally see this match up. If memory serves me correctly, it was two years between when Chuck was considered the #1 contender and when we finally got to see the fight. I was at the 2004 fight, $350 seats which didn’t put me on the floor, but I was awfully close. It was a fantastic event, I’ve never been to a sporting event like it. There were about 10,000 people there, but it sounded like 50,000. There was so much energy and 99% of the people there were hard core fans, really into the fights. The fans that night were split about 50/50 with who they were rooting for. In the end, Chuck knocked Tito out early in the second round. Tito never did mount an offence and for some reason decided to stand and trade punches with Chuck instead of taking him to the mat. He says he was trying to prove something, I think it was just a bad game plan, derived loosly from Randy Couture’s victory over chuck previous to this (Randy also traded punches, and won…worth noting that Randy has lost to Chuck twice since then, both by knock out). So, what makes me think things will be different this time. Age, maturity, complacency, courage, cardio, experience and strategy. Age You see, both fighters are 2 1/2 years older. The difference being that Tito will be 31 vs Chuck’s 37. Anyone over 40 will tell you that there is a much bigger difference between 35 and 37 than there is between 29 and 31. Chucks a great athlete and champion, but we all slow down sometime. Maturity Again, we are not talking absolutes here, but relative. Relative to the fight 2 1/2 years ago, I think Tito has matured more than Chuck. He’s had time off to reflect, changes in his personal life and he still trains like he’s 25. Complacency I’m not even sure what that means, but if it means what I think it means, Chuck’s gotta be it. He’s won easily in his last few outings, hardly breaking a sweat. That’s gotta mess with your head. Courage Hey, lets be serious here. Tito was a little afraid of Chuck the first time around, but let me tell you something. Any man who’s willing to step into the bedroom with Jenna Jameson should have no trouble facing Chuck Liddell. Cardio Anyone who watch the Ulitmate Fighter season 3 knows that Tito is a cardio freak. Nobody trains cardio like Tito. On the other hand, while Chuck is a great fighter, he hasn’t been pushed for a very long time (since his first fight with Randy). Experience I’m talking recent experience here. Tito’s simply gone more rounds than Chuck in recent fights. Although, maybe that’s not quite true…his last two fights with Ken Shamrock didn’t even amount to a single round. Ok, this ones a non-issue. Strategy If Tito comes out with the same strategy as last time, I’ll write him off for good. It was flawed when Tito used it last time and things won’t change if he uses it again. On the other hand, if Tito is committed to making Chuck work, even if it’s repeatedly trying to avoid takedowns, at some point Tito’s superior cardio will take over. So there you have it, my final prediction, Tito Ortiz by ref stoppage. Could I be wrong? Of course I could, if the fight doesn’t make it to the 3rd round, or Tito can’t take him down, then it’s Chucks to win. If it goes 3 rounds or deeper, I’ll take Tito for sure. Also, if Tito can put Chuck on his back, then I’ll take Tito. One thing is for certain, I’ll be watching the fight on December 30th, on the edge of my seat!
<b>John is a huge MMA fan. Check out his MMA web sites below:</b>
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<a href="http://mma.gocurious.com/" target="_blank">Real MMA</a>
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<a href="http://mmaforums.gocurious.com/" target="_blank">Real MMA Forums</a>
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<a href="http://www.gocurious.com/" target="_blank">GoCurious.com</a>and<br>
http://www.gocurious.com/
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