Gedanate

I’ve heard people ask, what to carry for self defense, and my reply to them is a simple ‘That depends…’

The need for self defense can happen any place and at any time. Every threat is different, the laws in every country, and state differ widely, and so do the police forces, and the law courts too. In short, it is a quagmire, and it is very easy to make a mistake when you try to defend yourself.

Now let’s make one thing very clear right away. I am not a legal expert. If you want to get a legal opinion, go and pay a good lawyer or take a law student out to dinner. But I’ll tell you now, the first thing you need to understand about self defense is that under-reacting can get you killed, injured or raped and over-reacting will get you jailed, where you can expect to be injured and raped as well. It’s not much of a choice, is it?

Under-reaction is where you fail to fight back hard enough, and your attacker is free to do whatever he likes with you.

That’s okay if he just wants your wallet or purse. But how do you know that’s all he wants? There is no guarantee he will play by the rules, and who said there were any rules to play by in the first place. This is not about playing. This is you being threatened with violence by somebody, who wants to cow you into accepting whatever they plan on doing to you.

That is not a position you want to be placed in.

But over-reaction is where fear kicks in and overrides your better judgment.

Some guy threatens to punch you, so you pull out a knife or a handgun and you blow him away…

Hmmm. It looks so impressive in the movies, but now this confrontation has become a homicide. The police will have to investigate, and crying ’self defense’ really isn’t going to impress them too much.

Your would-be attacker didn’t have a weapon. You are unharmed in any way. There are no witnesses who will testify that he threatened you. So now, you’re in the shite. Up to the neck in deep, smelly doo-doo.

You can expect to be arrested. If the cops aren’t impressed with your story, you will probably be charged with unlawful manslaughter – or whatever. If they don’t like your face it could even be murder. If you are fortunate enough to be offered bail, you will have to pay the bail to get out, and then go and hire a good criminal lawyer. Lawyers are expensive. Good ones are very expensive.

If you own your own home, chances are you’ll have to sell it to finance the lawyer. So by the time the case has finished going through the courts, he’ll be richer, you’ll be poorer. And who’s to guarantee you won’t do jail time? I mean, win or lose, that lawyer gets his fee.

Even if you don’t get sent to jail, the family of the guy you shot or stabbed is just as likely to try and sue you… that’s if you’ve got any assets (money) left for them to grab. They hate you so they may sue you anyhow. And if they aren’t law-abiding folks, they may decide to get their revenge more directly.

Are you starting to understand there are consequences if you kill somebody, or even injure them severely? The law generally doesn’t approve of citizens being hurt by violence.

Generally speaking, the law does recognize a person’s right to defend themselves from violence; but the law also expects that the amount of violence you use to defend yourself should be the minimum necessary to get the job done. And the job is to make you safe… not necessarily to place your attacker in the mortuary or cripple the guy for life.

Every response you make should be appropriate to the threat. If he’s just loud-mouthing you and calling you names, that doesn’t legally give you the right to beat the cr*p out of him. Even though he may have said he was going to do it to you. Socially it may be okay. Like if you hit him a couple of times and he stays down, the group as a whole may approve of your teaching him a lesson and, hopefully, nobody will have you arrested. But who is going to guarantee that’s the way it will happen?

Ideally, if he wants to punch your nose, then you both could have a nice clean boxing match together. There would be a referee to make sure that nobody gets hurt badly, and everyone goes home as pals. That’s a dream.

The reality is you think you’re going to have a boxing match, but he decks you while you’re getting ready, and if you are lucky, that’s the end of the fight. He has shown his superiority to the group and everyone has witnessed your defeat.

Your pride is bruised, but you aren’t hurt. Learn from it and move on. Grow up.

So if the local bully wants to make you look like a jerk in front of everyone in a bar or a diner someplace, you ought to decline and walk away. He still gets to ‘win’ by making you look chicken. Live with that.

You do not have the right to pull a weapon on him if he is unarmed. And if you fight him, you have chosen to fight him. If you could have walked away and avoided a fight, then you cannot call it self defense when you fight him. It doesn’t matter if you win or lose. You chose to fight.

There is no ‘moral superiority’ here. You are just as much to blame as he is, and the law won’t sympathize with you if he gets injured. I mean, if walking or even running away was an option, and yet you chose to fight instead. It is not self-defense, it is a duel… And duels are illegal.

If the person threatening you really is a criminal, and he is armed with any weapon, then you don’t fight. You give him your money. Give him your watch. If you are sure he is going to kill or rape you, then you may have to choose to fight. You’d better be trained, and you had better know exactly what you are doing.

Sometimes you may have to fight back even if the odds are stacked heavily against you.

I suggest you spend serious time, money and effort and do a self defense course and / or learn a martial art. It could one day save your life or, let’s face it, it might get you killed. But I think it is better to have the skills and knowledge than not have anything to fall back on in an emergency.

As for carrying a weapon for self defense, well you can only really do that in some of those places where there is no law and order. Certain parts of South America, Africa and the Middle East come to mind here. But if you live in a so-called civilized country with a functional police force and a legal system then you have no excuse to carry a weapon. It is meant to be up to the police to protect you.

The best weapon you can carry is your brain. Use it, don’t bruise it.

Your first steps to get started with Aikido will mean doing a bit of research, probably for a couple of weeks.

Go to your local library and borrow one or two books about Aikido. Skip through them, but don’t read too deeply. You may end up doing a different style in a week or two, so you don’t want to confuse things at this stage. Make a few written notes of stuff that interests you, and leave it at that.

Next,  you need to  find a dojo in your local area, or one that is within an easy travelling distance for you. Then find another martial arts school as your second choice, and maybe even a third.

Ideally you want to be able to watch classes in more than one martial arts style. Even Aikido has several different styles, including Aikikai, Yoshinkan and Shodokan Aikido.

Go and watch an Aikido class. Observe the whole procedure from start to finish, from the warm-up exercises to the end of the class. That’s usually from 1 to 2 hours.  Be sure to talk to the instructor or whoever approaches you afterwards, and be polite and non-committal at this stage.

If anyone tries to sign up for classes then and there, I’d suggest you want to run – don’t walk – out of there. You are in the wrong place! But even if they are great about everything, and you liked what you saw, you still don’t want to rush things and sign up immediately.

You could regret it later, and there are more places to go, people to see…

Now go to another Aikido dojo, if one exists, and check them out in the same way. Be polite and non-committal again. Tell them you are checking out the competition as well. And if there isn’t another Aikido dojo, just go and watch a Judo class, a Jujitsu group or some other martial art. Do this even if you don’t want to learn those martial arts, because you will need to have some reference points to help evaluate what style and which school will best suit your requirements.

