Learning How to Take a Punch By Scott Shaw

By Scott Shaw

            At the heart of any form of physical hand-to-hand combat training is the developed ability to emerge victorious from a physical altercation. The various schools of self-defense each have the own set of developed techniques. Some are street-worthy and very effective; some not so much. The fact is, most schools of traditional martial arts teach a method of self-defense that is far less street-worthy than the teachers of the systems would ever admit. In class, all practice sessions are very orchestrated and expected. If there is sparring at the school, it is generally light or no-contact. Though the practitioners of these systems certainly come to master a heightened sense of physical movement, in many cases, when paired against a savvy street fighter they are quickly defeated as they do not know how to react to rapid and very directed physical assaults.

            Boxing is an ideal self-defense system where the practitioner quickly learns how to react to a specific type of assault. They get punched and they punch back. Simple but very effective. But, more than just that, a boxer learns how to take a punch and this is one of the most essential elements in the training of any fighter. You have to be able to take a punch and immediately continue on afterwards with your necessary self-defense or any defensive technique you may have learned at the dojo becomes useless.

            When the Asian martial arts hit the Western shores after World War II: karate, judo, and jujitsu became the idealized forms of self-defense. In the movies, the practitioner of a traditional form of martial arts always defeated their opponent. When taekwondo hit the West in the 1960s, its beautiful kicks again came to redefine what was possible with self-defense. But, again, if a stylized practitioner of these systems was put up against a competent boxer or seasoned street fighter they would, more than likely, be defeated.

            The reason for this is very simply, within any street fight the rules go out the window. All that matters is what works. People who have actually gone hand-to-hand with other fighters, on a frequent basis, are the ones who most clearly understand this and it is they who immediately, without thought, adapt to whatever is being thrown at them by their opponent. If they get hit, they know how to take that punch and not let it debilitate them. They simply move forward with the fight. This, while the stylized practitioner thinks about what they should be doing and why. It is this mindset that ultimately leads to the street fighter emerging victorious in a competition against a trained traditional martial artist.

            Throughout the 1960s and onward, more-and-more traditional martial arts practitioners began to open their minds and their styles to allowing other influences to come into play.  They would study what other systems had to offer and then integrate that ideology into their own system of self-defense.  Though schools of traditional martial arts are still in abundance, more and more training facilities emphasis leaving behind formalized tradition and learning what works and how best to use it.

            Here lies they ideal training platform that should be integrated into every school of self-defense. Teach your students the basics and then allow them to go hand-to-hand in a non-defined, unexpected manner, (within a controlled environment, of course). Let them learn what it feels like to actually fight. From this, they will emerge as true martial artists and ideal combat technicians.

            For anyone who has followed by writings on the fighting arts over the past three decades they understand that my focus has always been on developing and using what works best for you. Learn your techniques, study your environment, study your opponent, and then do what you must do to defeat them. I have long detailed the necessity of landing the first strike as that may be all it takes to emerge victorious from any confrontation. But, as time has moved on, I have come to enjoy studying the more refined elements of my opponent’s combat skills and then deciding how best to overcome their attack. To understand this, let me explain…

            Every person you enter into a physical altercation with has their own set of predisposed skills and fighting techniques.  With most people, they have virtually none. They will either come at you throwing wild punches or if they have no developed skills at all, they will try to tackle you. But, once on the ground, they have no idea what to do next. In each case, they immediately show their hand. They implicitly tell you what they are capable of doing. And, more importantly, of what they are not capable of doing. 

            Of course, there is the other side of the issue; this is where you come face-to-face with a highly trained fighter. Whether they come from the traditional martial arts, MMA, boxing, or something else, again, what they are going to initially unleash at you is their best technique. Meaning, if they have a really powerful side kick or a highlight developed right hook, they are not going to walk up and slap you. They are going to attempt to hit you as hard as they can with that technique for that is the best they have to offer.

            From my person perspective, what I have truly learned from is to let the opponent unleash their best technique. Once they do, then you know what they have – you understand what they can do. From this understanding, the moment they unleash their secondary attack, they have already illustrated how they can most easily be defeated.

            Certainly, this method of self-defense can be precarious if you go face-to-face with a highly trained fighter. But, most people who would step up to you aren’t highly trained fighters. They are simply an adrenaline filled individual, lost in their own anger. And, this is why they can easily be defeated. By keeping your focus, studying their technique and movement, you can quickly and consciously defeat them by understanding what they will most likely next unleash and then countermanding it with the most appropriate technique in your arsenal.

            At the heart of all self-defense training is learning to anticipate and then defeating your attacker. Yes, if you are a trained practitioner you can go up and probably easily knock a person out with one punch or kick. But, what is the fun in that? Moreover, as I always warn my students, that style of self-defense leaves you highly vulnerable to legal repercussions. On the other hand, if you allow your assailant to be the attacker, then you are simply defending yourself and personal self-defense is always legal.  

            Most people train in the fighting arts in order to learn how to defeat an opponent in the most expedient manner possible. This is fine. You should learn all the basics from kicks, to punches, to take-downs, to joint locks, and most importantly deflections. Plus, you need to know how to take a punch! But, once all that has been understood, then you must come to understand the individual body mechanics of each style of attack.  From this, you gain the ability to consciously observe your opponent while not being overpowered by them and then defeat them in the most appropriate manner, dictated by their own defined style of attack which you have previously witnessed.

            Practice with this in your training environment. You will find that it will make you a much more competent martial artist.

