The juxtaposition of desiring not to be hit, but being practical that inevitably you will be, will best prepare you for when you do get hit. But why put yourself in the line of fire unnecessarily? The same kind of reasoning led to trench war-fare and the very bad tactics of WW1; hit em, and keep hitting, and keep throwing men, and weapons, and energy, until either you run out or they do. But change your tactic, you suddenly don't have to worry about loss as much.
You guys seem to think that my aversion to contact is because of some kind of fear of pain, or inability to take it. Maybe... how much are we talking about? I've never winced having a bone re-set or shifted, but I will tell you putting rubbing alcohol on a cat scratch will. I bite my hands; though I should say I suppose I did bite my hands, because as of April 1st I haven't done that or any intoxicants... I have once stuck a hand very cut up from anxiety into a bucket of bleach without considering the tiny nicks from biting. It wasn't pleasant, at all, but it was far more tolerable than I thought it would be. If you don't think about the pain, and push it aside, it can't really affect you. I have heard of pain management techniques where they visualize the pain experienced in a physical form, as say, a knife, and when they pull it out, this can cause the pain to actually go away. Pain is mental.
But pain isn't the issue. In practice you have pads, and targets, and all sorts of plastic and nylon and whatnot. I have a friend who is in jail for life now, because he made the simple choice of extending his leg all the way when executing a side kick, instead of just holding it back by a tiny fraction of an inch. That's the difference training with contact can make. And this is my thought on it- Once you know you can take a hit, and can give a hit, stop getting hit, and stop hitting people. For me I knew I could take a hit when on 3 v1 my rib cage was shattered... and I ended up fighting for another 20 minutes, and finishing the exam 4 hours later. I think that is sufficient for me, anything more might be considered some kinda fetish. What was the alternative? Fail, and not get a chance to test again for five years? No thank you. No matter your degree of control, one day you will screw up and seriously hurt someone. I know of a lot of masters who have, and their students shrug it off because it's their master, and completely ignore that the entire snafu occurred because it's impossible to actually be perfect. It's what happens when people are promoted to a rank before they are ready.
To be honest, the reason my fighting style is so evasive and the emphasis on speed, is because it is being adapted specifically for knives. While I am happy to say that I can do those 7 punches in a second, and each is an actual punch with results, I don't have to worry about that when the hand and fist is no longer so, instead replaced by knives.
Because I've got the draw down to well under a sucker for getting them out, and there is no place you can grab or throw me at where I can't access another on my person. I have no intention, if I am mugged again, of letting the person go. Last time that happened, a young girl got raped. At this point, I stress I want no confrontation, and will do what I can to stop things before using martial arts. Talking has worked in the past, and I am certain it will in the future. That being said, they pull a weapon, or turn the situation lethal on a level I can tell it is going to be, you better believe I'll have at least one of my knives drawn and either at their throat if it's that bad, or warding them. If they have a gun, I'm not asking questions or warding. Because you see, that kind of speed allows one to retain control of the situation, which will occur at normally about the range of your opponents outstretched arm.
It gives me an extra degree of security, knowing that even when things get hairy, that as a final defense my actual art is incomplete until that knife is in my hand. Speed trumps power, and power can trump speed, if for whatever reason that thing which is speeding decided to remain in the way, and you can't throw a punch without acceleration, and you can't move without force to initiate. Likewise, the natural form of fighting which comes to me most, I almost never get to use, and have never on the street.
I had a gut reaction to want to go nonononnnono I can do this and this and this and this. But the simple fact of the matter is taking this tactic means I don't really have to worry about the which gets in. Would you attack the person holding a knife, and clearly in a fashion which conveys he knows how to use it? I wouldn't. Hell, I'd run if I could, and that's with what I normally carry. On the street, chances are if I get decked, it won't matter my preparation or conditioning... if you round the corner and get clocked in the temple, it's lights out. So it comes full circle, as somebody experienced in martial arts, why would we deliberately strike people to areas capable of taking the most damage?