Once you have seen a few different classes, and preferably different styles as well, it’s time for you to choose. Go with your gut feeling about the people. That’s what I have always done.

Once you have signed up by filling in the forms and paying for your first few lessons or your first month, you will need to buy a training uniform.

Go to your local martial arts supply shop and buy a Keigo-Gi after the instructor tells you what type to buy. For Aikido, Judo or Ju Jitsu it will probably be a thick cotton Judo-gi or do-gi with a white belt, but let your teacher tell you exactly what to buy.

Now you have a dojo and an instructor, it’s all up to you.

You need to turn up to every training session and work hard. Do what your teacher and your fellow students show you to do… The rest of the steps to learn your chosen martial art will follow naturally from there.

I hope you enjoy your journey, and that you do it for many good years!

Alan Ames was my first teacher of Tomiki-style Aikido.

Alan Ames was my first teacher of Aikido after I came to Australia in the late 1970s. He was originally a Londoner who learned his Aikido in the U.K. and he was a student of the late John Gay Sensei, who was also a Pom.

I had originally learned a little Ki Society style Aikido while in Hong Kong, but I just didn’t like the demeanor of the Aikikai guy who was teaching it in Sydney at that time. You have to ‘connect’, and we just didn’t.

Then I saw an advert which Alan Ames had put in the Northern District Times newspaper which covered the northwest suburbs of Epping and Ryde. It said Aikido classes were starting up at Epping YMCA, which was about 5 miles (7 Kms) from Ryde, where I used to live back then.

Alan had set up mats in an upstairs room at the Epping YMCA, and proceeded to show us all a few Aikido techniques with the aid, if I remember correctly, of Tom Fischer. Anyway, Tom was an early student of Alan Ames, that’s for sure. He later dropped out though, and I remember Alan was very disappointed, as Tom was by that time a 2nd Kyu (blue belt). I was just a beginner back then.

The Epping “Y” Aikido group was just one of the venues where we trained with Alan Ames back then around 1980. The others were at Forestville and in the Pitt Street YMCA right in the heart of Sydney. That building is now a giant block of apartments.

There was a whole crowd of Kyokushin full-contact karate guys used to train there as well, and we would all go across the road to the pub together to have a drink after training. The karate guys thought we were mad throwing our bodies all over the place, and we thought they were crazy because they often broken noses, hands and feet from the full-contact fighting. It was some kind of mutual respect, I guess.

I gave poor Alan a really hard time when he started his Tomiki Aikido classes at the Epping YMCA in Sydney’s north-west suburbs. I was a real ‘doubting Thomas’. Some would call me a smart-ass.  When Alan demonstrated knife defenses, I insisted on picking up a rubber tanto knife and using it as a skilled knife fighter would, with no rush attacks, a slash here and a feint there… And this was with a room full of prospective newcomers watching.

Boy, I made Alan sweat that day!

Alan Ames eventually got religion and became a Catholic lay preacher. He now lives in Perth, West Australia.

If you’re looking for Aikido animated GIF pictures, you’ll love this collection of moving Aikido photos.

Shomenate - Aikido frontal strike attack.

These animated GIF graphics are from movie sequences of Tetsuro Nariyama, Shihan, the chief instructor of the Japan Aikido Association (JAA), which ia the world governing body of Shodokan Aikido – often referred to as Tomiki-style aikido. Shodokan was the name of Tomiki Sensei’s first dojo, in Osaka, Japan.

The video frames recorded of these Aikido techniques have been converted into moving GIF images for you. The pictures may be a bit small, but they are extremely clear and there is no useless footage included. Thus they are low bandwidth.

These moving GIF images show Nariyama Shihan doing the Randori no Kata of Shodokan Aikido. There are seventeen animated GIFs of the 17 core techniques of Tomiki style Aikido. It is also referred to as the Junanahon no Kata.

A Kotegaeshi wrist throw can be applied soft or hard, depending on the circumstances.

These Shodokan Aikido throws and holds were chosen by Kenji Tomiki Sensei because they were the least likely to cause serious injury in randori (free practice) Aikido training or in shiai competitions. Traditional aikido styles do not have competitions, but Tomiki found them useful in building his students’ skills at Aikido.

Be sure to take a look at the 17 techniques of the Randori no Kata, shown in full elsewhere on this web site. There is a moving GIF plus a detailed written description of each Aikido throw or hold… that is sixteen Aiki throws and one powerful Judo-like elbow lock.

Easy Aikido moves are those which get you off the line of attack. You’ll need to practice your Aikido avoidance movements enough so they become a reflex action. So instead of jumping back from your attacker’s fist, boot or weapon, you’ll move just enough to avoid getting hit and then take control of your attacker’s power.

This way you control his balance and movement.

If uke (your attacker) has a weapon, then you will usually control that arm or leg and take him to the ground. There are dozens of basic ways, with thousands of minor variations. So lets keep it simple.

In irimi-nage, a classical Aikido technique, you move so as to blend your movements with his power, and lead him into a circle, pushing his neck down from behind. Uke finds himself bent almost double, and immediately reacts by trying to stand upright again. And as he tries to stand up erect, you reverse direction at him, hooking his face with the inside of your forearm. This takes him crashing to the ground on his back. A traditional Aikido throw ‘made easy’ when it is described this way, but it requires many hours of practice in class to make it smooth and automatic.

In shomenate, as another example, you would lightly check Uke’s attacking arm and then counter-attack by pushing at his chin to break his balance and running strongly directly at him. Normally your leading foot goes straight through his open legs. This will slam him onto his back as soon as he loses his balance. And if uke tries to back away from you, you just keep running. Trust me on this. He’s going to fall first … or hit a wall, a tree or whatever.

With the kotegaeshi wrist throw, you would step to one side and capture uke’s attacking wrist or foot. You then swivel back towards your attacker and twist his own wrist or ankle back towards him. Keep turning and swiveling, and something’s got to give, and it won’t be you. As long as uke is skilled at Aikido ukemi (escapes and breakfalls) and has some idea of what might be coming, he should be able to jump and do a safe breakfall to the ground. But if he doesn’t have these skills, or is too slow in using them, the joint you are twisting will almost certainly be broken – and uke will hit the ground badly and be hurt even more.

That’s why learning Aikido needs to be done properly, in a safe, controlled environment. So why not find yourself an Aikido dojo today and go and check it out.Look at several if you can.