Copyright © 2015 – All Rights Reserved

Learning How to Take a Punch @ Scott Shaw.com

Scott Shaw Hapkido Taekwondo International

Adapt and Readapt

By Scott Shaw

            I was doing a workout over at my studio today with, dare I say, some of my aging contemporaries. These people forever impress me for they, like I, have been practicing the martial arts longer than most practitioners have been alive. These people really know their stuff and though some of them have gained some weight, lost some of their flexibility and endurance, they each understand that the key to the martial arts is to Adapt and Readapt. They work with what they have and they make it work.

            You know, there is something really beautiful about a martial artists or a boxer in their prime. The things they can do and the moves they can make are really exquisite. For example, when you watch a boxing match when a great fighter is in his prime, it is pure poetry. This is the same with a highly trained martial arts practitioner who can propel his body into the air and perform a perfectly executed flying kick or opponent throw. But, it is the wise practitioner who understands that the agility of youth does not translate into the person of age. This is not to say that by adapting as age comes upon a person that they cannot produce beautiful movements and techniques. For example, as we reached the portion of the workout today where we met face-to-face on the mat, again, I was so impressed with these people. Through their years of training they each know what to do and they know how to do it in their own unique manner. Though their bodies have become older, they have each individually devised ways to make what they do effectively work for them. They do not try to fight as if they were twenty-five, they fight as if they were thirty or forty years past that point. But, from their knowledge, they could easy defeat someone twenty years their junior.

            This is the great thing about the true martial artists and here is where the difference between the individual who trains in the traditional martial arts and the individual who is more focused upon, "The fight," comes into play. Whereas the traditional martial artist learns all he can and works with what he has, they never desire to hurt anyone or focus upon defeating anyone, as does the fight-orientated practitioner. The true martial artists never desires to go in for the kill, when there is the opportunity to move the fight in a different direction. They choose to deflect rather than attack.

            I have been writing about the martial arts for a long-long time now and this is something I have always discussed; the street is not the same as the training hall. On the streets it is kill or be kill. But, the true martial artist never wants to follow that path. They want to be more. They desire to raise their consciousness rather than to raise their fists. And, this is an important distinction to make. As long-term martial artists I believe that most of us walk away from fights rather than to engage in them. For what is the purpose of fighting when we have spent our whole lives training to do just that? We don’t need to follow that path for we understand that the martial arts is much more than simply a means to learn how to defeat an opponent.

            And, that is what I witnessed again today. As ever-advancing martial artists, the people I worked with have learned and accepted what their body can and cannot do. Then, they have adapted with the times to keep their bodies in shape and their minds focused. And, they have done this knowing that a fight is never the answer when a fight does not need to take place. From this, I witness true beauty based upon interactive fighting techniques that were taken to the ultimately level of understanding and used as a means of mental training and not simply that of winning a fight.

Copyright © 2015 – All Rights Reserved

Originally from the Scott Shaw Blog 

Adapt and Readapt @ Scott Shaw.com 

Scott Shaw Hapkido Taekwondo International

Ego, Dominance, and Defending Against the Sucker Punch

By Scott Shaw

            Recently, here in the Los Angeles area, there was an incident where an Uber driver was attacked from behind by the passenger in his car. Luckily, the driver had a dash-cam recording the entire attack.  The passenger sat there smacking the driver from behind over and over and over again. It was very troubling to watch for just like the coward who accosts a person from behind with a sucker punch, being seat-belted into your car seat and attacked from behind leaves you in an extremely vulnerable position. The attacker was wearing a short sleeved shirt and you could see that he worked out, so the attack had to be very painful. Due to the fact that the attack was recorded, the passenger was arrested, was fired from his senior position at a fast food company, and, in addition to facing several charges, is being sued by the driver.

            If we look at this situation more clearly we easily come to see that no matter what instigated the attack on the driver, the attacker was using his positioning to his advantage – knowing that he would easily emerge victorious as how can a person effectively defend themselves from the position that the driver found himself in?  This is simply a coward’s way to fight.

            As martial artists I believe that we must truly study our own inner nature and come to clearly define the person we are when we find ourselves in any physical confrontation. Certainly, one of the primary reasons for studying the martial arts is to gain a mastery of self-defense. But, many practitioners go far beyond this understanding and simply use their skills to beat up other people. This is simply the wrong mindset to possess as you move your way towards martial arts mastery. 

            If you are a trained fighting practitioner and you use your skills to defeat an opponent simply to stroke your own ego or to falsely attempt to prove to yourself that you are better than someone else, then you are missing the entire point of martial arts training. You are simply walking down the path of ego in an attempt to fill a void that exist somewhere inside of you where you desire to be dominant over other people.

            The truth be told, this ego driven mindset it very common in the martial arts. Everywhere you go you will hear a certain caliber of martial artist disusing how their style, their school, their teacher, or they personally are the very best. You will hear people saying that some other practitioner is not as a good as them. In fact, you will witness many lies or altered truths being spoken about other martial artists simply to make themselves, their teacher, or their school appear to be better. Though this is a common practice, it is sheer foolishness and this style of behavior is, in fact, against the entire inner teachings of the martial arts.

            What I always suggest to an individual who wishes to gage a person’s true inner knowledge about the martial arts is to simply listen to them. What do they have to say about other people, other students, and other instructors? Is their dialog based upon who is better and who is worse? Is it based upon criticism? Or, is it based upon mutual understanding and respect? Listen to a person and you will know who they truly are.

