Uechi-Ryu.com

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Van

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Van

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Van

Just think about all this...and ask yourself how well will you really do.

And...do you think you will really remember any of this when your time comes?

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Van

Really informative Van , Thanks

I agree excellent information, Van.

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Rick Wilson - http://wpd-rc.com/

Okay great stuff and a lot to ponder based on everything that van posted.

So while we are doing that I thought I would bring up something we can make a stab at addressing. Something that makes use of a common Uechi training.

Part One: The Rationale for doing this training

When we’re looking at what else to prepare for in an assault we need to look at what might put us into the freeze.

Rory states in his books that everyone freezes the only differences are: how long and can you recognize you are frozen and break the freeze.

Rory’s works have great material on the freeze and what might diminish or break the freeze.

One of the freezes is getting into a loop asking yourself “what is happening?” Rory says the sad thing about this freeze is that even if you do figure it out – by then it is too late.

As I said Rory has more on the freeze and I do not think there is any 100% sure way to diminish or help break the freeze except experience and you just hope you live through it.

That is not to say we should not try to prepare.

NLD and scenario training can at least bring you to some simulation of an assault but the safety failure is that they are not real and you know it, so simulations can only take you so far.

Visualization is a technique that has proven to be very strong for some people in training. Therefore thinking through scenarios and visualizing possible assaults may have an effect.

The obvious safety failure is they are nowhere near real but there are other more subtle ones. I see the other failure in that often when asked to visualize an assault the person will take the superman role and have no freeze, catch every attack before they are launched and never be placed in any real danger.

Perhaps the better visualization would be being struck un-expectantly and then be under a barrage assault. From that point visualize pulling yourself together and out of the situation. We actually have a drill called CQC to try and help with that.

Being hit can send people into a deep freeze.

So what physical training can we do to address at least this freeze in some part?

One of the trainings in in Uechi schools in some form or another is limb and body conditioning.

So if your training does not contain some form of full or heavy contact sparring similar to boxing, kickboxing or MMA then the next best thing is body conditioning.

The safety failure in body conditioning is that most of the time you know what strike is coming, where it is going to hit and when. That will not happen in an ambush and therefore it is a safety failure.

What conditioning can do for you is have you experience impact both receiving and giving. This can be disturbing if never experienced and can even cause a catastrophic failure.

Here is an example of where lack of contact might cause a large freeze not only because of the impact but the failure of the person’s training:

A few years ago I had a very nice guy call my dojo and want to drop in to train. He had 22 years in another Karate style and was a Yondan. He was visiting Edmonton and wanted to experience a different style. So he dropped in. In his system they did not do any contact sparring or systematic body conditioning but when a strike was thrown at the body they Kia’d to take the impact.

In my school we do a very systematic Foundation Conditioning Drill (see below or in David Elkin’s article).

He was very willing to take part.

Three things happened:

1. It took a lot to get him to actually contact with his strikes (particularly my female students).
2. When he was hit to the body he Kia’d and was dropped (completely dropped).
3. He was in a state of shock not only from the impact but because his training did not handle the blow.

Now I am not saying this to put him down or me up because with very little he got over everything and did just fine.

What had occurred was that his method of Kia was to expel all his breath and, evidently, in his school they punched “to” the target not “through” the target so by expelling all his breath he was never actually hit.

The impact (and it was not a full strike) from one of my students cut through him and the shock of actually being hit froze him and worse yet he was in a confused stated because he could not understand WHY his training failed.

As I said he was a good martial artists so with little effort he got over all of that in a hurry but the fact is if that had been the real world then the lack of real contact and the failure of his training may have put him into a disastrous freeze.

So I believe that we can in at least some part minimize the effect of contact causing a freeze if we have experienced contact. (Of course knocked out is still knocked out.)

Part Two will describe our foundation conditioning drills that should evolve over time in that once you are accustom to the impact you should begin to work each round differently going from take the hit to absorb the hit to avoid the hit through round 1, 2 and 3. This evolves the actions from the least desirable to the most desirable.

Keep in mind the safety failure of this drill – other drills can be created to try and address them at least in some part.

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Rick Wilson - http://wpd-rc.com/

Excellent stuff, Rick...keep it coming.