You really can’t learn this stuff properly on your own, and you are sure to make some friends once you start training regularly.

Aikido joint locks work against the body’s joints and hold you in such a way that you have to keep still or else you hurt yourself.

These Aikido locks are usually applied to your wrist or your shoulder, though some push on a nerve center on your forearm instead.

The result is the same. The person being held down on the floor learns quickly that keeping still reduces the pain and struggling in any way puts the Aikido lock on, hard.

Aikido locks are very effective for holding someone until they can be handcuffed, which is why many police forces teach some of these joint locks and holds.

However, it takes months of training to be able to put on an effective lock against someone who is resisting. And it takes years to be good at Aikido.

Most police forces cannot spare the expense of paying for their recruits to undergo lengthy training. So they will keep their arrest and restraint course simple and basic.

Restraint holds are methods of pinning your opponent or attacker to the ground so he or she cannot attack you any more. Uke (the person who attacks you) is unable to move, and any attempt to escape is thwarted immediately by excrutiating pain from a joint lock or by pressing on a nerve. Thus most would-be attackers find it less painful if they relax and lie there quietly.

These Aikido holds are usually applied to the wrist, elbow or shoulder. But other parts of the body can be used as well, including the legs. And in this case, the tension is applied against the natural movement of the knees, ankles or feet. Any of these joints can be twisted or broken if the prisoner continues to resist arrest.

Most Aikido holds end with the attacker face-down on the ground. He cannot kick you if he’s flat on his face. That’s why most police agencies use similar aikido or ju jitsu restraint holds before handcuffing a suspect.

But as for the few Aikido takedowns where Uke (your opponent) lands on his back, such as the tenkai-kotegaeshi (shihonage) or kotegaeshi wrist throws, there are face-up locks as well – usually to the elbow or wrist. Sometimes both of them are pinned and twisted.

You other arm and both legs might be free, but if you try to escape your arm or wrist will be broken before you can succeed. If you want to be kind to your Uke or prisoner, you will roll him over onto his face and control him there.

You then have complete control, and it is a simple matter to apply the handcuffs.

Shikko Knee Walking is an exercise done in Aikido right from the early stages, so students get used to moving around on their knees and eventually being able to fight from that position too.

Virginia Mayhew Bailey, my first Aikido teacher, used to call Shikko knee walking ‘The Samurai Walk’; and I didn’t even know it was called Shikko until I learned a different style of Aikido more than ten years afterwards.

The idea of Shikko knee walking comes from the Samurai days of feudal Japan, where Samurai would move around indoors using their Shikko Walking fo they didn’t stand up while they were indoors and in the presence of their boss. To do so would have been a breach of etiquette (bad manners, disrespect).

And yet these Samurai still had to function as warriors and bodyguards. They had to fight, if necessary, from the Seiza kneeling position… the way martial arts students sit while kneeling at the edge of the mats in the Dojo.

The kneeling techniques of Tomiki style Aikido are called the Koryu Katas, and are practised at black-belt level; not by beginning students (who are still learning their Shikko knee walking and basic Aikido moves).

Shikko knee walking takes a whole lot of swiveling from the hips and has a tendency to burn or rub skin from off your kneecaps. It’s probably another good reason that the Japanese Samurai wore a thick Hakama (split trouser/shirt) on top of their white cotton pants, but I can’t prove it.

David’s Tips to do Shikko Walking (the Samurai Walk)

Imagine your ankles are tied together with a set of elastic bungee cords…

You are kneeling. Then you lift up your right knee and place the right foot flat to the floor.

The imaginary ‘elastic’ pulls both your heels together, so your left heel svivels across to touch your right heel. The heels are together again.

Using your hip, and leaving your feet where they are, allow your right knee to kneel down again. You have just moved forward about 19 inches (50 cms).

Now raise the left knee and bring the left leg forward so the foot is flat on the ground and the left knee is raised. (Your ankles are apart again, so imagine that elastic pulling them together again.)

Swivel your right ankle now so it meets the left ankle again.

This is basic Shikko knee walking, the Samurai Walk.

As you practice week after week, you learn to keep good posture, to move backwards as well as forwards, and eventually you will be taught how to defend against an attacker who is kneeling or standing, while you are sitting or kneeling in the Seiza posture.

This is what Shikko knee walking is all about. Moving smoothly on your knees like a Samurai warrior at court hundreds of years ago.

Aikido exercises can be divided into two broad categories… The stretching exercises and warm-ups done at the beginning of each class, and the repetitive drills which give you the ‘building block’ skills that your Aikido techniques will rely upon in order to work right.

The stretching part of Aikido exercises involves, for example, bending and touching your toes, sitting with your legs spread open wide, and stretching towards each foot in turn, then down the center. Or placing your (bare) feet, heels together, and pulling the feet towards your buttocks – then trying to push your knees to the ground on either side of you.  This can all be a bit uncomfortable until you get used to it, but it keeps your body supple, and that is much more important in a fighting art than strength.

Stretching exercise reduce your chances of accidental injury while training, and warm up exercises make sure your muscles have been loosened so they can work faster. Also, your heart rate is also increased even before you start being thrown (break falling) or throwing your training partners around the dojo mats.

Then there are Aikido exercises to strengthen and toughen your wrists – this is in preparation for the Aikido wrist throws which your training partners will do with you.

Further Aikido exercises teach you to stand in correct (balanced) posture, to keep your center of gravity low, and to get your arm, leg and body movements correct. And once you can stand correctly, there are sets of foot movements and hand blade movements to be done. These are called Unsuko Undo and Tanduko Undo. They were invented by Kenji Tomiki Sensei, and they are unique to Shodokan Aikido. They are, if you like, a movement kata that you can practice on your own almost anywhere.

Then there are Tomiki Aikido exercises where you break your partner’s balance, but you do not actually throw him (or her). And your training partners will not fall for you either, unless they overbalance by mistake.

It does happen sometimes, but nobody gets hurt.

The actual Aikido throwing and holding techniques begin after these warm-up routines which also include ukemi practice – where the teacher and students will do several sets of breakfalls. These include falling on your back, falling to your sides and slapping the mats left and right, and finally doing forward rolls (rolling breakfalls) using both your right and your left arm.

Kata is how you get your Aikido techniques down perfectly.

Aikido Kata has two meanings I know of in Tomiki Aikido.