            An individual’s developed mindset defines how a person will react to the physical elements of this world. Yes, there is conflict. For this reason, a martial artist trains their body to effectively encounter any style of physical attack. But, once the attack has been nullified, it is what the martial arts does next that defines who they truly are.

            As I often discuss, as a martial artist you train your body to effectively defeat an attacker. But, what is the limit of effective self-defense? Is it letting them know that they cannot over power you? Or, is it you beating the crap out of them?

            In a physical altercation it is quite easily understood how some people, when they are being attacked, block and then hit and hit again until their attacker lies knocked out and motionless on the ground. As a martial artist you certainly possess the ability to do just that. But, is that the best strategy? I do not believe it is. Yes, you defend yourself. But, you only need to do that until your opponent has come to understand that you can and will defeat him. Then, you halt your counterattack for you have made your point. You do not have to hurt them further simply to hurt them. This is the true essence of the martial arts.

            At the heart of your martial arts training must be your inner development. Yes, learn how to block, deflect, joint lock, kick, punch, and throw but consciously allow yourself to move beyond that level of physicality. Become more. Never become like the person who beat on an Uber driver from behind. Never be the person who unleashes a sucker punch. Defend yourself if you need to but do not allow your ego, via your martial art training, to cause you to hurt a person unnecessarily, no matter who or what that person may be, just because you can.

Copyright © 2015 – All Rights Reserved

 Originally from the Scott Shaw Blog

Scott Shaw Hapkido Taekwondo International

Ego, Dominance, and Defending Against the Sucker Punch @ Scott Shaw.com

This is Very Dangerous

By Scott Shaw

Author’s note: I've been asked to write another book on the self-defense aspects of the martial arts so I was going through some of my previous writings to get some ideas and inspiration. I came upon this editorial that I wrote for Inside Karate magazine that was published in the December 1997 issue. I realized that it still provides some important thoughts about self-defense training. So, here it is...

            I was invited to watch the graduation exercise at a school that taught a widely publicized two-day self-defense seminar. It was basically geared towards women, but there were two men in attendance, as well. The ages of the participants ranged from a fifteen-year-old girl to approximately mid-thirties.

            At the beginning of the ceremony everybody got up and gave their testimonials about how confident they felt after the course. Some of the students claimed that they had studied traditional martial arts for years upon years and it proved fruitless, but after this two-day seminar they felt they could truly handle themselves in any confrontational situation.

            I was expecting to watch some very interesting and effective techniques but when they started demonstrating what they had learned I was in disbelief. They begin by fighting imaginary opponents and unleashing misdirected techniques that would never work in a real street combat situation. Then, the students went up against the seminar trainers, who wore massively padded suits, and pretended to be affected by their misdirected self-defense techniques. A friend who was with me said it best. He stated, “This is very dangerous, letting these people believe that they could actually defend themselves.”

            As a martial artist who has focused his entire career upon the study and development of scientific self-defense, I am one hundred percent behind the empowerment of people -- especially women, learning how to successfully defend themselves. But, what I am one hundred percent against is individuals claiming to teach street worthy self-defense and instead leading people down a road to injury while charging them excessive amounts of money to do it -- whether it be a two-day or a two-year program.

            As a first line of self-defense, the instructors at this seminar, taught the students to initially make a strange comment or ask the attacker some bizarre question if they were accosted. This, it was claimed, would distract the attacker.

            This subtle psychological technique is, in fact, a good preliminary method of self-defense. By distracting your opponent, even if only for a moment, you give yourself the opportunity to unleash a powerful counter attack. The problem with this method of initial self-defense is, however, most people, particularly women, who have never been involved in a street altercation are not going to have the mental presence to be able to remember to ask a foolish question of an attacker. Instead, they are just going to freeze. The better, more effective, method of verbal self-defense the seminar instructors taught was screaming the word, “No,” in the opponents face. This verbal assault was, however, the end of effective self-defense training that took place at this training program.

            The students were taught to unleash knee kicks to the groin and knife hand strikes to the throat. Both good self-defense techniques if they are delivered correctly. But, they must be delivered with exacting precision or they are useless. A knee to the groin must hit its mark exactly or it will have little, if any, effect on the attacker. So too the knife hand strike to the throat.

            This is where the long-term training that takes place in traditional martial arts schools becomes invaluable. Through continued training drills you learn how to effectively deliver a knee strike and how to correctly snap the elbow out when you unleash a knife hand.

            None of the students at this seminar delivered correct striking techniques; even the one’s who had claimed years of traditional training. Unleashing any strike without the proper technique is fruitless and would only help to further enrage an attacker.

            The scariest thing, of the supposed self-defense techniques that these seminar students were taught was, how to get a two-hundred-pound man, who had grabbed them from behind, off of them when he had a knife to their throat or a gun to their head. I don’t care how good of a martial art technician you are, if you have a two-hundred-pound guy on top of you, holding a gun at your head, and ready to use it, prayer is your best option.

            The students went through poorly executed self-defense techniques for the aforementioned situations. They uselessly grabbed at the knife of the attacker and effortless flipped the men off of their backs.

            If you grab a knife in a street confrontation, you cut yourself. If you try to get a two-hundred-pound man off of your back, without exacting techniques, he remains on your back and tightens his grasp.

            The most notable flaw of this seminar was that the students were never taught how deflect an oncoming attack or how to properly disengage an opponent’s grasp upon them. Without these basic skills, street self-defense degenerates to useless grappling on the ground.

