Martial Toughness?

[Si-Je]

Do you or your school focus on a familiarity or ability to handle being struck? Some schools I've seen emphasize this alot, stating that they don't want their students to get hit in a dangerous situation and not be experienced with handling being punched.
What are your thoughts and feeling on this philosophy?

 

[jarrod]

i think it is a rare person who can stay perfectly calm if it's their first time being struck. personally i kind of tailor to how serious of a student i have. if he's a casual learning who is approaching martial arts as an interesting way to stay in shape, he doesn't have to be a calloused warrior. if someone intends to compete or is concerned with self-protection, then they should have a couple bumps & bruises once in a while. we don't intentionally hurt each other though. that's just silly.

jf

 

[Si-Je]

I remember the first time I was hit in the face in a fight. All I could think of was the "smell", and I was really outraged. In context of reality, I don't think that a whole lot of hitting in class can really prepare you for that feeling.
It can get you used to the idea of being hit, and maybe less flinchy, but the real deal is always different than what anyone would think it would be like.
Adrenelin got me through the pain of the moment, but if I'd been hit like that in class I would have had a different reaction to it. (probably more winney. lol!) Because the emotional content wouldn't be there.

 

[seasoned]

I remember the first time I was hit in the face in a fight. All I could think of was the "smell", and I was really outraged. In context of reality, I don't think that a whole lot of hitting in class can really prepare you for that feeling.
It can get you used to the idea of being hit, and maybe less flinchy, but the real deal is always different than what anyone would think it would be like.
Adrenelin got me through the pain of the moment, but if I'd been hit like that in class I would have had a different reaction to it. (probably more winney. lol!) Because the emotional content wouldn't be there.

I had lunch with an old GoJu friend of mine today. We have not trained together in years, but can remember the times we had, teaching and banging together. We took a lot of bumps, and gave a lot also. Within any given night, we were friends, warriors, and friends. The only way to train properly is to train as real as possible. You need to feel pain, so you can learn to adapt. In training we were taught to never show you were hurt. There was an arm drill we did where you would stand in a neutral stance and swing our arms into each others arms. As we would made contact we would hit with different parts of the arm between the wrist and elbow. Hurt like heck, but in time, in sparring those arms could take a lot of abuse.

 

[Blindside]

Its called sparring.

I don't believe in the whole "letting someone stand there and whack you" idea. You want to hit me? I'm down with that, but I get to hit back.

 

[Blindside]

There was an arm drill we did where you would stand in a neutral stance and swing our arms into each others arms. As we would made contact we would hit with different parts of the arm between the wrist and elbow. Hurt like heck, but in time, in sparring those arms could take a lot of abuse.

I've done those drills, and I don't have a problem with it, at least that is an "equal" drill.

 

[Si-Je]

That's a good drill to get your arms toughened up, we did that in Tang Soo Do. (got you ready for the pain when you blocked a kick for sure!)

 

[Si-Je]

I've seen some MMA guys on t.v. that took a baseball bat and put it on the floor with the handle pointing up.
Then they put their forhead on the end of the handle and spun to get used to the "dizziness" of being hit.
Thought that was pretty interesting.
A neat way to simulate the disorientation of being knocked in the noggin' really hard.

 

[jarrod]

Its called sparring.

I don't believe in the whole "letting someone stand there and whack you" idea. You want to hit me? I'm down with that, but I get to hit back.

i don't either, but you can up the reality of drills a bit. back in my karate days, i was visiting a school. during one step sparring, they got very upset with me for making moderate contact on my brown belt uke. we're talking a controlled side kick to the body, i didn't pop him in the teeth or anything. it's kind of like if you went to a judo school & they had you practice picking people up but never throwing them.

I've seen some MMA guys on t.v. that took a baseball bat and put it on the floor with the handle pointing up.
Then they put their forhead on the end of the handle and spun to get used to the "dizziness" of being hit.
Thought that was pretty interesting.
A neat way to simulate the disorientation of being knocked in the noggin' really hard.

i think fedor popularized that. he would spin for 30sec (without the bat) then shadowbox so that he got used to firing punches back when he was stunned. it seems to work really well for him.

jf

 

[Yoshiyahu]

Seasoned Said:

There was an arm drill we did where you would stand in a neutral stance and swing our arms into each others arms. As we would made contact we would hit with different parts of the arm between the wrist and elbow.