The first use of Aikido Kata (with a capital K in this article) is in a set routine (called a form or pattern in some other martial arts). An example here would be the Randori no Kata (Basic 17) of Tomiki-style (Shodokan) Aikido, or the ancient Koryo Dai San Kata (learned for black belt level and above), which is also called the Goshin no Kata.

In Shodokan Aikido there are ten of these old-style Koryo Katas that Tomiki Sensei put together, and very few Aiki students have seen them all. I have seen around four of them and worked on two. Some of the techniques are very similar to the traditional Judo katas, which Tomiki also knew.

The other use of Aikido kata (with a small k) is to denote the way Aikido techniques are taught in class and absorbed by the students.

Here, Aikido kata is practising one Aikdo technique again and again with different training partners, so you eventually get it right.

You might repeat a kote-gaeshi Aikido throw fifty times in succession with your partner.

And if you’re the one playing Uke’s role (Uke is the guy who attacks so you can throw him), then you’re going to be doing a lot of kotegaeshi breakfalls…

But don’t worry. At some point during the Aikido class kata practice, your instructor will shout: “Yamae!” – which means “STOP!”

Then he’ll command: “Kotei!” – which means “CHANGE!” Followed by “Hajime!” – meaning “BEGIN!”

Then you do your Aikido throws all over again, but with the roles reversed… Uke is now Tori, and Tori becomes Uke; so both of you get a turn at giving and receiving different Aikido throws and holds.

(In traditional Aikido schools, the person doing the throwing is referred to as Nage. Tori is the Tomiki term for the one who throws.)

After learning each Aikido technique at Kata level like this, you progress to doing it in Free Practise: Kageri Gaeko. Uke attacks fast or slow, varying his timing but still not resisting Tori’s techniques.

Then in classes you learn to handle your Aikido techniques at Hikki Tati Gaeko level – where Uke resists slightly, teaching you to switch techniques smoothly when the first one won’t work.

Finally, in Tomiki Aikido you graduate to randori level, where Uke resists everything you do. At this level, you can make your Aikido work on anybody, and you can get to test your skills out in competition or shiai. There you have an opponent who knows every trick you can do, and who will do his very best to stop you. Female students and older students (over 40 or so) are excused from shiai competition, and not all Tomiki schools do it.

This is another of my visitor’s questions, originally published in my Aikido eLetter in August 2004. It covers the teacher/student relationship in Aikido, or most martial arts. And it touches on what’s free and what needs to be paid for…

Dear David,

I am very much interested in learning Aikido. I have done martial arts when I was a teenager in Tae Kwon Do.

I have read what you said and I respect it very much. It is hard to find a master that will totally understand you and one that you can trust in these days in our world. I am 5 ft 7 inches tall and weigh 298 pounds. Yes am overweight, but I have not lost my agility. I wish to seek to learn martial arts again, but with a master I can trust and that will understand me as well.

As for as money goes it will be hard to afford classes where I live which is in Studio City, California. I wish to seek a master that I can trust as a friend and a brother and will not limit me from learning what he or she knows. I would like the master to understand me as an individual and trust me as well.

I seek a true master of the old ways of teaching a student. It will be hard to find in these days of the world we live in. Money is tight, but if I cannot find this then I will learn in books and read and practice. Everything in our world of today is about money, and not like the old ways of teaching and it is sad. So get back at me when you can, ok.

Alberto Del G.

Dear Alberto,

You cannot expect to have a close relationship to any master until you have proved yourself a worthy student. You do this by attending classes regularly, and by training diligently… for three or five years!

You say money is tight, but dojo fees need to be paid. The building has to be paid for, and there are insurances, equipment, water and electricity, repairs, advertising and other costs… not to mention the wages of the Instructors. There are overhead costs to be met, even if the instructors themselves do not get paid.

Even in the days of ancient Japan, students had to pay their instructor. I believe it was a fee for each technique to be shown to you. This could be very expensive, since Aikido has many, many techniques and variations! Even Morihei Uyeshiba would have had to pay fees to Sokaku Takeda Sensei, and others who taught him!

Yes, my first Aikido teacher, Virginia Mayhew, would teach students even if they couldn’t pay. She was an exceptional, generous woman… But look at her now… She is sick, paralyzed (from a stroke) and penniless.

Most people would like to earn a real living, and have money to put aside for their old age.

Just consider. How many years of dedicated hard work does it take to become a good Aikido teacher? Probably ten years or more. That is longer than it takes to become a Medical Doctor or a Dentist (Dental Surgeon) or a Lawyer/Attorney! And all these professions earn very high incomes.

Why should we expect a Martial Arts teacher to study ten years and then give everything to us for next to nothing? When WE have put in several years of training, then we are worthy of some respect and recognition. Not much, just some.

It’s not realistic to expect to be looked upon as a “brother” by your Sensei. That is not how it works, ever.

David

But wait. There’s more! I also received this gem of an enquiry:

No Money for Martial Arts?

My name is Nicholas. I’m 20 years old and have always been interested in martial arts, but never had the money to join any local dojos.

I don’t want to hurt anyone, I just don’t want to get hurt in case I ever get into a fight. So could you send me detailed lessons?

Thanks for your time,

Nicholas P.

No, Nicholas. Perhaps you’d like me to train with weights for you too? Read the email that the previous person wrote, and my answer.

If you want to learn Aikido (or any other martial art) you’ve got to do the work, pay fees and attend classes regularly.

I didn’t study Aiki for two decades so that I can save you from making any effort on your part. In any case, it doesn’t work that way. You really do have to make the effort yourself.

That’s why most students give up and drop out long before they get to Shodan level (1st-degree black belt). It isn’t easy. It is hard work.

David

Here is another question from one of my website visitors, and here is my answer to him, originally published in my Aikido Newsletter.

Hi David.

I’m 41 years old and have always wanted to do Aikido. But lots of people told me that I would have to deal with injuries, most of which will become chronic.

Injuries are part of Aikido and the more you train, the more injuries you’ll have. And they don’t always depend on your technique or lack thereof. Other people make mistakes too, and you end up paying for them.

If I have this psychological barrier – fear if you will – to injuries, do you think I should just bite the bullet and do Aikido, hoping that I won’t get injured, or should I try Tai Chi or something?

Thanks for your response.

Alex Kust***

Hi Alex,

My first teacher, Virginia Mayhew (Bailey) taught me that injuries in class were the teacher’s responsibility. Of course we are all human and small injuries sometimes occur – for example, I have broken toes twice. That’s very painful but not a serious handicap. They heal.