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Van

OK, Van here it comes.

Part three will be a video clip link with a few examples of the drills but not all of them.

Part Two: The Drills


Before I begin it is essential to note that when performing these drills you never go any harder than each partner wants to.

Here is the best place to demonstrate the respect that Martial Arts are to create. You have no idea how much opportunity your partner has had to condition. You do not know how hard they may have conditioned already that week.

Listen to your partner; if they ask you to go lighter you have to.

In addition there are strikes where your partner may not be able to hit YOU as hard as you might want because their weapon is either sore or not conditioned enough.

Conditioning might make you sore but it should never injure anyone.

Body Conditioning or Iron Shirt or Iron Body or Golden Bell (Qigong practices) has many variations and names. Uechi breathing is a must to handle the strikes to the body, as well as understanding the hard and soft of conditioning.

The essence of this training is to be able to take a strike to your body and continue protecting yourself; however, there is also so much more to it and what it can do for you.

Taking strikes does not mean that you become desensitized or destroy the nerves in your body. You can still feel something brush lightly against your skin.

It is not that you become totally invulnerable to the strikes and do not feel them. While your tolerance for taking strikes without pain certainly grows you do not reach a level where no one can make you “feel” it. I use the term feel rather than pain because you must learn to think of the pain in a different manner. You feel pain because something has happened to your body that could be damaging and this is the body’s warning signal. You do not want to shut down that system. However, you do want to place it under your control. So you “feel” the strikes. Thinking of the pain as “pressure’ can help. This allows you to place it aside when you need to and continue to protect yourself.

YOU DO NOT DO Body Condition so that you can choose to deliberately take a hit.

This is ill conceived in the street when the hand that hits might be holding a knife.

BUT the first indication you are being assaulted may be a hit and you have to get through that. Unless of course you’re knocked out then nothing will help you.

It is true that “if” you get hit, your conditioning can be a weapon. You can bounce the person’s strike disrupting their balance. You can actually have them injure their striking weapon, although they may not know it until the next day when the adrenaline wears off. You can also throw your weapons fearlessly.

Beyond this there is also an entirely different layer to Body Conditioning.

Body Conditioning is a tool that allows you to train properly.

First of all it allows you to strike an actual person. Regardless of any other tool, only hitting a person is like hitting a person. You must do it to understand this. Striking well-conditioned partners also requires you to strike properly before you have any effect.

If also allows you to learn to use the weapons contained in Uechi Ryu / Pangainuun. Therefore you are training the weapons of the system.

Once you have the very basic conditioning you begin to use perform them in a different manner that raises the level. Here your partner is moving towards you or you are moving towards them and striking. This begins to teach you to attack the attacker. It incorporates the weapons of Uechi Ryu thus teaching you how to apply the weapons of the system.

In addition often the first indication you have of an assault is being struck. Being hit when you have not experienced contact can create deep freeze. You will either have to break the freeze or minimize it by experiencing contact. So if you training does not include full or heavy contact training similar to boxing, kickboxing or MMA then a systematic approach to train you to take a hit and deliver hit is required and these drills help address that issue.

WPD-RC BODY AND LIMB FOUNDATION CONDITIONING


Step One: Basic Body Conditioning


Here you simply accept kicks to different parts of your body and strike back with a punch. This trains you to take a hit and hit back immediately.

It is VERY important that you work on striking properly with mass and that you penetrate through the target. Slapping each other with ineffectual strikes is a pointless waste of time. Constantly work on how to generate power. Strike with less speed if your partner cannot take your power but strike solid, aiming to penetrate through your partner. Land ON your weapon delivering mass. If you bounce off your partner when you strike then you are not grounded and do not have connected mass. As your conditioning improves so must your striking.

As your conditioning increases introduce the weapons of Uechi Ryu: toe kicks, shokens (one knuckle strikes), hirakens (Tiger paws), boshikens (thumb knuckle heel palms etc. HOWEVER, take a step back and start lightly. This will protect you as you develop the proper structure of these weapons and it will protect your partner from the increased effectiveness of these strikes.

You MUST have a conditioning and striking foundation to progress to the advanced levels of this training.