            The truth of the matter is; you cannot teach anyone how to successful defend themselves in a two-day seminar. What’s worse is that you can, however, make a person believes that they can defend themselves in a two-day seminar.

            Learning how to successfully defense yourself is a life-long process; with each new life event and understanding you come to define your own methods of self-defense more accurately.  From this, we as martial artists, can expound this understanding onto other people.

            This was perhaps the main problem with this self-defense seminar. The people who were training these unsuspecting students were not true martial artists. They had only studied enough rudimentary self-defense to have something to teach and then went out and claimed the techniques to be their own. They never had to truly put what they taught to the test and, thus, may even themselves have believed that what they taught was valid.

            The moral of this story is: Number One: Be careful whom you study from. Make sure that your instructors are well trained enough to truly impart viable, useful knowledge. Number Two: Take the time to truly learn what your instructors have to teach you and then put it to the test, in a training environment, so that you will personally come to understand what does and what does not work if you ever find yourself in an actual street combat situation.

Copyright 1997 – All Rights Reserved

Scott Shaw Hapkido Taekwondo International

Environmental Fighting By Scott Shaw

By Scott Shaw

            As martial artists we continually train or bodies and our minds to encounter combative situations in the most effective and expedient manner possible. To this end, we must continually reevaluate and refine our training methods to ensure that we will be prepared to defend ourselves no matter where a battle finds us. For this reason, Environmental Fighting is one of the best training methods available.

            Environmental Fighting finds the martial artist setting up a situation where he or she is in a less than ideal fighting posture and then must effectively defend him or herself from this positioning. Thus, the practitioner develops the natural ability to refine their defensive and offensive methodology to met whatever type of combat they encounter.

            In most martial art classes, students train in a very sterile manner. They face off against their training partner and then performed prescribed blocks to specific punches or kicks. Or, they may perform specific hand-techniques designed to defend against a specific grab or hold. Though these are all age-old training methods, if that is the only self-defense training one practices, if they find themselves in street combat, where no rules apply, they are often left with a less then ideal skillset of what to do against a wildly driven thug.

            To begin to work with Environmental Fighting you simply need to set up a combat situation and then have your opponent move in towards you with various random attacks. Obviously, in the initial stages of Environmental Fighting training, your opponent is not going to come at you full speed or with full power. But, by simply unleashing an undefined technique in your direction you will be forced to come to understand what defense is most appropriate and effective against that type of assault.

            In is essential in Environmental Fighting training to make sure your defensive techniques are realistic to the environment where you find yourself. For example, when I was a young boy, my instructor set up a chair and a small table in the classroom and demonstrated how he could deliver a roundhouse kick to the head of his opponent across the table. Though this was an early example of Environment Fighting, even then I realized that if you were in a crowded restaurant, sending a wide roundhouse kick to the head of your opponent was not going to be an easy feat to perform as you may get hung up on the table next to you or by a guest dining next to you and so on. The point is, though you will obviously be training in Environmental Fighting in the dojang, it is essential to be sure to train in a realistic manner.

            The dojang environment is a safe and controlled place where you can refine your training skills and make Environmental Fighting a part of your overall training regime.  To do so, is quite simple. You simply need to place yourself in an unrehearsed, less than ideal position, and then have your training partner come at you with various aggressive techniques.  For example, one Environmental Fighting technique to work with is to have your back up against the wall where your opponent has pinned you in. From this training position you will learn how to effectively push your opponent back and deliver close-contact strikes to his body that will leave him disabled.

            Another ideal training posture work with is to be sitting on the floor when your attacker accosts you. From this position you will learn how to best deal with low kicks that are directed towards your head and body and how to quickly and effectively get up and reposition yourself and then continue through with appropriate self-defense.

            Laying face down, like you may be doing at the beach, is another training posture of Environmental Fighting to work with. By discovering how to defend yourself from a fully prone position, perhaps the hardest of all positions to effectively emerge from, you will gain invaluable knowledge about true methods of self-defense.

            The main thing to keep in mind when working with Environmental Fighting is to never let your techniques become stagnate or predetermined, nor should you ever believe that what works for your training partner will work for you.  Each situation and each person possess a completely unique set of variables. For this reason, you must never believe that one technique will universally work in all situations. You must forever be willing to immediately change your defensive strategy the moment you come to understand that it will not leave you dominate in any physical combat situation you find yourself in. Environmental Fighting is the ideal training method to develop the insight into what truly works and how you can emerge victorious from any confrontation.

Copyright © 2014 – All Rights Reserved

Environmental Fighting @ Scott Shaw.com

Scott Shaw Hapkido Taekwondo International

Finding the Opening

By Scott Shaw

            When it comes to physical combat most people go at it with uncontrolled swinging fists and kicking legs. Even people who have rudimentarily trained in the fighting arts, many times, will quickly forget all that they have learned and simply try to survive the fight.

            There is a small breed of people who actually like to fight. They enjoy the intended dominance over others and they may even like the pain of receiving the punch. This is a very small breed, however. These are people who live their life at a very animalistic level.

            The fact of the matter is; mankind has not progressed very far in term of raising human consciousness over the past several millenniums. This, even though there are a fairly large number of people who focus their lives upon the spiritual aspects of existence. But, this has been the case forever. There have always been those whose minds veer towards the cosmic. The problem is, there are far more who focus upon conquest and dominance.