Judo and Aikido seem to do knee injuries, so I have always concentrated on the circular knee exercises that Hideo Obah Sensei emphasized so much when he stayed with us in Sydney back in the 1980s. (Ahah! That is something I should add to the website, eh?)

Sometimes a clumsy beginner may apply a wrist lock too hard. (Experienced students are most unlikely to cause you an injury.)

The late John Gay Sensei taught me that students with a poor attitude should be ‘weeded out’ by the teacher quickly. Gradings should never be taken for granted, and it is the martial arts instructor or teacher’s job to examine every student’s attitude towards others, and not judge them merely on their technical ability.

David

You don’t need much aikido equipment to teach this martial art, which is bad news for the sellers of martial arts equipment. The good news, is that there are plenty of Aikido books (and a few ebooks, too). Plus Aikido videos and lately Aikido DVDs.

While fitting out a hall for Aikido training doesn’t require your buying expensive exercise equipment like fitness machines, you still need a few items of sports equipment.

Your largest investment by far will be the martial arts mats which are necessary if your aikido students are to take Ukemi (perform safe aikido breakfalls) again and again without injury.

The traditional option is to use Japanese tatami, which are often referred to as Judo mats. Actually, these were the thick and hard sleeping mats of the traditional wooden Japanese home. Tatami were originally made of packed straw, and could seem rock-hard after years of pounding bodies in a dojo (a martial arts training hall).

Today there are many improved options, from interlocking jigsaw mats or puzzle mats, to thick foam floors covered with vinyl or canvas tarpaulins.

Mats can be laid down before class and removed afterwards, as in a shared community hall, while the floors with tarpaulin covers are for permanent aikido dojos or perhaps a Judo room. There the safety mats stay can stay on the floor undisturbed for months, possibly years.

Permanent safety mat systems that I have seen have all had a wooden frame around the borders of the mat area. A tarpaulin cover is stretched over this and attached to hooks on the wood frame with rubber (bungee) cords. All of the foam rubber mats underneath are completely sealed from view and are well protected from gathering dust and other unwanted debris.

A great advantage is that there are no cracks between the mats for you to snag your toes in and possibly break them. And I have seen that happen with traditional tatami mats that fitted together imperfectly. Indeed I have broken my own toes during training, and it is nothing to laugh about.

The tarpaulin-covered mats are also simple to clean quickly with a broom or a vacuum cleaner, and to scrub with a mop or wet towels.

You can glide quickly and safely over the mats and tarpaulin using the (Tsubi-Ashi, sword fencer’s shuffle) we use often in Aikido.

Other necessary equipment includes Aikido uniforms (keigo gi or do gi), which are usually the same thing as a Judo gi, but not always. Traditional Aiki styles will use hakamas for teachers, senior students and females; but most Shodokan schools do not.

Shodokan Aikido schools use a rubber tanto knife for training, where the knife must be soft to prevent eye injuries – especially during randori free practice and in shiai competition. Traditional Aikido schools use the traditional Japanese hardwood weapons, the tanto (knife), bokken (sword) and the jo (short fighting staff).

Of course, there is always a market for aikido books, training videos and DVDs, as long as the prices are affordable.

Shiai competition with a rubber dagger is very popular in Shodokan Aikido.

Aikido Competition an oxymoron, because traditional styles of Aikido do not have any competition at all.

But some do, namely the schools of Tomiki-style Aikido. They allow Shiai or Competition but only under the most carefully-controlled conditions.

So this is what split Tomiki style aikido (Shodokan Aikido) from the other styles of Aikido.

The founder of  Aikido, O-Sensei Morihei Ueshiba was strongly opposed to having any competition in Aikido. He believed it fostered a bad attitude in martial art students.

(Morihei Ueshiba is the bald gentleman wearing a hakama who is sitting down in the photo on this page. Kenji Tomiki sits next to him and Hideo Obah – Tomiki’s assistant – stands behind him, on the right, next to an unidentified Aikido student.)

Kenji Tomiki (L), Morihei Ueshiba (R) and Hideo Obah (back R).

O-Sensei did not want his Aiki students to get inflated egos.

However, Kenji Tomiki, the first student of Morihei Ueshiba to be awarded an 8th Dan black belt rank by the founder, was also a high-ranking Judo teacher.  (Tomiki was a student of  Jigoro Kano, the founder of Judo, as well).

Kenji Tomiki was a Professor of physical education. He reasoned that a strictly-controlled form of Aikido competition would keep his students from becoming bored, and it would help them test their skills under pressure. All of his early Aikido students were Judo players as well. (He would make them do Aikido when their daily Judo sessions were over.)

Tomiki Sensei already knew how the randori (free practice) training sessions used in Judo helped create better Judo players. And since he taught both Judo and Aikido, Tomiki reasoned that his Aikido pupils would learn better if they had randori free practice and shiai competition in their Aikido training sessions as well. Just like the Judo.

Adventures in China

Both Kenji Tomiki and Morihei Ueshiba went to China when Japan invaded it during the 1930’s. Tomiki went to teach Judo and Aikido to students at the Japanese University in Manchuria (the country between north China and Russia. Tomiki’s assistant, Hideo Obah came along to help him.

O-Sensei, Morihei Ueshiba, was deeply into the Omoto religion, and was a peace activist.

When Japan surrendered at the end of World War II, Kenji Tomiki Sensei was imprisoned for three years in Siberia before he could return to Japan. Obah Sensei was imprisoned also. (Although they were employed as teachers, they had both been, technically, officers of the Japanese army.)

I was told O-Sensei, Morihei Ueshiba, had expressed interest in the changes Tomiki Sensei had added, including Aikido competition. But politics intervened, and Ueshiba’s assistants prevented the two Aikido teachers from ever getting together again to compare notes.

And personally, I think that’s very sad.

I started the NSW Tomiki Aikido Club at North Ryde. That's me, with the beard, kneeling, front left.

My information on the NSW Tomiki Aikido Club is way out of date, because it is no longer “my” club. But this will give you some of the history of it, here in Sydney, Australia.

The NSW Tomiki Aikido Club began back in the late 1970’s under Alan Ames, a student of the late John Gay, Shihan, 7th Dan Japan Aikido Association (JAA), who was founder and head of the Australian Aikido Association (AAA) based in Melbourne. At that time, the AAA represented Tomiki Aikido in this country.

Back then, John Gay was a full-time instructor with the Victorian state police in Melbourne. His defense techniques and baton work were awsome… I can testify to this because I have been on the receiving end during some of his demonstrations! The Sydney branch of the AAA taught Tomiki Aikido at Willoughby Park Centre, near Chatswood, New South Wales — a pleasant and affluent suburb on Sydney’s north shore.

