Martial arts discussion thread

[GoktimusPrime]

This student has very little muscle mass - he gets exhausted just from handwriting (he has aides who help him in class; often taking over the task of handwriting when he is too fatigued to continue). As such, I think doing external techniques wouldn't be terribly practical for him. Even if he did learn how to strike, I doubt he'd be able to deliver them with sufficient strength to be able to use them in a practical self-defence situation. And unfortunately he has been a victim of unprovoked bullying before. (sadly there are people out who are willing to attack even wheelchair-bound victims )

So I need to think of something that he can physically do given his disability, and can hopefully work in a self-defence situation. Teaching this student is definitely going to be a challenge as I'm going to have to disregard the single most core feature of fighting -- stances. As I once heard a Karate teacher say, "If your stance is wrong, all your Karate is wrong." - and this is something that I'd wholeheartedly agree with. Unfortunately you just cannot apply this principle with someone who physically cannot stand. So it flies against everything I've learnt and know about martial arts - and I'll have to teach him the one thing I always tell my other students not to do -- leading with their hands!

So far my ideas are:
+ Modified Silk-Reeling. Silk-reeling is a basic technique I teach to all of my students anyway.
+ Modified Suwari-waza.
+ Modified Push Hands

...any other ideas are welcome, but due to the student's condition external techniques like striking aren't really possible. As such all my ideas atm are confined to more internal techniques.

[Bartrim]

Why don't you talk to the student and ask what they hope to gain from the class

[GoktimusPrime]

The sport is specifically called "Self Defence." This was done intentionally so that there can be no confusion about our objective. Also, this student has told me before in the past that he wants to learn self defence (again, he specifically said "self defence" and not "martial arts").

[GoktimusPrime]

Today I spoke to someone who is a senior ranking martial artist who also has a history of getting in trouble with authorities for aggressive violent behaviour. People like this should either never be taught martial arts, or if they are, should only be taught passive defensive techniques. Unfortunately this is not the case -- this person's style is external and I believe he has been taught aggressive, offensive techniques. (-_-) This is an all too common occurrence... teachers just teach their students so long as they pay their fees and attend classes. A responsible instructor should either refuse to teach aggressive students or modify the content that they teach to them so that the techniques cannot be used to attack others.

*deep.sigh*

[Bartrim]

Today I spoke to someone who is a senior ranking martial artist who also has a history of getting in trouble with authorities for aggressive violent behaviour. People like this should either never be taught martial arts, or if they are, should only be taught passive defensive techniques. Unfortunately this is not the case -- this person's style is external and I believe he has been taught aggressive, offensive techniques. (-_-) This is an all too common occurrence... teachers just teach their students so long as they pay their fees and attend classes. A responsible instructor should either refuse to teach aggressive students or modify the content that they teach to them so that the techniques cannot be used to attack others.

*deep.sigh*

That was the first thing I learnt. Our whole techniques are based on a defensive point of view. Our instructor actually made a humourus/ interesting point. If someone wants to rob you of your mobile phone. Don't fight them, let them take it as it'll be obsolete in 6 months anyway

[GoktimusPrime]

well yeah - no material possession is worth fighting for. Except maybe Time Warrior.

Self defence techniques are learnt in situations like:
+ Someone is obstructing your nearest point of exit and you need to get through/around them in order to escape.
+ Someone has already launched an attack on you without making any demands (e.g. surprise attack). Like it or not, the fight has already started and you need to react.

Unfortunately we have certain members of our society who start fights unprovoked just because they can (typically angry people with low self-esteem who feel like randomly lashing out at strangers).

[klystron]

There is no first strike in karate.