NOTE: Once you become conditioned you can shift to work move advanced skill sets:

Round 1 (2, 3): Take the hit
Round 2 (4): Absorb the hit
Round 3 (5): Avoid the hit.

But to begin do all rounds taking the hit.


Foundation Conditioning Drills


We do the drill with three to six people in a triangle or circle (although they can be done in pairs). Four people is the best. This way you can watch each other's technique and get feedback by having your technique observed. It also allows recovery time.
After each kick the receiver punches to the striker's body.
Really helps you keep the breathing in place at all times. If you want to add a little spice throw a second punch in.
The purpose of this is to train you to strike back the moment you are hit.

Do however many rounds you want. I like three over the five because it takes less time.

You go each drill set one way and then the other to complete that drill set.

The drills:

Remember after each kick you strike back to the body!

1) Rear Leg Front kick: The first kick is mid-level or slightly lower. The receiver raises their leg in a crane block. The kicker delivers the kick to the shin. The kicker then kicks the receiver's thigh, and then kicks the receiver in the stomach. (Toe kicks should be used. I highly recommend that you train them.)

2) Rear Leg Roundhouse kick: This is delivered with the shin. The first roundhouse is blocked by the receiver with a crane block. (They can turn the shin out if both parties don't mind). The second is delivered to the receiver's thigh. The receiver then raises their arm so that they can be kicked up into the ribs. (Use body compression to protect the ribs and start light or you will break them.) The optional fourth kick (the only drill with four kicks) is thrown at the head. The receiver can challenge it with their forearm (but a true through kick will break a forearm), it is better to practice a dead arm block that absorbs the power. Don't forget to strike back after you have been kicked. (Note: We don’t always do the head kick but it is good to be prepared for one.)

3) Rear Leg Side Kicks: The first round house is blocked by the receiver with a crane block (the kick is delivered directly on the shin). The second is delivered down onto the thigh of the receiver. The third is delivered into the receiver's stomach. You will quickly discover the heel is the best part of the foot to kick with. Those who advocate using the side of the foot have not kicked a shin yet with a bare foot yet but since you will be wearing shoes – can you tilt the foot? If you can, then a shoe will do fine on the knife edge.

4) Lead Leg Roundhouse Kick: (No crane block by the receiver.) The first kick goes to the inside shin, the second the inside thigh and the third to the midsection (again, as conditioning is the aim, you need to raise your arms to give the target). (We have found that, to start, it is best to turn the body towards the kick slightly in the beginning, so that the kick comes up into the stomach and not the floating rib.) Don't forget to strike back after every kick.

5) Combination: No movement by the receiver. The first kick is a rear leg roundhouse to the receiver's outer thigh, do not draw the leg back but place it down close to the receiver. The second kick is an oblique kick (instep kick) delivered with the toes turned outward. This goes to the inside thigh of the receiver's rear leg. The last kick is a front leg side kick to the receiver's stomach. Don't forget to strike back on the first two kicks. Note: When taking the oblique kick make sure you shift to point your toes towards the kicker or you will endanger your knee.

6) Intu-Flow Kick: This kick comes from Scott Sonnon’s Intu-Flow Figure Eight and is a deceptive kick that can sneak into the groin. No movement by the receiver. The rear leg kicks much lick a front kick but off-centre across the body then curves heel in and toe out to toe kick the inner thigh. The next kick is the same except to the stomach. Don't forget to strike back.

7) Arm conditioning: Each partner holds their arm up so the back of the arm can be struck. Work on dead hand and sinking. Then the inside forearm is struck.

8. Forearm Drill: The receiver has their hands up by their head in a protective position. The deliverer swings both a left and a right inside forearm strikes at their head. The receiver blocks these with their outer forearm. After the last block strike (NO CONTACT) to the deliverer's head. (While technically it is the same drill you can choose to do these both ways like the kicks.)

* The above form our main Foundation limb and body conditioning the following just add to the fun.

7) Kotakitai (Arm Rubbing and Pounding):

Arm Rubbing:

Face your partner standing in Sanchin with your lead legs set about the centre of your partner’s body. Raise your lead arms with palms up; place your inner forearm against your partner’s. Thrusting out shear your forearm against your partner’s as you press towards their head rotating your arm over to the palm position. Your partner will be doing the same. Concentrate on the shearing action.

