Strength and skill for women

[Dana Sheets]

Van has a interesting thread going on about size vs skill and who will be the likely winner.

That being said - most women aren't going to be able to power through a 6' tall attacker. Most men weight more than most women, men have more muscle mass than women by genetics.

So as a woman training to defend yourself where to you place your emphasis in training?

And please..."train it all" is not the answer I'm looking for. You simply can't train everything every class. Most of us probably train between 4 and 10 hours a week. So how do you break down that time? Or better yet - how do you cycle classes so you can cover the incredible amount of material that needs to be addressed for self-defense?

Is technique and mindset so important that you spend most of class time on that and hope that women are doing strength exercises on their own?

Or do you spend more time on strength and technique and hope they develop mindset and cardiovascular endurance on their own?

Do you teach mindset at all? Is that "traditional" martial arts?

Most schools devote one class per week to sparring. How many devote one entire class per week to mindset? Which is more important to self-defense?

Dana

[Rick Wilson]

This is a very interesting question and one that I have been approaching for years now.

A number of years ago when I was teaching at my first Uechi Teacher’s school I was working on various methods to deal with roundhouse kicks. After teaching the class I ended up talking to a guy (Rick Bottomley) who ended up becoming a close friend and training buddy.

I asked Rick what he thought of my class, he said it was okay, but then he asked why bigger guys always taught jamming techniques and what were the women and smaller men in the class going to do in real life.

Well, that started an entirely different voyage in my training and what was to become the focus of my teaching.

Rick and I began to approach every situation with the question: What would you do if the person was bigger and stronger than you?

You see people who are strong will always have their strength and will always apply it, but that doesn’t mean they can’t apply it smarter.

There is a mistaken belief that in martial arts you do not use strength, this is incorrect. You always use your strength against the aggressor’s weakness.

So I began looking at everything from this perspective: the aggressor is bigger and stronger. I always say that it is very rare when someone comes up and says: You’re much bigger and stronger than me I think I will attack you.”

What I teach should be able to be done by everyone.

I always ask the strong guys what if the guy is six seven and pumped up on PCP? They must approach self protection the same way.

In class the other night I was doing a drill and one of my student’s, who is very strong, was applying his strength against his partner’s strength and over powering him. I corrected him and advised him to use his strength against the weak points; however, I could see that “look” of “my strength has always been good enough.” So I grabbed him. Now my student is a strong guy but so am I. After over a minute of trying to out muscle me and not succeeding he agreed to try applying his strength against my weakness and I went flying.

I teach Kata and fighting, not sparring. What we teach is taking the kata to application and applying it for self protection. This includes adrenaline training and warrior presence (mindset).

My curriculum mainly consists of:

Kata
Strategic Application of Uechi Principles (my school’s Kumites not the traditional ones)
Strategic Application of Uechi Principles in impromptu attacks (NLD: Soft adrenaline training)
Body conditioning:
1) Foundation Drills that focus: on how to strike HARD, on taking and absorbing a hit, and on hitting back the moment you are hit.
2) Advanced Drills that focus on attacking the attacker, using the weapons of Uechi Ryu, painfully teaches why Sanchin is the position for in close, and moves into fast hands fighting.
Kata bunkai not preset
Qigong
Hard Adrenaline training: HIGH GEAR

We have other supplemental systems like dealing with knife attacks, using weapons, ground fighting (which to me is just Uechi on the ground) etc. but they all relate back to the above.

Everything above is done to address self protection.

By the way the School’s Kumites and training NLD will soon be available on tape from George Sensei (shameless plug).

How do we teach all of that? Yes it is tough. It is a matter of cycling it through the school over time.

The only real constants are kata and the body conditioning.

Body conditioning is not just standing and taking it but also how to absorb it. Body conditioning is how to strike HARD. Body conditioning is the “mindset” of attacking the attacker. Body conditioning is the effective use of Uechi Weapons. For all those who slam shokens and tiger paws etc. you are welcome to take part in this training because it will be a painful education.

