ElusiveFighter

Vaheguru ji ka Khalsa Vaheguru ji ki Fat-heh, Good martial arts are always uncannily similar....! Many students ask how to relax, in fighting, especially when performing push hand type drills. Practice to the point when it becomes soft and your hands become so sensitive you can feel them pushing the air. The softness/grace, comes from confidence, confidence comes from knowledge, knowledge comes from practice, practice comes from discipline and treating your martial art like a religion. Tai Chi Ch’uan, which I consider a high level martial art (although the majority of 'commercial' teachers don’t know the true combat applications arising from it) has many high level universal fighting principles which can easily be applied to other martial arts. Use of the whole body (not individual muscles) to generate power/attack/manipulate, focus on the waist movement, using natural postures (not replicating animals), using intelligent positioning and footwork, making correct hand postures a habit, constant focus on basics, learning to root/sink your body weight.... secret to success/progress... practice! Some great martial wisdom and philosophy from who is evidently a very wise and humble Master. Enjoy, be inspired and most importantly... relate it back to your own learning/knowledge. Five principles of good Tai Chi Ch'uan skills An interview with Mr. Benjamin Lo of San Francisco. Five basic principles for the development of good Tai Chi Ch'uan skills, emphasized by Mr. Benjamin Lo, are: 1) Relaxation. 2) Separating Ying from Yang. 3) Turning the waist. 4) Keeping the body upright. And 5) Maintaining the hand like a beautiful lady s hand. Lo, who teaches in the San Francisco area, puts first the most difficult of the principles: relaxation. "People always say to me, 'You always emphasize relaxation. But how do I do it?' I say, 'Do the form.' That's the only way. A lot of people ask me: 'Do you have any special posture that can help me relax?' I say yes. They ask, 'What?' I say: 'Do the form.'" "If we had some other kind of posture or form that will help your body relax, we wouldn't be teaching you Tai Chi Ch'uan. We would be teaching you that. But so far, we haven't found those kinds of things." Lo said relaxation involves the entire body at the same time, "not just one wrist, one palm, on leg, etc." "We want your whole body relaxed at the same time. So far as I know, Tai Chi Ch'uan does this. Of course, other kinds of martial arts maybe have this, too. But I don't know." Lo's second important principle is separating Yin from Yang. "Yin and Yang are Chinese words and have the meaning insubstantial and substantial. Sometimes in ordinary talk about Tai Chi Ch'uan we discuss separating the weight. But that is not exactly right." "I can put my weight on one leg and the other leg has no weight. But in the meantime, the other leg can be stiff, too. The Yin has to be soft and have no weight. Soft and relaxed. But at the same time mixed together. Even the Yang leg has to be relaxed." "Even if you don't use force, your arm can be tense. That's because we are human beings. We have our limitation. But we try to use less muscle than we usually do." "Most people use 10% of their muscles, but maybe we use five or four or three percent at the senior level. You can't say completely don't use muscles. When you need it, you use it. When you don't need it, relax." During push hands, Lo, who has practiced over 40 years, said the goal is to use internal strength and to avoid the use of force. "Usually, I tell my students don't use force. Instead, use sung. How do you translate sung? Relaxation is not an exact translation. Relaxation can just be collapse but that is not the meaning of sung." Lo said there are different degrees of relaxation and that in push hands this often becomes apparent. "If you meet someone who is better at push hands, then you become hard. When they meet someone who is better than them, they become hard. That's the reason we have to practice and practice. It is a lifetime challenge. There is no end." He also said that softness can be like water, which can become very strong, or wind, which is soft, but can have the power of a tornado and destroy a city. As to how a student can combine and separate softness and strength, he said: "The student has to slowly practice. practice. And practice." "I always tell the student, 'If I tell you and you can get it right away, that's learning. But if I tell you and you can't get it right away, then you have to slowly practice until you get it. gradual practice over a period of time. Without practice you can't get it. If after people have told you and you can't get it then it's because you haven't practiced." Practice, Lo said, involves patience and perseverance. "Students want to find the good teacher. Why? Because he can show them the right direction. If you have the right teacher, a good teacher, it is still