Yea, My Wing Chun Sifu also taught this. He called it three star blocking. I believe Hung Gar and Praying mantis have similiar drill. There is also a drill in Wing Chun similiar to these with legs. It is Chi Gurk drill. But yea we had all sorts of drills like that. After awhile its like nothing.

We also had a drill where you chain punch lightly and try take over the center line.

There was another drill where you punch with force to bang each other arms hitting with bone part to toughen up so you could banged other people arms hard in fight.

We used Dit Da Jow before and after of course. An there is the wooden man we hit. An also sometimes I practice slapping the five pound bag weight that was filled with metal shots. More Dit Da Jow of course.

Another drill would be
1.I Stand in the corner
2.I can only use one hand to block with(Wu Sau or Man Sau guard)
3.My Sidai or Sifu try and slap me in face or punch me in the body.
4.Drill was to be done slowly at first an progress to a faster speed.
5.Blocks come up quickly and you learn to keep your sanity when you hit.

My Sifu always said everyone gets hit so don't be scared to get hit. But after a few months my Sidai or none of our friends could even touch me when we boxed. Alot of our friends were wrestlers are boxers. So they mostly just throwed hands. No kicks really. Accept for this one friend who did Muay Thai. I always advoided him because he was so big. But one day he challenge me. An he just started swing on me with out a warning. He had a longer reach than me plus he was like four inches taller than me and bigger in body mass and muscle. I had to block his punches with two hand pak sau. Then he grabbed for neck suddenly and tried to knee me in face. I drove both my elbows down in knees then I double punched him in the chest to move him out chi sau range so I could throw long kicks. After that he stopped shook my hand and started cursing that kung fu ish you practice is the bomb how on earth did you stop me from hitting you. Thats the ish.

 

[Yoshiyahu]

Have you ever heard of someone dropping a Medicine ball on your stomach to make your stomach use to body shots?

 

[Nolerama]

Have you ever heard of someone dropping a Medicine ball on your stomach to make your stomach use to body shots?

I've seen two people pass a medicine ball towards each others' stomachs to simulate getting hit in the stomach for other applications outside of the MAs, like football, hockey, and rugby.

Personally, I'd rather spar with someone who's willing to unleash the body shots, as well as play in a corner drill focusing on body shots.

 

[terryl965]

We always build martial toughness for those wishing it. Standing there and taking a shot is hard for anybody so be it, it is part of training. When we spar we have those light session and then we have full contact for those wanting it.

 

[Yoshiyahu]

What does full contact consist of. What are the rules? What equipment do you use?

We always build martial toughness for those wishing it. Standing there and taking a shot is hard for anybody so be it, it is part of training. When we spar we have those light session and then we have full contact for those wanting it.

 

[wingchun100]

Do you or your school focus on a familiarity or ability to handle being struck? Some schools I've seen emphasize this alot, stating that they don't want their students to get hit in a dangerous situation and not be experienced with handling being punched.
What are your thoughts and feeling on this philosophy?

It's good in theory but in reality, if you are the school owner, make sure you have a good attorney! LOL This is a sue-happy world. The only way to avoid it would be to tell a potential student (BEFORE they sign up and give you money) how rough your class gets.

 

[tshadowchaser]

Letting the potential student know ahead of time that it is a contact school and having them at least sign a consent and acknowledgement agreement is a start, that way you have proof they where told.
As to being hit in class I have seen schools that had so much contact that other schools in the area told people to stay away because of the brutality, while just down the road another school in the same system had almost no contact. Both schools produced student who looked good in forms and tournament type sparring. How they would react on the street ( bar, street, real fight) may be another matter.
Personally I have always believed if yo have never been hit you do not know how you will react. Will your mind just shut down and tell you to give up or will you get so angry you can not focus enough to react effectively. If you have been subjected to being hit your body and mind eventually react differently to the punishment