Make sure you use proper body mechanics.

I do this with hands open my teacher prefers it be done with the hands in a fist. He feels there is a danger the arm may slip past your partner and endanger their eyes.

Arm Pounding:

Stand in opposite stances: Partner A in left stance and Partner B in right.

i) Partner A steps in with a reverse punch (e.g. Right hand) to their Partner B’s solar plexus.
ii) Partner B steps back through guide blocking the punch with their right hand, and then uses their left hand or more specifically their left inner forearm to strike shearing the inner forearm of Partner A. Then Partner B uses their right hand to perform the major arm movement of the Wauke, then uses their left hand to strike down on the arm of Partner A (forearm or bicep.)
iii) Partner B steps in and Partner A repeats step ii.

9) WPD Six Point Star:

Stand facing each other in a horse stance.

Using the same arms (e.g. right) each partner does the following with the sole purpose of smashing and shearing into their partner’s arms:

i) Swing your arm downward with palm rotated to the outside so that the top of your forearms clash.
ii) Draw your arm towards yourself and swing it upward bending at the elbow (heading to Sanchin position) so that you clash inner forearms.
iii) Drop your arm straight down rotating the palm to face yourself so that you clash outer forearms.
iv) Swing the arm up trying to strike your partner’s head with a crossing Shuto (going from on shoulder across the body to the other shoulder) clashing outer forearms.
v) Pull the arm back towards yourself and pull it across your body (do not lower it) then strike to your partner’s head with a Shuto (done just as in Uechi Kata) clashing outer forearms.
vi) Draw the arm back slightly and turn the palm down and strike to your partner’s head with a ridge hand clashing the inner forearms

Repeat with the other arm and then as many times as you wish.


10) Wrist Banging: Stand in Sanchin with one arm hanging down you bang your nasty outer wrist bones together. Then bang then inner bone together. Set a number to do.

11) Forearm banging: Stand in the same Sanchin stance and using your forward arm rotate from the palm up position to the palm down position striking your forearm out towards your partner’s head. They will do the same shearing and clashing your outer forearms together. Alternate arms.

12) Shin Banging: Stand in the same stance and face your partner. Swing a low roundhouse kick across the space between you with the rear leg. Allow the shins to clash but be careful and do not over do it.

If you need more body conditioning, although I would doubt it, or if you only have a little time and want to work the body, try this one:

Extra Body conditioning: Described with a left kick starting, reverse for the other direction. The deliverer kicks the receiver's outer thigh as they place their foot close to the receiver in a right Sanchin stance they deliver a downward strike to the receiver's solar plexus. By pivoting from the right Sanchin stance into a left Sanchin they use mass to deliver right uppercut into the receiver's left side of their stomach. They pivot back into to a right Sanchin to deliver a left upper cut into the receiver's right side of their stomach. They pivot again to deliver a downward right hand strike to the upper chest. They pivot a final time to deliver a downward left hand strike to the other side of the upper chest. (Going lighter when striking over the heart.)

Important Notes for Body Conditioning


 A couple of really important points is to have everyone leave their egos at the door

 LAUGH a lot! Ya gotta have fun with it.

 For these drills proper Sanchin will make accepting the strikes far easier and will begin to exemplify why Sanchin is as it is.


Video clips showing some of the above drills to follow...

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Rick Wilson - http://wpd-rc.com/

One important point is that usually when you are accosted/ambushed on the street...you have already been "professionally" assessed as someone that can be taken and they have already started setting up a win scenario.

So, you are is WAY behind the curve. What 'signals' did you project to get 'chosen'?

And _generally a face on face fight is unwise and destructive, seek his flank or seek his back.

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Van

Great post Rick...the video clips should be interesting.

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Van

This clip is a segment of the 2011 IUPA black belt test. I had two candidates and in the drill Stan one of my black belts help me add participants to the drill to get the level of intensity I wanted. Stan is opposite me (I am in black).

It is important to note that this drill immediately follows about 30 minutes of the candidates doing a kata then a body weight exercise from Scott Sonnon’s TacFit Commando (8 rounds 20 seconds of exercise with 10 seconds of rest). The purpose was to fatigue them for the rest of the test dealing with more "fight" related drills.