            Though the spiritually inclined will deny this fact, at the root of mankind is violence – the overpowering of others to obtain what one wants. This is not right, nor is it the way it should be, but it is the way it is.

            With this as a basis of understanding, we as martial arts must look to the refined realms of self-defense if we are ever drawn into a physical confrontation. Certainly there is the, “First-Strike, Best-Strike Philosophy.” But, more than simply hitting him before he hits you, you must refine your understanding of physical combat, as the First Strike Philosophy may not always be applicable. Therefore, you must refine your mental understandings if you hope to remain unscathed in a physical confrontation.

            It is important to note, even if you are a highly trainer fighter, you can be defeated – as has been proven time and time again. For this reason, you must never simply assume you will emerge victorious in a fight simply because you are bigger than your opponent or more highly trained.  Additionally, in a competition setting you may find yourself tantalizing the audience by going round-for-round and elongating the time in the ring. But, on the streets it should never be like that. A street fight is won or lost very quickly and if you toy with or underestimate your opponent you will sooner or later get hit and that hit may debilitate you. To this end, and to elevate all of the unnecessary punch-for-punch mentality of a street fight, a true martial artist seeks the best and most rapid way to penetrate their opponent’s defenses and defeat them.

            One of the best ways to achieve this is to find an opening in your opponent’s defenses. Highly trained boxers are very good at this, they look for an opening and then BAM, they punch through that hole. In many traditional martial art systems the student is not trained to be aware of these openings in their opponent’s stances, however. They are simply taught to punch, kick, throw, and if they find themselves being punched or kicked at, to forcefully block that attack. Though this style of self-defense may work in certain circumstance, it may also prove to be a person’s demise. Thus, a true martial artist must always study their opponent and then strikeout in the most rapid and effective manner possible.

            The fact is, a street fight takes place in a few moments. Therefore, a long process of studying your opponent is generally not possible as is the case in the ring. To this end, you need to develop your ability to rapidly assess your attacker and then deliver the most appropriate and devastating offense possible through the hole in the defenses. This is where opponent training and sparring in your school becomes essential. For in these controlled environments, once you have focused your understanding and know what you should be looking for, you can then develop the ability to see the opening and to rapidly penetrate your opponent’s defenses, delivering a powerful attack.

            For each system of the fighting arts the students are trained in a specific format of techniques. Though in school practice some of them look very pretty, i.e., the throws of Hapkido and Aikido. In actual combat, however, these types of techniques virtually never work, as they are far too elaborate. To this end, it is very important that you do not fool yourself into believe that simply because your training partner allows you to throw him in the gym that on the street this same type of technique will be a viable method of self-defense. 

            It is a simply fact of combat, the fighting techniques that work best on the street are those that are very direct, very powerful, and very simple to unleash. Whether this is a straight punch, front kick, or joint lock the main thing to remember is that you want to see the opening and immediately strike through that opening. Don’t wait because in street combat those opening are only there for a moment and that chance may not present itself again.

            When you find that opening on your opponent and strike one of the main things that you must keep in mind is that it may not be effective. Perhaps you did not strike hard enough, perhaps your opponent shifted his positing or moved, or perhaps your attack was blocked. The moment you realize that your attack was unsuccessful, you must immediately move and continue forward with additional defense, followed by offense. Never wait or you may not have the chance to relaunch your attack. 

            In the martial arts and, in fact, all fighting arts, the first thing the student must do is to master the techniques of the style they are studying. Once this has been accomplished you must then begin to study the movements of your opponent. For what is martial art training if it is not gaining the developed knowledge to emerge successful from physical combat. To this end, never see your techniques as the sole end in physical combat. Instead, see them as a means to strikeout if you are attacked – using them to penetrating the defenses of your opponent and emerge victorious from any confrontation. When it comes to physical combat most people go at it with uncontrolled swinging fists and kicking legs. Even people who have rudimentarily trained in the fighting arts, many times, will quickly forget all that they have learned and simply try to survive the fight.

            There is a small breed of people who actually like to fight. They enjoy the intended dominance over others and they may even like the pain of receiving the punch. This is a very small breed, however. These are people who live their life at a very animalistic level.

            The fact of the matter is; mankind has not progressed very far in term of raising human consciousness over the past several millenniums. This, even though there are a fairly large number of people who focus their lives upon the spiritual aspects of existence. But, this has been the case forever. There have always been those whose minds veer towards the cosmic. The problem is, there are far more who focus upon conquest and dominance.

            Though the spiritually inclined will deny this fact, at the root of mankind is violence – the overpowering of others to obtain what one wants. This is not right, nor is it the way it should be, but it is the way it is.

            With this as a basis of understanding, we as martial artists must look to the refined realms of self-defense if we are ever drawn into a physical confrontation. Certainly there is the, “First-Strike, Best-Strike Philosophy.” But, more than simply hitting him before he hits you, you must refine your understanding of physical combat, as the First Strike Philosophy may not always be applicable. Therefore, you must refine your mental understandings if you hope to remain unscathed in a physical confrontation.

            It is important to note, even if you are a highly trainer fighter, you can be defeated – as has been proven time and time again. For this reason, you must never simply assume you will emerge victorious in a fight simply because you are bigger than your opponent or more highly trained.  Additionally, in a competition setting you may find yourself tantalizing the audience by going round-for-round and elongating the time in the ring. But, on the streets it should never be like that. A street fight is won or lost very quickly and if you toy with or underestimate your opponent you will sooner or later get hit and that hit may debilitate you. To this end, and to elevate all of the unnecessary punch-for-punch mentality of a street fight, a true martial artist seeks the best and most rapid way to penetrate their opponent’s defenses and defeat them.

