Think: How does your martial art work?

[Medway Tai Chi Society]

This is a question that, I think, a lot of martial artists don't think that deeply about.

Moving away from techniques, how does your martial art seek to defeat an opponent?
So don't think of "well, first we kick into the head, then we..."

For instance,
Tai Chi is a close range striking/throwing system. In our style, when engaging an opponent, our aim is to enter the opponents space, preferably through the outer gate, then to take the opponents structure, by throwing or sweeping him to the floor, when he is down, to finish him to ensure he doesn't continue his attack.
We use short range punches, kicks, elbows, knees to enter throwing range at a preferable angle, throw our opponent, and then finish him.

If we all look at our martial arts like this, it may give us insights into our own training, and we may even find a certain ammount of similarity in martial approaches.

Looking forward to hearing your analysis.

[Martin Austwick]

I suspect that this could be a very interesting discussion.

There are a number of tactics that we use in English Martial Arts, but two of the principles of combat are Press In, and Fly Out. Basically we close distance in a safe way (behind a cover of some sort or in response to an action of our opponent), deal with them and then get back out of distance safely.

There is no point in getting in and hitting them if they can then hit you right back again. We always assume that any action on our point isn't instantly disabling, or that our opponent has support so the first priority is always not getting hit, even if we have just hit them.

There are only two rules to the fight.

Rule 1: Don't die
Rule 2: Kill your Opponent

If you manage to end the fight without breaking either of the rules then you have won. If you break a rule then you haven't won (yet).

[sir gareth]

The arts I know, boxing and wrestling, both involve getting close.
While sport boxing has some people who use long jabs on opponents boxing on the street is very different.
First, the jab is only useful for finding range or getting your foot in the door, on the street its not as effective as in a match.
Closing in gives the opportunity to throw power punches or engage in dirty boxing, clinching up and throwing elbows or knees similar to muay thai.

[empty cup]

From what I can see my art is based around the premise that most actual fighting is done close in and thus you will get hit at some point. Strikes are thrown continuously and many from the elbow not the shoulder. So a block will move into a strike and vice versa, fancy kicks are not really done that much as they are viewed as risky. A strong and stable stance is viewed as essential, we tend to block and counter rather than evade and counter. The students are trained in hard conditioning to withstand hits and also to use the body [blocks and such] to shock the opponent. Its explosive really and strikes and blocks can be very fast.

[SimonB]

Nice posts here. Well Taekwondo the way I see it is more of a sport than a self defence martial art and that means that to defeat the opponent is not always to disarm / diable him/her.

There is self defence taught in many clubs, but in the WTF is not really like this. I'll ITF Taekwondo for someone else to put their opinion across.

So basically in a wtf tkd match the main objective to defeat the opponent is by knockout, if not, then some good points scoring by doing some good contacts.

[Chaleira]

From what I've been learning and seeing with capoeira. It uses trickery, to deceive or trick the opponent. Set him up, and take his openings. Capoeiristas uses a lot of feints. And they learn how to move around an opponent to open up holes in their defense. A capoeirista may show you an opening to set you up, or he may pretend to be hurt or defenseless. Hey, they may even throw sand in your eye....really! Capoeira is a dirty martial art when it comes to "fighting" There is no such thing as a dirty move in when a capoeirista chooses to fight.

Furthermore, capoeira uses a lot of dodges and escapes rather than blocks (although there are blocks and parrys, it's not the preferred method) They are good at getting in, under and around various attacks from various angles. They learn to counter at once with their dodges, leaving the opponent open when they attack.

This is just in brief and from my limited understanding. I'm still growing in the art ;-)