The weather was a bit nippy but not too bad this morning. 6 men (including cable – Tailhooks 2.0) came out on the last Fightclub for the year. The focus this morning was on the refinement of existing moves and drills. once the basic technique is learned, the body movement must become a natural part of the technique. Training the body to understand how to move, attack and defend while maintaining balance is essential. But very often our own minds get in the way of this process, so we need to place stress on the mind and body at the same time – this forces the body into moving naturally and ignoring what the mind is telling it to do. The trained body, if allowed, will move naturally while the mind takes care of tactics. It is good to see "mistakes" being made that actually turn out to be a natural and effective move. This is the training taking over. The body knowing it needs to respond will often surprise the person with the choice and speed of the response. Eventually you will come to depend on the "natural" response and will trust that the coordination of the mind and body will occur without the preplanning delay.
The basic hand and foot drills are becoming less time consuming and they are now becoming understood and used as control measure against the opponenet. We added the "pull trap" technique this morning. This is one of the most effective and efficient ways of disabiling someone that is attempting to do harm to your person. The inside pull trap will easily destroy the leg while the outside pull trap will severely limit the attackers ability to move. Care should be taken when practicing these techniques as they will easily cause severe damage to the leg if care is not taken,,, very little effort is required ,, so be careful.
When attacked there are three things we can do – dis-engage, avoid and block. Today, during the "boxing" drills we a added the blocking component. It is important to be able to slip the punches and avoid giving a standing target,, but very often it becomes necessary to block the incoming attack. We spend a lot of time training with blocking techniques. Once the fight moves to the inside,, control and blocking becomes a necessity. And we are now moving from the engagement stage to the attack with movement to the inside. Hand and elbow placement as well as foor and knee placement will become extremely important. The placement of your "weapons" will limit the liabilities that are created during an altercation.
It is always amazing to me to watch the improvement that comes with training. The ackward and slow body movements give way to natural and effective techniques. Some may feel frustration during this transition period but to the trained eye the progress being made by each is very clear. There will come a time when you will see and feel the difference in the moves and responses.
I thank you fine men for allowing me to share this art with all of you.