not a guarantee that you will be good. You have to practice. Sometimes both teacher and student have the frustration. But you have to be patient and keep practicing." "I tell people when they learn Tai Chi Ch'uan that patience is not enough because people always lose patience. So I tell people you have to have perseverance. We have never heard of people losing perseverance." "Patience is good but it is not enough. After five years you can quit. I have seen people practice 20 years and quit. If you have 20 years patience, it is pretty good, but if you have it a lifetime, then we call it perseverance." "Of course, a lot of people quit. Of course, teachers feel frustrated, too. Sometimes they feel, 'I put a lot of time and energy in and these people cannot learn.' So the teacher needs a lot of patience and perseverance too." The inner struggle that goes on during the study and practice of Tai Chi Ch'uan is also important, Lo said. And this involves the student's having to fight with himself first. "When you practice Tai Chu Ch'uan, it is not just physical. You try to make your willpower stronger, too. When your willpower is stronger, you won't easily quit. Everybody feels frustration, including myself. But you have to overcome it. Otherwise, nobody can help you." "This part is pretty difficult. That's why we have to struggle inside. Some people can take a lot of pressure. Some people collapse easy. Everybody has a different capacity." Push hands, he said, requires the same emphasis on the five principles as the form and it has the added value of enabling students to check on their own development, whether it be relaxation or form. "I always tell my students, 'Your partner is your teacher when you practice push hands.'" "Usually, people get better," Lo said. But he said he tells students not to expect straight or steady improvement, rather in a curve that can go up and down. "You have to keep practicing. When you breakthrough, then you jump up. But sometimes you can stay in one place and can't break through. When we reach a certain level, we think that's our limit. But nobody knows our potential. I think the student should always be better than the teacher." But he said that students should not compare their progress with other people. "Compare with yourself. For instance, before you practiced Tai Chi Ch'uan every year you caught colds often and got sick often. After practice, you get sick less." "Or, after you practice many years, it never happens. That's great. That means to compare with yourself. If you compare yourself with other people then you make trouble for yourself." However, he added, that sometimes it is good to compare oneself with others because other people can be a source of stimulation for practice. "Sometimes people ask me if U.S. students can do good Tai Chi Ch'uan. And I always answer, 'Why not?' Chinese and American students are no different. The main thing, somehow, is that American students need more discipline. All the teachers have the same feeling like that. Without discipline, you can't stay long. Otherwise, within a few years you quit. "I think it is based on cultural background. Chinese say, 'Okay, I practice Tai Chi Ch'uan and if it takes 10 years, then okay.' But here, in 10 months they must have some result." Regarding goals in practice, Lo said: "When I started Tai Chi Ch'uan, I was very ill. I was sick very bad. I could walk maybe 15 yards. Do you think I had a goal? Sure, I wanted to recover my health. Then I practiced and got healthy and then I wanted to keep this way." "Later, when I began teaching, I wanted to be healthy and keep on with my research and study. Of course, everybody has limitations, including myself. But I just do my best. That's what I tell my students. If you feel you are doing your best, then that's okay." Lo's five major points also include turning the waist, keeping the body upright and maintaining the hand like a beautiful lady's hand. You have to follow the five, he said. "If you can't follow the five, then follow four. Of course, it is better to follow four than to follow three. But it's still not good. It is better to follow all five." Of the five principles, the first one, relaxation, is the most difficult, he said. The other four, he said, everyone can do. "You don't even have to know Tai Chi Ch'uan to do them perfectly. The problem is that when you put them together, you can't do it, especially when your legs start burning, aching, shaking and you forget about all the principles. A lot of people are like this." "It is all very, very simple but it is hard to do it. Talk is easy. One minute you can know the five principles, but maybe in 50 years you won't get it, especially relaxation." "Everybody thinks that they are relaxed, but when you meet somebody better than you, you become hard. So we can't be perfect. It is a lifetime challenge. We just keep doing and doing. Just the basic things."

