Bad mechanics

I was exchanging ideas with Rory earlier this week, and he mentioned something about a seminar he'd been with one of those "reality" styled MA, and he mentioned a technique that was trying to do too much of an effort, at a weird angle, to try something that was supposed to be time-critical to save your life.

A tad abstract, I know.

Now, imagine that technique I spoke of earlier [*]. That's the original source, undiluted. And yet...

Uke's right hand? It's there for a reason. And while it may stay put and keep trying for a lapel grab and a headbutt, it could as easily go behind the neck (ask any judo or Muay Thai competitor), or up your ear. Specially once it feels some opposition. In the original version of the technique, there's nothing preventing that. Or an elbow sidestriking your head. No, that arm there doesn't have the structure to deal with an incoming elbow, sorry.

Now, personally, I'd always pictured "bad mechanics" to refer to stances, structures... And I'd have classified things like that in the mental category. Bad tactics, kind of. Using Rory's definition makes sense, though. You have, as almost always with him, to expand your definition, give it an extra layer of abstraction. "Bad mechanics" becomes not only the lack of physical properties but also the lack of understanding of the use of them. A proper forward stance is useless against an attack from the back [+]. So, developing such a stance in the bad situation is "bad mechanics". It is, the moment you consider the understanding of those mechanics part of them itself.

Which opens a whole new can of worms. Because if the understanding of the proper mechanics, the right moment to use them, is what makes for shitty mechanics, then most of us have those.

Take care.

[*] If the link works weird, try the technique that starts at about 2:03. Check two posts back if you don't know when I spoke of it.

[+] A tad sidewise, maybe. Many classical stances lean a tad to the side of your opponent. There are some advantages to that, but also dangers. The most warning I've heard about those is the omote/ura classification in koryu. The most is, yes, a classification.

Get a refill... Of principles

I should go through the old Ju Jutsu syllabus again, if I can find it. I just had a glimpse of the first three techniques for yellow belt... And all sorts of warning lights lit on.

Not exactly about the techniques themselves, although a bit, but... You see, it's not as much that the techniques were bad, or that they were badly taught (although this last part is true). It's that they lacked principles. MacYoung strikes again.

I'm sort of gonna pass off the first one, a downwards block against a front grab that tried to mimic a guillotine instead of the proper hack from, say, a karate block. Much easier to slash through both arms with a single one if you actually, you know, don't face them together at their best.

But I was thinking a lot more on the 2nd or 3rd one, not sure of the order, which had a punch to the stomach, a grab of the elbow and then applied a philcrum pressure towards the ground. Every single item of that technique works.

The technique, as taught, didn't. Besides the minor point of how the elbow was grabbed (unnecessarily complicated and weak), or the precision of the stomach punch... There are lost levels, lost concepts. Pressure, synchronization, levers.

Imagine, if you would, after such a close grab, your left hand raises so that your left wrist checks that grab and your palm controls the centreline, ready to protect from a head-butt. You right delivers a hit, your choice, against his lower ribs or available viscera. Now, instead of going halfway to Finisterre and back, that punching hand raises and grabs the elbow from the inside and pulls, attaching it to your main body; remember that arm was sort of controlled by your left. Your right elbow can sense his other arm, raise for protection. At the same time, however, your centreline hand goes against his jaw (or the philcrum, if you insist), and your arm extends out and down.

You better hope uke is a good faller.

It's annoying. The technique is there, if you apply the principles. When you don't, it's very bad Wu Xia.

Take care.

PS: For those curious:

Move	defence position	attack position	defend damage	deliver damage
Gut punch	1	1	1	1
Left side control	1	0	1	0
Arm grab	1	1+	1	0
Takedown	2	2	1	2

vs.

Move	defence position	attack position	defend damage	deliver damage
Gut punch	2	2	1+	2
Left side control	2+	2	2	0
Arm grab	2+	2+	2	1
Takedown	2+	2+	2+	2+

That's 16+ vs 28++++; say, 16.5 vs. 30. About twice the effectiveness, almost the exact same moves.

Coupling

That post just before? Check this, specially after the first minute.

Now, KJKB throws aren't like this, it comes with, er, tendering your opponent beforehand. But. There are two ideas in those videos that jump to you... Three, sorry. One is thoroughness, decission. That takedown IS going to work, IS going to take him down. Another is adhesion. Once Tori gains contact, he keeps it; well, contact and thrust. And that's the third one, continuity. Once you start, you only stopo when it's really over.

Check for that in the "jujitsu" video. Adhesion? Decission or forwardness? Continuity?

And it's not the techniques' fault. You could put those elements in most of them. Put them back, likely. But they're not there. Another level, and something I was actually teaching some weeks ago:

First, become acquainted with force couples. Now, sadly, shed a bit of the proper definition. Do we agree that moving an old, unassisted, driving wheel (Or a valve actuator, or...) is best done with two hands? Separated, one pushing and the other pulling? Moving someone else's body works the same way. Call it scissoring, call it how you will, if I push one of your shoulders and I pull the other one, it's much easier to move you than if I push with both hands in the same place. And MUCH better than a single hand. If I push your shoulders back, it's much better if I pull your feet forward. Yes? It's called o soto gari.

Most judo, and equivalent, has this in spades. Ippon seoi nage (arm and hip), harai goshi (arm and leg), kata guruma... You name it.

Check, in the longish video in last post, how many times this is NOT there. Check how many times it IS in the video in my first paragraph here. Ponder. Take care.

Where I come from

Remember I said I had trouble graspingcertain KJKB ideas? This is why. I spent two three-year periods with them in the late 80s and early 90s (back then, tori was a 2d). I recall our main instructor then had some interesting concepts on structure and intent, but he said them far too seldom. Might be one of the reasons they're mostly absent in those videos. It was one of the reasons they looked at me weird, there. That and trying to watch for defence... Glitches, I guess. Things that would bute you in the ass in a SD situation.

For example, see this other one. That elbow lock is badly done, and so is that neck clamp (for starters, they don't reinforce each other); that's the only reason he can do the rest of the technique.

If you watch the longer video, the first one, there are a bunch of movements that make no sense, weird glitches. Some of them have been introduced after I left. I know I still have a couple of the rest, almost 20 years later. Now, there are those weird glitches with the extra step beforee a takedown/throw. That kneeling in kamae after the technique's done. That... You name it, they've put it in.

And I won't get into 1 vs 2 techniques with unresponsive 2nd uke and other niceties. Or the hojo jutsu like endings. Endings are well and good... Once you've actually, you know, defeated the guy, survived the attack.

Thing is, the basic idea of those techniques is not that bad. What they miss could mostly be solved with Japanese concepts. Zanshin, kime... But the modernization has dumped all that... And not gotten anything else to substitute it. There's no intent, no awareness of the danger of the situation. A good lot of those techniques would seriously improve if Tori simply pressured forward some. And dumped extra movement (like that wacky step before throws; seriously, that instructor was a judo competitor!). And, and that's something I was aware of back then, as a colour belt, and links with the 'pressure' concept, if they did the waza technically correct. Like that suppsoed sode garami, for example. I mean, some of our Kaju techniques are pretty similar (That grab technique around the 20s mark is rather similar to one of our second set, for orange; the differences are telling. Not the fact that the attack is different, but differences in the balance of the takedown, for example). And, again, some of these ideas were taught, if rarely, back then. Now...

Sigh. If I've had as much trouble as I've had getting rid of those habits and I goddamn tried...

Take care