The midsection is one such area. Most of the conditioning there, doesn't do anything to condition our vitals. And even the people who take full out (epic) kicks to the groin, speak less about a technique, and more about mental pain repression, which is more the realm of meditation. When the person gets hit in the throat, he has awesome degree of control over the energy flowing from the impact. I stress not wasting techniques, and unless it's being used to trick the enemy, there shouldn't be a reason to hit them from anywhere but these targets; the temple, upper lip, jaw and neck, just below the ear, to the inner throat, clavicles, sternum, solar plexus, upper arm and inner forearm, back or side of thigh, side or front of knee. Those, on a basic level, are what I aim for, and that offers me 14 prime choices, up and down the body, where if struck with enough force will completely neutralize the situation. Even this is unnecessary when you come back to the knives however. And honestly, out of all the points I just mentioned I doubt anybody conditions more than 3 of those I listed, and certainly not to the side of knee, temple, upper lip or clavicles. Conditioning is good for you... against an inexperienced martial artist trying to slam meat together like it's still the 1980s and ringside was all the rage. When you fight a master of the internal, my only advise is to not let them touch you if you can, because depending on how mean they feel, you might feel it the rest of your life, or lose your ability to do martial arts. Not in some mystical fashion, draining your power, but you get an ACL torn, or they completely screw up the internal processes of your body, you will not get to train for awhile. There are kicks which exist with so much force you can go blind, and styles which stomp so hard similar effects are known to occur. Xing yi is one. Fighting masters of those arts is not advisable, and generally speaking, no matter where martial artists start, if they train long enough, eventually they come to learn internal arts, even if they began with external. I don't mind getting hit by external blows... most are not that damaging precisely because the person doesn't know how to transfer energy well, and so use heavy hands or legs to compensate for lack of technique. But I swear to you, on my name as a martial artist, that there are some people you don't want touching you. Because they are so skilled, their index jab to the pressure point on your inner bicep might be hard enough, if they wanted, to stop your heart. And there is no kind of conditioning which will mitigate that level of energy channeling and utilization in your own body.
I agree, conditioning is a necessity... but once you've sharpened the blade, don't then run it down as some people. And I'd say people who can lift cements blocks with their testicles, or let people hit them with a baseball bat, are running the blade down. It's cool, but it's unnecessary. Because you aren't going to get hit in the chest, especially by a baseball bat. Heck, I'd consider myself lucky to get hit by a bat compared to the other choices out there. A family friend of Master Khan's died seconds after opening the door when the person drove a machete through their forearm and into their head. That's the reality you're dealing with. And no amount of conditioning will stop that. But you know what will...? Emphasis on evasion.
But I'll tell you what; let any taijiquan master have their fun with your body, just once, and you'll understand what I mean when I say you will never want to let a person of their class through your guard, or near you, if you have to fight them. It's not fear, it's just being smart. Some people, with some styles become demons. I've seen krav maga turn women who cried when they hit their boyfriends into people who would chew through someone's throat if it meant survival. And with how prevalent martial arts are today... chances are good you're fighting either somebody with some experience, or none, or even worse, has experience.
Because this is my question. If someone walked up to you with the ability to lacerate you with trained techniques 7 times in a second, and can keep them hidden the whole time, and able to get within 3 feet of you, do you think you'd survive? At the end of my rope, that is what I always have in my pocket, and why I favor knives as a weapon. Directing that question to myself I'll answer it honestly; no, I would die, certainly. Most people would, and it's not a matter of being better than anyone. And there are knife wielders faster than me, with better control. Think on that; what would you do if someone walked up, and attempted to stab you at least 5 times in one second? And instead of a wild strike like most are, they're targeted. Could you block them? Would you want to block them? Or would you get the heck out?
I train for realism, and I train for art and pleasure. But be realistic, please.