By Jesse Crouch Mixed Martial Arts and Competitive Fighting vs. Reality: How Rules Change Fighting Summary: Real fighting is very different from competitive rules-based fighting and one should never be equated to the other. Competitive fighting should, however, maintain rules for the sake of fighters' safety. Many people believe that competitive fighting, particularly mixed martial arts (MMA) is a very realistic example of how real world fighting works. However, reality is extremely different from competitive fighting including mixed martial arts. Fighting with any sort of rule set and prescribed environment greatly alters how a fight would actually happen. I write this post to dispel the myth that competitive fighting = reality. Key points: Fights in real life are almost nothing like boxing matches, wrestling matches or even mixed martial arts fights Practicing martial arts will probably help your real-world fighting abilities Competitive fighting will help your real-world fighting abilities, despite the two being very different I hope this post serves as a good reference point for people who get in the religious debates over just how real MMA is. There's a lot of information about martial arts in general, history and other topics in this article. You should read the whole thing. I'm going to pick on MMA in particular in this post because of its current popularity and because it is, in the competitive fighting world, almost the closest you can can get to real-world fighting. Fights in real life are almost nothing like boxing matches, wrestling matches or even mixed martial arts fights I have studied both competitive matches (boxing, muay thai, kendo, escrima, mixed martial arts, judo, brazilian jiu-jitsu, tae kwon do) and real fights. It is often difficult to make a comparison as most street fights do not have trained fighters involved. It is easy, however, to make the observation that there are certain things that happen in real fights that would never happen in competitive ones that can, and usually do, greatly alter the outcome of a fight. Two main factors: Rules Organization and environment Rules Here's a non-comprehensive summary of rules you will find in competitive fights that do not exist in street fights: NO: Small joint (wrist, fingers) locks Eye gouging Fish hooking (finger in opponents mouth) Fingers in any hole of opponents body Groin shots Hair pulling Neck or back (spine) shots Kidney shots Head butting Biting Pinching or twisting flesh Throat strikes or grabs Clawing Spitting Using your surroundings as makeshift weapons Elbow strikes Knee strikes Kicking, kneeing or sacrifice falling on a grounded opponent Grappling opponents garments Verbal abuse Clothing requirements Running away It doesn't take much imagination to figure out how some of these things would alter a fight. Much of these refer to what I call equalization techniques. Pinching, finger locks, biting, groin shots, eye gouging and the like are all techniques that could very easily disrupt an opponents technique or even end a fight. They're techniques that don't require a lot of strength, but can create dramatic reactions. They're techniques that can be performed by 4 year olds and 80 year olds. "Running away" seems to be a joke, but it's true. If you're comparing a street scenario to competitive fighting you can't dismiss the idea that after you stun an opponent or even before you make contact that you have the possibility of just running away and thus "winning". I knew a great fighter who won many of his muay thai matches by verbally abusing his opponent before the round started. "Your mom", "your sister", etc. The opponent would get emotionally entangled and his technique would be severely compromised. It sounds like a silly thing, but it's a legitimate technique and I've had multiple instructors teach verbal and psychological training right alongside fighting technique. This isn't just about pissing off your attacker either; one of the best techniques anyone can have is knowing how to stop a fight before it even starts. Some of these things seem funny, but they're effective. I once had a Kali instructor tell me about old men in the Philippines spitting chewing tobacco at tin cans on fence posts from 10+ feet away as training. There is also another scenario: In real life, these 'dirty' equalization techniques could have this subduing effect, but there's another, usually unconsidered, possibility: the guy lets you break his wrist, finger, arm. When you're fighting for your life or maybe just to hurt another person people will take considerable risks to their bodies. I have spoken with multiple prison guards who have told me they no longer train small joint manipulation because most prisoners would rather punch you in the face and have some broken fingers than do nothing at all if they have the chance. These guys train exclusively for techniques that allow them to control the entire body, not just make the person tap from pain. Organization and environment A huge component to competitive fighting that may not be listed in any rulebook, but is an integral part of the sport is the organization of it and environmental factors such as a ring. Some examples: Rounds Standardized fighting arena, generally a blank, even canvas Weight classes One on one fighting No makeshift weapons Again, not much imagination here to understand why it's so very different, but I'll expand upon these anyway. One of the biggest things here is the place where you fight. There's a ring, a square, a rectangle, an octagon. It's well lit. You've got room to move and you know exactly how much. The floor beneath you is something safe to fall on, not concrete, blacktop, dirt, mud or rocks. There are no obstacles