A Good Point About Self-Defense

real life self defense self-defense xingyi self-defense Apr 11, 2008

My good friend and loyal visitor Evan Yeung wrote this in an email:

"I'm thoroughly enjoying your latest DVD release. I'm halfway through the Beng Chuan section. The applications you've presented are straightforward and applicable to real life situations and some tournament sparring as well. I suppose the magic of Hsing-I is that the base moves are simple (relatively speaking, of course), but are remarkably versatile. John Painter, in his book on Combat Baguazhang, says that in a true fighting situation the complex moves rarely work... when the adrenaline is pumping, tunnel vision is occuring, and tactile sensitivity is going to hell, it's the simple moves that have been drilled that rely on larger muscle groups that take over. I think Hsing-I fits that bill."

I agree with Painter -- in a real-life self-defense situation, you won't have time for a lot of the complex movements. I've thrown out some chin-na movements because they were so impractical in a fighting situation that it was silly to practice them.

Let's face it -- if someone is coming at you on the street, the best thing you can do is drive through them and take their head off. If someone is swinging, you might have time to grab a wrist and break an elbow. I've told the story many times of a 15-year old student who used a "lapel drop" to shatter the elbow of a drunk adult who grabbed him and tried to punch him. Not the simplest technique but it can be done quickly if you have good presence of mind.

I believe Bruce Lee became frustrated with classical martial arts because of the disconnect between what's practiced in the class versus what he encountered in his many street fights. I also believe that many complex techniques and chin-na moves are important to practice for the concepts behind them, even if you wouldn't necessarily use them. After all, that's another reason they call these martial "arts." The art is in the beauty of the movement and the concepts behind them. Evan and Dr. Painter are correct, though, and I made this point with a visual example on the sparring DVD -- sometimes the most effective techniques are the simple ones.

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A Good Point About Self-Defense

Try Two Weeks Free and Get Step-by-Step Training in Taiji, Xingyi and Bagua from Basic to Advanced Skills with No Mystical Mumbo-Jumbo

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