            One of the best ways to achieve this is to find an opening in your opponent’s defenses. Highly trained boxers are very good at this, they look for an opening and then BAM, they punch through that hole. In many traditional martial art systems the student is not trained to be aware of these openings in their opponent’s stances, however. They are simply taught to punch, kick, throw, and if they find themselves being punched or kicked at, to forcefully block that attack. Though this style of self-defense may work in certain circumstances, it may also prove to be a person’s demise. Thus, a true martial artist must always study their opponent and then strikeout in the most rapid and effective manner possible.

            The fact is, a street fight takes place in a few moments. Therefore, a long process of studying your opponent is generally not possible as is the case in the ring. To this end, you need to develop your ability to rapidly access your attacker and then deliver the most appropriate and devastating offense possible through the hole in their defenses. This is where opponent training and sparring in your school becomes essential. For in these controlled environments, once you have focused your understanding and know what you should be looking for, you can then develop the ability to see the opening and to rapidly penetrate your opponent’s defenses, delivering a powerful attack.

            For each system of the fighting arts the students are trained in a specific format of techniques. Though in school practice some of them look very pretty, i.e., the throws of Hapkido and Aikido. In actual combat, however, these types of techniques virtually never work, as they are far too elaborate. To this end, it is very important that you do not fool yourself into believe that simply because your training partner allows you to throw him in the gym that on the street this same type of technique will be a viable method of self-defense. 

            It is a simply fact of combat, the fighting techniques that work best on the street are those that are very direct, very powerful, and very simple to unleash. Whether this is a straight punch, front kick, or joint lock, the main thing to remember is that you want to see the opening and immediately strike through that opening. Don’t wait because in street combat those opening are only there for a moment and that chance may not present itself again.

            When you find that opening on your opponent and strike one of the main things that you must keep in mind is that it may not be effective. Never believe that one technique will be enough. Perhaps you did not strike hard enough, perhaps your opponent shifted his positing or moved, or perhaps your attack was blocked. The moment you realize that your attack was unsuccessful, you must immediately move and continue forward with additional defense, followed by offense. Never wait or you may not have the chance to relaunch your attack. 

            In the martial arts and, in fact, all fighting arts, the first thing the student must do is to master the techniques of the style they are studying. Once this has been accomplished you must then begin to study, understand, and anticipate the movements of your opponent. For what is martial art training if it is not gaining the developed knowledge to emerge successful from physical combat? To this end, never see your techniques as the sole end in physical combat. Instead, see them as a means to strikeout if you are attacked – using them to penetrating the defenses of your opponent and emerge victorious from any confrontation.

            Study the subtleties of combat.

Copyright © 2014 – All Rights Reserved

Scott Shaw Hapkido Taekwondo International

The Three D’s of Self-Defense

By Scott Shaw

            Martial artists are forever seeking new methods to refine their personal science of self-defense. Once the physical and philosophic basics of a system are mastered, then comes the metal refinement that takes the student forward, moving them towards the level of martial arts mastery.

            In order to raise the ever-evolving understanding of my martial arts students, I personally prescribe a method that I called, “The Three D’s of Self-Defense.” This method is provided to help define a precise course of action for each confrontation and to ultimately chart a pathway towards victory. The Three D’s are:

1. Deflect

2. Deny

3. Defy

            To briefly go into the basics for this three-part self-defense philosophy, we can view each element individually.

Deflect

            A physical confrontation is never to anyone’s benefit. It is only the ego-driven martial artist that desires to go toe-to-toe with another person and emerge victorious. To this end, it takes the larger man (or woman) to walk away from a fight rather than to allow another person to drag them into a physical altercation. Therefore, the first means of deflection is to walk away from any confrontation.

            Certainly, we all realize that walking away is not always an option. This is especially the case when a person either grabs you or strikes you and is not going to stop until they are disabled. To achieve self-defense in the most conscious manner possible, while keeping yourself free for personal injury, the true martial artist will always deflect an attack rather than encounter it directly. 

            Forcefully blocking an assault has been shown time-and-time again to lead to injuring the blocking component of your arm or actually breaking your blocking hand. Therefore, learning the science of opponent energy manipulation and deflection is the ideal first tool of effective self-defense that each martial artist should master.

Deny

            When there is no way to exit a physical confrontation and stop it before it begins, and deflection has not halted an opponent’s attack, the next step in conscious self-defense is to deny their ability to continue forward with their assault. The quickest and most debilitating way to engaged an oncoming opponent is to strike them before they have ability to strike you. For example, they are rapidly moving in towards you to attack. Before they have the chance to connect with a punch, kick, or grab, you deliver a powerful first-strike to a debilitating part of their body.

            When encountering an enraged attacker, each situation is defined by its own set of circumstances. Therefore, there is no one strike that should always be used. But, a powerful straight punch to the face, a front kick to the groin, a hammer fist to the temple, a knife hand or fist to the throat are all viable first-strike weapons in an offensive defense.

Defy

            A physical altercation is rarely won by simply delivering one strategically placed blow to an attacker. Though occasionally, if you deliver a powerful strike to debilitating location on your opponent’s body, this may occur. But, you can never rely upon this. I have witnessed a number of incidences when a person was walking away from a confrontation, after having knocked their opponent to the ground, only to have the opponent jump up and charge after them.  Therefore, you must defy their ability to come after you once the first round has been won.