in it.. no dumpsters, no trees, no parking bumps.. not even a change in ground angle. You won't slide, unexpectedly. You won't have to worry about falling and being able to slap the ground to break your fall because there isn't a parking bump you can wrench your arm on. This is a big deal because it directly affects certain fighting styles, particularly ground fighting. One of the things I hear a lot that bugs me is "ground fighting is the best fighting to learn and all you need to learn because all fights go to the ground". Ground fighting gets a disproportionate amount of attention these days due to its efficacy in the UFC. I don't doubt the efficacy of ground fighting in a ring, but you see a lot of fighters rely on it and willingly drop themselves to the ground because it's where they're most comfortable. Makes a lot of sense... in the ring. Reasons you don't want to go to the ground in real life: Concrete, blacktop, rocks, even dirt ground can cause you serious injury if you roll, scrape, even nudge around on it Multiple attackers possible There's no "don't kick him while he's down" rule Weapons could be involved. This is an expansion on the previous point You're in no position to start running away Certainly there is a lot to be learned from training ground fighting and it will probably be applicable in real life. However, you probably don't want to go to the ground as your first defense in real life. Effectiveness of martial arts in real life Many style-mongers and 'experts' will make claims to the efficacy of their arts in real-life scenarios. Most of these claims, very honestly, are crap. However, there are quite a few arts that teach these things: Most styles of Filipino Martial Arts (FMA) specifically train to exploit 'dirty' techniques such as groin shots, joint wrenches, eye gouging, biting, pinching and finger locks. Dirty techniques similar to the ones found in FMA are a fundamental part of some systems like Krav Maga. Silat instructors with whom I have trained often emphasize "stun and run" - the concept of hitting the attacker and then getting away from a fight as quickly as possible as there are likely to be more attackers. Tony Blauer's system is a very modern art that trains specifically for real-world scenarios. Systema uses dirty technique and extensively teaches about environmental factors. MMA fighter Bas Rutten talks extensively about environmental factors on some of his fighting DVDs. Martial arts training will help you in street situations, so will competitive fighting Not much to be said here. Training will help you on the street. Fighting competitively will assist you even more for real fights than training. It's the same as doing vs. learning/teaching. If you've ever had a full speed strike thrown at you you'll be 100% better off than the guy who hasn't. Maybe you don't train, maybe you just fight. That'll help you too. Kimbo Slice is a shining example of how real-world experience can take you very far. All that said - beware! Your training can hurt you too, especially if you're partial to one style. In many MMA competitions I have seen many single-style-only fighters get destroyed purely because they had no skills in just one area of fighting. Wrestlers that fail to strike, ground fighters that can't kick, muay thai fighters who panic when they hit the canvas. Diversify yourself. Rules are good though; Competitive fighting is a sport Despite all my seemingly myth-busting, anti-competitive-fighting points above, I do enjoy competitive fighting and there's a really good reason for all these rules. Competitive fighting is a sport. Fighters don't want to die or even be seriously injured. Rules are put in place for three main reasons: Commercially appropriate fight lengths Fighter safety Cultural standards Not only is competitive fighting a sport, but it is a spectator sport. People want to see a fight last more than 3 seconds but less than 5 hours. An eye gouge would end a fight very quickly. Do you know why boxers wear gloves? It's not to protect the guy getting hit, it's to protect their own hands. Old-time boxing matches could sometimes last for hours because both fighters would injure their hands and thus not be able to strike their opponent with the force necessary to get a knockout. The result was hours worth of soft hits from very worn-out, very injured fighters - more boring than competitive sloth racing. Some of the rules I listed above actually used to be legal in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and still are in some MMA fights. In the early days the UFC didn't have clothing requirements, weight classes and allowed groin shots. Things actually got brutal during a couple matches. Check out the first two seasons of UFC - they're a lot of fun. A lot of UFC rules were implemented because of cultural standards. It was more commercially viable to get rid of things like groin shots because people who watch UFC would rather watch without the groin shots. The lack of rules also generated a lot of attention from people seeking to govern the legality of these fights. American Senator John McCain tried to get the UFC banned nation-wide. Conclusion So why am I telling you all of this? The point is that competitive fighting is not the same as real fighting. It is a sport and should be regarded as such. There's nothing wrong with it being a sport and it should stay that way. I'm not advocating getting rid of rules. All I'm saying is that it's not the same. And finally, keep this in mind when training your fighting: In the real world there are no style restrictions, no rules. If you are training for self defense and for reality, not for competitive rule-based fighting, make sure you reflect in your practice.