My degree in handling a knife I say as expert as a cautionary. Even the uneducated are lethal when wielding a knife. It is the most versatile weapon of all, can be incorporated into virtually every style which exists, and from just how it's held you can tell what you should do. I stick to straight knifes, or locking unfoldable ones. The way I see it, I have 5 identical knives on me, I should probably only refold the blade once the altercation is dealt with, and if I can't, I can always ditch it also. Such as if the police order you to drop your weapon. Not that I'm saying I'd engage the police, but if you have to pull knives, chances are they've already been called. And not early enough, even if the situation hasn't occurred yet.
The knife is just one of those things which came natural to me, and yes, while I know quite a few flashy techniques, I also have managed to come up with several innovative ways to both switch the knife, while simultaneously cutting. Where I came from, they acknowledged your skill with a blade when you could add to the pool of knowledge. I admire Fillipino knife fighting, but at the end of the day, there are an infinite many angles to cut from, and I try to hit as many of them as I can, with a straight line, as if the tip were a pen writing the ribbon line.
At Khan's, you knew how to disarm. But by the knife's very nature of ease of wielding, it will always be easier to handle it, than to defend against. That alone should be indicative that when an entire martial art style of fighting has been developed for wielding it, it might be best to avoid it. Anybody who does krav Maga, anybody who does the Fillipino arts, and anybody I know who does chung do kwan, has fantastic knife wielding ability. And the thing is, sadly, there are people out there who will kill you for your wallet or even shoes, who are even more skilled than the people we see on youtube.
And the thing is... all martial artists can be like that. Anybody reading this, with their training, if they unleashed it, would be horrified at what could result. Because at the end of the day, whether you think me capable of it or not, there are people out there better than what I've said here, who you could run into. I just hope when the time comes for survival you choose evasion over confrontation. Not robbery, or crime, or assault. Survival. Because if the answer to being asked are you CONFIDENT you would survive is no, then while realistic, you should still be training as much as possible until you can answer yes.
Though to be honest, I can imagine if it were posed like that by Master Khan, no would ever say yes because there'd probably be some kind of initiation to make you prove it. Having only held a bo staff once before when I began (to see, I guess, if I had any skill, or to just let me get wailed on, or both) he had me fight a 2nd dan. I wasn't too bad, and he was happy. I'm just saying, unless you can say yes to yourself to the above question, you need to go back and go over everything. Because I run off the basic assumption that if I'm attacked, I'm dead. While in training, I ask myself, what can I do to stop that? And when I'm attacked, there is no other option than survival.
I kinda run off a lot of epistemology which contradicts itself. The juxtaposition actually builds on itself, making it stronger. I train as if I were going to die, so I will not die, to put it more poetically.
I am not sure who you are proving anything to by getting hit, aside from the fact that you stayed where you were to take the punch. I know a lot of people who can do the same in chung do kwan, who with heavy gis (a lot of people neglect that heavy cloth does mitigate force... hence why the iron grip of jiujitsu masters rarely rips them. That's a huge amount of pressure to have to mitigate so the cloth won't tear, and that same cloth the energy of a punch has to go through if you wear a heavy gi) I just think that what gave you the ability to get hit, while in part was the experience of having been so, is mainly due to conditioning you do through generic exercises. If you condition properly, every two days, you should be getting hit round 50-100 times anyway, and that's with just kicks to the legs and stomach. You should be getting hit if you are conditioning, but there is no reason to get hit while practicing for anything involving fighting or survival. There's a difference between expecting, and planning on, and if you plan on getting hit, I think it's a bad plan. I expect to get hit when I spar because I am human, and fallible, and I am not some perfect demi-god of martial arts. I can, and will get hit when I practice; and I want to be, and enjoy it when it happens, unless it's some unusually excrutiating thing like the uberclash of elbow and shin, etc. lol. I enjoy getting hit because that's when you do get to feel pain- which is to your advantage. It tells you your weaknesses, and where not to let down your guard, or at least make you more cognizent of the vulnerabilities of you and your style. I firmly advise trying things during sparring, to learn the strengths and weaknesses of each respective style. All of them have their vulnerabilities and deficiencies, strengths, and intent.
I hope you stay safe.