After Alan Ames left Sydney, we learned our Tomiki Aikido skills from Mick Mugg and later Bill Fettes. Bill had been living in Melbourne and was actually sent up to Sydney by John Gay to train us up to black belt standard, which he did. But he wasn’t yet a Sandan (3rd Dan) black belt, so Bill couldn’t grade us himself.

Then John Gay decreed that all new black belts had to learn and perform the Dai Yon kata before we could be graded by him, and neither Alan Ames or Bill Fettes knew this kata… And since Bill Fettes was then only a Shodan, he could not grade us either.

Bill too did his best in the time he had, but he left Sydney to train in Japan and China. Bill Fettes got into Jo (5 foot staff) and Naginata (halberd) and various arts, both Chinese and Japanese. And meanwhile, our Tomiki Aikido club just struggled on as best we could without a Dan grade instructor.

The Willoughby Tomiki Aikido club was kept together by a hard core of 1st Kyu (brown belts) which comprised Ed Watkins, myself (David Harvey), my (now ex-)wife Rhonda Harvey, and the youngest of us, David Lee.

In many ways it shouldn’t have been a big deal, but prospective students do expect the club instructor to be wearing a “black belt”. Funny that…

Every time I would travel from Sydney to Melbourne to train with John Gay sensei, he would change the core Tomiki Aikido techniques we had learned yet again, and the gradings we all needed to make Dan Grade slipped further away.

John Gay never showed us the Dai Yon kata, and he even interrupted procedings when I hired a video camera (they were very expensive back then) and flew down to Melbourne after arranging to video two of his black belt students performing it. (Forgive me, ladies, but I have since forgotten your names.)

John Gay did not stop the women, but he picked very minor errors in their Aikido demonstration afterwards, and gave a lecture to the video camera. He said that if the kata was not performed perfectly, it should not be recorded at all.

Ed Watkins, who was a retired fireman, ex WWII Military Policeman, amateur wrestler and yoga teacher, was the only one of us with enough time to spare. He drove to Melbourne and stayed for six months with John Gay and his (then) wife, Leonie. (John and Leonie later divorced. She is now Leonie McFarlane.) Eventually, Ed returned triumphantly to Sydney with his Aikido black belt.

But when Ed made another trip and came back with yet more changes from John Gay to our Tomiki Aikido techniques, I swore enough was enough. Some of the basic 17 had been taught to us five different ways. I wanted no more changes to my Aikido because they only served to confuse me. I had been a brown belt (1st kyu) for seven years, and I was quite prepared to remaim the same grade forever. I just couldn’t cope with any more changes to my Aiki.

After a vote of hands, I took half the students and formed a breakaway Tomiki Aikido Club, which trained at the North Ryde RSL Youth Club, in Magdala Road.

Unfortunately I handled the whole thing badly, and in the process I managed to lose the friendship of David Lee, who chose to stay with John Gay. Naturally, I incurred great wrath from John Gay but sadly, from Bill Fettes also when he returned to Australia about two year later.

Eventually, Alan Ames, who was by that time a Third Dan, visited Sydney and proceeded to grade me to black belt, in spite of John Gay’s fury.

Professor Tomiki training with John Gay in Melbourne Australia.

John Charles Gay was the founder and head of the Australian Aikido Association, based in Melbourne, Australia.

John Gay, Shihan taught self-defence and arrest techniques to Police Cadets in Melbourne and spread Tomiki-style Aikido across the whole of Australia.

Mr Gay was born in Monmouth, Wales, on May 21, 1918. He learned to box as a boy and became a bricklayer, leaving Wales to find work in Birmingham and London.

When World War II began, John Gay joined the British Army Royal Engineers, where he became a Physical Training Instructor and was schooled in explosives and demolition.

Mr Gay accompanied the Canadian soldiers who invaded Normandy in the D-Day invasion of Europe on June 6, 1944.

He was one of the first Allied soldiers to enter the Nazi extermination camp at Belsen, and these experiences made his anti-war convictions even stronger.

After returning to the United Kingdom, John Gay married his first wife, Dorothy. He worked as a taxi driver and began learning Judo in London. He discovered Tomiki style Aikido, and had gained his Sandan (3rd dan black belt) in Aikido by 1970.

John Gay, the Aikido Sensei, in Melbourne Australia

John Gay emigrated to Melbourne in 1971 where he married his second wife, Leonie. He began teaching Aikido at the Ashwood Judo Centre and various YMCAs in Victoria.

In 1975 Mr Gay was appointed instructor to the Victoria Police Cadets, teaching defense and arrest techniques.
This was the first time the Victorian state police had training in anything more scientific than boxing and rugby tackles.

There was one episode John Gay told me about when three young men tried to mug him in a Melbourne alleyway. He walked into the local police station to report it, and when he flashed his Police ID, the duty sergeant stood to attention and snapped, “Right sir! We’ll go and look for the offenders right away!”

John Gay looked at the cop with a twinkle in his eye and said, “You can take your time, mate. They won’t be moving for quite some time.”

Mr Gay remained with the police for 13 years until he reached the mandatory retirement age and they made him retire. I remember he became quite cranky after that.

Mr Gay continued to teach and promote Aikido through the 1980`s and 1990`s, visiting Japan seven times in his career and receiving the rank of seventh dan, which made him a Shihan.

One of John’s major achievements was helping to found the Martial Arts Board of Victoria. The purpose here was to put a stop to organized martial arts tournament matches which were often held in the car parks at the back of Melbourne’s pubs and bars. The Martial Arts Board brought in proper licensing regulations for the task, requiring martial arts instructors to be registered and have first aid certification and coaching training.

John Gay, Shihan, was awarded membership of the Japan Aikido Association by the Tomiki Aikido International Network, and had the honour of being the only foreigner on the networks committee.

His philosophy was based on that of the sport of Aikido – “the man who is at peace with himself is unlikely to make war on others.”

John Gay died of a heart attack on September 6th 1996. He was survived by his daughter.

When a person is attacked, the human body reacts by dumping adrenaline into the bloodstream, which makes your heart very beat much faster. Your heart starts pounding, you take deeper, faster breaths… These physical reactions to stress were designed to give you more oxygen in the blood so you can FIGHT or TAKE FLIGHT.

The adrenaline dump can even make you impervious to pain. (You will feel it afterwards, but not during the meleé.) This body reaction is well-known as our ‘fight or flight’ response. And all human beings were born with it.

Sometimes the body gets hit with so much adrenaline, that all you can do is stand still and shake. I know, it happened to me once as a 21 year old.

I witnessed a furious cook with a large kitchen knife in his hand dash out of a burger bar and chase after a running skinhead. The chef caught the skinhead and held him with the knife at his throat until the police arrived and took over. The cook didn’t cut the skinhead, but happened right in front of me and I still got the adrenaline shakes.

I know I trembled for several minutes afterwards. This is a perfectly natural body response. Adrenaline might have been the way the caveman stayed safe from saber-toothed tigers, millions of years back. If the human kept still, the dangerous animal might fail to see it. But who knows?

Some traditional martial arts use sparring or tournaments to get their students to handle this adrenaline rush, but many don’t. This is quite useful to judge how you are progressing.

Aikido is a martial art where the traditional styles prohibit competitions or tournaments. They teach their students to remain serene while being attacked, but it takes many years. Also remember, the street is a hellava lot different from training in the dojo.

Shodokan Aikido, which I have trained at for many years is different because it is the only Aikido type which allows randori free practice (just like a Judo school), and they can also have competitions where you test your skills against another person who is just as good as you are and knows the same tricks you do. Now that is a test of your skills.

The thing about any kind of self defense is to be aware of that big adrenaline dump and try to find a fighting system that handles this realistically, and a martial arts or self defense system that you are happy with.

Books, videos and DVDs are of some help, but they’re best used to supplement what you’re learning hands on from an instructor. These learning aids are no substitute for physical body-to-body practice.

You also need to practise your different self defense moves again and again with a friend or a training partner. You will just be fooling yourself if you think it is enough to ‘train’ alone. You don’t want to discover that the hard way, on the street in a real fight situation.

This is an email I woke up to read first thing one morning:

Hi David,

At school I get bullied by a boy, he keeps punching me in my head and kicking me.

I have had enough, and am going to fight him, but I need to do something that will cause him pain and make sure he doesn’t mess with me again.

Please can you help?

This was my reply:

Dear Jim (not his actual name),

Be careful that YOU don’t end up in trouble, even if you are defending yourself.

I taught my kids that they should fight back if they were bullied. (My wife had twins, a boy and a girl.) And we both decided Aikido was too complicated for the kids when they were little, and it was too easy for them to hurt someone seriously. (They used to watch us train when they were small and try to copy what we did.)

So when my son Jordan was punched in the mouth by one of the boys at primary school, he did exactly as I had shown him and kicked the boy in the balls.

End of fight.

But…The schoolboy, who was Australian Chinese, told his parents when he got home. I know the Chinese culture, since I lived in Hong Kong for more than 20 years. They are extremely sensitive about damage to their family jewels, after all, maybe their son wouldn’t give them any grandchildren?

(He had been hurt and shocked, yes, but he wasn’t actually injured.)

The parents complained to the school principal, and he lectured my son and called me and my wife to attend the school to discuss the incident.

I told the principal my son had been taught never to pick fights, but he had been instructed to defend himself. And no, we weren’t apologetic.

The headmaster didn’t like that, but the guy couldn’t put me and my wife in detention, could he?

In the end, my son Jordan and the other boy became excellent friends.

But as for you, young Jim. I cannot see what’s been happening with my own eyes, and I won’t be there to step in if either of you goes too far in a fight.

Self defense laws in Australia (and the U.K. where young Jim lives) are very strict about self defense and what you can do to defend yourself. Magistrates get very nasty if they think you have used more than MINIMUM FORCE to protect yourself. And being such protected beings themselves, unlike us mere mortals, the chances are high that the judge or magistrate has never  been in your situation.

So, Jim… Is there a Judo club in the local area where you can join? And if you find one, you must KEEP YOUR TRAINING A SECRET.

Why? Because it takes time to build up skills, and if the school bully hears of it, he will beat you up all the more (before you have the skill and the confidence to be able to whip him.

I know from my own experience when I was a kid.

Just one thing. When you do fight back, you must hurt your bully fast and keep on hurting him until he is down and he calls out “Enough!” Don’t freak out because now he’s going to be angrier than ever. (I did that once, as a schoolkid, and was walloped for it.)

You make sure it’s YOU who uses anger, and YOU keep hitting and kicking him, until there’s no more fight in the bully.

BUT you must not do any permanent damage. If he is loses an eye, for example, you will go to jail. Teeth knocked out? Broken jaw? Maybe even the same, because it makes YOU look like the aggressor. The bully may also try to sue you for damages, medical bills etc.

You only ever fight if you cannot talk your way out of it or walk or run away. It doesn’t matter what other people think.

Unbendable Arm is an Aikido exercise used to demonstrate and develop Ki energy.

Most ki-orientated Aikido schools demonstrate Ki energy by using an exercise called the Unbendable Arm.

This is where an Aikido practitioner stands face-to-face with a partner (or member of the public), places his bowed arm so the wrist rests on the person’s collar bone, and then asks that person to use both hands and try to bend his arm at the elbow.

The first time the exercise is done, the demonstrator will resist with muscular strength. He has two arms working against his one, so he will almost certainly lose; the arm will be bent quite easily.

For the second part of the exercise, the demonstrator relaxes and imagines his center of gravity to be at his One Point. He further imagines that his body is charged with Ki Energy which flows from his One Point through his body, right along his arm and out through the tips of his fingers. He imagines his fingers are like a fireman’s hose, and that his Ki is extending, shooting like jets of water out to Infinity.

With this mind-set, and extending Ki Energy, the demonstrator’s arm becomes unbendable.

The person trying to bend it should not be able to do so, even with both hands and all his strength.

Even with a beginner trying this Ki exercise for the first time, the arm may be bendable, but a distinct difference between Strength and Ki Energy should be felt.

And the skill gets better with practice (and confidence).

Many people believe that George Lucas, the author of Star Wars, borrowed the idea of Ki Energy when he coined the phrase, ‘May the Force be with you’.

Vulnerable points on the human body are known to most trained martial artists.

These fighting pressure points for self defense (often called vital points or vulnerable points) should only be used when your life is already on the line. All these atemi targets are dangerous and should never be used unless you are in fear for your life, and you cannot get away.

Pressure points are not for fighting to prove who’s a tough guy so you can improve your social standing someplace. These vulnerable places in the human body can kill, maim or cripple your attacker. They are your weapon of last resort in a kill or be killed situation.

If you strike at these vital points you’d better understand you have to disable your attacker(s) fast. You will only make him, her or them more angry at you. You could escalate what might have been just a beating and turn it into  a slaying. And its going to be a coin-toss who wins.

Normally, whoever gets in the first crippling blow will be the survivor. There is no winner. Those who have done it have told me they just felt sick afterwards. There isn’t any sense of achievement.

I am not an expert on self defense law, but what I am saying here is that somebody dies violently, chances are high that the survivor(s) – and hopefully that might be you – will have to stand trial for the killing, unless the investigating police officers are convinced your actions are clearly justifiable for self defense.

And if the other guy gets crippled or maimed, even if he attacked you first, then you can expect to be hit with a lawsuit.

So this is all or nothing fighting for your life. You don’t ever do this stuff lightly.

Your Self Defense ‘Hit List’

Every single blow you deliver has to strike a vital point on your opponent’s body. I cannot emphasize this too much.  Each kick, forearm smash, elbow strike, knee kick or punch has to inflict serious damage on the person you are hitting. If it doesn’t, you may not get a chance to land your next blow because he will probably have flattened you already.

It’s no good hitting a big man in the belly, for example. And you’ve got to smash with all your weight and power behind it. Slaps or jabs won’t will only make him more pissed-off at you. These vital points are not some ‘magic’ push-buttons that switch on a ‘You Win!’ sign and hand you a cupie doll. I think the term ‘pressure points’ is actually quite misleading, because these body parts need to be rendered broken… Damaged enough to make a trauma surgeon shake his head and suck in his breath.

Eyes – jab at them and you can blind your attacker, temporarily or permanently. The eyes are serious vital points; a blind man can’t fight any more and is crippled for life. Use your thumbs.

Ears – Ordinary punches don’t do much good (think of Boxers with ‘cauliflower ears’)… the vital points are inside, not outside! But a solid slap with your slightly-cupped palm can rupture his ear drum, (think two palms to his two ears, as in escaping a face-to-face choke or a front strangle), and you can burst both his ear drums. Injury to the inner ear and the cochlea means loss of balance, and then he can’t fight too well. He will have trouble even standing up. Ear injury can sometimes damage a person’s hearing or balance permanently.

Temples – A blow here can stun or knock out your attacker, but there is a small chance it might kill him too. I have seen people hit full force on the temple with a police riot baton, and be relatively unaffected. Sure they bled, but they weren’t downed. So remember, these vulnerable points for self defense are not reliable every time. And when the person is affected by drugs or alcohol, they often don’t feel any pain.So don’t hurt them; you have got to break their body and render it non-functional!

Just move on to the next target on your ‘hit list’ of vulnerable body targets.

Any atemi blow to the head can kill or do brain damage. Yet a blow to the head cannot be relied upon for a safe knockout. I have seen drunk and angry men take a police riot baton to the temple, at full force, and only get angrier. But I have also seen other men drop like a stone when hit there.

Collar Bone (clavicle) – can be broken by a sharp blow. This means he cannot use his arm on the broken side. A heavy stick or baseball bat can be used for this blow. This won’t kill him either.

Nose – a punch to the nose hurts, but isn’t life threatening. If you break his nose, he’ll have a nose-bleed, his eyes will be filled with tears, which will obstruct his vision. (Martial arts folklore claims the nose can be pushed up into the brain to kill someone, but this is a myth.) You can do the most damage to the nose if you break it from the side.

Adam’s Apple – a very dangerous self defense tactic. This can KILL. The airway collapses like a  can of soda pop, and the person you just hit will choke to death. They can’t breathe, and unless they get a tracheotomy immediately, they will die. This is one of the most dangerous vulnerable points on the human body.

Under the Ear – There’s a hollow here you can push into and upwards with your fingertips to effect a release. You can also smash the side of the neck below the ear with the side of your fist (a hammer-fist), or use an elbow strike or forearm smash. The whole area is full of sensitive nerves and blood vessels and is a  knockout blow.

Back of the Neck – Where the spine joins the skull. This can stun your opponent and knock him out. A hard blow can break the neck, severing the spinal cord which will paralyze or kill him. The neck is another of the more vulnerable points of the human body.

Sternum – This is the center of the chest, covering the heart. A really heavy blow, such as from an ax kick or a stomp, can kill directly. It is very, dangerous indeed.

Solar Plexus – is one of the great vulnerable points for self defense. This is the area, centered, at the very top of the stomach area, yet just below the sternum. All boxers know that a good punch here can ‘wind’ an opponent. It shocks the nervous system so the person cannot breathe, and he will be gasping like a fish out of water. The effect only lasts for a minute or so, but that gives you plenty of time to damage the next vital target on his body. It is a good target for an elbow strike.

Floating Ribs – These are the short ribs at the side of the body. They are very sensitive to finger or knuckle pressure, so are great to force an attacker to release you from a bear-hug or whatever. A hard blow can break them, and there’s a slight risk of puncturing a lung.

Testicles – These are the best-known vital points on a man’s body, so most men protect their groin pretty instinctively, especially if they have been in a fight or two. But a good whack here will still put a guy down on the ground and out of the fight. Just remember there can often be a six second delay before the wave of pain and shock hits him. In a serious fight for your life, you want to hit them so hard that the scrotum bursts and the testis are ruptured.

On a side note, it is also very painful for a woman to be kicked or hit in her groin. A hard blow to the crotch will usually drop her to the ground immediately… just like a man. The groin is a sensitive area.

Knee Caps – These are very vital points, because the patella (kneecap) dislocates very easily. And if it breaks in two, the person you hit will have trouble walking for the rest of their life. Surgeons just remove a broken kneecap. They don’t heal. The most usual attack is  a small circular kick to the knee cap (dislocates or breaks the patella). This is a crippling injury.

Breaking The Knee Joint -But if you kick the knee joint from your opponent’s side, you can tear apart the whole leg. Smash one leg in, towards the other leg. If he cannot bend it when your blow hits him, with your full body weight behind it, his leg is gone at the knee.

End of fight. Hello hospital.

The Ankle is another excellent place to get a bone fracture that will stop your attacker. Like the knee, you can do the maximum damage when your kick (or blow with a stick) comes from the outsite, smashing one leg towards the other. If your opponent has all his / her weight on that foot, it will suffer maximum damage.

Your attacker cannot do too much to you, at least not easily, if he has a broken foot and cannot even stand up. But beware of a possible foot sweep!

If you would like to see a real master of attacking the body’s vulnerable points, then check out this link to Target Focus Training. It’s not pretty. It’s just hard-core, no B.S., self defense.