“There are 7 days in the week; someday, isn’t one of them” Vaheguru Ji Ka Khalsa Vaheguru Ji Ki Fat-heh Sangat Ji, You are warmly invited to visit our FB page to receive some daily motivation and inspiration from videos, quotes, articles, paintings and photos on real martial culture worldwide. http://www.facebook.com/ElusiveFighter We are not associated with any particular jathhaa-bandi or controversial personalities (and in the interest of panthic unity, nor will we promote them), so you can enjoy all and freely learn from the information without fear of there being an underlying agenda. If you would like to receive regular updates on the page, please click ‘like’. Whilst we treasure and preserve our own culture and martial heritage, we should keep an open mind and in the true spirit of Dasmesh Pita and the Puratan Khalsa, and seek to ever increase our knowledge. Guru Gobind Singh adopted all that was good around them, including Ferangi Shastar (European, South Indian, Persian, Afghan etc), Maharaja Ranjit Singh adopted European drills and warfare... those of us who are serious about martial learning – should seek and acquire knowledge of the best fighting arts in the world, many of which are still little known. The page seeks to remain apolitical – we celebrate martial heritage from all cultures and faiths – so please bear this in mind, any derogatory or disrespectful behaviour will be met with zero tolerance. Please only leave ‘intelligent’ and well thought out comments if you wish to say something. The page seeks to bring all communities together under a common language, whilst simultaneously inspiring them individually. If you have any nice quotes, sakhis, photos etc that you would like to share, please feel free to e-mail elusivefighter@gmail.com. Please use this inspiration to let the art of fighting manifest in your life. Through daily learning, practice and deep contemplation of yudh, you will become Singhs by nature, and dignity will be restored to the shastar we carry and jungee baana many wear. The teachings of the Sri Dasam Granth Sahib will become alive for you when you are taking earnest steps to learn and live martial culture. Udham (sincere effort) is required in this endeavour. A few weeks or months of classes in a popular MA is not going to do the trick. Martial culture and improvement should be part of your everyday life. Alongside, and more importantly – one needs to keep the ‘shakti’ in check. Anyone can become a great fighter, but without the protection of bhagti, they will simply become monsters in Saints clothing. It is a myth that bhagti impedes martial spirit or progress, the opposite is true. Intelligent lifestyle, correct devotion i.e. sincere effort in learning Gurbani arthh and patient and prem-bhari bhagti, leads to reduction of fear, increase in courage and clearer objective with regards to why you are learning yudh vidya. It also paves the way for ‘yudh abhyaas’, the stage in your learning when you truly become your own teacher (someone who creates techniques and responses to scenarios, rather than someone who always seeks to copy or replicate them). This is achieved through bringing your mind under control and the ‘unrequested needs’ are fulfilled by Antarjami Parmeshar. ਨਾਨਕ ਸੋ ਸੂਰਾ ਵਰੀਆਮੁ ਜਿਨਿ ਵਿਚਹੁ ਦੁਸਟੁ ਅਹੰਕਰਣੁ ਮਾਰਿਆ ॥ Nanak so sooraa vareeaamu jini vichahu dusatu ahankaranu maariaa: O Nanak, he is a brave warrior, who kills annihilates his vicious ego from within. Bhagti is the true purpose of your life, fighting skill is simply the means to be able to protect that lifestyle. Through education, we destroy ignorance. Through humility, we become powerful. Vaheguru Ji Ka Khalsa Vaheguru Ji Ki Fat-heh “I do not love the bright sword for it's sharpness, nor the arrow for it's swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend”