Ground fighting vs. Stand up fighting

The Martial arts can be split into two large groups, primarily ground fighting styles and primarily stand up fighting styles. Some examples of ground fighting are wrestling, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and grappling. Some stand up styles are karate, kung fu and Kenpo. Basically both of the two groups are well equipped for self-defense in a one-on-one situation. But the problem arises from multiple attacker scenarios. In multiple attacker scenarios the ground fighting abilities become less effective because you are fighting one assailant for too long before disabling them. By that time the rest of the attackers have swarmed you. But, knowing how to fight on the ground is critical for the success of a one-on-one confrontation, so it comes down to which type of confrontation is more likely to be most numerous, one-on-one or multiple attacker situations. Most martial arts styles combine to some extent both grappling and stand up combat to make sure that their practitioners are ready for most scenarios.

On a side note, to better understand self-defense without any bias from a a specific style of martial arts I am visiting a self-defense school. They have taken self-defense away from the specific styles and have combined them into a mish-mosh of movements and maneuvers that most effectively defend the practitioner. The school is called Reality Self-Defense and I am quite excited to go.
Keep Reading,

Mr. Waaler 

Common Sense Self-Defense

The library is a wonderful thing. Books on almost every topic, including self-defense and martial arts. I occurred to me that to rate self-defense of a style that I would have to compare the reactions of that style to a basic response, one without any stylistic influence. For that I turned to self-defense handbooks and seminars. Places that teach self-defense, but not martial arts are easy to find, they don't bother with the spiritual or mental sides of the martial arts, and instead they focus solely on combat and defense.

Also, handbooks that discuss self-defense are easy to find, and that brings me back to the library. I found a book there called, Common Sense Self-Defense, 7 Rules That Can Save Your Life. This book outlines 7 self-defense "rules" that can help you become safer and be more confident in self-defense situations. One of the things that really surprised me in this book was two things the book stressed, "Hostile situations are a fact of life," and "do what you must to survive." These two points really stuck out to me, because if you can take to heart these two points you are well ahead of the average person.

The book was written by two men, one Dave Garcia, Police Officer and Former Marine, and two Stewart Smith, Security Consultant and Former Navy Seal. They combine their experience to best convey the self-defense attitude to their readers. The best thing about this book is that it doesn’t have any influence from a specific martial arts style. It is mostly military in its origin. This book should prove to be useful in analyzing different forms of self-defense.

Thanks for reading,
Mr. Waaler

American Kenpo 1

  
American Kenpo is the first style I will score. Seeing as it is the first style of martial arts I have ever done it seems fitting if I score it first. I do not intend to put the scores of each style on my blog until I have scored all five styles of Martial Arts. I have finalized the scoring system, and am applying it to American Kenpo.
   I am not putting myself as the practitioner for American Kenpo, which would lead to obvious bias on my part because I know what I am looking for in the style to receive a high score. I will be asking an Instructor from the martial arts school I train at to represent American Kenpo.
   What is American Kenpo? American Kenpo is a style created by Ed Parker based on the teachings of Professor K. S. Chow and a mixture of real-life self-defense and other martial arts styles. Professor K. S. Chow lived in Hawaii on the island of Honolulu and was the martial artist who gave Ed Parker his first black belt.
   Ed Parker went on to create the first modern martial arts tournament, the International Karate Championship. As well as teach many famous celebrities, most famous of all, Elvis Presley. Master Parkers was labeled a rebel while he started to create his martial art because of the non-traditional way he treated martial arts. They were not a mystical ancient tradition that must be respected and revered. But, he saw them as ever changing to suit the time. He uses the example of the sport of Boxing. The great classical boxer, John L. Sullivan, would not be able to win a match against our present day boxers because of how far we have come in perfecting boxing. The same applied to the martial arts.
   In American Kenpo the style of martial arts is based off of both linear and circular motion, and brutally exploits the weak areas of the body. In self-defense the rule is to survive. American Kenpo practitioners are encouraged to train and study hard, but Master Parker believed that when it came down to it, every person needed just one thing to defend themselves, guts. The one thing you can’t teach easily was the one thing that was really required.
   Master Parker came up with this system’s philosophy to better equip each student with “guts.” American Kenpo is not just a physical style of martial arts, it also entails a large philosophy to back up its physical manifestation.
I can’t wait to score it.
Thanks
Mr. Waaler

...And possible Death

When measuring the effectiveness of martial arts, it is neccesary to measure the damage that can be inflicted onto the body. So I researched the damage that can be done to crititcal targets on the human body, no doubt there are more than I included, but these are the main target areas. Its surprising how many things can possibly cause death. But, now the damage chart is a page on my blog, check it out!
Mr. Waaler

p.s. a big thank you to everyone who helped me figure out if the damage chart was accurate, and I hope you feel better soon! :)

p.p.s Thats a joke.

Patience is a Virtue

The first step to learning about other styles is to go and learn them. No matter how many books you read you won't understand the style without actually going to a practitioner of the style and having them teach you. Knowing the feeling of a style is just as important as knowing the concepts, if not more important. How could anyone claim to rate a style if they had never done the martial art itself? But, we must realize that martial arts styles are not completely different. Many styles are more similar than they would care to admit, so learning a style’s basics will not take as long as if I was a complete beginner because I have had previous martial arts experience.

But, to secure martial arts studios that I could train at I have contacted a couple and have asked them if I could train there to better understand their styles. I won’t name the schools here (just I case they tell me no way) but, if I am allowed to train there I will list the school’s name and style.

If you are wondering why a martial arts studio wouldn’t let me train with them the answer is simple. I am not their student. Now it’s not about the fact that I don’t pay money to them or that I don’t think their style is worthy or any nonsense like that, it’s because I don’t have the loyalty and the commitment to their school and style. When a new student signs up to take classes at a school they are (or their parents are for them) essentially promising loyalty to that school and respect for that instructor. When I come in, the instructor would have to take me at my word that I respect their teachings, school and style, because not only have I never taken class or met the instructor before, but I have also taken class and learned from a different instructor who already holds loyalty from me.

This would be hard for any school to do. Any school that lets me train there is giving me the benefit of the doubt, a luxury that I do not take for granted. But, hopefully enough schools will give me the benefit of the doubt that I can make my project as best I can. So as I wait for responses i have to remind myself, patience is a virtue. 

Sincerely  

Mr. Waaler

As one Journey Ends, so another Begins

We have come to the close of my high school career. My last day has come and gone, and now I find myself with this project looming over me like a cloud. My official project has begun, and I will meet it head on. Luckily I find myself overwhelmed with sources for my project, ranging from martial art schools to manuals of martial arts. Looking at my project I can see that it may be interpreted to be an attempt at a rating of the styles themselves, saying definitively which is better or worse, which this project definitly is not trying to do. This project is assessing five martial arts schools of different styles abilities to teach effective self-defense and how each style varies in its reactions in self-defense. What will be shown at the end of the project is not what style is the best, but actually which style is most suited for what-multiple attacker self-defense, one-on-one, teaching, linear self-defense, circular, high damage output, safe escape etc. Each style will be slightly varied in each section, but, hopefully the final answer will come out to be that any style of martial arts is at least mildly successful at all types of self-defense situations. That is what the martial arts are about, defending yourself and making yourself better than you are today, physically, mentally and spiritually.

On a side note, I have found the chart for basing damage dealt and damage received, it will be based off of the chart found in Master Edmund Parker’s “Infinite Insights Into Kenpo Book 4, Mental and Physical constituents.” Although this book may be American Kenpo in nature, the anatomical damage charts are without stylistic influences.

Visiting Schools

Dear Readers,
       I am in the process of narrowing down local Martial arts studios for me to visit. We are at a list of 12 so far, but the final list will only include four. I will be scoring my original style, American Kenpo, as well as the other four styles so that I have a style that I intimately understand. Do not think this will mean that i will be biased towards American Kenpo, I will strive to be as neutral as possible. But, in reality, I will most likely be harder on American Kenpo because it's my style. When I have chosen all the schools I will be visiting I will post them on the Blog so that they are known to anyone following this blog.
Thank You
Mr. Waaler

Passive Self-Defense

As any good martial artist will tell you, the best way to win a fight is to not get into a fight at all! Avoiding a self-defense situation is the best defense. Just observing common sense when it comes to how you act will limit your chance of getting into a self-defense situation.
Would you ever walk through a back alley at night while waving a hundred dollar bill out of your back pocket? Hopefully not. This is obviously a bad idea, even though it does not guarantee you to have to defend yourself, it just makes it more likely. By just increasing your awarness of what can increase your likelyhood of being attacked, you can lessen the likelyhood of being attacked.
Being aware of your surroundings:
Park under streetlamps, Walk in pairs when in unfamiliar areas, don't wander, etc.
When talking about self-defense, prevention is better than having to fight and win. So, styles that take this into account will be scored equally as if they were teaching self-defense.
Thanks,
Mr. Waaler

More on Kyoshi Kovar

Dear Readers,
       When i first posted the link to Kyoshi Kovar's Satori acadmey I failed to realise that many people would prefer a biography over an aggresive advertisment website to sign up for his school. To learn more about Kyoshi Kovar you can visit his blog, kovarsblog.kovarsystem.com. Also, to view his legendary 7th degree black belt test you can go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8veaWpK2hNI.
Thanks
Mr. Waaler