[QUOTE=Weirddave]
I train with my son at, of all places, the local YMCA. There is a very accomplished instructor there and it’s a lot cheaper than most places, win/win. We study a MMA system that is Hapkido based, with an emphasis on real world fighting situations. We also do a lot of ground fighting and cross rank in JuJitsu, the reasoning being that even though it’s much better to disable your opponent without going down to hard concrete covered in trash, in a real life fight 9 times out of 10 you do wind up down there and you better know what to do. We do lots of joint locking with an emphasis on pain compliance and disabling strikes, either to a joint or utilizing pressure points. Pressure points intrigue me greatly. The mythology behind them is not something I buy into totally, but they do work. I saw my instructor knock a guy out with a strike to the inside of his elbow of all places! He grabbed the guy by the wrist, controlling his strike and activating the PP in his wrist, and then landed a hard down and out strike to the inside of his elbow and the guy dropped like a gaffed cod. I just recently passed my blue belt test in Gaijun Ryu JuJutsu and it almost killed me, no McDojo there! This is what I wrote in my blog afterwards:
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Give it a name, and get a decent corps of instructors behind it, and you will make a mint. I’d love to take that course. Aikido was great, but this is better.
My Aikido Sensei was awesome. He had MS or something similar, and was not able to stand without crutches. He could, and did, throw many a heavy guy to the ground wincing in pain. Then he taught the heavy guys’ 120lb daughters to do the same to them. He would drop his crutches and lean against the wall and ask for students to choke him. If you only pretended to do it, he’d let you know that he wanted you to actually try to choke him to death. Once you made an effort, he’d have you on your stomach crying for mercy, and then he’d show you how to do what he did to you.
Having a “disabled” Sensei, really opened my eyes to Aikido. His legs were almost useless, but he could inflict pain in the smoothest manner imaginable, with seemingly little effort. Physics and physiology gave him a huge advantage. I probably learned more about momentum and center of gravity from him than I ever did in HS.
Maybe I was just impressed by the way that his technique worked. When attacked, he would shift his weight, engage a limb or evade the strike. He would then grasp whichever part of the opponent’s person came into reach. In one fluid motion he would exhale softly, move which body part he wanted to be moved, and then hold his opponent in a very painful position until the situation was diffused.
We were often shown positions that would allow us to deliver strikes that were almost not defendable. However, we were taught that Aikido is defensive in nature, not based on strikes. Aikijitsu was referenced as the usage of Aikido, plus killing techniques. The part left to the imagination was what one could do with an opponent in a submission position.
That was really what I liked about Aikido. I liked being able to diffuse a situation (which is my preference), control the situation by force if I had to (without ever having delivered a strike), and strike a person already controlled if need be (I was NOT taught this, but it was inferred by many).
Always like hearing about people’s belt test experiences.