As promised, the continuation from the last entry...
What, Another Martial Art?
The first part of Club were mostly pad drills from Lethwei (Bando kickboxing). I had a decent partner -- no SPEAKMAN to hog me, thank Christ. I never know what to think when an instructor doesn't say much to me as I proceed with drilling. He only spoke to me twice during this time. Once when he was correcting my partner on form, and wanted to demonstrate on me. I made that classic mistake of throwing a tired, half-@$$ed punch instead of showing the instructor the proper "respect." Now, I may have made up for it the next time the instructor spoke to me when he seemed pleased with the amount of power I was generating with spear knees.
The second hour was devoted to combat applications of the cobra animal subsystem of Bando. Part of these involve fast strikes to soft targets, mainly the eyes and the groin, using finger slaps and knuckles. We were shown a pattern of 6 strikes, 5 of which were used in a drill in which we were hitting sheets of notebook paper hung on two corners with the goal of slicing through them. I managed it with 4 out of the 5 strikes, much to the dismay of BILLY JACK (though to his credit, he did manage it once... maybe twice).
After that, we practiced some grappling-like takedowns. It turns out cobra-style exponents don't like grappling. There are takedowns and joint-locks, but these are done with the intent of disengaging and striking ASAP, as opposed to silat or Brazillian jiu-jitsu. Verrrry eeenteresteeng....
E didn't like these details very much. In fact, she's decided that she's pretty down on the arts of southeast Asia. Yes, she understands the historical contexts. Yes, she understands that other Asian martial arts have equally ugly combat applications. What she doesn't like, if I understand right, is the stark utility of the techniques and their presentation. There does seem to be relatively little emphasis in training sessions on any moral or ethical context as compared to, say, the dojos in more classical styles.
Now, from what I've seen, 95% of the people I've trained with so far don't seem to be the type to delight in inflicting pain on other people. These aren't trigger happy martial artists with something to prove to the world. But we all - and I'm as guilty as anyone - joke when we learn something especially brutal. "Well, not that I'd ever do this *snicker snicker*... BUT in case you need to break his arm in four places, crush his trachea *guffaw* and deliver 3 fatal knife cuts in one smooth move HAHAHAHA..." I think that's how E sees these martial arts.
We get into (friendly) arguments all the time about what I deem is a level of preparedness and mental training, and what she sees as unnecessary paranoia of the type that contributes to all the strife and suffering in the world. I was taught a long time ago that it helps to always mentally visualize how you would defend yourself in whatever situation you were in, imagining the people around you were going to jump you. How would you stand relative to how they could approach. What would you do against a tall opponent? A short, but strong one? One who looks like she's had some martial arts training? In Club, we were asked at one point to visualize attacking someone. It's how ancient and modern day Filipino warriors keep themselves sharp. Needless to say the first time I mentioned this to E, she was absolutely horrified. Recently, we had this discussion and she brought up a quote that we heard on a George Carlin CD about "obsolete macho impulses from a hundred thousand years ago."
Is that what these are?
What, Another Martial Art?
The first part of Club were mostly pad drills from Lethwei (Bando kickboxing). I had a decent partner -- no SPEAKMAN to hog me, thank Christ. I never know what to think when an instructor doesn't say much to me as I proceed with drilling. He only spoke to me twice during this time. Once when he was correcting my partner on form, and wanted to demonstrate on me. I made that classic mistake of throwing a tired, half-@$$ed punch instead of showing the instructor the proper "respect." Now, I may have made up for it the next time the instructor spoke to me when he seemed pleased with the amount of power I was generating with spear knees.
The second hour was devoted to combat applications of the cobra animal subsystem of Bando. Part of these involve fast strikes to soft targets, mainly the eyes and the groin, using finger slaps and knuckles. We were shown a pattern of 6 strikes, 5 of which were used in a drill in which we were hitting sheets of notebook paper hung on two corners with the goal of slicing through them. I managed it with 4 out of the 5 strikes, much to the dismay of BILLY JACK (though to his credit, he did manage it once... maybe twice).
After that, we practiced some grappling-like takedowns. It turns out cobra-style exponents don't like grappling. There are takedowns and joint-locks, but these are done with the intent of disengaging and striking ASAP, as opposed to silat or Brazillian jiu-jitsu. Verrrry eeenteresteeng....
E didn't like these details very much. In fact, she's decided that she's pretty down on the arts of southeast Asia. Yes, she understands the historical contexts. Yes, she understands that other Asian martial arts have equally ugly combat applications. What she doesn't like, if I understand right, is the stark utility of the techniques and their presentation. There does seem to be relatively little emphasis in training sessions on any moral or ethical context as compared to, say, the dojos in more classical styles.
Now, from what I've seen, 95% of the people I've trained with so far don't seem to be the type to delight in inflicting pain on other people. These aren't trigger happy martial artists with something to prove to the world. But we all - and I'm as guilty as anyone - joke when we learn something especially brutal. "Well, not that I'd ever do this *snicker snicker*... BUT in case you need to break his arm in four places, crush his trachea *guffaw* and deliver 3 fatal knife cuts in one smooth move HAHAHAHA..." I think that's how E sees these martial arts.
We get into (friendly) arguments all the time about what I deem is a level of preparedness and mental training, and what she sees as unnecessary paranoia of the type that contributes to all the strife and suffering in the world. I was taught a long time ago that it helps to always mentally visualize how you would defend yourself in whatever situation you were in, imagining the people around you were going to jump you. How would you stand relative to how they could approach. What would you do against a tall opponent? A short, but strong one? One who looks like she's had some martial arts training? In Club, we were asked at one point to visualize attacking someone. It's how ancient and modern day Filipino warriors keep themselves sharp. Needless to say the first time I mentioned this to E, she was absolutely horrified. Recently, we had this discussion and she brought up a quote that we heard on a George Carlin CD about "obsolete macho impulses from a hundred thousand years ago."
Is that what these are?
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