Hey family, we have this week’s updates ready for you, but first I want talk about something that has come up a lot in our comments section. It has also come up a lot with students I have taught in person too.
Often times when you see someone getting locked or another technique is being applied, you will visually see a free arm to attack with.
You might be thinking, “Can’t that person attack with the other arm?”
What isn’t accounted for is the amount of pain that the person is experiencing with a properly applied lock.
Here is the conversation that inspired today’s update post.
Paul E.: Question about video: “Part 2 E.U.S.A.I.M.A.A. Seminar”. When focusing on ‘damaging’ (from self defense perspective) the left biceps arm of the opponent he or she is getting pain. But the opponent has right arm totally free. So the opponent can use that or not? Watch the seminar footage Paul is curious about here: Pittsburgh Kung Fu Seminar Part 2.
My Response:
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I would say the majority of the time because damaging a bicep is very painful the mind has a very difficult time in focusing on anything other than the pain it is feeling.
Because of this, there is a lot of time for you to continue your attack staying ahead of your opponents ability to counter.
While some people do have a very high tolerance for pain, I’ve never met anyone who can actually take a elbow coming down on a bicep.
There is the possibility that your opponent is on drugs and can’t feel the pain being delivered to them, but that dare I say is going to be a rare scenario.
Also, we train to have the ability to flow from one attack to another. This means that after you attack the bicep you will continue to attack until there is no longer a threat to you.
To give you an idea about how pain can interfere with a person’s ability to continue their attack, put someone into a Finger lock…
Check out this video in the training hall on how to do a finger lock here.
Make sure you know how to apply it effectively first of course ????, then once you apply the finger lock ask the person to punch you as hard as they can with the opposite hand.
If you apply the lock correctly, the person won’t be able to punch you because for one, they will be up on their toes, and for two the pain will be so much, that they won’t mentally be able to muster enough power to do any damage to you.
Because the person’s mind will be engaged with the pain they are feeling, this will cause them to second guess what they should do next.
Kind of like in boxing when a person gets caught with a good combination, they are stunned for a moment while they are processing what just happened to them.
To go back to damaging the bicep. In that moment that you connect with the bicep, your opponent’s mind is focused on the bicep. This means for that split second their other arm is mentally disconnected from their mind and is harmless to you. If in that moment your opponent’s mind is focused on their bicep you continue your flow of attacks, which will cause their energy to retreat.
Once a person starts to mentally retreat, they have lost. This is why we don’t focus on self defense. We focus on counter offense. Because self defense is kind of like retreating.
We know that an object in motion will stay in motion and object at rest will stay at rest. This can be translated that if you continue to focus on self defense, you will block, block, block, step back, maybe block some more… But if you aren’t attacking and just defending, then eventually your opponent’s attacks are going to overwhelm you. If you are focused on counter offensive techniques, then you will be the one who is attacking and putting your opponent on the defensive.
We had a similar question from one of our members about something similar in the following video:
The question that was asked was, “Why can’t the person kick with the other leg while the ankle lock was being applied.?”
You can skip to 11 minutes and 46 seconds to get the point. 😉
We did a video response: Why Can’t I Kick Out of an Ankle Lock?
We had someone insinuate Jamie was properly just a sissy, because they and there friends could do it to each other and get out no problem. The problem with this thought process is two… 1. Jamie is one of the toughest women I know, seriously she can take a beating better than most men I know. 2. Most people do not know how to properly apply locks, it shouldn’t cause just a bit of pain, it should be immense acute pain.
It doesn’t matter the size or strength, no one can deal with a properly applied lock. Here at Enter Shaolin we seal our locks on all sides and if we add poofing, it’s really over!
Regardless of if you are striking or locking, if you apply techniques correctly, 99.9% of the time your opponent can’t do anything especially if you keep counter attacking… 😉
Or as in the immortal words of Mr. Miyagi, “If do right, no can defense!”
“If do right, no can defense.” – Mr. Miyagi
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Great information, thanks.
You’re welcome!
Larry, regarding the recent request for someone to write stories of
Kun Fu, publishing a weekly response to a member’s question/comment may be of great benefit and interest to all of us. Just a thought.
I passed this on to Sifu Larry. I am the one that got him to share this one when I saw he was writing a lengthy comment as I knew it would be helpful to others as well. We will definitely continue to do this when we have more detailed questions and comments for sure!