            No honorable martial artist would ever kick an opponent when they are down. That being said, you must be sure that you actually have the ability to completely leave the scene of the confrontation before you turn your back on your attacker. To this end, simply leaving your opponent with a bloody nose may not be enough. Unless they have formally conceded the fight, you must continue forward with your offensive defense until they are fully subdued. 

            Again, each confrontation is defined by its own set of parameters, so it will ultimately be up to you to know when you can safely leave. But, before you attempt to leave, be sure that your opponent’s ability to come after you has been nullified or you may not emerge victorious during the second round of the confrontation.

Three Together

            The elements of, “The Three D’s of Self-Defense,” can also be tied together and used as one cohesive self-defense methodology. For example, an attacker races towards you. Before he can make impact, you deflect his initial attack. Immediately, you follow up with a powerful, well-placed, strike that stuns him. Finally, wasting no time, you follow thru with a debilitating second punch, kick, break, or throw that ends the entire confrontation. By defending yourself in this manner you allow your attacker no time to rethink or redirect his initial attack and you emerge victorious. 

            The martial arts are a refined science of physical and mental training designed to make the practitioner a more conscious and aware interactive participant of life. For this reason, the true martial artist never trains simply to learn how to fight. Instead, they train in order to gain new mental and physical understandings that will keep themselves and their loved ones safe. They achieve this by avoiding confrontations whenever possible and achieving physical victory only when absolutely necessary.

            Strive to become the best, most conscious and competent martial artist that you can be.

Copyright© 2014 – All Rights Reserved

The Three D’s of Self-Defense @ Scott Shaw.com

Scott Shaw Hapkido Taekwondo International

Defending Against the Sucker Punch

By Scott Shaw

            A sucker punch is commonly defined as finding yourself being unexpectedly struck in the back of your head by an attacker who has accosted you without your anticipation. The reason the sucker punch can be such a devastating blow is that you do not see it coming and, because of this fact, it can leave you injured and ill prepared to counterattack. As you have been hit first to a vulnerable portion of your body, (the back of your head), you may, in fact, even be knocked out.

            From a martial arts perspective, no well-trained or honorable person would ever attack an individual in this manner. This being stated, the streets are never kind and are rarely honorable. It is for this reason that as a martial artist you must be prepared to deal with this type of assault if it is ever encountered.

            In all systems of martial arts, it is understood that the first powerful, well-connected, strike can set the stage for the entire confrontation. This is because of the fact that the first person that is impacted with a powerful strike may be left dazed and vulnerable to further attacks. This is, in fact, the primary reason that an attacker employees a sucker punch. They wish to injure their opponent and hopefully set a pattern for confrontational victory without the need to actually go toe-to-toe with their target.

Sucker Punch: Step One

            As detailed, a sucker punch is never an honorable method of physical confrontation. Due to this fact, the moment you have been struck from behind you must counterattack without the thought of why your opponent has unleashed their attack. As such, to achieve any hope of confrontational dominance and to limit the injuries you will receive, you must immediately counterattack.

            As your opponent is behind you, your most rapid method of counterattack is to immediately spin on your rear based leg and deliver either a powerful spinning back fist or elbow strike to the head of your attacker or, if you are trained in effective kicking techniques, deliver a powerful back kick to the knee or mid-section of your opponent. These techniques are all rapid and powerful deterrent mechanisms. In addition, each of these counter-strikes possesses the ability to halt your attacker from unleashing further strikes to your body.

Sucker Punch: Step Two

            Each physical altercation is defined by its own set of parameters. Whenever you find yourself in a physical altercation these factors set the stage for the type of techniques you will most appropriately utilize for your self-defense. For example, each physical confrontation is defined by your environment, the height and weight of your opponent, and by the level of combat training your opponent has been exposed to.

            Each system of fighting arts trains its practitioners how to encounter an opponent in a specific manner. Boxing generally trains its practitioners to face off with an opponent. Jujitsu practitioners commonly attempt to tackle an opponent and take the fight to the ground. Hard style practitioners will move back and forth, side-to-side, while delivering hand and kicking techniques. Soft style practitioners will oftentimes attempt to deflect an opponent’s attack and perhaps counterstrike or send them to the ground with a throw.

            These are the techniques used by trained martial artists. More commonly in the streets, however, is that you will encounter at attacker who is not schooled in the finer aspects of physical combat. As such, they will do things such as sucker punch you and then simply unleash a barrage of wild, misdirected punches in your direction. To effectively end the confrontation in the most rapid manner possible you must immediately counter attack with the best techniques at your disposal.

Sucker Punch: Step Three

            As each martial artist is exactly trained in self-defense techniques that are unique to their style, it is those techniques that you will employee when you find yourself defending against a sucker punch attack. 

            To most effectively defend against the sucker punch type of assault, you must rapidly deploy the best defensive tools at your disposal. In other words, defend yourself with the least amount of effort and then continue to counterattack with your best available options until your opponent is defeated. 

            If you practice a hard style of self-defense use the best punching and kicking tools at your disposal. If you practice a soft style that employs joint locks to debilitate an opponent take hold of the most easily accessible joint of your opponent’s body and drive him to the ground.

