[QUOTE=Discogodfather;2849724]When I was 14 I was mugged and beaten pretty badly, multiple attackers, ko’d. I went on a martial arts binge from age 15 until 21, trying to make myself feel more confident about defending myself. Wasted a lot of time with some silly stuff (this was pre MMA and UFC, etc.) I did end up taking BJJ and felt a little better. Anyways in my early 20’s I just forgot all the MA stuff and went in a different direction, kind of peace and love and avoidance stuff.
Now in my late 30’s I got a dog and my work schedule is forcing me to walk him more and more at night. Actually have been doing if for a few years without any problems. Six months ago a drunk buffed out younger guy approached me aggressively in a park late one night. He was murmuring and appeared violent and possibly emotional disturbed, he walked right up to me then ducked to the side and brushed against my arm. Escaped towards my car and took off.
Not really much of an incident but I experienced a total brain freeze as to what to do when it happened, and honestly I experienced lots of fear. Got me thinking as to maybe getting back into MA (I am also overweight and not in good shape).
Went back to my BJJ dojo and rolled a few weeks ago, came to the conclusion it’s going to a ton of work to even get back to the extreme low level I was when I was 21. My back is bad (injured it about 10 years ago) and I need to get in shape before I ever roll again.
I came to the conclusion I needed to carry a weapon. Started carrying a Taser, a knife, and a self defense pen (all the law allows in my area, CCW is not possible). Had an “ah-ha” moment where I wondered why I wasn’t doing this earlier in my life, and why I spent time learning open-handed anything back in the day.
Shouldn’t weapons training be the first priority for anyone concerned with self defense? Why spend 95% of your time training open handed and 5% weapons (which is what most MA’s do, and the 5% weapons is usually some silly weapons defense)?
Maybe I am just disillusional, old, and angry that my body sucks compared to when I was 21 but right now training with a knife, taser, and misc edged weapons seems to be the best way to go. I would love to train a pistol but it’s just not possible to get CCW where I live.
Am I on the right track?[/QUOTE]
In my opinion, part of the reason that a lot of traditional martial arts seem to suck in emptyhand combat compared to modern UFC-style sports combat is that back in the days when those traditional martial arts were relevant, the focus would have been on weapons, and emptyhanded combat would have been a Hail Mary.
Think about the giant arm-sweeping blocks you see in traditional karate. Are you going to block a punch like that? How absurd. It took me about 5 minutes back in high school to figure out that my friend can jab me in the face faster than I can sweep his arms out of the way. A giant blocking motion like that would be more relevant if you are using weapons and need to deflect a heavy incoming weapon. Why else would you have such a forceful movement?
All those low stances and straight torsos work better if you are swinging a weapon than if you are using emptyhand. You will never see anyone succeed in modern sports fighting if they waddle around in a horse stance.
However, if you ever swing a longsword and spar in historical fencing, you do end up in something very similar to a horse stance. Basically, that posture facilitates effective use of a swung weapon and maximizes your reach and power when using a weapon. This is easy to test out. Take a golf club or something similar, hold it high, and swing it as though you’re trying to crush someone’s skull. Try it first from a boxing stance, and try it again from a horse stance. If you really commit to the swing you’ll get more reach and power from the horse stance. The other thing to consider is that if you had an opponent who was also trying to crush your skull with a golf club, the low stance would protect your head. If you struck at each other at the same time and your golf clubs collided in the middle, you still might get hit by his club if your head is up high. If your head is low and his head is high and your clubs meet in the middle, you have a better chance of being safe while the other guy still gets hit in the head.
So, yeah, the myopic focus on emptyhanded combat in the martial arts is basically bullshit. The real deal was weapons like swords, spears, and staves, and frankly that’s when a lot of the weird stuff you see in traditional martial arts that fail against modern emptyhanded methods finally start to make sense and work.