Thursday, October 15, 2009

It is not necessarily the Martial Art, but rather how you train it!

Further to discussions I have had with my Wing Tsun Sifu, Ralph Haenel...

There has always been a lot of talk about what martial art is the best. Some people prefer the traditional route of Karate or Judo, and some swear that MMA-hybrid training is the way to go.

The important thing to keep in mind is that a well-trained exponent of almost any martial art will be able to take care of themselves in most real-life (ie non-competition) situations. By "well-trained", I mean the martial artist has put their skills regularly to the test under as much pressure as they can allow. After all, if we are training for the however unlikely physical altercation, does it not make sense to train as close to the real-life possibilities as we can?

A great example of this is a Karate black belt I met many years ago in London, Ontario. This 20 year-old had been competing in tournaments since he was 10, and had won many national championships. A year before I met him, he and his brother were attacked by two average-sized gentlemen while walking home at night. He related to me how he had just frozen, was totally ineffective in defending himself and the altercation ended with him beaten up and his brother stabbed in the arm and leg. All of his training seemed to have failed him. What he understood though, was that throughout his 10-year karate career he had never once faced anything like the aggressive, go-for-broke dudes who beat him up. There was always his Sensei or a referee to jump in after a point was scored and the tournament-fighting was all about one hit and little or no follow-up. He was very interested in meeting my teacher at the time, a Combat Kenpo Instructor who had us kicking all kinds of hell out of each other to lower our fears of getting hit and learn to commit to our attacks. After all, you could get beaten up anyway so why not give it your best shot?

In case anyone thinks I'm knocking Karate, here's a great video of a Karate Instructor who obviously trains for real-life. Martial Art notwithstanding, he is cool under pressure and delivers a well-timed and very-effective blow!



It is clear why MMA-style fighting is seen as very effective on the street. I can assure you that in a streetfight none of these guys would risk their noggin and pull someone into their guard from standing, but the aggression, powerful punches and much-lower fear of getting hit on the way in will win most fights for someone training in this way. MMA competitors actually fight on a regular basis in the closest thing to a streetfight you can legally sell tickets for : ) They are truly meeting an aggressive opponent who means in no uncertain terms to choke or knock them out!

At Wing Tsun Vancouver, Sifu Ralph is a big believer in realistic training and as we advance, he gives us the opportunity to raise the stress-level even higher. This is of course a choice as some take WT more for the body-awareness, joint-mobility and spiritual growth. This "softer path" is just as legitimate but will not prepare the student well for a real-life violent encounter. After all, you would not train for a swim-meet by doing the strokes on dry-land!

Here's a short example of what we get up to in our private lessons. Remember, this is not the way you HAVE to train. Training like this is a choice at WT Vancouver. Only the individual student can decide if they want to truly train for effective self-defence.



I've included a couple more WT videos below to illustrate how higher-stress and more intense training makes for a better WT fighter and, of course, a better fighter in ANY martial art.

So next time, before you are tempted to engage in a pissing-match about what style is the best, ask yourself first if you are training as hard and as "well" as YOU can!!!

Do.



1 comment:

Steve McMinn, RKC said...

No problems! Compliments are always welcome : )

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