Shaving hair to be a better martial artist

[davejenkins90]

Seriously thinking about shaving my hair.

My instructor insists on people using techniques that involve the pulling of hair, and to be frank I am getting sick of it. My hair is longer than most of the male students and everytime someone performs these moves I cringe with pain feeling hairs being ripped out.

I know we need to prepare ourselves for real life situations and this is what might be the best option whilst kicking someone in the back of the knee to get them to the floor, but I cant stand these sort of techniques.

Anyone else think the same or has done something similar?

[wing chun]

I usally go for a neck pull instead as fingers can get tangled up in the hair .

[davejenkins90]

Good point, i'll have to mention that to the instructor next time. There are certainly more effective ways than hair pulling.

[wing chun]

Just another point,if you are grabed that means your attacker has reduced his attacking opptions by grabing you dont worry about trying to get free just unload on your opponent , if the rolls are reversed just use pulling like in Wing Chun Lap Sau ,Jut Sau which leaves your hands free instead of tying it up .

[Nigel]

Dave,

Dont shave your hair if you never intended to. Why dont you make your attacks more awkward for your defenders so that they would find it easier to go for a move that does not involve hair pulling.

[clouddragon]

For certain applications it can be very useful if the opponent has a certain amount of hair to pull or grab, but if not a Chin Na to the back of neck is equally effective and certainly a painful alternative. Most of my male students keep a shaved or very short hair but I kinda like having a hair style.

[davejenkins90]

Good to hear everyone opinions on this, thanks for the advice. I'm going to stick to my own style for now. There's plent of time for shaving my head when I start to go bald!!

[KeithBell]

Dave, come on if you dont want to shave your hair, dont! You will get used to it after a while.

Make the most of it while you have it thats what I say.