Beyond that we always work on applying the principles of Uechi Kata in some fashion although this varies and I tend to experiment a lot.

Not sure what else I can add in a simple post.

[Van Canna]

Rick,

One hell of a post. Best yet.

[Van Canna]

Rabesa

usually it is better to go into the attack rather than away from it. I realize this goes against all rational thinking on your part. But it simply neutralizes the momentum of your opponent, especially if he is on the large side.

Rabesa

**
Rabesa

In the tournament wars of the sixties, I found quite a few mountains to climb. I quickly realized that moving away from these trees would speed up my retirement. After ending up in the spectators seats a few times, I started working on the forward rather than the backward approach.

In attacking- certain techniques I found that I was not being hit because I could cut off my opponent’s progress.

**

once you get inside a bigger opponent you have to react quickly with explosive power. Quickness is important but you’d better have some bombs to take along with you. It takes practice to be successful against larger opponents and a little something that I haven’t mentioned yet: gutsThat’s something that is almost impossible to teach.

Rabesa

Bigger and stronger? You either run or engage. Dancing around playing with footwork will make you die or be raped in a tired state.

If you engage, attack the attack bringing some "bombs" with you, if you have them, if you don't, at least be ready to Kill him to survive by scalation to deadly force, kept at the ready.

[Rick Wilson]

Thanks, Van.

"If you engage, attack the attack bringing some "bombs" with you, if you have them, if you don't, at least be ready to Kill him to survive by escalation to deadly force, kept at the ready."

Words to "live" by.

[Dana Sheets]

Rick,

I can only echo what Van said. There is tons to chew on in your post. And I hope it helped several folks reflect on what they're teaching and why.

we always work on applying the principles of Uechi Kata in some fashion

Which is why I feel that a student who only does the pre-arranged kumites, pre-arranged bunkai, and point sparring in their training is missing out on training many of the principles of Uechi. Uechi is not a large system, but it is full of combat principles that don't look like point sparring or one-step (backward) drills. The core principles of self-protection in Uechi that are useful and effective to women are hinted at in Seisan Bunkai -- but that too only scratches the surface.

Shouldn't there be equal emphasis on skill in technique AND understanding the principles that make the technique work?

[Van Canna]

Rick,

I can only echo what Van said. There is tons to chew on in your post. And I hope it helped several folks reflect on what they're teaching and why.

we always work on applying the principles of Uechi Kata in some fashion

Which is why I feel that a student who only does the pre-arranged kumites, pre-arranged bunkai, and point sparring in their training is missing out on training many of the principles of Uechi. Uechi is not a large system, but it is full of combat principles that don't look like point sparring or one-step (backward) drills. The core principles of self-protection in Uechi that are useful and effective to women are hinted at in Seisan Bunkai -- but that too only scratches the surface.

Shouldn't there be equal emphasis on skill in technique AND understanding the principles that make the technique work?

Hi Dana,

Sobering comments, I can see the FAST reality training in them. You are a big [huge] step above the traditional dojo dreamer.

As to tradition, the following is a big improvement over what we now do, and more is better, such as modern training concepts.

The old Wakayama Dojo where Kanbun taught was only 6 tsubo with a hard-packed dirt floor. One tsubo is 3.954 sq. yards –

The working space of the dojo was 4 tsubo (Kanbun’s personal living space was the other 2 tsubo).

Jiyu kobo was taught in this tight little space --breathing-in-your-face close. There being no room to back off , one had to learn to stop an attack in the first move or two FAST, or get crunched into the wall or the supporting post.

This involved full force, unrehearsed, random attacks , such as one could expect on the street. No prearranged play at all.

This is reality-training. There were no lines in the floor, no spacious dojo for chasing back and forth -- one was attacked and "killed", or he "killed" his
attacker -- like two animals in a cage.