            The main thing to understand when deciding to unleash any type of defensive attack against the sucker punch is that it must be a defensive maneuver that you are well versed in, can easily unleash, and will have the most devastating effect upon your attacking opponent.

Sucker Punch: Step Four

            As is commonly understood in all styles of martial arts, one technique is rarely enough to defeat an adrenalin filled opponent.  For this reason, once you have unleashed a powerful counter measure, you must continue forward with further counterattacks to cement your victory in the confrontation. Therefore, once you have redirected the path of the confrontation, strike your opponent until he is fully debilitated.

Sucker Punch: Step Five

            No confrontation is ever won by lingering. If you do encounter a sucker punch confrontation, your best alternative is to leave the arena before it escalates. But, in many cases this is not possible.

            If your exit is not an option, then you must counterattack by using your best available tools of self-defense and then immediate leave the sight of the altercation. Do not allow your opponent to recover from whatever self-defense techniques you have unleashed and come at you again.

            As explained, a sucker punch is the type of attack that no honorable combatant would ever employ. Though this is the case, as a martial artist you must train to defend yourself against whatever type of attack you may encounter. From this, you emerge as a more proficient self-defense technician as well as being a more whole and competent human being.

Copyright © 1997 – All Rights Reserved

Scott Shaw Hapkido Taekwondo International

 Defending Against the Sucker Punch @ Scott Shaw.com

Forced Into Confrontation

By Scott Shaw

            As discussed in one of my recent writings, "Watching Violence Unfold," people are often drawn into confrontation when they had no intention of ever being so. I mean this can happen in many ways. Somebody can get all road-raged at you as you are driving. Somebody doesn’t like the color or your skin, your hairstyle, or how you are dressed. Maybe somebody just decided to not like you for an undisclosed reason. Pretty much anything you can think of can cause a person to decide to attempt to dawn you into a confrontation. Certainly, on the internet, people do it all the time.

            I so often receive questions from people about how to remain centered when they are being attacked. Though it is depictive of an era, I find it very sad.

            As is the case with much of life, most people are good and kind hearted. They live their own lives. They understand if a person has a different belief system or holds a differing opinion. They do things for the betterment of humanity. Others, for whatever reason, live life differently. They are real jerks. And, as long as they can hide behind a screen name or an internet persona, they are all-empowered. They say and do bad things. Then, if they get blocked all they have to do is grab a new screen name and they do not care about any damage they have done to another person’s life. They find all kind of excuses or even feel empowered for what they have done. That’s just wrong!

            This is the problem with life and life confrontations – some people intentionally do things to make you angry. They do things to hurt you.  They say and do things that are not based in the truth. They do things to draw you into a confrontation. Then, if you stand up to them, if you stand up for your rights, they turn it all around and make it seem like you were the one doing something wrong.

            On the physical level, I have seen this in physical confrontation time-and-time again. A person gets dragged into a fight. They kick the ass of the aggressor but the aggressor tells the cops that the other person started it and, as such, the person who was initially minding their own business ends up going to jail.

            This is why I tell my martial art students to never fight. Because, as I explain, “As a trained martial artist, you will probably win. Then what? The person who actually started the fight will claim, ‘That guy’s a black belt. How could I win a fight against him (or her)?’”

            On the internet confrontations are much the same. There are some highly skilled people out there who learn how do to things that the average does not understand or is not even motivated to do. But, the difference is, they are not man (or woman) enough to go face-to-face with you. They do bad things and what can you do about an undefined entity, attacking you in a manner in which you have no viable means of self-defense?

            So, what can you do if you are forced into a confrontation? This is currently one of the most complex issues of life. As more and more people enter this world. …As more and more go through their adolescence in an internet world. …As more and more people refuse to let go of their adolescence because they can sit at home, stare at a computer, are financed by their parents, and do not actually have to get out there, get and job, and do something positive with their life – the entire concept of confrontations become distorted.

            First of all, I would say, if you want to avoid all confrontations, live in the abyss, do nothing – hide. Live like a sadhu in a cave. If you are unseen, you are UNSEEN. But, that’s hard. As human beings we all want interaction. Some of us what to create and actually do something creative with our lives.  But then, others find that as a reason to create confrontation. I have experiences this since the dawning of the internet.

            So, if you are going to be you. …If you are going to create. …If you are going to live a life not defined by the walls of a monastery, then you have to move and adapt.

            Again, just as I teach my martial art students, you must adapt to whatever type of confrontation you find yourself in. But, as a trained martial artist there is no need to fight when you do not have to. You have nothing to prove. As a trained martial artist you are already more than the person attempting to draw you into a conflict. Because a person of consciousness or a true martial artist would never do that. But, if you must fight, then you must move and adapt. You must deflect and refract. You only strike if you must. And, once you do, then you immediately leave.

            Saying bad things, doing bad things, hurting someone (no matter what your justification), attempting to draw someone into a confrontation is never to the benefit of anyone. This is true no matter what you think or believe about a person. Doing good and positive things is the only way to live a good and positive life. It’s as simple as that.

            If someone confronts you, leave. If someone accosts you, walk away. If someone attacks you, deflect. If someone hits you, strike only to remain conscious and alive, and then leave and return to being a person of peace.

            Confrontations never end well. And, they are of no benefit to the person of consciousness. 

            Think before you say something bad or do something bad to a person. Be more. Be better. Do not confront.

Copyright © 2013 – All Rights Reserved

Originally from the Scott Shaw Blog

Scott Shaw Hapkido Taekwondo International