I am hitting Chris who is a Uechi Sandan that wanted to train and test with me. He does other body and limb conditioning drills but not these which is why you may see a little hesitation or instructions as he does them.

Weekly body and limb conditioning should really be done at a moderate level and only now and then cranking it up to see where you are at – like on a test.

http://wpd-rc.com/blog/wpd-foundation-c ... ng-drills/

Let me know if the link doesn’t show a clip I’ve had a little trouble with the internal link to the clip disappearing.

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Rick Wilson - http://wpd-rc.com/

Great drill Rick. ( as usual with your stuff!). Two things jump out at me on this topic, and both are bad.

One, not being able to take a hit. Body conditioning helps, and certainly a background in a contact sport like football, rugby, hockey, etc helps. However, getting hit in the face is often a show stopper. When we do it accidently in the dojo we usually stop and apologize-bad habit to break. A little bit of boxing with 16 oz. gloves and headgear works to break that habit. I remember Tyson's trainer's quote, " Everybody has a plan until they get hit."

Two, not being able to hit somebody. very common in karate because of the kind of personality that good karate attracts i.e. polite, reserve, respectful.We train a lot of deadly strikes, eye gouge, testicle grabs and so on, but what wpuld be our default strategies when sh*t meets fan? We do need to consider this when we train. No sense training a lot of stuff we couldn't ever use.

And I know your not a big fan of prearranged kumite Rick, but this drill uses the same principles of a good dan kumite or yakusoku kumite, especially if the attacker tries to strike through the defender.Also the contact in kumite can be a good test of your blocking and conditioning if you work it that way.(And yeah, I just love the give and take of kumite and hard bunkai.)

Good stuff, Rick and Joe.

This is very true and very useful. I also found hard free style sparring, as Walter and I, just one example of the many of us, did in tournament competition, where light contact to the head was a safety consideration_ but full contact to the body and sweeps were allowed.

I am a firm believer in 'operant conditioning' especially when it comes to put our formal training into practice, under the most common street attacks. You will do as you train without even realizing it.

At our dojo we have the 'Bob dummy' which not only provides excellent feedback of our abilities and effectiveness of our strikes_ but also programs us to hit the essential targets and penetrate the same according to workable concepts.

This implement quickly makes a martial artist 'honest' as to his abilities along lines of force and directions.

You can find and strike vital points on BOB to learn how to stop an advancing attacker. You can hit BOB's throat, along with his eyes, nose, mouth, solar plexus, and stomach...while using the Uechi techniques in kata.

You can Stand with your back against BOB and practice defending yourself from this vulnerable position: elbows to the ribs and reverse head butts to the nose/mouth area, etc.

This will program into 'muscle memory' where to hit, how to hit and how effective the hit will be by the 'feedback' of the dummy.

We have a few of us who can knock down this 270 lb 'brute' as you will see here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oICRCZPcPw

We combine the 'Bob' training with the 'on the floor' heavy bag training to program low kicks 'under the radar'...the bag will give you the feedback you need as to your KO power.

There is also another aspect to this type of training that needs to be kept in mind:

By repeatedly striking and kicking the BOB and the bag, you activate all of the major muscles groups in your body. The arms, shoulders, waist, and leg muscles must be coordinated and conditioned. This training also builds athletic qualities such as speed, power, balance, timing, and coordination.

This facilitates the gross motor response action congruent with 'fight or flight'_

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Van

Other benefits of Bob and floor bag training:

A punch or kick accelerates from the time you initiate it until it's fully extended. The further a limb moves, the faster and the more powerful it will be. Strike the bag at a point near full extension. Penetrate the bag no more than a few inches beyond it's surface and try to generate a clean "popping" sound on impact. Take care however, never to lock out or hyper extend your joints on impact or if you miss the bag.

Holding your breath:

When people exert themselves, they tend to hold their breath. This is a bad habit. First of all it reduces your endurance by starving your body of oxygen when it needs it most. Secondly, you increase thoracic pressure and can injure yourself. ("blow a nut" in layman's terms) Exhale as you strike or kick. This prevents breath holding and enhances power by tensing the muscles of your torso.

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Van