Fighting Without a Firearm Training in Central IN

[Tinman]

Oh my, where do we even start, this thread has really run around a bit. Since I’m new here, I’ll try not to be too big a p*$cK on the first go round.

First my background so you know where I’m coming from, in order from least to most of how much I’ve studied the “art”:
Pekiti Tersia
Kali
Brazilian Jui Jitsu
Muay Tai
Traditional Wrestling
Traditional Boxing

So I’ve played around just a bit and rolled around for my share of hours in the gym and dojo. I have a few belts, and don’t have a lot of use for any of them other than the wilderness one that keeps my pants up.

First there is no quick fix to fighting skill, as with anything, it’s going to require a plan, dedication, and time. Second, all of the “arts” are at best marginal. Could they protect your life? Well under the right set of circumstances, and with the correct level of training sure. Problem is that there is no one “art” that covers enough different situations to warrant solo study of only that art. If there were, we’d all train it and be monster fighting machines. What we have to do is study the best parts of different disciplines discard the show stuff that doesn’t work, then integrate everything together. It’s a tall order. Your best bet when starting from ground zero is to find a good MMA gym and start working. They have distilled most of the arts they can sample to just the stuff that works. The only issue with that is that they distill it down with an eye towards the ring and we don’t fight in the ring right. Fortunately for us, a good stand up game that works in the ring can be made to work on the street pretty quick. The same goes for the clinch game. Where we get into issues is the wrestling / ground game. I won’t go into all the details, but if you interview the instructors, they should be able to articulate the differences between street and ring.

Finally, once you have some time under your belt, you need to get to some formal class time that will integrate weapons access in a fight, and dynamic incident controls. I recommend Southnarc over at Shivworks, or Mike Brown down at USSA in Tulsa. The guys over at ISR are doing some great stuff, but I have not seen anything from them in our area. Another one would be Mercop if you can locate one of his courses. Not to pimp another site, but run over and check out www.totalprotectioninteractive.com they have some great info and it’s a good place to get your feet wet. With the exception of ISR and Mercop, I have trained with all mentioned.

As far as your physical conditions, you need to train to your limits, regardless what they are. Don’t think the street thug is going to go easy because you have a bum knee. Work with what you’ve got, and most of all find out what situations you can’t work from then work out ways to stay out of those.

All this talk of Krav Maga and everything ending in a fatal blow, that’s just crap. That’s like saying every time I pull my gun somebody is going to die because the instructor told me to pull and double tap. At the end of the day we are in a fight, and we need to go as far as necessary to ensure the fight ends in our favor. That’s it. If you don’t have enough restraint to know when the thumb in the eye is not necessary, you best not be training nor carrying anything. Having said that, if your only skill is a thumb in the eye, when the situation calls for something else you’re in a bad way.

I know it’s a little long winded, but the responses to date seem a little light on content and heavy on professing this teacher or that. The name is less important than the attitude. If they can’t explain the differences between ring or art, and the street applications, you should probably move on. Another sure sign I look for is some kind of full contact suit (either Fist suit, bulletman, Blauer high gear, etc.) That means they're probably pushing their training under real pressure, not just dancing around with an opponent who knows the proper counter to allow your next flow move. I know there's a good reputable MMA gym in Indy, I just can't remember the name, we were only down there once.

Just my thoughts, some may disagree, but that’s why it’s my opinion,

Tinman….

[epsylum]

Originally Posted by Tinman

All this talk of Krav Maga and everything ending in a fatal blow, that’s just crap. That’s like saying every time I pull my gun somebody is going to die because the instructor told me to pull and double tap. At the end of the day we are in a fight, and we need to go as far as necessary to ensure the fight ends in our favor. That’s it. If you don’t have enough restraint to know when the thumb in the eye is not necessary, you best not be training nor carrying anything.

I didn't do a good job of articulating my point. However you did and this more like what I was trying to say.

Originally Posted by Tinman

Having said that, if your only skill is a thumb in the eye, when the situation calls for something else you’re in a bad way.

I do agree that one should try to learn as much as possible.

[Brian@ITC]

Problem is that there is no one “art” that covers enough different situations to warrant solo study of only that art.

I would say this is true for most “arts”. However, my experience has been over the past 22 years of training that I believe that Kobudo has prepared me for a lot of, if not the most likely situations that I might find myself in. We cover just about every aspect of fighting conceivable. However, that does have to do with the people I have been fortunate enough to train with. We cover ground work, striking, punching, grappling, etc., and all with a variety of tools in hand. Does the "art" provide solutions for "all" situations? I'd say yes if you apply the basic principles of body movement to your situation.

Do I believe that one must commit themselves to a lifetime of training in order to be able to defend themselves? No. Now, I do believe that if you train in most systems that you will need to cross over into other systems in order to get all of the pieces of the puzzle.

Is it possible to “streamline” the learning process from a traditional system? Yes. There are things that can be taught over the course of a weekend that one can take away and train on it regularly on their own time, which can increase your chances of survival.

What works in the ring may very well not work on the street.

If anyone is interested in a course every other month or every three months we can put together something. But, unless we have 10 people who are interested and will commit, we are not going to even think about it. We teach unarmed combatives and we feel that this is an area that we excel in as well. We can teach you things in two days that you can immediately use. Punching and kicking effectively are an important part of self defense. Of course, just like with everything else, it is up to you to train on what you have learned. We do not claim to make you invincible, just increase your odds of surviving an attack.

So, to answer the question which started the post, we provide quality instruction for unarmed combatives.

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Brian K. LaMaster - Innovative Tactical Concepts